American football, not to confuse with soccer, is a very complete sport. Every aspects of sport are present: Stamina, strength, flexibility, speed, quickness, strategy, etc. These qualities are essential to be successful in football.
The dimensions are 100 yards long and 55 yards wide (a yard is approximately a meter: 1 yard = 3600/3937 meter or 1 yard = 0.914 401 8288 meter). The End Zones and goal posts are used to score points. There are lines across the field numbered from 50 to 10 from mid field. The lines are only used to determine the distance to the end zone.
This sport is called football because the ball measures exactly one foot in length ( about 30 cm.)
The winner of a game is the team that scores the most points by the end of the game. The duration of the game is 60 minutes divided in 4 quarters. Usually a game lasts about 2 hours and a half because the time is stopped often.
There are many ways to score:
How to score? There are many options to move forward. It can be done by air or on the ground.
A football team is composed of 3 squads: the offense, defense and special team. It is very rare that a player takes part in both offense and defense.
The receiving team gets ready to receive the ball, the other team kicks the ball far into the opponent's territory. A player of the receiving team catches the ball and starts to run towards the opponent's end zone with the help of his teammates. Meanwhile, the team that kicked tries to tackle the ball carrier before he gains too much distance. The play is stopped when the ball carrier has at least a knee down. The special teams take care of this phase of game. (The most impressive collisions occur at that time). Both special teams exit the field. The receiving team is replaced by the offence (they have the ball now) and the kicking team by the defense (they protect).
The blue offense on the right and the white defense on the left.
The squads are formed by very specialized players. Every play starts with a similar to the picture above.
The offense has always the possession of the ball. Every play starts the same way. A player of the offense (center) hands the ball between the legs to the Quarterback (captain of the offense). At that time the players are let loose and the action begins.
Football is a physical and rough sport. It is true that the players are impressive with their helmet and equipment. They look like gladiators. However american football is not only a gladiator sport. It is governed by strict rules. Seven referees are present on the field to make sure that the rules are followed.
The main interest of this sport lies on a few basic rules that I will try to explain. Now take a 30-sec. break, you will need it…
In order to score a touchdown (TD), it is necessary to advance 10 yards (~10 meters). To gain 10 yards at once is very rare, so the gain of ground is done step by step. A team has 4 tries (downs) to cover 10 yards. If the team gains at least 10 yards in less than 4 downs then it can continue on its advance. On the other hand if it fails to gain 10 yards in 4 downs then the team must surrender the possession of the ball. If the team is in its field there is an option to prevent the other team to get the ball close to the endzone: On the last down a team can punt the ball as far as it can. The team loses the ball but at least the opponent will not have the too close to the endzone.
Example:
The team needed 7 yards but got only 5 so the team loses the possession of the ball and become the defense
Another example:
Highschool is a tradition in the US. Most communities gather on friday nights to go see the local highschool game. The best kids start to be stars. There are rankings of the best players and have thus a good chance to continue to the next level. College.
College is a big business and its actors are amateurs. They get free tuition to study at universities but hardly have the chance to study. I personally experienced the college life: 5am wakeup, 6am ready at the training facility to do the high intensity drills, 7:30am hit the shower, 8am first class starts glad to be sited to rest, 1pm last class over get something to eat, 2pm ready with equipment on to do the strategy and skills drills on the field, 7pm end of practice, 8pm back at the dorm do some homework. The athletes are really spending all the energy on the sport and can't really concentrate on the academics.
The rules in College are quite similar to the NFL with some differences: When a player hits the ground with a knee then the play is ruled dead (on the other hand in the NFL an opponent has to touch him to be down).
The season is about 10 games long and currently finishes with invitation to bowls. The top teams of each division qualify and go play to bowls like the cotton, orange, rose, citrus, peach bowls. Throughout the year, a collection of sports journalists and coaches vote for teams. A computer takes into account the strength of the teams faced, the result of the votes, victories, margin of victory etc. and results in a ranking from 1 to 1000 of the college teams. Usually the top 25 are the ones getting the attention and at the end of the year the team that finishes number one is the champion. It is not rare that there are 2 champions a shared number one ranking.
Typical teams that constantly at the top of the crowd include: Notre Dame, U of Miami, Florida State, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama and many more. If you are passionate about college football then you have to visit that site
The NFL is a huge business and show. The excitement is part of the game. The best athletes are part of that league.
There are 31 teams and the champions are determined by the Superbowl. The final of the playoffs.
The college athletes are selected in turns in April. The team that finished last the season before can choose first in the pool of the new wave of players. Then the second worst team chooses first and so on all the way to the last one to pick who won the superbowl. Then a second round continues and the same ranking of picks is followed and that for 6 or 7 rounds. Teams can offer to trade a high pick for maybe two lower pics if that team needs help in many places instead of having one great players it might be useful to have more players with a slight lesser talent.
The talent ranking is determined by how the college players fared during their career in college and the size, speed, force, character, shoe colors, favorite movie, their opinion about the reproduction of the cetacean in the Baltic sea etc. :) It has become a science to determine if a player will be a force that will help the NFL team to win...
Some General manager were elected to guru or religious figure almost for finding rare perls that fell through the cracks. For example Joe Montana a QB from Notre Dame was selected only in the 3rd round. Teams had a shot at getting him 3 times until Bill Walsh decided that he would be a good fit. 15 years later, he helped the 49ers win 4 superbowls and he was named the best player of the league twice and the best player of the superbowl 3 times only player to achieve that. On the other hand, there are teams that select the best player, so they think, offer millions of $ but end up with a bust.
A notable example is Ryan Leaf. Of course when a bad decision is made that triggers a lot of hate from the public. Another example, a while back, there was a great player from University of Texas, Ricky Williams, ready to enter the NFL. He was spectacular, amazing, wining the Heisman trophy (best player in college). The Philadelphia Eagles seemed to be a great fit to select that player. Instead, they decided to select Donovan McNabb that led to the hostility of the Eagles fans as they were sure that Ricky was the man. In the end, Donovan has proven that he is the man. Ricky is as well but in Miami now.
The CFL is the canadian flavor of football. The rules are similar except that there are 12 players (one more than in the NFL) and a player can be in motion at all times. Also there are only 3 downs compared to 4 in the NFL so that brings the passing attack a more preeminent phase of the sport. There are many good players that came from the CFL (Warren Moon, Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia)
The Arena football is a smaller market but growing. There are fewer players and it is played indoors. The scores can go up to 67 to 54.
There is a lot more to say about it but I don't have much time for the moment so be patient and the rest will follow. I plan to talk about
created May 5, 1998, revised 21 april 2004, fabQB@yahoo.com
