The NFL stands for the National Football League. The professional American football league has 32 teams. These teams occupy the two leading conferences of the league known as the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference. NFL ranks among the four major sports leagues played in North America.

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The NFL entails an eighteen-week regular season. Its season starts in early September and ends in early January the following year. Every team plays seventeen games, and after the regular season is over, some teams advance to the playoffs. These include three wild card teams and four division winners. They engage in a single-elimination tournament to find a winner in the Super Bowl. Now that you have some background about the National Football League, let us look at the rules that govern this tournament:

The Game and Game Timing

A typical NFL game has two teams with 11 players on the pitch from each group. These two teams compete for 15 minutes in every quarter for a total of four quarters. Every half of the game will have a ‘time-out’ with the half-time interval being 12 minutes. The main aim of the game is to get to the ‘end zone of your opposition.

You can run with the ball past the opponents if you can, or you can pass the ball to teammates who are closer to the ‘end zone.’ Even though every team will have only 11 players on the field, note that every team has 45 players. The most crucial player in the team is usually the quarterback. He dictates the play.

Goal Post, Field, and Ball Dimensions

The NFL professional goal posts must have a crossbar height of 3.05 m (10′) and an inside width of 5.64 m (18.5′). The overall height of this goal post should be 10.67 m (35′) and a depth of 1.98 m (6.5′). These goalposts should have a diameter of around 10.2 – 16.5 m (4″ – 6.5″). Its lower post should have a 1.83 m (6′) high impact padding.

Standard field dimensions for an NFL football pitch should be 53 1/3 yards wide and 120 yards long. The final 10 yards on each side of the field’s length is the ‘end zone, and this is where opponents score. These dimensions are standard for football played at professional, college, or high school level.

It then means that the playing area is only 100 yards. After every 5 yards, there is a yard line boundary, and in every 10 yards, there is a field number.

The NFL ball should form a prolate spheroid. Its weight and size should be long circumference – 28 to 28 ½ inches, long axis – 11 to 11 ¼ inches, weight – 14 to 15 ounces, short circumference – 21 to 21 ¼ inches.

Scoring

If you watch NFL matches, you will note that scoring can happen in several ways. The points are given as follows:

  • Safety – 2 points
  • Field goal – 3 points
  • Touchdown – 6 points
  • Try after touchdown – 1 point

Touchdown plays

When is a point called a touchdown?

  • When the ball is behind, on, or above the plane in the goal line of the opponent team. The ball should also be in possession of an opponent player who ran with it from the field to the end zone.
  • When the ball is in possession of an airborne runner and is behind, on, or above the goal line plane, some part of the ball could be inside or over the pylon.
  • When the opponent player possesses the ball, and it touches the pylon. However, only the player’s feet or hands must have touched the ground before the ball lands on the pylon.
  • Any legally inbound player recovers or catches a ball behind, on, or above the goal line.
  • The referee awards a team a touchdown if they have been unfairly denied one.

Try

After a touchdown, the team has an opportunity to score two or one additional point. The referee blows the whistle for the start of the ball, and that is when the Try begins. The team with the touchdown score shall place the ball:

  • 15 yards from the defensive goal line team and go for a Try-kick; or
  • Anywhere between or on the inbound lines
  • Two yards from the goal line of the opponent team and go for a Try run or Pass

 

Field Goal

When does a field goal happen?

The kick should be a dropkick or placekick by the opponent team behind or on the scrimmage line or a fair-catch kick.

After kicking the ball, it must touch one of the opponent players or the ground before passing through the goal.

The entire ball should pass the goals’ vertical plane. This is the region between the uprights and above the crossbar.

Match officials

An NFL match has seven officials who are:

  • The main referee
  • The umpire
  • Down judge
  • Side judge
  • Line judge
  • Field judge
  • Back Judge

Despite having many officials, the referee often has the final say for the majority of decisions. The work of match officials begins 100 minutes before kickoff and ends when the referee blows the final whistle.

Summary 

The NFL has 19 rule categories, and most have subcategories. The above rules are a brief view of some of those rules. If you are an NFL fan, consider reading all the applicable rules on the NFL website for you to understand the game better.