Football is the dominant sport in the county, with both the men's and women's teams among the strongest in the country at senior level.

Kerry's record in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship involves having played 30 of the 31 other counties, with only Kilkenny being the exception.

The GAA was formed in 1884 and codified the modern rules of the game, which were soon adopted in Kerry clubs such as Laune Rangers.

In 1982, Kerry came within one minute of winning an unprecedented fifth All-Ireland title in a row, only for a late goal by Offaly's Séamus Darby (controversial as many[who?

]claimed Darby pushed the Kerry defender, Tommy Doyle, in the back) gave the title to Offaly.

Kerry quietly exited the 2010 and 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championships at the quarter-final stage, losing to Down and Donegal respectively, while Dublin defeated them in dramatic fashion on the last kick in the 2011 final.

Following Tim's death later that year, he elected to return to Ireland and rejoin Kerry in 2009 in pursuit of winning an All-Ireland of his own playing for the county.

After he succeeded and became the first player to have won an All-Ireland and an AFL Premiership, he returned to Australia and the Swans to finish his career.

A 2020 report cited the example that, when the Kilmoyley, Lixnaw or Causeway clubs are playing Ballyduff in any game, only two referees can officiate (due to the need for an appearance of neutrality) and one of these has work commitments outside Kerry, which affects his availability.

[citation needed] In 2003, team made it to the fourth round of the qualifiers only to go down to Limerick 1–14 to 0–24 in Austin Stack Park in Tralee.

The wins over Westmeath and Carlow represented the first time a Kerry team strung two consecutive Championship victories together.

[18] In 2016, Kerry played in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship round robin along with Carlow, Westmeath and Offaly.

[20] At the time it was deemed Kerry's greatest hurling success in Austin Stack Park since they beat All-Ireland champions Clare by 3-7 to 1-8 in opening round of 1995-96 NHL.

Under Camogie's National Development Plan 2010–2015, "Our Game, Our Passion",[21] Donegal, Kerry, Mayo and Monaghan were to get a total of 14 new clubs by 2015.