A ball, four downs, and the road to glory. Here’s our guide to understanding American professional football and its championship game, the Super Bowl.

THE BASICS OF AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

* The professional football league in the United States is called the National Football League (NFL).

* There are 32 teams in the NFL. 16 are part of the American Football Conference (AFC) and the other 16 are grouped into the National Football Conference (NFC).

* Every team plays 17 games.

* At the end of the regular season, 14 of the 32 teams move onto the playoffs. Six are from the AFC; the other six are from the NFC.

* The SUPER BOWL is the championship game, the final contest of the post-season, which pits the winner of the AFC against the winner of the NFC .

THE RULES OF AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

* Every American football game – including the SUPER BOWL — is divided into four 15-minute quarters.

* Your standard American football field is 100 yards long – with an end zone (a scoring zone) on each end of the field.

* The objective of American football: 11 men – THE OFFENSE – try to move forward and score against 11 other men – THE DEFENSE – by passing or running with an oval-shaped ball, known as the football.

HOW'S THE GAME PLAYED?

* THE OFFENSE – which is helmed by a team leader called THE QUARTERBACK – gets four tries (AKA downs) to move the ball 10 yards.

* If THE OFFENSE succeeds in doing so, THE OFFENSE gets four more downs/attempts/tries to move the ball forward another 10 yards.

* This continues until THE OFFENSE scores or THE DEFENSE shuts them down, which then usually forces THE OFFENSE to kick (punt) the ball downfield to a player on the opposing team. When it comes to punting, the idea is to try to kick the ball as far as possible (within the field of play), making it harder for the opposing team to score.

* Please note ... while THE OFFENSE gets four tries to advance 10 yards. The third try, or down, is important. If a team doesn’t advance the required 10 yards after the third down, they typically punt/kick the ball to the other team. The reason is that if the team doesn’t advance 10 yards by the fourth try, the opposing team will get possession where the ball was last spotted.

HOW DOES A TEAM SCORE?

* Scoring can happen by kicking the ball through the goal post — also called the uprights — which nets THE OFFENSE 3 points.

* THE OFFENSE can also run or catch a football in the end zone for 6 points and follow that up with a bonus point (kicking the ball through the uprights) or a two-point conversion (running or passing the ball into the end zone).

* Another way to score is a 2-point safety… That’s when THE OFFENSE is pushed back into its own end zone by THE DEFENSE and can’t complete a play past its own goal line. An example is when THE QUARTERBACK is sacked (tackled) in his own end zone. That’s 2 points for the opposing team!

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

While this funny animated short is a bit outdated, it still does a good job showing how the game is played.

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Photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash