What we call "Football" in the USA

As most of you already know, in the United States "fútbol" is called "soccer" and what we call "football" is another sport entirely. Football was invented around 1875 in the state of New Jersey in the Northeast of the United States. By 1912 is had reached its modern form, and the NFL (National Football League) was formed in 1920. Today it is today the most important football league in the world by far. The championship game of the NFL is called the Super Bowl, which is watched by approximately 100 million people each year.

The basic objective of the game is to score points by advancing the football into the opposite team´s endzone. The ball can be advanced by carrying it, throwing it, or by handing it from one teammate to the other. 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.

The game is made up of 4 different parts (4 quarters). Each quarter lasts 15 minutes, so the entire game lasts 60 minutes. In real time, however, a football game usually lasts about 3 hours. Halftime comes after the first 2 quarters, and is the time when the players take a long rest of about 20-30 minutes. Each team is made up of about 50 players, but at any given moment, only 11 players from each team are on the field. The field is 360 feet long (109.7 m) and 160 feet wide (48.8 m).

If a team advances the ball into the opposing team´s endzone, they have scored a "touchdown" which is worth 6 points. After each touchdown, the team that has scored attempts to kick the ball through the goalposts to score an additional point. If the offense is unable to move the ball into the endzone, they may attempt to kick the ball through the goalposts to score 3 points (a field goal), or they may kick the ball away to the other team (a punt).

There are a lot more rules and details that I could try to teach you about, but American football is a very complicated game. I think that is why it has never been popular in Europe. Unlike "fútbol", "football" takes a long time to learn. In addition, it is a very violent sport and it is easy to hurt oneself while playing. Why do you think American football is unpopular here in Europe?