It’s that time of year where I’ll be invited to some Super Bowl party and pretend to understand what’s happening on-screen, but in actuality have almost no clue. I realize that the goal, so to speak, is to take the soccer ball–err, football (always get that mixed up!) and carry/kick it/throw it into the endzone.
And that, my friends, concludes my knowledge of football.
So if someone like me wanted to better understand what’s happening in the usual game of “football,” where would he begin? Keep in mind I’m easily distracted and grow bored easily, and have never been too fond of sports in general…
It’s not that complicated. Funny how people around here are so proud of their ignorance when it comes to sports. I don’t watch sports at all but I at least know the basic rules of the major games.
Think of it as ritualized warfare. That is fairly descriptive and makes it interesting.
At the begining of the game a coin will be tossed and the winner of the toss gets to decide whether they want to kick the ball to the other team or receive the kick. This decides who will possess the ball first. The receiver will try to move the ball as far toward his goal as possible. Wherever the ball goes to ground, usually by the guy with the ball being tackled, determines the line of scrimage or battle line.
The team in possession of the ball has 4 tries to move the ball 20 yards toward their goal, if you move the ball 20 yards you get 4 more tries, called ‘downs’. You keep this up as long as you can or until you move the ball into the end zone and score. On the 4th try if it doesn’t look like you are going to make your 20 yard mark, the kicker will come in and punt (kick) the ball as far back into the other team’s territory as he can so that they will have more ground to cover to reach their goal.
Getting the ball into the end zone, called a touchdown, is worth 6 points. Kicking it through the upright posts after scoring is worth 1 more point, called the ‘extra’ point (doh). You can also decide to run in the extra point instead of kicking but this is risky and seldom done, that would be worth 2 points and is call a ‘conversion’.
The other way to score is called a field goal. This is done when your team is close enough to the goal to kick the ball though the upright posts, but too far away or out of ‘downs’ to make sense trying for a touch down. This is worth 3 points.
Once one team scores they kick off again to the other team and the whole cycle begins again. The ball may be thrown to another player on your team, or handed to a runner. The team without the ball is always trying to take it away from the team who has it.
There are various rules of behavior that can result in penalties that may result in the ball being moved in favor of the other team. These are too numerous and obscure to get into here. All you need to know is that when one of the moderators or referees pulls out a yellow flag and throws it on the ground or tosses it in the air, somebody did a bad thing.
There is more but that is all you need to get started.
I don’t know what you’re implying here. I want to learn more, hence this thread. I’m not proud of my ignorance regarding this, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t project that onto me.
Oh, and thanks for the Wiki link, huge help:rolleyes:
One other quick point is blocking. Opposed to Rugby there are at least 5, possibly 9 players on any offensive play there only to block(physical prevent) the defensive players from being able to tackle the guy holding the ball. Many of the for too tedious to mention rules have to do with when, where, and how you are able to block.
I’m pretty sure it’s 10 yards per 4 downs, actually. Other than that, that’s accurate.
Anyway, if you’re going to a Super Bowl party, here’s some other advice.
[ul]
[li]Figure out who everyone is rooting for. Cheer when they’re moving the ball, or stopping the other team from moving the ball. Boo for the opposite.[/li][li]Watch the commercials. They’re usually funny, and make good conversation.[/li][li]When the referee (the guy in black and white stripes) calls a penalty (throws the yellow flag), that means a minute or 2, or more, of no action. That’s when everyone eats/talks/goes to the bathroom.[/li][/ul]
The thing is, football is a very complicated game. It’s not something that can be summed up in a message board post or three. If you have a specific question, I’m sure one of our experts could answer it but “Explain football” is a bit like “Explain calculus” or “What’s the history of England from the Norman invasion to the election of Tony Blair?” The Wikipedia link is a pretty good starting point, I’m not sure why you rolled your eyes at it. Beyond that I’m sure there are books in the “For dummies” or “Keep it simple” series you could look at. But there’s no real way to understand it other than by watching a lot of games.
I think your best bet is to just go to the party and enjoy it for the company. Most people aren’t going to give you a hard time unless you pretend to know more than you do. In fact, a lot of people will get a kick out of explaining the game to a newbie. Pick a team to pull for based on their city or who everyone else is pulling for, and ask questions as the game progresses. Enjoy the food and drink, and observe the fans in their natural habitat.
Imagine you’re the quarterback. By which I mean you show up and ten big guys in the same uniform you’re wearing explain that one of 'em is about to hand you the ball, at which point any of the other eleven guys can tackle the ball carrier. Your teammates ask: what should we do then?
Your first response might be for all ten to line up in front and block for you as you head for the endzone; if so, call 'em your offensive line. The defense will presumably respond by lining up ten guys (the defensive line) to slam into 'em, in hopes of getting one or more through to tackle you; they’ll probably hold back one speedy guy as a last-chance contingency in case no defensive lineman reaches you (call him a safety).
Your second response might be to peel a teammate or two off the offensive line: have them drop back with you so you can simply hand one of 'em the ball, which he’ll then run; let him dodge would-be tacklers, right? Well, those are your running backs, who are faster than you.
So why does your team even need a quarterback? Because you excel at throwing the ball – so peel yet more teammates from the offensive line and have 'em run down the field, where you can throw it to 'em; call 'em your receivers. The defense, not being stupid, will likewise peel guys off their line to assign cornerbacks to cover your receivers: at worst they plan to be right in place to tackle one who gets the ball, but ideally they’ll smack the ball out of the air first or even intercept it.
The defense will also assign a few smaller and quicker guys to back up their defensive line: their big linemen will slam into your big linemen, creating holes for nimble linebackers to zip in and tackle (a) you before you can get rid of the ball, or (b) your running back, if you’ve already handed it off.
If you can get it to the endzone – running it yourself, or having a running back do it for you, or passing it to a receiver – that’s a touchdown, six points (with a chance to make it seven or eight). If you can’t quite make it, kick a field goal for three. If you can’t even get close, kick it far downfield so the other team’s offense will have a long hard slog to your endzone.
As has been said, you get four tries to move it ten yards; the field is a hundred yards long; there are a lot of other little details (an incomplete pass ends the play and stops the clock, a tackle ends the play and doesn’t stop the clock, the defense can scoop up a fumbled ball and suddenly become the offense) – but you should be able to follow that from the announcer’s play-by-play.
General rules for appreciating football and appearing knowledgeable.
Sit on the side that your team is on, or with a group that supports your team.
If they cheer, you respond “great play, did you that!”
If they boo, you respond “he couldn’t help it he was held!”
If you see a yellow rag on the field, and the guy in the striped shirts points towards your team, you say “are you blind!” If he points to the other team, you respond “It’s about time!”
Watch the scoreboard. The team with the most points is winning.
When the cannon goes off, or everyone leaves the stands, the game is over. Go home.
Well, there’ll be food at these Super Bowl parties, yes? Go and get your graze on. At this point, if you say anything about football, it’ll flash across your chest like Hester Prynne’s “A”.
That was my point with the Wiki link - you are proud of your ignorance or you wouldn’t have made a thread bragging about how ignorant you were of sports rules. You could have done some very simple and basic research on it that is readily available all over the place.
Wikipedia articles on subjects you don’t have any understanding of in the first place are next to useless. You shouldn’t berate a Doper for coming here for help first.
There was a thread on this last year during the playoffs. The responses were less than helpful. People immediately started recounting on how to recognize complicated defensive schemes, and not focusing on the basics. It was a trainwreck. And people think, “hey - I know a few things about football, I’ll post it!”, and the thread becomes a piecemeal smorgasbord of confusion (i.e. “20 yards for a first down” !?!).
The OP needs to read the wiki page, and come back with specific questions for clarification. Those questions should focus on the absolute basics of the game before it starts getting needlessly confusing.
