Dear johnfrommelbourne-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question. I?d be delighted to assist you in better understanding and
enjoying American football. I?ll try to answer your questions in the
most general terms since football, like most other sports is rather
complicated when one factors in strategies and hypothetical scenarios.
In it?s simplest form, these are the rules, explanations and
description of the game, field, equipment and activities of football
players
FOOTBALL RULES
http://www.sportsrules.50g.com/americanfootball.htm
What the rules do not address, as is evident to someone who is not
familiar with the game, is what takes place out on the field in
situations like you mentioned. ?What is that guy saying, and why is he
saying it??, ?What are they doing between plays?? and so forth. Having
been exposed exclusively to American football all my I can put myself
in your position, having no knowledge whatsoever of the ins and outs
of soccer or rugby, so I?ll approach my answer here as if it were ME
asking YOU the questions about those sports and try to think about how
well I?d understand the answers if I were you ? so, here goes:
?What is happening when the teams are bent over facing each other and
one player, the controller of the play apparently is calling out
numbers before the ball is thrown to a presumably pre-planned
position.?
THE SIMPLE EXPLANATION:
He?s communicating in code with his men about the play that is about to take place.
THE COMPLICATED EXPLANATION:
First, the ?controller? as you called him is called the Quarterback.
He is the leader of the team. In professional football (which is
presumably what you are asking about) the Quarterback decides who will
run the ball on each play ? sometimes with the assistance of a
coordinator off the field via a wireless speaker in his helmet. Plays
are pre-planned and you?ll often see a Quarterback looking at his
wrist just before each play where his tiny playbook if conveniently
strapped to his arm and usually covered with a flap attached with
velcrose.
Before each play the team controlling the ball (offense) and the team
defending their goal (defense) meets in a tight group on each side of
the ball called a ?huddle?. Here they quickly plan their ?tentative?
strategy for the next play. The offense, by way of the Quarterback
receives their instructions and the defense, by way of an appointed
team captain, will try to devise a way to prevent them from
successfully carrying it out. Once the plays are decided both teams
move to the scrimmage line (the imaginary line dividing the two teams
determined by where the ball is at that moment). The team members
assume their appointed positions and bend down heed-to-head just
inches from their counterpart. The Center (the offensive player who
approaches the ball and places his hand on it) will wait for a verbal
command from the Quarterback before he ?snaps? or passes the ball
between his legs to the Quarterback standing directly behind him. Just
before the ball goes into play the Quarterback will bend down behind
the Center and call out a series of ?codes?. What this tells his
teammates, but not the opposing team since they don?t use the same
codes is whether or not the play should remain the same as decided in
the huddle or if the Quarterback, through his observations of the
positions of the defending team, wants to change the play at the last
minute. In addition, the Quarterback is communicating to his men how
long they must wait before moving. If any one of them moves before the
ball is moved, a 5-yard penalty is in order and that play is lost, so
it is important that they all understand exactly when the ball will be
passed from the Center to the Quarterback. On the other hand, if the
Quarterback can ?trick? one of the men on defense to jump across the
line before the ball is in play, THEY are penalized and the ball is
moved forward 5 yards closer to the goal.
Each player has his own position at the line. Each player and each
space between each player is assigned a secret number for play
purposes. Passing plays (where the ball is thrown) and running plays
(where the ball is handed or pitched to another player) are also
assigned secret numbers or names that only the players know. In
addition, areas of the field are assigned secret numbers or names as
and so are the running patterns of the players.
There are also ?Ends? (who generally run down field and catch the
Quarterback?s passes) and ?Backs? (who generally take direct
hand-off?s from the Quarterback and run with the ball). These are
players who lined up at each end (the name ?Ends?) of this diagram and
usually two of them behind the Quarterback (thus the name ?Backs?).
The result most commonly is a sort of T-shaped formation of players.
Consider this then (where X is an offensive player and the space
between the players is denoted by a number):
1 X 3 X 5 X 7 X 8 X 6 X 4 X 2
The Center is the X between 7 and 8 and he is hovering above the ball
ready to pass it between his legs to the Quarterback directly behind
him. The Quarterback approaches the back of the Center; bends down
with his hands out, examines the position of the defense and calls out
the play in code or changes the play with a new code.
For example, if the Back directly behind the Quaterback is designed
the secret phrase ?Alpha? and he is supposed to take the ball from the
Quarterback and run through the space designed 8 (between the center
and the man to his right), you may hear the Quaterback announce
?Alpha-8?. He will do this to his right and again to his left to make
sure his men all hear the play. To add complexity to this, he will
tell his men when he plans to take the ball. The command for the
Center to pass him the ball and set the play in motion is ?hike? (it
sounds like ?hut? when they yell it though). If the Quarterback sees
that the defensive players are jittery and likely to jump across the
line, he may try to fool them by commanding his men to stay in place
until he says ?hike? three times. How do they know this? They decide
in advance which number designates the number of commands to start the
play. The Quarterback usually decides this in the huddle, but once on
the line the Quarterback will often remind them by saying the number
again. This is also done in code, so if the number of commands before
starting the ball in play is 3, and this is understood in advance by
the team members to be the first number called out by the Quarterback,
you may hear him yell out:
(To his left) ?Three ? Alpha ? Eight?
(Turning to his right to make sure everyone hears it)?Three ? Alpha ? Eight?
Hike! Hike! Hike!
?at which time the Center will pass him the ball and the play will
start in motion.
There are often hundreds of practiced plays like this and they are
sometimes changed throughout the game to keep the opposing teams from
becoming wise. So, clearly this game is not a contest between two
groups of brawny knuckleheads ? from a player?s perspective, football
is indeed a thinking man?s game.
?Also what is the idea of someone calling out, "3rd and down" or
whatever is said at certain intervals of play.?
The offensive team (the team controlling the ball) has four chances to
advance the ball ten yards or more. These chances are called ?downs?.
Each play is considered a down, therefore the first play is ?1st and
10?. If that play results in a 2 yard gain, the next play is measured
as ?2nd and 8? and so forth. If the offense does not achieve a minimum
of ten yards in four tries the defense gets control of the ball and
assumes the role of offense.
?Also just how far can the designated kickers actually kick a ball, if
they were competing for pure distance that is.?
The idea of kicking the ball is to get it as far down field as
possible, so, generally speaking, a kicker tries to kick the ball as
far as he can. Sheer distance for distance sake is not the issue so
much as the distance from the point from where the ball is kicked.
That is to say that if a kicker needs to kick the entire length of the
field, he would try to do that, but if the kicker need only to kick
the ball 40 yards to reach other end of the field, he would try to
kick it at least 40 yards.
?I heard that at the superbowl the kicker who won the game kicked 42
yards but the same player had kicked 48 yards to win another key game
earlier than that. I also
heard, perhaps a myth, that All-American Jim Thorpe could kick the
ball nearly 80 yards?
Jim Thorpe was indeed a legendary player but the 80-yard kick was
actually made by University of Pennsylvania's Gustav ?Gus? Sonnenberg
during a college game.
DA YOOPER ? WALL OF FAME
http://rds.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K=%22longest+kick+ever%22+nfl/v=2/TID=i021_20/SID=e/l=WS1/R=3/H=0/*-http://www.dayoopers.com/fame1.html
The truth is stranger than fiction though. Tom Dempsey once succeeded
in making a 63-yard field goal (when considering the length of the end
zone ? the area between the goal line and the goal post ? amounts to
almost 80 yards). Dempsey was born with no right hand, and no toes on
his right foot (which was his kicking foot). He wore a modified shoe
with a larger toe area.
WIKIPEDIA ? TOM DEMPSEY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Dempsey
I this answers your questions, but don?t forget the link I gave you at
the beginning of this response. It will answer most of the questions
you have about American football and it does so in fairly simple terms
for the beginner. For your convenience I shall mention it again for
you here:
FOOTBALL RULES
http://www.sportsrules.50g.com/americanfootball.htm
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher
INFORMATION SOURCES
Defined above combined with first hand knowledge
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINES USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
NFL, AMERICAN FOOTBALL, RULES |
,
3 Comments
)