User:Strongbad/North American Football/Overview

In a game of football, each team is allowed to have a certain number of players, and each team cannot have more than eleven players on the field whenever the ball is in play. The players have different jobs, which are explained in more detail in their respective chapters. In most games, one team(the home team) hosts the game and is said to have home field advantage. The other team is the visiting or away team. The game normally takes place at the home team's stadium, but in special cases, the stadium may be different.

At the beginning of the game, a coin is flipped and the visiting team calls heads or tails while the coin is in the air. Whichever team wins the toss gets to choose whether to choose between kicking and receiving or the choice of which goal to defend, and the loser is stuck with the other choice (which is usually the choice of which goal to defend). The kicking team kicks the ball to the other team, which tries to get as close to the opponent's goal line as possible before being tackled. (Goal lines, end zones, and things like that are explained in the football field chapter.) Once the receiver is tackled, the team in possession of the ball brings out its offense and the opponent brings out its defense.

The offense tries to get to the defense's end zone on each of its drives. On the first play, the situation is described as "first and ten," which means that it is first down and the offense must gain at least ten yards on the play to get another first down. The yard line that the ball lies on before the center snaps it is called the line of scrimmage, which is adjusted whenever the offense gains or loses yards. The yard line that the offense must cross to gain a first down is designated using a first down marker, which is adjusted whenever a new first down is gained. The number of yards gained or lost on a play is determined by three things:


 * 1.Running yardage
 * 2.Passing yardage
 * 3.Applicable penalties

If the offense is stopped behind the first down marker, the down normally increases by one until fourth down, where the offense may go for a first down, punt, or attempt a field goal. If the offense reaches the defense's end zone, it can kick the ball for an extra point or attempt a two point conversion. After the offense scores, it kicks the ball to the defense, who gains possession of the ball, and the cycle begins again. After each quarter, the teams exchange end zones and the field positions and ball location are adjusted accordingly. At the beginning of the second half, the team who kicked at the beginning of the game receives the ball.

If the fourth quarter ends in a tie, the game goes into overtime, and the way overtime works varies from game to game. In professional football, the first team to break the tie wins the game, while American college football gives the non-scoring team one drive to win or tie the game again. As such, college overtime tends to be longer than NFL overtime.

Note: Although the most popular part of football is still the game itself, cheerleaders have become an important part of the football experience, even at the college level. Some cheerleaders also take part in non-sports-related activities, like calendar shoots.