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Professional, college, and other leagues

Football is played at a number of levels in the United States and elsewhere. These include the following:

• National Football League (NFL) - the top-level men's professional league
• College football - played at many U.S. colleges
• NFL Europe - semi-professional league in Europe
• Mexican College Football League or ONEFA - played by many Mexican colleges, with essentially NCAA rules
• British Collegiate American Football League (BCAFL) - Fast-growing college football league in the UK
• British American Football League (BAFL)-Higher League of American Football in the UK
• German Football League
• Gridiron Australia - national body of several state-level leagues
• Okinawan Football League - Various football teams made up of U.S. servicemembers and one from Ryuku University
• North American Football League - Amateur minor league with more than 100 member organizations since 1996.
• Women's American football - since 2000, there has been a surge of women's professional leagues.
• High school football - played at most U.S. High Schools Pop Warner or youth football - involves younger children who are too young to play high school, generally in middle school.
• Sprint football - players must weigh no more than 172 pounds.

Other kinds of football with quite different rules:

• Canadian Football League (CFL) - men's professional league based in Canada, played using different rules known as Canadian football.
• Arena Football League - mid-level men's professional league.
• Played in indoor stadiums, hence the name "arena" football. One of the nation's fastest-growing sports.
• Nine-man football, Eight-man football, and Six-man football - variations of high school football, usually played in sparsely populated areas
• Amateur and youth league football.
• Flag football and Touch football - non-tackle; almost exclusively amateur.

The descriptions in this article are based primarily on the current rules of the National Football League (NFL, 1920-present). Differences with college rules will be noted. Professional, college, high school, and amateur rules are similar.

Professional leagues that no longer exist:

• World Football League (WFL, 1974-75)
• United States Football League (USFL, 1983-1985)
• XFL (XFL, 2001)
• All-America Football Conference (AAFC, 1946-1949) (2 teams are now in the NFL)
• World League of American Football (WLAF, 1991-1993 � now NFL Europe).
• American Football Leagues (AFL), four separate ones: I:1926, II: 1937-38, III: 1940-1941 and IV: 1960-1969). The fourth AFL (1960-1969) merged with the NFL in 1970 and now exists (mostly) as the AFC with several new teams. The old NFL appeared as the NFC.