So girls, fall is upon us and every girl knows what that means: nice comfy sweaters and scarves, drinking pumpkin lattes or chai tea, the leaves, and all of our other favorite things about fall. Fall is also social media’s favorite season. From artsy Instagram pictures, and tweets about the latest fall drink at Starbucks, fall has been blowing up the world of social media. But there is something else that is blowing up, and that is the great season of FOOTBALL. Football is one of the greatest aspects of fall, especially for the men in our lives. Most men see the seasons as summer, winter, spring, and football They are either talking about who won last night’s game, which players did well, which coach made a bad move, or which ref made a horrible call. Some girls understand the basics of the game, however, what is the most confusing to hear is guys talking about statistics of individual teams and players. How is it that they remember everything about every player in the league but can’t remember to text you back?! Now that’s just plain ridiculous. Whether it’s your dad, you brother, uncle, boyfriend, friend, or a guy you are crushing on, it is important to have somewhat of a handle on what is going on.
Growing up with a football-crazed family has helped me understand the game a little better. Also, going to my boyfriend’s football games for the last four years has given me a better grip on the rules and goals of the game. It is important to have at least a basic understanding of football in order to chime in on conversation and totally impress the men in your life.
Here is the 411 on football: not everything, just what us gals need to know.
First off, there are two teams playing against one another, which I’m sure everyone knows. One team will be on offense and the other on defense. When on offense the quarterback is in charge (he is usually very good looking too! The quarterback and his offensive team have four tries, also called downs, to make it to ten yards. If they make it the ten yards or more they get a first down! This means they get another four tries to get to another ten yards, and this keeps going until they get down the field and can score a touchdown. The quarterback will either throw the ball to gain yards or will hand it off to another player to run with the ball to get yards. The person who catches the throw from the quarterback is usually the wide receiver. The player who gets the ball handed off to him from the quarterback is the running back. Both are important players in trying to gain yards. A touchdown is worth 6 points. After a team scores a touchdown they have a choice to kick a field goal which would add one point to their score, to make it a totally of seven points scored, or they can go for a two-point conversion. This would allow them one try to score another touchdown from the 3 yard line, which may sound easy but is definitely harder than it sounds. This two-point conversion would give another two points to make their total efforts for the touchdown worth 8 points.
All this time, the defense is blocking the offensive players and trying to stop the other team from getting down the field and scoring a touchdown. The defensive players are usually really big, huge guys that look like they would squish you in a heartbeat. The main concern for the defensive linemen is to get the quarterback. If they are able to tackle the quarterback and have the offense lose yards then it is called a sack. There are also smaller defensive players who cover the receivers so they have to be fast. If the defense stops the other team from scoring a first down or a touchdown than they switch and become the offense (a turnover). Another way the defense can cause a turnover is if one of the players intercepts the ball. This would happen when the quarterback goes to throw the ball and a defensive member from the other team catches the ball and tries to run for a touchdown.
Another thing that will be helpful to know is some of the different penalties. Whenever one of the referees throws up their yellow flag that means a penalty has been committed. Different penalties have different consequences. If the penalty is made by the offense then they will lose a certain number of yards depending on the severity of the penalty. If the defense broke the rules, it results in the offense gaining yards. Some of the most common penalties include holding, delay of game, and false start.
Holding occurs when there is an illegal grab or pull of an opponent other than the ball carrier while attempting to block or cover a receiver. A delay of game happens when any action delays the next play and the play clock hits 0 seconds. Usually if this was done by the offense it means that the ball wasn’t snapped before the play clock hit 0. A false start will be called when an offensive player illegally moves after lining up for- but prior to- the snap to the quarterback.
This is just a little bit of information that will help you understand what you are watching next time a game is on. You can use this information to impress a certain someone! Don’t get discouraged if it still doesn’t make sense because it took me years to understand and I still get confused!! If you have a question, then ask whoever is around you! They will love to fill you in and see that you want to learn what the heck is going on. Either way just enjoy the game, have fun, and cheer for your team!!