February 23, 2012

American Football explained

american football

american football

American Football can be puzzling. It can appear especially confounding to non-Americans who’ve not grown up trapped by references to the game. It is comprehensible a game in which commentators often use strange phrases like “roughing the snapper” and “hiking the ball” should appear alien to an interloper. Nevertheless while making an attempt to understand each regulation of the sport can be long and maddening, the fundamentals are comparatively straightforward to understand.

One of the first things a new entrant should find out more about American Football  is that the game rests on the principle the offensive team must try and cover a ten yard section of the field in 4 or less “downs” ( or “plays” ). If they’re unsuccessful, possession of the ball will be lost to the other team.

Quite simply, there are 2 groups and an one hundred yard field with a goal at each end. Each team’s goal is to get the ball into the other team’s goal ( end sector ). To try to do this, they get 4 attempts ( called downs ) to move the ball 10 yards, either by throwing the ball to another player, or handing it to a colleague. If they successfully get the ball moved 10 yards or even more, then they get to re-start their downs and get 4 more makes an attempt to go 10 yards.

If they don’t move 10 yards, the other team gets the ball and attempts to score. The other team attempts to stop the team which has the ball by tackling the ball carrier. Each score is referred to as a touchdown, and is worth six points. After scoring a touchdown, the scoring team gets an opportunity for bonus points. They can decide to kick the ball thru the uprights, which is worth one point, or try to get the ball into the end sector again, which is worth two points. If a team does not think they can score a touchdown, and they’re close enough, they can try to score a “field goal”, which is where they attempt to kick the ball thru the uprights from a distance.

If they succeed, it is worth three points. That is should help a little with your interest. Football is an interesting game, and there’s a lot more to it than this, but you may be able to follow along moderately with this.