If you’ve never seen a football before, it’s hard to figure out what’s going on on your screen when your friends watch football. Therefore, here is a small guide to the rules of football, so you can also follow them. If you even want to make some money on football, then you should check if you can find some good NFL odds. Here come the most important things in football.
4 downs, 10 yards
The first rules are actually very simple. You have four attempts to move the ball 10 yards. The four attempts are called “downs”. In football, one can either choose to run with the ball or to throw the ball. It’s the running back who runs with the ball, and it’s the quarterback who throws it. If the quarterback chooses to throw it, then it is a receiver who grabs it, and also sometimes a tight end. Therefore, one always starts with what is called 1st down and 10. First attempt, and 10 yards yet. For example, if you run 2 yards with the ball on the first try, then it would be 2nd down and 8. If you then threw the ball another 6 yards, it would be called 3rd down and 2 yards left. If you are lucky to move the ball the 10 yards, then you get four new downs, and then you try again. If you do not succeed, the opponent gets the ball
How to score?
There are different ways to score, and it is of course important to have control over how to score if you want to watch a football match. You should know the terms “touchdown” and “field goal” as a minimum if you want a chance to keep up. And then you need to know that at each end of the field there is an area called the “end zone”. Once you have that under control, we can get started
Touchdown
If you want to score a touchdown, then you must either grab the ball in the end zone or run with the ball into the end zone. If you can do that you get six points. But one can actually score even more points after scoring the touchdown.
1 extra point
The vast majority of teams choose to take one extra point after their touchdown and do so by kicking to the ball. A kicker comes on the field and must try to kick the ball between two goal posts that stand far away and are raised above the ground. If he succeeds in this, one gets one point. This is what most teams choose, and a touchdown therefore often gives a total of 7 points, and therefore you often see matches end eg 28-14 or 35-21.
2 extra points
There can be several different reasons why you want to score more than one point after making a touchdown. If you believe you can score another touchdown right away, then you can actually go for two points. If you score a touchdown, and then can score one right after, on one attempt, then you get eight points total. You can do this if you may be far behind, or if you want to expand your lead. It could also be that the weather conditions are so bad that it does not pay at all to kick the ball in the air.
Field goal
If you did not succeed in scoring the touchdown, but you are relatively close to the end zone, you can choose to try to score a field goal. Here, the ball must be kicked between the two goal posts, sometimes from over 60 yards. If you succeed, it gives three points, but if you fail, the opponent gets the ball where you shot from.
Punt
It can sometimes be an advantage to “punt” the ball. When it’s 4th down, you do not want to lose the ball close to your own end zone. Therefore, you can kick the ball so that it comes as far down the other end of the field as possible. Where the opposing team grabs the ball, or where the ball goes out of the field, they then start with the ball and get their four downs.