Today sees the final part of our look at all things American Football.
If you have missed part one & two please check our archive section of the blog.
Officials and fouls
Officials are responsible for enforcing game rules and
monitoring the clock. All officials carry a whistle and wear black-and-white
striped shirts and black hats except for the referee, whose hat is white. Each
carries a weighted yellow flag that is thrown to the ground to signal that a
foul has been called. An official who spots multiple fouls will throw his hat
as a secondary signal. The seven officials on the field are each tasked with a
different set of responsibilities.
Safety
Football is a full-contact sport, and injuries are
relatively common. Most injuries occur during training sessions, particularly
ones that involve contact between players. Most injuries occur in the lower
extremities, particularly in the knee, but a significant number also affect the
upper extremities. The most common types of injuries are strains, sprains,
bruises, fractures, dislocations, and concussions. Repeated concussions can
increase a person's risk in later life for chronic traumatic encephalopathy and
mental health issues such as dementia, Parkinson's disease, and depression.
Concussions are often caused by helmet-to-helmet or upper-body contact between
opposing players, although helmets have prevented more serious injuries such as
skull fractures. Various programs are aiming to reduce concussions by reducing
the frequency of helmet-to-helmet hits; USA Football's "Heads Up
Football" program is aiming to reduce concussions in youth football by
teaching coaches and players about the signs of a concussion, the proper way to
wear football equipment and ensure it fits, and proper tackling methods that
avoid helmet-to-helmet contact.
Leagues and tournaments
The National Football League
and the National Collegiate Athletic Association are the most popular football leagues in the
United States. The National Football League was founded in 1920 and has since
become the largest and most popular sport in the United States. The NFL has the
highest average attendance of any sporting league in the world, with an average
attendance of almost 70,000 persons during the 2011 NFL Season. The NFL
championship game is called the Super Bowl, and is among the biggest events in
club sports worldwide. It is played between the champions of the National
Football Conference and the American
Football Conference, and its winner is awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
College football is the third-most popular sport in the
United States, behind professional baseball and professional football. The
NCAA, the largest collegiate organization, is divided into three Divisions:
Division I, Division II and Division III. Division I football is further
divided into two subdivisions: the Football Bowl Subdivision and the Football Championship Subdivision .
The champions of each level of play are determined through NCAA-sanctioned
playoff systems; while the champion of Division I-FBS was historically
determined by various polls and ranking systems, the subdivision adopted a
four-team playoff system in 2014.
High school football is the most popular sport in the United
States played by boys; over 1.1 million boys participated in the sport from
2007 to 2008 according to a survey by the National Federation of State High
School Associations . The NFHS is the largest organization for high school football,
with member associations in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia.
USA Football is the governing body for youth and amateur football, and Pop
Warner Little Scholars is the largest organization for youth football.
Rival professional leagues
Several professional football leagues have been formed as
rival leagues to the NFL. The most successful rival league was the American
Football League, which existed from 1960 to 1969. The AFL became a significant
rival in 1964 before signing a five-year, US$36 million television deal with
NBC. AFL teams began to sign NFL players to contracts, and the league's
popularity grew to challenge that of the NFL. The two leagues merged in the
1970 season, and all AFL teams joined the NFL. An earlier league, the
All-America Football Conference, was in play from 1946 to 1949. After the
league dissolved, two AAFC teams, the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco
49ers, became members of the NFL; another member, the Baltimore Colts joined
the league, but folded after just a year in the NFL.
Other attempts to start rival leagues have been far less
successful. The World Football League
played for two seasons, in 1974 and 1975, but faced monetary issues so
severe that the league could not pay its players. In its second and final
season the WFL attempted to establish a stable credit rating, but the league
disbanded before its second season could be completed. The United States
Football League operated for three
seasons from 1983 to 1985 but collapsed due to poor business decisions and
monetary problems. A subsequent USD $1.5 billion antitrust lawsuit against the
NFL was successful in court, but the league was awarded only three dollars in
damages. The XFL was created in 2001 by Vince McMahon and lasted for only one
season. Despite television contracts with NBC and UPN and high expectations,
the XFL suffered from poor television ratings and a low quality of play. The
United Football League began in 2009,
but folded after suspending its 2012 season, due to financial issues.
International play
American football leagues exist throughout the world, but
the game has yet to achieve the international success and popularity of
baseball and basketball. NFL Europa, the developmental league of the NFL,
operated from 1991 to 1992 and then from 1995 to 2007. At the time of its
closure, NFL Europa had five teams based in Germany and one in the Netherlands.
The European Football League, run by the European Federation
of American Football, is an annual invitational tournament between the
champions or co-champions of competitions run by EFAF members. The league's
championship game is the Eurobowl. Other EFAF tournaments include the EFAF Cup,
played between the top teams from national leagues in a similar manner to the
UEFA Cup, the Atlantic Cup, played between teams from the Atlantic region of
Europe, and the Challenge Cup, played between teams from newer federations that
are not eligible to play in the EFL or EFAF Cup. American football federations
are also present in Asia, Oceania, and Pan America, and a total of 64 national
football federations exist as of July 2012. The International Federation of
American Football, an international body composed of American football
federations, runs tournaments such as the IFAF World Championship, which is
held every four years since 1999, the IFAF Women's World Championship, the IFAF
U-19 World Championship and the Flag Football World Championship. The IFAF also
organizes the annual International Bowl game. At the international level,
Canada, Mexico, and Japan are considered to be second-tier, while Austria,
Germany, and France would rank among a third tier. All of these countries rank
far below the United States, which is dominant at the international level.
Several major obstacles hinder the IFAF goal of achieving status as an Olympic
sport, such as the predominant participation of men in international play and
the short three-week Olympic schedule. Large team sizes are an additional
difficulty, due to the Olympics' set limit of 10,500 athletes and coaches.
Although these issues are similar to those that rugby union faced prior to
being admitted into the Olympics in the form of rugby sevens, a modified
version of the sport, American football also has the issue of global
visibility. Nigel Melville, the CEO of USA Rugby, noted that while rugby union
has a major international presence through the International Rugby Board,
"American football is recognized globally as a sport, but it's not played
globally". In order to solve these concerns, major effort has been put
into promoting flag football, a modified version of American football, at the
international level. In a 2014 poll conducted by Harris Interactive,
professional football ranked as the most popular sport, and college football
ranked third behind only professional football and baseball; 46% of
participants ranked some form of the game as their favorite sport. Professional
football has ranked as the most popular sport in the poll since 1985, when it
surpassed baseball for the first time. Professional football is most popular
among those who live in the eastern United States and rural areas, while
college football is most popular in the southern United States and among people
with graduate and post-graduate degrees. Football is also the most-played sport
by high school and college athletes in the United States. In a 2012 study, the
NCAA estimated there were around 1.1 million high school football players and
nearly 70,000 college football players in the United States; in comparison, the
second-most played sport, basketball, had around 1 million participants in high
school and 34,000 in college. The Super Bowl is the most popular single-day
sporting event in the United States, Super Bowl games account for seven of the
top eight most-watched broadcasts in American history; the most recent Super
Bowl, Super Bowl XLIX, was watched by a record 114.4 million Americans.
American football also plays a significant role in American
culture. The Super Bowl is considered a de facto national holiday, and in parts
of the country like Texas, the sport has been compared to a religion. Football
is also linked to other holidays; New Year's Day is traditionally the date for
several college football bowl games, including the Rose Bowl. However, if New
Year's Day is on a Sunday, the bowl games are moved to another date to not
conflict with the typical NFL Sunday schedule. Thanksgiving football is an
American tradition, hosting many high school, college, and professional games.
Steve Deace of USA Today wrote that Americans are passionate about football
"because it embodies everything we love about American exceptionalism.
Merit is rewarded, not punished. Masculinity is celebrated, not feminized.
People of various beliefs and backgrounds — a melting pot, if you will — must unify
for a common goal for the team to be successful". Implicit rules such as
playing through pain and sacrificing for the better of the team are promoted in
football culture.
Abroad
In Canada, the game has a significant following — according
to a 2013 poll, 21% of respondents said they followed the NFL "very
closely" or "fairly closely", making it the third-most followed
league behind the National Hockey League
and Canadian Football League . American football also has a long history
in Mexico, which was introduced to the sport in 1896. American football was the
second-most popular sport in Mexico in the 1950s, with the game being
particularly popular in colleges. The Los Angeles Times notes that the NFL
claims over 16 million fans in Mexico, which places the country third behind
the US and Canada. American football is played in Mexico both professionally
and as part of the college sports system.
Japan was introduced to the sport in 1934 by Paul Rusch, a
teacher and Christian missionary who helped establish football teams at three
universities in Tokyo. Play was halted during World War II, but began to grow
in popularity again after the war., there are more than 400 high school
football teams in Japan, with over 15,000 participants, and over 100 teams play
in the Kantoh Collegiate Football Association . The college champion plays the
champion of the X-League in the Rice
Bowl to determine Japan's national champion.
Europe is a major target for expansion of the game by
football organizers. In the United Kingdom in the 1980s, the sport was fairly
popular, with the 1986 Super Bowl being watched by over 4 million people . The
sport's popularity faded over the 1990s, coinciding with the establishment of
the Premier League. According to BBC America, there is a "social stigma"
surrounding American football in the UK, with many Brits feeling the sport has
no right to call itself 'football' due to the small emphasis on kicking.
Nonetheless, the sport has retained a significant following in the United
Kingdom; the NFL operates a media network in the country, and since 2007 has
hosted the NFL International Series in London. Super Bowl viewership has also
rebounded, with over 4.4 million Britons watching Super Bowl XLVI.
The sport is played in European countries such as Switzerland,
which has American football clubs in every major city, and Germany, where the
sport has around 45,000 registered amateur players. Although the two games
share a similar set of rules, there are several key rule differences: for
example, in Canadian football the field measures 150 yards by 65
yards, including two 20-yard end zones, teams have three downs instead
of four, there are twelve players on each side instead of eleven, fair catches
are not allowed, and a rouge, worth a single point is scored if the offensive
team kicks the ball out of the defense's end zone.
A major variant of football is arena football, played by the
Arena Football League. Arena football has eight-player teams and uses an
indoor field 50 yards in length,
excluding end zones, and 28.3 yards
wide. Punting is illegal, and kickoffs are attempted from the goal line.
Large overhead nets deflect forward passes and kicks that hit them, and
deflected kicks are live balls that may be recovered by either team.
Below the Arena Football League are what New York Times
writer Mike Tanier described as the "most minor of minor leagues:"
indoor football leagues. Like in arena football, teams in indoor football
leagues play in arenas, but games are only attended by a small number of fans,
and most players are semi-professional athletes. Indoor football leagues are
unstable, with franchises regularly moving from one league to another or
merging with other teams, and teams or entire leagues dissolving entirely. The
Indoor Football League, Southern Indoor Football League, Ultimate Indoor
Football League, Continental Indoor Football League and American Professional
Football League are examples of prominent indoor leagues.
There are several non-contact variants of American football,
such as flag football. In flag football the ballcarrier is not tackled;
instead, defenders aim to pull a flag tied around his waist. Another variant,
touch football, simply requires the ballcarrier to be touched to be considered
downed. A game of touch football may require that the player be touched with
either one or two hands to be considered down, depending on the rules used.
Tipster Street.
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