Football refers to a number of sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer". Unqualified, the word football applies to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears, including association football, as well as American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union and other related games. These variations of football are known as football "codes".

Various forms of "football" can be identified in history, often as popular peasant games. Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The influence and power of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread, including to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire, though by the end of the nineteenth century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic Football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage. In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. In the twentieth century, the various codes of football have become amongst the most popular team sports in the world.

A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football that are played are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, Rugby league, and Rugby union.

It has been estimated that there are 250 million association football players in the world, and many play the other forms of football.

Football players generally begin as amateurs and the best players progress to become professional players. Normally they start at a youth team (any local team) and from there, based on skill and talent, scouts offer contracts. Once signed, they learn to play better football and some advance to the senior or professional teams.

Research shows that association football players that take less than 200ms after the referee blows their whistle for a penalty kick are significantly more likely to miss scoring than those that take over a second.

American football players are prone to head injuries. This may make them prone to Alzheimers.

Chris Fowler (born August 23, 1962) is a sports broadcaster for ESPN known best for his work on College GameDay for college football. Since 1989, Fowler has been the primary studio host for college football. Until 2006, he was also the lead studio host for men's college basketball on ESPN. He started anchoring College GameDay in 1990 and then expanded to ESPN's other Saturday college football segments in 1991. Fowler has also worked with ESPN's Summer X Games from 1995–2000 and the Winter X Games from 1998–2000 as well as horse racing broadcasts, including the Breeders Cup World Thoroughbred Championship on ESPN. In addition, he is the head studio anchor for tennis tournaments broadcast on ESPN, including Wimbledon, Australian Open, French Open and for the US Open being broadcast for the first year in 2009 on ESPN. In 2010, he anchored, along with Mike Tirico, ESPN's and ABC's month-long coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa.

He is also the host of the ESPN Classic show SportsCentury.

Kirk Herbstreit (pronounced /ˈhɜrbstriːt/; born August 19, 1969, Centerville, Ohio) is an Emmy Award-winning analyst for ESPN's College GameDay, a television program covering college football and a provider of color commentary during college football games on ESPN and ABC. He appears annually as a commentator in EA Sports' NCAA Football. He was a quarterback on the Ohio State football team. He saw action in a few games his junior season (including the bowl loss against Syracuse) and was the starting quarterback throughout his senior season.

Herbstreit graduated from Centerville High School in Centerville, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. In his high school quarterbacking days, he was the Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior for Centerville. He also was a standout baseball player.

Herbstreit was the first player to commit to the Ohio State Buckeyes after the hiring of John Cooper as head coach in 1988. Kirk was a four-year letter winner as a quarterback at Ohio State University from 1989 to 1993. After waiting his turn as a Buckeye starter behind Greg Frey and Kent Graham, Herbstreit finally led the team as a senior in 1992. That year he was a co-captain (along with linebacker Steve Tovar) and was voted team MVP. Herbstreit passed for 1,904 yards that season, including four 200+ yard games, before losing to the Georgia Bulldogs in the Florida Citrus Bowl. As a college quarterback, Herbstreit had held the Ohio State record for pass completions in the rivalry game against Michigan. He completed 28 passes for 271 yards in a 13-13 tie against arch-rival University of Michigan in 1992.