Football Basics for Women
Since it’s much more fun to actually know what’s going on during a football game than to pretend like you know,
Lady D has created a quick fix for you ladies that are scared to ask questions during the game.
Below you will find an overview of the basics of football, an explanation of football positions, and a football glossary of need-to-know terms.
The VERY Basics
If any of these words confuse you, see the dictionary below.
Object of the game: To score more points than the opponent. While on offense you want to score points, and while on defense you want to keep the other team from scoring points.
How to score points: You can score 6 points for your team by getting a touchdown, either by running the ball into the other team’s endzone or by throwing the ball to a player that can run into the endzone. Touchdowns are worth 6 points. After a touchdown, your team gets the opportunity to kick an extra point (making you get a total of 7 points). Teams usually kick the extra point because they are easy, but there is the option of a 2 point conversion. If you want to try to get 2 extra points after a touchdown, you get one shot at getting the ball into the endzone from the opponents 2 yard line (this is not as easy at is sounds, and it is only done if absolutely necessary). Another way you can score points without getting a touchdown is by kicking a field goal (kicking the ball through the yellow poles = 3 points). Teams usually go for the field goal if they think they won’t be able to get a touchdown. Once you get past the basic stages, read about getting safeties which are worth 2 points, but we won’t worry about that quite yet.
What’s all this talk about 3rd down, 4th down… Teams get 4 chances to move the ball 10 yards (they are called 4 downs). Once they get past 10 yards, they get another set of downs (4 more chances to move the ball 10 more yards), and this keeps going until they get in the endzone as long as they are getting the ball past 10 yards. If a team hasn’t gotten past 10 yards in 4 downs, the other team gets the ball. Typically, teams use the first 3 downs to try to move the ball either by throwing it or running it, and then if they haven’t gotten the 10 yards by that time they use their 4th down to punt or kick the ball. They punt the ball so that the other offense will have further to go to get a touchdown. So, if you hear someone say it’s “first and 10” that means they are on their first down with 10 yards to go. If someone says it’s “third and 2” that means they are on their third down and have 2 yards to go. If someone says it’s “third and long” that means they are on their third down with a lot of yards to go (probably 8 or more).
An explanations of how football teams are broken down
First of all, you need to know that only 11 players are allowed on the field at one time. To see details about each position, click here (coming soon).
Offense: The offense consists of the quarterback, running back, full back, wide receivers, tight end, offensive tackles, offensive guards, and a center.
Defense: The defense consists of the defensive end, defensive tackles, nose tackle, linebackers, cornerbacks, and safeties.
Special Teams: These are the guys that come on to the field when the ball is being kicked or punted. When their team is kicking or punting they are there protecting the kicker and keeping the other team from returning the kick. When the other team is kicking or punting, they are there to catch the ball and try to return it as far as they can get (hoping to go all the way to the opposite endzone for a touchdown).
Must-know Football Terms
Some of these definitions include example sentences of how to use each term - and be ready for men’s jaws to drop if you use some of these sentences.
Audible:An audible is when the quarterback calls a different play at the line of scrimmage when he sees how the defense is lining up. Peyton Manning calls a ton of audibles, which is why it seems like forever sometimes before the ball is actually snapped.
Blitz: This is when the guys on defense go aggressively after the quarterback. The goal of a blitz is to sack the quarterback. The defense gets really happy when the quarterback is sacked behind the line of scrimmage. Sound smart: If the quarterback was immediately sacked after the ball was snapped say, “Looks like the defense sent the house on that blitz.”
Drive: A drive is a series of plays offensive plays. Sound smart: If your team just took the ball down the field a long way through several plays say, “That was a nice looking drive.”
End Zone: The end of the field with all the colors (usually the team’s name is written here). Teams are trying to get to one end zone for a touchdown and keep the other team out of their endzone.
False start: Penalty for illegal movement by the offense prior to the snap. So the offense moved before they were supposed to. Usually when the referee blows his whistle and stops the play from continuing it is a false start, and the offense loses yards.
Field Goal: A kicker for the team on offense tries to kick the football between two goal posts. This is worth 3 points, and is usually done when the team doesn’t think they’ll be able to score a touchdown. Sound smart: If your team has just kicked 2 field goals in a row say, “We need to move the ball better and stop settling for field goals.”
Field Position: The team’s field position is the yard line that the teams are snapping the ball from (or starting their drive from). If an offense is near the opponent’s endzone, the team would have good field position. If an offense is near their own endzone, they have bad field position (a long way to go until they get a touchdown).
Fumble: A fumble is when a player that is carrying the ball drops the ball or gets the ball knocked out of his hands. Then whichever teams jumps on the ball first or picks up the ball gets to be on offense. A fumble is a turn over because one team is turning the ball over to the other team. Sound smart: When the team you are against goes to catch a punt or a kick and starts running with the ball shout “fumble, fumble”. (this means you want him to fumble.)
Interception: An interception is when the quartback’s pass is caught by the other team’s defender. They also call it being “picked off”. Sound smart: When your team is on defense say, “We could really use an interception for 6 here.” (this means you want your defense to intercept the ball and return it for a touchdown, 6 points.)
Line of Scrimmage: This is the point at which the ball sits before it is snapped. It’s the line where all the big guys on offense are crouched down staring at the big guys on defense. You cannot pass this imaginary line before the ball is snapped (if you do it’s called offsides).
Offsides: Offsides is a penalty for team members not on their own side of the line of scrimmage during a snap. It’s usually defenses that are called for offsides when they jump to early (before the ball is snapped). When offsides has occurred usually a flag is thrown right when the ball is snapped but the ref doesn’t blow his whistle to stop the play. The offense gets a free play because if they do well, they just decline the offsides penalty, but if they don’t do well on the play they can accept the penalty and gain some yards.
Pass interference: This is a penalty for illegal contact on a pass play. It’s when the defender interferes with the wide receivers chance of catching the ball using physical contact. Both players, defender and wide receiver, are supposed to be going for the ball, not hitting each other.
Play action pass: When a quarterback fakes a handoff for a running play before passing the ball. The play action pass is used to deceive the defense. Sound smart: After your team has successfully run the ball a few times say, “Now would be a good time to go play action.” (this means that it would be a good time to make the defense think you are going to run the ball again, but really you are going to throw it down field.)
Punt: When a team gets to their 4th down and are too far away from the endzone to kick a field goal, they can punt the ball (kick the ball to the other team). The other team will have someone back there waiting to catch it and try to run it back the opposite direction it was kicked. Sound smart: When you are trash talking to someone before your two teams play each other say, “You’ll be lucky if our punt team even sees the field.” (get it, you never want to have to punt the ball, so it’s a good thing if your punt team never gets to play.)
Pylon: Pylons are those little orange markers that are at each corner of the endzone. If a player knocks down a pylon as he’s going out of bounds in the endzone, it means the touchdown was good. It’s sort of a way to know whether or not they were out of bounds before entering the endzone (only for close plays, of course). Sound smart: When talking about Chad Johnson say, “Didn’t you think it was hilarious when Chad used the pylon as a golf club and pretended to putt the football.”
Red Zone: The red zone is the area of field between the 20 yard-line and the endzone. This is the part of the field that offenses are most likely to score in. Sound smart: Ask a guy how his team’s red zone defense has been this season. (this means how well the defense is doing at keeping opponents from scoring once they have gotten into the red zone).
Sack: A sack is when the defense tackles the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of yards. Defenses love to get sacks, but of course quarterbacks hate it.
Safety: This is when an offense was cornered near their endzone and the guy holding the ball got tackled in the wrong endzone. This scores 2 points for the team on defense. After a defense scores a safety they usually walk around with their hands above their heads in the shape of a triangle like they are about to do an Egyptian dance.
So, now go watch some football intelligently. (But don't be scared to ask questions, sometimes ignorance is not bliss.)
