Portal:American football

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The American Football Portal

American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or throwing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. A game is won by the team with the higher number of points, which are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal.

American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of soccer and rugby. The first American football match was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, using rules based on the rules of soccer at the time. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", established the snap, the line of scrimmage, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs. Later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football. The sport is closely related to Canadian football, which evolved in parallel with and at the same time as the American game, although its rules were developed independently from those of Camp. Most of the features that distinguish American football from rugby and soccer are also present in Canadian football. The two sports are considered the primary variants of gridiron football.

American football is the most popular sport in the United States in terms of broadcast viewership audience. The most popular forms of the game are professional and college football, with the other major levels being high-school and youth football. , nearly 1.04 million high-school athletes play the sport in the U.S., with another 81,000 college athletes in the NCAA and the NAIA. The National Football League (NFL) has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events globally. In 2022, the league had an annual revenue of around $18.6 billion, making it the most valuable sports league in the world. Other professional and amateur leagues exist worldwide, but the sport does not have the international popularity of other American sports like baseball or basketball; the sport maintains a growing following in the rest of North America, Europe, Brazil, and Japan. (Full article...)

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Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

From 1895 to 1899, William Wurtenburg served as the head coach of the Dartmouth Big Green football program, which represented Dartmouth College in collegiate football competitions. Dartmouth had adopted football as a school sport in 1881 when the team went 1–0–1. Prior to Wurtenburg's hiring, the team had won two consecutive Triangular Football League championships under coach Wallace Moyle. Wurtenburg had been a highly successful player at Yale, where he had played at quarterback on teams that went 46–1–1 in a four-year span. He had graduated from the school in 1893 and coached the Navy Midshipmen football program for a year before his hiring by Dartmouth.

During Wurtenburg's five year coaching tenure, Dartmouth went 8–2 in conference contests and won four consecutive Triangular Football League championships. The 1895 season was made up of thirteen games, a record-setting amount for a Dartmouth team. It included the closest loss to rival Harvard up to that point. The 1896 was the most successful season of Wurtenburg's, in terms of winning percentage; the squad went 5–2–1, the tenth-best record among major teams, for a .688 win percentage. The fewest games played in a season under Wurtenburg were seven in 1897. That team managed a 4–3 record, which included a three-game scoreless streak. The 1898 squad finished the season with a losing record, 5–6, but managed to outscore its opponents 205–137. Wurtenburg's final season as Dartmouth's head coach was his worst. The team had a 2–7 overall record and went 0–2 in conference play. The season was also marked by several of the largest blowouts of Dartmouth in years. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various American football-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A Native American college football team (from History of American football)
Image 2Lehigh Valley Steelhawks (gold jerseys with black accents) vs. Triangle Torch (black jerseys with red and yellow accents) play an Indoor Football League at Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, March 25, 2016 (from Arena football)
Image 3An AFL goalpost (from Arena football)
Image 4Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium with the Hall of Fame in lower right (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 5A football signed by the 1974 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement class (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 6Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", pictured here in 1878 as the captain of the Yale University football team (from History of American football)
Image 7Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, originally built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, pictured in 2005. (from Canadian football)
Image 8Morgan Athletic Club (pictured c. 1900), predecessor of the Arizona Cardinals (from History of American football)
Image 9Diagram of a Canadian football field (from Canadian football)
Image 10A game between the Hamilton Tigers and the Ottawa Rough Riders, 1910 (from Canadian football)
Image 111902 football game between the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan (from History of American football)
Image 12Footballs and a helmet at a Calgary Stampeders (CFL) team practice (from Canadian football)
Image 131906 St. Louis Post-Dispatch photograph of Brad Robinson, who threw the first legal forward pass and was the sport's first triple threat (from History of American football)
Image 14Original entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 15Touchdown monument outside the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton, Ontario (from Canadian football)
Image 16Sewanee's 1899 "Iron Men" (from History of American football)
Image 17A game between the 4th Canadian Armoured Division Atoms and First Canadian Army Red and Blue Bombers, in Utrecht, Netherlands, October 1945 (from Canadian football)
Image 181897 Latrobe Athletic Association football team: The first entirely professional team to play an entire season. (from History of American football)
Image 19A modern down indicator box is mounted on a pole and is used to mark the current line of scrimmage. The number on the marker is changed using a dial. (from Canadian football)
Image 20The Big Game between Stanford and California was played as rugby union from 1906 to 1914 (from History of American football)
Image 21A college football game between Colorado State University and the Air Force Academy (from History of American football)
Image 22Inside the original structure in 2008 (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 23An early American football team, from the turn of the twentieth century (from History of American football)
Image 24Sign at the old entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 25A moment of the second game between Tufts and Harvard at College Hill, October 1875 (from History of American football)
Image 26The Hall is made up of several sections with display of the inductees at its heart (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 27Don Hutson in 1940. (from History of American football)
Image 28One of the two Harvard vs. McGill games played in 1874 (from History of American football)
Image 29Colorado's first football team in 1890 (from History of American football)
Image 30An arena football goalpost structure featuring the rebound nets on either side of the uprights. (from Arena football)
Image 31Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo looks down field with the ball during the 93rd Grey Cup game at BC Place. (from Canadian football)
Image 32High school football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas (from History of American football)
Image 33Tom Davies of Pittsburgh runs against undefeated and unscored upon Georgia Tech in the 1918 game at Forbes Field (from History of American football)
Image 34Jim Thorpe was the first president of the NFL. (from History of American football)

Selected image

Quarterback

Credit: Mike Kaplan, USAF

In gridiron football, the quarterback is the leader of the offensive team. At most levels, but especially at the college and professional level, the quarterback is one of the most visible and important roles on the team, being responsible both for calling plays and making decisions during the play. Shown here is Shea Smith of the Air Force Falcons during the 2007 Armed Forces Bowl.

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Hobart Amory Hare "Hobey" Baker (January 15, 1892 – December 21, 1918) was an American amateur athlete of the early twentieth century. Considered the first American star in ice hockey by the Hockey Hall of Fame, he was also an accomplished American football player. Born into a prominent family from the Philadelphia area, he enrolled at Princeton University in 1910. Baker excelled on the university's hockey and football teams, and became a noted amateur hockey player for the St. Nicholas Hockey Club in New York City. He was a member of three national championship teams, for football in 1911 and hockey in 1912 and 1914, and helped the St. Nicholas Club win a national amateur championship in 1915. Baker graduated from Princeton in 1914 and worked for J.P. Morgan Bank until he enlisted in the United States Army Air Service. During World War I he served with the 103rd and the 13th Aero Squadrons before being promoted to captain and named commander of the 141st Aero Squadron. Baker died in December 1918 after a plane he was test-piloting crashed, hours before he was due to leave France and return to America.

Baker was widely regarded by his contemporaries as one of the best athletes of his time and is considered one of the best early American hockey players. When the Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1945, Baker was named one of the first nine inductees, the only American among them. In 1973, he became one of the initial inductees in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975, and is the only person to be in both the hockey and college football halls of fame. (Full article...)

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Calendar

2023 season: NFL • NCAA FBS (Bowl games)
Jan 8	College Football National Championship: #1 Michigan vs #2 Washington
Jan 13-15	NFL: Wild Cards
Jan 20-21	NFL: Divisional games
Jan 28	NFL: Conference games
Feb 4	NFL: Pro Bowl Games
Feb 11	NFL: Super Bowl LVIII

Selected quote

“

If my mother put on a helmet and shoulder pads and a uniform that wasn't the same as the one I [were] wearing, I'd run over her if she [were] in my way. And I love my mother.

”

— Barry Sanders

Detroit Lions running back, subsequently an inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, on his devotion and the intensity of his play

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