American football, known in the United States simply as football and often as gridiron outside the United States, is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. The ball can be advanced by carrying it (a running play) or by throwing it to a teammate (a passing play). Points can be scored in a variety of ways, including carrying the ball over the opponent's goal line, catching a pass thrown over that goal line, kicking the ball through the goal posts at the opponent's end zone, or tackling an opposing ball carrier within his end zone. The winner is the team with the most points when the time expires.

American football is closely related to Canadian football but with some differences in rules and in the configuration of the field.

In the United States, the major forms are high school football, college football and professional football, which are essentially similar but feature slightly different rules.

High school football is governed in the U.S. by the National Federation of State High School Associations. College football is governed in the U.S. by two bodies; the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. The major league for professional football is the National Football League. Over the years, there have been other notable professional football leagues, including the All America Football Conference during the 1940s, the American Football League during the 1960s, the United States Football League during the 1980s, and the currently active United Football League.

2010 NFL Schedule 
2010 NFL Facts
2010 NFL Draft: April 22 - 24
NFL Combine: February 24 - March 2
Super Bowl XLV: February 6, 2011
NFL Kickoff: September 9 in New Orleans
Pre-Season: Begins August 8


The 2010 NFL Schedule includes a sixteen-game National Football League regular season schedule, spread out over seventeen weeks from NFL Kickoff on the second Thursday in September through the first Sunday in January of 2011. The season will culminate in the playing of Super Bowl XLV on February 6, 2011, at Dallas Cowboys Stadium. 

The 2010 NFL Schedule was announced on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. EST. The league determines these match-ups based upon a pre-determined formula to account for competitive balance. However, the opponent list has was released for each club much earlier. The schedule was unveiled exclusively on NFL Network.1 NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell however revealed the kickoff game earlier in the day on April 20, 2010, which will be a rematch of the AFC Championship Game as the New Orleans Saints host the Minnesota Vikings on September 9, 2010, at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.2

As for the 2010 off-season, important events on the calendar include: February 24 for the NFL Combine; March 5 for the start of free agency; March 21 for the NFL Annual Owners Meeting, and the weekend of April 23-25 for the 2010 NFL Draft in New York City.

History

The history of American football can be traced to early versions of rugby football and association football. Both games have their origins in varieties of football played in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century, in which a ball is kicked at a goal and/or run over a line. Many games known as "football" were being played at colleges and universities in the United States in the first half of the 19th century.

American football resulted from several major divergences from rugby football, most notably the rule changes instituted by Walter Camp, considered the "Father of American Football". Among these important changes were the introduction of the line of scrimmage and of down-and-distance rules. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, game play developments by college coaches such as Eddie Cochems, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Knute Rockne, and Glenn "Pop" Warner helped take advantage of the newly introduced forward pass.

The popularity of collegiate football grew as it became the dominant version of the sport for the first half of the twentieth century. Bowl games, a college football tradition, attracted a national audience for collegiate teams. Bolstered by fierce rivalries, college football still holds widespread appeal in the US.

The origin of professional football can be traced back to 1892, with William "Pudge" Heffelfinger's $500 contract to play in a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. The first Professional "league" was the Ohio League, formed in 1903, and the first Professional Football championship game was between the Buffalo Prospects and the Canton Bulldogs in 1919. In 1920, the American Professional Football Association was formed. The first game was played in Dayton, Ohio on October 3, 1920 with the host Triangles defeating the Columbus Panhandles 14–0. The league changed its name to the National Football League (NFL) two years later, and eventually became the major league of American football. Initially a sport of Midwestern industrial towns in the United States, professional football eventually became a national phenomenon. Football's increasing popularity is usually traced to the 1958 NFL Championship Game, a contest that has been dubbed the "Greatest Game Ever Played". A rival league to the NFL, the American Football League (AFL), began play in 1960; the pressure it put on the senior league led to a merger between the two leagues and the creation of the Super Bowl, which has become the most watched television event in the United States on an annual basis.