Rec and Sports

The Game Of Football

The most important thing to mention when discussing football trivia is what kind of football you are discussing. Football to most of the world means that game that most people in North America call soccer. However, there are really three games that go by this game. There is soccer, American Football, and Canadian Football. Soccer is a game that is played with a ball on a large pitch, and is played by teams of generally 11 players on a side. The object of the game is to kick the ball into the oppositions net.

A football quiz will show that the American and Canadian games have much in common with each other, although there are some key differences. These are both games which are played with an oblong ball that each team is trying to advance the ball through running or passing to the other teams end zone. Points can also be scored by kicking the ball through the uprights, although there are also some methods of scoring that differ between the two sets of rules.

Football trivia will show that the American football league is known as the NFL (national football league) and the Canadian league as the CFL (Canadian Football League). Despite ostensibly belonging to their respective countries, there has been some crossover between the two games. The CFL expanded to several cities in the US for a period of time in the 1990’s, including Birmingham, Las Vegas, Baltimore, and Memphis. The NFL has also reached into Canada, with the Buffalo Bills agreeing to play five games in Toronto over a series of years.

There are several differences between the American and Canadian versions of football which make for some interesting trivia. The Canadian field is bigger, both in terms of the length and the width. The number of downs (number of times the team has to attempt to move the ball at least 10 yards) is different, with the NFL allowing 4 and the CFL only 3.  The NFL plays their game with 11 players, making for a slightly less crowded field at times, but the added size of the CFL field helps offset the difference.

A football quiz shows us that there is a great deal of movement between the leagues. Many players who do not get drafted by the NFL try to play professionally in the CFL, especially now that NFL Europe and the AFL are defunct. Also, Canadian players who get a chance to hone their skills in the CFL are occasionally also picked up by NFL teams.