K so there is an american football match on in ireland tomorrow, my brother is going but I have a feeling it will be on the box tomorrow. So explain, how does it work and who I should be shouting for and why?
It's more or less similar the Rugby that you guys play up there in the UK, except the offense (the quarterback) is allowed to throw the ball to his teammates - and the guys wear helmets. If you want a full breakdown of the rules, you can find that online.
The Offense (The ones with the ball) get 4 chances (called downs) to advance the ball at least 10 yards which gives them another 4 set of downs. The Quarterback can throw the ball to any eligible receiver Or hand it off to the Halfback and try to run it past the defense. A touchdown is worth 6 points and the scoring team is allowed to score the extra point by kicking through the goal posts. Also the offense can elect to kick a field goal for 3 points if they are too far away to attempt a "first down" play. Thats the basic gist of it...For advanced rules such as penalties you're better off checking online. Penalties can kill a drive quickly, especially personal foul penalties which are a 15 yard penalty and an automatic first down regardless of field position.
You'll notice that American quarterbacks can THROW THE BALL a LONG WAYS....and the receivers are fleet-footed acrobats...
You have to appreciate the synchronized battle that ensues each play. More than any other sport American football requires 11 people to function as a cohesive unit. I would encourage people new to American football to focus on this aspect in their introduction to the sport. The rules itself, are actually kind of complicated in their details, but Montoya gave a good overview.
Everybody's got ideas. That is until Harrison plants a Payton tree on the Bronco 14. Then those lovely ideas turn to the butt kicking reality that the guys in Black and Gold have nothing better to do that day than ...well, kick your butt.. People get hurt, people retire, people get cut. Men step up and play Steeler football.
I have enjoyed watching the game for many years but can I ask what is an "eligible receiver"? Is it one of designated players such as a WR? I thought the QB could throw to anyone waving like a maniac...but if there are only a number of eligible receivers I can see how that makes the game much more difficult - and interesting. As a general, appreciative comment in terms of thinking football, it has the other codes beaten hands down and I've played Australian Rules, Rugby Union, soccer and even Gaelic football.
Yup. From that point of view, it's a bit like a cross between Rugby League and Chess! That's going a little far - many team games need their teams to work as a cohesive unit, it's just that in Amercian Football its almost exclusively what other team sports would call 'set piece moves' - specific pre-planned moves that are planned and practised on the training field. There's almost no 'normal' flowing play between 'set pieces' - it's 'set piece' move, stop, 'set piece' move, stop, etc., very much based around decisions made by the coaches rather than the players with the ball on the field watching the game unfold, looking for opportunities and 'playing what's in front of them'. The players on the team on the ball only really have to 'improvise' significantly and come up with something themselves during play if something goes wrong. Very different in that sense from other team games that rely on the players doing everything, with the coaches during the game generally giving them ideas, suggestions and observations from the sidelines (when they can - other sports don't usually give players mic feeds from the coaches, of course) about possible and useful things to do, rather than many firm planned strategies to execute as practised (there are some firm 'planned strategies' in most team games, of course, but they are nowhere near as big a feature of the games, because the games don't stop and start all the time to allow for that). Nothing wrong with either way of doing it, of course, but it they are completely different things to play and watch. Personally I find American Football very frustrating (and consequently quite boring) to watch because there is just so much stopping and starting (and changing players, and coaches 'calling plays' rather than just letting the players get on with playing the game), but that's just me - each to their own. I can watch about one game a year of it, and that's my limit!
He would have liked it better if it was more free flowing but he is a rugby player so I think that is to be expected. I didn't see it it was not aired on RTE.
There are 11 offensive players. 5 of those players (the linemen) are NOT eligible receivers. The other 6 players (QB, RBs, TEs, and WRs) ARE eligible receivers. 7 total players (the 5 linemen and 2 eligible receivers) must be lined up on the line of scrimmage - LOS (an invisible line spanning the width of the field at the location the ball is when the play starts) at the start of the play. The ineligibles must remain at or behind the LOS once the play has begun if it is a passing play. Once the ball is thrown forward of the LOS they may move downfield and block. They may move downfield immediately on a running play. If any of those players is downfield prior to the ball being thrown, or if they touch a thrown ball before it hits the ground, there is a 5 yard penalty assessed against the offense and the down is replayed. Does that help at all?
It simpler than that. There has to be at least 7 men on the line of scrimmage at the snap of the ball. At the snap of the ball two end men on the line of scrimmage and anyone in the backfield at the snap of the ball are eligible. Take the basic I formation pro set. X...........T...G..C..G...T...Y................ .....................Q..........................Z .....................F............................. .....................H............................. The eligible receivers. X - the split end. The name of the position denotes that he is the end but split out from the rest of the line. He is eligible because he is the end man on the line of scrimmage. Y - the tight end. The name of the position denotes that he is the end tight to the rest of the line. He is eligible because he is the end man on the line of scrimmage. Z - the flanker. The name denotes that he is flanking the line but is not and end. He is split from the line but off the line of scrimmage. He is eligible because he is in the backfield at the snap. F- the fullback. He is the blocking back. He is eligible because he begins the play in the backfield. He is eligible because he is in the backfield at the snap. H - The halfback. He is the primary ball carrier. He is eligible because he is in the backfield at the snap. Q - The quarterback. He is eligible because he is in the backfield at the snap. There are trick plays that do use the quarterback as a receiver. There are also numbering restrictions. An eligible receiver must be wearing an eligible number to be eligible. Eligible numbers are 1-49 and 80-99. If a player who begins the play lined up in a position that is eligible by formation doesn't have an eligible number he is ineligible and cannot go down field on the pass or be the first to touch a forward pass. In the NFL a player wearing an ineligible number can report to the officials and declare his number eligible. Under collage and high school rules an player cannot declare their number eligible. A common tackle eligible play. .........T...G...C...G...T...Y............X Z.................Q........................... ...................F........................... ...................H.......................... The tackle is eligible by formation. As he is the end man on the line of scrimmage. The tight end is ineligible because he is not the end man on the line of scrimmage to his side. The X is. The Y is "covered" by the X. If the left tackle is wearing an eligible number of it is the NFL and he has declared himself an eligible receiver a well coached defense will be screaming "Tackles eligible Tackles eligible Tackles eligible" and "tight end is ineligible" and account for him in their coverage accordingly. Now if he is not wearing an eligible number the defense will scream "tackles ineligible" and adjust their defense accordingly.
There is a lot more decision making being done on the field than you think especially with the modern game. Take a basic 4 verticals. In a modern 4 verticals play there is only 1 set pass route. The locked seem run by one of the inside receivers. The two outside receivers are running choice routes where they can go vertical or curl based on how they see the play developing. The other inside receiver is running a 3 way choice rout where he can go vertical if he thinks he can get over the top of a 1 high safety, run a post to split 2 high safeties, or he can run a dig to get underneath a 1 high safety or dropping middle backer. So just based on the receivers are doing the play has a total of 12 different ways that the play can develop. If we include the back who has 4 possibilities, blocking or releasing to either flat or middle zone. That is 48 possible ways the play can develop all based on decisions by the players.
The Seattle Seahawks are the greatest team in the NFL, and the St. Louis Rams are to the NFL what the iceberg was to the Titanic. Also, Navy sucks. Air Force is the best academy team in NCAA football. In all seriousness, I hope you got what you were looking for. Really good answers in this thread. Hope you enjoyed the game. Edit: nevermind, saw you didn't get to watch it.
On a side note, I wonder how many people in Ireland wondered why a school called Notre Dame was nicknamed the Fighting Irish. I guess you couldn't have Fighting French...
I'm not suggesting that there is no decision making on the field during plays, of course, just that the whole game is much, much more heavily and directly inflenced by the coach calling the plays. In the example you gave, that's 48 possibilities within that play, but that play only lasts a few seconds and then the game stops, starting up again with a new play. In a game like rugby union, play goes on for several minutes at a time, with each (of the 15) players making decisions on where to put themselves and what to do with the ball when it gets to them (and all of them can potentially decide to run into contact, run into space, pass or kick, depending on what they see in front of them and the general tactics they are playing to as a team). Even when play stops for a set piece, it only stops for seconds (usually, unless there's a serious injury), and it's the players on the field that decide what to do (perhaps based on something specific from the training ground, but perhaps not - all based on what they see in front of them) - they don't have a direct line from the coaches, and apart from the occasional general shout from the sidelines the coaches only get to speak to the players before the game and at half time. I'm not suggesting that the players in american football are merely unthinking chess pieces at all, of course, just that the coaches and their planned moves and strategies have infinately more influence, and more direct influence, over the game than they do in any other similar sport.
On the contrary, rugby union fans know how good the French can be at fighting....especially fighting among themselves when the game isn't going their way!
DVR FTW! I don't even watch basketball anymore without my DVR. Who the hell wants to watch free throws.
The place where ND. is located (the south bend of the St. Marys river) was settled by a lot of Irish people. They also say northern Indiana lookes a lot like the old country in summer...very green. But their most famous coach... Knute Rockne.... was from Norway....go figure.
DVR would help alot with American Football for me, but I still don't like the fact that the game itself doesn't 'flow' at all. I find the same with rugby league to an extent. If you have an hour and a half to spare (!), try watching a full game of Rugby Union - see if you need the DVR. If you're not familiar with the sport the rules may take time to grasp (although the basics aren't complicated), but you'll see what I mean about it 'flowing' in a way that American Football doesn't (and about the relative lack of control/input from the coaches): [video=youtube;petDm4xFt-g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=petDm4xFt-g[/video] It's all just a matter of personal taste, though, of course. I'm certainly not disrespecting American Football or its players (and certainly not its coaches either - they really have to be strategic masters), I just personally don't find it anything like such an enjoyable sport to watch.
The rule is that for every 1 minute of game time that passes 20 minutes will pass in the rest of the world.
