Football Rules and Positions In A Day For Dummies E-Book

Howie Long

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: In A Day For Dummies
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Seitenzahl: 108

Beschreibung

Tackle football basics in a day? Easy. If you've ever wanted to know the difference between a touchdown and a touchback, or how a running back's role differs from a linebacker's, this handy guide gets you up-to-speed in no time. Football Rules & Positions In A Day For Dummies gives you a focused guide to the rules, regulations, and player roles of one of the most popular American sports. * The essential information you need to understand and enjoy America's greatest game * Expert coverage of the game's rules and regulations * Helpful breakdowns of football positions and their roles in offense, defense, and special teams * Online component takes you beyond the book with bonus content and features Get set to impress your friends with your newfound knowledge in no time!

Leseprobe

Football Rules and Positions In A Day For Dummies®

Football Rules & Positions In A Day For Dummies®

Howie Long

with John Czarnecki

Football Rules & Positions In A Day For Dummies®

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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ISBN 978-1-118-37648-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-37649-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-37647-8 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Introduction

Millions of people across the United States and, increasingly, throughout the world are intrigued by football — all types and levels of it. They may have even made the football season a ritual, complete with weekly traditions that may or may not involve secret chili recipes and favorite tailgating traditions. To fully appreciate that experience, you need to have a working knowledge of the game.

Football Rules & Positions In A Day For Dummies gives you that knowledge so you can share well-timed high-fives with even the most ardent fan. For many people, football seems to be a complicated game. Twenty-two players are on the field at one time, plus a number of officials. From the intricacies of first down, second down, and third down, to the role of the quarterback and the difference between a safety and a snapper, even the most eager new fan can easily become intimidated. This book will help. After you break through that initial fear of being overwhelmed by football and what you don’t understand, everything else about the game falls into place.

What You Can Do In A Day

The goal of Football Rules & Positions In A Day For Dummies isto help you understand the basics of football rules and the player positions. I outline the basics of the game; explain the rules; break down the offense, defense, and special teams positions; and describe the roles of coaches and other staff members.

You can read the chapters straight through and get an overview of the rules and who does what during a game; or you can focus on one aspect of the game — say, the defensive line — and then move on to the next topic after you understand that pretty well. How you use this book is up to you.

I use diagrams — you know, those X and O things — to show you what I’m talking about when I describe lineups. Here’s a key to what the symbols mean in the diagrams used in this book:

Foolish Assumptions

Here’s what I’m assuming about you: You’re interested in American-style football and want to get familiar with the sport so you can watch games, follow all the action, and enjoy football to the hilt.

Icons Used in This Book

To help you navigate your way through this book, I place icons in the margins. These little pictures point you to a particular type of information. Here’s a list of the icons and what they mean:

When you see this icon, you know you’re reading a piece of information that’s especially important to remember. If you take away nothing else from this book but the paragraphs flagged with this icon, you’ll have a basic understanding of football.

Look for this icon if you want to know all the helpful tidbits of info that can make you a more informed fan.

Take a break from the text for a quick exercise designed to help you get a better grasp of football— this icon shows you what to do.

When you see this icon, head to this book’s companion website at www.dummies.com/inaday/footballrules andpositions. Online, you’ll find more-detailed information about topics that I cover in the book.

Chapter 1

America’s Greatest Game

In This Chapter

Looking at three levels of play: High school, college, and pro

Surveying football stadiums and fields

Checking out the specs of the all-important ball

Understanding the pieces of players’ uniforms

Baseball may be America’s pastime, but football is America’s passion. Football is the only team sport in America that conjures up visions of Roman gladiators, pitting city versus city, state versus state.

Football is played in all weather conditions — snow, rain, and sleet — with temperatures on the playing field ranging from –30 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Whatever the conditions may be, the game goes on. And unlike other major sports, the football playoff system, in the National Football League (NFL) anyway, is a single-elimination tournament. In other words, the NFL has no playoff series; the playoffs are do-or-die, culminating in what has become the single biggest one-day sporting event in America: the Super Bowl.

Or, in simpler terms, anytime you stick 22 men in high-tech plastic helmets on a football field and have them continually run great distances at incredible speeds and slam into each other, people will watch.

Football has wedged itself into the American culture. In fact, in many small towns across the United States, the centerpiece is the Friday night high school football game. The NFL doesn’t play on Fridays to protect this great part of Americana, in which football often gives schools and even towns a certain identity. And when Americans are asked to rank their favorite sports, college football comes in third (behind pro football and baseball).

Short Trips Down a Long Field: Football in a Nutshell

At its most basic level, football is a game of fierce competition. Two teams advance up and down a field in an attempt to score touchdowns (worth six points), extra points (worth one point), and field goals (worth three points); whichever team scores the most points after 60 minutes of regulation play wins. A team is comprised of three main groups:

The offensive unit, which tries to advance the ball toward the goal and which includes the quarterback, who initiates each offensive play

The defensive unit, which tries to prevent the team that has possession of the ball from moving the ball toward the goal

Special teams, which initiate the game play each time possession switches from one team to another and are responsible for scoring extra points and field goals

Football is a game full of rules. If a team breaks a rule during play, the team at fault is often assigned a penalty, usually in the form of lost yards. Football definitely can illustrate the “two steps forward, one step back” adage. This also explains why a game that has 60 minutes of regulation play can actually take three hours or more to complete!

Seeing How the Season Is Set Up

Football as an organized sport has come a long way since the early years. Teams at every level play during a standard season and are governed by various football leagues, such as the NFL and NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association).

The heart of the football season is during the fall months. However, training camps, practices, and preseason games often begin in the summer, and playoffs and bowl games are staged after Christmas and into February. Here’s how the season breaks down for each level of play:

High school footballteams usually play between eight and ten games in a season. If teams have successful league seasons, they advance to regional or state playoff tournaments. Most high school teams play in a regional league, although some travel 50 to 100 miles to play opponents.

College football teams play between 10 and 13 games, the majority in a specific conference — Pac-12, Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and so on. The top teams from the Division I FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision), which constitute the largest schools that offer the most money for athletic scholarships, advance via invitation to postseason bowl games. These bowl games take place at more than 35 sites across the country. At the top level is the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) game, which pits the two top-ranked teams in a game for the national championship.

NFL teams