American Football

Does anyone want to TRY and explain the rules of American Football ???

The offense tries to move the ball, in a series of discrete plays, from the point of possession to the end zone.

Each attempt is a called down.  If you move the ball to ten yards past the point where the series of downs started, the count of downs resets.  If you fail to do at least this by the end of the fourth down, you give the ball to the other team.

Successfully reaching the end zone (goal area) is worth six points, and allows you to try a kick for one point, or try to make it into the end zone again from the 2-yard line for two more points.  If you don't think you'll make it to the end zone - typically on fourth down, or when time is low - you can try a kick for 3 points.

The offense and defense line up on each side of the ball and must remain on that side of the ball until it is "snapped". Snapped= man with hands on ball delivers the ball to a player behind the "line of scrimmage". All forward passes must originate from behind the line of scrimmage. The play is over when the ball carrier is tackled (any part of the body other than the hands and feet touch the ground) or the player goes out of bounds(solid white line on either side of the field).

The defense is allowed to use their hands to move aside players while the offense is not allowed same privilege. If the defense holds a team for 3 plays without a first down (the reset as posted previously) the offense may elect to punt the ball on the next play. The punt occurs when a offensive player drops the ball and kicks it down the field. The ball then is the defense's responsibility. This is simply a method of change of possession with the kicking team's objective of forcing the other team to go farther for a score. One other quick rule you can observe before the ball is snapped. The offense is generally allowed one man "in motion" (movement going away from or lateral to the line of scrimmage) before the ball is snapped. The defense can move at will as long as they do not cross the line of scrimmage prior to the snap. hope this helps. Without prior knowledge of the basic rules the game can look like complete chaos.

And now, John Cleese.

Historically I believe american football is more closely related to rugby or australian rules football than soccer.  Rules gradually evolved to accomodate passing and limit the defense to encourage scoring. By spreading everyone out and limiting holding and pre snap movement, plus the evolution of helmets, pads etc american football has become a sport of violent collisions and at the professional level throwing the ball.

I think you are correct that football is closer to those than soccer.  A side note, though:  if I remember correctly, the current games that go by "football" "rugby" "soccer" (and similar) all have a common ancestor, and were called football because they were played on foot, and were thus playable by the common man (as opposed to things like polo).