Growth and popularity of American football in the sports world

Just about 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 aim 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 most 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 like in the team size, playing area, number of downs, time rules etc. The differences are certainly not major and each can be adapted into another with a few amount of tuning.

There are two major types of American football played in the USA, namely, collegiate football and professional football. Together with the growth and the increasing popularity quite a few football leagues were born in the country. Two of the most powerful and prestigious leagues that are around in the country presently are the National Football League as well as 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 called 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 game was exported to America. The first American football game to get played in America was in 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University, Montreal. The first collegiate football competition was held the next year in 1875 in a match played between Tufts University and Harvard. qld sport betting

Modern day college football is in the sports news with the first kick off in the football season on the first Labor Day weekend a week prior to the NFL games and continues until the beginning of December. The penultimate weekend of the college football season sees most 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 in the Unites States called the NFL and the UFL. The NFL enjoys the status of being the biggest professional football league on the globe. Formed with eleven teams this league has grown in strength and today consists of thirty two teams. The league is further split up into the American Football Conference and the National Football conference and the conferences contain four divisions made up of four teams each respectively.

The NFL season especially the Super Bowl, which is the final championship game is followed by sports enthusiasts and news providers equally as it is the most significant games amongst the Americans.