Editing Shutout (section)

==American football==
Shutouts in [[American football]] are uncommon. Keeping an opponent scoreless in American football requires a team's defense to be able to consistently shut down both pass and run offenses over the course of a game. The difficulty of completing a shutout is compounded by the many ways a team can score in the game. For example, teams can attempt field goals, which have a high rate of success. The range of NFL caliber kickers makes it possible for a team with a weak offense to get close enough to the goalposts (within "[[field goal range]]") to kick a field goal. Of 2,544 regular season NFL games from 2000 to 2009, 89 (3.5%) were shutouts.

There are at least five instances in American football in which a team had been shut out throughout an entire season, and four in which a team has shut out all of their opponents in the season (the longest of these being the ten-game [[perfect season]] in which the 1933 [[Providence Huskies]] did not concede a single point).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.semiprofootball.org/minor/records/teampnts.htm|title=Semi-pro Football / Minor League Football - Team Points Records|website=www.semiprofootball.org}}</ref> 

In college football, the Tennessee Volunteers hold the record for most consecutive shutout wins with 17. The streak started against Tennessee-Chattanooga on November 30, 1938 and ended with a 27–12 loss against Alabama on October 19, 1940. <ref>{{cite web | url=https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2399074-the-most-unbreakable-records-in-college-football#:~:text=10.,Most%20Consecutive%20Shutouts%20(Regular%20Season)&text=Tennessee%27s%2017%20consecutive%20regular%2Dseason,19%2C%201940 | title=The Most Unbreakable Records in College Football | website=[[Bleacher Report]] }}</ref>

The achievement of a shutout is much more difficult in [[Canadian football]], where scoring and offensive movement is generally more frequent and a [[single (football)|single point]] can be scored by kicking the ball into the [[end zone]] such that the other team does not, or cannot, return it or kick it out of the end zone.