Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
American football rules. Gameplay in American football consists of a series of downs, individual plays of short duration, outside of which the ball is or is not in play. These can be plays from scrimmage – passes, runs, punts or field goal attempts (from either a place kick or a drop kick) – or free kicks such as kickoffs and fair catch kicks.
American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, [ nb 1] is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running ...
Strategy is a major part of American football. Both teams plan many aspects of their play, such as what formations they take, who they put on the field, and the roles and instructions each player is given for both offense and defense. Throughout a game, each team responds to the other's apparent strengths and weaknesses, trying various ...
The following is a list of common and historically significant formations in American football. In football, the formation describes how the players in a team are positioned on the field. Many variations are possible on both sides of the ball, depending on the strategy being employed. On offense, the formation must include at least seven ...
An illegal block or tackle using the legs to trip an opponent. line of scrimmage. One of six vertical planes parallel to the goal line when the ball is to be put in play by scrimmage. For each team in American football, the line of scrimmage is through the point of the ball closest to their end line.
A standard football game consists of four 15-minute quarters (12-minute quarters in high-school football and often shorter at lower levels, usually one minute per grade [e.g. 9-minute quarters for freshman games]), [6] with a 12-minute half-time intermission (30 minutes in Super Bowl) after the second quarter in the NFL (college halftimes are 20 minutes; in high school the interval is 15 or 20 ...
The history of American football can be traced to early versions of rugby football and association football.Both games have their origin in multiple varieties of football played in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century, in which a football is kicked at a goal or kicked over a line, which in turn were based on the varieties of English public school football games descending from medieval ...
American football positions. A diagram showing an I formation on offense and a 4-3 formation on defense. In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players [ 1] on the field at one time and have "unlimited ...