by Ben Jones
AS IT WAS the Super Bowl – America’s biggest spectacle – on Sunday, we’re broadening your horizons and giving you a guide to everything NFL.
Now, over the pond they call it football but we know football to be something completely different. For the sake of this article however, we’ll call it football for our American friends.
The NFL stands for National Football League, and is made up of 32 teams ranging from the East coast to the West coast. They are then split into the AFC and NFC, the American Football Conference and National Football Conference respectively and from there, are arranged into four divisions; AFC West, East, North and South and NFC West, East, North and South.
Unlike here in Britain, teams in the NFL are known as franchises rather than clubs. Teams have their city first and then a franchise name following – the Los Angeles Rams or the Kansas City Chiefs for example – which is what they’re known as, even if they relocate – yes, teams can relocate in America.
There is 17 weeks in the season, but teams play 16 games and have one bye week where they get the week off. Games are played mainly on Sunday afternoon, but there is also primetime games on Monday and Thursday nights. The winners of each division make the playoffs, as well as four others who go through the wildcard round. It is then a knockout all the way to the Super Bowl where you play to win the famous Lombardi Trophy.
Like in any sport, individually or in a team, the aim of a game of football is to score more points that your opponent. That’s the simple part but there is so much more that I’ll get into.
A football pitch is 100 yards long, with two endzones – all colourful and bright with a franchises logo and name – that are similar to behind the try-line in rugby.
A team can’t get into these fancy endzones unless they gain 10 yards first. They have four downs (we’ll call them goes) to get ten yards to get a fresh set of goes, and then repeat. If they make it to the endzone, they get six points and attempt a point after touchdown (PAT). Usually teams use three downs, and on the fourth – depending where they are on the field – kick a field goal worth three points or punt, also known as kicking the ball back to the other team.
Whilst these four downs are taking place, the seven referees are looking out for penalties such as holding, pass interference, being offside (jumping across the line of scrimmage) and a bunch of others which are all worth a certain amount of yardage.
The offense are the team trying to get into the endzone. Within the last ten years, the NFL has become an attack-dominated league and it is becoming ever harder for the defense to stop them from scoring. Quarterbacks are more mobile than before, and have bigger arms and receivers are just, well, faster.
The offense line up with 11 men on the field of play. Offensive positions include the quarterback who is the one that throws the ball and is the heartbeat of the offense, a running back who runs the ball and wide receivers and tight ends who catch the ball. Protecting the quarterback is the offensive line, whose job is to block to onrushing defensive players.
Now onto the defensive side of the ball. There is a notion within the footballing world that ‘defense wins championships’, so it could be argued that this is the most important side of the ball. After all, they are protecting their endzone from the opposition scoring any points on them.
The defense also have 11 men on the field with positions being defensive ends, the ones who pressure the quarterback and try and beat the offensive line, linebackers who are behind those defensive ends, cornerbacks who try and follow where the wide receivers go and then there is safeties who are right at the back of the defense, almost as last cover in case you get a blown coverage.
Now that was a lot of information on a sport that is ever-growing outside of the United States. Here’s a whiteboard and a pen and some of my awful drawings that might help you understand a little more.