Tiffany Raiford
If you’re a woman who doesn’t know much about football, get ready to learn. Not only is it – hands down – the best sport in the world; it’s fun (especially college football). It’s exciting, it makes you sit on the edge of your seat and it makes you jump up and down. And did we mention how much fun it is to host football parties with great food and two very bold colors? It’s considered a “manly” sport, but it’s a sport for everyone. If you’re a born and raised southerner (like myself) you probably already understand all there is to know about football and just how important your own team is to the way your weekend plays out. You know the excitement of tailgating, and cheering on your favorite team (and how the SEC typically dominates) and just how biased CBS broadcasters are against the Florida Gators (Every. Single. Time. I’m talking to you Verne Lundquist). Whether you’re already a fan or not, we have 20 tips that every woman should know about football.
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Downs
You need to know what a down means. It’s essentially the number of yards a team has to go before they can claim a first down, which gives them four more chances to run/throw/pass the ball for a touchdown. First down means just that; it’s the first. A comment such as 3rd and 10 means that it’s the team’s 3rd attempt and they still have 10 yards to go for a first down.
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How Many Downs a Team Gets
To be honest, you can have more than four downs during possession. You have four chances to move the ball 10 yards (like 4th and 10, remember?). Most people will not try to run the ball or throw the ball on a call of 4th and 10, they’ll likely punt. However, you can technically play all four downs, get the 10 and move your way across the field just like this. Sometimes when a score is close, teams will do just this to run the ball and prevent an interception from occurring.
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Flags
We can’t explain all the flags to you since there are so many, but when you see a yellow flag come out of the pocket of a ref, something illegal happened on the field. It could be a false start, where one player from one team moved too soon. It could be for a facemask, which means one team had their hands on the mask of another player during a play. It could mean anything from offsides to too many players on the field to whatever else. But it essentially means the play will stop, the officials will speak and the head official will make an announcement that will usually penalize the offending team.
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Offense
You hear the term, but do you know what it means? The team on offense, or on the offensive, is the team that has possession of the ball. This is the team with the ball on the field who gets to throw the ball and catch the ball. This team will have their quarterback on the field. This is the guy that gets to throw the ball to his teammates, hand the ball off in a special play or run the ball if he so chooses.
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Defense
The team that is on defense is defending the field. They are defending their score by not allowing the other team to score. As a high school cheerleader, our coach used to remind us that when we were doing offensive and defensive cheers we could tell which team was which by remembering “Double D.” What’s Double D? Yes, it is what you think it is, but it’s not what we mean right now. Double D refers to Defense and Doesn’t. As in; defense doesn’t have the ball. And that’s stuck with me my entire life.
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Tackle
A tackle is the term used when the defensive team takes down an offensive player with the ball. The defense tackles the offense and causes play on the field to stop and the ball to land where it is. This is where the offense will move when the next play starts. They’ll come to the ball. The goal is to tackle the offensive player with the ball inside of 10 yards so that they don’t get a first down, so that the number of times they get to play the ball diminishes.
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First Down
This is what happens when a team gets the ball more than 10 yards. A first down is a good thing. We want OUR team to get a first down. We do not want the OTHER team to get a first down. This just means that the team with the first down gets four more attempts at moving the ball another 10 yards. We need to go a lot further than this, but it’s good to get a first down – no matter where we are on the field.
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Field Goal
A field goal is an attempt a team can make to score three points. Three points is good, because it can change the entire course of a game and make it more difficult for the other team to keep the score close. Field goals are usually attempted when the offensive team is within field goal distance but it seems that they don’t have enough time/ability to go for the touchdown. The kicker will then make his way onto the field and kick the ball. It has to go in between the uprights for the points to be valid.
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Uprights
You hear the term, but do you know what it is? Many people don’t, which is actually quite surprising. The uprights are the big “U” shaped things in each end zone (end zone is the end of each side of the field). You have to get the ball in between those “U” shapes to get extra points and field goals. Otherwise, they are not used for anything in particular throughout the course of the rest of the game. Touchdowns do not have anything to do with the uprights, despite what some people think.
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Extra Point
When a team scores a touchdown, they are given the opportunity to score an extra point. This can help with the score and make it a bit more possible for a team to win. An extra point is scored when the kicker comes onto the field and gets to kick the ball between the uprights. If he makes it, the team gets an extra point. If he does not, the team does not get the extra point; just the 6 points offered by the touchdown.
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Punt
This is very much a kick, but it’s not like a regular kick. This is down when a player drops the ball from his hands and kicks it from where he is standing. When a punt occurs, the players on the team punting are allowed to cross the line of scrimmage with the intent of tackling the recipient of the punt. This typically happens when offense is on their final down and have a long way to go to make the down (typically fourth and 10). This allows them a more advantageous position on the field if they can retrieve the ball from the other team once the punt occurs.
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Touchdown
A touchdown is the driving force behind football. We long to see our team score a touchdown. Worth 6 points, the touchdown occurs when the player with ball makes it into the end zone with the ball in hand. This means that he has to have the ball and take it past the 1 yard line and into the end zone. This means he will get 6 points for his team. He’s scored, that team gets points and winning is more likely to occur.
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Breaking the Plane
This is where football can become a little confusing. After all, that guy had the ball in his hands, but he didn’t get both of his feet inside the lines. So how does that count as making a touchdown? Simply put, the player merely has to have the nose of the ball over the goal line for it to be valid. It doesn’t matter if he is in the air and he lands out of bounds; as long as the ball breaks the plane BEFORE the player lands out of bounds with any body part (elbows, knees, feet) it’s valid. Additionally, if a pass is long and it’s almost at the end of the end zone and the player catches the ball mid-jump, just one of his feet has to land in-bounds for the ball to be considered a touchdown.
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Out of Bounds
There are white lines all over the field. The ones inside the field mark the distance to the goal line (50 yards is mid-point on the field). The goal line essentially marks 0 yards and a touchdown. The lines that surround the perimeter of the field are the lines that mark bounds. Once you cross the outside of those lines, the ball is considered out of bounds and the clock stops. Some players might do this on purpose if the time is running short in the game and they need to stretch it as long as possible.
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Interception
This is a simple one to explain. An interception is only good if it’s your team that makes the interception. If your team throws the interception, this is not a good thing. When a quarterback throws the ball to a teammate and a player from the opposing team catches the ball, he can run that ball the opposite direction and score a touchdown. And even if he does not score on the interception, offense loses the ball and defense becomes offense. Interceptions, I repeat, are ONLY good if your team catches one.
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Fumble
A fumble occurs when a player literally fumbles the ball. He can fumble, re-catch it and keep it. Or he can fumble, drop the ball and the other team has the opportunity to pick up that ball and run with it – literally. You do not want to fumble. If a defensive player picks up the ball during a fumble, they regain possession and offense turns into defense and the game changes. The only time a fumble is good is when it’s the other team’s fumble and they don’t recover the fumble.
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Two-Point Conversion
This is a play that can mean a few things. It happens only after a touchdown, and it can be done by anyone on the offense. It can be a surprise play that happens when it seems that the kicker is going to go for the extra point but fakes you out and actually runs or throws the ball over the goal line and a player from the team scores. It can also be a play where the quarterback lines up just like a regular play. The point is to get two points instead of 1 after a touchdown to further the score.
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Time Out
Each team gets 3 time outs per half. This means that each time gets three chances to call time – or stop the game clock – before half time and again after half time. A coach might call a time out when things are getting heated on the field and he wants to make sure his team knows what’s up, so he can give instruction or call a new play. It’s a very simple concept, and you never want to run out of time outs because you never know when you might need one.
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Overtime
Overtime can be so exciting and so scary at the same time. It only happens when the regular fourth quarter has ended and both teams have the same score on the board. There will be extra time put on the clock and both teams will have the opportunity to play offense and score. If both teams score on their turn, second overtime is put into effect. If only one team scores during overtime, that team wins the game.
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Do Your Research and Don’t Ask During the Game
As a die-hard football fan (go Gators!) I can assure you that no one watching a big game wants to have to stop every 5 seconds to explain to you what is happening in the middle of the game. You need to do your research ahead of time or wait to ask questions until halftime, commercial breaks or after the game entirely. We want to watch the game. Ask afterward, however, and we’re happy to share the love with you.
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