football sports

American football, known in the United States simply as football,[1] is a competitive team sport known for mixing complex strategy with intense physical play. The object of the game is to score points by advancing the pointed-oval shaped ball[2] into the opposing team's end zone. The ball can be advanced by carrying it (a running play) or by throwing it to a teammate (a passing play). 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, tackling an opposing ball carrier in his own end zone, or kicking the ball 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 the United States, the sport is referred to as American football (or a translation thereof) to differentiate it from other football codes. In Australia and New Zealand the game is known as Gridiron football, although in the United States the term gridiron refers only to the playing field itself.
Befitting its status as a popular sport, football is played in leagues of different size, age, and quality, in all regions of the country. 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.
The 32-team National Football League (NFL) is currently the only major professional American football league in North America. At least two new professional American Football Leagues are slated to begin playing in 2008, the All-American Football League and the United Football League. There are professional American football leagues located in over 50 countries in the world (see List of leagues of American and Canadian football). A few of the more popular international leagues are the German Football League (GFL) and the Japanese X-League. The NFL does not operate any developmental leagues currently since the closing of NFL Europa. Players unable to make an NFL team sometimes play in the Arena Football League or Canadian Football League, both of which have rules differing somewhat from those of the NFL
College football is also popular throughout North America. Nearly every college and university has a football team, no matter its size, and plays in its own stadium. The largest, most popular collegiate teams routinely fill stadiums larger than 60,000. Four college football stadiums, The University of Michigan's Michigan Stadium, Penn State's Beaver Stadium, The University of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium and Ohio State's Ohio Stadium, seat more than 100,000 fans and usually sell out. The weekly autumn ritual of college football includes marching bands, cheerleaders, homecoming, parties, the tailgate party; it forms an important part of the culture in much of smalltown America. Football is generally the major source of revenue to the athletic programs of schools, public and private, in the United States.
Most American high schools field football teams. Schools that are too small to field the minimum number of players play variants of football that specify six, seven, eight or nine players instead of the normal eleven. High school football is popular, especially in Texas, Ohio, California, Pennsylvania (particularly the western half of the state), and the Southern United States, where many schools regularly fill stadiums holding over 10,000 fans, and can afford artificial playing surfaces.
Since high schools in the United States are tied to the town they are situated in, the football team is often a chief source of civic pride, and football heroes are very well-regarded in their communities.
High school teams generally play only against other teams from their state (notable exceptions include matchups between nearby schools located on opposite sides of a state line and occasional matchups between two nationally-ranked teams for television purposes). Still, some private Christian high schools play for 'national championships' through organizations like the Federated Christian Athletic Association