Football 101

Introduction

Football, or sometimes referred to as "American Football, is a team sport which is very popular in North America. Football is played on a 120 yard long, 53⅓ yard wide field made of grass or turf. It's considered very physical and dangerous as it's a full contact sport, and to help prevent injuries players wear protective equipment like a set of shoulder pads and a hard plastic helmet with a facemask, with optional additions including thigh/knee pads, chest protectors, visors and mouth guards. The goal of football is to score more points than the opposing team in a timed period of one hour, divided into four quarters. Points are scored through touchdowns and field goals, which will be explained further in depth later on. Football is a very unique sport as the pace it's played is very slow, as it involves many stoppages of play and action comes in small bursts. Another aspect of football that makes it unique in comparison to other sports is that possession of the ball is given to only one team at a time, where as in most other sports such as soccer the ball is considered "live" and each team can take possession at any time.

All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

When a game of football is in progress, the two teams which are facing off against each other will line up on either defense or offense, with the team who has possession of the ball lining up on offense. The team which gains first possession of the ball is determined at the beginning of the game through a coinflip, and the team which begins on defense will start the third quarter with possession. A game of football is played in sets of series, divided into what's called a "play".

Plays

When a team is given offensive possession of the ball, they must take it down field from where the ball is placed to the endzone. To do this, teams are given four tries, which are called "downs". A down counts which attempt the offensive team is on. A down begins at 10 yards in length and the counter is reset if that team successfully gains the yards required. A series that includes multiple downs is commonly referred to as a "drive", and the defense must stop the offense from converting these downs. If the offensive team fails to gain the required yards for a new set of downs in four tries, possession of the ball is handed over to the team which was on defense at the spot of the last offensive play. In football, most teams only call a play for three of the four downs, and if they're unable to convert it in the three they'll do what's called a punt. This is done to mitigate the risk that you're faced with when running a play on a fourth down, as instead of the ball being placed in an advantageous position for the opponent, you'll kick it away and begin the opponents drive further away from your endzone. Plays on fourth downs are often only used in situations where a team is desperate to score or feels confident they can convert, such as if only one yard remains. Downs and the distance remaining are kept track of on the scoreboard, as you if you are watching a game you can see if its a "1st and 10" or a "2nd and 6", with in these cases the first example means first down with 10 yards to go, and the second example being second down with 2 yards to go.

Scoring

The objective of a football game is score points, which can be done by moving the ball into your opponents endzone or kicking a field goal. Scoring is typically done by the offensive team, but it is possible for a team which is on defense to score through turnovers, which will be explained more in depth later. The scoring of football is very unique, as different actions create a different amount of points. Below is a list of which actions score which amount of points:

Touchdown: 6 points

Field Goal: 3 points

Safety: 2 points (Not to be confused with the position named Safety)

Try after touchdown: 1 point (Field Goal) or 2 points (Touchdown)

A touchdown is scored when a team brings the ball into the opponents endzone. You can see in a diagram below where the endzone are placed. Teams must move the ball 100 yards to reach this 10 yard long endzone. As soon as the ball is past the line, it's counted as a touchdown. After a touchdown, you're given an option to make a play for extra points. You can either choose to kick a 15 yard field goal for one point, or you can opt for a what's called a two-point conversion, in which you're given one attempt to score a touchdown from the two-yard line, and if converted you're awarded with two points on top of the touchdown, and if failed you gain no extra points on top of the six touchdown points. Teams often opt for the 1 point field goal, as the conversion rate is much higher.

A field goal is a form of scoring which awards three points. It involves the offensive team kicking the ball from their current position through the yellow upright goalposts. Teams typically choose to kick a field goal on fourth downs, and is only attempted when a scoring drive is stalled in the opponents territory.

Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

A safety is a very rare play in football, but it happens when a defensive player tackles an offensive player in the offensive teams endzone, resulting in two points for the defensive team and possession of the ball given.

Positions

In football, there's 11 players which take the field for each team, making it 22 on the field in total. One of the aspects that makes football strategy fun is the endless possibilities of play concepts and combinations. There's many different positions on a football field, but I'm going to list the basic ones.

Offense:

Quarterback (QB)

Running Back (RB)

Wide Receiver (WR)

Tight End (TE)

Offensive Line (OL) - indicated as Tackle (T), Guard (G), Center (C)

Defense:

Defensive End (DE)

Defensive Tackle (DT)

Linebacker (LB)

Cornerback (CB)

Safety (S)

Special Teams:

Placekicker (K/PK)

Punter (P)

Below is a diagram I created which can give you a rough idea of where each position would line up, with blue being offense and red being defense:

“Football Formation” by Evan Campbell is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

The 11 players on each time line up facing each other in a formation that may be similar to the one above, and each position on the field plays a specific role. If you'd like to read in depth of each role you can see that here. The one position I will focus on is the quarterback, as it's the most important of them all. The quarterback is who most offenses will run through, as they are the one who receives the ball each play, giving them the option to either hand it off to their running back for a "rush play" or throw the ball to a WR, TE, or RB which is called a "pass play". Pass plays typically involve the wide receiver, but can include the running back and tight end occasionally.

Leagues

Football is mainly played in the USA, but it also has a league in Canada, albeit less successful. The biggest of all football leagues is the NFL, which is an American-based pro football league which features 32 teams based in cities across America. The NFL has a very uniform schedule, as each team will play 17 games over an 18 week regular season. Because of the physically taxing nature of the sport, teams will play once per week, typically on a Sunday, with one rest week in the schedule. Football is also extremely popular as a college sport, as students play in college in an attempt to get drafted into the NFL. The CFL is one of few alternative pro football leagues, as it's a league which features nine teams all based in Canada. The CFL is not watched as much as the NFL as it features less talent and doesn't operate in the USA.

Impact

The sport of football has had a massive cultural impact on North America, as it's considered the most popular sport in the United States, and one of the top sports in Canada. Football has ingrained itself in popular culture as the NFL's Super Bowl championship game has become one of the most watched events in the world annually.

Football is a very complex sport, but it remains one of the most popular in North America due to the cultural significance it has.

Conclusion

Hopefully my explanation wasn't too hard to follow, as football can be a very confusing sport even for the most knowledgeable minds. I hope this introduction makes you want to learn more and become interested.