Portal:American football/Selected article/2007

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April

The history of the New York Giants, an American football team which plays in the NFL's National Football Conference, comprises more than 80 seasons. The Giants were founded in 1925 by original owner Tim Mara in the then five-year-old NFL. Mara owned the team until his death in 1959, when it was passed on to his son Wellington. During their history the Giants have acquired six NFL championships, two of which came in Super Bowls.

In just its third season, the team finished with the best record in the league at 11–1–1 and was awarded the NFL title. In a fourteen year span from 1933 to 1946, the Giants qualified to play in the NFL championship game 8 times, winning twice. They did not win another league title until 1956, aided by a number of future Pro Football Hall of Fame players such as running back Frank Gifford, linebacker Sam Huff, and offensive tackle Roosevelt Brown. From 1958 to 1963, the Giants played in the NFL championship game 5 out of those 6 years, but failed to win. The 1958 NFL Championship game, in which they lost 23–17 in overtime to the Baltimore Colts, is widely credited with increasing the popularity of the NFL in United States.

From 1964 to 1980, the Giants registered only two winning seasons and were unable to advance to the playoffs. But from 1981 to 1990, the team qualified for the postseason seven times in ten seasons. During that period, they won Super Bowl XXI (1987) and Super Bowl XXV (1991). The team's success during the 1980s was aided by head coach Bill Parcells, quarterback Phil Simms, and Hall of Fame linebackers Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson. The Giants struggled throughout much of the 1990s as Parcells left the team and players such as Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor declined and eventually retired. They returned to the Super Bowl in 2001 losing to the Baltimore Ravens, and as of 2007 have made the playoffs in two consecutive seasons.

Read more about the History of the New York Giants...

May

The 2006 Cleveland Browns season marked the 60th anniversary of the Browns franchise. It began with the team attempting to improve upon their win-loss record from 2005, where the team ended the year at 6-10. They were one of the most active teams during the free agency period, and looked to be one of the most improved teams of the season at the end of the NFL Draft.

The Cleveland Browns' front office was busy during the first several days off the free-agent signing period, looking to help the team by signing players who they felt would make immediate impacts upon the team. On the first day, the Browns signed center LeCharles Bentley, wide receiver Joe Jurevicius, and offensive tackle Kevin Shaffer. Bentley and Shaffer were signed to help protect second-year quarterback Charlie Frye in the pocket, and Jurevicius was signed to provide veteran support to the Browns' young receiving corps, which then-consisted of Braylon Edwards, Joshua Cribbs, and veteran Dennis Northcutt. On the second day of the free-agent period, the Browns signed punter Dave Zastudil to replace Kyle Richardson, and to establish a good punting game. An interesting fact about the Browns' free-agent signings deals with the fact that Bentley, Jurevicius, and Zastudil are each Ohio-natives, and expressed their wish to play for the Browns at some point in their careers. A day after signing Zastudil, the Browns signed veteran nose tackle Ted Washington in an attempt to improve the Browns' run defense. After signing Washington, the Browns made their final key free-agent signing, by inking a deal with linebacker Willie McGinest. McGinest was signed to provide veteran support among the Browns' linebacking corps, and brought back under the direction of head coach Romeo Crennel, who coached McGinest defensively through three Super Bowls while in New England.

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June

The 2006 Alamo Bowl was the seventeenth of thirty-two collegiate bowl games played during the 2006-07 bowl season, subsequent to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Subdivision's 2006 season. The game, played at the Alamodome (pictured) in San Antonio, Texas, on December 30, 2006, matched the defending champion University of Texas Longhorns of the Big 12 Conference and the University of Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference; the Longhorns entered the game as an 11-point favorite. The matchup for the game was finalized on December 3, when the Longhorns, having failed to earn selection to a New Year's Day game, accepted an invitation to the side's first-ever Alamo Bowl; tickets sold out in record time, and a crowd of 65,875 ultimately attended the game, which also became the most-watched bowl game ever broadcast on the cable television network ESPN. Iowa received the opening kickoff and compiled a 77-yard drive on its first offensive series, tallying a touchdown on a one-yard rush by running back Albert Young. Texas failed to score on its first series and punted to the Hawkeyes, who extended their first-quarter lead to 14 points when quarterback Drew Tate threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Andy Brodell.

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July

Recruiting, in college athletics, is the term used for the process whereby college coaches add new players to their roster of student-athletes each off-season. In most instances, it involves a coach extending a scholarship offer to a player who is about to graduate from high school or a junior college. There are instances—mostly at lower-division universities—where no scholarship can be awarded and the player has to pay for all of his or her own tuition, housing, and book fees.

Since success or failure in recruiting is seen as a precursor of a team's future prospects, many college sports fans follow it as closely as the team's actual games and it also provides a way to be connected to the team during the long off season. Fans' desire for information has spawned a million-dollar industry which first developed extensively during the 1980s. Prior to the internet, popular recruiting services used newsletters and pay telephone numbers to disseminate information. Since the mid-1990s, many online recruiting websites have offered fans player profiles, scouting videos, player photos, statistics, interviews, and other information, including rankings of both a player and a team's recruiting class. Most of these websites charge for their information.

In the United States, college football recruiting is the most-followed sports recruiting. This is due mainly in part to the large following football usually has at most Division-I universities. Division I-A football also has the highest number of scholarship players (85) of any other college sport. The NCAA allows football teams to add up to 25 new scholarship players to the roster per academic year, so long as the total number of scholarship players does not exceed 85. Scholarship limits are lower for Division I-AA (63) and Division II (36) teams.

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August

The Immaculate Reception is the nickname given to one of the most controversial plays in the history of American football. It occurred in the AFC divisional playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 23, 1972. NFL Films has chosen it as the greatest play of all time. It is a play on the name of the Immaculate Conception, a dogma in the Roman Catholic Church. The play was a turning point for the Steelers, who reversed four decades of futility and won four Super Bowls in the next seven seasons.

The Pittsburgh Steelers trailed the Oakland Raiders 7-6, facing fourth-and-10 on their own 40-yard line with 22 seconds remaining in the game and no time-outs. Head coach Chuck Noll called a pass play, 66 Circle Option, intended for receiver Barry Pearson, a rookie who was playing in his first NFL game. Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, unable to find Pearson while avoiding two Raiders defenders, threw the ball to the Raiders' 35-yard line, toward fullback John "Frenchy" Fuqua. Raiders safety Jack Tatum collided with Fuqua just as the ball arrived. Tatum's hit knocked Fuqua to the ground and sent the ball sailing backward several yards, end over end. Steelers running back Franco Harris, after initially blocking on the play, had run downfield in case Bradshaw needed another eligible receiver. He scooped up the sailing ball just before it hit the ground, apparently off the tops of his shoes, and ran the rest of the way downfield to score the touchdown that gave the Steelers a 12-7 lead and the game.

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September

Heinz Field is a football stadium located in the North Shore neighborhood, just across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the home stadium facility of the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL franchise and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers college football team. The stadium sits on approximately 12.4 acres (50,000 m²) of land and has a seating capacity of 64,450, including approximately 6,600 club seats and a capacity of approximately 1,500 in 127 suites. It was built with a mixture of private and public funds to replace Three Rivers Stadium. Three Rivers was also the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team; they moved into PNC Park before Three Rivers was demolished. One purpose of building the new facilities was to provide each team with a dedicated building rather than a single shared-use stadium. Heinz Field and PNC Park were built opposite each other across the Three Rivers site, which is now a parking lot serving both stadiums and the site of several office building developments. The stadium sits directly across from "The Point" which is the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela Rivers to form the Ohio River, on whose northern bank the stadium sits.

Heinz Field is primarily a football facility, though it has also hosted soccer games and concerts—in fact the first event at the venue was a concert by pop band 'N Sync shortly after the stadium opened in August 2001. The Steelers debuted there during the 2001-2002 NFL season. The stadium is a bowl design with an open end facing south. The open end allows views of the Pittsburgh skyline across the Ohio River.

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October

The College GameDay setup
The College GameDay setup
Backstage of the set - Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, and Chris Fowler
Backstage of the set - Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, and Chris Fowler
College GameDay is an ESPN show covering college football. It first aired in 1987 with Bob Carpenter as host and Lee Corso and Beano Cook as analysts. Beginning as a more-or-less routine pre-game analysis of college football games, the show would undergo a radical transformation beginning in 1993 as the show began incorporating "live" broadcasts. The official name of the show is College GameDay built by The Home Depot. There is a separate radio broadcast, ESPN Radio College GameDay, on ESPN Radio.

Today, the only original cast member remaining is Lee Corso. Chris Fowler serves as host and Kirk Herbstreit, former Ohio State quarterback, serves as Corso's counterpart and foil. Craig James, currently with ESPN on ABC, was on the show in the mid 1990s. Desmond Howard and Rocket Ismail serve as frequent contributors. Steve Cyphers is usually featured as a reporter. Nick Lachey joined the crew as a contributor during the 2005 season. Doug Flutie joined in 2006. Discussions are often held between the GameDay cast and studio analysts, including Lou Holtz and Mark May. It's not uncommon for Auburn alumnus Charles Barkley to appear (via phone or at site) to discuss Tiger football.

GameDay began its twenty-first season on September 1, 2007 in Blacksburg, Virginia.

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November


Photo credit: kansas_city_royalty

Indoor football is a variation of American football with rules modified to make it suitable for play within ice hockey arenas.

The first major indoor football game was the 1932 NFL Playoff Game, which was played indoors in the Chicago Stadium due to a severe blizzard that prevented playing the game outside. A dirt floor was brought in, and to compensate for the 80-yard length of the field, teams were penalized twenty yards upon crossing midfield.

In the 1960s the Boardwalk Bowl, a post-season game involving small college teams, was contested at the Atlantic City Convention Center, probably known better as the home of the Miss America Pageant, in another attempt to make Atlantic City more of a year-round resort in the pre-gambling era as opposed to a single-season one (the Miss America pageant likewise began as an attempt to extend the season beyond Labor Day). The Philadelphia-based Liberty Bowl game, which had been played at Municipal Stadium from 1959-1963, was moved into the Convention Center in 1964 for the contest between Utah and West Virginia. The game drew just over 6,000 fans, though, and the Liberty Bowl moved to Memphis, where it is still held as of 2006.

This, however, was not technically "indoor football" as discussed here, as the size of the playing surface and hence the rules were essentially the same as in the standard outdoor game, with only the necessity of contingencies for what were to happen should, say, a punt strike the ceiling. Some would say that the relative success of this game, which was staged for several years, helped lead to the domed stadium era which began with the opening of the Houston Astrodome in 1965. The Astrodome in turn led to the development of the artificial turf playing surface required to make the indoor game truly practicable. (The Houston Oilers did not move their games inside the Astrodome as soon it was completed; they continued to play outdoors until 1968.) Football played in domed stadiums such as the Astrodome, however, is not truly "indoor football", as the game as played in domed stadiums is essentially identical to that played outdoors.

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December


Photo credit: kansas_city_royalty

Indoor football is a variation of American football with rules modified to make it suitable for play within ice hockey arenas.

The first major indoor football game was the 1932 NFL Playoff Game, which was played indoors in the Chicago Stadium due to a severe blizzard that prevented playing the game outside. A dirt floor was brought in, and to compensate for the 80-yard length of the field, teams were penalized twenty yards upon crossing midfield.

In the 1960s the Boardwalk Bowl, a post-season game involving small college teams, was contested at the Atlantic City Convention Center, probably known better as the home of the Miss America Pageant, in another attempt to make Atlantic City more of a year-round resort in the pre-gambling era as opposed to a single-season one (the Miss America pageant likewise began as an attempt to extend the season beyond Labor Day). The Philadelphia-based Liberty Bowl game, which had been played at Municipal Stadium from 1959-1963, was moved into the Convention Center in 1964 for the contest between Utah and West Virginia. The game drew just over 6,000 fans, though, and the Liberty Bowl moved to Memphis, where it is still held as of 2006.

This, however, was not technically "indoor football" as discussed here, as the size of the playing surface and hence the rules were essentially the same as in the standard outdoor game, with only the necessity of contingencies for what were to happen should, say, a punt strike the ceiling. Some would say that the relative success of this game, which was staged for several years, helped lead to the domed stadium era which began with the opening of the Houston Astrodome in 1965. The Astrodome in turn led to the development of the artificial turf playing surface required to make the indoor game truly practicable. (The Houston Oilers did not move their games inside the Astrodome as soon it was completed; they continued to play outdoors until 1968.) Football played in domed stadiums such as the Astrodome, however, is not truly "indoor football", as the game as played in domed stadiums is essentially identical to that played outdoors.

(more)