American Football

American football is a popular game played by two teams of 11 players. The objective of the game is to score by taking the ball into the opponent’s end zone. In order to do so, the ball can be held while running to the end zone, or by throwing it to a teammate who is nearer the zone. There are also other ways to score points in the game: players can tackle the opposing ball carrier, catch a pass tossed over the goal line, or by carrying the ball over the opposing goal line.

American football is played on a 360 x 180 foot field, and is made up of several boundaries:

• The sideline is 6 feet wide, and acts as a boundary running  the length of each side in the football field
• The end line is 6 feet wide, and is a boundary for the two parallel sidelines. Both the sideline and the end line create the rectangular parameters of the football field. Each end of the end lines is flanked by a pylon.
• The end zones are made up of two 10 yard wide areas by the end of the field within the end line. Behind each end zone is a team that belongs to that zone, while the team opposite it is the opponent.
• The goal line is a line that runs 8 inches wide on the front of the end zone, also flanked by two pylons.
• Hash marks run for 100 yards between goal lines, to mark each yard on either side of the field.
• Every 5^th yard is marked by a solid white line, running from sideline to sideline. For every 10 yards is a number, for example, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
• Goal posts are located behind every end zone, marked by a 10 foot pole standing 10 feet high and are connected to a horizontal cross bar.

The game usually takes about 3 to 4 hours, although teams have the power to stop the clock by throwing an incomplete pass, running out of bounds, as well as calling a time-out.