Defense (American football)

American football

Larry Fitzgerald (in blue) catches a pass while defended by Cortland Finnegan (in red) at the 2009 Pro Bowl
Highest governing body	IFAF
Nicknames	Football, gridiron
First played	November 6, 1869 New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States (Princeton vs. Rutgers)
Characteristics
Contact	Full-contact
Team members	11 (both teams may freely substitute players between downs)
Type	Team sport, ball game
Equipment	Football (leather prolate spheroid) Football helmet Pads (shoulder and knee)
Venue	Football field (rectangular: 120 yards long, 53 1/3 yards wide)
Presence
Country or region	Worldwide (most prominent in North America, Europe, and Japan)
Olympic	No (demonstrated at the 1932 Summer Olympics)

American football, referred to as football in the United States and Canada, and also known as "gridiron football" or simply "gridiron", is a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with control of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with or passing the ball, while the team without control of the ball, the defense, aims to stop their advance and take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team; if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins.

American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of association football and rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, under rules based on the association football rules of the time. During the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby Union code, which allowed carrying the ball. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", established the snap, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs; later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football.