1, History of American Football
As we have already said, this sport arose from the adaptation of rugby
and football, which began when the Harvard and McGill universities
decided to do a series of 3 games between them in 1867, and while the
Harvard team played the game of Boston (which was similar to football)
and McGill’s team played rugby.
Since at that time, there were no super-regulated rules and from place to
place there were always differences between them and over time the
games between the universities were undergoing changes in their rules
until they were distancing themselves more and more from rugby, .
Today, this sport has even surpassed Baseball in terms of popularity in
the United States, with the NFL Super Bowl final being one of the
biggest if not the biggest sporting event of the year in that country.
2, American Football Game
The American football game consists of points scoring by two teams,
each with 11 players on the field, this being a very strategic sport and
with many plays that make the game more complex and impressive.
The game is divided by four periods of 15 minutes each, making a total of
60 minutes, but the stopwatch is stopped in many situations, such as
fouls, when the ball goes out the side line, some team scores or when in a
pass no one grabs the ball before it touched the ground.
The match starts with a kick off (a kick that occurs to 35 yards that one
team makes to the other team’s field, being kicked by the kicker),
happening at the beginning of each time and when some of the teams
score some point.
It is also allowed for the technicians of each team to request time-out, as
is done in other sports, which is a short pause for the coach to
communicate with his team or break the pace of the other team. Each
team is entitled to 3 time-outs in half.
3, American Football Field
The American Football field has length 120 yards (approximately 109
meters) and 53,3 yards wide (almost 49 meters), whereby the field is
divided by 10 lines in 10 yards along its length. Beyond the bottom line
on either side is Endzone, which is where players mark touchdowns,
often being of a different color to be easily identified by players in the
middle of the game.
4, How to Play American Football
Unlike the vast majority of collective sports, where the game is dynamic
so that both teams attack and defend at the same time, this is no longer
the case in American football.
While one team is attacking, the other is defending. When it changes, the
alignment of the teams usually changes as well.
Each team has 4 attempts (or downs) to advance 10 yards. If he can not
do it, the team that was defending is attacking and vice versa.
Usually when they are already in the 4ª attempt the team makes a punt,
which is a kick, sending the ball as far from their field as possible so as
not to risk losing possession of the ball (and the attack) very close to their
side.
