Portal:American football/Selected picture archive

June 1, 2007 – June 30, 2007

The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy is a college football rivalry travelling trophy presented annually since 1972 to the side from the United States Military Academy Black Knights, United States Naval Academy Midshipmen, and Air Force Academy Falcons to win the round-robin series played amongst the three. Named for the constitutional title held by the President of the United States, the trophy was created at the urging of Air Training Command commander General George B. Simler, who suggested the trophy as a means to encourage interest in games involving the Falcons, usually overshadowed by the more storied Army–Navy Game. The Falcons have won the trophy sixteen times, more than have the Black Knights (six) or Midshipmen (nine), but the Naval Academy have won the last four honors.

May 1, 2007 – May 31, 2007

Cleveland Browns Stadium is a football stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio (41°30′21.51″N 81°41′58.5″W). It is the home of the Cleveland Browns National Football League franchise. The stadium sits on 31 acres (13 ha) of land on the shores of Lake Erie and has a capacity of at least 73,200. The normal use of Cleveland Browns Stadium is only for football; however, the stadium was built with a playing surface large enough to allow it to host international soccer matches.

Cleveland Browns Stadium sits on the former site of Cleveland Municipal Stadium, which housed the Browns before owner Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore to become the Ravens. As part of the deal that brought a "new" Browns team to Cleveland, the city of Cleveland tore down Cleveland Stadium after the 1996 NFL season to make room for the new facility. Debris from the former stadium was submerged in Lake Erie and now serves as an artificial reef. Ground was broken on May 15, 1997, the stadium opened in July 1999, and the resurrected Browns debuted there in the 1999 NFL season. The stadium also hosts the annual Ohio Classic college football game.

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September 24, 2006 – May 1, 2007

The Louisiana Superdome (styled also as the Superdome and known colloquially as The Dome) is a multi-purpose dome-covered stadium and arena situated in New Orleans that is best known, as regards American football, for comprising a FieldTurf playing field and for having served, since its 1975 erection, as the home field of the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL) and of the Tulane University Green Wave collegiate side; for having served as the host stadium for the Super Bowl, the NFL’s championship game, on six occasions—after the 1977 season, for Super Bowl XII, the first such contest to be held in a domed stadium; after the 1980 season, for Super Bowl XV; after the 1985 season, for Super Bowl XX; after the 1989 season, for Super Bowl XXIV; after the 1996 season, for Super Bowl XXXI; and, after the 2001 season, for Super Bowl XXXVI, the first such contest to be held in the month of February in view of the season's having been extended for one week upon the terrorist attacks of 11 September—more than any other single venue, and, in view of Tulane Stadium’s having hosted Super Bowls IV, VI, and IX, on two-thirds of those occasions when the game has been contested in New Orleans, and for the Pro Bowl, the league's all-star game, after the 1975 season; for having, in 1984, served as the home field of the New Orleans Breakers franchise of the United States Football League; for having served, since 1975, as the host stadium for the Sugar Bowl, an NCAA Division I bowl game contested annually since 1935 and a constituent of the Bowl Championship Series since the 1998 NCAA season, and since 2001 as the home stadium for the New Orleans Bowl, contested annually since 2001 between the champion of the Sun Belt Conference and a team from the Mountain West Conference, or, more recently, Conference USA; and for having served, since 1978, as the host for the Bayou Classic, played annually betwixt the Grambling State University Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars, each a member of the Division I-AA Southwestern Athletic Conference, which game is the only one contested by two historically black colleges to be transmitted in the United States via broadcast television.

Construction on the stadium began in 1971 at the urging of Louisiana governor John J. McKeithen, ostensibly in view of his having, in 1967, attended a Major League Baseball game played at the Astrodome in Houston, and, having cost $134 million, was completed in November 1975; the stadium, though, was opened prior to its being wholly finished, and hosted its first NFL game on September 28, when the Cincinnati Bengals— ultimately, seeded fourth, losers of a divisional playoff game to the Oakland Raiders—behind quarterback Ken Anderson, who completed 77.2 per cent of the 22 passes he attempted and totalled three passing touchdowns, defeated the Saints, 21-0. The stadium, situated on 52 acres of land and with a dome diameter of 680 feet (210 meters) and a height of 253 feet (82.3 meters), seated only 52,637 upon its opening but ultimately attained a seating capacity of 72,003 for American football games.

Upon its being used as a shelter of last resort during the pendency of Hurricane Katrina and its being damaged by the storm itself, the Superdome was unavailable for use during the 2005 NFL season—when the Saints held three home games at the Alamodome in San Antonio; four at the Tiger Stadium located on the Baton Rouge campus of Louisiana State University; and one, titularly, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey—and 2005 NCAA season—during which the Green Wave played home games at each of six stadia across Louisiana and Alabama. The Bayou Classic was relocated to Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, whilst each of the bowl games traditionally played at the Superdome—the New Orleans Bowl and Sugar Bowl—were also moved, respectively to Cajun Field in Lafeyette and the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The stadium, having been repaired and partially rebuilt in 2005 and 2006 at a cost of $186 million, of which $115 million was paid by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, reopened for the play of American football on September 25, 2006, when the Saints contested the team's third game of the 2006 season, in which the side ultimately earned a 23-3 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

July 20 – September 24, 2006

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Lambeau Field has been the home stadium of the Green Bay Packers, pictured supra, of the National Football League since its erection in 1957, one year after the residents of the city of Green Bay, the owner of the stadium, approved the issuance of municipal bonds toward its construction as a replacement to City Stadium. The stadium, known as New City Stadium until the death of the team's co-founder, president, and former head coach, Curly Lambeau, prior to the 1965 season, has undergone several periods of renovation during its life, most notably between 2001 and 2003 when a $295 million project included the expansion of club seating and luxury suite facilities; the seating capacity of the stadium has increased from 32,500 to 72,601.

The bowl-shaped stadium surrounds a Kentucky bluegrass playing field, pictured infra, often referred to as the Frozen Tundra, in view of the field's natural grass nature and the cold climate of northern Wisconsin; the latter was typified by the 1967 NFL Championship Game, won by the Packers, 21-17, over the Dallas Cowboys on a quarterback sneak executed by Bart Starr, and known as the Ice Bowl, during which temperatures reached −13 degrees Fahrenheit (−25 degrees Celsius) and wind chills reached −48 degrees Fahrenheit (-44 degrees Celsius). In part because of the cold and snowy weather, opponents often confronted and because of the rabidity of attending fans, the stadium conferred an advantage on the Packers, who did not lose a playoff game between the 1957 and 2001 seasons, amassing 12 wins during a period in which they won the 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, and 1967 NFL championships and Super Bowls I, II, and XXXI.
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July 5 to July 20, 2006

The Rose Bowl, one of just four American football stadia to have been designated by the United States Department of the Interior as a National Historic Landmark, a stadium in the Los Angeles suburb Pasadena, California, United States, is best known for hosting annually an eponymous NCAA Division I bowl game and concomitant Tournament of Roses Parade and for having hosted by iterations of the National Football League's championship game.

Opened in 1922, the stadium saw its first Rose Bowl the next year and hosted the matchup between the champions of the Pacific Ten and Big Ten Conferences each year from 1947 to 1998. In 1998, the Rose Bowl game joined the Bowl Championship Series and the stadium has since hosted various elite teams; in January 2006, the BCS title game ending the 2005 season was contested at the Rose Bowl, as the University of Texas, in a contest described by many television commentators as the best championship game ever, claimed a three-point victory over the University of Southern California.

Between 1967 and 1971, the Pasadena Bowl, matching top junior college teams and often referred to as a junior Rose Bowl, was held at the stadium in the weeks prior to the Rose Bowl game. The stadium has also served as the home field for the University of California-Los Angeles Bruins football team since 1982, and has been the venue for Super Bowls XI, XIV, XVII, XXI, and XXVII; the stadium also plans a bid to host Super Bowl XLV, to be played in 2011, following the 2010 NFL regular season.

June 18 to July 5, 2006

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Jim Thorpe, who also played professional baseball for three seasons with the New York Giants and won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon at the Games of the V Olympiad, held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1912, was a successful American football player at both the collegiate (playing for Pennsylvania's Carlisle Indian Industrial School, he captured All-America honors in 1911 and 1912, playing as a running back, defensive back, placekicker, and punter) and professional (playing over his career for six teams, Thorpe led the Canton Bulldogs to regular season success) levels. While still playing with the Bulldogs, Thorpe served as president of the American Professional Football Association, helping to engineer the league's 1923 merger with the National Football League, in which league he played for four seasons. For his achievements, Thorpe was inducted into the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame and was named, as a running back, to the NFL 1920s All-Decade Team.

May 28 to June 18, 2006

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Nile Kinnick, a quarterback, placekicker, and punter for the University of Iowa, won the 1939 Heisman Memorial Trophy and the Walter Camp and Maxwell Awards but elected to pursue a career in law and politics rather than to play professional football. In 1942, during World War II, Kinnick joined the United States Navy as a fighter pilot; on June 2, 1943, while on a training flight in the Gulf of Paria, Kinnick experienced engine trouble and crashed in the Atlantic Ocean; his body was never recovered. In 1972, the University of Iowa renamed its football field for Kinnick, and since then the coin flipped prior to every Big Ten Conference football game has borne Kinnick's image.

March 4 to May 28, 2006

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Founders of the Oakland Raiders.

February 26 to March 4, 2006

Super Bowl XI ticket and ring