As for all American states, Texas also has a strong sports culture.
American football is a religion here and, other than the NFL teams, the state university teams are also very important because future sports stars often come from these places.
Texas has two teams participating in the NFL (National Football League) and three participating in the NBA (National Basketball Association): the Houston Texans and the Dallas Cowboys for football and the Houston Rockets, the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks for basketball.
On the 8th of September, with the match between Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills, the 2022 season of the NFL has officially begun and it is the most important American football championship in the world, now in its 103rd edition.
Let's put it this way: if baseball is the American pastime par excellence, football is pure passion. Especially since the advent of television, American football has become the most important sport in the country, although other sports such as basketball and baseball boast far more recreational participants.
Football is something else, it is the greatest spectacle of American culture, it is the main “sports center” of the homecoming celebrations, the most important facade of the country towards the whole world.
Through popular events such as the Super Bowl, various college football games (as for instance the New Year's matches), football provides a stage for Americans to celebrate local, regional, national, collegiate and other identities.
How? Few team sports have the kind of impact on American culture like football, it brings together a community like nothing else.
In Texas, when a match is on everybody is watching it, following the score or at least showing interest about the outcome of the game.
In Texas and all over the States, every high school has its own team, its own mascot, and obviously a field and equipment.
Obviously, each school has at least a coach too, sometimes a coach who only performs this role and other times a contract teacher who also plays the role of coach.
For most football players going through the football recruiting process and snatching a scholarship to a big school is the ultimate goal.
There are hundreds of football programs in the United States and most of them offer scholarships for talented student-athletes.
It is impossible to know how many football scholarships are awarded each year, as not all programs are fully funded and capable of giving the maximum number of scholarships.

Football has a dedicated 24-hour channel on TV although matches are played only once a week, which allows them to be treated as an event. Seventeen regular season games in total means every game counts.
There are many American films inspired by the life of American teenagers, and therefore focused on relationships and contrasts in American high schools.
A common stereotype is the relationship between football players and cheerleaders: football players are often identified as bullies, as boys who use their physical strength to show their superiority while the cheerleaders are often portrayed as beautiful, popular and vain girls.
Playing football is seen as something prestigious, important and fun.
No other sport carries as much symbolic meaning as American football, also negatively: a violent, rigidly hierarchical and gendered sport often seen as the embodiment of all that is unfair in American culture and society.
It is an event often associated with celebrating and the famous Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event of the year in the United States.
The Super Bowl commercials that air during the match are the most expensive ones on American TV. Many spectators watch the game only to watch the commercials which are usually very special and made just for the occasion, the most famous ones being the ones aired during the Half Time.
Many commercials have become well known due to their cinematic quality, unpredictability, surreal humor, and even the use of special effects.
Also, the use of celebrity and testimonial cameos is very common.
The NFL makes most of its money on television contracts such as these and other income streams include ticket sales, merchandising and licensing rights, as well as corporate sponsorships.

I’m looking forward to attending a football match here in Texas!