American Football

American Football is known to be a very rough sport. But there is so much about the American football that you need to know. Learn the basics of this popular sport.

It’s very interesting to know that only outside the American continent; people use the term American football. In Canada and in the United States the popular sport is plainly called football. Since there are variations of rules being used in other countries, American football is used to describe games that are playing both in Canada and in the United States. Despite the physical nature of the game, American football is best loved by many fans because of its competitiveness and strategic approach and not because it’s from America.

American football is played everywhere. There are even professional leagues organized in other territories. In the United States it is the NFL or the National Football League. NFL Europa is the official league of the sport in European countries. The body is actually run by the NFL. Currently, the NFL Europa has playing teams for Dutch and German cities.

The penetration of American football in European territories was instigated in 1991. Before the NFL Europa, there was already an organization called the World League of Football. In that same year, NFL sponsored the event and thus born the NFL Europa. Germany has five teams in the league while The Netherlands has one. Canada, on the other hand, has the Canadian Football League.

Canadian football is very much like American football. The only distinction is that Canadian football uses a larger playing field compared to the American counterpart. The dimension of the playing field used in Canadian Football League has a width of 65 yards and a length of 110 yards. In an American football field, the width is 53 1/3 yards and the length is 100 yards. Another difference is that goal posts are situated at the front side as opposed to the usual end zone placement.

If you mention the words American football or NFL, they only mean one thing – the popular SuperBowl. SuperBowl is the biggest sports event for American football. It was formed in 1967 as a merger with former competing league, the American Football League or AFL. The SuperBowl is also one of the most celebrated events of Americans across all ages. The original name of the championship, though, was The Big One. But it was Lamar Hunt, founder of AFL who suggested the name “SuperBowl”. The organizers finally decided to use SuperBowl as the official name since it was consistent with the “bowl games”, a term that refers to college football. And it was also probably chosen since the design of football stadiums is shaped like bowl.

The establishment of the SuperBowl also helped in building the popularity of the sport in other countries. Football in other places usually refers to soccer, the main reason why American football is widely used internationally. Games are now being played in Japan, Europe, South America and the Pacific region. There are presently 45 leagues registered in the International Federation of American Football. The first game in Japan was played in 1999 when the International Federation of American Football took sponsorship.

American football’s presence in South America was already felt even before the entry of the NFL in Mexico in 1997. Mexicans were fascinated with the game and when the NFL noticed this they immediately started organizing Mexican teams in 1997.

The American football culture has indeed spread all over the world. And unlike other sports leagues that originated in the United States, the NFL and other American football leagues are followed by many fans because of the sprit of sportsmanship and professionalism that are attached to the league.