AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN OTHER COUNTRIES

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FOOTBALL WEBSITES

CANADIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE

AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN EUROPE

CENTRAL EUROPEAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OFAMERICAN FOOTBALL

AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN RUSSIA

AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN SWITZERLAND

AMERICAN FOOTBALL ARTICLE

American Football Gaining International Popularity

By: Jonathon Hardcastle

In most parts of the world, if you say the word "football" people assume you are referring to soccer, the most popular and most widely followed sport in the world. However, American football is starting to spark more interest overseas. The National Football League actively promotes American-style football out of the country, sending players as ambassadors and holding pre-season games in Europe, Mexico and Japan. Games are broadcast in many countries and the Super Bowl is broadcast to almost every country in the world.

American football is played in almost every continent on the planet including North and South America, Asia, Europe and the Pacific Rim nations. The International Federation of American Football is the official international governing body of American Football and oversees 45 member organizations. Beginning in 1999, the International Federation of American Football has also sponsored a world cup of American football with Japan taking the honors in both 1999 and 2003.

American football has also grown in popularity in Mexico, where many households are able to watch games on American television stations. There has been such interest in American football in Mexico that the NFL opened an office in Mexico City in 1997 to supervise fan development, marketing, public relations and special events. The NFL also publishes a Spanish-language web site targeted to Mexican fans.

American football is also gaining popularity in Europe. In 1991, the National Football League backed a European league called the World League of Football. From that emerged NFL Europe, a six-team league that serves as a spring developmental league for National Football League teams in the United States. Five of NFL Europe's teams are based in Germany and one is in the Netherlands. The National Football League not only uses the NFL Europe to develop new players, but also to develop and test new rules and regulations.

American football has always been popular in Canada although Canada does have its own Canadian Football League which plays with slightly different rules than American football. However, the National Football League continues to reach out to Canadian fans. For Super Bowl XL, held in Detroit, just across the border from the Canadian city of Windsor, the National Football League held special events specifically for Canadian fans including a special train that transported Canadian fans to Windsor to view the game at an arena there. The National Football League also publishes a website for Canadian fans that focuses on the progress and statistics of Canadian-born players.
Article Source: http://www.sportsarticlelibrary.com
Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Football, Recreation, and Games
NOTE: The NFL has discontinued NFL Europe.

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CFL This is Our League

QUARTERBACK

The Quarterback is the player that runs and directs the offense. He usually gets the signal for the play from the coaching staff, and then he calls the play in the huddle. He usually lines up directly behind the center who hikes him the ball to start the play. The quarterback is involved in the majority of the offensive plays a team runs. He is either throwing it to a receiver, handing the ball off to a running back, or running it himself. In some situation a quarterback can call his own plays without getting a signal from the coach, one would be if a quarterback recognizes that the defense is running a certain play and then he calls an audible. Another rear situation is when the coaching staff allows the quarterback to call his own plays

QUARTERBACK TIPS

1. Develop leadership skills, coaches loves for their starting quarterbacks to be leaders.

2. Get a lot of practice in the offseason. You need to work on arm strengh and footwork. Work on throwing football often and far, also work on various dropbacks espiciaaly the 5 step dropback.

3. Practice looking off safety to create space for the wide reciever, do not telegraph your throws.

4. Watch and learn what good quarterbacks do in certain situations, watch them on films or television.

5. Mentaly visualize yourself coming to the line and facing certain defenses, come up with what you will do against it.

6. A quarterback needs to study the playbook, he should know what every offensive player is doing when the ball is hiked.

NFL DRAFT

The NFL Draft[1], is held annually in April. It is the major way by which National Football League teams select players (primarily from college football) for their teams. The 2011 NFL Draft took place on April 28-30 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Rules for determining draft order
The draft is determined by the teams won and loss record. Teams with the worst record usually gets a higher pick in a draft round, for example a team that goes 1-15will make a pick before a team that goes 8-8. That order is based generally on each team's regular season record, with the exception of the two Super Bowl contestants, who are placed at the end of the draft order. Teams can move up in draft order by making deals and trades for draft picks with other teams.

SUPER BOWL RUNNER-UPS

SUPER BOWL LOSERS

Buffalo Bills 4
Minnesota Vikings 4
Denver Broncos 4
Dallas Cowboys 3
Miami Dolphins 3
New England Patriots 3
Philadelphia Eagels 2
Washington Redskins 2
Oakland Raiders 2
Pittsburgh Steelers 2
Kansas City Chiefs 1
Baltimore Colts 1
Los Angles Rams 1
St Louis Rams 1
SanDiego Chargers 1
Greenbay Packers 1
Atlanta Falcons 1
Tennessee Titans 1
New York Giants 1
Carolina Panthers 1
Seattle Seahawks 1
Chicago Bears 1
Arizona Cardinals 1
Indianapolis Colts 1

SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS

SUPER BOWL WINS

Pittsburg Steelers 6
Dallas Cowboys 5
Sanfrancisco 49ers 5
New York Giants 3
New England Patriots 3
GreenBay Packers 4
Washington Redskins 3
Los Angeles Raiders 3
Miami Dolphins 2
Indianapolis Colts 2
Denver Broncos 2
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1
Baltimore Ravens 1
St Louis Rams 1
Kansas City Chiefs 1
New York Jets 1
Chicago Bears 1
New Orlean Saints 1

SUPER BOWL

The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League. The game is between the champions of the American Football Conference(AFC) and the National Football Conference(NFC). The Super Bowl is one of the most popular and anticipated sporting events in the United States. The game attracts football fans all over the country and is televised all over the world.

NOTABLE SUPER BOWLS

1. XLII: New York Giants upsetting the previous unbeaten New England Patriots 17 -14.
2. XLI: First Two African American head coaches in a super bowl, Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith. Indianapolis Colts defeated the Chicago Bears 29 - 17 making Tony Dungy the first African American head coach to win a super bowl.
3. XXXII: Denver Broncos upsetting the Greenbay Packers 31 - 24 giving John Elway his first super bowl.
4.XXII: Doug Williams becomes first African American Quarterback to win super bowl by leading the Washington Redskins to victory over the Denver Broncos 42 - 10.
5.XII: This super bowl had Two MVP winners in the Dallas Cowboys 27 - 10 victory over the Denver Broncos. The two were defensive tackle Randy White and defensive end Harvey Martin of the Dallas Cowboys.
6.VII: Miami Dolphins completed their undefeated season by beating the Washington Redskins 14 - 7. The Dolphins went 17 - 0 and is still the only team to do this in NFL history.
7.III: New york Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts 16 - 7 giving credibility to the AFL. This is als the game that Joe Namath guaranteed victory.
8. I: First world championship game between the AFL and the NFL, Greenbay defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35 - 10.

SPECIAL TEAMS

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POSITIONS

LONG SNAPPER - A player in the center position that specializes in snapping the ball to the holder on field goal attempts and to the punter on punts.

HOLDER - The player who catches the snap from the long snapper and places it down for the place kicker.

PLACE KICKER - The player who kicks the ball on field goals, extra points, and kick offs.

PUNTER - The player who stands 13 to 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage, catches the football from the long snapper, then kicks it to the other team.

PUNT RETURNER - The player that catches the football from the punter, then runs it back towards the opposing teams end zone.

KICK RETURNER - The player that catches the football on kickoffs and runs it toward the other teams end zone.

GUNNER - The player that specializes in running down field to tackle the kick off or punt returner.