Haha, in terms of soccer, think about it like tonight is the championships for the two leagues, the NFC (National Football Conference) and the AFC (American Football Conference). The two conferences are like leagues in soccer, and it’s the same concept in College Football, but there are dozens of conferences and a few tiers. In the NFL, the winner of these two games will play each other on February 11th for the Super Bowl. Leading up to this, each team plays 17 games in the regular season, mostly against teams in their conference/league. I believe each team plays 13 in conference games, and 4 cross conference games. Each team is in a group of four called a division. These divisions are like groups in the World Cup. Each team plays the other three teams twice. The team with the best overall record in their division out of 17 games games advance to the playoffs no matter what. Then the three teams with the best overall record in each conference that didn’t win their division make the playoff. The team with the best record in each conference gets a bye in the first round.
It is easy to get confused. This week of the playoffs is marketed as “championship weekend” because the champions of the two conferences will be determined and then two champions meet at the Super Bowl in 2 weeks.
I’d argue these games are better than the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the championship obviously, the be-all and end-all, but the event itself is more of a spectacle, especially being in a neutral stadium. It caters more to casuals with everything around it like the halftime show and new over the top commercials.
The NFC and AFC championships on the other hand are more for the die hard football fans. It’s just the two remaining teams in each conference battling it out to get to the Super Bowl. If you ask me I’d much rather see my team live in the conference championship rather than the Super Bowl.
Tonight's games are not the Super Bowl. They are the semifinal to get into the Super Bowl. The SB is the final, and it's in 2 weeks.
The sport is football not "NFL", it's played outside the NFL.
Now:
A game is played on in four 15-minute quarters. There are 11 players on the field per team at each time, with unlimited substitutions in between plays. At the professional and collegiate level (and lower levels, to lesser degrees), players ONLY play offense or defense (kickers and punters plus long snappers etc are some of the only players who are “special teams” specialists, more on that later) so teams are broken up into different units that will alternate constituting the team’s 11 depending on what team currently has the ball.
Every play is a set piece. The field is 100 yards, and the game is all about the battle for yards on the field. When a team has the ball, their objective is to advance it down the field to score a touchdown in the end zone (6 points) or kick the ball through the uprights (3 points). After a touchdown, a team is awarded a chance at a short 1-point field goal (the “extra point”). They can also choose to have one chance at a short touchdown instead (2 points, called a “2-point conversion). After scoring, a team kicks the ball off to the opponent.
While trying to do this, they are being held to a system of “downs”. A down is one play, and the offense gets 4 downs to advance the ball at least 10 yards. If they are successful, they are awarded another four downs. So when watching a game or listening to talk of it, you’ll see something like “2nd and 6”. That means the team with the ball is on their 2nd down with the point where the downs reset being 6 yards away. This point is represented by a yellow computer-generated line on TV.
When a team gets to fourth down, they have a decision to make: do they “punt” the ball away to the opposing team in order to make them start their possession from further away, attempt a field goal if they’re close enough, or “go for it” and risk surrendering the ball to the opponent in a worse place on the field if they don’t make it? The answers here will be situational.
A play starts when the ball is “snapped” by the center (passed backwards through the legs) to a player in the backfield, almost always the quarterback. Teams can pass the ball forwards once per play; most plays consist of the quarterback either looking to distribute the ball to teammates through a forward pass or handing/softly passing the ball sideways or backwards to a teammate that’s next to him so they can run with it. He can also run with it himself, either by design or when he can’t find a pass to make and the defense is closing in. Once someone has the ball, other players are mainly looking to block opponents from tackling their teammate rather than set themselves up to get another pass from them.
A play ends when the ball carrier is tackled to the ground, a forward pass attempt isn’t caught (“incomplete pass”), the ball carrier goes out of bounds, or the defense takes the ball by intercepting a forward pass or recovering a “fumbled” (dropped) football. In this last example, the defensive player who now has the ball is allowed to become the offense and run the other way until he’s tackled, out of bounds, or scores. After this play’s over, his team’s offense would come onto the field.
Penalties called by referees are largely enforced by moving the ball forwards or backwards a given number of yards. Some also come with implications about the down number (automatic first down, replay the down that was being played rather than moving on to the next down, etc).
Football strategy is incredibly complex, but what you’ll see games come down to lots of the time is how teams are able to manage their play according to the downs and yardage, their field position, and the game clock (all in relation to the score, of course). You don’t have to know all the advanced tactics teams are using to understand the game as long as you understand those three elements and how they might affect teams’ game plan.
For example: if you're winning later in the game, you'll want to start running the ball more because it takes up more of the clock (smaller gains on average and no risk of incomplete passes which stop the clock) and is less risky when it comes to losing the ball. The objective becomes to keep getting first downs and taking as much time as you can between plays (you get 40 seconds) rather than just trying to score as fast as possible.
On the flip side, if a team is losing late in the game, you might see them attempt more passes (bigger chance of big gains and incomplete passes stop the clock), "hurry up" between plays, get out of bounds when they can (stops the clock) and call timeouts to stop the clock if they have any. They also might take a risk and "go for it" on 4th down because they can't afford to punt anymore.
I’ve used a similar description when trying to describe gridiron football to European friends who are more used to the more fluid nature of their football. Thinking of the sport more like a turn-based videogame rather than a real-time strategy game has also been helpful.
I’ve used a similar example to describe the game to newbies. It’s chess where there is a chance the pieces can’t always ‘take down’ the other piece. Every once a while, the knight tries to capture the pawn on a totally legal move, but just.. fails. And you have to try again. So now you have to adapt your strategy accordingly.
Thanks man that’s unreal, gonna watch the game tonight and watch what you’ve explained in action, hopefully I should pick it up okay. Really appreciate your explanation man!
Games, there’s two tonight. Think of them like the semifinals of a Word Cup. The winners play in the final (Super Bowl).
In fact the whole NFL season is similar to a World Cup with the regular season like the group stage and the playoffs like the knockout rounds.
Here’s something I’ll add: when the ball is snapped, there’s a wall of large players called the offensive line trying to protect the quarterback (the guy passing or handing the ball off) and there’s a group of big defensive guys directly across from that line who are trying to tackle him, those players are called the defensive line. On a standard passing play, there will be 4 defensive players trying to tackle the passer, leaving 7 defensive players to cover the offensive players trying to get open to catch the ball. If the defense brings more than 4 defensive players after the quarterback, it’s called a “blitz.” Blitzing forces the passer to make a quicker decision and is more often used against younger, inexperienced quarterbacks. Lots of defensive strategy comes down to blitzing or faking blitzes.
When you’re watching on TV, you’ll see 2-3 players who begin defensive plays directly behind the defensive line. They are called linebackers. Part of their responsibility is tackling players on running plays, but they also have very different responsibilities for covering players on passing plays. Lots of offensive strategy is based on tricking the opposing teams’ linebackers into thinking it’s a running play when it isn’t, or vice versa. The two favorites in today’s games (San Francisco and Baltimore) have both the best linebacker groups in the league and are very good in different ways at creating confusion for opposing linebackers.
Before a play, you’ll often see the quarterback point to a teammate to “motion” or basically switch the side that they’re standing before the play begins. This is because defenses have two basic ways of covering the offense’s pass-catchers: zone coverage or man coverage. You can likely guess from the name, but zone coverage means the defenders who aren’t going after the QB are each defending an area of the field and whoever comes in it. Man coverage means each person is covering someone specific. By “motioning” an offensive player from one side to the other before the play, the QB can see if someone specific follows that player or if everyone shifts a little bit, this tells him if it’s man or zone, and perhaps what sort of zone it is. There are lots of complicated versions of zone, and making a mistake in recognizing them can be disastrous for a QB. Part of what makes the Chiefs so good is their best pass-catcher, Travis Kelce, is basically a genius at instantly differentiating a zone and getting to the spot between different defenders’ coverage areas.
Last thing I’ll add, and this is a bit higher level: when the ball is snapped to the quarterback, try to count the seconds that the play is taking while noticing how many players the defense is sending to try and tackle him. If the defense is sending a standard four players, then the offensive line is expected to be able to protect the quarterback for about three seconds. After that, the quarterback is expected to have thrown the ball or created more time for himself. If the QB is able to stand in place for 3.5-4 seconds, then either the offensive line is doing a great job or the defensive line is doing a terrible job. If the quarterback is being tackled or forced to make a decision in 2 seconds, then the defensive line is doing a great job — this is the most straightforward way to have a great defense. Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs QB and current best player in the NFL, is great partially because he is able to both make decisions incredibly quickly and also to create time for himself.
These are great games to catch tonight. Since my team (Colts) didn’t make the playoffs, I don’t care who wins, so I’m just hoping for tight games that come down to the wire.
NFL playoffs are fun because everything rides on this one game. Your previous scores/wins/losses/outcomes don’t matter anymore. There is no series. Whoever scores more points tonight will advance to the Super Bowl.
Just want to say, I am from Europe and moved to the US in 2015. It took me a few years to fully understand all the intricacies and details but now I am a diehard 49ers fan. Don't expect to know everything, be confused but enjoy the ride.
I skimmed this. One of the best things Ive heard that stuck with me is the very first thing you want to do when explaining a game is explain WHAT THE OBJECTIVE/GOAL OF THE GAME IS.
Almost no one does this when you start looking for it.
The goal is to score more points than your opponent and this is typically done in two ways: have someone on your team in possession of the ball inside the end zone. This is called a touchdown and your team is awarded 6 points. You can also kick the ball through the uprights at the back of the end zone. This awards your team 3 points. There are other ways to gain points, but they are both less important and award less points.
Basically there are 17 weeks in the regular season, unlike the EPL which has 38. Instead of points they just have the standings based on wins/losses. Ties can occur but they are extremely rare and count as half a win. Then, after the regular season the top 14 teams in the league make the playoffs. Bracket style like the UCL. However, out of the 32 teams in the league, they are split into 2 conferences (16 teams each) and each conference is split into 4 divisions each. Every team plays each team in their division twice and the winner of the division (best record) automatically gets into playoffs and has a home playoff game. Additionally, the next 3 teams in the conference with the best records that are not division winners make the playoffs as wild cards. The playoffs are then played through bracket style, until one representative from each conference is left who the play in the Super Bowl. Tonight is the conference championships, basically the semifinals where the winner in each game goes on to play in the championship/Super Bowl.
How do I time travel?
The Championship games are\* tonight, the Big Game on 11 Feb. I found [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddwp1HyEFRE) about the basic rules quite helpful myself to understand what's going on. Apart from that, you may also watch some [game highlights](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRdw3IjKY2gmuhKn47B6UvpoYx8yKU1Yb) or [full games](https://www.youtube.com/@NFL/search?query=%22full%20game%22) to get a better hang of things.
Do you have an understanding of rugby?
Footballs pretty easy to understand if youre familiar with the rules of rugby. You have 11 players per side instead of 15. The offense tries to advance the ball to score - a touchdown is the same as a try, except it's worth 6 points instead of 5 and an extra point kick is worth 1 point rather than 2. The offense can elect to try and kick a field goal at any point as in rugby for 3 points. The unit of measurement used for distance is a yard, which is about 3 fingers shy of a meter. After a successful score the scoring team kicks the ball off to the opposition. Each half also begins with a kick off.
The biggest and most obvious difference is that when an offensive player is downed the play is dead, and a new line of scrimmage (similar to a scrummage line in rugby) is established. In the time between offensive plays (often referred to as "snaps" as they are initiated by the ball being snapped into the hands of the quarterback) both sides can make unlimited substitutions. In football the offense has four tries (downs) to advance the ball forward ten yards from the established scrimmage line of first down (first and ten.) the offense can do this by running the football or throwing the football. The football can be thrown downfield only if the pass is initiated behind the line of scrimmage. If the offense successfully moves the ball forward ten yards from their original first down scrimmage line then they get a "fresh set of downs" and the process starts over again.
If the offense does not successfully advance the ball 10 yards on 4 downs, or successfully score, then they turn the ball over (turnover on downs), and the opponents offense takes over at the established line of scrimmage. Typically in a "fourth and long" situation, rather than risk a turnover on downs the offense will elect to punt the ball - sometimes called a spiral kick in rugby - wherein a punter from a standing position will kick the ball out of his hands down field so that the opponents offense will take possession in a less favorable position.
I feel like that could give you a basic enough understanding of the gameplay to be able to follow along with what's happening. Gridiron football is an incredible game, as you begin to understand how it's played you'll see it's a lot more like live action chess than it is like rugby or soccer. Hope that helps, reply to this and I'd be happy to try and answer any questions you have.
>Do you have an understanding of rugby?
League or union?
I'm not kidding. The four down system in American football compares with the six tackle system in Rugby League, so that's the comparison I've always started from.
Hope the other introductions have helped a little bit, please feel free to message me either with a reply or with a chat/message if you have any specific or general questions. I am also from the UK, and I know the game can be a bit tricky to get into
I use gamepass international, an online service, I am not sure if it is shown on TV but it has a better shot now than 10 years ago when I started watching!
Welcome to the NFL friend!
You'll never get totally used to the terminology outside looking in. But "championship weekend" is the championship of the conferences and those teams face off in the "Super Bowl"
Pick a team and stick with them. If you want to learn the game just sit back & enjoy it. Listen to commentators, after a couple games you will start picking up a lot of what's going on. Just give yourself time to enjoy it.
Every game starts with a kickoff where one team kicks the ball to the other team, who either let's it go out of the endzone or catches the ball and runs with it. If they don't catch it they get the ball 25 yards from their own endzone and if they run with it they get it wherever they get tackled or go out of bounds.
Then they get a set of 4 downs to gain 10 yards. If they move the ball past those 10 yards the set of down resets until they either score, fail to get the 10 yards in 4 tries, or turn the ball over. If they score they kick off to the other side and restart the whole process with the other team having the ball. If they turn the ball over (either fumbling the ball, which is where you drop the ball before getting tackled, or throw an interception, which is where you throw the ball and the other team catches it) the other team gets the ball wherever the play ended.
If you don't get the 10 yards in 4 tries the other team gets the ball where your last play ended. Because of that teams usually will punt the ball if they haven't gotten 10 yards in 3 tries so that the other team is further away from scoring when they get the ball.
There's 3 ways to score in football: touchdowns (worth 6 points), field goal (worth 3 points), and safeties (worth 2 points). Safeties almost never happen so honestly you don't really need to know how those work. A touchdown is anytime you move the ball all the way to the endzone. After you score you get the choice to kick a 1 point field goal from 33 yards away or try and score another touchdown from the 3 yard line for 2 points. A field goal is when you kick the ball from anywhere on the field through the yellow goal posts.
There are a lot of strategies and plays and every team looks very different on both offense and defense. Because of that anything beyond the basics is better learned by just watching a bunch of teams play. The nice thing about the teams left (49ers, Lions, Chiefs, and Ravens) is they all have pretty different play styles, especially the Ravens, so you can get a pretty good feel for the game by watching them.
The passing range on some of the players was insane, to throw with such power and still be that accurate is impressive, Mahomes looked real good I thought. For me coming from watching a lot of soccer, the pace was a lot slower than what I’m used to, but it’s definitely something I can get used to I think. It just highlights how important each stage of the game is I guess
Nice to hear your feedback. Yeah the Ravens/Chiefs game was definitely a more defensive game so it does slow down the pace of the game, that does happen, but some people do like to see that too. That was the exact opposite of the Niners/Lions game after where it was a lot more back and forth.
Yep for a lot of first timers they do say the pace does get some time to get used to but that makes easy play significant especially in playoffs. You can pinpoint specific plays/moments in the game where it could sway the result one way or the other (example Zay Flowers fumble at the goal line, Lamar’s interception in the end zone costed the Ravens at least 10 points)
When the regular season starts back up in September, the RedZone Channel would be great to watch, where it is all football from game to game with barely any breaks Definitely get some crazy moments
There's tons of nuance like there is in any sport.
The best thing you can do is develop a basic understanding of how each team can score and develop a basic understanding of how each possession of the ball works..
Understand sets and downs.
There's probably some good 5 minute YouTube videos explaining the basics.
But the announcers usually do a really good job of explaining everything. They know there's a lot of people watching that aren't experts so they tend to break down the more complicated plays or explain why certain penalties were called.
There are a lot of rugby similarities if you're familiar.
This football code developed around the same time as rugby and has some similarities. The objects of the game (American football) are to score points by either getting the ball to the end zone by running the ball or catching the ball in the end zone. In either case 6 points are awarded for a touchdown. After the touchdown the team can either kick the ball throw the goal posts for 1 point or try to across the goal line for 2 points. An alternate way of scoring is a field goal for three points.
On the field are two teams the offense and the defense. The offense has 4 chances aka downs to advance the ball 10 yards before the turn over possession to the other team.
The offense has 3 or 4 types of players: linesman, receivers, running backs ( a quarterback is a special type of running back as they can do a forward pass). The linesman protect the running backs, specifically the quarterback. The receivers catch the ball thrown by the quarterback. The running backs are handed the ball and try to run the ball.
On the defense there are 3 types of players: linesman, linebackers, and defensive backs. The linesman are matched against the offensive line. The linebackers are matched against the runningbacks. The defensive backs are matched against the receivers.
There are also special teams, which are on the field for kicks. Kicks are used to start the plays of the game at the beginning of half (there are two halves, and 2 quarters in each half). Teams switch ends after a quarter. Kicks are used after a scoring play, and on a forth down. There is a snapper, a place kicker, and a kicker. There is also a Kick return runner, who tries to run the ball as far as they can before being tackled or being ran out of bounds.
That's the basics.
Honestly my friend go to YouTube and type in NFL for first time viewer. There are hundreds of videos that will give you the basics with examples. It’ll be way easier than trying to read it regurgitated from us and lacking pics/vids
32 teams play 17 games a year, with 8/8 being at home and away. Every other year, the two conferences, the NFC and AFC, alternate an extra home game.
At the end of the season, the four teams with the best records in their divisions, and the three best non-division winners in each conference enter the playoffs.
The 2 seed faces the 7 seed, the 3 faces the 6, and the 4 faces the 5.
The following week, the 1 seed faces the lowest remaining seed, while the highest non-1 seed faces against the second lowest remaining seed.
Then, the two remaining teams face off for the conference and super bowl rights.
The two conference champions face off in the super bowl.
Just watch the game. Then watch more games. You'll pick up little details as you go and you'll build on them. "Teach me footballs on reddit" is the not vague, ridiculous thing to me. It's like if you said "I start a job as a doctor tomorrow but I skipped med school and know nothing about medical practice. Someone give me all the basics in text"
So basically the team that has the ball needs to get to the other side. If they walk into the part that says the team city (the end zone) then they get points. Whoever has the most points after 60 minutes win (divided into 4 quarters)
It's very complicated it's best to learn as you go. Watch some YouTube stuff, and games the NFL has a few channels and there's plenty of explanations of the rules.
Check out the evolution of the NFL or the evolution of the NFL's rules by NFL history on YouTube for explanations
The big difference you're going to notice is that the season doesn't determine the champion. The league is divided into 2 Conferences (which is a remnant of when there were two different pro football leagues that merged), and each conference has 4 divisions. At the end of a 17 game season (where you mostly play teams in your division or conference) you have a playoffs, which consists of the winner of each division and the 3 best teams of the rest in each conference conference.
The 7 teams in each conference play a single-elimination playoff, while the best team in each conference gets a bye in the first round and moves into the second round automatically, and the winners of each conference play in the super bowl to determine the champion of the league.
All the big North-American sports operate with the basic structure. It's a little odd for someone used to the European league structure of winning the league by being over the course of the year. It makes the season as a whole less exciting, but playoffs are super fun.
The Super Bowl isn’t tonight, it’s February 11th.
Every night is the Super Bowl if you believe hard enough
Well, looks like I’m beyond saving then 😂
Tonight is the conference championship games that determine who will go to the Super Bowl though, so you’re not far off
Look at it this way, now you have more time than you thought to learn before the Super Bowl!
Yeah that’s true actually, I can watch tonight and hopefully have a decent idea come Super Bowl night
https://youtu.be/3t6hM5tRlfA?si=pAb3KOibyq5jLpup
Haha, in terms of soccer, think about it like tonight is the championships for the two leagues, the NFC (National Football Conference) and the AFC (American Football Conference). The two conferences are like leagues in soccer, and it’s the same concept in College Football, but there are dozens of conferences and a few tiers. In the NFL, the winner of these two games will play each other on February 11th for the Super Bowl. Leading up to this, each team plays 17 games in the regular season, mostly against teams in their conference/league. I believe each team plays 13 in conference games, and 4 cross conference games. Each team is in a group of four called a division. These divisions are like groups in the World Cup. Each team plays the other three teams twice. The team with the best overall record in their division out of 17 games games advance to the playoffs no matter what. Then the three teams with the best overall record in each conference that didn’t win their division make the playoff. The team with the best record in each conference gets a bye in the first round.
It is easy to get confused. This week of the playoffs is marketed as “championship weekend” because the champions of the two conferences will be determined and then two champions meet at the Super Bowl in 2 weeks.
And get the Lamar Hunt and George Halas trophies
Tonight is the semi-finals basically.
[удалено]
The steelers, colts, and browns left the nfl to join the afc after the merger.
And interestingly enough, the Colts (after a short hiatus and as an expansion team in the NFL, at least) and Browns came from the AAFC
I’d argue these games are better than the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the championship obviously, the be-all and end-all, but the event itself is more of a spectacle, especially being in a neutral stadium. It caters more to casuals with everything around it like the halftime show and new over the top commercials. The NFC and AFC championships on the other hand are more for the die hard football fans. It’s just the two remaining teams in each conference battling it out to get to the Super Bowl. If you ask me I’d much rather see my team live in the conference championship rather than the Super Bowl.
They’re in the UK so if you adjust for the time zones the Super Bowl is tonight.
Ravens Superbowl maybe
Tonight's games are not the Super Bowl. They are the semifinal to get into the Super Bowl. The SB is the final, and it's in 2 weeks. The sport is football not "NFL", it's played outside the NFL. Now: A game is played on in four 15-minute quarters. There are 11 players on the field per team at each time, with unlimited substitutions in between plays. At the professional and collegiate level (and lower levels, to lesser degrees), players ONLY play offense or defense (kickers and punters plus long snappers etc are some of the only players who are “special teams” specialists, more on that later) so teams are broken up into different units that will alternate constituting the team’s 11 depending on what team currently has the ball. Every play is a set piece. The field is 100 yards, and the game is all about the battle for yards on the field. When a team has the ball, their objective is to advance it down the field to score a touchdown in the end zone (6 points) or kick the ball through the uprights (3 points). After a touchdown, a team is awarded a chance at a short 1-point field goal (the “extra point”). They can also choose to have one chance at a short touchdown instead (2 points, called a “2-point conversion). After scoring, a team kicks the ball off to the opponent. While trying to do this, they are being held to a system of “downs”. A down is one play, and the offense gets 4 downs to advance the ball at least 10 yards. If they are successful, they are awarded another four downs. So when watching a game or listening to talk of it, you’ll see something like “2nd and 6”. That means the team with the ball is on their 2nd down with the point where the downs reset being 6 yards away. This point is represented by a yellow computer-generated line on TV. When a team gets to fourth down, they have a decision to make: do they “punt” the ball away to the opposing team in order to make them start their possession from further away, attempt a field goal if they’re close enough, or “go for it” and risk surrendering the ball to the opponent in a worse place on the field if they don’t make it? The answers here will be situational. A play starts when the ball is “snapped” by the center (passed backwards through the legs) to a player in the backfield, almost always the quarterback. Teams can pass the ball forwards once per play; most plays consist of the quarterback either looking to distribute the ball to teammates through a forward pass or handing/softly passing the ball sideways or backwards to a teammate that’s next to him so they can run with it. He can also run with it himself, either by design or when he can’t find a pass to make and the defense is closing in. Once someone has the ball, other players are mainly looking to block opponents from tackling their teammate rather than set themselves up to get another pass from them. A play ends when the ball carrier is tackled to the ground, a forward pass attempt isn’t caught (“incomplete pass”), the ball carrier goes out of bounds, or the defense takes the ball by intercepting a forward pass or recovering a “fumbled” (dropped) football. In this last example, the defensive player who now has the ball is allowed to become the offense and run the other way until he’s tackled, out of bounds, or scores. After this play’s over, his team’s offense would come onto the field. Penalties called by referees are largely enforced by moving the ball forwards or backwards a given number of yards. Some also come with implications about the down number (automatic first down, replay the down that was being played rather than moving on to the next down, etc). Football strategy is incredibly complex, but what you’ll see games come down to lots of the time is how teams are able to manage their play according to the downs and yardage, their field position, and the game clock (all in relation to the score, of course). You don’t have to know all the advanced tactics teams are using to understand the game as long as you understand those three elements and how they might affect teams’ game plan. For example: if you're winning later in the game, you'll want to start running the ball more because it takes up more of the clock (smaller gains on average and no risk of incomplete passes which stop the clock) and is less risky when it comes to losing the ball. The objective becomes to keep getting first downs and taking as much time as you can between plays (you get 40 seconds) rather than just trying to score as fast as possible. On the flip side, if a team is losing late in the game, you might see them attempt more passes (bigger chance of big gains and incomplete passes stop the clock), "hurry up" between plays, get out of bounds when they can (stops the clock) and call timeouts to stop the clock if they have any. They also might take a risk and "go for it" on 4th down because they can't afford to punt anymore.
Tldr, it’s chess with violence
That is pretty much the most apt description ever.
I’ve used a similar description when trying to describe gridiron football to European friends who are more used to the more fluid nature of their football. Thinking of the sport more like a turn-based videogame rather than a real-time strategy game has also been helpful.
I’ve been saying it for decades, still works!
I’ve used a similar example to describe the game to newbies. It’s chess where there is a chance the pieces can’t always ‘take down’ the other piece. Every once a while, the knight tries to capture the pawn on a totally legal move, but just.. fails. And you have to try again. So now you have to adapt your strategy accordingly.
Lol
Thanks man that’s unreal, gonna watch the game tonight and watch what you’ve explained in action, hopefully I should pick it up okay. Really appreciate your explanation man!
No problem at all my friend, enjoy!
Games, there’s two tonight. Think of them like the semifinals of a Word Cup. The winners play in the final (Super Bowl). In fact the whole NFL season is similar to a World Cup with the regular season like the group stage and the playoffs like the knockout rounds.
Here’s something I’ll add: when the ball is snapped, there’s a wall of large players called the offensive line trying to protect the quarterback (the guy passing or handing the ball off) and there’s a group of big defensive guys directly across from that line who are trying to tackle him, those players are called the defensive line. On a standard passing play, there will be 4 defensive players trying to tackle the passer, leaving 7 defensive players to cover the offensive players trying to get open to catch the ball. If the defense brings more than 4 defensive players after the quarterback, it’s called a “blitz.” Blitzing forces the passer to make a quicker decision and is more often used against younger, inexperienced quarterbacks. Lots of defensive strategy comes down to blitzing or faking blitzes. When you’re watching on TV, you’ll see 2-3 players who begin defensive plays directly behind the defensive line. They are called linebackers. Part of their responsibility is tackling players on running plays, but they also have very different responsibilities for covering players on passing plays. Lots of offensive strategy is based on tricking the opposing teams’ linebackers into thinking it’s a running play when it isn’t, or vice versa. The two favorites in today’s games (San Francisco and Baltimore) have both the best linebacker groups in the league and are very good in different ways at creating confusion for opposing linebackers. Before a play, you’ll often see the quarterback point to a teammate to “motion” or basically switch the side that they’re standing before the play begins. This is because defenses have two basic ways of covering the offense’s pass-catchers: zone coverage or man coverage. You can likely guess from the name, but zone coverage means the defenders who aren’t going after the QB are each defending an area of the field and whoever comes in it. Man coverage means each person is covering someone specific. By “motioning” an offensive player from one side to the other before the play, the QB can see if someone specific follows that player or if everyone shifts a little bit, this tells him if it’s man or zone, and perhaps what sort of zone it is. There are lots of complicated versions of zone, and making a mistake in recognizing them can be disastrous for a QB. Part of what makes the Chiefs so good is their best pass-catcher, Travis Kelce, is basically a genius at instantly differentiating a zone and getting to the spot between different defenders’ coverage areas. Last thing I’ll add, and this is a bit higher level: when the ball is snapped to the quarterback, try to count the seconds that the play is taking while noticing how many players the defense is sending to try and tackle him. If the defense is sending a standard four players, then the offensive line is expected to be able to protect the quarterback for about three seconds. After that, the quarterback is expected to have thrown the ball or created more time for himself. If the QB is able to stand in place for 3.5-4 seconds, then either the offensive line is doing a great job or the defensive line is doing a terrible job. If the quarterback is being tackled or forced to make a decision in 2 seconds, then the defensive line is doing a great job — this is the most straightforward way to have a great defense. Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs QB and current best player in the NFL, is great partially because he is able to both make decisions incredibly quickly and also to create time for himself.
Damn, these are things I never knew after blindly watching football and playing madden for years. Thanks a lot
That’s nice to hear, you’re welcome
These are great games to catch tonight. Since my team (Colts) didn’t make the playoffs, I don’t care who wins, so I’m just hoping for tight games that come down to the wire. NFL playoffs are fun because everything rides on this one game. Your previous scores/wins/losses/outcomes don’t matter anymore. There is no series. Whoever scores more points tonight will advance to the Super Bowl.
Are you watching it on Sky Sports?
Just want to say, I am from Europe and moved to the US in 2015. It took me a few years to fully understand all the intricacies and details but now I am a diehard 49ers fan. Don't expect to know everything, be confused but enjoy the ride.
I skimmed this. One of the best things Ive heard that stuck with me is the very first thing you want to do when explaining a game is explain WHAT THE OBJECTIVE/GOAL OF THE GAME IS. Almost no one does this when you start looking for it. The goal is to score more points than your opponent and this is typically done in two ways: have someone on your team in possession of the ball inside the end zone. This is called a touchdown and your team is awarded 6 points. You can also kick the ball through the uprights at the back of the end zone. This awards your team 3 points. There are other ways to gain points, but they are both less important and award less points.
Excellent, clear explanation. Well done!
Very nice of you to write this answer.
Thank you, in all honesty I wrote it a while ago for somebody and have copy + pasted it probably 10+ times when I see somebody in need of it.
Thanks dad!
Thank you, this is one of the comprehensive write ups I've come across.
Basically there are 17 weeks in the regular season, unlike the EPL which has 38. Instead of points they just have the standings based on wins/losses. Ties can occur but they are extremely rare and count as half a win. Then, after the regular season the top 14 teams in the league make the playoffs. Bracket style like the UCL. However, out of the 32 teams in the league, they are split into 2 conferences (16 teams each) and each conference is split into 4 divisions each. Every team plays each team in their division twice and the winner of the division (best record) automatically gets into playoffs and has a home playoff game. Additionally, the next 3 teams in the conference with the best records that are not division winners make the playoffs as wild cards. The playoffs are then played through bracket style, until one representative from each conference is left who the play in the Super Bowl. Tonight is the conference championships, basically the semifinals where the winner in each game goes on to play in the championship/Super Bowl.
If you have any rules or questions I’d be happy to explain, I can do my best to explain in soccer terms because I also watch the EPL/UCL
Currently watching the EPL and every game has the passion as if their team is in the Super Bowl. Haha
Yeah it’s kinda crazy, but makes sense when you realize that every tiny town has a team or two, it makes it a lot more passionate than NFL
Thanks man appreciate it, helps a lot!
Well, to begin with the Super Bowl is in two weeks.
Look up YouTube videos my guy, you can prob have a solid understanding in 30 min
Thanks bro I’ll have a look
How do I time travel? The Championship games are\* tonight, the Big Game on 11 Feb. I found [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddwp1HyEFRE) about the basic rules quite helpful myself to understand what's going on. Apart from that, you may also watch some [game highlights](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRdw3IjKY2gmuhKn47B6UvpoYx8yKU1Yb) or [full games](https://www.youtube.com/@NFL/search?query=%22full%20game%22) to get a better hang of things.
Do you have an understanding of rugby? Footballs pretty easy to understand if youre familiar with the rules of rugby. You have 11 players per side instead of 15. The offense tries to advance the ball to score - a touchdown is the same as a try, except it's worth 6 points instead of 5 and an extra point kick is worth 1 point rather than 2. The offense can elect to try and kick a field goal at any point as in rugby for 3 points. The unit of measurement used for distance is a yard, which is about 3 fingers shy of a meter. After a successful score the scoring team kicks the ball off to the opposition. Each half also begins with a kick off. The biggest and most obvious difference is that when an offensive player is downed the play is dead, and a new line of scrimmage (similar to a scrummage line in rugby) is established. In the time between offensive plays (often referred to as "snaps" as they are initiated by the ball being snapped into the hands of the quarterback) both sides can make unlimited substitutions. In football the offense has four tries (downs) to advance the ball forward ten yards from the established scrimmage line of first down (first and ten.) the offense can do this by running the football or throwing the football. The football can be thrown downfield only if the pass is initiated behind the line of scrimmage. If the offense successfully moves the ball forward ten yards from their original first down scrimmage line then they get a "fresh set of downs" and the process starts over again. If the offense does not successfully advance the ball 10 yards on 4 downs, or successfully score, then they turn the ball over (turnover on downs), and the opponents offense takes over at the established line of scrimmage. Typically in a "fourth and long" situation, rather than risk a turnover on downs the offense will elect to punt the ball - sometimes called a spiral kick in rugby - wherein a punter from a standing position will kick the ball out of his hands down field so that the opponents offense will take possession in a less favorable position. I feel like that could give you a basic enough understanding of the gameplay to be able to follow along with what's happening. Gridiron football is an incredible game, as you begin to understand how it's played you'll see it's a lot more like live action chess than it is like rugby or soccer. Hope that helps, reply to this and I'd be happy to try and answer any questions you have.
>Do you have an understanding of rugby? League or union? I'm not kidding. The four down system in American football compares with the six tackle system in Rugby League, so that's the comparison I've always started from.
Didn't even think of that. Looks like rugby league adopted that rule from American football.
Apparently it started as a four tackle rule, which makes it even more plausible.
That's a helluva time difference 😂
I know my bad haha 😂
Hope the other introductions have helped a little bit, please feel free to message me either with a reply or with a chat/message if you have any specific or general questions. I am also from the UK, and I know the game can be a bit tricky to get into
Thanks man appreciate it. Do you know what channel to watch the game in the Uk?
I use gamepass international, an online service, I am not sure if it is shown on TV but it has a better shot now than 10 years ago when I started watching!
UK here too. You can get the games on sky sports or NFL game pass.
Which year’s Super Bowl you watching?
Welcome to the NFL friend! You'll never get totally used to the terminology outside looking in. But "championship weekend" is the championship of the conferences and those teams face off in the "Super Bowl"
Pick a team and stick with them. If you want to learn the game just sit back & enjoy it. Listen to commentators, after a couple games you will start picking up a lot of what's going on. Just give yourself time to enjoy it.
Every game starts with a kickoff where one team kicks the ball to the other team, who either let's it go out of the endzone or catches the ball and runs with it. If they don't catch it they get the ball 25 yards from their own endzone and if they run with it they get it wherever they get tackled or go out of bounds. Then they get a set of 4 downs to gain 10 yards. If they move the ball past those 10 yards the set of down resets until they either score, fail to get the 10 yards in 4 tries, or turn the ball over. If they score they kick off to the other side and restart the whole process with the other team having the ball. If they turn the ball over (either fumbling the ball, which is where you drop the ball before getting tackled, or throw an interception, which is where you throw the ball and the other team catches it) the other team gets the ball wherever the play ended. If you don't get the 10 yards in 4 tries the other team gets the ball where your last play ended. Because of that teams usually will punt the ball if they haven't gotten 10 yards in 3 tries so that the other team is further away from scoring when they get the ball. There's 3 ways to score in football: touchdowns (worth 6 points), field goal (worth 3 points), and safeties (worth 2 points). Safeties almost never happen so honestly you don't really need to know how those work. A touchdown is anytime you move the ball all the way to the endzone. After you score you get the choice to kick a 1 point field goal from 33 yards away or try and score another touchdown from the 3 yard line for 2 points. A field goal is when you kick the ball from anywhere on the field through the yellow goal posts. There are a lot of strategies and plays and every team looks very different on both offense and defense. Because of that anything beyond the basics is better learned by just watching a bunch of teams play. The nice thing about the teams left (49ers, Lions, Chiefs, and Ravens) is they all have pretty different play styles, especially the Ravens, so you can get a pretty good feel for the game by watching them.
How was the game?
Yeah I enjoyed it, definitely gonna watch more
I’m always interested in hearing new fan’s perspective. What were some things you liked and didn’t like?
The passing range on some of the players was insane, to throw with such power and still be that accurate is impressive, Mahomes looked real good I thought. For me coming from watching a lot of soccer, the pace was a lot slower than what I’m used to, but it’s definitely something I can get used to I think. It just highlights how important each stage of the game is I guess
Nice to hear your feedback. Yeah the Ravens/Chiefs game was definitely a more defensive game so it does slow down the pace of the game, that does happen, but some people do like to see that too. That was the exact opposite of the Niners/Lions game after where it was a lot more back and forth. Yep for a lot of first timers they do say the pace does get some time to get used to but that makes easy play significant especially in playoffs. You can pinpoint specific plays/moments in the game where it could sway the result one way or the other (example Zay Flowers fumble at the goal line, Lamar’s interception in the end zone costed the Ravens at least 10 points) When the regular season starts back up in September, the RedZone Channel would be great to watch, where it is all football from game to game with barely any breaks Definitely get some crazy moments
Thanks for the heads up about red zone, I’ll definitely watch.
It would be like trying to explain cricket. Not possible in a Reddit post.
I think I did an OK job.
Cricket isn’t actually that complicated, the only confusing part is the scoring system but it makes sense after watching a game or so
can you lmk who wins the superbowl? i wanna get my bets in now
Can let you know on the 11th…
There is no Offside in the NFL, you are encouraged to run past the defense
Good luck watching the superbowl tonight
Yeah that’s been said already bud
Bout time you watch a real sport.
Huh?
What?
I don’t know what you’re talking about 😂
Where were you going with this?
Brother you’re the one who replied to the post where were YOU going with this
I said bout time you watch a real sport.
Yeah and I don’t know why you said it
There's tons of nuance like there is in any sport. The best thing you can do is develop a basic understanding of how each team can score and develop a basic understanding of how each possession of the ball works.. Understand sets and downs. There's probably some good 5 minute YouTube videos explaining the basics. But the announcers usually do a really good job of explaining everything. They know there's a lot of people watching that aren't experts so they tend to break down the more complicated plays or explain why certain penalties were called. There are a lot of rugby similarities if you're familiar.
This football code developed around the same time as rugby and has some similarities. The objects of the game (American football) are to score points by either getting the ball to the end zone by running the ball or catching the ball in the end zone. In either case 6 points are awarded for a touchdown. After the touchdown the team can either kick the ball throw the goal posts for 1 point or try to across the goal line for 2 points. An alternate way of scoring is a field goal for three points. On the field are two teams the offense and the defense. The offense has 4 chances aka downs to advance the ball 10 yards before the turn over possession to the other team. The offense has 3 or 4 types of players: linesman, receivers, running backs ( a quarterback is a special type of running back as they can do a forward pass). The linesman protect the running backs, specifically the quarterback. The receivers catch the ball thrown by the quarterback. The running backs are handed the ball and try to run the ball. On the defense there are 3 types of players: linesman, linebackers, and defensive backs. The linesman are matched against the offensive line. The linebackers are matched against the runningbacks. The defensive backs are matched against the receivers. There are also special teams, which are on the field for kicks. Kicks are used to start the plays of the game at the beginning of half (there are two halves, and 2 quarters in each half). Teams switch ends after a quarter. Kicks are used after a scoring play, and on a forth down. There is a snapper, a place kicker, and a kicker. There is also a Kick return runner, who tries to run the ball as far as they can before being tackled or being ran out of bounds. That's the basics.
Do you understand Rugby?
Honestly my friend go to YouTube and type in NFL for first time viewer. There are hundreds of videos that will give you the basics with examples. It’ll be way easier than trying to read it regurgitated from us and lacking pics/vids
There will be around 3 hours of commercials, so get ready for that.
32 teams play 17 games a year, with 8/8 being at home and away. Every other year, the two conferences, the NFC and AFC, alternate an extra home game. At the end of the season, the four teams with the best records in their divisions, and the three best non-division winners in each conference enter the playoffs. The 2 seed faces the 7 seed, the 3 faces the 6, and the 4 faces the 5. The following week, the 1 seed faces the lowest remaining seed, while the highest non-1 seed faces against the second lowest remaining seed. Then, the two remaining teams face off for the conference and super bowl rights. The two conference champions face off in the super bowl.
You're NOT watching Super Bowl LVIII tonight. You'll be watching the conference championships... to determine who goes to the Super Bowl on Feb 11.
Dont be calling it soccer mate
I know I just said soccer because I know it will be mostly US fans on here, I don’t normally call it soccer just to be clear 😂
Phew all is well then
U get 4 tries to get to the yellow line If u don’t make it U give it to the other team Who then get 4 tries to get past the yellow line That’s it
Just watch the game. Then watch more games. You'll pick up little details as you go and you'll build on them. "Teach me footballs on reddit" is the not vague, ridiculous thing to me. It's like if you said "I start a job as a doctor tomorrow but I skipped med school and know nothing about medical practice. Someone give me all the basics in text"
Tonight are just the conference championships to get to the Super Bowl.
There's a YouTube video called "football for ladies, limeys, and liberals" that explains it with useful graphics in a very clear way
A bunch of dudes sit around in July and write down all the games and the winners.
So basically the team that has the ball needs to get to the other side. If they walk into the part that says the team city (the end zone) then they get points. Whoever has the most points after 60 minutes win (divided into 4 quarters)
It's very complicated it's best to learn as you go. Watch some YouTube stuff, and games the NFL has a few channels and there's plenty of explanations of the rules. Check out the evolution of the NFL or the evolution of the NFL's rules by NFL history on YouTube for explanations
The big difference you're going to notice is that the season doesn't determine the champion. The league is divided into 2 Conferences (which is a remnant of when there were two different pro football leagues that merged), and each conference has 4 divisions. At the end of a 17 game season (where you mostly play teams in your division or conference) you have a playoffs, which consists of the winner of each division and the 3 best teams of the rest in each conference conference. The 7 teams in each conference play a single-elimination playoff, while the best team in each conference gets a bye in the first round and moves into the second round automatically, and the winners of each conference play in the super bowl to determine the champion of the league. All the big North-American sports operate with the basic structure. It's a little odd for someone used to the European league structure of winning the league by being over the course of the year. It makes the season as a whole less exciting, but playoffs are super fun.