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
Australian football at the 1956 Summer Olympics the Olympic Games. To an outsider, the game features elements of association football, gaelic football, and rugby. It is played on a grass surface with an oval ball, in four 20-minute quarters. Also, at the time of the Olympic Games, a team consisted of eighteen players and two reserve players (each of whom could substitute for a player on the field, with the substituted player being unable to resume their place on the field under any circumstances). Like today, the goals consisted of an inner and outer pair of posts, where the scoring was six points for a goal (between