As the title suggests, this is going to be an oversimplified cheat sheet to help you understand the football scenes in this book. I'm only going to explain the extent of football that will be helpful for this book. It's not going to be in great detail. Like I said, it's going to be simple. Obviously, there's a lot more to football than what will be explained here.
Note: this is not rugby. Rugby and football are different sports
FIELD:
The field is 100 yards. There are end zones at each end with goal posts.
100 yards = 91.44 meters
DOWNS:
The team on offense gets 4 downs (4 tries to gain ten yards). If the team gains ten yards before their 4th try, the downs start over at 1. If the offense does not get ten yards after their 4th try, the other team gets possession of the ball.
POINTS: How to get them and how many you get
Touchdown: 6 points. Get the ball into the end zone
Extra-point: 1 point. Kicker kicks the ball through the goal post after a touch down. (This is different from a field goal).
Field goal: 3 points. Kicker kicks the ball through the goal post. This happens within field goal range (field goal range differs between different leagues). It usually happens when the team on offense is on 3rd or 4th down and think it would be better for them to get the 3 points rather than try to get a first down.
Safety: 2 points. The person with the ball is tackled or forced out of bounds in their own end-zone, OR the ball is dead in the end-zone, OR the offensive team gets a penalty in their own end-zone.
Two Point Conversion: 2 points. Instead of kicking the extra point, the team who just scored the touchdown tries to run a play to get passed the goal line again (from the 3 yard line in high school football) for two points instead of one.
POSITIONS: (only the positions relevant for the story, not all positions are listed)
Quarterback: The guy who calls the plays and catches the snap from the center then either throws the ball, hands it off, or runs with it.
Receiver: Catches the ball from the quarterback (hopefully)
Center: The guy that snaps the ball to the quarterback from between his legs.
Running Back: Probably runs fast. He lines up near the quarterback. He can block and also catch passes or hand offs from the quarterback.
Linebacker: Play on defense. Back the defensive line. Usually big guys. Block running backs. Rush the passer (go toward the quarterback and make him throw). Tackle whoever has the ball.
Other football lingo:
Drive: The series of plays of the offense until they lose possession of the ball
Incomplete: Whoever was supposed to catch the ball, didn't. Or, it was caught out of bounds.
Line of scrimmage: Nobody can cross this line until the football is in play.
Sack: The quarterback gets tackled behind the line of scrimmage and loses yards.
YOU ARE READING
Knight
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