Portal:American football
The American Football Portal
American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of soccer and rugby. The first American football game was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, using rules based on the rules of soccer at the time. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", established the snap, the line of scrimmage, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs. Later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football. The sport is closely related to Canadian football, which evolved in parallel with and at the same time as the American game, although its rules were developed independently from those of Camp. Most of the features that distinguish American football from rugby and soccer are also present in Canadian football. The two sports are considered the primary variants of gridiron football.
American football is the most popular sport in the United States in terms of broadcast viewership audience. The most popular forms of the game are professional and college football, with the other major levels being high-school and youth football. As of 2022[update], nearly 1.04 million high-school athletes play the sport in the U.S., with another 81,000 college athletes in the NCAA and the NAIA. The National Football League (NFL) has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events globally. In 2022, the league had an annual revenue of around $18.6 billion, making it the most valuable sports league in the world. Other professional and amateur leagues exist worldwide, but the sport does not have the international popularity of other American sports like baseball or basketball; the sport maintains a growing following in the rest of North America, Europe, Brazil, and Japan. (Full article...)The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The Jets play their home games at MetLife Stadium (which they share with the New York Giants) in East Rutherford, New Jersey, 5 miles (8.0 km) west of New York City. The team is headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey. The franchise is legally organized as a limited liability company under the name New York Jets, LLC.
The team was founded in 1959 as the Titans of New York, a charter member of the American Football League (AFL); the franchise joined the NFL in the AFL–NFL merger in 1970. The team began play in 1960 at the Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan, the former home of the football and baseball Giants. Under new ownership, the current name was adopted in 1963 and the franchise moved to Shea Stadium in Queens in 1964, then to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey in 1984. The team's training facility was located at Hofstra University on Long Island until 2008, when the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center opened in Florham Park. (Full article...)
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Otto Everett Graham Jr. (December 6, 1921 – December 17, 2003) was an American professional football quarterback who played for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons. Graham is regarded by critics as one of the most dominant players of his era and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, having taken the Browns to league championship games every year between 1946 and 1955, making ten championship appearances, and winning seven of them. With Graham at quarterback, the Browns posted a record of 105 wins, 17 losses, and 4 ties, including a 9–3 win–loss record in the AAFC and NFL playoffs. He holds the NFL record for career average yards gained per pass attempt, with 8.63. He also holds the record for the highest career winning percentage for an NFL starting quarterback, at 81.0%. Long-time New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, a friend of Graham's, once called him "as great of a quarterback as there ever was."
Graham grew up in Waukegan, Illinois, the son of music teachers. He entered Northwestern University in 1940 on a basketball scholarship, but football soon became his main sport. After a brief stint in the military at the end of World War II, Graham played for the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League (NBL), winning the 1945–46 championship. Paul Brown, Cleveland's coach, signed Graham to play for the Browns, where he thrived. Graham's 1946 NBL and AAFC titles made him the first of only two people to have won championships in two of the four major North American sports (the second was Gene Conley). After he retired from playing football in 1955, Graham coached college teams in the College All-Star Game and became head football coach for the Coast Guard Bears at the United States Coast Guard Academy. After seven years there, he was hired as head coach of the Washington Redskins in 1966. Following three unsuccessful years with them, he resigned and returned to the Coast Guard Academy, where he served as athletic director until his retirement in 1984. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965. (Full article...)
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Jan 8 | College Football National Championship: #1 Michigan vs #2 Washington | |
Jan 13-15 | NFL: Wild Cards | |
Jan 20-21 | NFL: Divisional games | |
Jan 28 | NFL: Conference games | |
Feb 4 | NFL: Pro Bowl Games | |
Feb 11 | NFL: Super Bowl LVIII | |
2023 season: NFL • NCAA FBS (Bowl games) |
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“ | The quarterback just ran all over the place. He's a fantastic player. He was the difference. And how classic was it that he ran it in on the last play? | ” |
— Pete Carroll University of Southern California Trojans head coach, on the play of University of Texas-Austin Longhorns quarterback Vince Young, pictured rushing in the 2005 Big 12 Championship Game, in the 2006 Rose Bowl Game, in which Young rushed for 200 yards and three touchdowns and passed for 267 yards to help the Longhorns to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A national championship |
Did you know...
- ...that former Houston Oilers and Philadelphia Eagles defensive end William Fuller is one of the few players in National Football League history to record more than 100 quarterback sacks?
- ...that Lawrence Taylor (pictured) is the only defensive player in National Football League history to win the league's Most Valuable Player Award unanimously?
- ...that wide receiver Scott Couper, a national player for the Scottish Claymores in nine of the side's ten NFL Europe seasons, is the only Scottish-born player to have been inducted into the Claymores Hall of Fame?
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