With the Super Bowl (America’s national football championship) coming up this weekend I thought it would be a good idea to go over the rules of this game. The first thing I need to make clear is that when I say “football” I am not talking about soccer. Many people around the world refer to the game of soccer as “football” or “fútbol” or “Fußball” or “futebol” and so on. The sport I am referring to, as football is “American football.” We here in the United States just call this sport “football” not “American football”. This is a game played with a brown egg-shaped ball, not a round black and white ball.
Here is how you play:
Football is played with two teams working against one another.
The game begins with a “kick off.” This is when one team kicks the ball as far as possible from one end of the field toward the opposite end of the field. The opposing team tries to catch the ball that has been kicked and once they have the ball they start running with it (in their hands) toward the opposite end of the field (they are running toward the end of the field where the ball was kicked from). The team that has the ball is called the offensive team (offense) and the team trying to stop the ball from advancing to the end of the field is called the defensive team (defense).
After the kick off, the offense has four plays or chances, which are called “downs,” to carry the ball at least 10 yards (9.1 m). If the offensive team does not advance 10 yards (because the defensive team stops them) then the offense team loses the play and they have one less chance to carry the ball to the other end of the field. When the offense reaches the end of the field with the ball they scores points. The end of the field is called “the end zone.” For example, if the offensive team catches the ball after the kick off and then only advances 5 yards before they are stopped, they lose one “down” and now they only have 3 more “downs” or chances to keep moving the ball the other five yards. Every time the offense successfully moves the ball 10 yards, the “downs” reset, and they have another 4 “downs” to move the ball an additional 10 yards.
On the fourth “down”, if the offensive team (the one with the ball) is not close enough to the end of the field to make it there to score points, the offensive team can choose to try to kick the ball to the end zone instead. If the team chooses to kick the ball to the end of the field they must kick it through the field goal posts to earn points.
If the offensive team does not kick the ball through the posts after their fourth “down” then they get no points and the defensive team gets the ball. Now the defensive team becomes the offensive team (the team with the ball is always the offensive team) and this team has four chances or “downs” to try and move the football to the opposite end of the field.
Anytime during the game, the defensive team can try to steal the ball away from the offensive team while the players are running with the ball or throwing the ball. For example, if one offensive player tries to throw the ball to a person on his own team (to try and move the ball forward to the end zone), but a defensive team member catches the ball instead, this indicates the defensive team just “gained possession” of the ball and now the defensive team turns to the offensive team and the ball starts being run in the opposite direction.
That is a basic summary of what is happening in a football game. The players on one team are trying to move the football from where it is at to the end of the field where they will earn point. The players on the other team are trying to stop them. Football can be a rough sport as the defensive team can do just about anything to try and stop the offensive team from advancing. This will all make more sense when you are watching a game being played! You can do this on Sunday if you watch the Super Bowl.
The last basic piece of information you need to know about the game of football is how many points get awarded for different actions. If a team carries the ball into the end zone the team gets 6 points. After the team gets the ball to the end zone they also have the chance to kick the ball through the goal posts to earn one more point, for a total of 7 possible points for each offensive play. If a team decides to kick the ball through the goal posts on the fourth down (because they are too far away from the end zone to carry the ball there to get 6 points) the team will receive just 3 points if they make the kick and the ball goes through the field goal posts.
