Popularity of Football

Since the 1990s, football has surpassed baseball as the most popular spectator sport in the U.S. The 32-team National Football League (NFL) is the most popular professional league. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, is watched by nearly half of US television households, and is also televised in over 150 other countries. Super Bowl Sunday has become an annual ritual in late January or early February. Additionally, top players in the league are selected to play an annual all-star game, the Pro Bowl, in Honolulu. 

College football is also popular, with many major colleges and universities playing NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division I football, and consistently selling out huge stadiums. College games are widely televised and widely watched. Many institutions in lower NCAA divisions and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) also field varsity football teams, as do most high schools. High school football is popular in many parts of the US, notably the South, with games sometimes attracting tens of thousands of fans.

• The National Football League - top-level men's professional league
• The Canadian Football League - men's professional league based in Canada, played using a modified set of rules known as Canadian football
• Women's American football - since 2000, there has been a surge of women's professional leagues.
• Arena football - an indoor adaptation of professional football, played at a faster pace, on a smaller field
• College football - played by many US colleges
• High school football - played by most high schools
• Nine-man football, Eight-man football, and Six-man football - variations of high school football, usually played in sparsely populated areas
• Amateur and youth league football
• Flag football and Touch football - non-tackle; almost exclusively amateur
• Pop warner or youth football - involves younger kids who are too young to play high school, generally in middle school.

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