We All Need To Be Familiar With These Basic Football Rules

If your significant other is a football fan you may find yourself frustrated and annoyed when he ignores you while the game is on, or acts skeptical when you ask questions about the game. Many football fans have been watching football for so many years that they just don't understand when others are unfamiliar with the rules and the players.

If you are dealing with this problem, or you simply want to learn about something that is so important to someone you care about, here is a very brief summary of the basic rules of football. Being familiar with these basic football rules will help you to understand what is happening on the field, and your understanding will improve the more that you watch the game.

During a football game there are two teams of 11 men each on the field. At no time can any one team have more than 11 men on the field. Each game is divided into four quarters made up of 15 minutes of actual playing time. The time from the start of a game until the end may vary greatly depending on a number of factors: the number of timeouts taken, time for officials to review plays, injuries during the game, commercial breaks, and the halftime break.

Each team has their own units of men who only play Defense or Offense, or who are on "Special Teams" that only come onto the field in certain circumstances.
Assume that Team A wins the toss; Team A starts on Offense. The Offense wants to move the ball down the field into the end zone to score points. This is accomplished by passing or by running with the ball. The quarterback has the responsibility to either throw the ball to a receiver, hand off the ball to a running back, or run with the ball himself.

Every time the Offense moves the ball at least 10 yards towards their goal they achieve a "first down." The Offense has four chances maximum to accomplish each first down. If they can't do it, there is a "turnover" and the other side "gets the ball" and can now play Offense.

In our example above, Team B begins by playing Defense. The Defense tries to prevent the Offense from moving the ball down the field for a score by tackling the player with the ball or intercepting the ball thrown by the quarterback. If Team B's Defense can get the ball away from Team A's Offense Team B can now attempt to score points.

If an Official believes that a player has violated the rules, he will toss out a yellow penalty flag. This is what the announcer means when he says "there is a flag on the play." The rule violation is not necessarily an intentional act. It may be for a bad or illegal tackle – hitting another player in a way that the rules do not allow because of the likelihood of injury, for example, but it may be simply for stepping out of bounds during the play. The Officials may consult with each other and sometimes even watch an instant replay before they make a ruling on the penalty call. If the penalty is assessed the team that violated the rules may have to repeat the play, lose some of the

Though the basic rules are stated here, there are a great many more, very detailed rules governing play, and those rules that may be updated or modified every year. Additionally, there are differences in some of the rules for professional football and college football. You may notice that the officials, coaches, players, and commentators do not always agree about penalty flags, failure to call a penalty, and rulings on contested penalty flags, so it is not surprising that the fans may also disagree.