football 101
"HELP! I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT ANY OF THIS FOOTBALL STUFF MEANS!"
I got you! this page will help you learn all the basics of the game of football.
Scoring:
𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻/𝟲 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀:
Obviously, the biggest goal for the offense is to score a touchdown. To score, a player must carry the ball across the opposition’s goal line, or catch a pass in the end zone. You’ll see the guys dive for the end zone with the ball stretched out in their crusty fingertips, that is legal. Literally the nub of the ball just has to cross the line while the player has possession and it counts.
𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻/𝟭 𝗢𝗥 𝟮 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀:
Yay! You scored a touchdown, now wut? You have two choices, kick it through the goal posts (easy, simple, bop right in) and get 1 extra point. Or you can go for the 2-point conversion. This means, your team will line up on the 2-yard line and have one chance to get the ball in the end zone. Kind of like a mini touchdown. You can throw or run it in. This is not nearly as common as a field goal, but baby is it great when it happens and you earn 2 extra points.
𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹/𝟯 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀:
Often times, when our dear teams find themselves on a 4th down (last chance to move the ball forward 10 yards) and they don’t think they can get it, they’ll kick for a field goal if they’re close enough. A fairly easy field-goal distance would be to kick from under 30-yards, ya boy should be able to do that in flip flops. Around 40-50 yards is where it really gets harder.
𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆/𝟮 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀:
Very uncommon but a team can pick up 2 points by tackling their opponent who has the ball while in their own end zone.
WHAT IS PENALTIES? WHAT DO THEY MEAN?
*𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦: 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢$𝘪𝘤 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯. In football, if you break the rules, you get a penalty on offense or defense. If the offense gets a penalty, the ball moves backwards (farther away from the goal), and they lose yards. This is why you sometimes see the play is 1st & 20 <–bc they lost yards. If the defense gets a penalty, the ball moves forward (closer to the goal for the other team)
𝗙𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁/𝗢𝗳𝗳𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝘀:
This means a player moved while they’re in their squatting stance before the ball was snapped. Happens all the time. This results in a loss or gain of yards for the offense depending on what team was called for the penalty.
𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴:
You’ve heard this one, “HOLDING…OFFENSE…10 YARD PENALTY.” Happens every 5 seconds. This can be on offense or defense and means a player is caught holding another player and preventing him from moving naturally. For example, the defense can’t “hold” the running backs and prevent them from moving and running to go catch a ball.
𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲:
This is usually called on the defense if they hit a player as he’s about to catch the ball. The defense is allowed to hit the ball and hit the player as the ball is getting to his hands (it’s a super close timing thing). BUT, you cannot hit the guy’s arms, hands, body before he catches it or while the ball is making its way towards him. Makes no sense to us but this is a call that causes lots of controversy (Saints vs. Rams 2018).
DEFENSE?
De-FENSE **clap clap** De-FENSE.” Wait, what’s defense? It’s time for a vocab lesson. Who’s on defense? What do they do? Why are they so big? Why are we yelling?! The defense is responsible for stopping the offense from moving forward by tackling, intercepting, and throwing their body at anyone with the ball. The defensive line is usually made up of really big men who each have their specific role.
Sack:
A sack is when the QB is trying to throw the ball and gets tackled by a defensive player before he throws it. It is really bad when a QB gets sacked bc he usually backs up while he’s throwing the ball to get more space. If he gets tacked they usually lose yards which moves them further away from the end zone.
Interception:
When the QB throws the ball to one of his teammates but the other team catches it instead! Oops! Not good.
*extra credit: 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝟲. If the guy who catches the interception runs with the ball and gets a touchdown, this is called a “Pick 6.” Meaning the guy intercepted the pass (also called a pick) and scored a touchdown (gaining 6 points) = pick 6!
Fumble:
When an offensive player is running with the ball, loses control, and the ball hits the ground. Also very bad. This play is most often reviewed by refs because they’re trying to see if the guy who had the ball had his knees down BEFORE or AFTER he dropped the ball. If his knees hit the ground while he had control of the ball, it’s NOT a fumble, just a normal play. If his knees were NOT down, it’s a fumble and whichever team recovers the ball gets it.
*extra credit: turnover- Another way to refer to an interception or a fumble. It’s a great term if you’re the defense and you force a turnover, meaning you got the ball back for your team. If you’re on offense…not so good. Actually, really bad.
SPECIAL TEAMS?
They are players who are on the field during kicking plays. This includes kickers, punters, long-snappers and any player involved in kick and return coverage.
𝗞, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗼?
𝘒𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘳 : Leetle players with strong quads who do kickoffs & field goals.
𝘗𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 : Usually tall and lanky. They come out on a 4th down (last chance the offense has with the ball) if the offense needs to kick the ball away as high and far as he can.
𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘯𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘳: Long snappers can literally be recruited to college & the NFL for one skill, and it’s very important. These guys snap (throw under their legs) the ball to the kicker for a field goal, or the punter for a punt. The ball needs to fly under his legs, and right into the hands of the guy who holds the ball for the kicker or directly to the punter. He also has to do this in like 0.01 seconds because there’s a whole defense charging at him.
𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴: There’s the guys who catch punts/kickoffs who are fast and then the other random guys who are likely backups just boppin’ around.
𝗜 𝗸𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁, 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝘂𝘁?
𝘒𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘰𝘧𝘧: After the ball is kicked, the returning team can 𝟭. Catch and run with the ball until they score, get tackled, run out of bounds. 𝟮. Take a knee if they catch it in the end zone, and their team will start at the 25 yard line. 𝟯. Let that boy go out of bounds. BUT, if no one touches it = penalty, of course. Offense starts at 40 yard line.
☆extra credit – In option 2 (taking a knee or the ball going past the end zone) this is called a 𝙩𝙤𝙪𝙘𝙝𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠.
𝘗𝘶𝘯𝘵: 𝟭. Catch it and run as far as their little legs can take them. 𝟮. Not catch it so the ball goes out of bounds, rolls into end zone, etc. 𝟯. call for a “fair catch.” This is when a player will wave his hand to signal that he’s going to catch the ball and not run.
DOWNS?
The game is played with the offense (team with the ball) vs. the defense (not with ball). Obv the goal is to score a touchdown.
The term, 1st and 10 means down and distance. This describes the situation on the field and essentially how the entire game works. Let’s break this betch down:
When you’re on offense, you get four downs (or four opportunities) to move the ball 10 yards towards the end zone. If you make it 10 yards, the downs reset and you get four more downs.
What is a “down?” It is a play. From the time the ball is snapped (given/thrown from under the butt of the Center to the QB) to the time the ref blows the whistle.
Now for part two, the distance. The distance refers to how many more yards the team needs to get to 10 and reach a first down. The first play is always called, “1st and 10.” Meaning this is the team’s first attempt at moving the ball 10 yards. Let’s say they throw an incomplete pass (ball was not caught). The second play is then called “2nd and 10.” Got it girl?
Now let’s say on a team’s first attempt their guy runs the ball forward for 3 yards (out of 10). The next play is called, “2nd and 7” because 10 – 3 = 7. This means the offense needs seven more yards to get a first down and receive four more downs.
What happens if you keep getting first downs? Congrats! Your team is doing great and moving towards a touchdown. Woo!
What if I can’t get to a first down? it’s very hard and common to not be able to move the ball if team on defense is doing their job. If you can’t move 10 yards in four tries the other team gets the ball now.