Information about football

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Millions of people in the United States consider autumn to be football season. Football is a very popular sport that is played at high schools, colleges, and professional stadiums. It involves running, passing, kicking, and body contact. A football game is played between two teams of 11 players each. A team scores points by moving a ball across the other team’s goal line. The team that scores more points wins. This game, sometimes called American football, is played mainly in the United States. Canadian football is similar to the U.S. game. But in most countries the word football refers to the sport of American football is played on a grassy, rectangular field. The field is 120 yards (110 meters) long and 160 feet (49 meters) wide. White lines called end lines and sidelines mark the edges of the field. Each end of the field has a goal line. The goal lines are 100 yards (91 meters) apart. The 10-yard areas between the goal lines and the end lines are called the end zones. A pair of goalposts connected by a crossbar stands at the back of each end zone. Most of the action in a football game takes place between the goal lines. White lines run across this part of the field every 5 yards (4.6 meters). These lines help to show how far a team has moved the football. Two sets of short lines, called hash marks, cross these lines. Officials use the hash marks to place the ball on the field after play is stopped. Because football is a rough game, players wear equipment to protect them...

The sport we in the United States know and love as football is more properly called gridiron football, for the vertical yard lines that mark the field. Closely related to two ancient English sports—rugby and soccer (or association football)—gridiron football originated at universities in North America, primarily the United States, in the late 19th century. On November 6, 1869, players from Princeton and Rutgers held the first intercollegiate football contest in New Brunswick, New Jersey, playing a soccer-style game with rules adapted from the London Football Association. While a number of other elite Northeastern colleges took up the sport in the 1870s, Harvard University maintained its distance by sticking to a rugby-soccer hybrid called the “Boston Game.” In May 1874, after a match against McGill University of Montreal, the Harvard players decided they preferred McGill’s rugby-style rules to their own. In 1875, Harvard and Yale played their first intercollegiate match, and Yale players and spectators (including Princeton students) embraced the rugby style as well. The man most responsible for the transition from this rugby-like game to the sport of football we know today was Walter Camp, known as the “Father of American Football.” As a Yale undergraduate and medical student from 1876 to 1881, Camp played halfback and served as team captain, equivalent to head coach at the time. Even more importantly, he was the guiding force on the rules board of the newly formed Interco...

Only two weeks remain in the USFL season and all four playoff spots remain up for grabs — and all eight teams still have a chance to punch their ticket. Even the New Jersey Generals and Pittsburgh Maulers — both 2-6 — still have an outside shot at navigating their way into the postseason. But while the North Division falls short in the win column, the South Division picks up the slack — being home to the league's best four teams. Unfortunately for the South, two of those teams will be going home after 10 weeks. That reality only heightens the intensity heading into the penultimate week. MORE: Here is everything you need to know about the USFL Week 9 schedule, including game times and TV information. USFL schedule Week 9: What games are on today? Saturday, June 10 Matchup Kickoff (ET) Location TV channel Michigan Panthers vs. PittsburghMaulers Noon Canton Fox, New Orleans Breakers vs. Memphis Showboats 3 p.m. Memphis NBC, Sunday, June 11 Matchup Kickoff (ET) Location TV channel Birmingham Stallions vs. Houston Gamblers 2 p.m. Memphis NBC, Philadelphia Stars vs. New Jersey Generals 7 p.m. Canton Fox, MORE: Week 9USFL games TV channels, live streams Each of this weekend's four USFL games will air nationally on the Fox and NBC family of networks. Saturday's first contest will air on NBC before shifting over to Fox for the second game of the doubleheader. The early game on Sunday will air on NBC with the nightcap airing in prime time on Fox. Streaming options include Peacock fo...

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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions. • Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives. • In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions. • In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find. • In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history. • Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more. • While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today. • Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians. • Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century. Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! • Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space! Football, also called association football or soccer, is a game involving two teams of 11 players who try to maneuver the ball into the other team’s goal without using their hands or arms. The team that scores more goals wins. Football is the world’s most popular ball game in numbers of participants and spectators...

The NFL is America’s most popular sport, with tens of thousands of dedicated fans showing up every The league has a long history, with lots of rule changes and team changes along the way. Many NFL fans pride themselves on knowing obscure facts about the league, and there are plenty of them to go around. Check out this list of 10 interesting and relatively obscure NFL facts! The Green Bay Packers have a notoriously enthusiastic fan base, which shows in the long wait time for a ticket. If you signed up for the season ticket waiting list today, you’d probably end up waiting close to 1,000 years to get a spot. The New England Patriots were almost known as the BS Patriots or Bay State Patriots. They started as the Boston Patriots, but once they moved to their current home in Foxborough, the owner wanted a name more representative of the region. However, his name didn’t last long as the NFL wasn’t fond of the initials. If you’ve ever wondered why the Pro Football Hall of Fame is in Canton, Only one team has ever won three NFL championships in a row, and it wasn’t during the Super Bowl era. That team was the Vince Lombardi-coached Green Bay Packers between 1966 and 1968. Kickers and punters tend to play a long time in the NFL, and the only players not in these positions to play in over 300 games are wide receiver Jerry Rice and quarterback Brett Favre. The Dolphins and Patriots are known for their undefeated regular seasons, but the Chicago Bears also did it twice in 1934 and 194...