Portal:American football/Selected article
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This is an archive of selected articles that have appeared or will appear on the front page of Portal:American football. To nominate an article, please see Portal:American football/Selected content nominations.
Photo credit: John Silks
The Oklahoma Sooners football program is an elite college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma (OU). The team is currently a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The program began in 1895 and is the most successful program of the modern era (post World War II) with 524 wins and a winning percentage of .761 since 1945. The program has seven national championships, 40 conference championships, 142 All-Americans, and four Heisman Trophy winners. In addition, the school has had five coaches and 17 players inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and holds the record for the longest winning streak in Division I-A history with 47 straight victories. The team is currently coached by Bob Stoops and home games are played at the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma.
Super Bowl XL was an American football game played on February 5, 2006 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion following the 2005 regular season.
The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers (15-5) defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks (15-4), 21–10. Although the Seahawks won the turnover battle 2-1, Pittsburgh won on the strength of three big plays converted into touchdowns. Seattle, on the other hand, was plagued by penalties, missed scoring opportunites, and dropped balls. The Pittsburgh Steelers became the fourth wild card team, and third in nine years, to win the Super Bowl and also became the first #6 seed in the National Football League (NFL) playoffs to win the Super Bowl (after becoming the first #6 seed to win a conference title as well as a divisional playoff game) and joined the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers as the only franchises to win five Super Bowls.
Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward, who had five receptions for 123 yards and one touchdown and rushed for 18 yards, was named the Super Bowl's Most Valuable Player. Running back Jerome Bettis, nicknamed "The Bus" and playing in his hometown of Detroit, announced his retirement after the game, saying "I think the Bus' last stop is here in Detroit." The Steelers finished the season on an eight game winning streak counting down each game to the championship for Bettis.
The event drew a 41.6 rating with a 62 share in the audience. According to Nielsen Media Research, it was the highest-rated Super Bowl since Super Bowl XXX, the last time the Steelers appeared in the Super Bowl prior to Super Bowl XL.
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The East Carolina Pirates football seasons began with the team's creation in 1932 under Coach Kenneth Beatty. Since that first season, the Pirates have played over 700 regular-season games and 14 bowl games.
Historically, East Carolina has seen moderate success. While East Carolina's first ten years of football included only three winning seasons, the team has recorded one undefeated season and several one-loss seasons since their early struggles. Football was called off for the 1942–1943, 1943–1944, and 1944–1945 seasons due to World War II. After the three-season hiatus, the Pirates joined the North State Conference. East Carolina won its first championship—the North State Conference championship—in 1953. In its 15 years as a member of the North State Conference, the Pirates won two championships and went to two bowl games. In 1962, the team left the conference and returned to its previous status as a football independent. During two of those years, the Pirates went 9–1.
In 1965, the school joined the Southern Conference. The team won the Southern Conference championship under coach Clarence Stasavich in the following year, but did not win another conference championship until 1972. The 1972 team was coached by Sonny Randle, who won the Southern Conference championship in his second year as head coach. In 1973, he again coached a conference-championship team—the only time in school history the team won two conference championships in a row. Randle left to take a position as head football coach of Virginia in 1974 and was replaced by Pat Dye. Dye, in his third year, won the Pirates' fourth Southern Conference championship. In 1977, ECU left the Southern Conference and had three more winning seasons as a football independent. In 1980, under new head coach Ed Emory, the Pirates had their first losing season since 1971. The team struggled over the next two years. In 1983, Emory's Pirates ended the season ranked as one of the top 25 teams in the country by the Associated Press.
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The 2005 Texas Longhorn football team represented The University of Texas at Austin during the college football season of 2005–2006, winning the Big 12 Conference Championship and the national championship. The team was coached by Mack Brown, led on offense by quarterback Vince Young, and played its home games at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
The team's penultimate victory of the season, the Big 12 Championship Game, featured the biggest margin of victory in the history of that contest. They finished the season by winning the 2006 Rose Bowl against the University of Southern California Trojans for the national championship. Numerous publications have cited this victory and this team's season as standing among the greatest performances in college football history, and ESPN awarded the 2006 ESPY Award for the "Best Game" in any sport to the Longhorns and the Trojans. The Longhorns finished as the only unbeaten team in NCAA Division I-A football that year, with thirteen wins and zero losses.
Texas earned their second Big 12 Conference football championship to make 27 conference championships total, including 25 in the Southwest Conference. It was their fourth national championship in football and the ninth perfect season in the history of Longhorn football.
The team set numerous school and NCAA records, including their 652 points which set an NCAA record for points scored in a season. After the season ended, six Longhorns from this championship team joined professional football teams through the 2006 NFL Draft. Seven more Longhorns followed suit in the 2007 NFL Draft and they were joined by two free agents to make a total of fifteen players who entered into the National Football League (NFL).
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The list of Virginia Tech bowl games played since the creation of the Virginia Tech Hokies football team in 1892 consists of 21 post-season bowl games. Included in those 21 games are three Bowl Championship Series game appearances and one appearance in the national championship game. The Hokies have been invited to a bowl game every year since 1993, a 15-year streak that is surpassed only by Michigan (33 games), Florida State (26 games), and Florida (17 games) for active teams. Including historical streaks, Virginia Tech is tied for eighth with Mississippi and Ohio State, who had bowl game streaks during the periods 1957-1971 and 1972-1986, respectively.
Dozens of National Football League draft picks have played for Virginia Tech in bowl games, including two first-overall selections: Bruce Smith and Michael Vick. Smith participated in the 1984 Independence Bowl, while Vick quarterbacked the Hokies to their first national championship appearance during the 2000 Sugar Bowl, and followed that performance by leading the Hokies to the 2001 Gator Bowl, his final collegiate game. Following the game, Vick entered the 2001 NFL Draft and was selected by the Atlanta Falcons.
Since 1987, the Virginia Tech football team has been led by head coach Frank Beamer. Since 1993, Beamer has led the Hokies to 15 consecutive bowl games, going 6–9 during that period. Beamer has earned national coach of the year honors several times from various organizations, and has the third-most wins of any active Division I college football coach.
Virginia Tech's first post-season bowl game was in 1947, when the Hokies participated in the 1947 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas on New Year's Day against the Cincinnati Bearcats. The latest Virginia Tech bowl game occurred on January 3, 2008, as the Hokies played the Kansas Jayhawks in the 2008 Orange Bowl, a Bowl Championship Series game. A loss in that game brought Virginia Tech to an overall bowl record of seven wins and 14 losses, putting the Hokies in 55th place in all-time bowl-game winning percentage. The Hokies' 21 bowl appearances are the 37th-highest total in NCAA history.
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The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team based in the Washington, D.C. area. The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, which is in Prince George's County, Maryland. The team's headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn, Virginia, a community in Loudoun County, Virginia near Dulles International Airport. They are members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL).
According to Forbes Magazine, the Redskins are the second most valuable franchise in the NFL, valued at approximately $1.467 billion, having this year been surpassed by their rivals the Dallas Cowboys. In 2007, they generated over $300 million in revenue and netted over $60 million. They have also broken the NFL's mark for single-season attendance six years in a row.
Overall, the Redskins have played for eleven NFL Championships and have won five, including three of the five Super Bowls in which they have played. Four of the five Super Bowl appearances were under the leadership of Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs.
The Redskins are one of only two teams in the NFL with an official marching band. The other is the Baltimore Ravens. The Redskins were also one of the first teams to have a fight song, "Hail to the Redskins."
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Super Bowl XXXIV featured the National Football Conference (NFC) champion St. Louis Rams and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Tennessee Titans in an American football game to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1999 regular season. The Rams (16-3) defeated the Titans (16-4), 23–16, to capture their first Super Bowl win and their first NFL championship since 1951. The game, played on January 30, 2000 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, was the fourth Super Bowl to be held a week after the conference championship games (the previous time this happened was Super Bowl XXVIII, and like this game was also played on January 30 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta).
The Rams entered their second Super Bowl in team history after posting an NFC-best 13-3 regular season record, and making their first playoff appearance in 10 years. The Titans also finished the regular season with a 13-3 record, but advanced to their first Super Bowl in team history after entering the playoffs as a wild-card team because they finished in second place in the AFC Central Division.
The first two quarters of Super Bowl XXXIV were largely a defensive battle. Despite outgaining the Titans in total offensive yards in the first half, 294–89, the Rams only held a 9–0 halftime lead off of three field goals. St. Louis later scored their first touchdown midway through the third quarter to go up 16–0. Tennessee then responded by scoring 16 unanswered points to tie the game with 2:12 left in the game, the largest deficit to be erased in a Super Bowl and the first greater than 10 points. However on their ensuing drive, Rams quarterback Kurt Warner completed a 73-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Isaac Bruce to take the lead again. The Titans then drove to the St. Louis 10-yard line with six seconds remaining, but on the final play of the game, Rams linebacker Mike Jones tackled Tennessee wide receiver Kevin Dyson one-yard short of the goal line to prevent a game-tying touchdown. This play later became known as simply "The Tackle."
Warner, who completed 24 out of 45 passes for 414 yards and 2 touchdowns, was named the Most Valuable Player. His 414 passing yards and 45 pass attempts without an interception were both Super Bowl records. Warner became the sixth player to win both the NFL Most Valuable Player Award and the Super Bowl MVP award during the same season. He follows Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Emmitt Smith and Steve Young.
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