Lauren Miller
For those who are football fans this is a great time of year. For those of us girls who find football confusing and boring this time can be, well, confusing and frustrating especially when we have our eyes on a guy who only seems to have his eyes on ESPN.
This is my attempt at making a quick guide to all things football. You won’t know every play or position, but you’ll at least know the basics to help you understand the game.
A football game consists of four 15 minute quarters with a 12 minute intermission at halftime (the middle of the game).
So who are all those people down there on that field? A football team is divided into different squads for different times depending on what the needs are on the field. Each squad has 11 players.
- The offensive squad are the guys trying to score.
- The defensive squad are the guys trying to prevent the scoring
- The special teams squad are the guys used for kickoffs and field goals.
On each squad there are different players that are responsible for different things.
A game is begun when the kicker, a special teams member, kicks the ball at the opposite team that is trying to catching the ball and run it down the field as far as possible to set their offense up a good field position. (This also occurs after someone scores and after half time).
On the offense there’s a center his job is to hike the ball to the quarterback. Then there’s the quarterback his job is to either throw the ball to a player, hand the ball off to one of the players or keep the ball and run with it. The other players on the field are the guards, tackles, and ends who protect he quarterback and the three running backs whose job it is to catch the ball if the quarterback throws it to him.
A football field is divided into 10 ft sections. The team has four tries (or downs) to move the ball from one 10 ft section to the next 10 ft section. If the team can’t do this the ball is turned over to the other team. The goal of the offense is to move the football down the field to the opposite end of the field to score points.
The offense has three ways to score points.
- A touchdown- when the ball is taken into the end zone. This is worth 6 points.
- A field goal- this occurs after a touchdown and is when a kicker kicks the ball between the goal posts. This is worth 1 point.
- Or instead of a field goal the ball can be carried or passed back into the end zone for 2 points.
Moving to the other side of the field let’s figure out who all the defensive players are. They are a lot less complicated. Basically there is a defensive line, linebackers, and defensive backs or secondaries. All these players have different names, but they’re all responsible for one basic thing…preventing the offense from scoring.
The defense can only score points if they do a safety which is when they bring the offense down in the offense’s own goal area.
Let’s hope this little guide can help us girls get through the football season looking a little smarter about football to our male counterparts. And if I missed something you can always ask. It’ll make a great conversation piece for that pigskin obsessed dude.
