Football

History of football
American football, known in the United States simply as football, is a competitive team sport. The object of the game is to advance the football towards the opposing team's end zone and score points. The ball can be advanced by carrying the ball, throwing it, or a lateral handoff, from one teammate to the other. Points can be scored in a variety of ways, including carrying the ball over the goal line, throwing the ball to another player past the goal line (known as a forward pass) or even kicking the ball held by another player on the ground through the goalposts (also known as uprights), which is also called a field goal. The team with more points when time has expired wins. Outside of the United States and Canada, the sport is referred to as 'American football' or sometimes 'Grid-iron' football to differentiate it from association football (soccer), a sport that it does not resemble. Ironically, besides kickoffs, field goals, and running, the game involves very little usage ofthe feet, especially compared with soccer.

Football historians, who have studied the game and its origins, place the game's beginnings in rugby, an English game played with many similarities to football. Rugby began in 1823 at the famous Rugby Boys' School in England. Another cousin of the game of football is soccer; its beginnings can also be traced to English origin, being played as early as the 1820's.