American football American football American football, referred to as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, which is the team controlling the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with or passing the ball, while the defense, which is the team without control of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and aims to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four
American football field Goal posts are padded at the base, and orange ribbons are normally placed at the tip of each upright. According to the high school rulebook recommendations, the field should be angled at approximately 1.2° (rising inch per foot, or 1 in 48) upward from each sideline to the center of the field so that the center is higher than the sidelines. American football field American football games are played on a rectangular "Field of Play" that measures long between goal lines, and () wide. In addition, there are end zones extending another past the goal lines to the "end lines",