American football, known as football in the United States, is a team sport played between two teams of

11 players with an oval ball

[2]
on a rectangular field 120 yards long and 53.3 yards wide with goalposts at
either end. The team in possession of the ball (the offense) attempts to advance down the field by running
with or passing the ball. In order to continue their drive, the offense must advance the ball at least 10
yards down the field in a series of four downs. If they succeed, they receive a new set of four downs to
continue their drive, but if they fail, they lose control of the ball to the opposing team. The offense can
score points by advancing the ball into the end zone (a touchdown) or by place- or drop-kicking the ball
through the opponent's goalpost (a field goal), while the defense can score points by forcing an offensive
turnover and advancing the ball into the offense's end zone or by tackling the ballcarrier in the offense's
end zone (a safety). The team that has scored the most points by the end of the game wins.
American football evolved from early forms of rugby (particularly rugby union) and association
football (soccer), with the first game played on November 6, 1869. Rule changes from 1880 on by Walter
Camp included the snap, 11-a-side teams and downs; further rule changes legalized the forward
pass and created theneutral zone along the width of the football. Today, American football is the most
popular sport in the United States, where the National Football League (NFL) is the most popular league.
The league's championship, the Super Bowl, is among the most-watched club sporting events in the
world.
American football evolved from the sport of rugby football.
[3]
The first football game, played on November
6, 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton, was played with a round ball with 25-men on each team and
resembled a combination of rugby and soccer in its rules.
[4][5]
After several years of irregular collegiate
play with games played under varying rules, the representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton and
Rutgers met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York on October 19, 1873 to determine a set of rules for all
colleges involved to follow. They developed 12 simple rules, establishing (among other things) 20-a-side
teams and fields 400 by 250 feet while prohibiting the carrying or throwing of the ball; instead, the ball
could be kicked. A notable absence from this conference was Harvard, who disagreed with the prohibition
of running with the ball. Harvard gravitated towards rugby and ultimately played Yale in a variation of
rugby in 1875. Two Princeton players attended the Harvard-Yale game and were thoroughly impressed
with the sport, praising it to fellow students back at their college.
[5]
In a feat the Professional Football
Researchers Association compared to "selling refrigerators to Eskimos", the two players managed to sell
the sport to Princeton; Princeton then invited Harvard, Yale and Columbia to a meeting to "sit down and
decide to play [rugby] the way Princeton wanted". The group adopted most of the rules of rugby union,
but set different rules regarding touchdown scoring by counting four touchdowns as equal to a goal but of
lesser value than a goal after touchdown.
[6]
All of these schools except Yale formed the Intercollegiate
Football Association, with Yale eventually joining in 1879. After several rejected suggestions, Yale
player Walter Camp (now regarded as the "Father of American Football"
[7]
) succeeded in passing rule
changes in 1880 that reduced the teams from 15 to 11 players and instituted the snap to replace the
chaotic and inconsistent scrum.
[6]



A photograph of Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", taken from 1878 when Camp was captain of Yale's
football team
Camp had not expected the snap to result in major strategy changes; the previous strategy had been to
punt the ball if a scrum resulted in bad field position, and Camp assumed this would not change with the
institution of the snap. However, a group of Princeton players invented a way to prevent opposing teams
from scoring; as the snap was uncontested, teams could hold the ball indefinitely to waste time. Princeton
used this strategy in the 1881 Princeton-Yale game. The two schools entered the season with
undefeated, and Princeton wanted to retain their undefeated record. To that end, they wasted the entire
first half by holding the ball and gaining no yardage, angering Yale's team and its fans. However, Yale,
under the leadership of Camp (the team captain), decided not to risk a mistake and they utilized the
strategy in the second half, much to the chagrin of Princeton and its fans. Derided as the "block game", it
proved extremely unpopular with spectators and fans. Those in charge of the rules realized this
exploitation would need to be fixed immediately. Although reverting to the scrum was considered, a rule
passed in 1882 by Camp stated that a team would have three downs(tackles) to advance the ball five
yards or else they would forfeit control of the ball to the other team. This rule change made American
football a separate sport from rugby and the resulting five-yard lines added to the field made it resemble
a gridiron in appearance. Other major rules changes included a reduction of the field size to 110 yards
long by 53.3 yards wide and the adoption of standardized scoring system that awarded four points for a
touchdown, two for a safety and a goal following a touchdown, and five for a goal from field. Tackling
below the waist was legalized in 1888, eliminating the last major remnant of rugby.
[6]
Despite these rule
modernizations and innovations, football remained a violent sport - dangerous mass-formations like
the flying wedge resulted in serious injuries or even death for players.
[8]
The situation reached its peak in
1905 when there were 19 fatalities nationwide, getting to the point where President Theodore
Roosevelt threatened to eliminate the game if major changes were not made.
[9]
To help improve safety,
62 schools met in New York City to discuss rule changes on December 28, 1905. The Intercollegiate
Athletic Association of the United States, later named the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA), was formed as a result of the proceedings.
[10]
The legal forward pass was introduced
in 1906 after its suggestion by John Heisman, albeit with a set of restrictions that made it have little
impact at the time. Additionally, the time of play was reduced from 70 to 60 minutes and the distance
requirement for a first was increased to 10 yards over three downs. Further, the neutral zone was created
along the width of the football.
[11]
In 1914, the roughing-the-passer penalty was implemented for the first
time, while the rules were changed to allow eligible players to catch the ball anywhere on the field in
1918.
[12]
Further, field goals were lowered to three points in 1909
[13]
and touchdowns raised to six points
in 1912.
[13]
The field was also reduced to 100 yards long, but two 10-yard-long end zones were created,
and teams were given four downs instead of three to advance the ball 10 yards.
[14]



William "Pudge" Heffelfinger, widely regarded as the first professional football player.
The first instance of professional play in football was on November 12, 1892, when William "Pudge"
Heffelfinger was paid $500 to play a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association, who were facing
the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. This was the first time in recorded history any player had been officially paid
to play a game, although many athletic clubs in the 1880s offered tahelped players attain jobs, offered
trophies or watches (which players would pawn for money), or paid double in expense money. At the
time, football had a strict sense of amateurism for players and payment was frowned upon, if not outright
illegal.
[15]
Eventually, professional play became increasingly common, and teams faced rising salaries,
unpredictable player movement, and the illegal use of amateur collegiate players in professional games.
TheNational Football League, established in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association by a
group of professional teams, aimed to solve these problems. The stated goal of this new league was to,
among other things, end bidding wars for players, prevent the use of college players, and end the practice
of paying players to leave another team.
[16]
The NFL quickly established itself as the premier professional
football league, reaching this status by 1922.
[17]
The dominant form of football at the time was played at
the collegiate level, but the upstart NFL received a boost in legitimacy an NFL team, the Pottsville
Maroons, beat a team of Notre Dame all-stars in an exhibition game.
[18]
Professional football became
distinguished from the college game during the late 1930s through a greater emphasis on the passing
game,
[16]
and football in general became increasingly popular following the 1958 NFL Championship
game, hailed as the "Greatest Game Ever Played". The game pitted theBaltimore Colts and the New York
Giants, with the Colts emerging victorious in a 23-17 overtime win. The game was viewed by millions of
people on television and had a major impact on the popularity of the sport, leading it to become the most
popular sport in the United States by the mid-1960s.
[19]
The NFL began to be challenged by a new rival
league, the American Football League (AFL), in 1960. The AFL began to battle the NFL for players, and
the two leagues agreed to merge in 1966. The merger took full effect in 1970, but the leagues began
playing an annual championship game, the Super Bowl.
[20]
College football maintained a tradition of bowl
games. Bowl games would be associated with a particular conference, and earning a spot in one became
the reward for winning a conference. Bowls maintained close ties with their affiliated conferences,
developing an economic base of popularity; however, bowl games prevented the top two teams from
playing for a championship, as the top two teams would normally be committed to different bowl games.
Several systems have been used since 1992 to determine the national champion of college football; the
first was the Bowl Coalition, in place from 1992-94. The Bowl Coalition was replaced in 1995 with
the Bowl Alliance, which ran until 1997 when it was replaced by theBowl Championship
Series (BCS).
[21]
The BCS arrangement proved to be controversial, and will be replaced in 2014 with a
four-team playoff system.
[22]

Today, American football is the most popular sport in the United States. In a 2013 poll conducted
by Harris Interactive, professional and college football were the first and third-most popular sports, and a
combined total of 45% of participants ranked some form of the game as their favorite sport.
[23]
The Super
Bowl is the most popular single-day sporting event in the United States,
[20]
and among the biggest club
sporting events in the world.
[24]