Things You'll Need:
- Suitable playing surface (long, wide, and flat) Football Two teams Officials Designation for first down distance Designation for goal line
-
Step 1
Start the game. One team kicks off the ball to the opposing team. The receiving team is usually determined by a coin toss. The ball can also be thrown rather than kicked off if the game is less formal and being played simply for fun.
-
Step 2
Begin play with the receiving team on offense. The offense will use running and passing plays to advance the ball downfield.
-
Step 3
Control of the ball will continue by the offense as long as the ball is not turned over due to a lost fumble or interception, which allows the defense to take possession. A fumble occurs when a player on offense drops the ball after taking possession. An interception occurs when a defender catches the ball in the air while covering an intended receiver.
-
Step 4
Stopping the offense is the primary goal of defensive players. Through positioning, players attempt to get in the way, tackle, break up pass attempts and stop the advance of the ball by the offense. Defensive players also attempt to get possession of the ball for the offense of their team.
-
Step 5
Marking off penalties is done by officials, including the referee, side judge, and back judge, who are on the field during play. Penalties such as holding, offside, pass interference and encroachment are only a few of the infractions that result in loss of yardage and even a loss of down in some situations. Referees also keep the official time of the game, which is divided into four quarters.
-
Step 6
Keep score. While a touchdown produces the most points (six), there are other ways to score in a game: an extra-point following a touchdown is worth one point; field goal (kicking the ball through the uprights) is worth three points; safety (tackling an offensive player behind his team's goal line) is worth two points. The team with the most points after four quarters wins.
