American Football / Gridiron #normalsport

American Football, known as Gridiron outside of the USA, is a sport played by two teams of 11 players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The sport is primarily played in the USA and Canada, and can be classified as a modification of Australian variations of football. Although there are many parallels that can be seen between American Football and Australian versions (rugby league, rugby union), Gridiron is in essence a slower paced game due to the constant stopping and starting at the conclusion of each down (effectively a tackle in rugby league).

The team in offence is the team with possession of the oval-shaped football. This team may either run or pass the ball, while the defensive team must seek to stop the advancement of the ball in order for them to take control of the ball themselves and become the offence. For the offensive team to keep the ball, they must advance the ball 10 yards or more in their 4 downs while they have possession. If they fail to do so, the ball is handed over to the other team by a punt or a handover (if the offensive team decides to run the ball on the 4^th down and fails to go beyond the 10 yard line). However, if the offensive team is successful in advancing the ball 10 yards or more over the course of 4 downs (or less), the offensive team will be rewarded with a new set of downs in which they will seek to advance the ball 10 yards or more yet again. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team’s end-zone for a touchdown – which results in 6 points – or by kicking the ball between the opponent’s goalposts for a field goal – which results in 3 points if it is in general play, or 1 point when it is to convert a touchdown.

 Above: The End-zones are located on each end of the field, being about 10 yards in length and 70 yards wide. The goal posts are situated at the end of the End-zone, being 18 feet and 6 inches in width. 

American Football is the most popular sport in the United States, with a participation rate of nearly 1.1 million athletes in high school, in addition to 70,000 college athletes. From college, athletes are admitted into the ‘NFL Draft,’ where the nationally represented teams in the NFL (National Football League) are able to draft players for college to allow the collegiate athletes to perform in the highest possible level of American Football. The NFL has the highest average attendance of any sport league in the world, with its championship game – the Super Bowl – ranking amongst the most watched club sporting events in the world.

 Above: A sold-out crowd at the most recent championship game in the NFL - known as the 'Super Bowl' - played in 2015, hosting up to 90,000 spectators in the ground and almost 1 billion people watching on TV. 

- Jeremy