Team sports: American football
American football is known in the USA and Canada as simply football. It is a group game which has become the most popular kind of sport in the US since 1960. The main target in this game is carrying the ball to the end zone. Players can hold the ball in their hands, pass it to their teammates, or throw them. Points are scored in different ways, for example for carrying the ball into the score zone, a successful pass to the score zone, or scoring a goal between horizontal bars. American football became an independent kind of sport in nineteenth century. National football league is the only professional league of American football. The final of the NFL Super Bowl is watched by about a half of all Americans every year, as well as people from over 200 countries worldwide. Television ratings of the NFL matches are higher than any other sport leagues of the North America. On the day of a Super Bowl about 100 million people watch football across America. The National Football league also managed the European league NFL Europe which consisted of 6 teams, but the European league ceased to exist in 2007.
Non-professional football matches are also very popular among students in America.
The main aim of the players is to score as many points as possible during a specified period of time. Each team may have up to 11 players on the field and each of them specializes in a specific function, like attacks, defense or special commands (at the moments when the ball is kicked out). During a game all 53 players of a team can take part in this or that role.