Pittsburgh Sports
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The people of Pittsburgh are fairly passionate about this game and their home team that is known as the “Pittsburgh Steelers”. Football is an important topic in most social conversations. It is important that a newcomer familiarizes himself with football so that he is able to participate in social discussions. Football in USA is similar to rugby in the U.K.; likewise, soccer in USA is similar to football in the U.K.
The National Football League (NFL) has two conferences, namely, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). Each conference has four divisions, each division containing four teams. Thus, there are 16 teams per conference. Through the 17-week football season starting in September and ending in the following January, each team plays a 16 game schedule and get one week off that is termed as a “bye” week. Usually, a team’s “bye” week falls between weeks 2 and 9.The four teams within a division play twice versus each other, the team with the most wins in each division represents that division in the playoffs. In addition to the four teams that represent their respective divisions, there are two wildcard teams. The wildcard teams are the two teams that have the next best record in their conference. Therefore, 6 teams participate in the playoffs of each conference. The playoffs are a series of 5 games in each conference that decides the winner in each conference, termed as the “Conference Champion”. The Conference Champions of both conferences play against each other in the finals called “Superbowl”. The Superbowl is normally held in February and is a national event.
For more Information about football please visit the National Football League Website at www.nfl.com
Baseball is another sport in the city of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Baseball team is known as the “Pittsburgh Pirates”. This team was formed in 1887 when they were called the “Pittsburgh Allegheny's”. Due to the tendency of the team to “steal” players from other teams, the team got dubbed as “Pittsburgh Pirates”, which is what it is called today.
Major League Baseball (MLB) has two conferences, namely, the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). Each league has four divisions, each division containing four to six teams. There are 14 teams in the American League and 16 teams in the National League. Each team plays 162 Baseball games in a season that starts in April and ends in October. 5 teams from each conference enter the playoffs. Like football, the playoffs are knockout tournaments. The winner in each league is the league champion and these two teams play a series of 7 games against each other that is termed as the “World Series”.
For more information about baseball please visit the Major League Baseball website at www.mlb.com
Ice Hockey is another sport that is liked by many in the city of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Ice Hockey team is known as the “Pittsburgh Penguins”. The Pittsburgh Penguins were formed in the year 1967 when the NHL decided to let Pittsburgh have a hockey team. The Penguins have reached the playoffs 20 times till the year 2000. However, they are struggling in the new millennium by winning less than half the number of games played.
National Hockey League (NHL) has two conferences, namely, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Each conference has three divisions, each division containing five teams. Thus, there are 15 teams per conference. Each team plays 82 games in a season that starts in October and ends in April of the following year. 8 teams from each conference enter the playoffs. In the first round of the playoffs called the Quarter Final round, 4 games are played where all the playoff teams of each conference get to play. The 4 winning teams of the Quarter Final play 2 games in the second round called the Semi-final. The two winners of the Semi Finals play in the Finals to decide the winner of each conference. The winner of each conference play against each other for the Stanley cup.
For more information about Hockey please visit the National Hockey League website at www.nhl.com