21.   A game very like American football was played in ancient Rome.

22.   A sport that was once regarded as a third cousin to baseball and American football began attracting Hollywood stars to its games.

23.   About a month after the World Cup invasion, American football descended upon Mexico City with an exhibition pitting two-time Super Bowl champion Dallas and the Houston Oilers.

24.   But does Hill know American football?

25.   But America is unusual in that it largely ignores foreign competition in its three most popular sports, American football, baseball and basketball.

26.   But for now, football, American football, is his game.

27.   But the boom in American football did not occur until after World War II, when Japanese players learned the game from GIs stationed there.

28.   Dad remains loyal to American football.

29.   Desperately diversifying, David Stern will declare American football, played by either sex, the true national pastime.

30.   Everybody wanted to take on the American football player and club him upside the head.