67-756: The Empire Football League (EFL) is a semi-professional American football league with franchises based primarily in New York State . The league was established in 1969. Many franchises have come and gone including in locations such as Pennsylvania , Vermont , and Connecticut as well as Quebec , Montreal , and Ontario in Canada . In 2018 the league included six teams: the Glens Falls Greenjackets, Hudson Valley Mountaineers, Plattsburgh North Stars, Seaway Valley Venom, Tri City Spartans, and Utica Yard Dogs. Ray Seals transitioned from
134-492: A wage or salary ). Amateur participation in sport at lower levels is often called "grassroots sport". The popularity of spectator sport as a recreation for non-participants has led to sport becoming a major business in its own right, and this has incentivised a high paying professional sport culture, where high performing participants are rewarded with pay far in excess of average wages, which can run into millions of dollars. Some sports, or individual competitions within
201-547: A "tie" or "draw", in which there is no single winner; others provide tie-breaking methods to ensure one winner. A number of contests may be arranged in a tournament format, producing a champion . Many sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular sports season , followed in some cases by playoffs . Sport is generally recognised as system of activities based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity , with major competitions admitting only sports meeting this definition. Some organisations, such as
268-717: A ball has crossed the goal line or not. The technology is not compulsory, but was used in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada, as well as in the Premier League from 2013–14 , and the Bundesliga from 2015–16 . In the NFL , a referee can ask for a review from the replay booth, or a head coach can issue a challenge to review the play using replays. The final decision rests with
335-471: A disability have no equivalent in able-bodied sports. Masters sport , senior sport , or veteran sport is an age category of sport, that usually contains age groups of those 35 and older. It may concern unaltered or adapted sport activities, with and without competitions. Competitions The competition element of sport, along with the aesthetic appeal of some sports, result in the popularity of people attending to watch sport being played. This has led to
402-414: A full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a considerably lower rate than a full-time professional athlete . As a result, semi-professional players frequently have (or seek) full-time employment elsewhere. A semi-pro player or team could also be one that represents a place of employment that only
469-681: A linebacker he blocked the pass from Brett Favre that Favre caught for his very first completion in the NFL. Due to complications stemming from the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative , all Canadian teams were removed from the league beginning in the 2010 season (at the time, the Quebec Titans and the Ottawa Deacon Demons (Joliet Chargers) were in the league). The Watertown Red and Black left
536-769: A small number of mind sports, it is not open to admitting any further mind sports. There has been an increase in the application of the term "sport" to a wider set of non-physical challenges such as video games , also called esports (from "electronic sports"), especially due to the large scale of participation and organised competition, but these are not widely recognised by mainstream sports organisations. According to Council of Europe , European Sports Charter, article 2.i, " 'Sport' means all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels." There are opposing views on
603-468: A sport from other leisure activities varies between sources. The closest to an international agreement on a definition is provided by the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), which is the association for all the largest international sports federations (including association football , athletics , cycling , tennis , equestrian sports , and more), and is therefore
670-471: A sport, retain a policy of allowing only amateur sport . The Olympic Games started with a principle of amateur competition with those who practised a sport professionally considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practised it merely as a hobby. From 1971, Olympic athletes were allowed to receive compensation and sponsorship, and from 1986, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes eligible for
737-555: Is running , while association football is the most popular spectator sport. The word "sport" comes from the Old French desport meaning " leisure ", with the oldest definition in English from around 1300 being "anything humans find amusing or entertaining". Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise. Roget's defines
SECTION 10
#1732783039229804-453: Is a form of physical activity or game . Often competitive and organized , sports use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills . They also provide enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Many sports exist, with different participant numbers, some are done by a single person with others being done by hundreds. Most sports take place either in teams or competing as individuals. Some sports allow
871-437: Is a problem at some national and international sporting contests. Female participation in sports continues to rise alongside the opportunity for involvement and the value of sports for child development and physical fitness . Despite increases in female participation during the last three decades, a gap persists in the enrollment figures between male and female players in sports-related teams. Female players account for 39% of
938-431: Is also a major source of entertainment for non-participants, with spectator sport drawing large crowds to sport venues , and reaching wider audiences through broadcasting . Sport betting is in some cases severely regulated, and in others integral to the sport. According to A.T. Kearney , a consultancy, the global sporting industry is worth up to $ 620 billion as of 2013. The world's most accessible and practised sport
1005-516: Is common for popular sports to attract large broadcast audiences, leading to rival broadcasters bidding large amounts of money for the rights to show certain events. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million and the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final attracted an estimated audience of 135 million in India alone. In
1072-447: Is prohibitive, semi-pro football is common at the adult levels, in the outdoor or indoor variety , providing an outlet for players who have used up their NCAA eligibility and have no further use for maintaining amateur status. As a sport that normally plays only one game per week, American football is especially suited for semi-pro play and commonly known as "working man's" football; meaning the players have regular jobs and play football on
1139-842: The 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin , and the 1936 Winter Olympics held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , to promote the Nazi ideology of the superiority of the Aryan race , and inferiority of the Jews and other " undesirables ". Germany used the Olympics to give off a peaceful image while secretly preparing for war. When apartheid was the official policy in South Africa, many sports people, particularly in rugby union , adopted
1206-599: The COVID-19 pandemic . For the 2021 season Utica, Hudson Valley and Sussex decided to join other leagues, so the league decided to split into 2 divisions to cut down on travel costs. Eastern Division included Glens Falls Greenjackets , Plattsburgh North Stars and Tri City Spartans , while the West Division consisted Syracuse Smash , Watertown Red & Black and Northern New York Grizzlies . West division champs Watertown beat East division champs Glens Falls 37–8 in
1273-608: The Council of Europe , preclude activities without any physical element from classification as sports. However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports . The International Olympic Committee who oversee the Olympic Games recognises both chess and bridge as sports. SportAccord , the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports: chess, bridge, draughts , Go and xiangqi . However, they limit
1340-646: The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) if she/he played or supported Association football , or other games seen to be of British origin. Until recently the GAA continued to ban the playing of football and rugby union at Gaelic venues. This ban, also known as Rule 42, is still enforced, but was modified to allow football and rugby to be played in Croke Park while Lansdowne Road was redeveloped into Aviva Stadium . Until recently, under Rule 21,
1407-547: The Scottish Premiership , with most teams below the second-level Scottish Championship being semi-professional. Historically, English rugby league and rugby union have had one full-time professional division, with semi-professional divisions at the next level down. The second tier of union, the RFU Championship , became fully professional beginning with the 2009–10 season. Sport Sport
SECTION 20
#17327830392291474-675: The de facto representative of international sport. GAISF uses the following criteria, determining that a sport should: They also recognise that sport can be primarily physical (such as rugby or athletics ), primarily mind (such as chess or Go ), predominantly motorised (such as Formula 1 or powerboating ), primarily co-ordination (such as snooker and other cue sports ), or primarily animal-supported (such as equestrian sport ). The inclusion of mind sports within sport definitions has not been universally accepted, leading to legal challenges from governing bodies in regards to being denied funding available to sports. Whilst GAISF recognises
1541-489: The war on drugs encourage youth sport as a means to increase educational participation and to fight the illegal drug trade . According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital , the biggest risk for youth sport is death or serious injury including concussion . These risks come from running, basketball, association football, volleyball, gridiron, gymnastics, and ice hockey. Youth sport in
1608-703: The 2023 season after Smash players entered a fan melee that erupted at one of their home games and escalated into a gunfight in the parking lot) joining the East Coast Football League and playing a spring schedule, and the Broome County Stallions rejoining the Northeastern Football Alliance , forcing the league to a year off in 2023. Source Semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on
1675-909: The EFL to the National Football League (NFL) in 1989. Several members of the Syracuse 8 that challenged disparities for African Americans at Syracuse University 's football program played for the Tri City Jets of Binghamton , New York. The team was a farm team for the New York Jets at the time and some of them went for a tryout with the Jets, but according to one of them they understood they had no chance when Jets coach Weeb Ewbank identified them as "those boys from Syracuse" during roll call. The league's most dominant team has been
1742-657: The GAA also banned members of the British security forces and members of the RUC from playing Gaelic games, but the advent of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 led to the eventual removal of the ban. Nationalism is often evident in the pursuit of sport, or in its reporting: people compete in national teams, or commentators and audiences can adopt a partisan view. On occasion, such tensions can lead to violent confrontation among players or spectators within and beyond
1809-523: The IOC or SportAccord are required to implement a testing programme, looking for a list of banned drugs, with suspensions or bans being placed on participants who test positive for banned substances. Violence in sports involves crossing the line between fair competition and intentional aggressive violence. Athletes, coaches, fans, and parents sometimes unleash violent behaviour on people or property, in misguided shows of loyalty, dominance, anger, or celebration. Rioting or hooliganism by fans in particular
1876-671: The Olympic Club was accused by a rival club of enticing athletes to jump to its ranks with offers of jobs. An investigation by the Amateur Athletic Union ruled that the Olympics' practice was not actually professionalism but only a "semi" form of it, inventing the term "semi-pro". Although the Amateur Athletic Union did not like the idea very much, it decided that clubs could indeed offer employment without losing their amateur status or compromising
1943-413: The Olympics, with the exceptions of boxing , and wrestling. Technology plays an important part in modern sport. It is a necessary part of some sports (such as motorsport), and it is used in others to improve performance. Some sports also use it to allow off-field decision making. Sports science is a widespread academic discipline, and can be applied to areas including athlete performance, such as
2010-557: The Scranton Eagles who have won a record 11 championships , 10 of those coming between the years 1982 and 1994. The league was organized during the winter of 1968 and started in 1969. The Hudson Falls Greenjackets were the first champions, after finishing with a 7–1 record. In 1989 Ray Seals transitioned from the EFL's Syracuse Express to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the National Football League (NFL). As
2077-518: The US is a $ 15 billion industry including equipment up to private coaching. Disabled or adaptive sports are played by people with a disability , including physical and intellectual disabilities . As many of these are based on existing sports modified to meet the needs of people with a disability, they are sometimes referred to as adapted sports . However, not all disabled sports are adapted; several sports that have been specifically created for people with
Empire Football League - Misplaced Pages Continue
2144-687: The United States, the championship game of the NFL , the Super Bowl , has become one of the most watched television broadcasts of the year. Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto national holiday in America; the viewership being so great that in 2015, advertising space was reported as being sold at $ 4.5m for a 30-second slot. Sport can be undertaken on an amateur, professional or semi-professional basis, depending on whether participants are incentivised for participation (usually through payment of
2211-401: The United States, where college ice hockey dominates at that age group; the junior leagues in the United States generally operate as fully amateur teams to maintain the players' eligibility to play in college. Lower-end minor leagues and more obscure sports often operate at a semi-professional level due to cost concerns. Because the cost of running a fully professional American football team
2278-790: The activity will be enjoyed for its own sake. The well-known sentiment by sports journalist Grantland Rice , that it is "not that you won or lost but how you played the game", and the modern Olympic creed expressed by its founder Pierre de Coubertin : "The most important thing... is not winning but taking part" are typical expressions of this sentiment. Key principles of sport include that the result should not be predetermined, and that both sides should have equal opportunity to win. Rules are in place to ensure fair play, but participants can break these rules in order to gain advantage. Participants may cheat in order to unfairly increase their chance of winning, or in order to achieve other advantages such as financial gains. The widespread existence of gambling on
2345-415: The ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialisation has brought motorised transportation and increased leisure time , letting people attend and follow spectator sports and participate in athletic activities. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. Professionalism became prevalent, further adding to the increase in sport's popularity, as sports fans followed
2412-404: The athlete. In North America, semi-professional athletes and teams were far more common in the early and mid-20th century than they are today. Large blue-collar employers such as factories and shipyards often fielded baseball and basketball teams, with players receiving full-time salaries comparable to other employees. In theory, such players split their work week between athletic training and
2479-603: The attendant scholarships , in maintaining amateur status (unlike the Amateur Athletic Union, the NCAA forbade any sort of compensation outside of scholarships, including job offers tied to their playing, until 2020). Eligibility for participation in the Olympics in some sports is still dependent upon maintaining a purely amateur status (although far less so than was previously the case), and such athletes may be supported by government money, business sponsorships, and other systems. At
2546-471: The community in sports such as mass media campaigns, educational sessions, and policy changes. There is also no high-quality studies that investigate the effect of such interventions in promoting healthy behaviour change in the community. sports is one of the important part of life Benito Mussolini used the 1934 FIFA World Cup , which was held in Italy, to showcase Fascist Italy . Adolf Hitler also used
2613-483: The conscientious approach that they should not appear in competitive sports there. Some feel this was an effective contribution to the eventual demolition of the policy of apartheid, others feel that it may have prolonged and reinforced its worst effects. In the history of Ireland, Gaelic sports were connected with cultural nationalism . Until the mid-20th century a person could have been banned from playing Gaelic football , hurling , or other sports administered by
2680-435: The employees are allowed to play on. In this case, it is considered semi-pro because their employer pays them, but for their regular job, not for playing on the company's team. The semi-professional status is not universal throughout the world and depends on each country's labour code and each sports organization's specific regulations. The San Francisco Olympic Club fielded an American football team in 1890. That year,
2747-561: The end of the match time. Artifacts and structures suggest sport in China as early as 2000 BC. Gymnastics appears to have been popular in China's ancient past. Monuments to the Pharaohs indicate that a number of sports, including swimming and fishing, were well-developed and regulated several thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt . Other Egyptian sports included javelin throwing, high jump, and wrestling. Ancient Persian sports such as
Empire Football League - Misplaced Pages Continue
2814-585: The exploits of professional athletes – all while enjoying the exercise and competition associated with amateur participation in sports. Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been increasing debate about whether transgender sports people should be able to participate in sport events that conform with their post-transition gender identity . Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat. Sportsmanship expresses an aspiration or ethos that
2881-798: The final. In 2022 Morgan Smith became the first female player in the Empire Football League, which she did as a placekicker for the Greenjackets. In 2023 the league announced the Watertown Red & Black would be leaving the EFL and joining the GDFL; three of the other five teams followed suit, with the Greenjackets going to the New England Football League , the Smash (whom the league had suspended during
2948-414: The host broadcaster, a number of different technologies are used during an umpire or player review, including instant replays, Hawk-Eye , Hot Spot and Real Time Snickometer . Hawk-Eye is also used in tennis to challenge umpiring decisions. Research suggests that sports have the capacity to connect youth to positive adult role models and provide positive development opportunities, as well as promote
3015-427: The impact of losing on less able participants, there has been an introduction of non-competitive physical activity to traditionally competitive events such as school sports days , although moves like this are often controversial. In competitive events, participants are graded or classified based on their "result" and often divided into groups of comparable performance, (e.g. gender, weight and age). The measurement of
3082-509: The impact of technical advantage between participants. For example, in 2010, full-body, non-textile swimsuits were banned by FINA , as they were enhancing swimmers' performances. The increase in technology has also allowed many decisions in sports matches to be taken, or reviewed, off-field, with another official using instant replays to make decisions. In some sports, players can now challenge decisions made by officials. In Association football , goal-line technology makes decisions on whether
3149-662: The league in 2017 when the EFL was down to two teams. The league held an emergency meeting when it was left with just the Seaway Valley Venom and the Glens Falls Greenjackets. The Hudson Valley Mountaineers joined the league in 2018. In 2018 Kevin Siska of the Glens Falls Greenjackets was inducted into the American Football Association Minor League Football Hall of Fame. The team canceled its 2020 season amid
3216-431: The learning and application of life skills . In recent years the use of sport to reduce crime , as well as to prevent violent extremism and radicalization , has become more widespread, especially as a tool to improve self-esteem , enhance social bonds and provide participants with a feeling of purpose. There is no high-quality evidence that shows the effectiveness of interventions to increase sports participation of
3283-599: The necessity of competition as a defining element of a sport, with almost all professional sports involving competition, and governing bodies requiring competition as a prerequisite of recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) or GAISF. Other bodies advocate widening the definition of sport to include all physical activity. For instance, the Council of Europe include all forms of physical exercise, including those competed just for fun. In order to widen participation, and reduce
3350-590: The normal duties of the company's employees, though highly competitive teams often evolved into "sponsored" squads which trained for sports full-time and only nominally worked in the factory. The National Industrial Basketball League evolved out of these company-branded basketball teams. By the 1940s, baseball split off into separate truly amateur softball teams, sometimes sponsored by employers, and an expanded system of fully professionalized minor leagues whose lower ranks included many former industrial players. There are many benefits, such as collegiate eligibility and
3417-525: The noun sport as an "activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement" with synonyms including diversion and recreation. The singular term "sport" is used in most English dialects to describe the overall concept (e.g. "children taking part in sport"), with "sports" used to describe multiple activities (e.g. "football and rugby are the most popular sports in England"). American English uses "sports" for both terms. The precise definition of what differentiates
SECTION 50
#17327830392293484-581: The number of mind games which can be admitted as sports. Sport is usually governed by a set of rules or customs , which serve to ensure fair competition. Winning can be determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first. It can also be determined by judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression. Records of performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this information may be widely announced or reported in sport news . Sport
3551-572: The referee. A video referee (commonly known as a Television Match Official or TMO) can also use replays to help decision-making in rugby (both league and union ). In international cricket, an umpire can ask the Third umpire for a decision, and the third umpire makes the final decision. Since 2008, a decision review system for players to review decisions has been introduced and used in ICC -run tournaments, and optionally in other matches. Depending on
3618-412: The result may be objective or subjective, and corrected with "handicaps" or penalties. In a race, for example, the time to complete the course is an objective measurement. In gymnastics or diving the result is decided by a panel of judges, and therefore subjective. There are many shades of judging between boxing and mixed martial arts, where victory is assigned by judges if neither competitor has lost at
3685-596: The result of sports events can affect the results. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that when the home team wins the game before the election, the incumbent candidates can increase their share of the vote by 1.5 per cent. A loss had the opposite effect, and the effect is greater for higher-profile teams or unexpected wins and losses. Also, when Washington Redskins win their final game before an election, then
3752-450: The results of sports events creates a motivation for match fixing , where a participant or participants deliberately work to ensure a given outcome rather than simply playing to win. The competitive nature of sport encourages some participants to attempt to enhance their performance through the use of medicines, or through other means such as increasing the volume of blood in their bodies through artificial means . All sports recognised by
3819-407: The same time, professional sports have become such a massive and remunerative business that even many low-level feeder teams can afford to have fully professional athletes. In Canada, semi-professionalism is prevalent in junior ice hockey , in which the top level players (most of whom are teenagers still in, or just out of, high school) are paid at a semi-professional level. This is not the case in
3886-594: The short summer seasons and low salaries require players to hold jobs in the offseason to make ends meet. There are several hundred semi-professional football teams at non-League level. The bottom division of the English Football League (the fourth tier of the English football league system ) has traditionally been the cut-off point between professional ("full-time") and semi-professional ("part-time") in English football . However, many teams in
3953-558: The specific phenomenon of spectator sport. Both amateur and professional sports attract spectators, both in person at the sport venue, and through broadcast media including radio , television and internet broadcast. Both attendance in person and viewing remotely can incur a sometimes substantial charge, such as an entrance ticket, or pay-per-view television broadcast. Sports league and tournament are two common arrangements to organise sport teams or individual athletes into competing against each other continuously or periodically. It
4020-658: The sporting venue, as in the Football War . These trends are seen by many as contrary to the fundamental ethos of sport being carried on for its own sake and for the enjoyment of its participants. Sport and politics collided in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Masked men entered the hotel of the Israeli Olympic team and killed many of their men. This was known as the Munich massacre . A study of US elections has shown that
4087-575: The time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sport in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sport became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games , which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia . Sports have been increasingly organised and regulated from the time of
SECTION 60
#17327830392294154-422: The top levels, as finances depend on promotion and relegation both of parent male teams and of the female teams themselves. Full professionalism for women is still in the planning stages; top female players often depend on other sources of income (such as coaching and physical training), and many attend university or college while playing. In Scottish football , semi-professional teams compete at all levels below
4221-483: The top non-League competition, the National League , have become "full-time" professional clubs in an effort to achieve League status. Many former League clubs also remain as fully professional teams following relegation to the lower leagues at least for as long as they retain a large enough average attendance to generate the income needed to pay the players. Women's football in England is semi-professional at
4288-465: The total participation in US interscholastic athletics. Certain sports are mixed-gender , allowing (or even requiring) men and women to play on the same team. One example of this is Baseball5 , which is the first mixed-gender sport to have been admitted into an Olympic event. Youth sport presents children with opportunities for fun, socialisation, forming peer relationships, physical fitness , and athletic scholarships . Activists for education and
4355-403: The traditional Iranian martial art of Zoorkhaneh had a close connection to warfare skills. Among other sports that originated in ancient Persia are polo and jousting . Various traditional games of India such as Kho kho and Kabbadi have been played for thousands of years. The kabaddi was played potentially as a preparation for hunting. A wide range of sports were already established by
4422-460: The use of video analysis to fine-tune technique, or to equipment, such as improved running shoes or competitive swimwear . Sports engineering emerged as a discipline in 1998 with an increasing focus not just on materials design but also the use of technology in sport, from analytics and big data to wearable technology . In order to control the impact of technology on fair play, governing bodies frequently have specific rules that are set to control
4489-538: The weekends. In the 20th century the term "semi-pro football league" refer to higher level amateur leagues, though the players do not get paid, the leagues and the games are run in a somewhat professional manner. The National Lacrosse League , whose teams also typically play only one game per week, pays a salary that is enough to be considered fully professional, but players also are able to pursue outside employment to supplement their income. The lowest levels of organized baseball are also effectively semi-professional, as
#228771