 | This article or section could be from a translation of the appropriate Article on the English Wikivoyage benefit. If you can, please help with the translation! |
American football is probably the ultimate "American" sport, although league operations have also taken place outside the USA for several decades and several players in the NFL (National Football League) have no American roots. Nevertheless - in Germany and Austria, not least thanks to the TV broadcasts - there are fans of this sport worldwide, so that a trip is necessary for many if you want to see your idols "live". The "NFL international series" in London is certainly the easiest for Europeans, but a short vacation in the USA can also be combined with a visit to a game, especially since flights tend to be cheaper than during the season (September-February, including playoffs) at other times of the year.
background
American football, like other sports that have "football" in their name, has common origins with a ball game of the Middle Ages, in which a ball had to be carried, shot or thrown over a line or through a goal. The first games that are now known as (American) football were played between college amateurs in the USA in the last third of the 19th century. This game had a lot in common with what is now known as rugby, and it is primarily thanks to Walter Camp (then captain of Yale University's football team) that innovations such as the forward pass and the system of four "downs" (Attempts) to travel ten yards came in.
In the first years and decades of its history, football was practiced almost exclusively by amateurs at colleges and the "Bowl Games", where the best college teams met, cast a spell over the masses as early as the 1920s. In 1920 the league that is known today as the NFL was founded and which has far surpassed the college teams in terms of audience interest as well as the quality of the sport since the 1960s at the latest.
regulate
In football, two teams of eleven players each face each other on a 120 yard (1 yard corresponds to about 91 cm) long field. The last ten yards are the so-called "end zones", so that the 50 yard line represents the center line. The lines are numbered in ten yard intervals according to the number of yards that are missing to the nearest end zone. Each move begins with a "snap", whereby the "center" passes or throws the ball backwards between his legs. Usually the player who receives the snap will be the quarterback, who either passes the ball forward (passing play), hands it over to a running back (running play) or runs it forward himself to gain space. The object of the game is to carry the ball into the end zone or to catch it there, which is scored as a six-point touchdown. After each touchdown, the team that scored it may attempt an extra point by either kicking the ball through the bars for one point or scoring another touchdown for two points.
Each side has four attempts to gain ten yards of space. If this does not succeed, she must pass the ball to the other team. If this succeeds, there are again four attempts to achieve another ten yards until the distance to the opposing end zone is less than ten yards. In this case, the end zone must be reached in four attempts. Usually the fourth attempt is not used for a normal move ("played out"), but instead a "punt" or a "field goal" is attempted. With a punt, the team separates from possession of the ball by kicking the ball forward as far and high as possible (similar to a goalkeeper in soccer). In a field goal, one player places the ball upright on the ground while another player tries to kick it through the tuning fork-shaped bars. The ball goes above the crossbar and between the posts counts this as a field goal, which is worth three points.
NFL teams
In the NFL, 32 play in two conferences of 4 divisions each with four teams. The conferences are divided according to historical criteria, while the divisions roughly follow a geographical logic. Unlike in Germany, there is neither promotion nor relegation and the last bankruptcy of an NFL team was in the 1950s, so that by and large the same teams are always in the league. However, it has often happened in the past that additional teams are set up ("expansion") or teams relocate, most recently the St. Louis Rams, which moved back to Los Angeles after twenty years. Teams in the same division play against each other twice every season, so there are some rivalries that are every bit as intense as "derbies" in football. After completing a "regular season" of sixteen games per team, the best teams in each division, as well as two "wild card" teams per conference (the two best teams that did not come first in their division) make it to the playoffs, in which until the beginning of February it is determined who represents the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC) in the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the largest single sporting event in the world and takes place every year at a different location determined years in advance.
International series
Since 2007 there has been at least one game in London every year that counts as a team's "home" game and counts as normal. The games are announced every year with the general schedule and partly also depend on the ranking of the teams in the previous year. In 2016 it will also be a game in for the first time Mexico City give. So far there has not been an NFL game in Germany, but the NFL has great interest in the German market and a guest appearance in Berlin, Frankfurt or Hamburg in the future cannot be ruled out.