Gridiron football

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Gridiron football,[1] also known as North American football[2] or, in North America, simply football, is a football sport primarily played in the United States and Canada. American football, which uses 11-player teams, is the form played in the United States and the best known form of gridiron football worldwide, while Canadian football, featuring 12-player teams, predominates in Canada. Other derivative varieties include indoor football and Arena football, football for smaller teams (most commonly eight players), and informal games such as touch and flag football. Football is played at professional, collegiate, semi-professional, and amateur levels.




1904 diagram of an American football field (1904). In this period lines were painted along the length of the field as well as the width, making a checkerboard pattern

The sport is typically known as simply "football" in the countries where it originated, regardless of the specific variety.[4] Various sources use the term "North American football" when discussing the American and Canadian games together; however, this particular term is quite rare.[5][6][7][8] It is also sometimes known as "gridiron football".[1] This name originates with the sport's characteristic playing field, which is marked by a series of parallel lines along the width of the field in a pattern resembling a cooking gridiron.[9][10] However, "gridiron football", or "gridiron", usually refers to American football specifically,[11][12] sometimes in distinction from Canadian football.[13][14] "Gridiron" is the usual name for American football in Australia[15] and New Zealand.[16] Some sources, including the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), use "American football" inclusive of Canadian football and other varieties.[17]



American football teams and organizations subsequently adopted new rules which distinguished the game from rugby.[19] Many of these early innovations were the work of Walter Camp, including the sport's line of scrimmage and the system of a down.[20]. 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.[21] 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 110-yard (100 m) field, 12-player teams, and three downs instead of four.[3] 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.[22]


  • 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 Walter Camp were implemented in 1880, 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 100-yard (91 m) 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. High schools generally follow the rules and interpretations published by the National Federation of 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 League field
  • 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 110-yard (100 m) field and 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 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, despite some major changes in contrast to its American cousin.[clarification needed]
  • 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 15-yard [14 m] requirement for a new set of downs, as opposed to 10 in other codes), fewer offensive linemen, and an 80-yard (73 m) 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.
  • 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 50-yard (46 m) field with, usually, eight 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.
  • Sprint football (or lightweight football) is a variant of American football with nearly identical rules but with added restrictions on the maximum weight and percent body fat of players on the field, emphasizing speed and agility over raw size at all positions. It is played at a small number of colleges and universities, mostly in the northeastern United States.
  • Touch football, flag football, wheelchair 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.
  • Women's American football is the organized play of the sport by women. Most organized leagues play by rules identical to standard, male-dominated leagues. The former Lingerie Football League (later the Legends Football League and Extreme Football League) earned a notoriety for its indoor, seven-on-seven variety of women's football with minimal protective equipment and uniforms resembling women's underwear. Female versions of the informal varieties, 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.

Professional leagues[edit]

League Country Sport Year
Teams Revenue
US$ (bn)
National Football League United States American football 1920 32 $14.0 67,604 $1,900,000
Canadian Football League Canada Canadian football 1958 9 $0.2 27,005 $80,000
Indoor Football League United States Indoor football 2008 10 $2,800
Champions Indoor Football United States Indoor football 2014 8 $2,250
American Arena League United States Indoor football 2017 15
National Arena League United States Indoor football 2016 8
Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional Mexico American football 2016 8 2,000 $600
China Arena Football League China Arena football 2012 6 $7,500
X-League (X1/X2/X3) Japan American football 1971 18/18/17

Collegiate leagues[edit]

League Country Sport Year
Divisions Teams Promotion/Relegation Average
NCAA United States & Canada American football 1906 4 673 No 27,142 (Div. I)[23]
NAIA United States American football 1940 1 94 No
NJCAA United States American football 1938 1 57 No
CCCAA United States American football 1929 1 68 No
U Sports Canada Canadian football 1961 1 27 No 3,370[24]
ONEFA Mexico American football 1978 1 22 No
CONADEIP Mexico American football 2010 1 12 No
JAFA Japan American football 1934 1–5 220 Yes
KAFA South Korea American football 1945 1 39 No
BUAFL United Kingdom American football 2007 3 83 Yes
CSFL United States Sprint football 1940 1 10 No
NCFA United States American football 1940 1 27 No

Comparison of codes[edit]

Code Traditional
Line of
Downs Line
to gain
Forward motion
before snap?
Goal posts
American Fall
100 10 53​13 11 7 4 10 No At back of end zones
18​12 (NFL and College) to 23​13 (High School) ft. wide
Canadian Summer
110 20 65 12 7 3 10 Yes On goal lines
18​12 ft. wide
Indoor Spring 50 8 28​13 8 4 4 10 Yes At back of end zones, 9 to 10 ft. wide
Rebound nets on sides optional
6-man Fall 80 10 40 6 3 4 15 No At back of end zones
23​13 wide

Play of the game[edit]












See also[edit]


  1. ^ a b "Gridiron football". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
  11. ^ Markovits, Andrei S.; Rensmann, Lars (2010). Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture. Princeton University Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-1-4008-3466-2.
  12. ^ Carlisle, pp. 237–239.
  13. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica (2009). Britannica Almanac 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. p. 868. ISBN 978-1-59339-839-2. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
  14. ^ Jewell, Todd (2014). Goddard, John; Sloane, Peter (eds.). "Major league soccer in the USA". Handbook on the Economics of Professional Football: 351–367. ISBN 978-1-78100-317-6. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  15. ^ "Gridiron". Macquarie Dictionary. Macquarie Dictionary Publishers. 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2017.[permanent dead link]
  16. ^ Leland, Louis S. (1984) "gridiron"]. A Personal Kiwi-Yankee Dictionary, p. 49. Pelican Publishing Company. ISBN 1-4556-1037-2.
  17. ^
  19. ^ "Camp and His Followers: American Football 1876–1889" (PDF). The Journey to Camp: The Origins of American Football to 1889. Professional Football Researchers Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 29, 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
  22. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-09-22. Retrieved 2015-01-18.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) History of the Grey Cup
  23. ^
  24. ^
  26. ^ "CFL pass interference replay hasn't been a problem". March 28, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2019.