Overview of the Rules of American Football

Series Summary

Modern American football began in 1874 and has since been a popular sport for competitive teams of all ages. The excitement of a Monday night gridiron game works down from the bright lights, over a roaring crowd, and through the voices of top sports announcers like the late Howard Cosell or John Madden. In fact, football is now the most-watched sport in America, easily beating out America’s national pastime, baseball.

The object of the game of football is to advance down the field into the opposing team’s end zone. This is called a touchdown and is worth six points. There are other ways score in football, including two-point conversions and field goals. The team with the most points when time runs out wins.

In this free instructional video series, learn the fundamentals of American football. Understand how the game works, with an introduction to the basic rules and objectives, as well as a rundown of the offensive and defensive positions on the field. Lessons also include skills and techniques for beginner offensive and defensive players: how to carry the ball, throw a pass, block effectively, punt, and make a solid hand off.

Video Transcript

" Hi! I am Geoff on behalf of expertvillage.com. I am here to tell you a little bit about the beginning generalities of beginner’s football. Behind me you can see a regulation college style football field, 100 yards from goal to goal, each end zone is also 10 yards deep and as you can tell by the numbered quantities on the field, each 10 yards symbolizes what is called a what would be a yard marker on the field. The object of football is to score on your opponent and the person with the higher score obviously wins. As an offensive player, you are given four downs to achieve a first down. A first down is gained every 10 yards and that does not mean you have to start on the 10 yard line and go to the 20 yard line, it means you can start on the 4 yard line and go to the 14 yard line. Each 10 yards you gain a first down unless of course there are penalties involved in which case that is the subject for a different segment. You score touchdowns, which are six points by entering the zone in front of the goal post, the yellow goal post behind me. Touchdowns are six points, an extra point then it is kicked thereafter and that is one single point and/or you can opt for a two point option, which is when the ball is placed in the two yard line and as an offensive team you then try to drive it into the goal for two points; instead of a seven point play, it would be an eight point total touchdown play. The field is again a 100 yards from goal to goal with 10 yards for each end zone. It is 55 feet across. There are 11 offensive players opposing 11 defensive players and those are the general basics for the field and set up of play for beginning football."