Basics

Although it can sometimes go on for three hours, the actual playing time in American Football is 60 minutes. These 60 minutes are divided up into bitsize chunks of 4 quarters, with the teams swapping ends at the end of each quarter. Like our sports, they also have a half-time – which was made famous by Janet Jackson getting her boob out a few years back.

The Aim of the Game
Sticking to the 'we have more points than you so we win' formula that is popular in a lot of sports, the aim of the game is to score more points than your opponents. You can do this in a number of ways:

1. Touchdown (TD): this is when the team in possession cross the goal line and get into the Endzone. In blatant false advertising, the ball does not need to be touched down like in rugby, but as long as the player has control of it in the endzone, the team get 6 points.

Once a touchdown is scored, the attacking team get the opportunity to add an extra point to make it 7. This is similar to a conversion in rugby where a specialist kicker kicks the ball through the posts from not very far out. They rarely miss.

In rare cases, it is possible to earn 2 extra points, but scoring what looks to be another touchdown. It normally only happens in desperate situations, but if you see it happening, at least now you can’t accuse us of lying to you.

2. Field Goal: this is a kick at goal and is worth 3 points. If the team in possession feel they are close enough, they can bring on their specialist kicker to attempt a field goal. This can be attempted from any distance, but as the kicker isn’t Superman, a 50 yard kick is normally the longest that will be tried.

A team called also get points from what is called a safety, but your eyes are already looking a bit glazed over and it rarely happens, so if you want to learn more check out this which explains it better than we ever could

After kickoff, team A kicks the ball to team B who will catch it and attempt to run as far upfield as possible. The team that kicked off will try to stop this progress as far away from their goal as possible. After the intial kickoff, team B will have possession of the ball on the X yard line.

They are now in a situation known as 1st and 10. They now have 4 attempts (known as plays) to progress 10 yards up the field. In an effort to get the required ten yards, they can opt for pass the ball forward or to run the ball in hand. Any yardage they gain from this play gets taken away from the 10, for example, if the team advance 5 yards up the field, it becomes 2nd and 5. If on the next play, the team make no progress up the field, this becomes 3rd and 5. If they haven't got the 10 yards after the 3rd down, most teams will opt to attempt a field goal or punt the ball away - unless they are losing in the closing stages.

Simply known as "The Catch" because Joe Montana threw it and Dwight Clark caught it. Makes sense really.


Bill Belichick - Professional spy, wins Superbowls in his spare time.