NFL Guide: Understand How American Football Game Works

Forget the stereotype of violent sports: strategy, quarterback, touchdown, defense teams, offense, and specialists. Here's what you need to know to follow the NFL season.

The main sport of the United States, American football, has begun to win the world even with NFL fantasy picks. Despite this, many still find it difficult to understand how the dynamics of a match work. If you don't understand the basics, we prepared a small guide with the main things you need to know so you don't get lost during a game.

Field and Measures

The football field is 120 yards (109.7 meters) long and 53.5 yards (48.92 meters) wide (1 yard = 0.9144 meters). Yards are marked one by one, with multiples of 5 marked with the entire line and multiples of 10 numbered on the turf.

There are two end zones, an area at the end of both sides of the field with dimensions of 10 yards by 53.5 yards, generally painted in the home team's colors, and two beams in the shape of a "Y."

Objective

American football is a turf-conquering sport. Therefore, strategy is fundamental. The main objective is simple: reach the opponent's end zone as often as possible. The more a team manages to do this, the more points they get.

How Does the Game Start

As in traditional soccer, the team that starts with the ball is also decided by a coin toss in an NFL game. After the "draw," it's time for the kickoff. The team that starts with the ball is responsible for kicking off the match while the opponent prepares to receive the kickoff.

The returner, a player of the team that receives the ball and is responsible for catching it after the opponent's kickoff has a choice to make:

• Try to make a comeback: get the ball and move forward to have a good field position; the attack will start when the player is tackled or goes out the side.
• Kneel and give up returning: If you do this in your end zone, the offensive team starts the game at the defensive 25-yard line.

The decision is based on the space the player sees on the field when he receives the ball. The teammates make the blocks so the player can advance as many yards as possible while the opponents try to take him down to prevent the advance.

Where the player is knocked down, it's the point at which the offense will begin its campaign (1st down). A touchdown is characterized when you cross the field and enter the opposing end zone. Then comes your team's turn to kick off for the rival to attack.

Scores

There are three ways to score in a football game. The main score is the touchdown (TD) when the player can possess the ball inside the opponent's end zone, either receiving a pass inside or running in with the ball. The TD is worth six points.

After scoring the touchdown and receiving confirmation from the arbitration, the team has two options to score extra points. The first one is a single kick hitting inside the "Y" (1 point) or re-entering the endzone (2 points), and the second score is the field goal. The kicker is responsible for the execution and needs to make the kick pass inside the "Y" shaped beam at the bottom of the field. If you succeed, add three points to your team. If you miss, the opposing team will have possession of the ball at the point of the kick to try to attack.

Safety is an unusual score that is usually scored by the defense. It gives two points to the team when it manages to execute a tackle (take down the rival), take the opponent out of the field within its endzone, or even force a foul inside the endzone itself. In this case, in addition to scoring, the team still receives ball possession back in a punt.

We'll stop here now, but we hope you understand what is happening on the pitch. Thanks for reading!

NFL Guide: Understand How American Football Game Works to SEC Football

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