Football, American

American football, also called gridiron football, version of the sport of football that evolved from English rugby and soccer (association football); it differs from soccer chiefly in allowing players to touch, throw, and carry the ball with their hands, and it differs from rugby in allowing each side to control the ball in alternating possessions. The sport, played with 11 on each side, originated in North America, primarily in the United States, where it eventually became the country’s leading spectator sport. It also developed simultaneously in Canada, where it evolved into a 12-man game, though Canadian football never achieved the great popularity and status of ice hockey there. American football has not been taken up in the rest of the world to the same degree as other American sports such as basketball and baseball. Since the 1980s, however, primarily through the marketing efforts of the National Football League, teams and leagues have been established in Europe, and the game has achieved a degree of international popularity through television. The sport is sometimes called gridiron football because of the vertical yard lines marking the rectangular field.