American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

has become a popular sport in Brazil since

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

made it possible for people to watch

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

games. The main organization for ''American football in Brazil'' is the

American Football Brazilian Confederation The Confederação Brasileira de Futebol Americano (CBFA) (translation: American Football Brazilian Confederation), is the main organization for American football in Brazil. Its goal is to help the growth of American football and its development i ...

Summary

Historically, American football games were played on sand, as to avoid the use of exported equipment from the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and to reduce the impact of the tackles. The 2010s have seen most Brazilian states develop American football teams of various types; including

flag football Flag football is a variant of American football where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier ("deflagging") to end a down. The sport has a strong amateur following ...

, tackle American football and women's football. A Brazilian Portuguese forum regarding American football was founded in 1998 in order to get more people watching the games on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The co ...

. As of 2013, there are 2500 Brazilian people who play American football. The first organized American football game between two Brazilian teams took place in 2008 when the Curitiba Brown Spiders took on the Barigui Crocodiles. 100 coaches from American high school and adult amateur teams have been sent to Brazil to teach aspiring coaches about the basics of American football. Media attention traditionally given to Brazil on association football have been increased towards American football. Very little sponsorship money is given; as most money is tied into association football. Victor Menossi Rodrigues is one of the founders of the Brazilian "form" of American football after experimenting with boxing and

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

. A significant number of female spectators are attracted to American football in Brazil; even to the point where they go to parties where the American football players pretend to speak

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. Children between the ages of 8 to 13 are being encouraged by educational organizations to start participating in American football. Other traditional fixtures in the Brazilian sports lifestyle like

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summe ...

and

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

are slowly losing their fanbase to American football. Once the game transitioned from sand to grass, the popularity of American football jumped. Players are only asked to practice occasionally and women have been embraced into even the "full contact" leagues.

Copacabana Beach Copacabana () is a ''bairro'' (neighbourhood) located in the South Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is most prominently known for its 4 km (2.5 miles) balneario beach, which is one of the most famous in the wo ...

is considered to be the birthplace of American football in Brazil; where 20 men played the first game of American football in Brazilian history.''Football in Brazil. Wait, Don't You Mean Soccer?!''
at Bleacher Report All American football games not done on the beach are played out in public parks and teams must pay up to $300 to the municipality as rent.
at The State (South Carolina) All Brazil had for equipment in 1989 was mouthguards from boxing rings and imported American footballs.

References

{{Sports in Brazil