What Do You Know About Football? Part 2: American Football

So how did the game change from its predecessor Rugby football? Well a lot. American football generally last much longer than rugby football, between 3-4 hours as opposed to rugby’s 1 hour and 20 minutes. Because the field is reset after each tackle in American football, it is much slower pace than the more hectic rugby league, in which play stops for only as long as it takes the tackled player to get back to his feet and return the ball to play. Along with the slower pace, there is more strategizing in American football, and more players on the team with specialized roles. An obvious difference is that forward passing is allowed in American football, but disallowed in rugby. Another obvious difference is that rugby disallows helmets (although shock absorbing headgear is allowed) and has almost none of the padding that is so prevalent in American football.

While the sports share many position names, the positions differ in their use and generally American football positions are much more specialized.

The basic setup of the game

The game of American football is unique in the football world in both that it is not a free-flowing game and that it is about gaining territory as much as scoring goals (field goals) or tries (touchdowns). Both teams try to invade the territory of the other team while defending their own territory, until eventually they gain the entire territory of the opposing side by getting to the other sides’ end zone (called a touchdown as from early days of ruby, a misnomer because in American football you don’t actually have to touch the ball to the ground like in Rugby) or get a field goal (one of the few kicking elements in the game).

The ball is oval shaped and between 11-11.5 inches long, the field is 120 yards (110 m) long and 53 yards, 1 foot (49 m) wide, and is divided into a gridiron shape with markers every 10 yards.

The game play

The National Football League (NFL) is considered to be the regulatory body for the rules of American football.

To see the full details of rules, see: NFL Rulebook

The game is divided into individual plays (generally lasting no longer than 10 seconds) where the team with possession tries to move the ball to the opposite side while the other team tries to prevent them. Each play begins by both teams having to be behind the line of scrimmage, a variation of the offside line. Every time a team takes possession of the ball, it is given a set of 4 downs, or attempts, to move the ball 10 yards forward before being stopped by the defence. If the team can move the ball 10 yards or more within four downs, the team gets another set of four downs to go another 10 yards, and so on. If they fail to do so by the 3^rd down, they can either punt kick the ball forward as far as possible or go for the fourth down attempt (and turn over the ball if they fail). Many teams choose to punt kick because it pushes the opposing team back a long way and forces them to cover a lot of ground. If the offensive team does get to the end zone, they receive a touchdown. After each touchdown the team also gets an extra point or “PAT” for kicking the ball through the goal.  The “goal line” is considered the line at which the end zone starts, and like in all football codes the teams are trying to get the ball over this goal line. The teams can in addition choose to go for a field goal, which is kicking the ball from anywhere on the field through the opponents goal like in association football (although there is no goalkeeper and the goal is 10 feet above ground).  There are also safeties and 2-point conversion as a means of increasing the score. The complete outlay of scoring opportunities is as follow:

• Touchdown (6 points) – Ball is carried into opposing end zone.
• Field Goal (3 points) – Ball is kicked through the goal at any time in the game.
• Extra point (1 point) – After a touchdown, ball is kicked through the upright of opponents goal.
• 22-point Conversion (2 points…duh) Ball is carried into the opposing zone after a touchdown in one try.
• Safety (2 points) – A player tackles the opposing player in his own end zone.

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