American football is one of this country’s favorite competitive sports. For people like Jack Elway, it is a way of life. The game is truly fantastic and combines strategy and physical efforts. As with most ball sports, the aim is to hit the ball in to other team’s goal. For people outside of the United States, however, American football is quite mysterious. Elway hopes that the following explanation will shed some light on the ins and outs of the sport.
Jack Elway on the Sport of American Football
Generally, the aim of the game is to pass the ball around, carrying it while running, until you reach the other player’s goal. There are different ways in which points can be earned and, at the end of the game, the team with the most points is the winner.
There are some different forms of the sport in this country, including professional, college, and high school football. Each of these variations has its own specific rules. The National Football League (NFL) overseas all these teams.
Lots of countries around the world, including Austria, Israel, Spain, Mexico, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany also play this game. These teams, meanwhile, are overseen by the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), which has a presence on five different continents.
The game has a long and rich history, dating back to older forms of association football and rugby. Most believe that American football was developed by taking different rugby variations and putting them together. Walter Camp is credited with this, and he is widely known as the “Father of American Football”. Professional football, meanwhile, first started in 1892. IN 1903, the Ohio League was first started, which was the first real professional league. In 1920, the American Professional Football Association came into being, which became the NFL after a number of years.
A football field should be 360′ by 160′. The end zone is the area on which the players score. The game starts when a coin is tossed, and the winning team then gets to choose whether they want to start, or whether they want the other team to start. The game itself is divided into four quarters, each quarter being 15 minutes. After the second quarter, both teams are allowed a 12 minute break.
There are just two ways in which players can move the ball forward. The first method means that they hold the ball and run. This strategy is called “rushing”. The second method is to pass or throw the ball to one of their team mates. However, how this is done has to follow a wealth of different rules. The game itself truly is a major element not just of American life, but of many other countries as well. It is becoming increasingly popular both for players and for spectators, in fact.
Jack Elway believes that everybody should be introduced to American football in someway, somehow, even if they wouldn’t be able to play it themselves.
