An American Football Primer for Visitors
Football doesn’t mean the one you play with your foot?
If you’re about to head to a game for the first time or watch one on TV, this might help as a reference or something to help understand what you see on the screen.
(American) Football
In the USA we just call it “football”, but it is most similar to rugby.
The best explanation I’ve heard is from my wife:
“You have 4 tries to move a ball 10 yards” (a little over 9 meters)
Football has many different positions players can play on offense or defense, but the key thing about the game is you can run the ball, or forward pass it, though only if you stay behind the line where the play starts. I’ll explain the positions just via the two most common plays:
- In a run play, the Center (who starts with the ball) hikes it back to the Quarterback (ball thrower/ play coordinator) who hands the ball to the Running Back, who attempts to run as far as he can before he gets tackled/ pushed out of bounds
- In a pass play, the Center hikes the ball to the Quarterback, who seeks to pass to an open Receiver to catch the ball, and if successful, the Receiver also runs as far as they can
The yellow line that gets drawn on TV (the “10 yards” you need to make) is the First Down line (attempts are called “downs”), the blue line is the Line of Scrimmage, where the players line up until the ball is hiked.
The numbers you’ll see on the TV are how many downs there are, and how many yards to go, i.e.
- 1st and 10 (1st down, 10 yards to go)
- 3rd and 2 (3rd down, 2 yards to go)
- 2nd and Goal (2nd down, end zone is within ten yards)
If you don’t make a First Down after 3 tries, generally on 4th try you either:
- Give the ball back to the other team by punting (dropping the ball onto a kick to send it as far away as you can)
- If close enough, try to kick a field goal through the goal posts (giant yellow fork)
- Attempt a regular play, with the risk of giving the ball back to the other team if you still fail to get a first down (turnover)
There are two other ways a ball can be turned over:
- A player from the defending team can intercept a thrown ball
- A player can be made to (or accidentally) drop the ball without being down (a fumble) and then recovered by the defending team
Turnovers mean the other team gets a First Down, 10 yards from wherever the play ends.
The ways to score include:
- The field goal just mentioned is worth 3 points.
- Running the ball into the end zone via a pass or run is a touchdown, worth 6 points,
Afterwards you can either:
- Kicking a field goal extra point of 1, or
- A single play attempt to get into the end zone, worth 2 (2 point conversion)
Also, though very rare:
- If you back the other team into their end zone and tackle them with the ball, you get 2 points (a safety)
After a successful point, there’s a kickoff, which, unlike a punt, is kicked from a tee, and is kicked from one side of the field to the other.
Tackling the quarterback while they have a ball is called a sack. This also moves the line of scrimmage back to where they go down (bad for the offense, good for the defense), hence why the scoreboard can read something like: 2nd and 15th.
That’s 90% of what you’ll see on TV.
There’s also weird stuff that might happen with the game clock (timeouts, ball spikes), and various sorts of illegal moves (can’t move past the line before the snap, all sorts of illegal contact), but it’s explained pretty well with instant replay.
The penalties usually result in yards added or removed, depending on which team caused the penalty.
