Gridiron football
Gridiron football is a term outside the
United States and
Canada that refers to both
American football and
Canadian football. The term came about after it was observed that the field of play in each sport, because of the many lines marking it, resembles a
gridiron. According to certain early rules of American football, some fields were painted with square-like "grids" of demarcation. The ball would be snapped in the "grid" it was downed in on the previous play. This was left in favour of the system of
yard lines and
hash marks used to the present. An example of a field that was painted with such a grid pattern is the old
Archbold Stadium at
Syracuse University, which has since been torn down [
1]. Gridiron is directly descended from
rugby football.
The word "gridiron" alone may refer either to the field or to the sport; however, in
North America it is mostly used in reference to the field, usually in a somewhat
poetic sense. In some other English-speaking countries â€" particularly
Australia and
New Zealand â€" it is the primary term used to refer to the sport, differentiating it from other forms of
football such as
Australian football,
association football,
rugby union or
rugby league.
