National Football League in the context of "Shea Stadium"

The Near South Side is a community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, just south of the downtown central business district, the Loop. The Near South Side's boundaries are as follows: North—Roosevelt Road (1200 S); South—26th Street; West—Chicago River between Roosevelt and 18th Street, Clark Street between 18th Street and Cermak Road, Federal between Cermak Road and the Stevenson Expressway just south of 25th Street, and Clark Street again between the Stevenson and 26th Street; and East—Lake Michigan.

Along Lake Shore Drive, the Near South Side includes some of Chicago's best-known structures: Soldier Field, home of the NFL's Chicago Bears; McCormick Place, Chicago's primary convention center; the Museum Campus, which contains the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Adler Planetarium; and Northerly Island. The area is currently undergoing a major residential and mixed-use redevelopment.

The term "behind closed doors" is used in several sports to describe matches played where spectators are not allowed in the stadium or venue to watch. A match played in this manner is also referred to as a crowdless game. Because ticket sales generally constitute a substantial proportion of total revenues in most professional sports as well as in certain elite competitions of many amateur sports, it is rare for such games to be off limits to paying members of the general public. When such instances do occur, it is usually for reasons outside the participating teams' control. These may include as a punishment or remedy for a participating team, stadium safety problems, preventing potentially dangerous clashes between rival supporters, wider safety concerns like a riot or other civil disturbances, or public health concerns like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The New York metropolitan area is one of only two in the United States with more than one team in each of the "Big Four" major professional sports leagues, along with two in Major League Soccer. New York metropolitan area sports teams have been crowned champions of their respective leagues on 69 occasions. American football, baseball and basketball are the city's most-followed sports.

New York City is the headquarters of Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the National Women's Soccer League, and the Women's National Basketball Association.It hosts the US Open, one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the New York City Marathon, the world's largest. The Millrose Games is an annual track and field meet whose featured event is the Wanamaker Mile. Boxing is also prominent, with events like the Amateur Boxing Golden Gloves being held at Madison Square Garden each year.

The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team is headquartered in Frisco, Texas, and has played its home games at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, since its opening in 2009. The stadium took its current name prior to the 2013 season, following the team's decision to sell the stadium's naming rights to telecommunications company AT&T.

The Cowboys joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1960. The team's national following might best be represented by its NFL record of consecutive sell-outs. The Cowboys' streak of 190 consecutive sold-out regular and post-season games (home and away) began in 2002. The franchise has made it to the Super Bowl eight times, tying it with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Denver Broncos, and San Francisco 49ers for second-most Super Bowl appearances in history behind the New England Patriots' record 11 appearances. Their eight NFC championships are tied for most in the conference's history. The Cowboys are the only NFL team to record 20 straight winning seasons (from 1966 to 1985) during which they missed the playoffs only twice (1974 and 1984).

AT&T Stadium is a retractable roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL), and was completed on May 27, 2009. It is also the home of the Cotton Bowl Classic, the Big 12 Championship Game, and the Southwest Classic. The stadium is one of 11 US venues set to host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The facility, owned by the City of Arlington, has also been used for a variety of other activities, such as concerts, basketball games, soccer, college and high-school football contests, rodeos, motocross, Spartan Races and professional wrestling. It replaced the partially covered Texas Stadium, which served as the Cowboys' home from 1971 through the 2008 season.

The stadium is widely referred to as Jerry World after Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who originally envisioned it as a large entertainment venue. The stadium seats 80,000 people, but can be reconfigured to hold over 100,000 people by the use of standing room, making it the largest stadium in the NFL by seating capacity. Additional attendance is made possible by the Party Pass (open areas) sections behind the seats in each end zone that are positioned on a series of six elevated platforms connected by stairways. The record attendance for an NFL regular season game was set in 2009 with a crowd of 105,121. It also has twin video boards that are among the largest high-definition video screens in the world.

Sports in the United States are a significant aspect of the nation's culture. Historically, the most popular sport has been baseball. However since the mid 20th century American football has slowly become the most popular spectator sport. Additionally, Basketball and Ice Hockey saw a significant growth during this period due to the advent of television. As such, the sanctioning bodies of these sports (MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL) comprise what broadcasters refer to as the "Big Four" of the sport industry. These sports, with the addition of soccer, are the most popular sports played at the youth level.

In the first half of the 20th century boxing, collegiate rowing, and collegiate football were among the most popular sports after baseball. Soccer(football) has emerged as the fourth most popular sport in the 21st century, surpassing ice hockey. Roughly 27% of United States-based sports fans show an interest in soccer, compared to a global average of 40%. By contrast, American football is the most popular sport in the United States with 52%. Basketball with 43% and baseball with 37% are further behind. Approximately 17% of the people in the United States follow ice hockey.

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, commonly known as RFK Stadium and originally known as District of Columbia Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D.C.. It was located along the Anacostia River on East Capitol Street in the city's Hill East neighborhood. The stadium was in operation from 1961 to 2019, with deconstruction commencing in 2025 ahead of a $3.7 billion stadium to replace it at the site. RFK Stadium was one of the first large stadiums designed to host both baseball and football, and was among the first to use what became known as the cookie-cutter design.

RFK Stadium was home to a National Football League (NFL) team, two Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, five professional soccer teams, two college football teams, and a USFL team. It hosted college football, college soccer, baseball exhibitions, boxing matches, a cycling race, an American Le Mans Series auto race, marathons, and dozens of concerts. Significant events hosted include five NFC Championship Games, two MLB All-Star Games, several FIFA World Cup matches, nine 1996 Olympic soccer matches, three MLS Cups, and two MLS All-Star Games.

New Commanders Stadium, also called New RFK Stadium, is the project name for an indoor multi-purpose stadium planned for construction in Washington, D.C., United States. The stadium will serve as the home venue of the National Football League (NFL) team Washington Commanders and host other sports and public events. It will directly replace the former Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium—home of the team from 1961 to 1996—located along the Anacostia River in the city's Hill East neighborhood.

Commanders Stadium will have a seating capacity of 65,000 and a translucent roof allowing for climate control and sunlight. It will be among the most expensive stadiums ever built at a projected cost of US$3.7 billion. It will be designed by the architectural firm HKS, owned by the District of Columbia, and operated by the Commanders, with future residential, retail, and hospitality development planned around it. The stadium is expected to open in 2030, with construction scheduled to begin in 2026.

Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, and features between six and eight players for each team playing at any given time depending on the league, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game that can be played on the floors of indoor arenas. The sport was invented in 1981, and patented in 1987, by Jim Foster, a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. The name is trademarked by Gridiron Enterprises and had a proprietary format until its patent expired in 2007.

Three leagues have played under official arena football rules: the Arena Football League, which played 32 seasons in two separate runs from 1987 to 2008 and 2010 to 2019; arenafootball2, the AFL's erstwhile developmental league, which played 10 seasons from 2000 through 2009; and the China Arena Football League, which played two abbreviated seasons in 2016 and 2019 but was not directly affiliated with the now-defunct AFL. A 2024 reboot of the Arena Football League used the original league's rulebook with minor variations.

In the United States and Canada, the term professional football (French: football professionnel) includes the professional forms of American and Canadian gridiron football. In common usage, it refers to former and existing major football leagues in either country. Currently, there are multiple professional football leagues in North America: the two longest-running leagues are the National Football League (NFL) in the United States, and the Canadian Football League (CFL) in Canada. American football leagues have existed in Europe since the late 1970s, with competitive leagues all over Europe hiring American imports to strengthen rosters. The Austrian Football League and German Football League top division are known as the best leagues in Europe. The Japanese X-League is also a strong league that has a long history since 1971. The NFL has existed continuously since being so named in 1922.

The best American football players are among the highest paid athletes in the world, with the highest salaries reaching tens of millions of dollars per year.