First you'll notice I reference the "AFC" and "NFC" very often.
These are just conferences.
Each conference has 16 total teams.
These 16 teams are divided into 4 divisions. (North east south west) (4 teams for each)
So for example, if you see that I'm referencing the NFC south I'm talking about those 4 teams alone.
Playoffs: okay you should all know this (I hope). The playoffs are the quest to the Super Bowl for teams good enough to get there (super bowl= champion)
Here's how the playoffs work
There are 12 spots for teams in the playoffs (6 for AFC teams, 6 for NFC teams)
8 of those spots are for the division winners in each conference. (so the team with the best record in each division gets a playoff spot)
The other 4 spots are wild card spots.
The wild card spots are for teams that were good, but just not good enough to win their divisions.
Once the playoff teams are set,the top two teams (ranked #1 and #2) in each conference get a free bye week. (Meaning they were so awesome they get a week to rest up and prepare for future opponents, it's basically a free victory.)
While these teams rest, the other playoff teams compete in whats called "wildcard weekend" (it is called this because every game contains a wild card team)
In each conference the #6 team plays the #3 team while the #5 teams plays the #4 team. (Yes I realize this sounds confusing, I'm trying to make it simple as possible)
After wild card weekend, the teams that won move on to the divisional round. At this point the top 2 teams of each conference come into play.
#1 ranked team plays the lowest ranked team that survived the wild card round
#2 ranked team obviously would then play the 2nd lowest ranked team.
Okay, after these matchups have happened. There is 4 total teams left (2 in AFC) (2 in NFC).
The two in the NFC compete while the two in the AFC compete.
After that, the winner of the AFC conference (best in AFC) plays the winner of the NFC (best in NFC).
This is the Super Bowl. It's best vs best to determine who is the "better" best. ( if that makes sense.)
So that's how the playoffs work and basically how all the teams are structured. If I confused you just ask me to clarify something.
Other football terms and facts that might interest you:
There have been 47 Super Bowls (this year will be 48th)
The franchise (team) with the most Super Bowl victories is the Pittsburgh steelers (they have 6)
The only undefeated team in history is the 1972 Miami dolphins with a perfect record if 14-0.
The basics
I won't write every rule in the NFL just some simple things
Each touchdown is 6 points. After teams score a touchdown they have a choice to kick a 1 point field goal or go for the two point conversion (ball is placed on the two and they need to try to get back into the end zone)
4 quarters (15 minutes each)
A runner is down when a knee touches the ground.
Pulling a offensive players face mask is a 15 yard penalty.
If a team doesn't get to the end zone but are close enough they get to try a 3 point field goal.
The above things were just some that came to mind, there's a lot more to football than what I've mentioned.
NOTE: the goal of this post was to educate you in terms of football information. (Hopefully you learned at least one thing). If you didn't, well then you probably already knew everything about football.
Any questions you have? Feel free to ask!
My next post (in which I update my rankings) should be up by Thursday for those of you who are interested.
Thanks for explaining.I watch football and grew up watching it but I never understood the terminology,like first downs, yard lines and what they meant.What do they mean exactly and how does that affect the teams?
ReplyDeleteI'll try my best to explain (sorry in advance if its confusing.) A football field is 100 yards (108 including the end zones). the goal is to make it to your opponents end zone to score a touchdown. starting from the goal line (line where end zone starts) all the way to mid field is 50 yards. the next 50 go all the way to the other goal line. lets say the patriots have the ball on their own 20 yard line. this means 20 yards behind them is their own end zone and 80 yards ahead of them is their opponents end zone. the defense tries to keep the patriots out of their end zone to prevent losing, meanwhile the patriots are trying to score.
ReplyDeleteheres where first downs come into play. the patriots cant have unlimited chances to score or it wouldn't be fair. so they have 4 downs to try to convert another first down to get another fresh set of downs. since you've said you watch a lot of football, i assume you've seen 1st and 10, or 2nd and 5, 3rd and 1...etc. 1st and 10 means its 1st down with ten yards to go before they get another first down. they have four chances to travel ten yards to keep the drive alive.
so say the pats have 1st and 10 on their own 20 yard line. they run a play and gain 3 yards. the next down will be 2nd and 7, because they didn't get the necessary 10 yards needed to get another first down. 2nd and 7 means its second down with 7 yards left until they get another 1st down. so say they run another play and get 5 yards. now its 3rd and 2 (they still need 2 yards to get a new set of downs)
two things can happen now. either they get a new 1st down and keep going or they don't get a 1st down which makes it 4th down
when its 4th down most of the time teams will punt the ball away to the other team and let them have a try.
however sometimes, (usually when the game is on the line) teams will go for it on fourth down. if they get enough yards needed for a new set of downs they're good, if they dont the other team takes over from where that team left off
okay so say on their own 20 the patriots go for it on 4th down and dont make it. the other team gets the ball and they will be only 20 yards away from the patriots end zone. this is why most of the time teams will punt on fourth down.
so to try to sum this up in bullet points
-you have 4 downs to travel 10 yards to get further down the field
-if you don't get those yards in 4 downs you lose possession of the ball
^wow could it have been that easy as that summary, i think i over complicate things sometimes, hopefully that helped.
Wow this was very helpful! I'm not a sports fan. I honestly had no idea about the rules of football or the way it's structured. This really cleared it up. I never realized there were different divisions. I always hear people talk about football but I never had clue what anything meant; now I (kinda) do. Thanks!
ReplyDelete