The NFL and college football are back. Looking to impress a friend with football knowledge? Going to attend a game and want to be familiar with football rules? Hoping to try out for your school team? You’ve come to the right place.
The rules of football are complex and numerous—in this guide, I break them down so that even a total football newbie could understand. I’ll try to answer every burning question you have. If you’re just looking to refresh your knowledge or to find one rule, skip ahead to some later sections.
Are You Looking for a Specific Football Rule?
The Basics: How Many Players Are on the Field? What Do They Do?
I’m going to start by explaining the very basics of football rules. Each football team puts 11 players on the field at a time. This is true throughout the game, whether the team is playing offense, defense, punting, or kicking (I’ll explain all of these terms below). The team that has possession of the football (meaning they are literally holding the football) is called the offense, and the offense tries to get the football down the field by either running while holding the football or by throwing the football to another player.
When one team is on offense (has possession of the ball), the other team of 11 people is on defense. While the offense tries to advance the football, the defense is trying to force the offense to give up possession of the ball by stopping them from advancing down field.
If the offense gets to the end of the field (scores) or is forced to give up possession, then the offense and defense switch roles, meaning the offensive team goes on defense and the defensive team goes on offense. The teams switch back and forth until the end of the game.
Football Field Size
In order to better understand all of the rules of football, you need to have a basic knowledge of what the field looks like. Below, we have an overhead view of a football field.
The field is in the shape of a rectangle with white lines outlining the borders. The entire field (contained within the white border lines) is 120 yards long and 53 ½ yards wide.
At either end of the field (on the left and right) you see slightly darker green rectangles outlined by white lines. These are what’re called the end zones; each end zone is 10 yards long and 53 ½ yards wide. During the game, each team guards one end zone. The offense moves down the field toward the end zone that the defense is guarding. When the offensive team enters the end zone, they score, and the crowd stands up and cheers!
The field between each end zone is 100 yards long and 53 ½ yards wide. You can see in the diagram that there are little white marking all along the field—these are called yard markers. Each yard marker denotes 1 yard. You’ll notice that as you move out of the end zone after 4 yard markers in place of the 5th marker is a solid white line running the width of the field. These white lines denote every 5 yards. Every other white line has a number (10, 20, 30, 40 or 50)—this tells you how far away the football is from the nearest end zone.
Why so many markings? The markings are there to help you, the players, and the officials (aka referees) keep track of where the ball is on the field.
Football Rules for Timing
A football game is divided into four 15-minute quarters. There are two-minute breaks at the end of the first and third quarters, and there is a 12-minute break at the end of the 2nd quarter (this break is called halftime). People also sometimes call the first two quarters the first half and the second two quarters (played after halftime) the second half.
At the end of each quarter, the teams switch sides of the field, meaning they switch which end zone they’re guarding. If the team was guarding the left end zone and trying to score on the right end zone during the first quarter, then in the second quarter, they would guard the right end zone and try to score on the left end zone.
At the end of the first and third quarter, the offense keeps possession of the ball and simply continues from whatever spot they left off but on the other side of the field. For example, if the offense reached the 20 yard line by the right end zone at the end of the first quarter, then in the beginning of the second quarter, they’d start from the 20 yard line by the left end zone.
However, between the first and second halves (between the second and third quarters), there’s a kickoff instead. I’ll explain more about how the kickoff works below.
The clock starts counting down at the begin of each quarter from 15:00 to 0:00. In the NFL, the clock stops (aka is paused) when a player holding the ball goes out of bounds, when the ball is thrown but not caught by anyone (which is called an incomplete pass), when a penalty is called by a referee, or when a team calls timeout. In college football, the clock stops for all the same reasons, but it’s also stopped when a team gets a first down (I’ll explain downs in the First Down section below).
The clock then restarts when the referee puts the ball down on the field. This is called re-spotting—it’s the referee’s way of saying the ball reached this point on the last play, so the next play will start from this point. After a timeout, the clock restarts when the ball is snapped (meaning the ball is passed for the first time). I’ll explain the snap more in-depth in the Plays section.
Each team is allocated three timeouts per half (three to be used during the first and second quarters and three to be used during the third and fourth quarters). The timeouts do not rollover from one half to the other. For example, if you only used one timeout in the first half, you wouldn’t have five during the second half, you’d still only have three.
Timeouts vary in length: in the NFL, they’ll range from 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length; in college football, they’ll range from 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes in length. The timeout length is at the discretion of the referee and is usually decided based on TV commercial breaks. Longer breaks are taken when they’ll take a commercial break; shorter breaks are taken when they won’t air a commercial.
If the score is tied at the end of the game (called the end of regulation play), then there will be overtime play. In the NFL and college, a 15-minute overtime period is played. In pro football, it’s sudden death, so the first team to score in overtime wins and the game is over.
If the game remains tied, they keep playing 15-minute overtime periods until a winner emerges. You’ll see games that go into double, triple, even quadruple overtime.
Football Rules for Scoring
In football, whichever team has the most points at the end of the game wins, and there are four different ways to score: touchdown, extra point, field goal, and safety.
Touchdown
If the offense gets the ball into the defense’s end zone, either by carrying the ball in or by catching a pass in the end zone, then the offense scores a touchdown. If the offense scores a touchdown, then they are awarded six points.
Extra Point
After a team scores a touchdown, they have a chance to get extra points. The football is placed two yards from the end zone, and the offense is given two options. They can either try to kick the ball through the goal posts to get an extra one point, or they can try to get the ball in the end zone again by running it in or by catching a pass to get an extra two points.
See an extra point kick here:
Field Goal
If a team is close to the end zone on fourth down, but fears they won’t be able to score a touchdown, they can opt to try to kick a field goal. During a field goal attempt, a player known as the kicker tries to kick the ball between the goal posts. If he succeeds, the team gets three points. If he misses, the team gets no points, and the other team gets possession of the ball. I’ll explain more about the kicker in the Positions section below.
Here’s an example of a field goal kick:
Safety
A safety is the least common way to get points in football. While it almost never happen, you should know about it. If the defense tackles (physically brings down) the offensive player with the ball in the end zone which the offense is supposed to be guarding, then the defense gets two points.
Here’s an example of a safety:
Football Timing Rules
The entire game is divided into four 15-minute quarters.There are two-minute breaks at the end of the first and third quarters, and there is a 12-minute break at the end of the 2nd quarter (this break is called halftime). People also sometimes call the first two quarters the first half and the second two quarters (played after halftime) the second half. Football uses so much math!
At the end of each quarter, the teams switch sides of the field, meaning they switch which end zone they’re guarding. If the team was guarding the left end zone and trying to score on the right end zone during the first quarter, then in the second quarter, they would guard the right end zone and try to score on the left end zone.
At the end of the first and third quarter, the offense keeps possession of the ball and simply continues from whatever spot they left off but on the other side of the field. For example, if the offense reached the 20 yard line by the right end zone at the end of the first quarter, then in the beginning of the second quarter, they’d start from the 20 yard line by the left end zone.
However, between the first and second halves (between the second and third quarters), this isn’t the case. Instead, there’s a kickoff, which I’ll explain below in the kickoff section.
The clock starts counting down at the begin of each quarter from 15:00 to 0:00. In the NFL, the clock stops (aka is paused) when a player holding the ball goes out of bounds, when the ball is thrown but not caught by anyone (which is called an incomplete pass), when a penalty is called by a referee, or when a team calls timeout. In college football, the clock stops for all the same reasons, but it’s also stopped when a team gets a first down (I’ll explain downs in the First Down section below).
The clock then restarts when the referee puts the ball down on the field. This is called re-spotting—it’s the referee’s way of saying the ball reached this point on the last play, so the next play will start from this point. After a timeout, the clock restarts when the ball is snapped (meaning the ball is passed for the first time). I’ll explain the snap more in-depth in the Plays section.
Each team is allocated three timeouts per half (three to be used during the first and second quarters and three to be used during the third and fourth quarters). The timeouts do not rollover from one half to the other. For example, if you only used one timeout in the first half, you wouldn’t have five during the second half, you’d still only have three.
Timeouts vary in length: in the NFL, they’ll range from 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length; in college football, they’ll range from 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes in length. The timeout length is at the discretion of the referee and is usually decided based on TV commercial breaks. Longer breaks are taken when they’ll take a commercial break; shorter breaks are taken when they won’t air a commercial.
If the score is tied at the end of the game (called the end of regulation play), then there will be overtime play. In the NFL and college, a 15-minute overtime period is played. In pro football, it’s sudden death, so the first team to score in overtime wins and the game is over. If the game remains tied, they keep playing 15-minute overtime periods until a winner emerges. You’ll see games that go into double, triple, even quadruple overtime.
Beginning of the Game Football Rules
Prior to the start of the game, a couple players from each team meet the referee in the middle of the field for the coin toss.
Coin Toss Rules
The visiting team calls heads or tails, and the referee then flips the coin. If the visiting team wins the coin toss (if they chose correctly), they get to choose whether they want to kick the ball to the other team at the start of the game (called the Kickoff which I’ll explain in the next section) or if they want to receive the ball from the other team at the start of the game. If the visiting team loses the toss, the home team then gets to decide.
Whichever teams receives at the start of the game will kickoff to the other team after half time. Teams typically want to receive the ball at the start of the game, since it means they get to start the game with possession of the ball. This can be advantageous because it means you get to set the pace of the game, and you get the first opportunity to try to score.
The team that is kicking off at the start of the game gets to choose which end zone they want to defend. This can be a strategic decision if the sun is out or if it’s especially windy. If you’re charging in the direction of the sun, it can be harder to see where to throw the ball. If it’s windy, it can make it harder to throw the ball where you want it to go.
Check out a coin toss here:
Kickoff Rules
After the coin toss, the game starts with a kickoff. The team that chose to receive waits on one end of the field while the kicking team prepares to kick the ball on the other end of the field.
Each half (at the beginning of the first and third quarters) begins with a kickoff, and there is a kickoff every time a team scores. Each kickoff is generally set up in the same way. The football is placed on a stand at 30 yards away from the end zone that the defense is protecting.
In a traditional kickoff, the kicker simply tries to kick the ball as far downfield as possible without kicking the ball out of bounds or without kicking the ball into the end zone. If the kick lands out of bounds, then the ball is placed at the offense’s 20-yard line to start their drive downfield from there. If the kick lands in the end zone, the receiving team player can choose to either run the ball out of the end zone as far down field as they can or he can choose to take a knee (literally kneel on one knee in the end zone) in which case the ball will be placed at the offense’s 20-yard line to start their drive downfield from there. If the kick lands in bounds and is caught by the receiving team, sometimes they will try to run it down the field.
See an example of a kickoff where the receiving team runs the ball down field here:
Other times, the player who catches the ball may wave his hands immediately before catching the ball to signal a fair catch. This signals that he is choosing to simply catch the ball and have his team stop there and move no further down field.
In special situations, a kicking team may try an onside kick. Teams typically only try this if they’re desperate to score. Maybe there isn’t a lot of time on the clock and they need to score or they’ll lose the game. In this case, rather than kicking the ball high in the air, the kicker tries to kick the ball low to the ground. The hope is that the ball will hit one of the receiving players but they won’t be able to catch the ball and then one of the kicking team players can scoop the ball up, so that they get possession of the ball again.
Check out an example of an onside kick here:
Football Play Rules: How to Move the Ball Forward
All right, now that you know the basics, let me fully explain how football is played. As the offense tries to move the ball down the field, their progress is measured by referees in terms of yards (which is why the field has yard markers).
First Down Rules
The offensive team gets four downs (or chances) to advance the ball 10 yards. Each attempt, the ball restarts wherever the last attempt ended. For example, if the ball moved forward 5 yards, then the team only has 5 yards to go. If the defense was able to stop the offense and push them backward so they lost 5 yards, then the team now has 15 yards to go.
If the offense gets the ball 10 yards or beyond, then they get a first down, or another four chances to try to advance the ball. If the offense doesn’t get 10 yards in the four downs, then they have to give up possession of the ball, and the other team picks up possession in the same spot. For example, if the offense was stopped 20 yards from the other team’s end zone then the other team would pick up the ball on offense in that spot.
If a team is far from getting 10 yards after their third down and is close to the end zone they’re protecting, then the team often opts to punt (or kick) the ball on the fourth down to give up possession of the ball. They do this because if they simply gave up the ball exactly where they are on the field (let’s say 20 yards away from the end zone they’re guarding), then the other team would be super close to scoring a touch down (only 20 yards away). However, if your punter (the player in charge of punting) punts the ball 30 yards, then the other team starts with the ball at the 50 yard line which is much farther from the end zone, making it harder for them to score.
How to Move the Ball Forward
Each down begins with a snap. During the snap, an offensive player takes the football from the spot the referee placed it at and snaps or tosses the ball between his legs to another offensive player known as the quarterback. The quarterback then has three options: he can throw the ball, hand the ball off, or he can run the ball himself. I’ll explain more about the role of the quarterback in the positions section below.
Run
On a run play, the quarterback hands the ball to another offensive player who then tries to run past the defensive players down the field with the ball. The quarterback also has the option to run with the ball himself, but this is usually only done when he feels he has no other options.
Pass
The quarterback can try to throw the ball to one of the other offensive players. This usually results in more yards gained than with a running play. However, these plays can be more dangerous because if a defensive player catches the ball (known as an interception) then they take possession of the ball and get to be on offense.
Tackle
The defense stops the offense from advancing the ball down the field by tackling the offensive player who has the ball. Tackling means physically bringing down the offensive player to the ground. Once the offensive player’s knee or elbow touches the ground they’re “down,” which means the ball stops at that point. The next down then restarts from that point.
The defense can also stop the offense by forcing the offensive player who is carrying the ball to go out of bounds. If the offensive ball carrier goes out of bounds, then the ball stops at that point, and the next down restarts from that point.
Fumble
When the offensive player carrying the ball drops it, it is known as a fumble. In that scenario, any player from either team can pick up the ball and run with it. If the defense gets the ball, then they become the offense. If the offense gets the ball, then they can continue to play offense and try to advance it down field.
Football Positions
In order to understand football positions, you should think of each football team as three separate mini-teams: the offense, the defense, and special teams. Each of these mini-teams consists of 11 players (since each team can have no more than 11 players on the field at any point in time).
Offense
The offensive players play when their team has possession of the ball (when they’re moving the ball down field trying to score). There are two types of offensive positions: offensive linemen or backs and receivers. In the below diagram, you can see how the typical offensive line is set up. C represents the center, each G represents a Guard, and each T represents a tackle.
Offensive Line
The offensive linemen stand in a line just like the name implies. The offensive line is typically composed of one center, two offensive guards, and two offensive tackles. These players will be some of the biggest guys on the team because their main job is to physically stop other players from getting around them.
Center
The center stands in the center of the offensive line—I know, football is very literal. The center is responsible for snapping the ball to the quarterback (another offensive position, which I’ll explain below). What this means is the center starts with the ball at the beginning of each play and he throws it between his legs behind him to the quarterback. After the center snaps the ball, the play begins, and he is then responsible for blocking the incoming defensive players from getting to the quarterback and/or the football.
Offensive Guard
The two offensive guards stand on either side of the center. Their job is just to block the incoming defensive players.
Offensive Tackles
The two tackles play on either end of the offensive line (next to the guards). The tackle’s job is also to block incoming defensive players. However, they’re also responsible for making sure the quarterback doesn’t get tackled from behind. Defensive players will rush the quarterback, and the tackles are responsible for chasing them down and stopping them. For this reason, offensive tackles need to be a bit more spry than the rest of the offensive linemen.
Backs and Receivers
While the offensive line tries to stop the defense from getting to the football, the backs and receivers try to move the ball down the field. The backs and receivers usually include one quarterback, two wide receivers, two running backs, and one tight end.
In the below diagram, you can see how theses backs and receivers set up at the start of a play alongside the offensive line. QB represents the quarterback, each RB represents a running back, each WR represents a Wide Receiver, and the TE represents a tight end.
Quarterback
Arguably the most well known football position, there is one quarterback on the field during offensive plays. Put simply, the quarterback is the person who throws the ball. However, the quarterback is much more than that. Think of the quarterback as the team captain—he calls out for the specific play he wants the team to run. However, if the play isn’t going as planned, he has to think on the fly about what to do.
Running Back
Running backs line up behind the offensive line so that they are in position to potentially be handed the ball by the quarterback to execute a rushing play. In a rushing play, one of the running backs will be handed the ball by the quarterback and will then try to run the ball as far down field as they can.
Running backs are also involved in passing plays, in which case they run down field and try to catch a ball thrown by the quarterback. However, their expertise is the running plays. (Running is in their name, after all.)
Wide Receiver
Wide receivers typically line up “wide” on the outside of the offensive line. Their main job is to catch from the quarterback; they are the catching experts. After the ball is snapped to the quarterback, they run down the field and try to get away from the defense so that they’re open to catch a pass.
Tight End
The tight end typically sets up right next to the tackle. He works as a hybrid player, somewhere between a lineman and receiver: he frequently blocks but is also eligible to catch a ball from the quarterback.
Defense
The defensive players play when the other team has possession of the ball. The defense has to stop the other team from advancing the ball downfield by tackling (physically stopping) the offensive player who has the ball. The defense is made up of three parts: the defensive line, linebackers, and defensive backs.
Defensive Line
The defensive line lines up directly facing the offensive line. The defensive line is made up defensive tackles and defensive ends. The diagram below shows how they line up (T represents defensive tackles and E represents defensive ends).
Defensive Tackle: The defensive tackles try to get past the offensive lineman to try to tackle the quarterback or whichever offensive player has the ball.
Defensive End: Defensive ends also try to get past the offensive lineman to tackle whoever has the ball, but they also specifically try to ensure that no running back is able to run past them with the ball. They are responsible for tackling incoming running backs.
Linebacker
If you’re familiar with basketball, linebackers are essentially the zone defense of a football team. The middle and outside linebackers hang out behind the defensive line and basically just try to stop the ball from getting by them.
Middle Linebacker
The middle linebacker stands just behind the defensive line (in the “middle” of the field because football is super literal), and he has to be aware of what’s going on at all times. He has to tackle running backs to stop them from getting by him, and he has to try to cover receivers who are trying to catch a pass.
Outside Linebacker
Outside linebackers stand behind the middle linebacker on either side (on the “outside”). On passing plays, outside linebackers are responsible for covering the running backs. On rushing plays, they have to back up the defensive line and middle linebacker to make sure the running back doesn’t get by them.
Defensive Backs
Defensive backs are essentially responsible for making sure that the offensive backs and receivers do not catch any passes from the quarterback. There are two types of defensive backs: cornerbacks and safeties.
Cornerback: If you’re familiar with basketball, cornerbacks play man-to-man defense. The cornerbacks typically match up with a wide receiver and cover them to try to stop them from catching passes.
Safety: The safeties stand farthest away from the offense. They’re the last line of defense literally. They provide extra coverage of the wide receivers and make sure that no passes are caught far down the field.
They stand behind the linebackers, so the entire field formation looks like this:
Special Teams
Special teams players only play in three scenario: kickoffs, punts, and field goals. Just as with offense and defense, there will be 11 players on the field for each team in these scenarios. The most important players to know are the Kicker, Punter, and Kick/Punt Returner.
Kicker
The kicker only plays during kickoffs and during field goals. The kicker is the person who kicks the ball during a kickoff (I know so literal!). Field goals (which I’ll further explain below) are instances in which the offense tries to kick the ball
Check out a field goal kick here:
Punter
Sometimes, the offense decides to give up possession of the ball, and when they do so, they punt the ball. The punter is the player who has to punt the ball (kick the ball downfield) to the other team to give up possession.
Kick/Punt Returner
When the offense kicks off or punts, the receiving team has a player (or sometimes two) waiting at the end of the field to catch the ball and run it downfield. They’re similar to wide receivers (in fact wide receivers sometimes play both positions); they just catch a kicked ball instead of a thrown one.
Overview: American Football Rules
- There are 11 players from each team on the field.
- The offense tries to get the ball down the field by running or throwing the ball, while the defense tries to stop them by tackling the player who has the ball.
- The offense gets four chances (known as downs) to try to advance the ball 10 yards, and if they can’t the defense then gets the ball and becomes the offense.
- If the offense does advance the 10 yards, then they get another four downs.
- If a team gets the ball into the opposing team’s end zone, then they score a touchdown and get six points.
- After a touchdown, the offense gets a chance to score an extra point.
- A team can also get points by kicking a field goal or by getting a safety.