One of the most popular sports in the United States and Canada is American football. This contact team sport is really a combination of physical play in conjunction with strategic motion together with the ultimate objective of scoring points by furthering the ball into the opponents goal line or reaching their end zone by either carrying the ball and running along with it or passing it to some team member. The team which scores the maximum points in the stipulated time is declared the winner.
American football does have its origins in rugby football but has adapted itself with a few changes to the American and Canadian system. Though Canadian football and American football are predominantly quite similar there are some variations in the forms such as in the team size, playing area, number of downs, time rules etc. The differences are certainly not major and each may be adapted into another with some amount of tuning.
There are 2 major forms of American football played in the United States, namely, collegiate football and professional football. With the growth and the increasing popularity a number of football leagues were born in the nation. The two most powerful and prestigious leagues which are in existence in the country presently are the National Football League and the United Football League.
American football games that see the participation of student athletes through the various colleges, military academies and universities across the nation is known as collegiate or college football. It was through college football the American football got into the news and became as big a sports activity as it is today. Though football or rugby was played mostly in schools in England, the sport was exported to America. The 1st American football game to get played in America was in 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University, Montreal. The 1st collegiate football competition was held the next year in 1875 in a match played between Tufts University and Harvard.
Present day college football is in the sports news from the first kick off in the football season on the first Labor Day weekend a week ahead of the NFL games and continues until the beginning of December. The penultimate weekend in the college football season sees the majority of the rivalry matches and conference games being played.
The professional football players are those teams that play American football at a professional level. These professional teams really are a part of the two leagues within the U . S called the NFL and the UFL. The NFL enjoys the status of being the biggest professional football league in the world. Formed with eleven teams this league has grown in strength and now consists of thirty two teams. The league is further split up into the American Football Conference plus the National Football conference and the conferences contain four divisions made up of four teams each respectively.
The NFL season particularly the Super Bowl, which is the final championship game is followed by sports enthusiasts and news providers equally as it truly is the most significant games amongst the Americans.