American Football

The Game

Football is played by two opposing teams, each fielding 11 players. Each team tries to move the ball down the field to score in the end zone defended by its opponents. During a football game the teams are designated as the offensive team (the team in possession of the ball) and the defensive team (the team defending a goal line against the offensive team). Another group of players, called special teams, enter the game when possession of the ball changes, or when a field goal or extra point is attempted.

In the most simplistic sense, football is a strategic battle to move the ball into the opponents' goal area called the endzone for a touchdown(a.k.a. the primary point). A secondary point is earned after each touchdown by kicking the ball through a goalpost or advancing the ball into the endzone again for two additional points.

A team should score more points that its opponent. A touchdown gives 6 points, an attempt to kick the ball called point after try gives 1 point, a field goal gives 3 points and a safety 2 points.

To stop the offense from advancing the ball, the defense must tackle the player with the ball by knocking him down. As such, defensive players must use some form of physical contact to bring the ball-carrier to the ground, within certain rules and guidelines.

The team with the ball has 4 attempts (or downs) to advance the ball 10 yards or more. If they succeed in moving the ball at least 10 yards either by running with it or passing it, they get another 4 downs in which to get another 10 yards or more.

If the team with the ball fails to gain at least 10 yards in 4 downs, the ball is turned over to the opposing team at that point on the field. Generally, teams rarely use all four downs to get 10 yards, they try with the first three, then punt (kick) the ball away on the fourth down, so that the opposition are way back in their own half, close to their own goal line. This means they have to go much further up the field to score.

The game is divided into four, 15 minute quarters. However, the clock is stopped for player changeovers and half-time. This means that a match will actually last for three hours.

What makes football fun is the rules and regulations that both protects the players and raises the difficulty of the game to an appreciable level. Because it is a group sport, each player of a team has specific positions in which they function as. The team's coach coordinates how each player should move off the field while the quarterback, the on field leader, fine tunes and adjusts the plans according to how the opponent reacts.