The National Football League Essay, Research Paper

The National Football League

In the world today there is a lot of different kinds of sports. Most popular to us Americans is probably baseball, basketball, and football. The one thatpeople enjoy watching is probably football. People of all ages like to watch this game, mostly because of the incessant body contact. One will get excited when there is an unbelievable play or a spectacular hit. Football like Classic Rock got popular right when it started. It is an exciting game when it started and will remain exciting in the future.

The game of football came from soccer. A man name Walter Camp from

Yale University saw his college team playing soccer and the rest is history. In themid 1800s the first resembling present day football game was played. It was on November 6, 1869. McGill University from Montreal, Canada played against

Harvard University. Football was only play in the eastern United States untill itgot popular in 1880. It then spread all over the U.S.A. That s why now there isthe National Football League.

In order to score points a team must advance the ball down the field. Thereare two main ways for a team to do that. Either by throwing or running the ball. A quarterback can throw the ball to a receiver that is down field. The quarterback is not the only passer. Anybody on the team can become the passer. A play that tells this is call the flick flicker. It is when the quarterback pitch the ball back to the runningback. He then feigns to throw, and draws all the defense to him. That makes a receiver open to throw to. Most of the running is done by the runningback. Running is not as effective as throwing, but if there is a opening he can run all the way. Running like throwing can be done by anyone.

In football there is three ways of scoring. A touchdown, field goal, and a safety. A touchdown is mostly scored by the offense. To score, a team needs to run or catch a pass over the opposing team s goal line. A touchdown will give them six points. There are two different ways to get the extra point. To get one point they need to kick the ball through the goal post. The other one is worth two points. The ball is mark at the three yard line. It is the same as scoring a touchdown. A field goal is worth three points, and can be kicked from anywhere on the field. The ball must go over the crossbar and between the goal post. A safety does not happen a lot in a game. It is only score by the defense. It is when the defense tackles the ball carrier in their own end zone. It is only worth two points.

In every sport there must be penalties or else players will cheat. The two penalties that occurs the most in a game is false start and offside. False start is only call on the offense. When the quarterback calls the plays the offense is allow only one person to move. If another guy moves it is considered a false start. Offside happens only to the defense. It is when a player is across the line of scrimmage and the ball is snap. This is only a small penalty of five yards. The biggest penalties are the personal interference. These penalties can be called on both teams, but the defense is most likely to be called on 90 percent of the time. This happens when the defensive backs or receivers interfere with the other man, therefore making the ball impossible to catch. If it is called on the defense, the offense will get the ball at the spot of the foul, and it will be an automatic first down. If it s on the offense they will be marked 15 yards back from the line of scrimmage. There are many other penalties, like holding, roughing the passer or kicker, ect.

In order to play football there has to be proper equipment. Most important is the ball; it is an inflated, oval shape leather ball. Since this game is so rough the players need something to protect them. It wasn t until a couple of years after the NFL started that President Theodore Roosevelt demanded that they should have pads. Now there is something protecting almost every part of the human body. Helmets are worn to protect the players heads from head injuries. There are two kinds of helmet worn; one for offense and defense. The offense wear helmets with less mask informant, so they could see the ball. Defense wear helmets with more mask because they do a lot of tackling.

There are a total of fifty-five different positions in football. Eleven on offense, eleven on defense, and twenty- two on special teams. All fifty-five

positions play a very important role to win the game. The most important

positions on the offense is the linemen, because if they can t block the pass

rushers, the quarterback will not get a chance to pass. On the other side the

defensive linemen are the most important players. If they can t get to the

quarterback fast enough, he will have time to throw to his receivers.

Everybody on special team is important. There are actually two different kinds of special teams. A receiving and a kicking team.

There are two conferences in the National Football League. The National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference(AFC). The NFC have more powerful teams, because they ve won the last ten Super Bowls.

In each conference there is an Eastern, Western, and Central division. Each

division has five teams. Though the teams are in these divisions, that doesn t

necessarily mean that they re in that part of the country.

In the National Football League there are thirty teams, fifth-teen in each conference. The newest teams are Jacksonville and Carolina. The most powerful teams in the NFL today is probably Green Bay, San Francisco, Denver, and New England. Each is consist of forty players or more.

The Super Bowl is play on the last Sunday of January. The two top teams

is playing for the Lombardi Trophy. To get to the Super Bowl a team must defeat

every team they play against in the playoffs. There are two teams that have won

five Super Bowls, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Dallas Cowboy.

There are a lot of great players in the history of football. One would have to say the most famous quarterback would have to be the great Joe Montana. He was the first player to win the Most Valuable Player two years in a row. Jerry Rice, the greatest receiver of all time is also a well-known athlete. Like Joe Montana, he was one of the best player to play his position.

In conclusion, football is an exciting sport to play and watch. Though it is considered dangerous, it s really fun. In addition, it s a good way to be in shape and at the same time enjoy what you re doing. If one plays the game with intelligence and safety, there will not be any problems. In contrast, if one plays with bad judgment and disregards the rules, then that person will pay the consequences. The game of football has been a great American tradition and will continue to be. Also, it is a symbol of our nation s love and appeal for athletic competition.