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Beginners Guide to American Football

Most people in the UK regard American football as “too complicated and confusing”.  In reality it is not too complicated and hopefully the basics outlined below will help in understanding the game.

It is important to keep in the back of your mind that American football is a different way of playing a sport than British citizens are used to.  Soccer and Rugby are more 'free-flowing' games, where plays develop and player initiative is extremely important.  American football, on the other hand, is a game of set plays (or set pieces if you prefer).  The game consists of a sequence of incredibly well designed and detailed plays with the inevitable aim of scoring.  In some ways American Football can be compared to a strategic game of chess.

The field in American football is 100 yards long, with markers every five yards.   The scoring area is the Endzone and the yard lines are marked relative to the goal line.  So the halfway point is the 50 yard line.  There will be two 10 yard lines, one 10 yards from each endzone and so on.

The game is split into quarters, each 15 minutes in length.  However, for more information on the timings and the play clock please see advanced rules below.

1. The Aim

Like most sports, the ultimate aim of a game is to score more points than the other team. 

There are 2 main ways of scoring points.  One is to score a Touchdown, which gives the team 6 points.  A touchdown is scored when a player with the ball crosses the goal line (same as the try line in rugby), or catches a ball in the ‘touchdown area’ known as an end-zone.  Contrary to common sense then ball does not have to touch the ground, instead just cross the line.

When a team scores a touchdown they have the option to go for either an ‘extra point’ (referred to as PAT or Point After Touchdown) or even go for two extra points.  If they opt to go for one extra point then this is similar to a conversion in rugby.  The kicker has to kick the ball through the goalposts.

If they decide to go for two extra points, then the team line up on the two yard line and try to score a touchdown again.  This may sound like the better option, but in fact two point attempts are rare and difficult to pull off, so generally teams go for the safer, one point attempt.

The other is to score a field goal, which is worth 3 points.  This is when one team kicks the ball over the goal posts (similar to a penalty kick in rugby). 

2. How to Game works

The game starts with a kick off.  One team kicks to the other - referred to as the receiving team.  Which team kicks is decided by a coin toss.  The kicker wants to kick the ball as far away from their own End-zone as possible (but staying on the pitch!).  This makes the job of the receiving team harder as they have further to go to score. 

Whoever catches the ball tries to get the ball as close to the opponent’s end-zone as possible or even score a touchdown, which is known to happen straight from the kick off!  As soon as the person with the ball gets tackled then the kick off is over.

The team with the ball is called the Offense and the defending team, sensibly, is the Defense (although if you want to sound authentic you should refer to them as the D-Fence, or even just the D).  Although the main aim is to score more points than the opposition, almost as important is to gain yards. 

Each team is allowed four attempts (called 'downs') to gain 10 yards.  One attempt continues until the player with the ball is tackled.  If they succeed then they get another 4 downs to gain a further 10 yards, and so on until they score. 

If they do not gain 10 yards then the opposition gets the ball, referred to as a ‘turnover on downs’.  So the stop-start aspect of American football is actually the end of one down and the beginning of the next. 

The offense is not just restricted to gaining 10 yards at a time.  If they can get the whole length of the field in one down then great!  The crowd goes wild!  The offense has a play book (can be over 800 pages) with a variety of plays that are designed to get these valuable yards.

In reality a team normally only has 3 downs to get the desired yards.  This is because the fourth down is generally used either to kick the ball back to the opposition (called a punt) and increase the distance for the opposition to have to move the ball to score, or to score a field goal if they are close enough.

The reason to kick the ball to the opposition (punt) or try to score a field goal on 4^th Down, is that if they fail to move the ball 10 yards in 4 attempts then the ball gets turned over at that position.  So kicking the ball away, does mean that you give up a chance to gain those 10 yards, but it does mean that you can try to get the opposition to start their offensive drive from further away.  Therefore kicking (or punting) the ball minimises the risk.  Sometimes teams do try to run or pass the ball on 4^th down to gain yards, but this can fail and have major consequences.

Therefore when you watch a game and people refer to the 2nd Down or 3rd Down then you now know that this is their 2nd or 3rd (respectively) attempt to gain those precious ten yards.  Often when someone refers to the down the team are currently on, they also give another number.  For example the commentator may say "3rd and 6".  This means that it is the teams third down, and they have 6 more yards to go in order to cross that imaginary 10 yard line.

3. How to gain yards

There are two main ways to gain yards, and move the ball down field.  The first is a pass.  This is when the ball is thrown to another player on the same team.  Generally the ball is thrown forward, and when the ball is caught the player can still continue to run towards the end-zone to gain more yards, until he is tackled - the down is then over.

The second method is the run.  A player can run get the ball and run as far as possible before being tackled.

4. Other ways of losing the ball

Apart from not making the 10 yards and having to turn over the ball, there are two more ways to lose the ball and give it to the opposition.  The first is an interception.  When the ball is thrown in an attempt to gain yards, the defense can try to catch the ball as well.  If they do then this is an interception and the player that intercepts can try to run the ball for a touchdown.  The other is a fumble.  A player with the ball may drop it.  If this happens there is a huge free-for-all as each player on both teams tries to recover the ball.  If the defense recovers it then the defense will gain possession and become the new offense.

5. The Players

On each side of the ball there are 11 players on the field at one time.  In one team the offense and the defense are separate.  They consist of different players and as a result one squad can contain 50 or so individuals (including reserves etc).  The offense job is to score, and the defenses' job is to stop the opponent’s offense from scoring.  But it is important to remember that they are different groups of player within each team.  Therefore if the offense loses the ball then they will leave the field and the defense will go on, and visa versa.

The offense: 

Offensive line - This consists of a line of men whose job it is to block the oncoming defending players, and if possible provide a 'corridor' in the defense, so that runners have a clear route towards the end-zone.  The offensive lines consist of the Centre (C).  He is the one that starts off holding the ball on the ground.  As soon as they play begins he 'snaps' it through his legs and gives it to the Quarterback (QB).  Either side of the Centre are the Guards (G) and Tackles (T).   The Tight End (TE) is a multi-functional player.  He can either block oncoming defensive players or can run forward and catch a pass from the Quaterback.

QB - This is the Quarterback.  He is the captain and all focus is on him.  He calls the plays (eg "Cheetah 19, Cheetah 19...).  The QB either hands the ball off to a running back (see below), throws the ball, or keeps it for himself and tries to run for yardage.

WR - These are wide receivers, or wide-outs.  Their role is mainly to run forward and catch a pass.  The route that they run (along with Tight-ends), is defined by the play that is called.  For example one play (say..Cheetah 19) might mean that the wide receiver runs straight for 15 yards and then suddenly cuts at right angles towards the middle of the pitch.  There are many other types of  'routes' but it is important for the wide receivers, and all players for that matter, to really know the details of each play as this is will allow the quarterback and receiver to link up effectively.  It is no good if the quarterback expects the receiver to do one thing, but in fact he does something different.  The wide receivers can also be used as blockers when the play is a run.

FB and TB - These are running backs (Full Backs and Tail Backs).  Their primary role is to get the ball from the quarterback (if it is a run play!) and run... Hopefully the offensive line have created gaps in the defense so that the running backs have space to run.  Running backs can also act as receivers on a pass play, giving the quarterback several options if indeed he calls a pass.

The defense:

The defensive line consists of Defensive Takles (DT) and Defensive Ends (DE).  Their role is to stop running plays and get to the Quarterback and tackle him (known as a ‘sack’).

CB – Corner Backs – cover the wide receivers, and try to break up pass plays.  They can also tackle runners in a run play.

The Linebacker (Middle Line Backer (MLB), Outside Line Backers (OLB)) have lots to do.  They have to stop runs and break up pass plays.  It is important for them to try to read whether it is either a pass or run play as if they come forward, thinking that it is a run, but in fact turns out the be a pass, they leave a large unmarked area behind them allowing the receiver plenty of time to catch and run.

The Field Safety (FS) and Strong Safety (SS) are the final line of defense and must make sure no play goes beyond them, otherwise a score is all but certain.

Each player does have more specific role, especially depending on the type of play.  But these are the very basics of what each player is expected to do.

For both the offense and defense I have only given one type of line up, or formation.  In fact there are various formations that offenses and defenses can line up in.  For example the offense may opt of 3 wide receives and so the Tight End would go off, and they would bring on an extra Wide Receiver.  Similarly, an offense may only want one running back, and have two tight ends.  Teams now are experimenting with Wild Cat formations, which are often bizarre line ups, with running back in place of the QB and shifting people around.  The purpose is to confuse the defense and keep them on their toes.

A defense may line up with 3 defensive lineman and 4 line backers and several others.   For more information on the types of formations look here http://brucey.net/nflab/howtoplay/formation.html (Offense) and http://football.about.com/cs/a/defformations.htm (Defense).

6. Advance rules

Hopefully you now understand the basics of the game.  There are plenty of advanced rules that you will pick up as you watch games.  American Football commentators are excellent at explaining detailed rules during games (probably because there is enough time between downs to really analyse and talk about plays).

There are a couple of advanced rules that I should mention however.  The first is called a Safety.  This is nothing to do with the defensive player.  I mentioned earlier that there were two main ways to score.  That is actually slightly untrue.  There is a third.  It is in fact, when the offensive team gets tackled within their own end-zone.  The defensive team receives two points, and the offensive team must punt the ball back to the defense.

Why do the games last so long?  This is an important point.  The clock can stop!  Let me explain.  The game consists of 4 quarters, each 15 minutes in length.  However, if the ball is thrown but not caught, or if a player runs out of bounds, then the clock stops.  A team can also call a timeout.  They get 3 timeouts per half.  A timeout also stops the clock.  This is why the games can go on for a while.  Why does the clock stop?  It is a good question, and I do not know the history behind it, but what it does create is a very strategic method of teams trying to control the clock.  If they need to score with only a a minute or so left, then the play calling is extremely important, as players need to get out of bounds in order to stop the clock and keep the game alive.  Similarly if you have the ball and are ahead, then you want to run out the clock so the opposition gets less time to score.  Sometimes clock management can go horrible wrong for teams.  In order to really understand the strategy with the clock, you really should watch a game and you will see teams trying to control it.  It becomes much clearer.

Special teams is a term that refers to the group of players that are involved in Field goals, punting, punt returns, kick offs, and field goal blocking.  Basically anything that involves a kick of some sort.  Special teams consists of a further 11 players, including the kicker and punter (generally separate players) and a whole host of others.  For a good video to explain special teams click here (http://www.videojug.com/interview/football-special-teams-2).

Hopefully that all makes sense.  You can read and read about how American Football is played, the rules and positions but nothing compares to watching a few games.  You will begin to understand pretty quickly.