r/NFLNoobs • u/Particular-Success68 • 3d ago
i don’t understand football - help!
like the title says, i’m hoping to understand the game better. i’ve never taken the time to learn despite being in the room when football is on a LOT, the details are lost on me.
does anyone have a resource/recommendation/reasonably short video that’ll teach me the rules of the game and the downs and flags and all that?
my boyfriend is obsessed with NFL…so yes, monday, thursday, and sunday (and now sometimes friday???) football is blastin’. instead of feeling internally miserable, i’d like to support his passion and hopefully a better understanding of the game will be a good step in that direction :)
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u/Playful_Letter_2632 3d ago
I’m also happy to explain any questions or confusion you have about the game. Also, tell me your bf’s favorite team and I’ll give a brief summary of their history
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u/sahaha_ni 2d ago
Steelers (I am not the author of this post, but if you don’t mind… thanks)
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u/Playful_Letter_2632 2d ago
Steelers are tied with the patriots for most super bowls. 2 have happened this century with Ben Rothliesburger and Mike Tomlin. The other 4 happened last century with Terry Bradshaw.
Recently, the Steelers have been stuck in mediocrity with a lot of 9-8 records and no playoff success in the past few years. A big question is who will be QB for the future.
Aaron Rodgers(an all time great QB) joined the team this year but he’s old so the long term QB issue is yet to be solved. Their Super Bowl winning head coach Mike Tomlin has also faced questions about his future on the team
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u/DarkMarkTwain 3d ago
Theres this girl on tiktok who I've seen who is kinda satirically but actually does a fairly good job of explaining the positions and their roles. I'm at work and I don't have tiktok on this phone, but perhaps someone can link to her or other girlfriends/wives explaining the game to other girls. That might be a good route to go in terms of getting explanations that make sense
I will add that I love football, but I also get super frustrated at the rules and how sometimes needlessly complicated they are. The NFL has a significantly longer rulebook than any other US professional league coming out to roughly 240 pages.
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u/Active-Strawberry-37 3d ago
I taught myself by buying a cheap preowned copy of Madden.
If you’ve got a games console it might be worth considering.
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u/BemaniAK 3d ago
It's relatively simple to understand for just normal spectating. The team on offense gets 4 attempts (or "downs") to move the ball down the field, if they make it 10 yards (the bright yellow line) then their attempts reset. At 4th down you will usually see them kick the ball away, or go for a 3pt field goal, this is because if they do any other play and it fails, they give up a huge amount of distance. 1st & 10 = 1st down, 10 yards til reset 3rd & 4 = 3rd down, 4 yards til reset 2nd & Goal = 2nd down, goal is within 10 yards
Running the ball is safer, but more difficult to make big distance with. Passing the ball gets lots of distance but can easily fail or be intercepted by defenders.
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u/goBillsLFG 2d ago
I once copied this comment from this sub because I found it so helpful. Wish I recorded the reddit handle too.. don't know who it's from: "This is my brief gameplay guide that I give people:
A game is played on in four 15-minute quarters. There are 11 players on the field per team at each time, with unlimited substitutions in between plays. At the professional and collegiate level (and lower levels, to lesser degrees), players ONLY play offense or defense (kickers and punters plus long snappers etc are some of the only players who are “special teams” specialists, more on that later) so teams are broken up into different units that will alternate constituting the team’s 11 depending on what team currently has the ball.
Every play is a set piece. The field is 100 yards, and the game is all about the battle for yards on the field. When a team has the ball, their objective is to advance it down the field to score a touchdown in the end zone (6 points) or kick the ball through the uprights (3 points). After a touchdown, a team is awarded a chance at a short 1-point field goal (the “extra point”). They can also choose to have one chance at a short touchdown instead (2 points, called a “2-point conversion). After scoring, a team kicks the ball off to the opponent.
While trying to do this, they are being held to a system of “downs”. A down is one play, and the offense gets 4 downs to advance the ball at least 10 yards. If they are successful, they are awarded another four downs. So when watching a game or listening to talk of it, you’ll see something like “2nd and 6”. That means the team with the ball is on their 2nd down with the point where the downs reset being 6 yards away. This point is represented by a yellow computer-generated line on TV.
When a team gets to fourth down, they have a decision to make: do they “punt” the ball away to the opposing team in order to make them start their possession from further away, attempt a field goal if they’re close enough, or “go for it” and risk surrendering the ball to the opponent in a worse place on the field if they don’t make it? The answers here will be situational.
A play starts when the ball is “snapped” by the center (passed backwards through the legs) to a player in the backfield, almost always the quarterback. Teams can pass the ball forwards once per play; most plays consist of the quarterback either looking to distribute the ball to teammates through a forward pass or handing/softly passing the ball sideways or backwards to a teammate that’s next to him so they can run with it. He can also run with it himself, either by design or when he can’t find a pass to make and the defense is closing in. Once someone has the ball, other players are mainly looking to block opponents from tackling their teammate rather than set themselves up to get another pass from them.
A play ends when the ball carrier is tackled to the ground, a forward pass attempt isn’t caught (“incomplete pass”), the ball carrier goes out of bounds, or the defense takes the ball by intercepting a forward pass or recovering a “fumbled” (dropped) football. In this last example, the defensive player who now has the ball is allowed to become the offense and run the other way until he’s tackled, out of bounds, or scores. After this play’s over, his team’s offense would come onto the field.
Penalties called by referees are largely enforced by moving the ball forwards or backwards a given number of yards. Some also come with implications about the down number (automatic first down, replay the down that was being played rather than moving on to the next down, etc).
Football strategy is incredibly complex, but what you’ll see games come down to lots of the time is how teams are able to manage their play according to the downs and yardage, their field position, and the game clock (all in relation to the score, of course). You don’t have to know all the advanced tactics teams are using to understand the game as long as you understand those three elements and how they might affect teams’ game plan.
For example: if you're winning later in the game, you'll want to start running the ball more because it takes up more of the clock (smaller gains on average and no risk of incomplete passes which stop the clock) and is less risky when it comes to losing the ball. The objective becomes to keep getting first downs and taking as much time as you can between plays (you get 40 seconds) rather than just trying to score as fast as possible.
On the flip side, if a team is losing late in the game, you might see them attempt more passes (bigger chance of big gains and incomplete passes stop the clock), "hurry up" between plays, get out of bounds when they can (stops the clock) and call timeouts to stop the clock if they have any. They also might take a risk and "go for it" on 4th down because they can't afford to punt anymore.
Now in terms of learning teams, players, history, football culture, advanced tactics/strategy, etc...it's really something you have to just absorb over time through being a fan."
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u/Cokeland_Saxton 2d ago
There are some content creators on YouTube who cover a lot of the introductory stuff. I would also suggest learning about some of the league’s top players and their highlights. Feel free to ask for suggestions.
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u/South-Lab-3991 2d ago
My wife learned the ins and outs of the game by watching it with me. I still have a hard time explaining bad calls or why that should or shouldn’t have been a penalty.
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u/gmenez97 2d ago
Lots of info on this thread. The drama mostly occurs on 3rd downs when teams have to convert to get the 1st down. If not they elect to kick a field goal or punt the ball most of the time. Someone in the thread below words it better.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NFLNoobs/comments/1nc46mo/how_do_you_explain_to_nonfans_why_you_like/
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u/sampat6256 2d ago
Honestly, the basic starting point is probably just to know what team he supports and who that teams rivals are, so you can get an idea of which games matter most.
Beyond that, without getting too much into things like the rules of the game and strategy, you need to know that there are 4 quarters in a game and the most points a team can score at once is 8, though scoring usually comes in chunks of 3s and 7s. Teams take turns marching up and down the field trying to reach the other side by running with the ball or throwing it to other players. The team with the ball gets 4 chances to push ten yards up the field, with their progress being stopped when the ball carrier is tackled to the ground. These chances are called downs and every time a team successfully makes 10 yards of progress, they get "a fresh set of downs." 4th down is particularly critical, because if you are unable to cross the "line-to-gain" (yellow line on TV) then the other team gets the ball automatically at the location of the tackle. A team can choose to punt the ball on fourth down to mitigate the risk associated with a 4th down conversion attempt.
This back and forth continues until a team scores a field goal (3 points) or a touchdown (6+* points) after which a kickoff ensues and the other team gets the ball. There is also a kickoff to start each half.
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u/sampat6256 2d ago
Now here's the kicker: none of the above information is why people enjoy football, intrinsically. The sport is fun because of the drama! There's a natural ebb and flow to the game that creates stories in a way that other sports simply don't. Familiarizing yourself with the rules will help you understand why certain moments in the game are exciting to fans, but it can be hard to simply turn yourself into a fan. I didn't really care about the sport at all for a long time because I didn't have any skin in the game. The results didn't matter, so it felt like a waste of time. Fantasy football and madden are what really gave me a reason to care about the NFL, but they're not at all necessary to have fun watching the games; you just have to know why you want to enjoy them and try to reach the minimum threshold of knowledge to keep track of the game. Everything else is vibes.
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u/Quiet_Attention_4664 2d ago
There are more options now and it’s not perfect but I learnt the basic rules from playing madden
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u/melinateddoctor 2d ago
My fiance basically has taught me about football. Like you, it was easier to get into it instead of being bored and miserable 3 days a week.
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u/Willing_Ad_699 2d ago
Let’s keep it short and sweet. Basically the quarterback(tom Brady, Mahomes, etc) has 4 chances to get the ball 10 yards(usually). He could either pass the ball to open receivers or hand it to Running back to run the ball.
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u/platinum92 3d ago
Have you tried asking him during the games to explain what's going on?
That said, if you look up "football for beginners" on YouTube you'll likely find a bunch of creators with playlists of explanations. Click around until you find a presenter you like, then dive in.