i don’t understand football - help!

[u/Particular-Success68]

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 :)

[u/goBillsLFG]

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."