Can someone tell me the rules for football?

Question

I watch it all the time with my boyfriend, but I don't understand very much of it. Just a few months ago I was very anti-football. I'm trying to give it a go.

Answer 1

Once the decision of who will start on defense and kicks off and which endzones each team will defend, each game and after every touchdown or field goal begins with the kickoff.  The ball is placed on a one-inch plastic tee 30 yards from the defense's endzone(35 yards in college football).  A specialized player known as the "placekicker" makes a short dash to the tee and kicks the ball.  The ball is aimed to wherever would be most detrimental to the offense, though whomever catches the ball on that side is designated the kick returner and will try to advance the ball forward by running.  If the ball goes out of bounds, the offense can choose to start either where the ball first went out of bounds or 30 yards from the point of the kick.  If  happens to be caught in the offense's own endzone, the offense can choose to either run the ball as far as it can or he can simply kneel in the endzone to signal a "touchback"--a sign to stop the play and start the next play 20 yards from the offense's endzone.

However, the ball sailing through the air in a kickoff is a considered a "loose ball"--any side may gain possession of it and thus become the current offense.   Usually when the defense is behind in points with very little time left on the game clock, they can gamble and kickoff the ball a short enough distance so that the defenders can recover the ball. If the defense cannot get to the ball before the offense does, then the offense will start the next play much closer to the defense's endzone--certainly a gamble with very high costs for the defense.

Answer 2

Mark S gave a good quick review but I'll add one thing, for every 15m someone runs they have to bouce the ball or touch it to the ground.

The site below is a fairly easy site to get around and provides some simple definitions and good video examples.

The game might look like a mess to start with but you'll start to enjoy it.  Your boyfriends a lucky guy.

Answer 3

Love aussie rules- love life! As a female collingwood member I Love the game and would sum it up as:

Share the ball with your mates and dont let the others have it. Intentionally run into and bump someone out of the way if it helps your mate keep the ball. Not allowed to be a bad sport by doing things like sitting on the ball so no one else can get at it, refusing to do as the umpire says, punching or intentially hurting other players. The objective is to get more points than the others and you get six for kicking the ball through the space between the big posts, 1 point for the ball going through by any other means or if it touches the posts. 1point for going through the space between one of the big posts and the smaller post at its side. To get a score you have to get the ball there by any combination of the following- you may kick it with your foot any way that you like, or punch it with your hand, or carry the ball by running with it just so long as the ball makes contact with the ground about every 5 paces (can bounce it or just dab it on the ground and keep running). If the ball goes over the boundary line play stops and the umpire will toss the ball back in with his back turned so that he cant play favourites. its bad manners to argue with the umpire, if you do he can take the ball of you and give it to the other side.  If you try to cheat by deliberatley kicking the ball out of bounds the other side get it, or if you break any of the rules the other side gets it. When the ball is in the air if you can take a clean catch (mark) you get possession of it and the other side cant do anything until you make the first move but if you muck about and take too much time getting started the umpire will call play on and normal play resumes. If the others have got the ball you can try to get it off them by grabbing (tackling) them even if that means dragging them to the ground. If an opponent deliberately trieds to avoid you and you catch them while they still have the ball, you get the ball instead. No pushing people in the back, no contact to the head and importantly no dangerous play- that is you are not allowed to legal things if you could expect that to injure the player (ie kick at the ball when the ball is laying next to a players head). Well thats the not so technical crash course.

Hope it helps.

Answer 4

Briefly........

18 players to a team (plus 4 on the bench who can come on at any time. There is no limit to how many times players can interchange)

Kick through the big sticks (without being touched) is a goal = 6 points

Kick through little sticks = 1 point

4 x 20 minute quarters plus time on

Not allowed to push in the back, tackle above the sholders, tackle below the knees or throw the ball.

Must get rid of the ball if tackled. Must kick, handball or puch to dispose of the ball.

If your team mate kicks the ball to you (and the distace of that kick was 15 metres or more) and you catch it on the full that is called a 'Mark' and you get a free kick from the spot where you took the mark.

Answer 5

Adding to Mark S and soxy190, check out www.afl.com.au the AFL official website. They have links that outline the rules, history and stats for previous games, records etc.

It's great that you're giving it a go. But I warn you footy is an extremely addictive sport- once you start watching it, you might not be able to stop :-D