The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to gridiron football:
Gridiron football is a type of football including several varieties, played primarily in the United States and Canada. "Gridiron" refers to the field the sport is played upon, marked with a series of parallel lines resembling a gridiron used in cooking. In Anglo-America, the game is known simply as "football", but that's the term used to refer to "soccer" pretty much everywhere else, requiring the addition of "gridiron" to keep the two forms from getting confused.
Gridiron football is distinguished from other football codes by its use of heavy protective equipment, the forward pass, the system of downs, a line of scrimmage, distinct positions and formations, free substitution/platooning (the use of different players for offense and defense) and the ability to score points while not in possession of the ball (by way of the safety). Walter Camp is credited with creating many of the rules that differentiate gridiron football from its older counterparts. The game is a descendant of rugby football, itself an umbrella term for various similar codes.
Gridiron football can be described as all of the following:
William Heffelfinger- First player to play football professionally.
