Rules to the game of football

When the 1st half is done at the end of the 2nd quarter , play is stopped and the teams go to a 20 minute halftime. It does not matter what yard line either team is on, the 2nd half will start with a kickoff just like the beginning of the game to the team who did not receive in the 1st half. Clock Management: Run plays do not stop the clock unless the player go out of bounds At the end of the game and their team wants to score again, RBs will make a point to try to get out of bounds so they can conserve the clock.

Pass plays stop the clock if it is an incomplete pass If the receiver catches the ball and starts running then gets tackled, the clock will continue to run.

After a play, the offense has 40 seconds to snap the ball on the next play. No, TOs do not rollover into the 2nd half. TOs stop the clock. GFHint : In the 2nd half, coaches will save their TOs to use at the end of the 4th quarter and sometimes the 2nd quarter to stop the clock. Other facts: After each quarter, the teams will switch sides of the field. This means at the end of 1st quarter and 3rd quarter not the end of a half , the offense will continue their drive.

For example: If the offense was on the 30 yrd line and it was 2nd down when the clock ran out for 1st quarter, then the offense will switches ends of the field but will still start on the 30 yrd line and it will still be 2nd down.

A pass is ruled complete if the receiver keeps 1 foot in bounds 2 in NFL. A full football game will be 1 hour of playing time but usually takes about 3. We will get into Overtime rules later as they get complicated. Look for a future post! The football field is feet wide. The spot where the end zone meets the playing field is referred to as the goal line.

The goal line is the end zone, which is the same as saying the 0-yard mark. From there, numbers mark yard intervals going up to the yard line, which marks the center of the field. After reaching the yard line, yardage markers descend every ten yards 40, 30, 20, 10 until they reach the opposite goal line.

Football features two teams playing against each other. Each team is allowed to have eleven men on the field at any given time. More than 11 players on the field results in a penalty. Unlimited substitution is permitted, but players can only enter the field when the ball is dead and play is stopped. Each team has offense players, defense players, and specialized players, called "special teams.

Meanwhile, the other team, considered to be on defense, will use their defense players to attempt to stop the other team from advancing the ball. If a kicking play is expected, the teams will use their special teams units. The game begins when one of the teams kicks off the football to the other. The captains from each team and the referee meet at the center of the field for a coin toss to determine which side is the kicking team. The winner of the coin toss has the option of starting the game by kicking the ball to the other team or receiving the kickoff from the other team, essentially deciding if they want to be offense first or defense.

The receiving team must catch the ball and try to advance the ball toward the opposite end of the field to the other team's end zone. The play, or down, ends when the ball goes down to the ground or the ball goes out of bounds. The place where the ball goes down becomes the line of scrimmage, and it is where the ball is placed for the start of the next play.

The committee also favored defenses by placing limitations on the chop block — part of its ongoing mission to protect players from injury as much as possible while keeping the game fair, competitive and exciting.

In a chop block, an offensive lineman blocks a defensive lineman high while another offensive player comes in and blocks him low. Offenses used the technique effectively, especially for running plays, but it resulted in knee injuries for defensive linemen. From to , the league placed increasingly stricter restrictions on when and who could use the chop block. Whether for fairness, safety or entertainment, the NFL remains open to change.

In the NFL wanted to make field goals easier to reduce the number of tie games, so it moved goal posts from the back of the end zone to the goal line. It worked: The number of field goals doubled, and ties, which occurred in roughly 20 percent of all games played in , dropped to less than 5 percent of games in Nearly 40 years later, circumstances had changed: Kickers were now more specialized and field goals had become too easy.

By , the three-pointers accounted for nearly a quarter of all scoring. In , the NFL responded by returning the goal posts to the back of the end zone. Kickers, however, have become so proficient that the long-term impact has been minimal. Field goals regularly account for more than 20 percent of all scoring in a season. Is there anything the NFL could or should do?

Would the game be better off, or worse? As with every other rules change in its history, the NFL must carefully weigh all of those factors and more before making a change. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy NFL. Evolution of the Kickoff Start Sorry, your browser's a dinosaur. And dinosaurs can't watch HTML5 video. In , after statistics showed the rate dropping precipitously, the league moved the kick to the yard line.

That boosted the return rate to 88 percent in the season from 68 percent the previous year. In the s, kickoff-play injuries became a concern. In , the league moved the kicking line back to the yard line to reduce the return rate; it also limited running starts by the kicking team.

For Every Change, A Reason The impetus for a rules change can come from almost anywhere — controversies over plays or players, unusual circumstances and trends in scoring, injuries and penalties. The Game Changers Like with the game, certain games in NFL history stand out for their impact on the rules of the game. See the Game Changers. The Holy Roller Oakland won a game against San Diego as time expired when quarterback Ken Stabler fumbled the ball forward and two other Raiders intentionally threw or batted it forward until one of them could fall on it in the end zone for a touchdown.

Laws of the game. Law 1 - The field of play The field of play must be a wholly natural or, if competition rules Law 2 - The ball Qualities and Measurements - All balls must be: spherical made of Law 4 - The players' equipment Safety - A player must not use equipment or wear anything that Law 5 - The referee The authority of the referee - each match is controlled by a Law 6 - The other match officials Introduction - Other match officials two assistant referees,