How to Prepare for a Football Game Like a Pro

Before every NFL game, there are some hard and fast rules you must follow and some rituals you can design for yourself.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Athletic Socks
• Athletic Tapes
• Football Cleats
• Football Gear
• Football Helmets
• Football Uniforms
• Footballs

1. Arrive at the stadium at least two hours prior to kickoff.
2. Find your locker. For home games, your locker will always be in the same location, with your name engraved on a plate above it. However, for road games, you'll have to search the locker room for your name written on a piece of tape.
3. Put your thigh pads and knee pads into your game pants. There are pockets sewn on the inside of the pants, and your pads slide into them easily.
4. Change out of your street clothes and into your jockstrap, game pants and T-shirt.
5. Get your ankles taped by the medical trainers in the training room.
6. Return to your locker and put on a pair of socks, cleats and gloves.
7. Walk out of the locker room and down toward the field.
8. Run around, stretch your muscles, walk laps, play catch with another player, or even sit idly for 10 or 15 minutes. Use the time to make sure your cleats get good traction on the field (see "How to Choose Game Shoes Like a Pro"), check the weather to determine whether you'll need to wear thermal tights under your uniform, and generally introduce yourself to the field so that when you come back out onto the field in half an hour, you'll be ready to play football.
9. Go back into the locker room and make any necessary adjustments. If your cleats are inadequate, get them changed by the equipment manager; if you're too cold or too hot, make the appropriate changes in the type of undershirt you're wearing. If your ankle tape feels too loose or too constricting, go back into the training room to get retaped.
10. Grab your shoulder pads off the top of your locker and check to make sure all the buckles and straps are in good working order. Make sure the buckles are secure and the straps are not frayed or worn. If there are any problems, take the shoulder pads to the equipment manager for repair.
11. Put your shoulder pads on, then pull your game jersey over your pads. You may have to enlist the help of a teammate to get the tight jersey over the bulky pads.
12. Tuck your jersey into your pants and tighten the belt at your waist until it feels comfortable.
13. Put your helmet on your head and check its fit. The helmet should fit snugly with only about an inch of side-to-side or up-and-down play. If your helmet is too tight or too loose, go see the equipment manager.
14. Go out onto the field with the rest of the team about 45 minutes before kickoff.
15. Run though individual warm-up drills with your position coach for about five minutes, then wait to be called together as a team to run through 10 to 20 plays. This organized pregame warm-up will take about half an hour.
16. Return to the locker room.
17. Use the final 10 to 15 minutes before kickoff to relax, pray, use the restroom, drink fluids, get your equipment adjusted, study your playbook, get your ankles retaped or do anything else you feel you need to do.
18. Gather with the rest of the team to say the Lord's Prayer about five minutes before kickoff.
19. Storm out of the locker room and onto your team's sideline prepared to wage war.

Tips & Warnings

• You'll usually need to adjust your helmet before every road game. The altitude changes will affect the way the air in your helmet expands or contracts. An air pressure that works well in Denver will be inadequate at sea level, and air pressure that's perfect at sea level will be too great in Denver.
• The helmet has padding inside, but also two air bladders that control the fit - one at the top and one that wraps around the back and sides of the head. The equipment manager uses a needle (like the needle you would use to pump up a basketball) that has a small bulb-type air pump attached (like the hand pump that a doctor uses to check your blood pressure). Using that pump, the equipment manager can add air to your helmet or bleed air out of it.
• If you arrive at the stadium late, you'll be fined from $200 to $2,000 by your team, depending on whether it's a first offense or chronic tardiness.
• You're not required to tape your ankles, but it's encouraged, and some teams will fine you as much as $1,000 if you suffer an ankle injury while playing without tape on your ankles.
• NFL rules require you to tuck in your jersey, extend your pant legs below your knee caps, and pull your socks all the way up. Violations could result in fines by the league's front office.