"Professional football (gridiron) In the United States and Canada, the term professional football includes the professional forms of American and Canadian gridiron football. In common usage, it refers to former and existing major football leagues in either country. Currently (2016), there are multiple professional football leagues in North America: the three best known are the National Football League (NFL) and the Arena Football League (AFL) in the U.S. and the Canadian Football League (CFL) in Canada. The NFL has existed continuously since being so named in 1922. Compared to the other major professional sports leagues of the United States and"
"Gridiron Fantasy Football Gridiron: Fantasy Football was a football-themed collectible card game first published in August 1995 by Upper Deck. Gridiron simulates a football game that takes place in a dystopian ""near-future"", and features a violent and over-the-top backstory comparing the new style of the game to Roman gladiator combat. Each player uses a 60-card deck, primarily composed of Plays and Actions, which are further divided into Offense and Defense, along with Team cards, which encompass Star Players at various positions, Coaches, Franchises, Traditions and Formations that provide additional benefits. The goal is to be the player with the most"
"Gridiron in Western Australia Gridiron or American Football was first played in Western Australia after a recruiting effort was organised in 1988. This also sparked interest in the local area leading to the formation of W.A.G.F.L. or Western Australian Gridiron Football League. Originally meant to only consist of two teams The Northside Chargers and The Southside Seahawks there was enough interest to start the league with 3 teams as the Bassendean Broncos(now Perth Broncos) were formed as well. The first organised Gridiron game to be played in W.A. (Western Australia) took place between the Southside Seahawks and Bassendean Broncos at"
"game did not take hold in Australia after the war. In 1983 the first fully organised gridiron teams in Australia were formed in Melbourne, Victoria. Further north, an ad was placed over a Sydney radio station advertising for American football enthusiasts to assemble in early 1984. The response was remarkable and several teams comprising enthusiastic amateurs who had been throwing the ball around on Sunday afternoons were formed. The first season saw all games being played at a disused rubbish tip. There were no goal posts,no medical supervision and no insurance. The early pioneers did not wear helmets but found"
"provide non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books. Modern North American football has its origins in various games, all known as ""football"", played at public schools in Great Britain in the mid-19th century. By the 1840s, students at Rugby School were playing a game in which players were able to pick up the ball and run with it, a sport later known as Rugby football. The game was taken to Canada by British soldiers stationed there and was soon being played at Canadian colleges. The first documented gridiron football match was played at University"
"Arena football Arena football is a variety of indoor gridiron football played by the Arena Football League (AFL) and China Arena Football League (CAFL). The game is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian outdoor football, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game. The sport was invented in 1981, and patented in 1987, by Jim Foster, a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. It was a proprietary game (the rights to which were owned by Gridiron Enterprises) until 2007, when the patent expired. Though not the only variant of indoor"
"Southern Districts Gridiron Club Southern Districts Oilers are a Gridiron (also known as American Football) team from Adelaide in the State of South Australia in Australia. They play in the South Australian Gridiron Association league. The game of American Football was first played competitively in South Australia in 1985, at Norwood Oval. The Southern Districts Oilers, then known as the Longhorns, were one of the four founding clubs in 1985, along with the East Side Razorbacks, Port Adelaide Spartans and the Brighton Breakers. The Oilers faced off against the Spartans in the first ever game of the South Australian Gridiron"
"students. In Canada, college sports are organized by U Sports for universities and the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association for colleges. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has members in both the U.S. and Canada. North America is the birthplace of gridiron football, the form of football that originally developed, and is primarily played, in the U.S. and Canada. Both major forms, American football and Canadian football, developed in the late 19th century out of the original games now known as rugby football and association football. Gridiron football is distinguished by the forward pass, the system of downs, a line"
"Wings joined the National Professional Soccer League; Dallas Sidekicks and San Diego Sockers helped found the Continental Indoor Soccer League. The concept was initially so popular that in 1981, it helped pave the way for the creation of another indoor sports league, the Arena Football League, and subsequently the entire sport of indoor ""gridiron"" football. During the MISL All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden, National Football League promotions director Jim Foster sketched a design of what a football field would look like on the back of a 9x12 manila envelope. That inspiration gave birth to the concept now known as"
"only campaign in 2007. The Raiders finished 3rd at N.C.C. at the Gold Coast in 2009 and a very close 2nd place at the N.C.C. at Narrabeen, Sydney in 2011. Gridiron in Western Australia Gridiron or American Football was first played in Western Australia after a recruiting effort was organised in 1988. This also sparked interest in the local area leading to the formation of W.A.G.F.L. or Western Australian Gridiron Football League. Originally meant to only consist of two teams The Northside Chargers and The Southside Seahawks there was enough interest to start the league with 3 teams as the"
"Gridiron NSW Gridiron NSW, formerly known as NSW Gridiron Football League (NSWGFL) until 2007, is the governing body for American football (otherwise known as 'gridiron') in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Arguably the longest tenured American football league in Australia, Gridiron NSW took over from the Australian American Football Conference (AAFC) after its inaugural 1984 season and ultimately survived a threat from the breakaway NSW Premier State Gridiron League between 1993 and 1996. The NSW Premier State Gridiron League and NSW Gridiron Football League merged prior to the commencement of the 1997 season and since that time, Gridiron"
"ACT Gridiron ACT Gridiron or ACTG is the governing body for gridiron (American football) in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. ACT Gridiron currently has six teams. The season culminates with the grand final, known as the Capital Bowl. Gridiron in the ACT began in 1990 with the formation of the Canberra Sabretooths Gridiron Club. In that year the Sabretooths played a number of full contact games against NSW gridiron teams before entering the NSW competition in 1991. The club played three seasons as members of the NSW League, winning the championship in 1994, their last year in the competition. The"
"physics-based sports simulation, ""Gridiron!"", in 1986 for the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and Commodore 64/128. Early games scored respectably in the gaming press. Electronic Arts was working on the first ""John Madden Football"" at the time, and hired Bethesda to help finish developing it. At the same time, they acquired distribution rights for future versions of ""Gridiron!"". The next year, after no new cross-console version of ""Gridiron!"" had been released, Bethesda stopped work on the project and sued Electronic Arts for , claiming EA halted the release while incorporating many of its elements into ""Madden"". In 1990, the company moved"
"South Australian Gridiron Association The Gridiron Association of South Australia (formally the South Australian Gridiron Association until 1990), Gridiron SA, or GASA is the governing body for gridiron (American football) in the state of South Australia, Australia. There are currently five Division One teams registered in the league. The association has had 3 main venues they have used for their games. From 1985-1988 they used Norwood Oval. Then from 1989-1996 they used Thebarton Oval and from 1997 - 2009 they have played their games at the Distinctive Homes Hockey Stadium. In 2010, they returned to Thebarton, before moving to Richmond"
"Arena Football League in 2003. A ball with red, white and blue panels was introduced in the American Indoor Football League in 2005 and used by its successors, as well as the Ultimate Indoor Football League of the early 2010s and the Can-Am Indoor Football League during its lone season in 2017. Footballs used in gridiron-style games have prominent points on both ends. The shape is generally credited to official Hugh ""Shorty"" Ray, who introduced the new ball in 1934 as a way to make the forward pass more effective. Law 2 of the game specifies that the ball is"
"won 9–0, which was nine goals to none. At the time, this was really a game of ""American rugby."" The father of American football, Walter Camp, did not develop the ""scrimmage"", the ""first down"" and the ""gridiron"" (yard markings) until 1882. Although this game was reported in two State College newspapers and the ""Mirror"" (University of Lewisburg campus newspaper), Bucknell denies that this game ever happened. Penn State did not field teams from 1882 through 1886. Penn State played its first season in 1887, but had no head coach for their first five years, from 1887–1891. The teams played its"
"in the U.S. in the 1800s. Originally called spiders, these iron legged devices were used in a fireplace placed over the fire to cook food. Over time, gridirons have been developed specifically to accommodate the type of food being prepared and the cooking method being used. A combination hinged gridiron and spider was developed and patented in 1836 by Amasa and George Sizer of Meriden, Connecticut. A steel wire gridiron was developed and patented as early as 1889 in New Haven, Connecticut, by William C. Perkins, of the New Haven Wire Goods Co., who received a U.S. Patent #408,136 for"
"American football American football, referred to as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, which is the team controlling the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with or passing the ball, while the defense, which is the team without control of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and aims to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four"
"known until 1886 as the University of Lewisburg. Penn State won 9–0, which was nine goals to none. At the time, this was really a game of ""American rugby."" Less than a year after this game some high Schools in the area adopted the game. The father of American football, Walter Camp, did not develop the ""scrimmage"", the ""first down"" and the ""gridiron"" (yard markings) until 1882. Although this game was reported in two State College newspapers and the ""Mirror"" (University of Lewisburg campus newspaper), Bucknell denies that this game ever happened. Most high school games were not recorded so"
"""father of gridiron football"". Among these important changes were the introduction of the line of scrimmage, of down-and-distance rules and of the legalization of interference. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, gameplay developments by college coaches such as Eddie Cochems, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Parke H. Davis, Knute Rockne, John Heisman, and Glenn ""Pop"" Warner helped take advantage of the newly introduced forward pass. The popularity of college football grew in the United States for the first half of the 20th century. Bowl games, a college football tradition, attracted a national audience for college teams. Boosted by fierce rivalries"
"in the ""Encyclopedia Canadiana"", the entry ""Rugby Football"" begins ""the Canadian development of rugby union or ""English rugger"" introduced into Canada in the third quarter of the nineteenth century."", but admits later that ""the Canadian game is a radical departure from rugby union"". Canadian football is in fact a descendant of the rugby code. The first documented gridiron football match was a game played at University College, University of Toronto on November 9, 1861. A football club was formed at the university soon afterwards, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. In 1864, at Trinity College, Toronto,"
"League. However the inaugural season was postponed to October 2017. American football in Australia American football, known locally as ""gridiron"", is a participation and spectator sport in Australia. The sport is represented by Gridiron Australia, a member of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), and also Gridiron Victoria, which operates independent of Gridiron Australia The sport has been played in six Australian states and territories across the country since World War II, but has only had regular league play since 1983. There is no uniform gridiron season in Australia. The various state and territory bodies play at different times"
"and a football field playmat with quick-start rules, and 12-card booster packs. To further enhance the collectible aspect of the game, there were 10 rare insert cards that were found in roughly 1 in every 10 packs or decks, and the inserts found in hobby boxes were different from the ones found in retail boxes. Three expansions were planned for release in 1996, but were never released: ""Championship"", ""Traditions"", and ""Blacklist"". Gridiron Fantasy Football Gridiron: Fantasy Football was a football-themed collectible card game first published in August 1995 by Upper Deck. Gridiron simulates a football game that takes place in"
"Gridiron Victoria Gridiron Victoria is the governing body for American Football in the State of Victoria, Australia. Formed in 1997, Gridiron Victoria was an amalgamation of the two existing governing bodies of the time: the Victoria Gridiron Football League and the Gridiron Association of Victoria. The ""Vic Bowl"" is the Championship Game played between the two best teams in the men's Division One competition throughout the Gridiron Victoria season, whilst the best teams in the men's second division compete for the ""Division Two Championship"". The Junior Championship game is known as the ""Junior Vic Bowl"", whilst the Women's Championship game"
"U.S. in 1869 between Rutgers University and Princeton was contested, at Rutgers captain John W. Leggett's request, with rules mixing soccer and rugby and loosely based on those of the Football Association in London, England. However most sports historians argue that this was actually the first-ever college ""gridiron"" football season in history. But that perception is changing, with Harvard being recognized as a pioneer in gridiron football, along with McGill, Tufts, and Yale. The NCAA first began holding a men's national soccer championship in 1959. Prior to 1959, the men's national champion had been determined by a national poll instead"
"of gridiron football in Australia occurred during World War II. Exhibition matches featuring American servicemen were played in the major cities and attracted interest and crowds. A high-profile match in Adelaide played on American Independence Day (4 July) 1942 by American servicemen attracted a crowd of 25,000. Several matches were played in Sydney in 1943 and another high-profile match was played in Brisbane in 1944, all featuring American servicemen. Another match was held in Melbourne at an unknown date during the war. Matches of Austus were also played against Australian rules footballers featuring a set of compromise rules. However, the"
"Glidden Field Glidden Field was an athletic venue in the central United States, on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. Opened in 1903, it was the home field of the NIU Huskies, primarily for football and track and field. Glidden Field was located on the east end of campus, bordered by Lucinda Avenue to the north and Gilbert Way (along with Gilbert Hall and Still Gym) to the west; the Kishwaukee River provided a natural border to the east. The playing field had a conventional north-south alignment at an elevation of above sea level. The field dated"
"clubs evolved into the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Princeton Tigers football teams which have existed continuously since then. In the United States, gridiron-based variants of the game did not distinguish themselves from existing codes until 1871, when Harvard University began playing a variation known as the ""Boston Game."" This allowed a player to pick up the ball and run with it if he were chased and it quickly spread, with innovations added by Yale University student Walter Camp. The oldest existing non-university semiprofessional football club is the Watertown Red & Black, which was founded in 1896. The Arizona Cardinals, formed"
"football variants have been played in North America since the 1820s, the claim of oldest continuous football club in North America is still a matter of debate. In terms of gridiron football the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League can trace their roots back to the Hamilton Football Club (nicknamed the ""Tigers"") which formed in 1869, then later merged with the Hamilton Wildcats in 1950 to form the current franchise. Their rivals to the north, the Toronto Argonauts, were founded four years later in 1873 and have a mostly unchanged franchise history. Both clubs began as rugby football clubs"
"only played at the high school level. An NFL-funded study reported that high school football players suffered 11.2 concussions per 10,000 games or practices, nearly twice as many as college football players. High school football High school football is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries. It is also popular amongst American High school teams in Europe. High school football began in the late 19th century, concurrent with the start of many college football programs. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries,"
"developed from rugby, and the two sports are considered to be the chief variants of gridiron football. Although the two games share a similar set of rules, there are several key rule differences: for example, in Canadian football the field measures , including two 20-yard end zones (for a distance between goal lines of 110 yards), teams have three downs instead of four, there are twelve players on each side instead of eleven, fair catches are not allowed, and a rouge, worth a single point is scored if the offensive team kicks the ball out of the defense's end zone."
"1869 New Jersey vs. Rutgers football game The 1869 New Jersey vs. Rutgers football game occurred between the College of New Jersey (current day Princeton University) and Rutgers College played on November 6, 1869. The rules governing play were based on the London Football Association's 1863 rules that disallowed carrying or throwing the ball. For spectators, therefore, the game more closely resembled soccer than gridiron football. Because gridiron football developed from the rules of association football and rugby football, many also consider the game played on November 6 to be the first gridiron game and the first collegiate football game."
"Australia national American football team The Australia national American football team, nicknamed the Australian Outback, represent Australia in international American football (gridiron) competitions. The team is organised by Gridiron Australia, the national governing body for the sport. Organised gridiron football in Australia dates to 1983, with the national governing body, Gridiron Australia, being formed in 1996. Australia was a charter member of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), and competed in the inaugural 1999 IFAF World Cup. They have since competed in the Oceania Bowl in 2005 and the Samoa Bowl in 2011, among other international competitions. Australia competed"