- Each team has 11 players on the field. The offense gets four tries, called downs, to gain 10 yards.
- A touchdown is worth 6 points, a field goal 3 and a safety 2.
- A game is four 15-minute quarters. The play clock gives the offense 40 seconds to start each play.
- A tied regular-season game gets one 10-minute overtime, and both teams get the ball.
American football looks complicated because a lot happens between plays. The game underneath is simple. One team tries to carry the ball down the field in short bursts. The other team tries to stop it.
Learn the field, the downs and the scoring, and the rest starts to make sense.
The field
The playing field is 100 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide. Lines cross it every 5 yards, and numbers count up from each goal line to the 50 in the middle.
At each end is an end zone, 10 yards deep. Getting the ball into the other team's end zone is the point of the game. The goalposts stand at the back of each end zone.
Downs: four tries to go 10 yards
The team with the ball is the offense. It gets four plays, called downs, to move the ball at least 10 yards. If it makes it, the count starts over with a new first down.
That is what "2nd and 7" means on the screen. It is the second try, and there are 7 yards left to gain.
On fourth down the offense has to choose. It can punt the ball away, try a field goal, or go for it. If it goes for it and comes up short, the other team takes over at that spot.
How teams score
| Score | Points | How |
|---|---|---|
| Touchdown | 6 | Carry or catch the ball in the other team's end zone |
| Extra point | 1 | A 33-yard kick after a touchdown |
| Two-point conversion | 2 | One play from the 2-yard line instead of the kick |
| Field goal | 3 | Kick the ball through the goalposts |
| Safety | 2 | Tackle the offense in its own end zone |
After a touchdown the scoring team picks one: the kick for 1 point or the conversion for 2. Most of the time it kicks.
The clock
A game has four quarters of 15 minutes each, with a halftime break after the second. Real games last about three hours because the clock stops often.
It stops after an incomplete pass, when a team calls one of its three timeouts per half, and at the two-minute warning before the end of each half. Between plays, the offense has 40 seconds to snap the ball.
Turnovers and penalties
The defense can take the ball away in two ways. An interception is a pass caught by a defender. A fumble is a ball dropped by the player carrying it and recovered by the other team.
A yellow flag on the field means a penalty. Most penalties move the ball. A false start costs the offense 5 yards. Holding by the offense costs 10. Pass interference by the defense puts the ball at the spot of the foul and gives the offense a new first down.
Overtime
If a regular-season game is tied after four quarters, the teams play one 10-minute overtime. Under a rule adopted in 2025, both teams get a chance with the ball, even if the first one scores a touchdown.
If the score is still level when the 10 minutes run out, the game ends in a tie. In the playoffs there are no ties. They keep playing until someone wins.