Known as the greatest American pasttime, it is an interesting find that America’s sport of football is not at the top of the top ten list of sports around the world.

Football has a special place in the hearts of Americans around the world, so why should others care? Well, they really don’t, placing football ninth on the list.

Football is commonly known as gridion in other countries and is still pretty popular with 390-410 million fans, according to sporteology.com (this is in the US only).

With the Super Bowl fast approaching, fans have pledged their allegiance to either Philadelphia or New England.

Here at Etown you can easily identify who most students will be rooting for. With Pittsburgh out of the picture and with Etown stationed in Pennsylvania, there are a lot of Philly fans.

The National Football League is the biggest corporation, but there are others, like the National Indoor Football League. The Indoor arena is not as popular, but is very similar to the outdoor football we Americans love. The field that is indoors is 50 yards instead of 100, but it is played very similarly.

We also have the youth, high school, and college football teams. On top of that there is also flag football. At Etown we have an intramural flag football that students can partake in. Flag football is also a popular sport in gym class with middle and high school students.

Flag football is a safer option compared to the more competitive play of professional and even high school football.

Professional football is a contact heavy sport leading to many controversies about certain safety protocols, especially regarding concussions and player uniform and equipment.

There has been some speculation of football slowly becoming a dying sport, parents not wanting their children to go into such a rough environment. There is said to be no new wave of players coming through to the professional league.

Numbers would say different with millions of Americans still keeping their eye on the scores of their favorite teams and there are still many eyes that will be tuning into the Super Bowl.