Portal:American football
The American Football Portal
American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of soccer and rugby. The first American football match was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, using rules based on the rules of soccer at the time. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", established the snap, the line of scrimmage, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs. Later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football. The sport is closely related to Canadian football, which evolved in parallel with and at the same time as the American game, although its rules were developed independently from those of Camp. Most of the features that distinguish American football from rugby and soccer are also present in Canadian football. The two sports are considered the primary variants of gridiron football.
American football is the most popular sport in the United States in terms of broadcast viewership audience. The most popular forms of the game are professional and college football, with the other major levels being high-school and youth football. , nearly 1.04 million high-school athletes play the sport in the U.S., with another 81,000 college athletes in the NCAA and the NAIA. The National Football League (NFL) has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events globally. In 2022, the league had an annual revenue of around $18.6 billion, making it the most valuable sports league in the world. Other professional and amateur leagues exist worldwide, but the sport does not have the international popularity of other American sports like baseball or basketball; the sport maintains a growing following in the rest of North America, Europe, Brazil, and Japan. (Full article...)The 1948 Cleveland Browns season was the team's third in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). After winning the AAFC crown in 1946 and 1947, the league's first two years of existence, the Browns repeated as champions in 1948 and had a perfect season, winning all of their games.
The season began with a number of roster moves, including the addition of linebacker Alex Agase and halfbacks Ara Parseghian and Dub Jones. Following training camp and two preseason games, the Browns began the regular season with a win against the Buffalo Bills. Led by quarterback Otto Graham, fullback Marion Motley and ends Mac Speedie and Dante Lavelli, the Browns followed with a string of victories leading up to a November matchup with the San Francisco 49ers. Both teams had perfect records to that point, the 49ers relying heavily on the offensive production of quarterback Frankie Albert and end Alyn Beals to win their first 10 games. The Browns beat the 49ers 14–7, and followed two weeks later with another narrow victory over San Francisco, their closest competition in the AAFC in 1948. (Full article...)General images
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Louis Leo "Skip" Holtz Jr. (born March 12, 1964) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Birmingham Stallions of the United Football League (UFL). Holtz has led the team to two USFL Championships, one in 2022, and one in 2023. Previously, he was the head coach for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, South Florida Bulls, East Carolina Pirates, and the Connecticut Huskies. He has also served as an assistant coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Colorado State Rams, and the Florida State Seminoles.
Skip's father, Lou Holtz, is a former head football coach and worked as a commentator on the television channel ESPN. Due to his father's career as a collegiate football coach, Skip was exposed to football from an early age. He played college football at Notre Dame, where he played mostly on special teams. He joined the coaching ranks immediately upon graduation from college, working initially for Bobby Bowden as an assistant at Florida State. He gradually worked his way through the ranks at various NCAA Division I schools before being named head coach at Connecticut in 1994. He has an overall record of 152 wins and 121 losses as a head coach, including eight bowl wins and two conference championships. (Full article...)Calendar
Jan 8 | College Football National Championship: #1 Michigan vs #2 Washington | |
Jan 13-15 | NFL: Wild Cards | |
Jan 20-21 | NFL: Divisional games | |
Jan 28 | NFL: Conference games | |
Feb 4 | NFL: Pro Bowl Games | |
Feb 11 | NFL: Super Bowl LVIII | |
2023 season: NFL • NCAA FBS (Bowl games) |
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“ | I left Texas A&M because my school called me. Mama called, and when Mama calls, then you just have to come running. | ” |
— Bear Bryant On his deciding, after the 1957 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A football season, to resign as head coach of the Texas A&M University Aggies to assume the same position for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, for whom he had been a wide receiver between 1931 and 1935 and whence he graduated in 1936 |
Did you know...
- ...that former Houston Oilers and Philadelphia Eagles defensive end William Fuller is one of the few players in National Football League history to record more than 100 quarterback sacks?
- ...that Lawrence Taylor (pictured) is the only defensive player in National Football League history to win the league's Most Valuable Player Award unanimously?
- ...that wide receiver Scott Couper, a national player for the Scottish Claymores in nine of the side's ten NFL Europe seasons, is the only Scottish-born player to have been inducted into the Claymores Hall of Fame?
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