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During the game, the officials are assisted in the administration of the game by other persons, including a clock operator to start and stop the game clock (and possibly also the play clock); a chain crew who hold the down indicator and the line-to-gain chains on the sideline; and ball boys, who provide footballs to officials between downs (e.g ...
Possession at the start of a game (and, in some sports, in a neutral restart) may be determined by several methods, including a coin flip (American football and cricket), home team status (baseball), or by giving the teams an equal opportunity to physically take possession, in what is variously called a dropped-ball (association football), a ball-up (Australian rules football), a jump ball ...
A "time count" (the same foul as "delay of game" in American football), which is a 5-yard penalty (with the down repeated) at other points in the game, becomes a loss of down penalty on first or second down and a 10-yard penalty on third down.
A play, originating in the Alliance of American Football and since adopted by other minor professional leagues, in which the scoring team opts to attempt to gain a set amount of yardage (10 to 15 yards in most leagues) on one play from scrimmage; if successful, the team retains possession, but if unsuccessful, the opposing team regains ...
A play clock, also called a delay-of-game timer, is a countdown clock intended to speed up the pace of the game in gridiron football.The offensive team must put the ball in play by either snapping the ball during a scrimmage down or kicking the ball during a free kick down before the time expires, or else they will be assessed a 5-yard delay of game (American football) or time count violation ...
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 the Super Bowl) after the second quarter in the NFL (college halftimes are 20 minutes; in high school the interval is 15 ...
The first American football game was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, using rules based on the rules of soccer at the time. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp , the "Father of American Football", established the snap , the line of scrimmage , eleven-player teams, and the ...
Under American rules a fumble may be confused with a muff. A muff occurs where a player drops a ball that he does not have clear possession of, such as while attempting to catch a lateral pass or improperly fielding a kicking play such as a punt (a player cannot "fumble" a loose ball). Ball security is the ability of a player to maintain ...