American football

American football, known in the United States simply as football,[1] is a competitive team sport known for its physical roughness despite being a highly strategic game. The object of the game is to score points by advancing the pointed-oval shaped ball[2] into the opposing team's end zone. The ball can be advanced by carrying it (a running play) or by throwing it to a teammate (a passing play). Points can be scored in a variety of ways, including carrying the ball over the goal line, throwing the ball to another player past the goal line or kicking it through the goal posts on the opposing side. The winner is the team with the most points when the time expires and the last play ends.
Outside the United States, the sport is referred to as American football (or a translation thereof) to differentiate it from other football games. In Australia and New Zealand the game is known as Gridiron, although in America the word "gridiron" refers only to the playing field