How to Play American Football

0:00 Overview of American Football
0:27 The kickoff
0:36 The down system
1:24 Punting on 4th down
1:48 Scoring a touchdown
2:03 Scoring an extra point or a two-point conversion
2:18 Kicking a field goal
2:48 What happens after a team scores
2:59 Winning the game

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[Why_Not_Studios]

I needed this since I'm joining my high school football team. Thank you.

[hanochkurian]

Let me explain it in simple terms 😌👇🏻
American football, unlike soccer, is played with an oval-shaped ball and involves both running and throwing the ball to score points. Here's a simplified breakdown:
* The Field: Imagine a rectangular field with goalposts at each end.
* The Teams: Two teams of 11 players each take turns on offense (trying to score) and defense (trying to prevent the other team from scoring).
* Scoring: Teams score by advancing the ball down the field and either:
* Running the ball into the opponent's end zone (like a soccer goal) for a touchdown (6 points).
* Kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal (3 points).
* Moving the Ball: The offense gets four tries (downs) to advance the ball at least 10 yards down the field. They can do this by either running the ball or throwing it to a teammate. If they succeed, they get another set of four downs. If they fail to gain 10 yards after four downs, the other team takes over on offense.
* The Game: The game is divided into four quarters, each 15 minutes long. The team with the most points at the end wins!

[BigZay]

I just want to mention one additional way to score points that is not explained in the video. A safety is when an offensive player is either tackled in the opponent's endzone or runs out the back of the endzone. The result is that an opposing team is rewarded two points and a kickoff will follow. I'm a huge football fan and even I'm learning new things, like if you score a safety on a PAT then it counts for 1 point instead of 2.

[arushdeep]

Thanks for the explanation. I still didnt understand.

[ishaheen]

This game is more complicated than finding Pi value

[chasewainscott]

As someone who likes football, this is kind of a confusing guide that adds a lot of unnecessary explanation so I’ll try to explain it a little simpler (updated after a while to be a bit easier to follow):

Basic gameplay loop:

-The offensive team has the ball, and is trying to move it to the other side of the field, while the defensive team is trying to prevent them from doing that at all costs.

-The blue line shows where the line of scrimmage (the starting line) is, and the orange/yellow line marks 10 yards from the initial line of scrimmage. At the end of every play, the line of scrimmage is moved to wherever the last player to hold the ball was tackled.

-The offense has 4 attempts (downs) to try to bring the ball from the initial line of scrimmage to the orange line. If they succeed, the down counter resets to 1 and the offense keeps the ball for another 4 attempts, rinse and repeat. If they fail, the ball is turned over to the defense and the starting line is wherever the ball touched the ground at the end of the previous 4th down. (Usually with a punt)

-When the offense successfully reaches the other side of the field, they gain 6 points immediately. The offense then has two options: Kick the ball into the goalpost for 1 point (Field Goal), or get the ball from the 10-yard line to the endzone in a single play for 2 points (2-point conversion). If it’s 4th down and the offense believes they’re pretty close to the endzone, they can kick the ball into the goalpost (Field Goal) without scoring a touch down first for 3 points.

-The ball is turned over to the other team after every touchdown or Field Goal when the scoring team’s kicker kicks the ball as far as he can towards the other endzone (kickoff), then a player from the previous defense can catch the ball and run as far as he can before he gets tackled. The next first down starts wherever that player who caught the ball was tackled.

-The previously described gameplay loop repeats for four quarters with a halftime show at the end of the second quarter. Each quarter is 15 minutes of in-play time, but the amount of time the games last vary because the timer pauses a lot.

You can stop here, but here’s some smaller stuff that you might need to know:

-You don’t really need to know any positions other than Quarterback, Runningback, and Receiver. These are the offensive positions that are holding the ball 90% of the time.

-A “Sack” is when the defense tackles the Quarterback (the guy who throws/hands off the ball) before he has the chance to move it up the field. It’s a big deal because it puts the offense farther away from the first down line.

-Whenever a referee throws out a yellow flag, it indicates a foul (holding, false start, facemask, etc.), and whatever team that player was on gets a penalty between 5 and 15 yards.

-Interceptions work pretty intuitively: when a player on the defense catches a pass that was meant for a player on the offense, the player that caught the ball has a free chance to run as far up the field as he can until he gets tackled, then the teams switch sides at whatever line the player went down at.

-Fumbles work identically to interceptions, but instead of catching a pass, it’s when an offensive player drops the ball and a defensive player picks it up off the ground.

-When the ball is kicked across the field after a post-touchdown turnover, if the ball lands in the opposite endzone, that’s called a “touchback, ” and the first line of scrimmage will be 20 yards from the endzone.


-If the defense pushes the offense far enough back so the ball is down in the endzone to the offense’s backside, that’s called a “Safety” and the defense gains two points.

That’s about all I can think of, anything outside of these rules is going to be some technicality in the rule book and is rarely seen. If you can understand this explanation, you can understand a game of American football. If you’re watching it on a TV, there’s probably gonna be someone in the room who can answer any questions I didn’t answer in this comment.

The NFL season generally starts around late August to September and ends around Early February with the Super Bowl. I hope to see everyone there cheering on their favorite team 🏈🏈🏈

[mohd]

As s soccer ( football ) fan watching this, I realized how simple soccer is 💀

[rockstarali]

I had no idea about how this game is played but it’s so cool!! It’s like a tussle, but turned into a sport. Manly af, wish more countries played this.

[fwgriffin]

thanks i am currently joining the middle school football team ! this was very helpful

[LemCatOfficial]

Thanks! It was very straight forward for me, now I can start watching the games with some comprehension! 😂❤

[dalian]

i thought the game was more complicated because of the numbers on the field. i thought those numbers meant something more than measurements lol

[bencesilling]

I love how American sports are overcomplicated.

[StardustFilms]

Something that is not mentioned is a interception. Which means if the offense tries to throw the pass and the defense catches it, then that’s an interception

[PaVachana]

Thanks for the video. I’ll still do my cycling.

[oliviabridges]

Tbh I’m just tryin to learn so I can keep up with the guys! They loose me so quick and I love watching because I mean it’s a bunch of huge dudes tackling each other who wouldn’t think it’s fun?! But I would actually like to understand what Im watching at some point.

[albertavila]

me watching this cuz i wanted to join the football team in highschool 😭

[MahadKhan-cqol]

Thank you so much for making this video, I never understood how this game works

[zabylurt]

Never understood this weird sport i keep seeing in american movies, but it looks fun

[gabrielleraul]

when did sports stop being fun and start being so damn confusing...

[josephchege.]

Let me stick with FIFA football. I can't understand anything 😭🤣😭🤣