American football

American football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, is a competitive team sport known for its physical roughness despite being a highly strategic game. The object of the game is to score points by advancing the football into the opposing team's end zone. The ball can be advanced by carrying it, throwing it, or by handing it from one teammate to the other. Points can be scored in a variety of ways, including carrying the ball over the goal line, throwing the ball to another player past the goal line or kicking it through the goal posts on the opposing side. The winner is the team with the most points when the time expires and the last play ends.

Outside of the United States and Canada, the sport is usually referred to as American football (or sometimes as gridiron or gridiron football) to differentiate it from other football games

American football is the most popular spectator sport in the United States. The Gallup Poll has shown football to be America's favorite sport every year since 1972, when football first overtook baseball in popularity. The percentage of Americans who say football is their favorite sport to watch (43%) is higher now than at any other time. Football's American TV viewership ratings far surpass those of other sports.^[1] The day of the professional championship, the Super Bowl, is one of the biggest occasions for social gatherings in the U.S. and is sometimes referred to as an unofficial national holiday.^[2]

The 32-team National Football League (NFL) is the only major professional American football league.

A Colorado State University player runs with the ball as an Air Force Academy player lines up a tackle.

College football is also popular throughout North America. Four college football stadiums (Michigan Stadium, Beaver Stadium, Neyland Stadium, Ohio Stadium), seat more than 100,000 fans and regularly sell out. Even high school football games can attract more than 10,000 people in some areas. The weekly autumn ritual of college and high-school football—which includes marching bands, cheerleaders, homecoming, and parties (including the ubiquitous tailgate party)—is an important part of the culture in much of smalltown America.

It is a long-standing tradition in the United States (though not universally observed) that high school football games are played on Friday, college games on Saturday, and professional games on Sunday. In recent years, weekday-night games have become more common, however.

Certain fall and winter holidays—most notably Thanksgiving and New Years' Day—have traditional football games associated with them.

Football is played recreationally by amateur club and youth teams (e.g., the Pop Warner little-league programs). There are also many "semi-pro" teams in leagues where the players are paid to play but at a small enough salary that they generally must also hold a full-time job.

Organized football is played almost exclusively by men and boys, although a few amateur and semi-professional women's leagues have begun play in recent years.

[edit] Outside of the United States

The NFL operates a developmental league, NFL Europa, with teams in five German cities and one in the Netherlands. The professional Canadian Football League and collegiate Canadian Interuniversity Sport play under Canadian rules. The sport is popular as an amateur activity in Mexico and American Samoa and to a lesser extent in Japan (in this case, mostly due to the popularity of American football manga Eyeshield 21), Europe, Korea, New Zealand and Australia. The International Federation of American Football is the governing body for American football with 45 member associations from North and South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. The IFAF also oversees the American Football World Cup which is held every four years. Japan has won the first two World Cups held in 1999 and 2003.

Despite this, the game has been slow to catch on in most countries where soccer or Rugby is already established as the most popular sport^{[citation needed]}. Chief among criticisms of the gridiron game is the amount of time elapsing between plays and the number of interruptions in the game for time outs, penalties, out-of-bounds plays, etc.^{[citation needed]}