Gridiron football ( )"Gridiron football". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 20, 2010. is a family of team sports derived from rugby football (and football, by extension) primarily played in the United States and Canada.
American football, which uses 11 players, is the version played in the United States and the best known form of gridiron football worldwide, while Canadian football, which uses 12 players, predominates in Canada. Other derivative versions include arena football, flag football, and amateur games such as touch and street football. Football is played at professional, collegiate, high school, semi-professional, and amateur levels.
These sports originated in the 19th century from older games related to modern association football and rugby football, more specifically rugby union. American football and Canadian football developed early, alongside but independently of each other; the root of the game known as "football" originated from an 1874 game between Harvard and McGill Universities, following which the American college adopted the Canadian school's more rugby-like rules. The first recorded game was played at University College of the University of Toronto.
Over time, Canadian teams adopted features of the American variant of the game and vice versa. Both varieties are distinguished from other football sports by their use of hard plastic helmets and shoulder pads, the forward pass, the system of downs, a number of unique rules and positions, measurement in customary units of yards (even in Canada, which largely metricated in the 1970s), and a distinctive brown leather ball in the shape of a prolate spheroid with pointed ends.
The international governing body for the sport is the International Federation of American Football (IFAF); although the organization plays all of its international competitions under American rules, it uses a definition of the game that is broad enough that it includes Canadian football under its umbrella. Football Canada, the governing body for Canadian football, is an IFAF member.
Etymology
The sport is typically known as simply "football" in the countries where it originated, regardless of the specific variety. In Europe, the sport is commonly known as "American football" as "football" usually refers to association football ("soccer"). Various sources use the term "North American football" when discussing the American and Canadian games together, but this term is quite rare. The International Federation of American Football (IFAF), uses "American football" inclusive of Canadian football and other varieties.
The two sports are also sometimes known as "gridiron football". The name originated with the sport's once-characteristic playing field: the original American football and Canadian football fields were marked by a series of parallel lines along both the width and length of the field, which produced a grid pattern resembling a cross-hatched cooking gridiron.The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor Sports and Games by Claude H. Miller. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1911 The ball would be snapped in the grid in which it was downed on the previous play. By 1920, the grid system was abandoned in favor of the system of yard lines and hash marks used today. In Australia, American football is often referred to as "gridiron" or (in more formal contexts) "American football", as "football" usually refers to Australian rules football or rugby league similar to how association football is usually called "soccer" in Australian English. The governing body for American football in Australia is Gridiron Australia.
History The sport developed from informal games played in North America during the 19th century. Early games had a variety of local rules and were generally similar to modern rugby union and soccer. The earliest recorded instance of gridiron football occurred at University College on the University of Toronto's St. George campus in November 1861.
Later in the 1860s, teams from universities were playing each other, leading to more standardized rules and the creation of college football. While several American schools adopted rules based on the soccer rules of the English Football Association, Harvard University held to its traditional "carrying game". Meanwhile, McGill University in Montreal used rules based on rugby union. In 1874, Harvard and McGill organized two games using each other's rules. Harvard took a liking to McGill's rugby-style rules and adopted them. In turn, they were used when Harvard and Yale University played their first intercollegiate sports game in 1875, after which the rugby-style Canadian game was adopted by Yale players and spectators from Yale and Princeton University. This version of the game was subsequently played with several other U.S. colleges over the next several years.
American football teams and organizations subsequently adopted new rules that distinguished the game from rugby. Many of these early innovations were the work of Walter Camp, including the sport's line of scrimmage and the system of downs. Another consequential change was the adoption of the forward pass in 1906, which allowed the quarterback to throw the ball forward over the line of scrimmage to a receiver. Canadian football remained akin to rugby for decades, though a progressive faction of players, chiefly based in the western provinces, demanded changes to the game based on the innovations in American football. Over the years, the sport adopted more Americanized rules, though it retained some of its historical features, including a field, 12-player teams, and three downs instead of four. Around the same time Camp devised the rules for American football, the Canadian game would develop in the same way (but separately) from the American game; the Burnside rules were instrumental in establishing many of the rules for the modern game. History of the Grey Cup
Versions American football is the most common and widely known of these sports. It was originally more closely related to rugby, until various rule changes created by Camp were implemented in 1880, such as the system of downs, and the two sports diverged irreversibly after the forward pass was introduced to the American game in 1906. It is played with eleven players to a side, four downs and a field. The major professional league, the National Football League (NFL), has its own rule book. College football programs generally play under the code defined in the NCAA Football Rules and Interpretations; within the college football structure is sprint football, a variant of the game played solely by players who weigh less than the average college student at a small number of northeastern and midwestern universities in the United States. High schools generally follow the rules and interpretations published by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), although some states follow the NCAA code for high school play. Youth games (below high school age) generally follow NFHS code with modifications. Adult semi-pro, alternative and minor professional, amateur, touch, flag, etc. may follow any one of these codes or use their own rules. While the vast majority of the game is the same among these three codes, subtle variations in rules can lead to large differences in play. Many of the differences are in penalty enforcement and the definitions of fouls.
Canadian football is played almost exclusively in Canada. Like its American cousin, it was originally more closely related to rugby, until the Burnside rules were adopted in 1903 (as such, despite their similarities, the modern American and Canadian forms of football were developed separately from each other); the forward pass was adopted in Canada in 1929. The game is played on a field, has three downs, and twelve players to a side. The Canadian game also features a one-point "single" (formally called a "rouge") for a ball kicked into or through the end zone and not returned by the receiving team. Like the American game, the Canadian Football League and U Sports both have their own rulebooks, although there are generally fewer differences than between their American counterparts. Nine-man football, eight-man football and six-man football are varieties of gridiron football played with fewer players. They are played with the same number of downs (often with a requirement for a new set of downs, as opposed to 10 in other codes), fewer offensive linemen, and an field. These games are generally based on the high school rulebooks, which have an addendum devoted to the play of these codes, and are generally played by teams from high schools with very small student bodies, usually in rural areas of the United States. Similar small-roster versions of Canadian football are played in rural Canada. Seven-man football formats have seen occasional adaptations, including the semi-professional American 7s Football League and the preparatory-age OT7. Indoor football is played with special rules to accommodate smaller indoor facilities, usually sharing arenas with basketball or ice hockey teams. It is played on a field with, usually, eight or seven players to a side. Prototype games were played in 1902 and 1932, both of which used the shortened field but followed the outdoor standard 11 to a side. However, indoor football did not gain popularity until James F. Foster's proprietary version, arena football, debuted in 1986, and set most of the standards for indoor leagues today. As almost all indoor leagues are for-profit professional leagues, each league has its own proprietary code. Flag football is a limited-contact variant of American football where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier ("deflagging") to end a down, and contact is limited between players. The specific rules of flag football vary widely by league, though all share in common their replication of the rules of traditional American football with tackling replaced by flag-pulling. Flag football will be an Olympic sport at the 2028 Summer Olympics for both men and women. Touch football and backyard football are informal varieties of the game, played primarily at an amateur and recreational level. No specific rulebooks are universally recognized for these variants, where house rules usually apply. Wheelchair football is an adapted version of touch football for those with mobility-related disabilities. Rules vary based on organization but generally use a reduced number of players (six or seven) on a reduced size field (ranging from a basketball court to a 60-yard long field). Women's American football is the organized play of the sport by women. Most organized leagues play by rules identical to male-dominated leagues. The former Lingerie Football League earned notoriety for its indoor, seven-on-seven variety of women's football with minimal protective equipment and uniforms resembling women's underwear; the Lingerie Football League was later reorganized and renamed Extreme Football League. Informal and amateur varieties of female-only games such as powderpuff, also exist. Given the popularity of gridiron football in North America yet the rarity of female-only teams at the high school level and above, female players have also played on men's teams on rare occasions. College flag football has started to receive varsity status from colleges and universities in North America as a women's sport in the mid-2020's.
Leagues
Professional leagues