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
United States national American football team national team was selected to encompass a cross-section of amateur football in the United States, and as such USA Football used strict criteria to select team members. This does not permit the top American football players in the United States to compete as the restrictions include: These criteria are applied to make international tournaments more competitive. The United States competed for the first time in the 2007 IFAF World Cup. The team's first ever game was a 77–0 smashing of South Korea in the first round of the tournament. The Team USA defense set an IFAF all-time tournament record in