American football is an immensely popular sport in the US, but it's also growing in popularity in Europe. The NFL season starts today with the Kansas City Chiefs at home to the Baltimore Ravens, so to celebrate and introduce new folks to the sport, we want you to create a beginner's guide to understanding American football.
Who are the biggest teams and players? What's a touchdown? Why does play stop and start so frequently? What are some notable moments in history? Consider all these questions and more as you create your guide explaining exactly what American football is and how it works. Video and written guides are welcome!
The best guide to American football will earn $20, with $15 going to second place, $10 to third, $8 to fourth, and $5 to fifth place.
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American football is a team sport where two teams of 11 players each compete to score points by advancing an oval-shaped ball down a 100-yard field (that's approximately 92 meters). The main goal is to score a touchdown (worth 6 points) by either carrying the ball into the opposing team’s end zone or catching a pass in it. Simple, right? No, it's not that simple hahaha, but that's the initial idea! By understanding this, you'll be able to watch an American Football game and understand 30% of what's going on! Now for the details:
Basic Rules and Terms:
The Field: A 100-yard long and 53.3-yard (almost 50 meters) wide grid, with two end zones at either side where touchdowns are scored.
The Game: Played in four 15-minute quarters with a halftime break (60 minutes on total, but the real time is more than that, cause the time stops on specifics moments). The team with the most points at the end wins.
Downs: Teams have four chances (named downs) to advance the ball at least 10 yards. If they succeed, they earn another set of four downs. If not, the other team gets possession. Seems like a short distance, right? But the opposing team's defense makes it very difficult at times.
Touchdown: The ultimate goal, worth 6 points, scored by getting the ball into the opponent's end zone.
Field Goal: If a team can't score a touchdown, they can try to kick the ball through the opponent's goalposts for 3 points (this occurs in situations where a team is on its last attack and doesn't believe it will get to the goal and score 6 points).
Extra Point: After a touchdown, teams can kick for 1 extra point or attempt a 2-point conversion by running another play from the 2-yard line (Note that we never know how many points the team will score, as there is a range of possibilities of 0, 3, 6, 7 or 8 points depending on the success of the attack).
Turnover: When the ball is given to the opposing team, either by interception (a pass caught by the defense) or fumble (the ball is dropped and recovered by the opponent). Maybe you don't understand the term Fumble right now, but be patient, I'll go into more detail in a moment.
Why Does Play Stop and Start So Much?
I get this question a lot from people who don't know the sport: “Why use time if it's never really going to be that time?”. The answer is simple! The 60 minutes of total match time means that the game must last 60 minutes with the players on the pitch and actually playing! It's different from soccer, where time is continuous until the full 90 minutes + extra time are played, even if the players are stopped during a foul.
Play stops frequently for tackles: When a player is brought down, the game pauses and resets for the next down. Incomplete Passes: If a pass isn’t caught, the clock stops. Penalties: If a player breaks a rule, the game stops to enforce a penalty, often moving the ball backward or forward depending on the infraction.
Biggest Teams and Players:
Teams:
Dallas Cowboys: Often called "America's Team" with a huge fanbase.
New England Patriots: Dominated the 2000s and 2010s, with 6 Super Bowl wins.
Green Bay Packers: One of the oldest and most storied franchises.
Kansas City Chiefs: Currently one of the top teams, they are on top
Players:
Tom Brady: The greatest quarterback of all time (in my opinion), with 7 Super Bowl wins.
Patrick Mahomes: A rising star and MVP quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Jerry Rice: Legendary wide receiver, holds almost every major receiving record.
Lawrence Taylor: One of the most feared defensive players in NFL history.
Notable Moments in Football History:
There are some things that those who watch American soccer will never forget, of the 3 I'm going to show you, I saw 2 live and it was truly mind-blowing! I can only imagine what my grandfather felt watching the first video...
The "Immaculate Reception" (1972): A famous play where Pittsburgh Steelers' Franco Harris caught a deflected pass just before it hit the ground, leading to a game-winning touchdown.
Super Bowl LI (2017): The New England Patriots came back from a 28-3 deficit against the Atlanta Falcons, the largest comeback in Super Bowl history.
The Helmet Catch (2008): In Super Bowl XLII, Giants wide receiver David Tyree caught a pass by pinning the ball to his helmet, helping defeat the previously undefeated Patriots.
With these moments it's clear that some positions stand out more than others, we'll see more about that in a moment!
Key Strategies:
Offense: The team with the ball aims to move it down the field via running or passing plays. A quarterback leads the offense, deciding whether to throw the ball or hand it off to a running back.
Defense: The opposing team tries to stop the offense by tackling the ball carrier or intercepting passes. Defenses often blitz (send extra players to rush the quarterback) or cover receivers to stop passes.
The image below details this better, don't pay too much attention to each position, it's not necessary now, you'll get the hang of it later, let's talk about the most important ones!
Positions to Know:
Quarterback (QB): The leader of the offense, who throws the ball or hands it off.
Wide Receiver (WR): Catches passes from the QB.
Running Back (RB): Runs with the ball after a handoff from the QB.
Linebacker (LB): Defensive players who tackle and cover opposing players.
Cornerback (CB): Defends against passing plays, covering wide receivers.
American football may seem complicated at first, but once you understand the basic rules and strategies, it becomes fun. It's really cool to understand why some things happen and this guide is exactly for that! Remember that 30% understanding of the game you had just from the first paragraph of the guide? Well, now your understanding is around 70%. Keep studying and go watch the NFL!
Yeah, this is a bit long, but I wanted an excuse to talk about it. I really like American football and I had a lot of fun making this guide! I hope it can help anyone who reads it and that it can help them get interested in watching the sport more!
American Football is a team sport played on a rectangular field with goalsports at each end. understand the basic objective is to score point, the field dimension and marking, teams and position Offense and Defense, gameplay, penalties, Key Rules, Game duration, Strategy, and also Observe the match
This is a short explanation about how work the football in basis just a introduction to this amazing sport
Football (or american Football ) is a sport played by 2 teams of 11 players on a 120-yard, rectangular field with goal lines on each end.
A football is an oval-like inflated ball usually made of cowhide or rubber or Synthetic plastic
the game is a combination of to have a very good health condition plus follow the extrategie made it by a planer
THE OFFENSE
The offense, or the team with control of the ball, attempts to advance the ball down the field by running or passing the ball, while the opposing team aims to stop their advance and tries to take control of the ball that is some kind of
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE
The offense must advance at least 10 yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team; if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs.
THE OBJECTIVES
The object of the game is for one team to outscore the other. This is accomplished by advancing the football down the field and scoring as many points as possible.
Scoring can occur in the form of a touchdown, extra point conversion, two-point conversion, field goal, or safety.
THE TIMMING
The time on the clock for a football game is 60 minutes. The game is divided into two halves of 30 minutes and four quarters of 15 minutes.
The average duration of a football game is normally three hours.
I grew up watching the Super Bowl every year with my father and so I have an understanding of the game prior but when friends have asked me about it, as silly as it sounds, I have been able to give them a basic understanding of it through glee. A show which I have also grown up loving.
Specifically when Kurt joins the football team in episode 4 of the first season and in episode eleven of season 2 where the football team join the glee club. It’s by no means perfect but afterwards they have really been able to end the game and gotten quite invested.
The sport can be resumed to try to reach the other side of the camp with the ball. This is the main objective and this is the most important thing to know. But after that you should know some rules, how each team works in some important positions and ways to score. To keep it simple I will be explaining the rules that are current in the NFL championship but there is some variation especially in university and school games
To start the explanation it's important to explain the beginner of the game, both teams will have 11 players on each side but one team will try to reach the other end of the field while the other will try to stop this team, so each match of the game the teams are divided in attack and defence. The attack team will have 4 quarters to try to reach the end, and the quarter ends if the player with the ball is stopped. If this player loses the ball both teams change the position and start another round.
When a player reaches the end of the field it is scored 6 points to his team, after that his team will become the defence. They can also increase the score by 1 by making a goal or making a 2 point conversation that is a small rematch to try score 2 more points. There is another way to make points in the game, when the team doesn't believe they will be able to make it to the end of the field they can choose to make a goal kick and if they succeed they will score 3 points. And finally it is the safety that is the way the defence scores and this happens when the offence player is intercepted in its own end zone making a score of two for the defence team.
And the games ends after 1 hour that is divided in 4 times of 15 minutes, and if the play finish with a tie will have the overtime of 10 minutes for the tiebreaker
The American Football is a sport born in the XIX Century and it is an adaptation of Rugby, and maybe it should be called American Rugby that makes a lot more sense. But for the basics I think won't be hard to understand.
The Teams
Like many similar sports it is a competition between two teams, in American Football it is composed of 11 players for each team. Each team will have a role in each play, one team will have the ball and they will be in offensive position and will try to make a point while the other team will be in defensive position and will try to prevent the other team from scoring. The teams have a formation that is made by the players that have specific functions. The formation will change depending on the role that the team has in the moment, when it is on the offensive side or when it is on the defensive side.
For note getting in so deep with the explanation with this explanation you can see this image above to follow the explanation. Both teams will form one line each that will face each other, while the rest of the team will be around and in the back of this line. The Offensive side, the center position will have the ball and when the game starts will pass the ball to the quarterback that will pass the ball to another player in your team, when this happens the defensive side will make the possible to block the other players and try to stop the other team from advancing.
To understand how a point is made you have to understand how the field works and how it is divided. It is a 100 yards long field (Don’t ask me why 100 yards and not 100 meters, it is a sport called football and you play it with your hands so they don’t use a logical measurement system). And it is subdivided in 10 zones with 10 yards long with and the two end sides with 10 yards as well that aren’t included in the official measurement.
The game will start and the middle and the offense will try to arrive in the end of the opponents half to score 1 point. The offensive team will have 4 tentatives to reach the end, these tentatives are called Downs, and the down will end with the point or if the player with the ball is stopped/blocked, when the player is blocked the next down will start in the zone the player was blocked. When the player with the ball is able to reach the end of the field it is a touchdown and the team scores 6 points.
After a score both team will change their roles, now the offense team will play as defense and the defense team will play as offense. And the game start again.
There are two ways to stop the offense team from score, when happen all 4 downs and the offense team didn’t reach the end or when the player with the ball loses the ball, when this happen the defense team becomes automatically offense and will try to score.
The field goals is another way to score, only 3 points this time, it isn’t so common during the play but it can be useful sometime if used strategically.
End of the game an overtime
Like you should have suspected the game ends after the time runs out, the time is split in 4 quarters of 15 minutes each. And after this 4 quarters ends and the game is on a tie there will be an overtime of 10 minutes to untie the game and decide the winner of the play.
Biggest Teams
I'm going to take two approaches here, one based on the number of titles and the other on the value of the franchise according to Forbes
