All You Need To Know About American Football (Part Two)

Part Two..

Continued from yesterday.

Offensive unit

The role of the offensive unit is to advance the football down the field with the ultimate goal of scoring a touchdown.

The offensive team must line up in a legal formation before they can snap the ball. An offensive formation is considered illegal if there are more than four players in the backfield or fewer than five players numbered 50-79 on the offensive line. Players can temporarily line up in a position whose eligibility is different from what their number permits as long as they immediately report the change to the referee, who then informs the defensive team of the change. Neither team's players, with the exception of the snapper, are allowed to line up in or cross the neutral zone until the ball is snapped. Interior offensive linemen are not allowed to move until the snap of the ball.

The main backfield positions are the quarterback, halfback/tailback  and fullback. The quarterback is the leader of the offense. Either he or a coach calls the plays. Quarterbacks typically inform the rest of the offense of the play in the huddle before the team lines up. The quarterback lines up behind the center to take the snap and then hands the ball off, throws it or runs with it. and often are not used in passing situations.

The offensive line  consists of several players whose primary function is to block members of the defensive line from tackling the ball carrier on running plays or sacking the quarterback on passing plays. On either side of the center are the guards, while tackles  line up outside of the guards.

The principal receivers are the wide receivers  and the tight ends . Wide receivers line up on or near the line of scrimmage, split outside of the line. The main goal of the wide receiver is to catch passes thrown by the quarterback,

The defensive backfield, often called the secondary, consists of cornerbacks  and safeties . Safeties are themselves divided into free safeties  and strong safeties .

The positions specific to punt plays are the punter, long snapper, and gunner. The long snapper snaps the football directly to the punter, who then drops and kicks it before it hits the ground. Gunners line up split outside of the line and race down the field, aiming to tackle the punt returner  - the player that catches the punt.

Scoring  

In American football, the winner is the team that has scored the most points at the end of the game. There are multiple ways to score in a football game.

The touchdown, worth six points, is the most valuable scoring play in American football. A touchdown is scored when a live ball is advanced into, caught in, or recovered in the end zone of the opposing team. If it is scored by what would normally be a touchdown, it is called the two-point conversion In general, the extra point is almost always successful in professional play and is only slightly less successful at amateur levels, while the two-point conversion is a much riskier play with a higher probability of failure; accordingly, extra point attempts are far more common than two-point conversion attempts. After a PAT attempt or successful field goal the scoring team must kick the ball off to the other team. A safety is scored when the ball carrier is tackled in his own end zone. Safeties are worth two points, which are awarded to the defense.

Field and equipment

Football games are played on a rectangular field that measures long and wide. Lines marked along the ends and sides of the field are known respectively as the end lines and side lines, and goal lines are marked inward from each end line. Weighted pylons are placed on the inside corner of the intersections of the goal lines and end lines.

White markings on the field identify the distance from the end zone. Inbound lines, or hash marks, are short parallel lines that mark off increments. Yard lines, which run the width of the field, are marked every . A one yard wide is placed at each end of the field; this line is marked at the center of the two-yard line in professional play and at the three-yard line in college play. Numerals that display the distance from the closest goal line in multiples of ten are placed on both sides of the field every ten yards.

Goalposts are at located at the center of the plane of each of the two end lines. The crossbar of these posts is ten feet  above the ground, with vertical uprights at the end of the crossbar 18 feet 6 inches  apart for professional and collegiate play and 23 feet 4 inches  apart for high school play.

The football itself is an oval ball, similar to the balls used in rugby or Australian rules football. At all levels of play, the football is inflated to to pounds per square inch  and weighs 14 to 15 ounces ; beyond that, the exact dimensions vary slightly. In professional play the ball has a long axis of 11 to inches, a long circumference of 28 to inches, and a short circumference of 21 to inches, while in college and high school play the ball has a long axis of to inches, a long circumference of to inches, and a short circumference of to inches. High school football games are 48 minutes in length with two halves of 24 minutes and four quarters of 12 minutes. The two halves are separated by a halftime period, and the first and third quarters are also followed by a short break. Prior to the start of the game, the referee and team captains for each team meet at midfield for a coin toss. The visiting team is allowed to call 'heads' or 'tails'; the winner of the toss is allowed to decide from between choosing whether to receive or kick off the ball or choosing which goal they want to defend, but they can also defer their choice until the second half. The losing team, unless the winning team decides to defer, is allowed to choose the option the winning team did not select, and receives the option to receive, kick, or select a goal to defend to begin the second half. Most teams choose to receive or defer, because choosing to kick the ball to start the game would allow the other team to choose which goal to defend. Teams switch goals following the first and third quarters. If a down is in progress when a quarter ends, play continues until the down is completed.

Games last longer than their defined length due to play stoppages - the average NFL game lasts slightly over three hours. Time in a football game is measured by the game clock. An operator is responsible for starting, stopping and operating the game clock based on the direction of the appropriate official. A separate clock, the play clock, is used to determine if a delay of game infraction has been committed. If the play clock expires before the ball has been snapped or free-kicked, a delay of game foul is called on the offense. The play clock is set to 40 seconds in professional and college football and to 25 seconds in high school play or following certain administrative stoppages in the former levels of play.

Advancing the ball and downs

There are two main ways that the offense can advance the ball: running and passing. In a typical play, the quarterback calls the play, and the center passes the ball backwards and under his legs to the quarterback in a process known as the snap. The quarterback then either hands the ball off to a back, throws the ball or runs with it himself. The play ends when the player with the ball is tackled or goes out of bounds, or a pass hits the ground without a player having caught it. A forward pass can only be legally attempted if the passer is behind the line of scrimmage.

The offense is given a series of four plays, known as downs. If the offense advances ten or more yards in the four downs, they are awarded a new set of four downs. If they fail to advance ten yards, possession of the football is turned over to the defense. In most situations, if the offense reaches their fourth down they will punt the ball to the other team, which forces them to begin their drive from further down the field; if they are in field goal range, they might also attempt to score a field goal. On television, a yellow line is electronically superimposed on the field to show the first down line to the viewing audience.

Kicking 

 

There are two categories of kicks in football: scrimmage kicks, which can be executed by the offensive team on any down from behind or on the line of scrimmage, and free kicks. The free kicks are the kickoff, which starts the first and third quarters and overtime and follows a try attempt or a successful field goal, and the safety kick, which follows a safety.

On a kickoff, the ball is placed at the 35-yard line of the kicking team in professional and college play and at the 40-yard line in high school play. The ball may be drop-kicked or place-kicked. If a place kick is chosen, the ball can be placed on the ground or on a tee, and a holder may be used in either case. On a safety kick, the kicking team kicks the ball from their own 20-yard line. They can punt, drop-kick or place-kick the ball, but a tee may not be used in professional play. Any member of the receiving team may catch or advance the ball, and the ball may be recovered by the kicking team once it has gone at least ten yards and has touched the ground or has been touched by any member of the receiving team.

The three types of scrimmage kicks are place kicks, drop kicks, and punts. Only place kicks and drop kicks can score points. because the pointy shape of the football makes it difficult to reliably drop kick. Once the ball has been kicked from a scrimmage kick, it can be advanced by the kicking team only if it is caught or recovered behind the line of scrimmage. If it is touched or recovered by the kicking team beyond this line, it becomes dead at the spot where it was touched. The kicking team is prohibited from interfering with the receiver's opportunity to catch the ball, and the receiving team has the option of signaling for a fair catch. This prohibits the defense from blocking into or tackling the receiver, but the play ends as soon as the ball is caught and the ball may not be advanced.

Final part coming in tomorrow's blog.

Tipster Street.

All You Need To Know About American Football (Part One)

American Football  is a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with control of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with or passing the ball, while the team without control of the ball, the defense, aims to stop their advance and take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team; if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins.

American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sport of rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, under rules based on the association football rules of the time. During the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby code, which allowed carrying the ball. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football," established the snap, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs; later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football.

American football as a whole is the most popular sport in the United States; professional football and college football are the most popular forms of the game, with the other major levels being high school and youth football., nearly 1.1 million high school athletes and 70,000 college athletes play the sport in the United States annually. The National Football League, the most popular American football league, has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world; its championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events in the world, and the league has an annual revenue of around US$10 billion.

Etymology and names 

In the United States, American football is referred to as "football." The term "football" was officially established in the rulebook for the 1876 college football season, when the sport first shifted from soccer-style rules to rugby-style rules; although it could easily have been called "rugby" at this point, Harvard, one of the primary proponents of the rugby-style game, compromised and did not request the name of the sport be changed to "rugby". In countries where other codes of football are popular, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the terms "gridiron" or "American football" are favored.

Early history 

 

American football evolved from the sport of rugby football. Rugby, like American football, is a sport where two competing teams vie for control of a ball, which can be kicked through a set of goalposts or run into the opponent's goal area to score points.

The first American football game was played on November 6, 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton. The game was played between two teams of 25 players each, used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried, but it could be kicked or batted with the feet, hands, head or sides, with the ultimate goal of advancing it into the opponent's goal. Rutgers won the game 6-4. Collegiate play continued for several years in which matches were played using the rules of the host school. Representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Rutgers met on October 19, 1873 to create a standard set of rules for all schools to adhere to. Teams were set at 20 players each, and fields of were specified. Harvard abstained from the conference, as they favored a rugby-style game that allowed running with the ball.

Despite these new rules, football remained a violent sport. Dangerous mass-formations like the flying wedge resulted in serious injuries or even death. A 1905 peak of 19 fatalities nationwide resulted in a threat by President Theodore Roosevelt to abolish the game unless major changes were made. In response, sixty-two colleges and universities met in New York City to discuss rule changes on December 28, 1905, and these proceedings resulted in the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States, later named the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The legal forward pass was introduced in 1906 after its suggestion by John Heisman, although its impact was initially limited due to the restrictions placed on its use. Other rule changes introduced that year included the reduction of the time of play from 70 to 60 minutes and the increase of the distance required for a first down from . To reduce infighting and dirty play between teams, the neutral zone was created along the width of the football. Scoring was also adjusted: field goals were lowered to three points in 1909 and touchdowns were raised to six points in 1912. The field was also reduced to long, but two 10-yard-long end zones were created, and teams were given four downs instead of three to advance the ball . The roughing-the-passer penalty was implemented in 1914, and eligible players were first allowed to catch the ball anywhere on the field in 1918.

The professional era

The first instance of professional play in American football was on November 12, 1892, when William "Pudge" Heffelfinger was paid $500 to play a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association in a match against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. This is the first recorded instance of a player being paid to participate in a game of American football, although many athletic clubs in the 1880s offered to help players attain employment, gave out trophies or watches that players would pawn for money, or paid double in expense money. Despite these extra benefits, the game had a strict sense of amateurism at the time, and direct payment to players was frowned upon, if not outright illegal.

Over time, professional play became increasingly common, and with it came rising salaries and unpredictable player movement, as well as the illegal payment of college players who were still in school. The National Football League, a group of professional teams that was originally established in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, aimed to solve these problems. This new league's stated goals included an end to bidding wars over players, prevention of the use of college players, and abolition of the practice of paying players to leave another team. By 1922, the NFL had established itself as the premier professional football league.

The dominant form of football at the time was played at the collegiate level, but the upstart NFL received a boost to its legitimacy in 1925 when an NFL team, the Pottsville Maroons, defeated a team of Notre Dame all-stars in an exhibition game. A greater emphasis on the passing game helped professional football to further distinguish itself from the college game during the late 1930s.

The rival American Football League arose in 1960 and challenged the NFL's dominance. The AFL began in relative obscurity but eventually thrived, with an initial television contract with the ABC network. The AFL's existence forced the conservative NFL to expand to Dallas and Minnesota in an attempt to destroy the new league. Meanwhile, the AFL introduced many new features to Professional Football in the United States: official time on the scoreboard clock, rather than on a watch in the referee's pocket, as the NFL did; optional two-point conversions by pass or run after touchdowns; names on the jerseys of players; and several others, including expansion of the role of minority players, actively recruited by the league in contrast to the NFL. The AFL also signed several star college players that had also been drafted by NFL teams.

Competition for players heated up in 1965, when the AFL New York Jets signed rookie Joe Namath to a then-record US $437,000 contract. A five-year, $40 million NBC television contract followed, which helped to sustain the young league. The bidding war for players ended in 1966, when NFL owners approached the AFL regarding a merger, and the two leagues agreed on one that would take full effect in 1970. This agreement provided for a common draft that would take place each year, and it instituted an annual World Championship game to be played between the champions of each league. That game began play at the end of the 1966 season. Once the merger was completed, it was no longer a championship game between two leagues, and reverted to the NFL championship game, which came to be known as the Super Bowl.

College football maintained a tradition of postseason bowl games. Each bowl game would be associated with a particular conference, and earning a spot in a bowl game was the reward for winning a conference. This arrangement was profitable, but it tended to prevent the two top-ranked teams from meeting in a true national championship game, as they would normally be committed to the bowl games of their respective conferences. Several systems have been used since 1992 to determine a national champion of college football. The first was the Bowl Coalition, in place from 1992 to 1994. This was replaced in 1995 by the Bowl Alliance, which gave way in 1997 to the Bowl Championship Series . The BCS arrangement proved to be controversial, and was replaced in 2014 by a four-team playoff system.

Teams and positions

A football game is played between two teams of 11 players each. Playing with more on the field is punishable by a penalty. Teams may substitute any number of their players between downs; this "platoon" system replaced the original system, which featured limited substitution rules, and has resulted in teams utilizing specialized offensive, defensive and special teams squads.

Individual players in a football game must be designated with a uniform number between 1 and 99. NFL teams are required to number their players by a league-approved numbering system, and any exceptions must be approved by the Commissioner.

Part Two coming tomorrow.

Tipster Street.