Gridiron football
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Gridiron football is a term outside the United States and Canada that refers to both American football and Canadian football. The term came about after it was observed that the field of play in each sport, because of the many lines marking it, resembles a gridiron. According to certain early rules of American football, some fields were painted with square-like "grids" of demarcation. The ball would be snapped in the "grid" it was downed in on the previous play. This was left in favour of the system of yard lines and hash marks used to the present. An example of a field that was painted with such a grid pattern is the old Archbold Stadium at Syracuse University, which has since been torn down [link]. Gridiron directly descended from rugby football.
The word "gridiron" alone may refer either to the field or to the sport; however, in North America it is mostly used in reference to the field, usually in a somewhat poetic sense. In some other English-speaking countries — particularly Australia and New Zealand — it is the primary term used to refer to the sport, differentiating it from other forms of football such as Australian football, association football, or rugby football (often referred to as just "rugby").
In recent years the term has come to be used much more liberally in American football. John Madden, for example, uses it to refer to the game itself. "Let's get back to the gridiron" is a type of phrase he and other announcers use when play resumes after a timeout or commercial break.
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