| 1 | [[quoteright:350:[[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2005poinsettabowl_navy_los.jpg]]]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:On any given Sunday.[[note]]Or Saturday, if it's [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball NCAA]]. Or Friday, if it's high school football.[[/note]]]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ->'''Aeryn Sun:''' I'm sure your world has no force so ruthless, so disciplined.\ |
| 5 | '''John:''' Oh, we call 'em linebackers, or serial killers. Depends on whether they're professional or amateur. |
| 6 | -->-- ''Series/{{Farscape}},'' "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E03ExodusFromGenesis Exodus from Genesis]]" |
| 7 | |
| 8 | American football, also known as gridiron football, is the most popular spectator sport in the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates. This guide intends to inform you about America's favorite Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (and occasionally Tuesday and Wednesday) autumn pastime. If you would like to know more about the sport's most historic and successful pro league, please check out the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague corresponding notes page]]. If you'd like to know more about college football, then please check out the [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball corresponding notes page]]. And if, by some strange accident, you wound up here looking for info on that other sport called "football", [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball this is probably the page you want]]. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | !Rules of play |
| 13 | As weird as American football might seem to foreigners, it is firmly within the same tradition as other football variants, and actually originates from a hybrid of [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball association]] (aka soccer) and [[UsefulNotes/RugbyUnion rugby]] [[UsefulNotes/RugbyLeague codes]], which first made their way to North America in the late 1860s. For reasons that are still a little difficult to understand, while the sport very quickly leaned more towards rugby's rules about carrying the ball with your hands, its players [[ArtifactTitle kept calling it football]] even though kicking the ball is a fairly small (though still critical) part of the game.\ |
| 14 | |
| 15 | A good way of understanding American football is to think of soccer and rugby and then ask "what if we tried to solve for [[ThatOneRule the offside rule]]?" The key innovations of American football are the idea of the "snap", the "line of scrimmage", and the "down". That is, rather than free-floating exchanges of possession (as occurs in soccer), there is a team on "offense" with the ball, and one on "defense" without it, with a specific line clearly separating "onside" from "offside." These rules established American football as a distinct sport from rugby by the 1880s, and the introduction of a legal forward pass in 1906 further distinguished it from its ancestor. The rest of the game's rules follow from there, and the finer details can be found on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football The Other Wiki]]. But let's get the basics down before that, shall we? |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[folder:The Field]] |
| 18 | Football is played on a rectangular field of 120 yards [[note]]A yard is exactly .9144 meters for you metric folks[[/note]] in length (marked by ''end lines'') and 53.3 yards [[note]]Which makes a little more sense when you know that's 160 feet. Its also 48.7 meters.[[/note]] in width (marked by ''sidelines''). Obviously, anything happening outside of this boxed area is considered to be out-of-bounds. Less obviously, and in contrast to [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball association football/soccer]] but in common with both UsefulNotes/{{rugby|Union}} [[UsefulNotes/RugbyLeague codes]], ''on the line'' is out of bounds, for both players and (should it be on the ground) the ball.\ |
| 19 | |
| 20 | The first 10 yards of field measured from either end line are the ''end zones'', their boundaries marked by ''goal lines''. These are the primary scoring areas during a game, and are legally in-bounds for plays.\ |
| 21 | |
| 22 | The remaining 100 yards of the field is divided like a giant ruler by various markings: |
| 23 | * ''Yard lines'' run the entire width of the field. Yard lines are placed in 5-yard increments. |
| 24 | * Each 10 yard mark is visibly numbered up to the 50-yard line, which denotes the middle of the field.[[note]]Uniquely among college programs, LSU marks every ''5 yard'' mark as well. Also, indoor football leagues mark every 5 yards with the center line at the 25-yard line due to the smaller dimensions of the field.[[/note]] |
| 25 | * Smaller rows of 2' long markings known as ''hash marks'' are placed just inside the sidelines to denote each individual yard on the field for more precise measuring. |
| 26 | * A second set of hash marks also appears further inside each sideline to denote the area of the field where the ball can be placed before play commences.[[note]]The distance from the sideline to the nearest set of hashmarks differs according to the level of play. In high school football, the distance is exactly 53 feet, 4 inches, which means that the hash marks divide the field into thirds. In college football, the distance is 60 feet. In the NFL, the distance is exactly 70 feet, 9 inches; putting it another way, the hash marks are precisely in line with the goal posts.[[/note]] |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Since all of these field markings tend to create a lattice-like appearance, a football field is colloquially known as the "Gridiron".[[note]]In the early years of American football, the field was marked into small rectangles, making the "gridiron" analogy even more apparent. See [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Football_Diagram_1904.jpg this diagram]], copied from a 1905 book on the sport.[[/note]]\ |
| 29 | |
| 30 | Finally, the ''goalposts'', upright goals that figure into certain scoring plays described below, are placed on the end lines at the back of each end zone. On the professional and collegiate level, the goal posts are 18 feet 6 inches (5.6 m) apart and connected by a lower crossbar that stands 10 feet (3 m) off the ground. In high school, the goal posts are 23 feet 4 inches (7.1 m) apart; this was also the college standard from 1959 until 1991.\ |
| 31 | |
| 32 | In indoor football, the field dimensions are typically reduced to fit within an NHL-sized hockey rink (200×85 ft (61×26 m)), with the goal lines 50 yards apart and the end zones 8 yards deep; the end zones may either be squared off like in the outdoor game or curved depending on the venue and/or league. If an indoor league uses a goal post, it is typically suspended from the arena's ceiling rafters 15 feet (4.6 m) off the floor and the uprights 9 feet (2.8 m) apart, approximately half as wide and one and a half times as high as an NFL goal post. In the now-defunct Arena Football League, the goalpost was flanked by two sets of nearly-square rebound nets measuring 30×32 feet (9.1×9.8 m) and any ball that hits the rebound nets, whether by pass or kick, is a live ball until it touches the ground in the case of an attempted forward pass.[[note]]The rebound nets were originally proprietary to the AFL; however, the patents expired in 2007, although no indoor league has adopted the rebound nets since then, likely due to cost[[/note]]\ |
| 33 | |
| 34 | Canadian football is extremely similar to American football, and the rules work along the same lines. A Canadian football field is slightly longer and wider; the end zones are 20 yards deep, the goal lines are 110 yards apart, the field is 65 yards wide, the goal posts are ''on'' the goal line, and there's a "centre line" between two 50-yard lines. |
| 35 | [[/folder]] |
| 36 | |
| 37 | [[folder:Plays and play styles]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | The fundamental unit of football is the "play": particular pre-planned and practiced strategic formations and drills designed to [[TacticalRockPaperScissors counter defensive strategies]] or exploit a particular situation or team strength. It is impossible within this article to cover the [[CombinatorialExplosion sheer variety of possible strategies]], but on offense the basics break down to three fairly simple categories: run, pass, and kick |
| 40 | |
| 41 | * Running plays involve the quarterback running or delivering the ball to one of the five eligible receivers without throwing the ball forward, with the intent to move the ball forward. |
| 42 | * Passing plays involve the quarterback throwing forward to one of the five eligible receivers. Note that a forward pass can be caught behind the line of scrimmage as long as the ball moved forward from the passer's current position, and that a handoff or pitch can be completed in front of the line of scrimmage as long as the ball moves laterally or backwards. Attempting to throw or hand the ball forward from beyond the line of scrimmage is illegal, as is throwing the ball forward more than once per down, or the defense throwing the ball forward for any reason.[[note]]In the 2024 UFL and its two predecessor leagues, the 2020 XFL and 2022 USFL, two forward passes are allowed so long as the first forward pass is behind the line of scrimmage; otherwise, the normal rules regarding forward passes apply.[[/note]] Backward and lateral passes, however, are always legal. An incomplete forward pass is ruled dead once the ball touches the ground or if the receiver fails to maintain control of the ball while going down; however, an incomplete backward or lateral pass is a live ball. |
| 43 | * Kicking, discussed further below, is typically a last resort option, as it always ends a team's possession of the ball, barring a fluke mistake by the opposing team allowing the ball to be recovered.[[note]]The exception to this is the "onside kick", where a team tries to set up the play to recover their own kickoff, but this is a risky play that fails more often than it succeeds and is therefore generally used only when it's a team's only hope.[[/note]] |
| 44 | [[/folder]] |
| 45 | |
| 46 | [[folder:Downs]] |
| 47 | |
| 48 | When a team has the ball they are given four attempts, called "downs" (so named because a play usually ends when the ball carrier is tackled, i.e. forced ''down'' to the ground), to move the ball ten yards towards the end zone (goal) they're facing. If that team can do so, then they get a "first down" - they replenish their four downs to move the ball another ten yards. As long as a team retains possession of the ball, and moves it another 10 yards within the four down limit each time, they may continue to ratchet their way across the field for as long as it takes to reach the other side.\ |
| 49 | |
| 50 | When watching a game, the term "First and 10" indicates the offense team has just gotten a first down, and thus they have 10 yards to gain before their next down reset. The First Down line is always based on 10 yards closer to the goal from where the line of scrimmage was at the current (or last) first down. If, say, the defense team manages a sack that pushes the line back five yards, you'll see the term "Second and 15", indicating the offense is on their second down and has to move the ball 15 or more yards to reset their downs. If the team is close enough that 10 yards would put them in the end zone, then the team cannot reset their downs anymore - they have to score within those four downs (unless a penalty causes them to be reset). This is signified by the word "Goal" (ex., "First and Goal").\ |
| 51 | |
| 52 | During the game, officials on the sidelines employ a pair of large orange sticks connected by a 10-yard length measuring chain to mark the distance required for a new first down. These officials are known colloquially as "the chain gang". If the ball is downed close to the first down marker, but officials aren't sure if the ball broke the plane, the referee will call them out onto the field for a precise measurement. If the tip of the ball is past the first down rod, the first down is awarded. Otherwise, the next down, assuming the previous down wasn't fourth down, is signified by the word "Inches" or "Short" replacing the 1 (ex., "Third and Inches"). Conversely, plays requiring large yardage gains may be called out by announcers as "Nth and long".\ |
| 53 | |
| 54 | On television, the line to achieve a new first down [[note]]Officially called the "line to gain", though this term is infrequently used by anyone other than the referees themselves.[[/note]] is rendered virtually for viewers, usually in yellow or white. However, it is merely for fan and analyst reference only. Referees are disallowed from using the technology to make a ruling and the orange marking pad on the ground and the down chains are the official tools used for measurements; whether this is actually a more accurate measurement is a matter of frequent debate.\ |
| 55 | |
| 56 | If at any time they fail to move the ball 10 yards forward within their four downs, the other team gets possession of the ball, starting from the spot the last down ended at. If the offense reaches their fourth down, they have three options: |
| 57 | |
| 58 | * The quarterback may kick the ball as far downfield as possible (called a "punt") so that the opposing team will have further to travel in order to score on their ensuing possession. The players doing the actual punting, while technically the QB on the play, are often a specialist called the punter, especially at higher levels.[[note]]Some [=QBs=] will sometimes punt on third down to catch the defense off-guard and pin the opposing side down deep in their own territory, a "trick play" that works mostly because it is so rare.[[/note]] Once the opposing team receives the ball, they are on offense, and their first line of scrimmage is where the ball stops after the punt play is over. |
| 59 | * The team may also elect to attempt a field goal if they are within range to do so. A field goal is when a halfback (again, usually a specialist kicker swapped-in rather than a first-string player at any other position) kicks the ball, which is held for the kick by the quarterback (again, typically a specialist holder instead of the first-string QB, although a backup QB ''is'' frequently used in this role), between the two upright arms and above the crossbar of the defense's goal post. Since this scores points for the team, this ends the offense team's possession and leads to another kickoff, with the opposing team receiving and taking possession of the ball. |
| 60 | * Finally, the team also has the option of attempting to gain the necessary yardage on the fourth down. This is known as "going for it". However, as this risks the other team gaining possession if you fail, it's usually not done unless the situation is especially desperate or the team is especially confident they will convert. |
| 61 | * In rare cases, a team will elect to [[TakeAThirdOption Take The Fourth Option]], and run a KansasCityShuffle style play. This is where football begins to show its [[HiddenDepths strategic elements]] and deep MetaGame. |
| 62 | ** For instance, the kicker may be brought on and the kicking formation taken, leading the opposing team to swap in players suited for receiving the ball rather than defending... only for the quarterback to then attempt to force the ball through the opposing team's weakened and scattered defense anticipating a ball falling from the sky in the backfield, not running on the ground through them. |
| 63 | ** A quarterback who is also good at kicking may fake going for it, only to punt a few steps into a run. This is referred to as a "pooch punt". |
| 64 | ** A kicker who also plays another offensive position can be an extreme wild card, allowing a true, deep field kick to be snuck in at any time with a little subtle shifting of formation. These players are rare however; as a general rule kickers tend to be {{Glass Cannon}}s with CripplingOverspecialization in kicking the ball really far- thus making this even ''more'' of a MindScrew for the opposing team when it happens. |
| 65 | |
| 66 | The biggest difference between Canadian and American football is that in Canadian football, the offence only gets three downs, not four, to advance the ball ten yards. This tends to encourage a more pass-heavy style of play, a style that American football has begun to take up in recent decades. Also, because the neutral zone in Canadian football is a full yard rather than the length of the ball, a Canadian team will attempt to convert on a Third and 1 situation more frequently than an American team would gamble on Fourth and 1. Because of how the neutral zone is measured, the ball cannot be spotted inside the defensive team's 1-yard line; if an offensive play ends between the 1 and the end zone, the ball is moved back to the 1. (For consistency, the ball can't be spotted inside the offensive team's 1 either.) |
| 67 | [[/folder]] |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[folder:The Clock]] |
| 70 | The game clock in football is an interesting object unto itself, with arcane rules governing the stopping and starting of counted time. Suffice it to say that "clock management" is a vital part of football strategy, and that a good coach will employ truly {{Munchkin}}-worthy {{MetaGam|e}}ing to bend these time warping powers to their advantage.\ |
| 71 | |
| 72 | If a play ends on an incomplete pass, with a player running out of bounds, a penalty, a score, or a turnover, the clock will stop. If a play ends with a player being tackled inbounds, then the clock continues running. Each team also gets three timeouts per half which stop the clock. There are other times the game clock will stop, depending on level of competition, sanctioning body, and television considerations, but they are too numerous and complicated to explain here. There are numerous ways that teams will try to run off as much clock time as they can when they hold the lead or conversely stop the clock to get more time if they are behind.\ |
| 73 | |
| 74 | To add to the complexity, there is also a "play clock" in effect. The offensive team has a set amount of time after their last play has ended to start their next one. In the pros, teams have 40 seconds timed from the end of the previous play or 25 seconds after the ball is declared ready for play by officials. Letting the play clock run out will result in a delay of game penalty... [[SuddenlySignificantRule which stops the main clock.]]\ |
| 75 | |
| 76 | In professional football, there is a ''n''-minute warning; this does not apply to college and high school football. In the NFL, this occurs when two minutes remain in either half; in the regular season, the two-minute warning is also called in the final two minutes of overtime, while in the postseason, it occurs only on every even-numbered overtime period, although no NFL postseason game to date has lasted that long, namely due to the sudden death nature of the NFL's overtime. The two-minute warning is an artifact from when the official game time was kept by a member of the officiating crew; however, even after the stadium clock was made the official time following the NFL/AFL merger, the two-minute warning was retained as an ad break, as televised games were starting to become more widespread at the time of the merger[[note]]In the rare event that the stadium's clock malfunctions, the officials will keep time as a backup and make periodic announcements[[/note]]. The clock stops once the clock reaches two minutes during a dead ball situation or if the ball is live at the two-minute mark, following the conclusion of the play. Inside the final two minutes, the rules change slightly; coaches can no longer challenge a ruling on the field and any replay reviews must come from the booth, and if the offense commits certain fouls inside two minutes, a 10-second runoff will occur, primarily to discourage a trailing team from deliberately committing penalties as a form of clock management. The NCAA uses the 10-second runoff rules for the final minute of each half, but it can apply to either side of the ball. In both the NFL and NCAA, the benefiting team can choose to decline the time runoff while accepting the yardage penalty, but if the yardage is declined, the runoff is also declined. The offending team can avoid the runoff by using a time-out; however, if the runoff occurs with less than 10 seconds left and there are no time-outs left, the half/game ends.\ |
| 77 | |
| 78 | This is why American football games, even though they only have an hour of play per game, tend to actually last for 2-3 hours. When games are broadcast on TV, a 3-hour block of time is customarily allocated to allow for the various delays. Sometimes, when a game is particularly hard-fought, and especially when one team is trying to slow down the game clock as much as possible to buy time, the game can even run over 3 hours in "regulation" (the basic 60-minute period without overtime). This can occasionally cause problems when the game is broadcast on TV; in one infamous incident in 1968, NBC cut away from an American Football League rivalry game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets at the end of the three-hour block to run a children's movie (''Literature/{{Heidi}}''), notwithstanding that the game was still in progress.[[note]] Today this sounds like a stupid reason to pre-empt a football game, but it was a different time. Football was still something of a niche sport, while ''Heidi'' was a major ratings draw for NBC. The network aired ''Heidi'' just once a year; since there were three networks and no such thing as home video, families had planned their evening around the film, because this was their only chance to see it all year. Additionally, watch company Timex had purchased the entire broadcast of ''Heidi'' and NBC would've been in trouble had they not cut away from the game.[[/note]] The Raiders scored two touchdowns in the final minute to earn the victory, but viewers in the eastern half of the country were left in the dark. The resulting uproar from enraged football fans, which would put many instances of internet drama to shame, resulted in new policies being adopted. Nowadays, a network will ''never'' [[UsefulNotes/SportsPreemption cut away from a game before it is finished]]. Unless a major breaking-news event like an assassination or a war beginning happens, TV viewers ''will'' see the entire game.[[note]]We've since learned that fans watching the "Heidi Game", anticipating that the game could be interrupted, called NBC ''en masse'' before the movie was due to start. NBC executives felt likewise and made a late decision to postpone the film, but couldn't contact the broadcast control room to deliver their orders because fans had jammed the phone lines.[[/note]]\ |
| 79 | |
| 80 | Some football leagues, such as the Arena Football League (now defunct) and the 2020 incarnation of the XFL, use a "running clock" rule, meaning the clock continuously runs after out-of-bounds plays and incomplete passes. Outside of the ''n''-minute warning[[note]]one minute in the AFL and two in the XFL[[/note]] of each half, the clock only stops for change of possession and time-outs. At the high school level and below, a running clock rule may be implemented as a mercy rule when one team attains a lopsided lead, typically between 30 to 40 points after halftime. In college football, coaches and the referee by mutual agreement can shorten the length of quarters to end a lopsided game sooner, particularly in situations where severe weather is imminent and/or the visiting team has to travel a long distance home.\ |
| 81 | |
| 82 | While Canadian football has quarters of the same length as the American game, it has distinctive timing rules (with the CFL rules given here): |
| 83 | * The offensive team has only 20 seconds from when the ball is declared in play to snap the ball, with a violation being called "time count" ("delay of game" is a different foul in Canada). |
| 84 | * Each team gets two timeouts per game instead of three per half. Unlike American rules, in which timeouts that aren't used in the first half are permanently lost, timeouts can be taken at any time, with one exception discussed below. |
| 85 | * The ''n''-minute warning is at 3 minutes, at which point timing rules change even further: |
| 86 | ** The clock stops after every play. If the previous play results in an incomplete pass or player going out of bounds, the clock restarts on the snap, while the clock restarts on the "ready for play" signal on plays where the clock would otherwise keep running. |
| 87 | ** Only one timeout can be taken, meaning that if a team still has two timeouts at the warning, one is permanently lost. |
| 88 | ** The penalty for a time count changes from 5 yards (with the down repeated) to ''loss of down'' on first or second down. On third down, it becomes 10 yards, and repeated violations on third down can be penalized by ''change of possession''.[[note]]Because the game clock does not run during convert (Canadian for "conversion") attempts, a time count in that situation results in the standard 5-yard penalty regardless of the game clock.[[/note]] |
| 89 | * If the game clock runs out at the end of any quarter, either during a play or a dead ball situation, a final play is run with "zeroes on the clock" before the quarter can end. |
| 90 | [[/folder]] |
| 91 | |
| 92 | [[folder:Scoring]] |
| 93 | The typical ways to score are (see the terms section below for further details) |
| 94 | |
| 95 | * ''Touchdown'': The primary form of scoring in football. Occurs when a team advances the ball beyond its opponent's goal line. They are worth 6 points. The ball itself only has to partially pass over a yard mark or goal line while in the possession of a player to be counted; this is referred to as the ball 'breaking the plane' of the line in question. As a general rule: forward advancement is marked where the ball is located, whereas determining play laterally is based on the body of the player possessing the ball. A player doesn't have to be in the end zone at all for a touchdown, just in possession of the ball as it's breaking the plane of the goal line.[[note]]In contrast, however, a player is out of bounds once he ''steps'' over a marked sideline, regardless of where the ball was located.[[/note]] Historically called a "major" (short for "major score") in Canada, though "touchdown" is now used as well. |
| 96 | * ''Conversion'': After scoring a touchdown, a team receives [[BonusStage one additional, untimed down in which they can attempt to score]] at one-third the normal value. This is formally known as a "try" (yes, like in the rugby codes, though the term is exceedingly rarely used), and a successful score is known as "converting the try", or just a "conversion". In Canada, it's called a "convert". The ball is placed two or three yards from the defending team's goal line and the scoring team attempts one of two possible plays: |
| 97 | ** '''P'''oint '''A'''fter '''T'''ouchdown, or PAT: Attempt a placekick or dropkick[[note]]dropping the ball to the ground and kicking it after it has touched the ground, but don't be surprised if you've never seen a dropkick PAT attempted; the technique fell into disuse decades ago, though Doug Flutie did successfully use one on a PAT in his final NFL game in 2006.[[/note]] through the upright goal at the back of the end zone for one extra point. As such, it's often simply called "the extra point". The defense will attempt to block the PAT kick, but it is extremely difficult to do so. It is also possible for the kicker to miss the PAT, but due to the very short range required, this is likewise infrequent. Teams will opt for a PAT kick the vast majority of the time, so a touchdown usually entails scoring 7 points total. Over the years, the PAT has become such a matter of routine that attempts have been made on the organizational level to increase the difficulty. In 2015, the NFL moved the line of scrimmage for kick attempts to the 15-yard line (among other things, making blocks more likely), and in the first season of the change, the league's success rate dropped from over 99% to a hair over 94%. That may not sound like a big change—but the last time the success rate on PAT kicks was that low was in ''1982''. Additionally, blocked attempts are now live balls, allowing more scoring possibilities. See below. |
| 98 | ** ''Two-point conversion'': Make a single offensive play 3 yards away (2 yards in NFL) from the end zone. Reaching the end zone gives another two points (for a total of 8). In the event of a turnover, the play ends in high school football, except in Texas, where the base rule set is that of the NCAA (college).[[note]]Massachusetts also based its high school rules on the NCAA set through the 2018 season, but now uses standard high school rules.[[/note]] In college, and since the 2015 season the NFL as well, a defender can ''also'' score two points for his team if he intercepts the attempt (or recovers a blocked kick) and carries it ALL the way back to the other end zone. This is very rare—it requires a fumble or an interception followed by a roughly 100-yard dash, carrying the ball with 11 angry men in pursuit. Although some teams have very high two-point conversion success rates, the general success rate is 40-55%, compared to the PAT's success rate of 98-99% in college and 95% in the NFL. As a result, teams rarely try for a two-point conversion unless they are coming back from a large deficit, they can gain some strategic advantage late in the game, or they [[WhoNeedsOvertime want to go for a win in regulation]]. At the high school level and below, the two-point conversion is more common, because some teams simply don't have anybody who can kick with even marginal accuracy. It's basically unheard of for any college team, and completely unheard of for any pro team, to lack a kicker who can reliably kick the PAT. |
| 99 | *** The Alliance of American Football prohibited kicked conversions. Two-point conversion attempts were required after any touchdown. Both incarnations of the XFL also prohibited kicked conversions. Instead, it used a three-tiered system, where a conversion scored from the two-yard line is worth one point, a five-yard conversion is worth two points, and a ten-yard conversion is worth three points. The original XFL only used this in the postseason, whereas the 2020 XFL used it from day one. |
| 100 | *** The 2022 USFL uses the traditional PAT kick for one from the 15-yard line and the two-point conversion from the 3-yard line; however, it adds a three-point conversion similar to the XFL, attempted from the 10-yard line. A defensive return to the end zone scores two points, regardless of how many points the offense was going for. |
| 101 | * ''Field Goal'': Kick the ball through the upright goal placed past the opponent's end-zone for 3 points. Used instead of a punt if the team thinks they're close enough to make it (or desperate).[[note]]The longest successful field goal in professional football is 66 yards, by Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens. This is generally considered outside the range of the average kicker, making it quite a feat.[[/note]] Like a PAT kick, the defense will contest the kick (attempt to block it), and it can be caught on the fly or recovered like a live fumble if it is blocked backwards at the line of scrimmage. Unlike a punt, a missed field goal gives the opponents the ball from the spot of the kick, making it risky at long range. Another consideration is that long field goals that don't leave the field of play can be returned like punts. Perhaps the most famous example of this was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick_Six Auburn's walk-off touchdown]] in the 2013 Iron Bowl (Alabama–Auburn rivalry game). Despite the risk, some teams will still focus their entire strategy around [[CherryTapping simply getting their kicker in range as quickly and as often as possible]] while preventing their opponent from scoring touchdowns, with any [=TDs=] of their own being welcome surprises. This can be an extremely hard to counter strategy with a well assembled team, but can quickly fall apart if the kicker is having an off day. |
| 102 | ** Although exceedingly rare, it is also possible to score a field goal during any play by dropkick as well. Due to football's rules of possession, however, it is generally tactically unsound to use this technique. Additionally, the shape of the ball itself makes this much more difficult than in rugby where the drop kick rules originated. There has been only one successful drop kick in the NFL since World War II—longtime CFL and NFL quarterback Doug Flutie successfully drop-kicked a conversion in his final NFL game in 2006. |
| 103 | ** Also exceedingly rare, a field goal can be opted for from the spot of a fair catch on a punt, which is called a "fair catch kick". Line-up rules are similar to a "free kick" (see safety below), but someone can hold the ball like a field goal or PAT attempt. This rule exists in the NFL (where it hasn't succeeded since 1976, and has only been attempted eight times since then) and high school, but not in college. |
| 104 | ** The ball can touch any part of the 2 uprights and lower crossbar that form the goalpost on a field goal kick, as long as it passes over and through them before hitting the ground. This has led to several improbable heart-stopping situations where a kicked ball has the range to reach the goal, but due to its shape and unpredictable bouncing tendencies, will carom off one, two, or ''all three'' of the bars before it manages to go through or fall out unscored. |
| 105 | * ''Safety'': A somewhat rare but humiliating situation where an offensive player has possession of the ball in his own end zone and is either tackled, steps out-of-bounds, accidentally or purposefully hikes the ball past the back line of the end zone, or another offensive player commits a penalty while trying to prevent either from happening. The defensive team scores 2 points ''and'' gets the ball (the safetied team kicks the ball to them). This situation is technically called a "free kick", as is the kickoff after a touchdown or field goal. However, the free kick following a safety has one major difference from other free kicks: After a touchdown or field goal, the ball ''must'' be kicked off a tee (sometimes, if winds are high enough, another player will have to hold the ball on the tee). After a safety, the kicker may in most leagues either kick from a tee or ''punt'', beginning with the ball in his hands–except in the Alliance of American Football, which had no kickoffs. In that league, the scoring team got the ball on its own 25-yard line unless the other team attempted an onside conversion (see the "Special teams-related terms" folder below). Unlike other leagues, the NFL prohibits the use of a tee on a safety free kick. Even in leagues that allow the use of a tee on such kicks, most are punts because their higher trajectory allows better coverage for the kicking team.[[note]]For fans of soccer, this is basically the same thing as an own goal, only not ''quite'' as humiliating. Except when it's an accidental safety (as in an inattentive quarterback steps out of bounds in the end zone on his own rather than being tackled or forced out by the defense). Dan Orlovsky infamously did this while playing for the Detroit Lions in their 0-16 2008 season, in a game that was ultimately lost by 2 points. That ''is'' as humiliating as an own goal.[[/note]] |
| 106 | ** In certain rare situations, a team may intentionally allow a safety to be scored. This may be done for a variety of reasons: |
| 107 | *** To gain field position (by kicking off from the 20-yard line rather than punting from the end zone), |
| 108 | *** To manage the game clock (by running out the last few seconds of the game, as happened in Super Bowl XLVII), or |
| 109 | *** To prevent something worse from happening (the offense loses control of the ball in its own end zone, then downs the ball or swats it out of bounds to prevent the defense from taking possession and scoring a touchdown) |
| 110 | ** However, safeties are more often the result of an offensive failure or a player getting confused and running the wrong way with the ball. Only a few safeties are seen each season, and intentional ones only occur once every few years; they are far more common in Canadian football, where field position is more important (since Canadian teams get three downs rather than four and ''many'' more points are scored in general). |
| 111 | ** Then there's the [[http://quirkyresearch.blogspot.com/2006/08/one-point-safety.html extremely strange one-point safety]]. This is possible if a team tries for a two point conversion, drops the ball and the defending team knocks the ball out of the end zone (presumably to prevent the offense from picking up the ball in the end-zone for two points). It's also possible if the defending team blocks a PAT, recovers it, and then either fumbles through the end zone or gets tackled after backing up into it. This was historically only possible in the college game, but even there it has has happened only twice in Division I play, the most recent time (the 2013 Fiesta Bowl) resulting in the referee beginning his announcement of the result with "On the previous play, we have an unusual ruling," correctly judging that he was one of the few people familiar with the rule. It became possible in the NFL only in 2015, and still has not happened. It is also now theoretically possible for the kicking team to give up a safety for one point as well, but such a play would require an extremely unlikely set of circumstances, such as a blocked PAT being recovered by the defense, run back to near the opposing end zone, only for a fumble to happen, then be recovered by the kicking team, only for the kicking team player to be tackled in their own end zone. This is the only way (except for a forfeit or a game played in Canada) for a team to have a total score of 1 point, as all other plays worth one point award the point to a team that has already scored a touchdown. |
| 112 | * Canadian football adds one more type of score: the single point, or ''rouge''. When a team kicks or punts the ball out the end of the opposing end zone, they score one point, and the other team gets the ball. Outside Canadian football, kicking the ball out the back of the end zone is simply a touchback, and the other team gets the ball at their own 20 yard line. |
| 113 | * In the very, very rare event of a forfeit where the game is never played, the score is officially 2-0. |
| 114 | [[/folder]] |
| 115 | |
| 116 | [[folder:Quarters and overtime]] |
| 117 | The length of quarters and overtime format differ depending on level. Typically, a college or professional football game consists of four 15-minute quarters, varsity high school has 12-minute quarters, and levels below varsity high school use 8, 10, or 12-minute quarters, depending on the organizing body and the players' age group. In the early days of football, a game that was tied at the end of regulation stood as such, unless the game in question required a clear winner, such as a playoff or championship game. However, SoccerHatingAmericans tend to frown upon games ending in a draw. If a game is tied at the end of regulation, overtime is played in regular season and postseason games; in levels below varsity high school depending on the organizing body, a tie at the end of regulation may stand in the regular season with overtime only being used in the postseason.\ |
| 118 | |
| 119 | Overtime always begins with another coin toss. Overtime is played in one of two methods: sudden death, favored by the NFL and some alternative pro leagues, or alternating possessions, a.k.a., the "Kansas Playoff",[[note]]So called because it was first devised for high school football in that state.[[/note]] favored by American high school and college football as well as the Canadian game at all levels (prep, university, and CFL). One now-defunct league experimented with [[TakeAThirdOption using a full fifth period]], a system used for many decisive matches in soccer,[[note]]In association football, a "decisive match" is one in which a winner ''must'' be determined, almost always in the knockout rounds of a tournament.[[/note]] but abandoned that system in its second and final season. |
| 120 | |
| 121 | !!Sudden death |
| 122 | In true sudden death, the first team to score by ''any'' means wins the game, even if the second team never had an opportunity to possess the ball. Sudden death overtime was formally introduced in the NFL in 1946 in the postseason only, and subsequently extended to the preseason and regular season in 1974; for non-postseason games, overtime lasts for only one period before the game is declared a tie. Before the 1974 season, ties were a fairly common occurrence; however, because of rarity of ties since then, some players didn't know a tie game was even possible, due to the rule differences between the NFL and college.[[note]]Prior to 1974, 256 regular season NFL games ended with a tied score (with only ''three'' seasons having no ties at all); since 1974, only 29 games have ended in a draw.[[/note]]\ |
| 123 | |
| 124 | For the 2010 postseason, the NFL modified the sudden death rules to where a game could not end on a field goal by Team A on the opening drive, allowing Team B to respond by either tying the game with a field goal of their own to extend overtime (where it then becomes true sudden death) or score a touchdown for the win; a touchdown by Team A on the opening drive or a defensive score by either team still ends the game immediately. The "first-possession field goal doesn't win" rule was extended to the preseason and regular season in the 2012 season. Overtime for non-postseason games was shortened to a 10-minute period in 2017 to reduce the chances of injury and subsequently abolished for preseason games in 2021.\ |
| 125 | |
| 126 | The NFL's sudden death rules are very controversial among football fans, with the overtime debate divided into several camps: the first where true sudden death should be the rule in the pros (with the argument that "if a team's defense can't make a stop, then they deserve to lose"), a second where true sudden death should apply only after each team has an offensive possession, a third where the NFL should adopt the Kansas Playoff method used in the NCAA and CFL, and a fourth where overtime should be played as a full fifth period, only ending when time expires.\ |
| 127 | |
| 128 | In the Arena Football League, NFL Europa, and the 2009 United Football League (all defunct), both teams were guaranteed one offensive possession unless the first team to possess yielded a defensive score either by touchdown or safety. If the score remained tied after each team had their initial possession, overtime then went to true sudden death. For 2022, partly as a response to several postseason overtime games ending on the first possession since 2010, the NFL adopted this form of sudden death for postseason games only; regular season overtime games can still end with a touchdown on the opening drive. |
| 129 | |
| 130 | !!Alternating possessions |
| 131 | Unlike the NFL, high school and college teams get an equal opportunity to possess; however, the rules are more complicated than straight sudden death.\ |
| 132 | |
| 133 | In high school and college, all overtime is untimed, although the play clock is still used. At the college level, possessions start at the 25-yard line with standard down-and-distance rules while high school typically starts from the 10, with state associations free to set their own rules. A possession ends when the offense either scores, misses a field goal attempt, fails to convert on fourth down, or the defense gains possession. In college and high school in Texas, the defense can return an interception or fumble recovery for a touchdown, which will satisfy the condition of each team having possession. In high school outside of Texas, a turnover play is ruled dead after the defense gains possession. If a turnover play does not result in a defensive score, that team's offense takes possession at the predesignated starting spot regardless of where the turnover play ends. After Team A's possession ends, unless they yielded a defensive score, Team B has to either match Team A's score to extend overtime or surpass it for the win; unlike the NFL, high school and college overtime continues until a winner is decided in the regular season.\ |
| 134 | |
| 135 | The NCAA has modified its overtime procedure several times, all to reduce the amount of time overtime takes. Starting in 1997, the two-point conversion was made mandatory starting with the third possession (unless the touchdown gives the team the win). During the 2019 and 2020 seasons, the fifth and subsequent possessions were played as a single two-point conversion play. Since 2021, the mandatory two-point conversion was moved to the second overtime period, with the two-point shootout starting with the third.\ |
| 136 | |
| 137 | Contrary to popular belief, overtime wasn't adopted by the NCAA in 1996; it was first adopted in 1973 when a postseason tournament was introduced in Divisions II and III, with the first NCAA football overtime game happening three years later in D-III. Overtime in Division I began in 1978 with the [=FBS/FCS=] division split, with the first D-I overtime game happening a year later. Overtime in the FBS was first adopted when the SEC Championship game was inaugurated in 1992, implemented as an experimental rule in the 1995-96 bowl season, and made standard for regular and postseason games in all divisions in 1996, effectively ending tie games and leading to the above-mentioned confusion about NFL games ending in a draw.[[note]]A college football game officially ending in a draw is still technically possible under certain circumstances, mostly tied to inclement weather, with the full explanation of the rule beyond the scope of this article.[[/note]]\ |
| 138 | |
| 139 | The Canadian Football League uses similar overtime rules to the NCAA, except possessions start at the 35-yard line and since 2010, a two-point conversion must be attempted after ''every'' touchdown. During the regular season, overtime is limited to two procedures while postseason overtime continues until the tie is broken.\ |
| 140 | |
| 141 | The original XFL also used a modified version of the NCAA overtime rules, where teams started first and goal from the 20-yard line and could not kick a field goal until fourth down; however, if Team A scored a touchdown in less than four downs, then Team B had to match or surpass Team A's score within the same number of downs (ex., if Team A scores a touchdown on 2nd down, then Team B would only have two downs, effectively starting on 3rd down), negating the implied advantage of going second. The Alliance of American Football had the teams alternate possessions from the opponent's 10, but only one set of turns was used except in playoff games, which they wound up never playing.\ |
| 142 | |
| 143 | The 2024 United Football League, as well as its two predecessor leagues, the 2020 XFL and 2022 USFL, use a multi-round two-point shootout to settle ties. The XFL originally used a five-round format while the USFL only used three rounds; however, when the XFL relaunched in 2023, they switched to a three-round format. Unlike the NCAA and NFL, any turnover play during overtime is automatically ruled dead. If both teams remained tied after the set number of rounds have been played, additional rounds are played until the tie is broken.\ |
| 144 | |
| 145 | Before the Kansas Playoff became universal in high school, California used a tie-breaking procedure from 1968 until the 1980s where the two teams alternated possession after each play with the first play starting from midfield, making OT similar to a tug of war. Punting and field goals were banned; only touchdowns and safeties were allowed. If neither team manages to score after eight plays, then the team that is in their opponent's territory after the final play is given one point and the win. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | !! Extra time |
| 148 | The only significant league that used a full fifth period for its overtime was the World Football League, a short-lived NFL rival of the 1970s. In its first season in 1974, its overtime was a 15-minute period divided into halves, with a kickoff at the start of each half. For its second and ultimately final season in 1975, the WFL abandoned this in favor of sudden death.\ |
| 149 | |
| 150 | Prior to adopting the Kansas Playoff overtime rules in 2000, the CFL used two five-minute halves without sudden death. |
| 151 | [[/folder]] |
| 152 | |
| 153 | !! Positions and formations |
| 154 | The intricate system of player positions and play formations are the heart of football's deceptive complexity. The closest equivalent it has in any other game are the rules for unit deployment in your typical [[{{TabletopGame/Warhammer40000}} Warhammer 40k style]] {{War Gam|ing}}e. |
| 155 | |
| 156 | Each football team consists of anywhere from 40 to 80 players, depending on the level of competition. At any given time, 11 of these players are on the field. The team that is trying to score is the offense. The team that is trying to keep the offense from scoring is the defense. Unlike some other sports, American football allows players to be substituted in and out of the game freely, but only between plays. Additionally, all possible position types do not need to be, and in fact cannot be, filled at all times. This means that most players play only on offense or on defense and may only see a handful of special-situation plays per game. |
| 157 | |
| 158 | !!!Here's a breakdown of each position |
| 159 | |
| 160 | [[folder:Offense]] |
| 161 | |
| 162 | * ''Quarterback'': This player will touch the ball on nearly every offensive play. The role of the quarterback is to pass the ball down the field or hand off the ball to an eligible receiver. At the beginning of the play, the QB stands either directly under (behind) the center (a ''quarter'' of the way back from the offensive line, relative to the rest of the formation, hence the name) or seven yards behind the center. As a result of nearly always being the preeminent decision-making player on a team's offense (the "Wildcat" formation notwithstanding), a QB is usually considered TheAce in the popular consciousness, [[IAmTheBand and they generally receive an out-sized portion of attention from the media and fans]]. This is good news for the QB when the team is winning; it is bad news when the team is not. Despite their importance to the team's success, [=QBs=] are also notable for usually being the least "athletic" player on either side of the ball, as good vision and decision making is typically far more important than one's strength, durability, and endurance. This, coupled with the protection provided by the o-line, gives "pocket passer" [=QBs=] a slightly longer average career than most players. Occasionally, however, the QB will also have running ability comparable to other backs; the "mobile" or "dual-threat" QB has become more prevalent in the NFL (John Elway, Steve Young, Michael Vick, and Lamar Jackson being prominent examples), but it has been a staple of the high school and college game for decades. The all-time leading passer in NFL history is Creator/TomBrady, with the most career yards and touchdowns. Brady is widely considered the "Greatest of All Time" in pro football, having won seven Super Bowls and appeared in three more with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (although [[FlameWar it must be stressed]] [[BrokenBase that this is highly debated]]). The record for most yards and [=TDs=] in a single season (the former by ''one yard'' over former New Orleans Saints great Drew Brees) goes to Creator/PeytonManning, who set the record in 2013 with the Denver Broncos after an extremely successful career with the Indianapolis Colts. |
| 163 | * The ''running backs'' typically [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin run the ball]] handed off to them by the quarterback. The position is often subdivided further into ''halfback/tailback'' and ''fullback'' roles (while they remain distinct roles, the names [[ArtifactTitle no longer accurately describe the differences]]). The halfback is usually the team's primary rusher and is usually the more agile of the two backs. [=HBs=] are also expected to block on passing plays and occasionally act as a receiver. The fullback is typically larger and is primarily used for blocking and short-range pass catching but will run occasionally, especially when only a few yards are needed. Both can also be used as targets in the passing game. The FB will usually (ironically) line up behind the quarterback, with the HB behind him. Running backs of any type tend to have shorter careers than quarterbacks and wide receivers, as the position is physically demanding and more prone to injuries - as a result, it is becoming more common for teams to rotate and make liberal use of two and sometimes three different running backs rather than commit to a single star. At the pro level, it is becoming less common for teams to have a dedicated fullback on the roster; such teams often substituting another halfback or a tight end to assume the roll of fullback on the handful of plays that might require one. The all-time leading rusher in the NFL is Emmitt Smith of the '90s Dallas Cowboys (and, briefly, the Arizona Cardinals); the single-season record holder in the NFL is Eric Dickerson, who rushed for 2,105 yards for the L.A. Rams in 1984, though if we're talking pro football in general, the title goes to Herschel Walker, who ran for ''2,411'' yards the year after Dickerson with the New Jersey Generals of the USFL while also ''receiving'' for an additional 400. Other notable halfbacks of the past include [=LaDainian=] Tomlinson, Walter Payton, and Barry Sanders. The most famous fullback in football history is Jim Brown (although he was primarily a running fullback, with minimal blocking duties). |
| 164 | * The ''wide receivers'' are the primary targets in the passing game. Before the play starts, they usually stand at the line of scrimmage a good distance away from ("wide" of) the nearest offensive tackle. Most offensive formations include at least two of them on the field; some will feature as many as five. Their job is to catch the ball or, on occasion, block for a running back. Wide receiver, by virtue of its flashy role in the offense, has a number of current and former stars. Don Hutson of the Green Bay Packers is commonly attributed with [[TropeMaker creating the dedicated receiver role]] in the 1940s (the position was then simply called an "end"). The all-time leading receiver in the NFL is Jerry Rice, who played for the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, and (briefly) Seattle Seahawks from the late '80s to the early '00s. His records, put up over a [[LongRunner 20-year career]], include most career receiving yards, most career catches, most career all-purpose yards, most career touchdown catches, most games played by a position player... suffice it to say that he is considered one of, if not ''the'', greatest players in the history of the sport. The single-season record holder is Calvin Johnson, whose size (6'6", 230+), speed (could run 40 yards in under 4.4 seconds), and leaping ability made him an almost-literal RealLife GameBreaker for the Detroit Lions (to the point that his nickname was actually [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Megatron]]); he came just shy of 2,000 receiving yards in 2012. Great receivers tend to not be shy about their abilities and are known to fully play into the "diva" archetype: famous examples of this include Michael Irvin (who once stabbed a teammate with scissors over a haircut), Randy Moss (who once pretended to moon fans of the opposing team), Terrell Owens (who got into heated public feuds with his QB on multiple teams), Chad Johnson (who renamed himself "Chad Ochocinco" so the name on his jersey matched his number[[note]]translating it as "eight five"; 85 in Spanish is "ochenta y cinco"[[/note]]), and Odell Beckham Jr. (who once got in a fight with a kicking net... and lost). This is hardly true of all wideouts, however; Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals is esteemed as not just one of the greatest players in league history but also once of its kindest and generous figures. |
| 165 | * The ''tight end'' usually lines up alongside or offset from the offensive line (in other words, they line up tight on the ends of the o-line). Tight ends are often used to block and were originally intended solely for that role, but they are eligible receivers and most passing plays are now designed with the tight end as an option. Any given play may have anywhere from 0 to 4 tight ends. Some famous tight ends are Shannon Sharpe, Tony Gonzalez, Jason Witten, Antonio Gates, Jimmy Graham, Travis Kelce, George Kittle, and Rob Gronkowski. |
| 166 | ** There was also a trend of using ''H-backs'' (hybrid-back), players who can both fill the tight end and fullback roles. (An H-Back is more of a skill set rather than a designated position. During any given play an H-Back will act as either a full back or a tight end though due to pre-snap motion their role on the given play may be faked to the opposing defense.) Chris Cooley, formerly of Washington, was a prototypical H-back. |
| 167 | * The ''offensive line'' consists of five players: one center (the center of the line, expected to assign blocking schemes to the rest of the line and snap the ball to the quarterback at the start of the play), two guards (who line up to either side of the center), and two tackles (who line up to either side of the guards). Their job is to block for the offensive backs and prevent the defense from getting to the backs. This includes both pass blocking, where they divert the defense from reaching the QB, and run blocking, where the linemen actively create running routes for the backs. Offensive linemen are ineligible to touch a forward pass before another member of the offense or defense and cannot move more than five yards beyond the line of scrimmage (in the NFL, they may not move past the "neutral zone", an area defined by the distance between the tips of the ball before the ball is snapped) before the ball passes them (unless the offensive team publicly declares otherwise). O-linemen generally only touch the ball on fumbles, but there are a select few plays that have a tackle as an eligible receiver. Because of this more utilitarian job, o-linemen tend to lack the media presence of other offensive players, though most successful backs will freely admit that they are only able to do their job if the o-line does theirs. Probably the best known center in recent years is Jeff Saturday, who retired after 2012; he spent most of his career snapping the ball to Peyton Manning for the Indianapolis Colts. Michael Oher, former Carolina Panthers player of ''Literature/TheBlindSide'' fame, was an o-lineman. (The term "the blind side", in football, refers to the side of the field that the QB is not facing when he turns to make a pass or a handoff; thus the player protecting that side - generally the tackle, Oher's position - is key to a successful o-line.) In most cases (including Oher's), it's the the left tackle who plays this key role, as most quarterbacks (even more than the general population) are right-handed. |
| 168 | [[/folder]] |
| 169 | |
| 170 | [[folder:Defense]] |
| 171 | |
| 172 | Technically, there are no officially required positions, or for that matter formations, on the defensive side as there are on the offensive. The position names have simply developed through the years to describe the most efficient methods thus far found to succeed at their task of preventing the offense from scoring. |
| 173 | |
| 174 | * The ''defensive line'' consists of between two and five linemen, depending on what package is being used. Most defensive packages use three or four: one or two tackles in the middle and two ends. Their goal is primarily to muck up whatever the offensive line is trying to do: If they're trying to clear a hole for a run, it's their job to plug it and if possible tackle the runner. If they're trying to protect the quarterback, it's the d-Line's job to get past them and, if possible, sack the quarterback. Alternatively, the d-line can be used to open up holes in the o-line to allow other defensive players to have a run at the QB or RB. In a 3-4 defense (when there are only 3 linemen), the single tackle is known as the "nose tackle" and lines up directly in front of the center, whose typical job is to drive the center back into the QB. A good nose tackle is a top commodity, as they need to be [[LightningBruiser both big and fast]]. Some modern famous d-linemen are Michael Strahan, J.J. Watt, and Aaron Donald. |
| 175 | * The ''linebackers'' are two to four players who line up behind the defensive linemen (named because they back the d-line). Linebackers are generally the most versatile players on the defense and can be used to rush the quarterback, support the run defense, or cover slower receivers like backs or tight ends. Typically, a middle linebacker is the play caller for the defense (sometimes called the "quarterback of the defense", not to be confused with a seventh defensive back in the "quarter" package; see below), as this position has a good view of the offense's formation and his location at the center of the defensive formation makes it easier for all the other defenders to hear him. The linebackers are known informally as the Mike (and Moe or Jack in a four-backer set) for inside linebackers and Will and Sam for the weak side and strong side (the side of the offensive line with the tight end) linebackers. The second number in the common naming system for defense (ex: 4-3 has 4 defensive linemen and 3 linebackers, while the 3-4 has 3 and 4, respectively.) Both Dick Butkus and Lawrence Taylor, often considered in lists of "top defensive player of all time" (or even "top player of all time"), were linebackers. Among the best modern linebackers in football are Ray Lewis, Brian Urlacher, [=DeMarcus=] Ware, James Harrison, Von Miller, and Khalil Mack. |
| 176 | * ''Defensive backs'': There are usually four or five backs on the field for most plays, though defense packages exist that include as many as seven. The defensive backs collectively are often referred to as the ''secondary'' and are usually much more lean and speedy than defensive players at the line, as they are expected to be able to keep pace with receivers or break-away runners to attempt to deflect or intercept passes. The four that are on the field at most times include two ''cornerbacks'' (line up on the outsides or "corners" of the defense, usually against the top two wide receivers), a ''strong safety'' (who lines up on the same side as the offense's tight end - hence its "strong" side), and a ''free safety''. The fifth defensive back in a play that uses them is referred to as the "nickel" back (because he would be the fifth defensive back on the field), the sixth is called the "dime", and the seventh is a "quarter" (which may cause some confusion). Some excellent modern defensive backs include Deion Sanders, Charles Woodson, Darrelle Revis, and Richard Sherman. |
| 177 | [[/folder]] |
| 178 | |
| 179 | [[folder:Special Teams]] |
| 180 | |
| 181 | * The ''placekicker'' (or simply ''kicker'') attempts to kick field goals and extra points, for which the ball is snapped to another offensive player who then holds it to the ground (places it) for the kicker (unless the kicker is named [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]]). Some teams employ two kickers, in which case one handles the above duties and one is a ''kickoff specialist'' who kicks the ball off of a tee to the other team at the start of play and after scores. Most teams have one player who handles both duties due to limited roster space. (A few teams have the punter double as the kickoff specialist instead of the placekicker.) Traditionally, holding the kick was the job of the starting quarterback, but this has changed in recent years (the now-retired Tony Romo of the Cowboys was one of the last starting [=QBs=] who still did this) and it is most typically the backup QB, or more often the punter, who handles the placement.[[note]]This is due to practicalities of the practice schedule and roster rules. Because playbooks are so large in the NFL, both the starting and backup [=QBs=] are required to study and practice the plays the offense will be running during the game. If there is a third QB on the team, he cannot take the field unless the starter and backup have both been ruled ineligible (injured or unable to play) for the remainder of the game. This makes it impractical to have the skilled passer receiving the snap and there is a small danger involved in handling the snaps if the [=QB's=] hand accidentally gets kicked. Finally, the special teams players are usually left to their own to practice kicks, so the punter gets the most practice in holding the football for kicks anyways.[[/note]] The most accurate kicker in NFL history is Justin Tucker, who has played his entire NFL career to date with the Baltimore Ravens. Kickers are known for longevity; since they get defensively hit on plays only maybe about a few times a year (due to that usually being a penalty) and only need to exert themselves in short bursts (not dissimilar from golfers), they can go deep into their forties before retirement; Morten Andersen and George Blanda didn't retire until they were [[OldRetainer age 48]]. Andersen and Jan Stenerud are the only "pure" kickers enshrined in the Hall of Fame; despite kickers' critical role in scoring and the underrated difficulty of their job, their job is so radically different from offensive and defensive players that their value is often downplayed. |
| 182 | * The ''punter'' is used when one team wishes to trade a change of possession for improved field position. The punter receives the snap himself and kicks the ball (without letting it touch the ground) toward the other team's defended goal. While the kicking team can recover a kickoff without the receiving team touching the ball, the kicking team cannot recover a punt without an error on the part of the receiving team; if the punted ball touches any member of the receiving team and is not held onto, it is counted as a fumble (even if never touched the ''hands'' of the receiving player, which on rare occasions results in an amusing event like the ball bouncing off a receiving player's helmet and into the hands of a kicking-team player). While rare, sometimes the same player acts as both kicker and punter, though the two actions actually require fairly different techniques and muscle development; it is not uncommon for punters to not be trusted to kick if a team loses their kicker, and vice-versa. Like kickers, punters tend to have long careers, as they're rarely hit. The punter with the longest average in NFL history is Shane Lechler, who played most of his career with the Oakland Raiders; the consensus greatest punter of all time is Ray Guy, who played his entire career with the same team in both Oakland and L.A. and is the only punter in the Hall of Fame. While it's become significantly less common, quarterbacks still will sometimes be called on to punt; this is known as a "quick kick". In the modern game, this is a mild form of trick play in which the team fakes going for it on fourth down, then the QB punts the ball away with nobody deep to return it. In very recent years, the position has become notable as home for an increasing number of former UsefulNotes/{{Australian rules football}} players, with former Chargers and Vikings punter Darren Bennett being the TropeMaker and TropeCodifier (though not the UrExample). |
| 183 | * Most teams also employ a ''long snapper'' who handles snapping duties for placekicks and punts, due to long snaps being different enough from standard shotgun snaps to be difficult for centers. He's the football version of NobodyLovesTheBassist. Most fans don't know that most teams use a specialized long snapper - and if they ''do'', they probably can't name one who hasn't screwed up recently. |
| 184 | * While most teams use a receiver or defensive back to return kicks, some teams employ a ''return specialist'', a player nominally assigned to a standard position whose primary duties are to return kickoffs and punts, and occasionally cover the opponents' returns. Devin Hester, longtime returner for the Chicago Bears, is the most successful return specialist in NFL history; Darren Sproles (best known for his years with the Philadelphia Eagles) holds the single-season record for all-purpose yardage; and the Cleveland Browns' Josh Cribbs holds the all-time mark for most return touchdowns (8 PR touchdowns and 3 KR touchdowns, including 2 KR touchdowns in one game). |
| 185 | * Teams also have players called ''gunners'', who are called on to run down as fast as possible on punt and kickoff coverage to break up possible returns. The position developed because of an NFL rule stating that only the two players on either end of the offensive line can cross the line of scrimmage during a punt play before the ball is kicked. The gunners, who are almost always backup receivers, running backs, or defensive backs, must be fast and able to shed blocks, as they will usually have one or two players on the receiving team trying to block them as they go down the field. If a gunner is not covered by the receiving team, he may be the target for a pass off a fake punt. In the Pro Bowl (NFL all-star game), the "special teams" position is specifically used to recognize outstanding gunners. By acclamation, the best gunner in NFL history is Steve Tasker, who made the Pro Bowl seven times with the Buffalo Bills and was even named the game's MVP in 1993; petitions to get him into the Hall of Fame have yet to move past the semifinalist round. |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | |
| 188 | !Finally, here are some terms you might want to know |
| 189 | |
| 190 | [[folder:General Terms]] |
| 191 | |
| 192 | * ''Line of Scrimmage'': This is the line where the ball is placed at the beginning of each play. If the ball carrier is tackled behind it, they lose yardage. On TV, it is often virtually projected on the field as a white or blue line. |
| 193 | * ''Neutral Zone'': The space between the teams before the ball is snapped that is as long as the ball from tip to tip. Neither team is allowed to be in that area until the ball is snapped and ineligible receivers are not allowed to proceed past this area during passing plays until the ball is past them. |
| 194 | * ''Snap'': The moment when the Center lifts the football off its place on the ground and a play officially begins. Immediately prior to the snap, the entire offensive team must freeze in place for one second, except for one member of the offensive backfield who is allowed to be in lateral motion. |
| 195 | * ''Line to Gain'': This line initially begins 10 yards from the line of scrimmage at the beginning of each down series. If the offense moves the ball beyond it, they've achieved a new series of downs. On TV, it is virtually projected on the field as a yellow line (red on fourth down, unless the team lines up to punt in which case the TV broadcasters rarely bother to change the color). |
| 196 | * ''Goal Line'': These are lines at both ends of the 100-yard football field. If a team moves the ball past its opponent's goal line it scores a ''touchdown''. If the ball carrier gets pushed back behind his own goal line and tackled then the defense scores a ''safety''. |
| 197 | * ''End Zone'': The area behind each goal line which is legally within the bounds of play. In American Football, the end zones are ten yards deep. |
| 198 | * ''Lateral Pass'': Or simply "lateral". Any exchange in which the ball is transferred laterally or behind the ball's current position. A lateral is legal at any time, between any two players. Handoffs are considered lateral passes. An incomplete lateral pass is live and considered a fumble. Other than handoffs or pitch-outs/sweeps (where the running back doesn't run close enough to the quarterback to directly take a handoff, so he can get to the outside of the field faster), laterals are usually not scripted into a play. Sometimes, they ''are'' part of a play - like in instances where someone other than the QB throws a forward pass. Every once in a blue moon, you'll see a designed lateral happen ''after'' a reception - resulting in miracle plays like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWO2OIN_heY this one.]] In theory, the number of times a ballhandling unit can do this with a live ball is unlimited - which can result in insane/controversial plays that go down in college/pro football lore like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2I4_UP8_2M these]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfebpLfAt8g here]]. |
| 199 | * ''Forward Pass'': Any exchange in which the ball is transferred to a point in front of its current position. A forward pass is illegal after the ball or passer has advanced beyond the line of scrimmage (even if one or both retreats behind again), a forward pass has already been attempted this down (even if, by some circumstance, the ball didn't cross the line of scrimmage, which can happen if the ball deflects off of a hand or helmet), or if an ineligible offensive player touches the ball before an eligible player. An incomplete forward pass kills the play and stops the clock with no change of possession. |
| 200 | ** A legal pass also must have a clear ''intended receiver'', an eligible player that the passer was trying to throw the ball to. If an official believes that an incompletion was thrown blindly by the passer simply to avoid being tackled with it, an "intentional grounding" penalty may be called, resulting in the loss of 10 yards (or down at the spot the pass was thrown from, whichever is greater) ''and'' a loss of a down. One of the skills of a seasoned QB when a pass play has failed is to always throw ''just'' close enough to an eligible player that he won't be penalized but also ''just'' far enough away that it's out of range of a defensive player to intercept. Intentional grounding can be avoided if the QB is no longer behind his o-line; in this case, the ball can be thrown almost anywhere for simply an incomplete pass (as long as it crosses the line of scrimmage). However, this can be as dangerous as intentional grounding since a QB in this situation no longer has his linemen to protect him and generally can see far less of the field. General practice in this case is to just throw the ball as far out of bounds as possible. |
| 201 | * ''Red Zone'': The area between the end zone and 20-yard line of the opposing team. So called because the offensive team has a very high chance of scoring at least a field goal, if not a touchdown, when they have reached this point. Having a play series end in the red zone with no points scored is generally considered to be a significant failure. Having it happen repeatedly is usually a sign of an inept offense or extremely tough defense. |
| 202 | * ''Penalties'': Officials carry weighted yellow flags and throw them onto the field to indicate that a violation of the rules occurred during the preceding play. The violating team will then be penalized by moving the line of scrimmage 5-15 yards towards their goal for the following play. Some offensive penalties will also carry a loss of down, as opposed to a replay of the current down. Some defensive penalties also carry an automatic first down for the offense; that is, the offense is awarded a new down series from the reset line of scrimmage, no matter whether the penalized yards would move the line of scrimmage beyond the line to gain. Some penalties are "spot fouls", meaning that they're assessed as a distance from the spot of the foul instead of from the line of scrimmage, making them particularly devastating to the offending team. Technical fouls usually carry 5- or 10- yard penalties, while personal fouls always carry 15-yard penalties (and an automatic first down for defensive personal fouls). Particularly egregious fouls result in ejection (unlike in [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball the other football]], the player can be replaced); this is almost always followed by a hefty fine and sometimes suspension for a period of time (with corresponding loss of salary). Note that most penalties are imposed in place of the results of the live play, so the team receiving the penalty has the option to decline the penalty in favor of the result. This is intended to prevent intentional penalties that would negate plays with large yardage swings. Personal Fouls, however, always add yardage to the end of the play. As well, certain situations (such as a penalty committed during a PAT) allow the offended team to assess the penalty in any number of additional ways (for example, during the ensuing kickoff rather than on the PAT). There are also 'dead-ball' fouls, pre-snap procedural penalties that always negate the following play. Offsetting penalties always negate each other, no matter if there is a difference of degree. To avoid deliberate penalties near the end of games (trading yards for clock stoppages), offensive penalties in the last minute of a half include a clock runoff (unless the clock is/has been stopped for reasons unrelated to the penalty, the fouling team chooses to take a timeout, or the penalty is for delay of game). These flags used to be weighted with [=BBs=], but the practice ceased when a referee accidentally threw a flag into the face of a lineman, nearly blinding him in one eye; penalty flags are now weighed with sand or plastic pellets, which are less likely to cause serious injury. |
| 203 | ** Especially egregious offenses (such as an inactive player, or even in one infamous instance a coach, leaving the sidelines to interfere with a play) can also fall under "[[RuleZero palpably unfair acts]]", which is exceptionally rare but allows the referee to award any yardage penalty he sees fit, eject the offender, and/or award an automatic touchdown to the other team. The palpably unfair act penalty was created for instances when the team committing the foul would gain such an extreme advantage that the standard yardage penalty would be insufficient to deter such behavior. Essentially, anyone who commits an infraction severe enough to require this penalty can be seen as having outright cheated rather than having just committed a normal infraction.[[note]]One famous example of the "palpably unfair act" penalty came in the 1954 Cotton Bowl, when Rice was awarded a touchdown after Alabama running back Tommy Lewis came off the bench to tackle his Rice counterpart Dickie Maegle (then spelled Moegle), who was racing down the sideline with no one legally in position to stop him from scoring.[[/note]] |
| 204 | ** For a list of common penalties, see [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootballPenalties here]]. |
| 205 | [[/folder]] |
| 206 | |
| 207 | [[folder:Offense-Related Terms]] |
| 208 | * ''Formation'': A standardized pre-snap lineup. Seven players (the linemen plus two eligible receivers) must be on the line of scrimmage and the four remaining eligible receivers must be behind the line (one of whom takes the snap, naturally). The standard NFL set, known as the 'I' formation includes one tight end on the right side of the offensive line; one ''split end'', a receiver on the left side of the line, but separated from the linemen; a ''flanker'' on the right side, separated and one yard back; the quarterback under center; and the fullback and halfback two and four yards behind him, respectively. All formations can be varied by changing the placement or position of the offensive backs and line receivers. References may be found to the old 'T' formation[[note]]From times before rules changes made passing offenses more viable[[/note]], which (compared with the more modern 'I') replaced the flanker with a third running back, all of which were lined up next to each other behind the QB, making the combination of center, QB, and running backs resemble a "T" shape.[[note]]The NFL rulebook will sometimes refer to a 'T' formation, but in this case the term refers to a formation where the QB is lined up less than two yards behind center, and generally receives the ball by being handed it from the center, as opposed to a 'direct snap' such as in the shotgun or pistol formations.[[/note]] |
| 209 | ** ''Shotgun'': A formation in which the quarterback lines up five yards behind the center. In the standard shotgun, a running back lines up to the QB's left and one yard forward and the other running back is replaced with a ''slot receiver'', a receiver lined up between the line and the split end, one yard behind the line of scrimmage. |
| 210 | ** ''Pistol'': A variant of the shotgun, in which the quarterback stands about a yard closer to the center, with a running back lined up about three yards directly behind him. The formation, popularized by former University of Nevada, Reno head coach Chris Ault, is designed to allow more options for the running game than the regular shotgun. Although it is seen as something of a gimmick at the highest levels, it can be seen from time to time in college and high school, and a few NFL teams will occasionally use it. The most notable of these was the San Francisco 49ers when their starting QB was Colin Kaepernick, who ran that offense under Ault at Nevada. |
| 211 | ** ''Ace'' or ''Singleback'': Any set in which the fullback is replaced with an extra wide receiver or tight end. This results in only one running back in the backfield, hence the term. |
| 212 | ** ''Pro'': A set in which the fullback and the halfback (or two halfbacks, or two fullbacks) line up at the same depth from the quarterback. A standard Pro set have the backs line up on either side of where the halfback would normally go, and is sometimes called a 'Y' formation. Some formations have one of the backs line up in the standard halfback position, and are called "Near" and "Far" depending on which side the other back goes; "Near" if the back is on the strong side, and "Far" if the back is on the weak side. |
| 213 | ** ''Wishbone'': Take the standard Pro set, subtract the tight end or a wide receiver, and add the fullback in his standard position. An ''Inverted Wishbone'' instead takes the standard pro set and moves it to fullback depth (with two fullbacks or tight ends in the backfield), then adds a halfback at the normal halfback spot, usually replacing a wide receiver. |
| 214 | ** ''Wildcat'': A nonstandard (at higher levels) formation wherein the quarterback, usually a nonstarter or a player out of position, lines up in shotgun position and one man always begins in motion. The formation is designed to spread the defense and allow option runs and short passes over the middle. It is generally considered a gimmick at the highest levels, but it is a high-school staple and a small number of NFL teams will use it from time to time. |
| 215 | * ''Personnel Grouping'': Also known as a "personnel package", this concept has seen increasing use to denote offensive skill position players, especially in the NFL. These packages are described by a two-digit numeric code that denotes the number of running backs and tight ends. The number of wide receivers is not explicitly included in the code, but is trivially inferred when one remembers that six of the 11 offensive players are the linemen and QB. For example, as of 2021, about two-thirds of plays are run with one running back, one tight end, and three wide receivers—an "11 package" or "11 personnel". |
| 216 | * ''Play Action'': This is the most common type of trick play, wherein the quarterback pretends to hand the ball off to a teammate behind the line of scrimmage, then attempts a forward pass. While it does often successfully fake out a defense, it's so commonplace that it's barely even thought of as a trick play. |
| 217 | * ''Draw'': Sort of the inverse of a play action, this is a run play disguised as a pass play. The quarterback usually drops back and waits a moment before handing the ball off (or running it himself). Meanwhile, wide receivers will run routes downfield in an attempt to "draw" defensive backs away from the line of scrimmage to give his teammate room to run. If the QB fakes a throw (called a ''pump fake'') before handing the ball off, this is called a ''Statue of Liberty'' play, due to the pose the QB assumes when faking the throw. |
| 218 | * ''Screen'': A short pass play disguised as a botched longer pass play. After the snap, the offensive lineman make a token attempt to block the defense, but then allow them through and run to the sidelines. The defensive linemen (hopefully) see the defenseless quarterback and chase him, whereupon he lofts a shallow pass to an eligible receiver set up behind those same o-linemen. Like the Play Action, it started out as a trick play but has become so standard that it's no longer really thought of as such. |
| 219 | * ''Shovel Pass'': A short pass where the quarterback doesn't throw using his full motion or is thrown underhand. More rarely, it might be thrown sidearm, or flipped using a motion similar to that of a basketball shot (but from a lower position). |
| 220 | * ''Option'': A type of play in which the quarterback receives the snap, then tries to run to the left or right around the line of scrimmage, accompanied by a running back. At any point, the QB has the "option" of keeping the ball and advancing himself or tossing a lateral to the running back. There are various types of option plays, but the most popular today involves the QB and RB The option is a very popular play among teams up to the FBS level, and many of these teams treat the option as central to their offense (Nebraska was famous for using a run-oriented option offense into the early 2000s). In the NFL, the option is seen as a novelty play and is used rarely because the QB risks injury and option plays tend to be relatively slow-developing, which is a lot more problematic in the NFL since defenses tend to be much faster than at lower levels. |
| 221 | ** ''Spread Option'': A more modern form of the option offense, usually run out of a shotgun or pistol formation. The initial "option" in this offense involves the quarterback deciding whether to keep the ball or hand it to the running back. If the QB still has the ball at this point, he then has the choice of running or passing, or sometimes pitching to a receiver circling behind him. In the [=21st=] century, the spread option has become a staple for many teams up to college level, with Ohio State and Oregon being just two of the best-known users of that scheme. In college, it's largely evolved away from being an "option" at all (many schools refer to it as the "Spread Offense"), with the decision of run or pass already having been made before the ball is snapped, but the formation being basically the same on both running and passing plays. In the NFL, it's largely seen as a gimmick, although some teams have added it as a part of their overall offensive package. |
| 222 | * ''Hail Mary'': A play in which the quarterback avoids the defense for as long as possible, then throws the ball high in the air as far as possible, in the hopes that someone (on his team) will catch it. Obviously not a high-percentage play, this is used late in games when the offensive team is down by a touchdown or less. Doug Flutie, a QB who later went on to have moderate success with the NFL's Buffalo Bills, is still famous for completing a Hail Mary pass to narrowly lead his Boston College team to victory over Miami in 1984. The term itself stems from a 1975 pass by Dallas Cowboys QB (and devout Catholic) Roger Staubach; prior to that historic moment, the same play was called an ''Alley Oop'', coined by San Franciso 49ers and New York Giants QB Y.A. Tittle. The terms "Hail Mary" and "Hail Mary pass" have since entered the American lexicon for any spectacular, last-ditch effort with a low chance of success; "Alley Oop" still remains in limited use, mostly related to basketball. |
| 223 | * ''Flea Flicker'': A trick play in which the ball is handed off (or pitched) to a running back, who begins to run only to throw the ball back to the quarterback, who then targets receivers who are by now far downfield. An all-or-nothing play that nearly always results in big gains, big losses... or worse. The infamous 1985 Lawrence Taylor hit on Joe Theismann, which resulted in a career-ending compound fracture to Theismann's leg, came on a botched flea flicker. A simplified version, the "Halfback Option", has the running back simply throw to a receiver downfield himself. |
| 224 | * ''Quarterback Kneel'': Also known colloquially as "taking a knee" or the "victory formation" because of how common it is to secure victory, taking a knee is where the QB takes the snap and immediately drops to one knee. By the rules, this is counted as downing the ball, and the clock will continue to run short of the opposing team taking a time-out or some other circumstance. It is very common at the ends of games where one team has victory locked up and just wants to run out the clock (for example, if they lead by 4 points with less than a minute to go with the other team having no timeouts remaining). In the standard formation, there are three people in the backfield besides the QB--their only job is to grab the ball in the event of a bad snap, or (if necessary) to stop the defense from making it to the end zone. This formation came about after "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miracle_at_the_Meadowlands The Miracle at the Meadowlands]]", a game that also led to universal acceptance of the kneel-down play after a botched handoff while attempting to run out the clock on the final play resulted in a fumble run back by the defense for a touchdown. The now-defunct Arena Football League effectively banned the QB kneel up until its final two seasons of operation; if the leading team wanted to run the clock out in the final minute of regulation, they had to advance the ball past the line of scrimmage on every play, otherwise the clock would stop, making a one-possession lead in the final minute less of a foregone conclusion. |
| 225 | * ''Spiking the Ball'': The opposite of taking a knee, spiking the ball occurs when you need to stop the clock as quickly as possible. Spiking the ball generally involves the offense moving to the line as quickly as they possibly can, snapping it, and immediately throwing it into the ground. This counts as an incomplete pass, and is in most rulebooks a specific exception to the intentional grounding rule (as long as the ball is ''handed'' to the quarterback by the center, rather than snapped long in a shotgun formation or similar, and as long as the QB does so immediately). Doing so immediately stops the clock. It is generally used near the ends of halves when one team doesn't have--or doesn't want to waste--any timeouts. Using this technique to stop the clock does cost the down that the "play" is run, so obviously it should not be [[PressXToDie run on fourth down]]. A more interesting play is faking spiking the ball, which generally catches the defense off-guard and allows open receivers to get into position to catch the ball. |
| 226 | * ''No-Huddle Offense'': A tactic used by the offense in which they rush into formation to begin play immediately after their last without going into a huddle, with the plays called at the line. This is normally done when a team must score and time is running out (in which case it is often called a "hurry-up" offense) but can also be used to wear down the opposing defense by giving them little time to make changes to their formation or substitutions, leaving them with personnel on the field not suited for what the offense is doing and possibly forcing the defensive team to use a timeout. Due to the frequent use of this during the final minutes of the game, the "hurry-up" version is sometimes called the "two-minute offense". Some teams are known for running a no-huddle offense for most if not all of the game, most notably the Oregon Ducks in college football under Chip Kelly in the early 2010s (who later brought his variant to the NFL to mixed success). While, as noted, this tends to wear down an opposing defense, the risk incurred is that it gives your own defense less time to rest when the offense is on the field. When Peyton Manning was starting for the Colts, then later finishing his career with the Denver Broncos, his teams ran a slower version of the no-huddle by rushing to the line... then waiting to snap the ball until either the defense attempted a substitution (incurring a penalty in the process) or until the play clock was down to a few seconds (forcing the defenders to hold their positions for a ''very'' long time, which they would be less used to than their offensive counterparts). This also gave Manning plenty of time to make on-the-fly adjustments based on what he observed about the defense. |
| 227 | [[/folder]] |
| 228 | |
| 229 | [[folder:Defense-Related Terms]] |
| 230 | * ''Tackle'': A defensive player can end a play by forcing the ball carrier to the ground, forcing the ball carrier out of bounds, or halting his forward momentum to the satisfaction of the nearest official. In the NFL, if any part of the carrier's body from the knees or elbows inward touches the ground, it's enough to end the play, so long as an opposing player is touching him when it happens ''or'' the ball carrier went down as a result of contact with a defender (ie if a defender pushes the ball carrier and the carrier falls to his knees, he's down even if the defender is no longer touching him when he falls). Having a hand, forearm, foot, or lower leg touch the ground isn't enough. |
| 231 | ** At the college and high school levels, on the other hand, the player is down if he falls even without being touched. This typically results in a tackle being credited to whichever defender was closest to the ball carrier. NFL rookies occasionally forget about this rule difference, resulting in defenders missing opportunities to down a fallen ball carrier or a ball carrier being too slow to get up and run for extra yardage. |
| 232 | * ''Package / Alignment'': The terms "package" and "alignment" refer to the configuration of defenders on the field. The distinction between the two is a bit hazy, since as we noted above, defensive positions are assigned by custom rather than by rule. In general, though, terms like "4-3" and "nickel" carry about the same meaning as association football's "4-4-2". It specifies where the players are, but only gives you a rough idea of what they'll do. |
| 233 | * ''Nickel'': A defensive package designed for passing plays wherein one lineman or linebacker is replaced with either a third cornerback or a ''weak safety''. The term comes from the US five-cent coin, called a nickel. Similarly, there exist 'dime' and 'quarter' packages which substitute in six or seven backs, respectively. Dime is increasingly rare and quarter is almost never seen anymore outside of the prevent defense. With the proliferation of pass-oriented spread offenses in college football in recent years, the nickel has become the base defense for some teams, with TCU being one notable example. |
| 234 | * ''Sack'': A sack occurs when a defensive player tackles the opposing quarterback while behind the line of scrimmage on a passing play. Perhaps paradoxically, for stat-keeping reasons, in college, the QB is considered to have lost yardage on a ''running'' play when this happens, and the existence of plays like the play action mean that even a failed QB run attempt will be credited as a sack. Forcing a QB to run out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage also counts as a sack. If any other player is tackled behind the line of scrimmage, it's simply referred to as being tackled "for a loss of X [yards]". |
| 235 | * ''Turnover'': A change of ball possession without the intent of the offense. This generally takes place in two ways, a fumble recovery or an interception. |
| 236 | * ''Interception'': An interception occurs when a defensive player catches a pass intended for an offensive player. This changes possession of the football and the defensive player is free to advance the football until they are downed, at which point their team's offense takes the field. Unlike offensive linemen, all defensive players may legally intercept a pass. Alternately/colloquially may be called a "pick" or "pick-off" of the pass, or a "pick 6" if the interception is returned for a touchdown and six points. |
| 237 | * ''Fumble'': A fumble occurs when the ball carrier drops the football while it is still in play. A wide receiver who does not catch his pass does not fumble; a fumble only occurs if the player had definite possession of the ball. If the defense is able to recover the football before the offense does, then the football changes possession. A ball fumbled out of bounds reverts to the offense at the spot where it crossed the sideline. Unless it's fumbled through the opposing team's end zone, in which case it's a touchback. |
| 238 | ** Note that defensive players can advance any fumble, but offensive players cannot advance a ball fumbled forward from behind the line of scrimmage. This rule exists to prevent a specific trick play called a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fumblerooski fumblerooski]], in which a ballcarrier "accidentally" fumbles the ball forward to another player, getting around the rule against forward passes. The fumblerooski [[StopHavingFunGuys was banned for being too "undignified"]] (advancing a forward fumble was banned in the 1960s by the NFL, but it survived until 1992 in college), but on rare occasions modified versions are used that get around the ban by methods such a backwards bounce-pass or the center intentionally fumbling the snap (neither of which is a ''forward'' fumble). |
| 239 | ** Another fumble trick was the infamous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roller_%28American_football%29 Holy Roller]] of 1978, in which Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler fumbled the ball forward as he was about to be sacked, causing the ball to roll toward the end zone, and then two other Raiders batted it forward into the end zone where one recovered it for a touchdown. This was ruled legal on the field because the officials ''couldn't tell'' if the fumble and the batting forward of the ball were intentional. The players involved all admitted (decades after the fact) that it was a deliberate fumble and that they only ''pretended'' to attempt to recover it prior to the ball reaching the end zone. This evasion of the "advancing a forward fumble" rule resulted in further restrictions on advancing a fumble by the offense: if the ball is recovered by an offensive player other than the one who fumbled it in the first place, a recovery on 4th down or after the two-minute warning results in the ball being placed at the spot of the fumble rather than wherever it had rolled to. |
| 240 | * ''Safety'': As mentioned above, if a ball carrier is tackled behind his own goal line, the defense is awarded two points and possession of the ball by means of an uncontested punt by the offensive team. A fumble that moves back through the ball carrier's end zone without being recovered by the defense is also a safety. If the ball is fumbled into the offense's end zone, they will often deliberately get a safety (by either falling on the ball or batting it out of bounds), because giving up 2 points and possession is considered safer than allowing a guaranteed touchdown by letting the defense recover the ball in the end zone. |
| 241 | * ''Turnover on Downs'': Not a turnover in the strict sense, this occurs when the offense chooses not to punt on fourth down and fails to score or get the yardage they need. Offenses "going for it" on fourth down is relatively rare and usually reserved when they really need a score or if the distance needed for first down is extremely short (as in "4th and inches"). As such, forcing a turnover on downs is a big win for the defense. In recent years, even less aggressive coaches are becoming more likely to "go for it" if they are in opposing territory, and a team that has a poor kicking game is likely to do so if they're outside of field goal range but close enough to the goal line that a punt would almost guarantee a touchback, meaning that failing to convert wouldn't give ''that'' much of an improvement in field position to the other team. |
| 242 | * ''Blitz'': A type of play in which linebackers or defensive backs attempt to rush past the offensive line (creating a "pass rush") and sack or at least put pressure on the ball-carrier, usually the quarterback. If the offense has a running back block the blitzing defender, thus nullifying the play, it is referred to as "picking up the blitz". Considered a risky play because it leaves areas of the field open. However, there are teams that have had lots of success with aggressive blitzing; the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers have long had a reputation for successful blitz-oriented defenses, and the Buddy Ryan-created "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/46_defense 46 Defense]]" is an entire system developed around constantly applying such pressure to opposing offenses for whole games at a time. |
| 243 | ** ''Zone Blitz'': While a standard blitz involves sending more people than the usual 4 linemen (or 3 lineman and one linebacker) a zone blitz involves the defense faking which players will be rushing the quarterback and which players will be in coverage. For example, a defensive end may act like he's going to rush the QB and the strong safety may appear to be in coverage, however when the ball is snapped the safety rushes the quarter back while the defensive end covers. This is intended to cause mismatches between blockers and rushers and open up holes where a blocker expected someone to be and is not prepared for someone rushing from a different position. This of course can backfire if the lineman attempting to cover is not athletic enough to perform these duties. |
| 244 | * ''Prevent'': A package involving at least seven defensive backs, most or all of whom are well over ten yards back from the line of scrimmage. The prevent defense concedes long runs and short passes in order to prevent long passes for a touchdown. Typically only used in the last minutes of a game by a team who already has the lead, and even then it's considered by many to be a bad idea; former player, coach and long-time TV commentator John Madden famously said "All a prevent defense does is prevent you from winning." The prevent is ideal for defending a Hail Mary on the last play of a game, though. |
| 245 | [[/folder]] |
| 246 | |
| 247 | [[folder:Special Teams-Related Terms]] |
| 248 | |
| 249 | * ''Kickoff'': A kickoff begins both halves of football and resumes play after a score (except for a safety). The kickoffs take place from the kicking team's 35-yard line and the ball is kicked from a tee (or held by a member of the kicking team; if the ball falls off the tee due to wind, the referee will require they have a member of the kicking team hold the ball like on a field goal attempt). The receiving team may not attempt to block this kick but both teams may contest for possession.[[note]]This part of the rule burned the Buffalo Bills at the end of the 2016 season; in a game where they were already being blown out by division rival the New York Jets, they allowed a kickoff from a Jets touchdown to roll into their end zone untouched, at which point a Jets gunner landed on it for another touchdown; the Bills kick returner even chased down said ball... only to stare stupidly at it for several seconds before making a belated lunge that was blocked by several other Jets who had run down with the gunner.[[/note]] The kicking team must stay behind the ball until it is kicked or the play will be offside. The ball must travel at least 10 yards before the kicking team can attempt to regain possession (unless it touches a player on the receiving team, it which case it's a live ball); though most kick offs are sent as far down the field as possible so the receiving team starts with poorer field position, under certain circumstances (usually a team that just scored still being behind late in the game) a kicking team will want to regain the ball immediately, and so will attempt an "onside kick", using a weak kick that travels the minimum distance while sending their own players to recover it instead of letting the other team get it and just blocking the return. |
| 250 | ** The Alliance of American Football had no kickoffs. After a touchdown or field goal, the team scored upon automatically received the ball on its own 25-yard line... unless an "onside conversion" was attempted (see below under "Onside kick"). |
| 251 | ** The current XFL has kickoffs, but with a radically different procedure from any other past or present league. The kickoff takes place from the kicking team's 30, and the kicker is the only player on either team on the kicking team's half of the field. The rest of the kicking team lines up on the receiving team's 35, while the receiving team lines up on its own 30 except for one returner. Additionally, both teams are required to have four players lined up inside the hashmarks, with three between the hashmarks and sideline on each side of the field. The kick has to be in the air, and at least reach the receiving team's 20. No member of either team, except for the kicker and the returner, can move until (1) the ball is caught or (2) 3 seconds after it touches the ground. |
| 252 | * ''Free kick'': After a safety, play is initiated by a free kick. The previous team that was on offense kicks the ball either with a drop kick or a punt kick from their 20 yard line. The receiving team may not block the kick and the kicking team may not contest for possession unless the ball is fumbled on the return attempt. Another (incredibly rare) form of free kick is the fair catch kick, which allows a free, unblocked placekick (worth three points, and thus a form of field goal) from the spot at which a punt is received provided the returner calls for a fair catch. However, the circumstances under which a team would actually WANT to do this are so rare that most lifelong fans aren't even aware of this rule's existence. |
| 253 | * ''Touchback'': If a team gains possession in the defensive end zone, the team begins their next series as though it had returned the ball to their own 20-yard line except on kickoffs in the NFL and college football, where the mark is instead the 25-yard line. This commonly happens on kickoffs and punts when the ball is either recovered in the end zone and not advanced, or goes out of bounds after entering the end zone. A touchback can also occur on interceptions (occasionally) and fumble recoveries (rarely, since the offensive team must fumble the ball forward into the end zone without actually scoring a touchdown, and either have the ball go out of bounds in the end zone or be recovered by the defense). In both college football and (as of 2023) the NFL, a kickoff that ends in a fair catch by the receiving team between its own 25-yard line and goal line is treated as a touchback, with the ball being moved to the 25. |
| 254 | ** For most of football's history, a touchback went to the 20-yard line under all circumstances. Touchbacks to the 25 were implemented in 2018 to prevent injury by discouraging kickoff returns, which are the most dangerous play in football.[[note]]The distances involved in a typical kickoff give both the "gunners" on the kicking team and the return man and his blockers on the receiving team more room to reach their maximum running speed, meaning that players hit each other at higher speed than is typical in other plays.[[/note]] There have been proposals to do away with kickoff returns entirely for the same reason, which are controversial because they're also considered some of the most exciting plays in football. |
| 255 | ** The current XFL strongly discourages kicks into the end zone. A kickoff that touches the ground between the 20 and goal line and then bounces out of the end zone, or is downed in it, gives the receiving team possession on its own 15. The flip side: a kickoff that travels into the end zone ''in the air'' and is downed results in a "major touchback", with the receiving team getting possession on its own ''35''. Punts that go out of bounds between the receiving team's 35 and goal line, or into the end zone, also result in the ball being placed on the receiving team's 35. |
| 256 | * ''Muffed Catch'': During a change of possession kick, if the player trying to receive the kick doesn't cleanly field the kick, it's called muffed. Often results in a turnover since once the ball has touched a receiving player it is live and recoverable by the kicking team. This is particularly important on a punt, because a muffed catch allows the kicking team to recover the ball; as mentioned above, a punt can only be downed, not recovered, by the kicking team if it hasn't touched a receiving team player. |
| 257 | * ''Fair Catch'': When the ball is kicked and the receiving player does not think they have enough space to return a kick they can call a fair catch, meaning that if they catch the ball the play is dead where they caught the ball; they cannot be tackled and they cannot advance the ball. They signal this by waving one hand above their head. Improperly signaling for a fair catch (waving 2 hands) is a penalty (trickery?). Preventing the player who signaled for a fair catch (by contact, intentionally or unintentionally) from catching the ball is also a penalty. If the player does not catch the ball after signaling the ball is live and recoverable by both sides, as this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGp3jdDvhAM poor fellow from Wofford in a playoff game learned when]] he didn't down the ball in the end zone and the opposing team (Northern Iowa) stripped the ball from him for a free touchdown. |
| 258 | * ''Downed Kick'': If the kicking team during a punt recovers the kick before the receiving team this is called downing the ball (technically this is a rule violation called "illegal touching") the result is still a change of possession but the receiving team will have no opportunity to advance the ball. This is most commonly used to prevent the ball from going into the end zone, pinning the other team deep in their own zone. |
| 259 | * ''Onside kick'': On a kickoff, if the kicking team receives the ball before the receiving team on a kickoff, the kicking team can retain possession of it; the only requirement is that the ball travel 10 yards before a member of the kicking team touches it (unless the receiving team touches it before it crosses 10 yards but doesn't maintain possession). This play is normally used only in desperation if the team kicking the ball needs to score and the game is nearing the end. It is very risky to attempt because, if the kicking team does not receive the ball, it puts the receiving team in an even better field position. The formation for this kick, if it's expected, usually has a majority of the kicking team on one side of the kicker to maximize their chances. The receiving team will usually stack one side of the field to match. The receiving team when expecting an onside kick will put in what's referred to as the "hands team" instead of their usual kickoff return team, typically consisting largely of wide receivers and defensive backs whose main skill is catching the ball rather than blocking for a runner. The kicker usually kicks the ball so that it bounces off the ground high in the air, for two reasons: 1. When the ball touches the ground the receiving team cannot call a fair catch, and 2. This gives the ball a high arc that allows the kicking team time to get past the first line of blockers and a lot of spin to make it difficult for the receiving team to catch the ball. The ball can be advanced on an on-side kick reception. Rarely, a team will attempt a "surprise" onside kick out of normal kickoff formation and somewhat earlier in the game than an onside kick would normally be expected. This has the advantage of catching the receiving team off-guard, while they don't have their "hands team" on the field and are out of position to recover the kick, but it requires that the kicking team ''also'' be out of position in order to sell the deception. |
| 260 | ** While fully "stacked" formations remain legal in high school football, they're now illegal in both college and the NFL. College rules require that at least four players be on each side of the ball. NFL rules are even more restrictive: First, in 2009, it prohibited kicking teams from "bunching" more than five players together. Then, in 2018, it required that kicking teams place five players on each side of the ball, with further restrictions on their side-to-side placement. Also in 2018, the NFL mandated that no member of the kicking team, except for the kicker, could move before the ball was kicked. The rate of successful onside kicks plummeted (they improved in later years, but never reached the pre-2018 level), and most of the ones that were successful were directed to the ''middle'' of the field instead of the sides. |
| 261 | ** The Alliance of American Football used an "onside conversion" as its alternative to an onside kick. After a team scores a touchdown or field goal, the scoring team could attempt a special fourth-down conversion if it was (1) trailing by at least 17 points, or (2) 5 minutes or less remain in the fourth quarter. The ball was placed on the scoring team's own 28-yard line, with a successful conversion requiring a 12-yard gain. If the conversion was successful, the scoring team would continue with its possession; otherwise, the team that defended the conversion got possession at the final spot of the play. This play was also available to a team that gave up a safety, with the same constraints on scoring deficit and/or time remaining; in this case, the conversion attempt was a fourth-and-12 from the scored-upon team's 18-yard line. |
| 262 | ** The current XFL allows onside kicks, using NFL rules, but the kicking team must declare its intent to attempt such a kick before the play. For its 2023 reboot, it started allowing teams that score in the fourth quarter to attempt an onside conversion instead of a kickoff, with the ball placed on the scoring team's own 25 and the offense having one play to reach its own 40 to retain possession. |
| 263 | [[/folder]] |
| 264 | |
| 265 | !Levels of play |
| 266 | |
| 267 | There are three major organizational tiers of football: high school, college, and professional (the latter dominated by the NFL). All of them have fairly unique but important roles in American popular culture. |
| 268 | |
| 269 | [[folder:High school football]] |
| 270 | High schools draw players from their general student bodies; due to the size of football teams and the sport's popularity, roughly one million American teenagers play on their school team's each year, though many don't see much playing time. Unlike the majority of other sports offered at the high school level, teams are not divided by gender; football players are almost AlwaysMale, though a few thousand young woman do successfully land spots on teams at this level each year. During their senior years, especially talented high school football players sign letters of intent to play for various college programs. This is known as National Signing Day, and it is a big event for college television networks such as Creator/{{ESPN}}U.\ |
| 271 | |
| 272 | High schools usually play football on Saturday afternoons or Friday evenings (hence ''Film/FridayNightLights'') during the fall semester and are governed by state-level athletic associations. They are divided into tiers based on school size and athletic program quality, and sometimes into regional divisions as well. There may be separate organizations for public and private schools, or they may all play together; there may be a statewide championship tournament or only regional titles within a state, with any championship game usually played at either the state's largest university stadium, a professional stadium, or whichever venue is large enough and centrally located. There is no national high school football championship; there are altogether too many high schools for this to work, never mind added expense of hosting a game or tournament. Unofficial championships are given out by media organizations such as ''USA Today'' or sites devoted solely to high school sports via polling but are subject to opinion. Despite high school football being organized on a state basis, there are sometimes individual cross-state games during a regular season, and a high school located near a state border might even have an established rivalry with a school in the neighboring state. There's even one pair of high schools in twin cities on opposite sides of a state border that not only have a rivalry but [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Stadium share a stadium]].[[note]]Graham High School and Bluefield High School, both in cities named Bluefield, respectively in Virginia and West Virginia. The stadium is in West Virginia but is closer to the Graham campus.[[/note]] These are very much the exception, though, and can be complicated by bureaucratic issues like different states having slight differences in the rules[[note]]The main differences arise only if a game ends in a tie—the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the body that sets the rules for US high school sports, including football, recommends but does not mandate a specific overtime procedure. States vary somewhat in how they operate overtime, mostly differing on where the teams begin their possessions. The outlier is Texas, which instead bases its high school football rules on the NCAA rule set.[[/note]] and the legal/liability headache involved in carrying dozens of minors [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFederalism across state lines.]] |
| 273 | [[/folder]] |
| 274 | |
| 275 | [[folder:College football]] |
| 276 | |
| 277 | Unlike the other major American sports leagues, the NFL will not allow a player to participate in the Draft or sign with a team until he's been out of high school for at least three years (more in some cases) or earned a degree from a recognized university. As a result, college teams are the primary method of training and refining young players. The most talented high school athletes are offered scholarships to play football, with exceptionally talented players often being targeted for recruitment by those with prestigious programs. Even getting to this level is an admirable accomplishment: barely 5% of high school players ever land a football scholarship. Those that miss their shot can attempt to try out for a college team anyway, but success stories of players making the pros from this route are incredibly rare. The number of women who play football at the college level is even tinier than at the high school level; almost all of them play non-contact special team positions for smaller schools.\ |
| 278 | |
| 279 | College players must be enrolled and take classes at the college in question; they can be granted scholarships but are not directly paid by their schools, even though many colleges make more money from their football programs than they do from any other revenue source. However, thanks to changes in eligibility rules in 2021, players can now earn money from outside sources (personal appearances, endorsements, etc.) with relatively few limitations.\ |
| 280 | |
| 281 | There are numerous tiers of collegiate football in the United States, stretching across two organizations - the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the smaller National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) - with at least 5 recognized national championship systems. The top division of the NCAA is split into two separate subdivisions, called Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Generally, the term 'college football' in the United States refers to teams in the FBS, which is the highest tier. Games are usually played on Saturdays.\ |
| 282 | |
| 283 | The FBS is split into numerous 'conferences' which are equivalent to leagues in their own right, crowning their own champions. These are subdivided into two types: |
| 284 | * "UsefulNotes/{{Power Five|Conferences}}" or "Big Five" — The richest and most competitive leagues—the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 ([[InsistentTerminology not "Pacific-12"]]), and Southeastern Conference (SEC). The University of Notre Dame is also counted among the "Power Five".[[note]]Although it is not a member of any football conference, it is an ACC member in other sports and has an agreement to play at least five of its 12 regular-season games against other ACC schools.[[/note]] Through the 2023 season, these conferences receive automatic spots in the so-called "New Year's Six", the top tier of bowl games that includes the two semifinal games of the College Football Playoff (CFP) that began in 2014. Notre Dame does not have an automatic spot in any "New Year's Six" game but does get special consideration (namely, when it doesn't make a semifinal, it's part of the shortlist for one of the other three or four games, depending on the season). In 2024, the CFP will expand to 12 teams, with no conference having an automatic playoff berth (see below for more details). Also in 2024, the Pac-12 will cease to exist, at least in its current form; all of its members except Oregon State and Washington State will leave for other power conferences.[[note]]Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah to the Big 12; California and Stanford to the ACC; Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington to the Big Ten.[[/note]] |
| 285 | * "UsefulNotes/{{Group of Five|Conferences}}" (also called "mid-majors") — The other five FBS conferences: the American Athletic Conference (The American), Conference USA ([=C-USA=]), Mid-American Conference (MAC), Mountain West (MW), and Sun Belt Conference (SBC). The other three independents ([[MilitaryAcademy Army]], [=UConn=], [=UMass=]) also fall in this group, although Army is sometimes counted as a Power Five team for the purposes of Power Five conferences that insist all of their schools have at least one Power Five nonconference opponent, and less commonly so is [=UConn=].[[note]]Because non-conference games are often scheduled many years in advance, Connecticut and South Florida, two of the three members of the Big East from 2005-2012 that did not join other conferences, are occasionally grandfathered in; the third such team, Cincinnati, joined the Big 12 in 2023.[[/note]] [[InsistentTerminology The American would have you believe that they are a Power Six conference.]][[note]]Under the BCS format that preceded the CFP, there ''were'' six power conferences and the American is the successor of the sixth of those conferences, the original Big East.[[/note]] The most recent changes to the Group of Five ranks came in 2023. Former independent BYU and former American Conference members Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF joined the Big 12 (which will lose its two highest-profile members in 2024), while Liberty and New Mexico State left the independent ranks to join C-USA. In 2024, Army will leave the independent ranks to join its service academy rival Navy as a football-only member of The American.\ |
| 286 | |
| 287 | The CFP is a four-team tournament whose participants are chosen by a 13-member selection committee (oddly, twice as large as the ones that select the ''68-team'' playoffs for college men's and women's basketball). It and the rest of the "New Year's Six" replaced the former Bowl Championship Series (BCS), which operated from 1998 to 2013. Six bowl games rotate CFP semifinal games on a three-year cycle, with the following pairings: Rose Bowl/Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl/Cotton Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl/Peach Bowl.\ |
| 288 | |
| 289 | In seasons when a "New Year's Six" game is not hosting a national semifinal game, the highest-ranked teams not involved in the CFP will go to the following bowls: |
| 290 | * The top Big 12 and SEC teams go to the Sugar Bowl.[[note]]In the BCS era, the Big 12 was tied to the Fiesta Bowl. The SEC has a decades-long link with the Sugar Bowl.[[/note]] |
| 291 | * The top ACC team goes to the Orange Bowl. The second Orange Bowl berth will go the second-best available team from the SEC or Big Ten, or Notre Dame. |
| 292 | * The top Big 10 and Pac-12 teams go to the oldest and most prestigious regular bowl, the Rose Bowl. |
| 293 | * The participants in the other three games (Cotton, Fiesta, Peach) are based on rankings by the CFP selection committee. One spot in these games is reserved for the highest-ranked champion of a Group of Five conference. |
| 294 | |
| 295 | Starting in 2024, when the CFP expands to 12 teams, the following changes will occur: |
| 296 | * As noted above, automatic bids for conferences will disappear. The five highest-ranked conference champions will receive bids (originally intended to be six before the implosion of the Pac-12). The top four conference champs will get first-round byes. |
| 297 | * The remaining playoff berths will go to the highest-ranked teams not already qualified. |
| 298 | * Four teams, namely the remaining conference champion and the three highest-ranked at-large teams, will host first-round games. |
| 299 | * The New Year's Six games will become the quarterfinals and semifinals. The quarterfinal and semifinal sites will rotate annually, with each of the six bowls hosting two quarterfinals and one semifinal in a three-year cycle. |
| 300 | |
| 301 | The final CFP game is the College Football Playoff National Championship, featuring the winners of the two semifinal games, whose winner is declared national champion by everyone... ''except the NCAA itself''. Even though the NCAA lists claimed football national championships in its record books, it has never awarded an official national championship in FBS or its predecessors.\ |
| 302 | |
| 303 | For more on college football, see [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball its dedicated page]]. |
| 304 | [[/folder]] |
| 305 | |
| 306 | [[folder:The NFL]] |
| 307 | |
| 308 | Once exceptional college players have passed the minimum requirements to do so, they will typically declare for the NFL Draft (some will stick at the college level one more year to increase their draft stock, finish their degree, or [[HonorBeforeReason honor a commitment to the program]], but those stories are exceptionally rare and getting rarer). The jump from college to the pros is even steeper than from high school to college: the NFL only drafts around 250-300 players annually, and while another couple dozen players who miss the draft are typically signed to an NFL team out of college, even many of those who are ''drafted'' don't make the final cuts for pro rosters. Those that make the final cut are guaranteed a minimum annual salary of $660,000 (minus taxes), but the average player won't make it more than four years in the NFL before being replaced by the next generation of hungry young talent. Those that miss their spot can still try to make a living playing football in smaller leagues (examples listed below), but none of them pay salaries that a player can retire on in their thirties. The better option for those seeking to stay in the sport is to enter coaching (far more coaches at all levels of the sport have no pro playing experience than those that do). Long story short: If you're planning on playing football past high school, you better either have a backup plan or ''really'' love the game, because you're more likely to win the lottery than make a lifetime living out of it.\ |
| 309 | |
| 310 | The real money in pro football isn't in the players' hands: It's in the team owners' (who are almost all billionaires via non-football business ventures, with merchandise and ticket sales adding to their wealth) and the television networks'. A football game equals guaranteed high UsefulNotes/{{ratings}}. Any pro football game is almost guaranteed to be the most-watched program of the day (mostly Sundays, with a handful of games on Thursdays and Mondays), and the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl almost always is the most-watched program of the ''year''. Several Super Bowls are among the highest-rated programs of all time, and Super Bowl XLIV unseated [[Recap/MASHS11E16GoodbyeFarewellAndAmen the series finale]] of ''Series/{{MASH}}'' as the most-watched program in American history (and was itself unseated by Super Bowl XLV the following year). Outside of the games, multiple TV channels compete for dominance with each other, generating content and covering news about players on and off the field that makes NFL football one of the best RealityTV shows out there.\ |
| 311 | |
| 312 | For more on the NFL's history and teams, see [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague its dedicated page]]. |
| 313 | [[/folder]] |
| 314 | |
| 315 | [[folder:Other American pro leagues]] |
| 316 | |
| 317 | The NFL has been the dominant football league in America for almost its entire existence after it kicked off in 1920 as the "American Professional Football Association" (it changed the name two years later), and you can read all about it on its own page. There ''have''. however, been various attempts to compete with the NFL, some more successful than others. A few of the more notable include: |
| 318 | |
| 319 | * '''AFL I''' (1926): A {{Retronym}} to distinguish from the later, more famous fourth league to use the "American Football League" name, and the first attempt to compete with the (then six-year old) National Football League. Formed when future Hall of Famer "Red" Grange left the Chicago Bears to StartMyOwn league, it only lasted a season; Grange's team, the New York Yankees, played a few more seasons in the NFL before it dissolved after he returned to the Bears. |
| 320 | * '''AFL II''' (1936-37): Another short-lived use of the AFL name, this league spawned the Cleveland Rams, which left for the NFL after the first season. Its second season champion was the Los Angeles Bulldogs, the first professional football team to play on the West Coast and first to put up a perfect winning season--too bad the league folded, and the NFL refused to pick them up due to the cost of transcontinental travel during the Depression before technology could quite make a West Coast team tenable. (Ironically, the Rams would move to L.A. themselves a decade later.) |
| 321 | * '''AFL III''' (1940-41): The least memorable of this series of already forgettable American Football Leagues. |
| 322 | * '''All-America Football Conference''' (1946-49): While this league as a whole was not successful, three of its teams were taken into the NFL when the AAFC broke up: the Cleveland Browns, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Baltimore Colts (which folded after one season in the NFL, though the current Colts--now in Indianapolis--are a SpiritualSuccessor). The Browns won the championship in each of its four seasons and proved to be one of the top teams in the NFL for the next decade; Browns stars Marion Motley and Bill Willis [[JackieRobinsonStory broke the color barrier in pro football]] just a few years before UsefulNotes/JackieRobinson did so in baseball. |
| 323 | * '''UsefulNotes/CanadianFootballLeague''' (1958-present; expanded to the United States 1993-95): Plays in Canada, using Canadian rules with three downs, 12 men on the field, and a larger field. Since the NFL does not have any minor league system, many players who don't quite make it to the NFL move north to play in Canada. A few, such as Warren Moon and Doug Flutie, move back to have successful NFL careers. There is no guarantee of success in either direction, as the differences between the American and Canadian games now benefit different skill sets. From 1993-95, the CFL expanded into several US cities, but all the American teams folded by the start of the 1996 season. Most American football leagues (and high school and college football) play in the autumn, with their championships in early winter; due to Canada's harsher winter climate, the CFL plays over the summer, with its championship game, the Grey Cup, contested in November. |
| 324 | * '''American Football League''' (1960-69): Actually the ''fourth'' league to use this name, although they were easily the most successful. Probably the most visible competition to the NFL, the two leagues merged in 1970, creating the current AFC and NFC conferences[[note]]At the merger the NFL had 16 teams and the AFL had 10, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore (now Indianapolis) Colts moved from the NFC to the AFC right at the start of the new combined league to give each conference 13 teams[[/note]]; the AFL's records are now considered NFL records, and pre-merger AFL champions are regarded in the same manner as pre-merger NFL champions. Notably, none of the league's teams ever folded nor were excluded from the merger. All of the AFL's teams are now NFL franchises (though the Houston Oilers are now the Tennessee Titans). The NFL occasionally celebrates the history of the AFL, most notably with the 50th anniversary celebrations in 2010 (which included numerous "throwback" games in which teams and even referees wore AFL-style uniforms, even if the team name and/or location on the old uniform was no longer accurate). A list of notable players who started out in the AFL (even just a list of Hall of Famers) would be too large for this page. There is only ''one'' player in the Hall of Fame who played only in the AFL and never in the NFL: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Shaw offensive guard Billy Shaw]]. |
| 325 | * '''World Football League''' (1973-75): A complete and total flop (and [[NeverTrustATrailer not even a]] [[NonindicativeName "world" football league]], the only team not on the American mainland was a team in Hawaii). Managed to last for two seasons despite laughable amounts of ineptness (one team had its equipment confiscated following the league's championship game) from almost everyone involved. In its first season, the WFL made waves for attracting several members of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins to join the league. Two of those Dolphins - Larry Csonka and Paul Warfield - are the only WFL players to make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. |
| 326 | ** This is not the same as the World League of American Football, a league that began in the early 1990s and later evolved into NFL Europa; they are discussed later, under "American Football in Other Countries". |
| 327 | * '''United States Football League''': |
| 328 | ** '''Original USFL''' (1983–85): The first serious competition with the NFL since the AFL's halcyon days. The league ran in the spring and signed several star college players (the first and most notable being Herschel Walker) before the NFL could snatch them up. The USFL had problems with solvency early on, and the more cash-strapped teams moved frequently, making it hard to cultivate fanbases or secure long-term TV deals.[[labelnote: ultimate irony]]They would have gotten a four year TV deal with pretty impressive money for the season they would ultimately never play; there was only one condition: Keep the Spring schedule. They decided to go to a fall schedule and try their luck with an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL. [[ForegoneConclusion It failed.]][[/labelnote]] Stories abounded of teams playing in near-empty stadiums and players having their paychecks bounce. Even so, it was rather popular in some markets and looked to be on the way towards success until UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump (yeah, ''[[Series/TheApprentice that]]'' [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates Donald Trump]]) bought a team and started to take over the league. Trump had the USFL sue the NFL for an anti-trust violation and planned on moving the USFL to the fall, likely in a failed attempt at a BatmanGambit where he expected the NFL to repeat what it had done with the AFL and absorb his franchise into the NFL. The USFL won its anti-trust violation and was awarded... [[UndesirablePrize $3]]. The NFL didn't pick up any of the USFL's franchises, and the league folded shortly after that. Four USFL players (Steve Young[[note]]who, in fact, signed the single most lucrative contract in football for the next twenty years when he signed a 10-year, $40 million deal, accepted as a long term annuity beyond the contract length in order to help his new team's finances. The league went out of business, but Young had taken out an insurance policy on his contract, which will let him collect the contract's full value; by the terms of his settlement, he will collect $1 million per year until 2027[[/note]], Jim Kelly, Reggie White, and Gary Zimmerman) are in the Hall of Fame. All of them signed with NFL teams. The USFL was also where players like Doug Flutie and the aforementioned Herschel Walker played their first pro seasons.[[labelnote: Explanation for folding]]That $3 check [[http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/2006-08-07-usfl-retrospective_x.htm was never cashed (as of 2006)]], and is considered a massive collectors' item. Incidentally, the original amount of the award in that case was only $1, but under anti-trust law at that time, any damages awarded by a civil jury were to be automatically tripled, hence the odd value. The reason for the itty bitty award is interesting in itself. The league sued the NFL for anti-trust violations, stating that the [=NFL=] used its dominant position to employ predatory tactics to take over the USFL or otherwise put it out of business, by outbidding them for top players, monopolizing the best venues, and the like... which, on the whole, was ''true''. However, the court also found that most of the [=USFL's=] problems were caused by mismanagement; specifically, their decision to move from a spring schedule to a fall schedule where they would compete directly with the NFL. This move alone caused four teams in top markets to shut their doors or relocate rather than be [[CurbStompBattle wiped off the map]] by NFL teams playing in the same cities. This, in turn, meant that there were too few teams to accept a leaguewide television contract that would have sustained the league for at least three or four more years had they stuck to a spring schedule, and there were almost no bidders among the major networks willing to pay the bills for a schedule with direct competition. Thus, the NFL did indeed have a monopoly, but the court found that the USFL died [[HoistByHisOwnPetard without help from anyone else]], leading to their PyrrhicVictory.[[/labelnote]] |
| 329 | ** '''New USFL''' (2022–23): After the brief success of the XFL's revival suggested that spring football was viable for a national market (global pandemics notwithstanding), the owners of the very small '''Fall Experimental Football League''' (2014-16) and '''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Spring League]]''' (2017-) partnered with FOX Sports to acquire the trademark of the USFL and its teams. This USFL started in April 2022 on a much smaller scale than its predecessor or of the XFL, with all eight of its teams playing their inaugural regular season in Birmingham, Alabama. While this meant that most of the games were very scarcely attended, its lower costs (partnered with lucrative TV deals with NBC and FOX) helped it to surpass the AAF and XFL 2 by ''actually completing'' its first season. That season's playoffs were held in Canton, Ohio at the same stadium that hosts the NFL's preseason Hall of Fame Game. The 2023 season used four markets, adding Detroit and Memphis to the 2022 locations of Birmingham and Canton, with each city hosting two teams that season. After that season's conclusion, the USFL announced an intention to stop playing in Canton, begin playing home games in Houston, drop the remaining teams without a home, and merge with the XFL (see below) for 2024. |
| 330 | * '''Arena Football League''' (1987–2008, 2010–19): Just based on longevity and popularity, the Arena Football League was probably the best known alternative league since the '60s American Football League. The Arena League never attempted to compete with the NFL; indeed, some NFL owners also owned arena teams in the 2000s. The league played "Arena football", which is different in several ways to regular football, stuff we'll let Website/TheOtherWiki [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arena_football explain better]]; the most obvious difference is that it's played on smaller fields in indoor arenas. Did decently in the ratings and in popularity until the league surprisingly crashed and burned in 2008. The league's second-tier, being a subsidiary, was dissolved in its bankruptcy, but since they were at least reasonably profitable, they soon reformed into a new legal entity and bought the rights to the Arena name and most of the team identities, effectively reinstating the league in 2010. Only one arena player, Kurt Warner, has been inducted into the Hall of Fame after seeing success in the NFL. There are other, smaller (low-paying) indoor football leagues in America's small to mid-sized cities which don't use AFL rules (since they were patented at the league's launch; however, the original patents have since expired) and are generally unstable, with teams folding or changing leagues seemingly every year; even the AFL wasn't immune to this, as it went from a peak of 19 teams at various points in the 2000s to down to just 6 by its final season in 2019, after which it filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations for the second time. However, in February 2023, F1 Sports and Entertainment (not related to [[UsefulNotes/FormulaOne that other F1]]) announced it had purchased the trademarks for the AFL and plans to relaunch the league in 2024. |
| 331 | * '''[[LetXBeTheUnknown X]]FL''': |
| 332 | ** '''Original XFL''' (2001): Founded by Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, it represented the first new nationwide pro football league in nearly twenty years. Strong promotion by UPN and NBC gave it incredibly high ratings for the first two weeks of games, but those quickly spiraled downward as the curiosity crowd and [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] audience went away and the remaining football fans realized that the game quality just wasn't very good. By the end of the season, games airing on Creator/{{NBC}} were drawing record low ratings for prime time programming. It was home to a handful of good players - mostly undrafted college players and NFL second-stringers who were never really given a chance and were just happy to be playing pro football at all. The league's best player was Los Angeles Xtreme QB Tommy Maddox, who became its lone MVP. Its best ''known'' player -- even to this day -- is Rod Smart, a RB for the Las Vegas Outlaws whose jersey read "HE HATE ME" on the back instead of his own name. [=McMahon=] also attempted to promote certain players as "characters" with a focus on interpersonal rather than interteam storylines, which, while interesting, was a divisive move that did little to encourage the watching of the game. Also criticized was the XFL ruleset's focus on smashmouth football, encouraging hard hits with a lesser emphasis on penalties, which just served as a reminder of ''why'' the rules evolved the way they did, as many of the players they wanted to build storylines around wound up sidelined by injury. Several other factors also worked against it, including the fact that it was owned and operated in partnership with NBC to field their own "in-house" football league.[[note]]In the abstract, this seemed like a risk worth taking. Whatever else his faults, [=McMahon=] is a hell of a businessman. The teams were not independently owned; [=McMahon=] owned ''all'' the teams and instituted a leaguewide salary structure that helped limit costs, with NBC helping foot the bill in exchange for broadcasting rights. If the league were a success, or at least broke even, then NBC would be on the ground floor to a viable NFL alternative and could garner the high ratings of football at a fraction of the cost of constantly negotiating for NFL programming. However, NBC didn't have the patience to let the league evolve and recover after the ratings tanked. There was talk of going forward with a second season, but the price would have been shutting down [=McMahon's=] "[=SmackDown!=]" wrestling show. He wasn't willing to do so, and that was that.[[/note]] That, combined with [=McMahon's=] tendency to cross-promote with the WWF, eventually led to a perfect storm of casual fans not taking it seriously as a legit football alternative (most saw it as the same kind of "sports entertainment" as pro wrestling, with some even convinced that the game results were scripted)[[note]]No evidence was ever found that anything wasn't on the level, but given who [=McMahon=] is it's understandable that most bookmakers (legal or otherwise) wouldn't even take bets on XFL games. The later iterations of the XFL (which began play after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down most of the federal laws prohibiting sportsbooks) averted this by working with betting companies to help promote the league[[/note]] and pro sportscasters having no incentive to show results of a league owned by a rival network. This meant no game recaps on ''Series/SportsCenter'' or Fox Sports, no scores recorded in newspaper sports pages, and almost no coverage in ''Sports Illustrated'', a death sentence in that era. In the XFL's defense, it helped make the "Sky-Cam" a mainstay of NFL and NCAA broadcasts and, unlike many later spring leagues, ''actually finished'' its only season of play. |
| 333 | ** '''New XFL''' (2020, 2023): Nearly two decades after the demise of the original XFL, [=McMahon=] relaunched the league in 2020. The new XFL was intended to be [[InNameOnly a more serious league]], eschewing the gimmicks of its predecessor; to distance the new league from the WWE's operations, [=McMahon=] created a new company, Alpha Entertainment, to oversee the XFL. Additionally, the new XFL positioned itself as a complement to the NFL instead of a direct competitor; the new XFL's teams were based in seven current NFL markets (New York City, Washington DC, Tampa Bay, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle) and one former NFL market (St. Louis), with some teams even sharing incumbent NFL venues. In order to speed up the pace of play, the XFL used timing rules similar to the now-defunct Arena Football League where the clock continuously runs except in the final two minutes of each half. Unfortunately, the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic cut the league's life short just 5 weeks in. The league filed for bankruptcy before Creator/DwayneJohnson stepped in, leading a group that bought its assets shortly before they would have been auctioned. The ''new'' new league announced a partnership with the NFL in 2022 to help develop coaches and officials and also test potential rule changes and returned in February 2023, with all of its games shown on either ESPN, ABC, or FX, as Creator/{{Disney}} bought four years of exclusive broadcasting rights. The 2023 season featured five holdover markets from 2020 in Dallas (though its team bears the Arlington name), Houston, St. Louis, Seattle, and Washington. LA, NYC, and Tampa Bay (the lowest attended markets in 2020) were replaced by Las Vegas, Orlando, and San Antonio. Following the completion of its first full season, the league announced that it would drop half of its teams to merge with the USFL (see above) for 2024. |
| 334 | * '''United Football League''': |
| 335 | ** '''First UFL''' (1961–64): A Midwest-based minor league that's probably most notable for being the first American football league to include a Canadian team, placing a team in Montreal in its final season. |
| 336 | ** '''Second UFL''' (2007–13): Another entry into the NFL competitor sweepstakes, this UFL remained largely low key and at the time of its demise featured only four teams in small markets. During the 2011 NFL lockout, it gained media attention for extending invitation to NFL players to play for them if the regular season had been delayed. This didn't happen. The final teams were in Virginia Beach, Virginia; Omaha, Nebraska; Las Vegas, Nevada and Sacramento, California--not exactly football hotbeds[[note]]Nebraska is, though its Mecca is Lincoln, not Omaha, and they worship at the altar of Big Red (the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers), and Las Vegas became the home of the Raiders starting in 2020[[/note]], but each team had a small yet devoted fanbase. After the 2012 season was cut short, there were hopes that a 2013 season would take place, but the scheduled dates [[ScheduleSlip came and went]]. No official statement was ever made about the league's future, and the UFL is technically still in existence, but as the business licenses for all its teams expired and said teams and the league itself have almost no staff on the payroll, the league moved on not with a bang, but with a whimper. |
| 337 | ** '''New UFL''' (2024–): The partners in the USFL and XFL announced on December 31, 2023 that the merged league would resurrect the "United Football League" name. Three teams came from the USFL and four from the XFL. Houston had teams in both leagues; the UFL team is using the XFL team's brand and kept the USFL team's head coach. |
| 338 | * '''Extreme Football League''' (2010-present; branded as "X League"): Formerly known as the '''Lingerie Football League''' and later as the '''Legends Football League''', it is, at this point, the only "major" [[DistaffCounterpart female football league]] with any media attention, though most of it is [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity negative attention]] because the players basically play in athletically-minded, two-piece sports-wear with padding and helmets, with games carried in edited form on networks like {{Creator/MTV}}2, Website/YouTube, and Fuse TV. Some of the female players are just glad to play at all (using the example of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League seen in ''Film/ALeagueOfTheirOwn'') and try to ignore the criticism. Uses a 7-on-7 indoor format with no punts and field goals. Started to exploit the publicity that came with the Lingerie Bowl, a pay-per-view event that counterprograms the Super Bowl yearly. Between 2012 & 2013, the LFL made significant changes in hopes of legitimizing the league. The league expanded by adding new teams in Canada for 2012, and Australia for 2013, with the launch of a European league now delayed to 2015, with each country/region acting as its own separate league. The US teams shifted their schedule from a fall schedule to a spring-summer schedule similar to Arena Football and other indoor leagues. In 2013, the league rebranded itself by changing its name and announcing that it would downplay the "sexiness" factor of the league; depictions of sexualized women will be removed from team logos, and the "lingerie" aspect will be removed. At the beginning of the 2018 season, players began the season wearing lacrosse helmets, shoulder pads with a team-colored cover, bras, and yoga pants. Near the end of the season, however, the LFL apparently couldn't help itself and switched to booty shorts. The league initially announced that it would not hold a 2020 season, but soon restructured itself as the X League, with plans to resume play in April 2020. However, [=COVID-19=] caused the 2020 and 2021 seasons to be canceled. The league resumed in 2022, but after a single season, went on "hiatus" for even ''more'' restructuring. Skipping a 2023 season entirely, the league initially announced plans for a 2024 season, before AGAIN delaying plans. As of February 2024, plans for a 202'''5''' season have been announced. For those [[Main/{{Pun}} keeping score]], this means there will have been ONE season of play in FIVE years. |
| 339 | * '''Alliance of American Football''' (2019): This ill-fated league launched in 2019 with eight teams, each playing in an NCAA FBS stadium. As with many alternative pro leagues, teams were based primarily in markets without an NFL team (Birmingham, Memphis, Orlando, Salt Lake City, and San Antonio)[[note]]Memphis and San Antonio had temporarily hosted NFL teams in the past; Memphis hosted the Tennessee Titans (then the Oilers) in 1997 while what would become Nissan Stadium in Nashville was under construction, and San Antonio hosted three New Orleans Saints games in 2005 due to the damage to New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina[[/note]]; however, two teams were based in current NFL markets (Atlanta and Phoenix), with a third in a former NFL market (San Diego). The league was founded by Bill Polian and Charlie Ebersol; the latter's father, former NBC Sports executive Dick Ebersol, was involved in the original XFL. The league ultimately collapsed before the end of its first season, after just eight weeks of play when lead investor Tom Dundon withdrew his funding after the league failed to reach an agreement with the NFL Players' Association to allow third string and practice squad players to receive playing time in the AAF. The league filed for bankruptcy two weeks later, leaving many players unpaid. The AAF now serves as a cautionary tale of how ''not'' to run a pro sports league. |
| 340 | [[/folder]] |
| 341 | |
| 342 | !Fantasy Football |
| 343 | |
| 344 | [[folder:Fantasy Football]] |
| 345 | Though the concept of fantasy sports began with baseball, it truly exploded once it was expanded to football. With the advent of the internet (and thus computers happy to do all that obnoxious "tracking of every game stat" and "math on those stats to turn them into points" stuff for people automatically), fantasy sports became even more popular, and fantasy quickly became an integral part of how many fans consume football.\ |
| 346 | |
| 347 | Players meet once before the season, either online or in-person, and select real NFL players in their fantasy draft. One the regular season rolls around, the players choose a "team" based on the players they have selected, and receive points based on how well the real-life players do. This is SeriousBusiness for many fans and there are literally thousands of websites, magazines, books, articles, television programs, and even sitcoms (''Series/TheLeague'') dedicated to discussion of Fantasy Football. Some players have gambled ''huge'' sums of money on this. This became exceptionally notable when Brian Westbrook of the Philadelphia Eagles chose to stop on the 1-yard line rather than score a touchdown late in a game. By stopping, he allowed his team to run out the clock and win the game without risk, but many, many fantasy football teams lost as a result. Creator/BillSimmons, formerly of ESPN.com, wrote that one of his readers lost ''$100,000'' because of that play.\ |
| 348 | |
| 349 | Since Fantasy Football was previously prone to the RageQuit, some leagues have begun enforcing financial penalties for the teams which finish in last place. In the aforementioned [[Creator/TheSportsGuy Bill Simmons]]' league, the loser pays for the pizza and beer at the next season's draft. However, this has gotten more creative, as one small league in Nebraska became infamous for making the loser get a ''tattoo'' designed by the winner, with their only choice being it's location on the body. ESPN found this so hilarious, they [[http://espn.go.com/fantasy/football/story/_/page/TMR131205/matthew-berry-players-loves-hates-week-14-fantasy-football-rankings covered it for the entire season]] with the seriousness of a real league. By extension, this can result in some fantasy players ''[[ValuesDissonance wanting]]'' real teams to run up the score (ordinarily considered unsportsmanlike and, in some cases, detrimental to the team's success) in order to improve their fantasy team's stats. |
| 350 | [[/folder]] |
| 351 | |
| 352 | !American Football in other countries |
| 353 | |
| 354 | [[folder:American Football in other countries]] |
| 355 | Because the word "football" refers unambiguously to [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball association football (soccer)]] outside the United States and Canada[[note]] and Australia, Ireland, South Africa, and Japan, with varying levels of ambiguity[[/note]], the sport is referred to as "American football" (or a translation thereof) to differentiate it from other football codes such as association football and rugby football. In Australia and New Zealand the game is known as gridiron football, although in the United States the term "gridiron" refers only to the playing field itself.\ |
| 356 | |
| 357 | The NFL has attempted to introduce the game to other nations and operated a developmental league known as NFL Europa (previously NFL Europe or the World League of American Football), which over the years had teams in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Great Britain[[note]]in fact, in its first two seasons (as the WLAF), it had North American teams as well before switching to Europe-only and changing its name to NFL Europe[[/note]], but the league gradually shrank and condensed into a six-team league, five of which were in Germany. The league folded following the 2007 season.\ |
| 358 | |
| 359 | In Canada, football is played at the professional level by the UsefulNotes/CanadianFootballLeague and at university[[note]](in Canadian English, "college" refers exclusively to schools that would be called "junior", "community", or "technical" colleges in the States)[[/note]] level by U Sports. The rules of the Canadian game are distinct from the American version (12 players rather than 11 per team, 3 downs per series instead of 4, and a much larger field, among other differences), enough that it is sometimes considered its own sport. American viewers are more likely to know of the CFL than any international league due to its regional popularity and geographic proximity; for the same reason, it is typically the #1 destination for college players who missed the draft or NFL washouts, even though the league institutes limits on the number of American players per team and fairly few CFL players make the jump to the NFL today. Hall of Famer Warren Moon ''did'' successfully make the leap back in the '80s, proving it can be done.\ |
| 360 | |
| 361 | In the UK, where it's often derided as "Rugby for pansies", 46 teams play in the British American Football League. The BAFL has three levels: The Premier, of which there are 7 teams; BAFL 1, of which there are 12 teams; and BAFL 2, of which there are 27 teams. While the lower level teams have their own championship games during [=BritBowl=] Weekend, only Premier league teams face each other in the [=BritBowl=] which is it traditionally held in Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium. Unlike the NFL, the BAFL season is played through the summer (April to September), with the British university season spanning the autumn and winter. In the 1980s, the Sky network featured live broadcasts of American football games. Unfortunately, those broadcasts were early in the morning. Despite this, it managed to get small but devoted audience.\ |
| 362 | |
| 363 | Recently, there's renewed interest in the game with Sky Sports showing the early doubleheader and NFL Network games, the [[ForegoneConclusion local ESPN airs]] ''Series/MondayNightFootball'', while the terrestrial Five network gets Sunday Night Football, all live (though in the latter cases the night games air in the [[NotAMorningPerson early mornings after midnight London time]] due to time zones).\ |
| 364 | |
| 365 | To stoke further interest in the American game, the NFL started playing an annual regular season game at the new Wembley Stadium in London starting in 2007. Starting in 2013, the Jaguars have played one of their home dates in London every year because their owner also owns Fulham, a club that's spent recent years yo-yoing between the UsefulNotes/EnglishPremierLeague and EFL Championship. However, thanks to [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]], no London games were held in 2020 or 2021. Because of this, there have been at least annual games in London. In 2016 the NFL added a third London game, played at Twickenham Stadium (England's national rugby stadium). In 2017, the number jumped to four: two games at Wembley and two at Twickenham, meaning four teams got to play "home games" at least 2,000 miles across UsefulNotes/ThePond at a neutral venue. Starting in 2019, the venues changed to Wembley and the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the latter built for both the EPL club and the NFL.[[note]]The Spurs stadium has a permanently installed artificial surface used for NFL games, and a separate grass pitch that slides in for Spurs matches. The grass pitch fits ''above'' the artificial turf to allow optimal sightlines for sideline spectators of each code.[[/note]] The London games are returning in 2022, with one at Wembley and two at Spurs. The NFL, while doing well in the US, sees its future in expanding the league in other countries, and regular season NFL games abroad are a part of this plan. The Arena Football League had stated similar aspirations, and has established a subsidiary to build a 6-team league in China by 2014, featuring both American and local talent.\ |
| 366 | |
| 367 | In Mexico, the ONEFA is a college league with 26 teams in 3 conferences. It was the most important championship in Latin America before the country established ''Liga Fútbol Americano'', a fully professional league (the first such gridiron football league outside the US and Canada) in 2016. The new league launched with four teams, expanding to six in 2017, eight in 2019, and nine for the upcoming 2020 season. Mexicans have been playing college American football since the 1920s, and today's top Mexican college teams are seen as roughly equivalent to NCAA Division III (non-scholarship) teams, but steadily improving. In 2009, a Mexican college team beat Blinn College, a Texas junior college (two-year school), in an exhibition. Making that game more significant was that Blinn went on to win the US junior college national title, and the quarterback who lost the exhibition and won the national title was Cam Newton. Yes, ''that'' Cam Newton. When broadcasts of American football started in 1960s, games featuring the Dallas Cowboys were shown. Its popularity grew during the 1970s with returning migrants who were American football fans popularizing the sport. While its popularity can't compare with soccer, it's by far the most popular minor league sport there. It's also the most popular sport to bet on there, with the odds of winning at 50/50 as opposed to 1/3 of winning with soccer. The NFL has also expressed interest in playing at least one yearly game in Mexico City, like it does in London; this was achieved in 2017, with the Patriots blowing out the Raiders 33-8 at Estadio Azteca.[[note]]in this game, Tom Brady became the first quarterback to throw for 300+ yards in three different countries, having previously done so in a UK game as well.[[/note]]\ |
| 368 | |
| 369 | In Japan, the X-League is a professional league with 60 teams in four divisions, using promotion and relegation. After the post-season playoffs, the X-League champion is determined in the Japan X Bowl. There are also over 200 universities fielding teams, with the national collegiate championship determined by the Koshien Bowl. The pro and collegiate champions then face each other in the Rice Bowl to determine the national champion.\ |
| 370 | |
| 371 | In Germany, the sport got a foothold because of the American troops stationed at bases there. The American Football Association of Germany (AFVD for short due to its German name) organizes roughly 200 teams, the elite division is called German Football League[[note]]Not a translation—that's the ''actual German name''.[[/note]] and comprises 16 (less in the event of bankruptcies) teams partitioned into north and south divisions. The finalists from the playoffs determine the German champion during the German Bowl. All but one of the NFL Europa teams[[note]]It was renamed NFL Europa starting after its penultimate season[[/note]] were based in Germany by the time it folded. Curiously, although American soldiers were stationed mostly in the southern parts, the north now dominates strongly, having won all German Bowls between 1993 and 2011. (Ansbach and Frankfurt dominated the league in 1979 and the next couple of years largely on the strength of nearby US military bases.) The Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns are the first serious challenge to Northern dominance, having won the German Bowl[[note]]Again, this is the actual German name.[[/note]] in 2011 and 2012 as well as 2017 and 2018[[note]]German Bowl XL even featured something not seen since German Bowl III - after Frankfurt Universe upset Braunschweig in the semifinal, the final was an all-Southern affair[[/note]] and often giving a fierce fight in the Playoffs. German teams (especially the Brunswick Lions and the Hamburg Blue Devils) dominated European football in the mid to late '90s but had an Austrian caused drought until a win in 2010. The most successful teams are Brunswick (New Yorker) Lions, Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns, Kiel Baltic Hurricanes and Dresden Monarchs[[note]]After establishing a strong EveryYearTheyFizzleOut reputation following their narrow defeat in the 2013 German Bowl they finally won it all in 2021 with a 28-19 over Schwäbisch Hall in German Bowl XLII[[/note]]. Historically, teams like Berlin Adler or Hamburg Blue Devils were also quite good until budget woes kept them from signing good American talent and coaches and their German players left. As of 2021, the rules put a limit of two on the amount of "American" players (Mexicans, Canadians, and Japanese also count as "Americans") that can be on the field at any given time. However, [[LoopholeAbuse there is no such limit]] for European players from outside Germany, which means that the best teams are often an assortment of "European all stars", with the French national quarterback playing in the second league in Germany for many years. Furthermore if an American player manages to be nationalized in a EU member country (say, if they have an Irish grandfather or an Italian grandmother) they also count as "European" and no longer count towards the limit on "Americans". German teams are usually strong in European competitions if they participate, but quite often conflicts between the different associations or the unwillingness of teams to undergo long trips abroad to play games of questionable value (even [=GFL2=] teams routinely dominate teams from weaker leagues in Europe) mean no or very weird German representation. In 2021 the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns won the CEFL Bowl which had representation by the two Austrian top teams that year but had only seen lackluster teams competing (and no European entrants) in prior seasons.\ |
| 372 | |
| 373 | On the spectator side, Football in Germany has had its ebbs and flows, being introduced thanks to American soldiers in the area and steadily growing thanks to decent coverage by the main Pay TV provider[[note]]For the most part there is only one Pay TV provider of note at any given time in Germany. At the time it was called ''Premiere'' and - as is usual - carried live soccer as well as the NFL, so people who bought it for the former stuck around for the latter[[/note]], however the bankruptcy of the Hamburg Blue Devils, the shutdown of NFL Europe (which never made a cent in profits and had only one arguably financially sustainable franchise in Frankfurt) and a slump of the Braunschweig Lions dealt a serious blow to the sport; for some time even having the Super Bowl on German TV was hit and miss. However, quality of play stayed high and Germany won the European championship of 2010 with the league slowly but surely recovering on a broader base instead of the Hamburg-Braunschweig duopoly of the 1990s and early 2000s. By 2014, more NFL games could be found on TV and Germany defended its European title in Austria against Austria in front of 27,000 people. Someone at [=Sat1=] took note and the 2015 regular season was to be the first to be carried in free TV. Ratings exploded, and the NFL has become a social phenomenon in Germany ever since, way past what even the best NFL Europe days could have hoped for. In 2016, Schwäbisch Hall wide receiver Moritz Böhringer became the first European ever drafted by an NFL team without having played American college ball, and is now on the Minnesota Vikings' practice squad. However, the 2016 NFL season also saw struggles for many of the German NFL players. Björn Werner failed to make a team after his contract with the Colts ran out as did Markus Kuhn after he was released by the New York Giants - both would announce their retirement at the end of the season on German TV. Sebastian Vollmer was on injured reserve for the Patriots throughout the season (though that did make him eligible for a Super Bowl ring nonetheless) while the aforementioned Böhringer couldn't crack the roster but stayed on the practice squad, he has since signed a futures contract with the Vikings. Kasim Edebali of the New Orleans Saints meanwhile played solidly but failed to become a starter - much to the chagrin of fellow Hamburger Patrick Esume who works as an expert for ''Series/RanNFL''. This popularity culminated with the NFL adding Germany to its regular season International Series in 2022, the debut of which was met with immediate success.\ |
| 374 | |
| 375 | In The Netherlands, the sport is run by the American Football Bond Nederland (American Football Association Netherlands). The league consists of two divisions. The Eredivisie (Premier League) is the highest ranked division and consists of eight teams. The First Division contains 11 teams is divided in 2 groups. In the days of the NFL Europe, the Amsterdam Admirals were one of the long running participants and eventually the only non-German team in the league. American Football has a small, but devoted fanbase in The Netherlands. On average, the Admirals attracted 12.000 fans to home games in the Amsterdam Arena (capacity of 50.000). The Superbowl is live broadcasted on the open channel, while the other games are available via pay television.\ |
| 376 | |
| 377 | Finland has traditionally had the strongest European national side (holding a record 5 European titles out of 12, with two each for Italy, the UK and three for Germany (the current holders) and one for Sweden) and Finnish teams winning the first two Eurobowls (a playoff competition between the winners of the European leagues) but has faded since. Traditionally Finnish teams relied on huge physical guys and Finnish linemen and tight ends are still sought after in the top leagues of Europe.\ |
| 378 | |
| 379 | In Austria, the top-tier Austrian Football League[[note]] Also the league's actual German name.[[/note]] consists of seven teams (one of them from the Czech Republic). Austrian teams dominated European club competitions, winning all Eurobowls from 2004 through 2009, and is now competing with the German league for the moniker "strongest league in Europe".\ |
| 380 | |
| 381 | In Hungary, 18 registered teams participate in a the MAFL's two division league structure. The sport has grown significantly since 2004 and with some top Division I teams participating in the CEFL.\ |
| 382 | |
| 383 | In Norway, div I consists of only two teams, Oslo Vikings and Eidsvoll 1814's. These two teams also compete in the European Football League but they play an annual game for the Norwegian Championship title. Norway has seven other teams that play in div II and this division is looked upon as the Norwegian Football League.\ |
| 384 | |
| 385 | Poland launched its league, the Polish American Football League (PLFA, its Polish initialism), with four teams in 2006. By 2008, the PLFA had 17 teams, and the league split into two divisions. For 2013, there are a total of 74 teams in five leagues, with both 11-man and 8-man leagues. The highest level, the Topliga (11-man), has 8 teams, with 29 other teams playing in two divisions below that. In the 8-man game, there are 37 teams in two divisions. The final match of the Topliga, officially [=SuperFinal=] PLFA and usually known in English as the Polish Bowl, had traditionally drawn small crowds in the 1,000 to 1,500 range... until it was moved to the National Stadium in Warsaw for 2012 and drew 23,000. The 2013 Polish Bowl returned to the National Stadium and drew 16,500.\ |
| 386 | |
| 387 | In Australia, where UsefulNotes/AustralianRulesFootball and UsefulNotes/RugbyLeague reign supreme, "Gridiron" has attracted a small following, thanks in part to TV coverage of the NFL. The Super Bowl airs live on the free-to-air Seven Network (despite it kicking off in the middle of the morning on a Monday). A total of 73 teams on the senior and junior levels play in Australia. Gridiron has also benefitted from {{Crossover}} action by Australians. Rugby league star Jarryd Hayne had a high-profile stint with the San Francisco 49ers, and an Australian talent pipeline has revolutionized punting in the American game, with the so-called "rugby punt" (punting while running, actually more of an Aussie Rules manuever) becoming common. The 2016 college game between California and Hawaii in Sydney drew an unexpectedly huge crowd to ANZ Stadium (around 61,000). The 2017 game (Stanford and Rice) only got about half that attendance, though.\ |
| 388 | |
| 389 | The International Federation of American Football is the governing body for American football with 45 member associations from North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. The IFAF also oversees the American Football World Cup, which is held every four years. Japan won the first two World Cups, held in 1999 and 2003. Team USA, which had not participated in the first two tournaments, won the next thre in 2007, 2011 and 2015. The American and Canadian National teams don't include any NFL or CFL players (and the few NFL players from other countries are not allowed to play for their national teams either) and in fact even top college talent is conspicuously absent. Still, the US team has only lost one game during its entire existence - against a "rest of the world" all star team, which sent many members to top colleges and the NFL later on.[[note]]That was the point of the game - for players from both sides.[[/note]]\ |
| 390 | |
| 391 | The European Federation of American Football is the governing body in Europe (for the most part, there have been squabbles between IFAF and EFAF in the past, mostly fueled by the egos of the respective leaders). It's main business is organizing pan-European competition like the Eurobowl (now renamed to [=Big6=]) or the European Championship. Judging from the media interest and spectator numbers of the 2014 European Championship (all games live in Austrian TV, 27 000 turned out for the final) they are doing a pretty decent job of it. However, the lack of competitive balance between Germany, Austria, France on one hand and pretty much the rest of Europe on the other as well as the lack of enthusiasm for the sport in many countries make their job rather difficult. The next European championship is to be held in Germany in 2018 who are also defending champions twice over (2010 & 2014).\ |
| 392 | |
| 393 | Major American leagues have also held some regular season games outside of the United States. In 2005, the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers played the first regular season NFL game outside of the United States, in Mexico City's Estadio Azteca. Since 2007, the NFL has played or has plans to play at least one regular season game outside of the United States each year, with London being the typical location. The NCAA will also play games outside of the U.S. In 2012, the U.S. Naval Academy played Notre Dame's Fighting Irish in Dublin, Ireland. In 2014, Dublin again hosted the sport, though at a different stadium,[[note]]The 2012 game was held at Aviva Stadium, home to the Republic of Ireland [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball soccer]] team and the Ireland [[UsefulNotes/RugbyUnion rugby]] team. The 2014 game was at Croke Park, home to the Gaelic Athletic Association.[[/note]] when Penn State and UCF (Central Florida) played, and the Bahamas began hosting a postseason bowl game. The 2016 season saw two season openers outside the U.S., with California and Hawaii playing in Sydney and a return to Dublin, this time with Boston College and Georgia Tech. Another Sydney game was played as a 2017 season opener, this time involving Stanford and Rice. In 2022, Nebraska and Northwestern opened their season in Dublin, and Navy and Notre Dame will do the same in 2023. |
| 394 | [[/folder]] |
| 395 | |
| 396 | !American Football in fiction: |
| 397 | |
| 398 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 399 | * The SuperBowlSpecial is its own trope in advertising. |
| 400 | * A home improvement store ran an ad featuring an expecting couple selecting paint carefully, with the mother-to-be softly smiling and holding a hand over her belly. Where does the paint go? On their faces as the mother yells something less than complimentary at a quarterback. |
| 401 | * The iconic Reebok ad campaign Advertising/TerryTateOfficeLinebacker, in which the title character is used to enforce office protocols in true football style. |
| 402 | [[/folder]] |
| 403 | |
| 404 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 405 | * ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'', with some backing from the NFL. |
| 406 | * Oddly, the dubbing for ''Anime/ProjectAKo'' has B-Ko declaring the upcoming mecha-versus-superhuman battle will be their own Super Bowl... while the sight-gag is of her changing into a ''baseball'' uniform, and taking a batting stance. This ends up being an example of SmallReferencePools for "big sporting event" (using "World Series" would be more appropriate). |
| 407 | [[/folder]] |
| 408 | |
| 409 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 410 | * Short-lived and much criticized Creator/MarvelComics hero NFL Superpro was an NFL player. |
| 411 | [[/folder]] |
| 412 | |
| 413 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 414 | * Strangely appears in the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' ThanksgivingEpisode story "Empath And The Golden Magic Bird", where most of the Smurfs are busy watching this type of game being played while waiting to enjoy the Harvest Feast that Greedy is putting on. |
| 415 | [[/folder]] |
| 416 | |
| 417 | [[folder:Film]] |
| 418 | Because the NFL and NCAA are very protective of their images, very few movies feature real teams, preferring to use fictional leagues or BrandX versions of real teams. |
| 419 | ---- |
| 420 | * ''North Dallas Forty'': a 1979 movie about the life of a professional sports team. Used a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of the Cowboys. |
| 421 | * ''Film/AnyGivenSunday'': a movie by Oliver Stone from 1999 about the ways business and sport clash in a professional league. Used a fictional rival league to the NFL called the AFFA. |
| 422 | * ''Film/TheReplacements2000'': a 2000 movie based on the 1987 NFL players' strike. Used a BrandX of the Washington Redskins, though it did use NFL insignia. |
| 423 | * ''Film/{{Rudy}}'': 1993 movie about a player who earns a place on the Notre Dame football team through hard work. A more-or-less true story, except that the real coach is such a nice guy that ''he gave the moviemakers permission to turn him into a Coach Nasty villain for the sake of drama''. |
| 424 | * ''Film/KnuteRockneAllAmerican'': the movie that made UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan famous and gave him his nickname, the Gipper. |
| 425 | * ''Film/TheProgram'': 1993 movie that dramatized college football similarly to ''Any Given Sunday'', though ''The Program'' was much more well received. Also famous for having a scene in which several characters walk into traffic and lay down in the middle of a busy street to prove their bravery. This scene was cut from all post-theatrical versions of the film because some kids tried to imitate it with [[DontTryThisAtHome predictable results]]. |
| 426 | * Among its various incarnations, ''Film/FridayNightLights''. It chronicles the 1988 Permian Panthers of Odessa, Texas (changed to the Dillon Panthers for [[Series/FridayNightLights the TV series]]), a DyingTown of dried up oilfields that places all of its dreams and aspirations on the local high school football team.[[note]]The movie, though ''not'' the original book, [[AdaptedOut ignores the existence]] of the city's ''other'' public high school, Odessa High. The Bronchos have been Permian's ButtMonkey in football for most of Permian's history. (Permian opened in 1959 as the city's second white high school; [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement a few years later]], the city integrated its schools, closing its black high school.)[[/note]] Unlike most other films, it shows the darker side of football and the extreme pressure and expectations that many young players face in rural America. |
| 427 | * ''Necessary Roughness'': a movie that took the devastation of the Baylor and SMU teams after eligibility scandals and made it into a slapstick comedy. |
| 428 | * ''Film/TheLongestYard'' avoids the license trap by setting their team in a prison, featuring convicts. |
| 429 | * Averted in ''Film/TheFortuneCookie'', which featured the Cleveland Browns. |
| 430 | * ''Film/WeAreMarshall'' is a 2006 film which tells the [[BasedOnATrueStory true story]] of the 1971 Marshall University football team's attempts to rebuild following a plane crash which kills most of the 1970 team. |
| 431 | * ''Ashes To Glory'' is a 2000 documentary about said 1970-1971 Marshall football team. The makers of ''Ashes To Glory'' sued the makers of ''Film/WeAreMarshall'' for plagiarism, but the case was dismissed as being without merit. |
| 432 | * ''Film/AceVentura'' had Dan Marino playing himself. And also a Dolphin mascot; we presume the Dolphin also played itself. |
| 433 | * ''Film/RememberTheTitans'', a 2000 film about a coach trying to create a racially-integrated high school football team in [[UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC Alexandria, Virginia]] in the 1970s. |
| 434 | * ''Film/{{Radio}}'', a 2003 film also set in the South in the 1970s (here South Carolina) about the relationship between a white high school coach and a mentally challenged African American. |
| 435 | * ''Film/BlackSunday'', where a group of terrorists hijack the Goodyear blimp in order to attack the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl with a flechette bomb. Has Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie playing himself in a ten-minute segment. |
| 436 | * ''Literature/TheBlindSide'' a BasedOnATrueStory movie about Michael Oher surviving high school, becoming an offensive lineman and eventually getting courted by a number of universities, and finally being drafted by the Baltimore Ravens. |
| 437 | * ''Film/TheLastBoyScout'', and action film featuring Bruce Willis as a private detective who teams up with a disgraced NFL quarterback (Damon Wayans) to take down the corrupt owner of the team, climaxing with a shootout at a football game. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwqh9Dw0FPo The opening credits sequence]] was a satirical take on the ''Monday Night Football'' intro. |
| 438 | * One iconic moment in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' is when Bane and his henchmen announce their takeover of Gotham City. They go to the city's football stadium where a game is to be played between the Gotham Rogues and the Rapid City Monuments (the stadium is represented by Pittsburgh's Heinz Field [now Acrisure Stadium], and actual Steelers are seen cameoing as the Rogues). Just after kickoff to start the first quarter, Bane and his men hit detonators that blow up all of the bridges, trap all of the city's cops in the tunnels underground, and also collapse most of the infield. The field opens up, swallowing all but one player. Bane then makes his entry, reveals the nuclear bomb, and breaks Dr. Pavel's neck in front of the crowd. |
| 439 | * ''Film/{{Invincible|2006}}'' is a fictionalized story of Vince Papale, who earned a spot on the Philadelphia Eagles at age 30. |
| 440 | * ''Film/DraftDay'' starred Kevin Costner as the general manager of the Cleveland Browns during the NFL Draft. Notable for the NFL allowing the film to shoot footage during the 2013 NFL Draft. |
| 441 | * The nuclear bomb at the center of ''Film/TheSumOfAllFears'' is detonated at a football game in Baltimore. Scenes in the stadium were actually shot at a UsefulNotes/CanadianFootballLeague game; consequently, the two teams go unnamed in the film. [[Literature/TheSumOfAllFears In the novel]], the game in question is explicitly stated to be the Super Bowl, and the names of actual NFL teams, as well as that of Mile High Stadium[[note]]in the novel, the game is in Denver[[/note]] are used. |
| 442 | * ''{{Film/Gus}}'': a live-action Disney film about a donkey that can kick soccer ball for 100 meters, and thus a 99-yard field goal, and the hapless pro team than hires the animal and its handler to rescue their season. |
| 443 | * ''Film/{{The Freshman|1925}}'' features Creator/HaroldLloyd as a hopeless benchwarmer who manages to make his way into the BigGame. |
| 444 | * ''Film/TheWaterboy'' stars Creator/AdamSandler as the socially inept (but also intelligent) Bobby Boucher, a waterboy for a college football team, and finds that his [[DisabilitySuperpower anger issues]] from being teased make him an extraordinary linebacker. |
| 445 | * One subplot in the coming-of-age comedy-drama ''Film/{{Lucas}}'' focuses on the title character, an undersized young genius, trying to play for his high school football team. |
| 446 | * ''Film/Wildcats1986'' stars Creator/GoldieHawn as the daughter of a coaching legend who becomes head coach at an inner-city high school. |
| 447 | * Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse: Victor Stone (Creator/RayFisher) was an {{academic|Athlete}} football player for the Gotham City University team before the accident that crippled him. He has a {{flashback}} in which he scores a decisive victory for the GCU in ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague''. |
| 448 | [[/folder]] |
| 449 | |
| 450 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 451 | * ''Literature/FridayNightLights'' |
| 452 | * ''The Draft'', a novel written by football analyst Will Mara, features a fictional General Manager of an AlternateHistory Baltimore Ravens team which had just won two Super Bowls and have all the pieces to win a third. But during the offseason, a little old lady on her meds crashes into the car of the team's star QB, potentially ending his career and leaving a gaping wound on the team roster. Fortunately, the upcoming draft has a promising QB candidate who's bound to go as the 1st overall pick. The San Diego Chargers, who own that pick, announce that they are willing to trade that choice away for the right price, leading to a league-wide GambitPileup for the rights to the next young superstar. |
| 453 | * ''Playing for Pizza'' by Creator/JohnGrisham details the not oft seen world of [[strike:European]] Italian "American Football". The teams are mostly fielded from various odd workers, craftsmen and athletes of other sports past their prime, bank-rolled by the nearest top businessman/politician in the area (and just barely; the title comes from the players' "pay"), and their local supporters would be shamed by most high school booster clubs. The rivalries and dedication to the game, however, are "REAL football". There's also some nice bits about Italian history, art, food and opera. Bene. |
| 454 | * ''Literature/OutOfPosition'' and its sequels, ''Isolation Play'' and ''Divisions'' by Kyell Gold bring football to the niche genre of gay furry romance, of all things. The books center on a gay pro football player and his crossdressing boyfriend. Football is not a gimick or sideshow to that, but drives the plot just as much as the relationship does. The series has won 3 Rainbow Awards for gay fiction. |
| 455 | * ''The Blind Side'' was actually a book before it became a movie. ''The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game'', by Michael Lewis, is roughly half the story of Michael Oher and half the story of the evolution of the position of offensive tackle from the 1980s to the 21st century. |
| 456 | [[/folder]] |
| 457 | |
| 458 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 459 | * ''Series/FridayNightLights''. Much like its literary and movie counterpart, it's a GenreDeconstruction of the mythos surrounding football and the feel-good sports movie. The fictional West Texas town of Dillon, much like the depiction of Odessa in the film, is a DyingTown that places all its hopes on the Dillon Panthers high school football team. As a result, the players face major forms of scrutiny from just about everyone, and it leads to quite a bit of heartache. |
| 460 | * ''Playmakers'', an unsuccessful attempt at bringing the idea behind ''Any Given Sunday'' to the small screen.[[note]]It was possibly killed by the NFL, as they probably didn't want a show featuring a large storyline about football players using drugs to get ahead on ESPN, a network that airs NFL games once per week.[[/note]] |
| 461 | * ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' has solved the murders of team owners in two separate cases. Both episodes involve Brand X teams. Footage from UsefulNotes/CanadianFootballLeague games is used. |
| 462 | * ''Series/{{Coach}}'', a sitcom starring Creator/CraigTNelson as a coach of a fictional college (later NFL) football team. |
| 463 | * The 1971 made-for-TV movie ''Film/BriansSong'' is the source of many ManlyTears. |
| 464 | * Al Bundy from ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' has several plotlines through the course of the series where he relives what he considers the only happy time of his life as a star fullback on his high school football team before reality and adulthood set in. |
| 465 | * ''Series/SchoolSpirits'' features Wally Clark, an all-American high school football player who died from a broken neck after a "misplaced tackle" during the big Homecoming game in 1983. |
| 466 | * ''Series/TheLeague'', a comedy about a group of friends in a fantasy football league. Frequently features NFL players as guest stars. |
| 467 | * In an episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Jenny Calendar invites Giles to watch a high school football game as a date. Giles snarks for a bit about how Americans put on so much padding to play a game of Rugby, while Jenny gets her heckles up over Giles insulting her [[SeriousBusiness nation's pastime]][[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Part of the joke]], of course, is that the American national pastime is generally accepted to be ''[[GameOfNerds Baseball]]''.[[/note]] |
| 468 | * In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', a Vulcan asks Tucker about football. A Vulcan cultural observer had witnessed a game and assumed the goal was to kill the Quarterback. Tucker sets the record straight. |
| 469 | * [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Sheldon Cooper]] [[HiddenDepths turns out to be a football buff]], which he credits to his upbringing in Texas. |
| 470 | [[/folder]] |
| 471 | |
| 472 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 473 | * The song "Round Up" by Sam Spence is sometimes used in NFL Films that air on the NFL Network. |
| 474 | * The overwhelming majority of collegiate fight songs will include a reference to the sport. Keep in mind that these fight songs apply to their respective schools' entire athletic programs... |
| 475 | * Music/RayStevens' 'Armchair Quarterback' discusses not as much the game as some of its fans. |
| 476 | * Music/KennyChesney's song "The Boys of Fall" is pretty much ''Series/FridayNightLights'' set to country music. |
| 477 | * The American music video (one of two produced) for Music/{{U2}}'s song "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" features a placekicker missing a critical field goal and repeatedly reliving the moment. It also features a [[TheCameo cameo]] by John Madden. |
| 478 | [[/folder]] |
| 479 | |
| 480 | [[folder:Standup Comedy]] |
| 481 | * Creator/AndyGriffith first entered the national consciousness as a comedian with the sketch "What It Was, Was Football", depicting a college football game through the eyes of a country preacher who had never before seen the sport. |
| 482 | * Creator/GeorgeCarlin has a whole routine comparing football to baseball. In general, football is a war-like effort, whereas baseball is much more relaxed. The routine ends with Carlin saying the objective of football is often used with war terms, such as "march into enemy territory" and "penetrate the defense with a sustained aerial attack". Meanwhile, the objective of baseball is to go home and be safe. |
| 483 | * Creator/BillCosby played college football for Temple University as a fullback. He got tired of people constantly asking about it, saying at one time "it's the truth! Don't keep asking me 'did you really play?' Yes, I really played!" However, he notes that the teams he played for were never very good, describing players from the rival school Hofstra as giant monsters who [[CurbStompBattle beat Temple 900-0 in their street clothes]]. |
| 484 | ** Cosby also describes playing football in the streets of Philadelphia as a kid: |
| 485 | --> '''Quarterback:''' Arnie, go down ten steps and cut left behind the black Chevy. Filbert, you run down to my house and wait in the living room. Cosby, you go down to 3rd Street, catch the J bus, have them open the doors at 19th Street-- I'll fake it to you. |
| 486 | --> '''Bill:''' ''(narrating)'' There was always one fat kid you never thought of-- |
| 487 | --> '''Fat kid:''' What about me? |
| 488 | --> '''Quarterback:''' ''(not missing a beat)'' ''You'' go long. |
| 489 | --> '''Bill:''' ''(narrating)'' We got a lot of good plays going that way. |
| 490 | --> '''Quarterback:''' I'll throw it over the water tower-- you'll catch it as it bounces out. |
| 491 | * Bob Nelson's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gol0aglIXxI college football routine]]. |
| 492 | [[/folder]] |
| 493 | |
| 494 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 495 | * ''TabletopGame/BloodBowl'' is an adaptation of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' into a tabletop football game |
| 496 | * Electric Football, possibly the earliest marketed tabletop game. |
| 497 | * Gridiron: a collectible card game. |
| 498 | [[/folder]] |
| 499 | |
| 500 | [[folder:Theater]] |
| 501 | * ''Lombardi'', an NFL-sponsored theater-in-the-round play about Vince Lombardi and his [[CargoShip relationship with football]]. This is only a slight exaggeration, as Mrs. Lombardi (who narrowly prevented an unthinkable alternate universe by encouraging her husband to accept a request to be head coach of an NFL team in tiny Green Bay, Wisconsin instead of settling for a job as a bank manager) states that the three most important things to her husband was "God, family, and football, but not necessarily in that order". |
| 502 | [[/folder]] |
| 503 | |
| 504 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 505 | * ''VideoGame/MaddenNFL'' is one of the most successful video game franchises in history. A simulated game is played out every year before the Super Bowl, which correctly predicted the winner every year for the first several years it was done. |
| 506 | * ''VideoGame/NCAAFootball'' is ''Madden''[='s=] sister series for college football. However, it entered legal limbo in 2014 as even its NoCelebritiesWereHarmed in-game representations of real college players (whose names and likenesses the series could not legally use at the time due to their "amateur" status) were considered too close to the real thing for comfort. The series was suspended indefinitely after ''NCAA Football 14''. |
| 507 | ** Since the NCAA allowed players to be compensated for the use of their names and likenesses starting in 2021, the series is making a comeback in 2023. However, since developer EA Sports has yet to reach a licensing deal with the NCAA for the use of ''its'' trademarks, the first entry of the rebooted series is expected to be ''EA Sports College Football '24''. |
| 508 | * One challenger to ''Madden NFL'''s dominance was [[TakeTwoInteractive 2K Games']] ''NFL 2K'' series. It disappeared after EA obtained the exclusive rights to the NFL Franchise for making video games, and has only made one last appearance with ''All-Pro Football 2K8'', which used fictional teams and former/retired players. |
| 509 | * ''Tecmo Bowl'' was the first truly successful football video game. Because of a licensing snafu, it featured real players on BrandX teams. Tecmo Bo Jackson is considered the greatest athlete in video game history. Tecmo later obtained an NFL license and created the also successful ''Tecmo Super Bowl'', which still retains a cult following for its easy and fun (if somewhat unrealistic) gameplay. There's a video series that amusingly follows Madden NFL's lead in simulating games to predict winners, starting with an explanation that both coaches completely dropped their full line-ups in favor of the now-retired players that were featured in Tecmo Bowl, and straight-laced announcing of impossible plays such as Jeff George's "Wonder Pass". Even to this day, there are hacking groups that mod ''Tecmo Super Bowl'' [=ROMs=] to include updated rosters, updated team graphics and expansion teams, and even managed to change the divisions to the way they are today (''Tecmo Super Bowl'' was released back when the AFC and the NFC had East, Central, and West divisions. Modded versions of the game now include the North, East, South, and West Divisions for each conference.) |
| 510 | * ''VideoGame/NFLBlitz'': A series of ultraviolent football games originally by Midway that cycle in and out of favor. Before EA got the exclusive NFL license, the league told Midway to tone down the violence, which essentially made it an inferior copy of ''Madden'' and ''NFL 2K''. After Midway's bankruptcy, EA Sports relaunched ''NFL Blitz'' as a download-only complement to ''Madden''. |
| 511 | * ''VideoGame/BlitzTheLeague'': After losing the NFL license, Midway continued the ''Blitz'' series with fake teams and players; however, this let them get away with content that would be slanderous if used with real athletes, such as giving players the option of feeding their team illegal drugs or sending prostitutes to the other team's hotel. Unlike most American sports, the fictional League in ''Blitz'' uses a system of promotion and relegation; in the games' career mode, the player's team starts in Division 3, and the ultimate goal is to win the Division 1 championship. |
| 512 | * Roy Bromwell of the ''VideoGame/RivalSchools'' games, being one of the token [[{{Eagleland}} Americans]] in the series, is noted in his bio as the star quarterback of Pacific High's football team. In-game, however, this is an InformedAbility; the only evidence of his football background is one of special moves being named Touchdown Wave. |
| 513 | ** Johnny Maximum, from the ''VideoGame/WorldHeroes'' franchise, had more of a football theming; he was dressed in full football gear, and initially had football-shaped projectiles that were either passed or kicked to enemies. |
| 514 | * The Chargin' Chuck in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' is dressed in football padding. Some varieties kick footballs or [[GretzkyHasTheBall throw baseballs]] at you. |
| 515 | * ''[[VideoGame/BackyardSports Backyard Football]]'' |
| 516 | * ''Mutant League Football'' |
| 517 | * ''Backbreaker'' |
| 518 | * ''Black College Football: The Xperience'', an experimental title that focused exclusively on historically black universities. Mostly known for its focus on non-football stuff, such as a halftime drum competition minigame, and an interactive player museum. |
| 519 | * ''Legend Bowl'' is a 16-bit style ''VideoGame/TecmoBowl''-equse game with a mix of simulation and arcade gameplay. Like most post-2005 football games, it uses fictional teams; however, the game is fully customizable, and there are mods to recreate college and NFL teams on the PC version. |
| 520 | [[/folder]] |
| 521 | |
| 522 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 523 | * [[http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2016/02/04/0758-poor-choice-of-words/ This strip]] from ''Webcomic/SandraAndWoo''[[note]]originates in Germany[[/note]] shows up the gulf between European and North American interpretations of the word "football". A Spanish-American girl taken to an American Football game says exactly the wrong thing as to which sort of football she prefers. Sparks fly. |
| 524 | [[/folder]] |
| 525 | |
| 526 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 527 | * ''WebOriginal/SeventeenThousandSevenHundredSeventySix'' begins as an article about the future of the sport, but quickly turns into a bizarre story about how humanity conquering all its ills and [[CompleteImmortality somehow becoming immortal]] causes football to become increasingly drawn-out and epic in scope. |
| 528 | [[/folder]] |
| 529 | |
| 530 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 531 | * ''Franchise/{{Peanuts}}'' specials: |
| 532 | ** ''WesternAnimation/ItsYourFirstKissCharlieBrown'' has a homecoming game for the kids. Their school's athletic budget is pretty minimal: no actual uniforms for Peppermint Patty's team; Snoopy ends up playing the roles of referee, cheerleader, and news helicopter; Woodstock is a linesman and cameraman. Based, of course, on ''Peanuts'' strips featuring football, the playing of football, and the pulling away of footballs. |
| 533 | ** ''WesternAnimation/YoureInTheSuperBowlCharlieBrown'' has the kids compete in a punt-pass-and-kick contest for Super Bowl tickets, interspersed with Snoopy coaching a team of Woodstock and his friends in an Animal Football League. |
| 534 | * ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': |
| 535 | ** "[[Recap/KingOfTheHillS4E3BillsAreMadeToBeBroken Bills Are Made To Be Broken]]" featured Bill going back to his high school to graduate and play one more year and trying to regain a rushing record he had recently lost in the process. |
| 536 | ** "[[Recap/KingOfTheHillS12E1SuiteSmellOfExcess Suite Smell of Excess]]" features the guys and Bobby attending a college conference championship game between the Texas Longhorns and the Nebraska Cornhuskers (a fictitious game, although Texas and Nebraska did play for the Big 12 championship in 1996, 1999, and 2009), in which they end up sneaking into a luxury box normally used by a famous Nebraska alum and former football player. |
| 537 | ** In "[[Recap/KingOfTheHillS4E6ABeerCanNamedDesire A Beer Can Named Desire]]", Hank wins a trip to a Cowboys vs. Saints game in New Orleans, with the choice of either throwing a football into a mock beer can and earning $1 million, or having former Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith make the throw for him and earn $100 thousand. |
| 538 | ** Hank Hill's personal hero is Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry, who often appears to Hank in various dreams or visions, and is also the namesake for Arlen's middle school. |
| 539 | * The NFL made their own animated show in 2010 called ''WesternAnimation/NFLRushZoneGuardiansOfTheCore'' (which later became "Season of the Guardians", and most recently, "Guardians Unleashed"), a Flash cartoon which aired on Nicktoons Network. Notable in that the cartoon features real players and coaches from the NFL, most voiced by their real life counterparts. |
| 540 | * Peter meets Tom Brady in the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS4E20PatriotGames Patriot Games]]", and briefly plays running back for the New England Patriots. |
| 541 | * ''WesternAnimation/SilverHawks'' team members (and super-strong {{Cyborg}} [[GeniusBruiser Genius Bruisers]] Will and Emily Hart are hard-core football fans-Will's CollapsibleHelmet even looks like a football one! |
| 542 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 543 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E2YouOnlyMoveTwice You Only Move Twice]]", Homer tells Hank Scorpio that he dreams of owning the Dallas Cowboys. In the end, Hank rewards Homer by giving him ownership of the Denver Broncos, to Homer's disappointment. [[HilariousInHindsight Hilariously]], since this episode aired, the Broncos have gone to the Super Bowl 4 times and won 3 times, whereas the Cowboys haven't even gotten to their Conference Championship since. |
| 544 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E6BartStar Bart Star]]", Bart enrolls in pee-wee football, though the thrill is gone [[StageMom when Homer decides to be his coach]]. Features a cameo by Joe Namath. |
| 545 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E12SundayCruddySunday Sunday, Cruddy Sunday]]", Homer organizes a trip to Super Bowl XXXIII, where everything that can go wrong does. Features appearances by the likes of Dan Marino, Troy Aikman, John Madden, and Pat Summerall. |
| 546 | * On ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'', the title character spent a season as Hazelnut Middle School's placekicker, ultimately deciding to lose a beauty pagent in order to make a crucial kick in the team's most important game. (She had to take time off from the school's Soccer team in order to play.) |
| 547 | * ''WesternAnimation/WheresHuddles'' was a short-lived Creator/HannaBarbera cartoon about a couple of pro football players who were also friends and neighbors. It was similar to, and used some of the same talent as ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones''. |
| 548 | |
| 549 | [[/folder]] |
| 550 | [[hardline]] |
| 551 | For more information, watch ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'' or ''Series/FridayNightLights''. Or show up at a sports bar full of drunk Americans on an autumn weekend afternoon. Or any part of [[Main/EverythingIsBigInTexas Texas]], with anyone, at any time, especially if you like high school football. Or anywhere near a public television in an American college campus on game day. Or on [[UsefulNotes/SuperBowl Super Bowl Sunday]] pretty much all around the globe and ask the person wearing the most NFL gear. |
| 552 |
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