Jordan's+All+About+Football+12

=**ALL ABOUT FOOTBALL**= By Jordan Mohling

INTRO
American Football is a very complicated but fun sport. In this sport, your goal is to run with the ball or pass the ball to other players on offense to get down the 100 yard football field to the point called the inzone. If you reach it, you get 6 points. When you are on defense, your goal is to defend the inzone and not let the other team gain any forward mominum.

1ST DOWNS
To keep moving with the football, you **MUST** get 1st downs. You have to gain 10 yards at least to get a 1st down. You only have 4 plays to get it though. If you make 10 or more yards, you start another 1st down. If you dont you start the next down. 2nd, 3rd, then 4th. If you don't gain 10 yardsby 4th down, the other team gets to start were you left off with the ball.

THE FOOTBALL
You probobly want to know what the football looks like. Here it is. The laces on the football are were you put your fingers. If you are passing then you want to give the ball a rotation. There are different ways for holding the ball on offense running and offense passing. When you are running you want to defend the ball with your arms. When you are passing you need the right acuracy.

TURNOVERS
Turnovers are when a defensive player does something to earn their team the ball. There are 3 different kinds of turnovers. 1 is an interception. An interception is when the offense throws the ball and the defense catches it. Another is a fumble. A fumble is when the offense drops the football and the defense picks it up. The last one is a turnover on downs. A turnover on downs is when the offense dosn't make the 1st down in 4 plays.

PENALTIES
There are many different kinds of penalties. A penalty is when the offense or defense does something that could be called cheating and the team that does it gets a punishment like giving the other team 10 yards. If a penalty is made, a Ref throws a yellow flag to signal it. The different kinds of penalties are offsides, false start, delay of game, facemask, pass interfierence, roughing the passer, roughing the kicker, holding, horsecaller, illegul block in the back, and more. Go to the glossary to see what these mean.

THE CLOCK
In football there are 2 different kinds of clocks. The Play Clock is set for 40 seconds every play. If you don't start another play when it's gone, you get a delay of game penalty. The clock for the game of time remaining in the game is set for 15 minutes. After that 15 minutes is over they start it agian for 3 more times. The clock gets stopped if the ball is thrown and it hits the ground, a team calls a timeout, a new 15 minutes starts, a team scores, and if somebody with the ball runs out of bounds.

POSITIONS
There are many different football positions, some on offense, and some on defense. Each position does something different then the other. The offensive positions are quarterback, running back, receiver, wide receiver, lineman, cornerback, fullback, tailback, and kicker. The defensive positions are defensive lineman and safety. Go to the Glossary to figure out what these positions do.

KICKING
Sometimes on 4th down you do something called a punt. A punt is where you kick the ball if you are to far back to score, or you can't get the 1st down after 3rd down. There is also something called a field goal. There are goal posts on both ends of the field that you can try and kick the ball through to score 3 points. You can kick a field goal if you didn't get the first down in 3 downs too. Every time you score, or another half starts you have to do a kickoff. Nobody can block a kickoff because you set the ball on a tee and the other team can't move until you kick the ball. If you score a 6 point touchdown, you get to try for a easy 10 yard kick called a P.A.T. (point after touchdown) and if you make it you can get 1 extra point.

RECEIVING
Receiving is if you are the team that is going to catch the ball after it is kicked. Receiving also means something else. A receiver can also be somebody who tries to catch the ball when it is thrown. If the ball lands in the inzone you start on your 20 yard line and that is called a touchback. If the other team is to close that they could tackle you, you can put 1 hand into the air before you catch the ball to signal a fair catch. A fair catch is when you catch the ball and you start offense were you are standing, nobody can touch you, and the play is over. If you catch the ball you can just run but if you catch it in the inzone and you think it's to difficult to get it out of there, kneel it. It will bring you to the 20 yard line.

SAFETY'S
There are 2 different kinds of safety's but this one is different than the position. A safety is worth 2 points. It is if you are defense and you tackle the offense in the in-zone that they are trying to get away from. Then, behind the 2 points they still have to punt the ball giving you a chance at a 6 point touchdown.

UPSETS
An upset is when a team that was suspected to win without doubt, looses. There have been many upsets in football history.If you take this years modern day 2012-2013, Kansas State which is a really good team lost to boston College which isn't really a good team. Now you probably know why it's called an upset,because it upset the fans and the team!

RANKING
If your team is ranked, that means it's not too bad. The lower the number gets, the better the team is. So clearly #1 would be a really, really, really good team. The ranks go to 25. But it dose not all depend on how good they are. It depends on who they lost to, who they won to, and other complicated things.

UNIFORMS
The football uniforms clearly have to be strong because of all that tackling. They have tons of strong plastic pads for things like your shoulders and elbows. There is also a helmet to protect your head and over the pads you put your uniform. It has your team colors, your # on the back, and and your last name above that. Your team logo is usually on your helmet. The team uniforms are used to protect you, represent your team, and to identify who you are.

SIDELINES
On the sides of the football field there are lines called the sidelines. If you catch the ball outside of them, it dose not count. If you are running and you go outside of them you have to stop. If a player runs out of bounds, it's out of the sidelines. If the ball goes out of bounds, the clock stops. You have to make sure your whole body is in bounds. If one toe is out of bounds, you have to stop. If you are in bounds, you can keep going.

LINE OF SCRIMMAGE
When you are about to start a play on offense, the ball should be on the imaginary line of scrimmage If you are on defense or offense, you can't go past it until the play starts. If you do pass it before the play starts, you get a false start or off-sides penalty. The line of scrimmage is where the last play ended.

HALFTIME/QUARTERS
There are 4 quarters in a game. Each has 15 minutes. After the first 2 quarters it is called halftime. In halftime the teams plan and rearrange for the second half. Every quarter the teams switch sides. At the beginning of the game they do a coin toss. The team that wins to chooses receive or kick. In the second half they do the opposite.

TIMEOUTS
A team can call a timeout if they did something and they need to change it. They can also call a timeout if they just need to stop the clock. But you have to use them wisely because you only get 3 for every half.

FAKES
A team can pretend to do 1 play to fake everybody out and then turn it into a different play. Like you could line up like you are going to punt and then the kicker looks like he is going to kick the ball but he actually runs it. Fakes can be useful when you are trying to score and you are not that far from the in-zone. And if you REALLY need to score, use a fake.

FOOTBALL HISTORY
Back in the olden days they used leather helmets. It wasn't as safe as the hard plastic helmets we have now. There were also different football rules back then. Like if you wanted to toss the ball to somebody, you could bounce it of the ground to get it to them. There have been many outstanding plays recorded for us to remember too. It helps us remember the old ways of football.

CONCLUSION
Football is a very fun, cool, and unique sport. It could be a good thing to play while you are in a celebration. If you don't like to play football, why not watch it? It's exciting and fascinating watching others play football too. Maybe you someday could become a professional football player. Who knows?

=GLOSSARY=

Penalties
Off-sides: You go past the line of scrimmage before the play starts. (Defense) False Start: You go past the line of scrimmage before the play starts. (Offense) Delay Of Game: You don't start a new play by the time the play clock runs out. (Offense) Face-mask: You hold onto a players helmet. (Offense/Defense) Pass Interference: You touch or tackle someone before they have the chance to catch the ball. (Offense/Defense) Illegal Formation: You have too many players on the field. (Offense/Defense) Roughing The Passer: You hit the passer late after the ball is thrown. (Defense) Roughing The Kicker: You hit the kicker after he kicks the ball. (Defense) Horse-collar: You hold a player near the neck to stop them. (Offense/Defense) Late Hit: You hit a player after the play is over. (Offense/Defense) Illegal Block In The Back: You tackle somebody in a way that could injure a player very badly to block them from something. Helmet To Helmet: You smash through people with your helmet. (Offense/Defense)

Positions
Quarterback (QB): A player who leads the team down the field by passing, running, or handing the ball off. (Offense) Running Back: The player who runs with the ball that the quarterback tossed or handed of to him. (Offense) Receiver: A player that runs down the field to catch the ball that is passed. (Offense) Wide Receiver: A player who is usually way out by the sideline that runs a long way to catch a deep-thrown ball. (Offense) Center: The player who snaps the ball back to the quarterback when he yells "HIKE!" (Offense) Lineman: A player who defends the ball carrier by by blocking the defense. (Offense) Kicker: The player who punts or kicks the ball in any problem. (Offense) Fullback: The player who stays near the ball carrier and blocks. (Offense) Tailback: The tailback is a backup running back. (Offense) Corner-back: The player who defends the "Corner" or usually the receiver on his side from going out to get open. (Defense) Safety: A player who stays in the back and covers anyone from back there from getting the ball. (Defense) Defensive Lineman: A player who tries to overcome the offense by tacking the ball carrier. (Defense)

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