Playing sports can make you stronger and healthier, contributing to lower obesity rates, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Athletes tend to have lower body mass indexes, but non-athlete participants will still benefit from developing muscles and burning calories. Active people tend to have lower rates of diabetes and high blood pressure. Exercising regularly through sports programs could contribute to better heart and lung function. Learning to play sports as a child might carry over into being a more active adult, according to Sports and Development.org. Psych Central states that some sports tend to have a more lasting impact from childhood into adulthood: soccer, baseball and hockey, for example. In sports such as gymnastics or diving, athletes tend to peak while still young and not participate as adults.

Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word football is understood to refer to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears. Sports commonly called football in certain places include association football (known as soccer in some countries); gridiron football (specifically American football or Canadian football); Australian rules football; rugby football (either rugby league or rugby union); and Gaelic football. These different variations of football are known as football codes.