AMERICAN FOOTBALL – It’s hard to watch the bouncing pigskin (ball) and it’s hard to understand any sport when first introduced to one.
I thought that this would be a good time to introduce some American culture to my friends in Brazil. After all, they have been kind enough to teach me so much about this country’s beautiful culture, whether it be sports, food, drink, or the wonderful people in this diverse land.
With the National Football League’s season winding down to the final four games of the season (Championship Round: National and American), Pro Bowl and the Superbowl), I got the idea of posting some general and not so general notes on my blog about football. First, a little history:
HISTORY: History of Football
American football was started in 1879 with rules instituted by Walter Camp.
By Mary Bellis, About.com Guide
The Pigskin aka Playing Ball
Derived from the English game of rugby, American football was started in 1879 with rules instituted by Walter Camp, player and coach at Yale University.
Walter Camp
Walter Camp was born April 17, 1859, in New Haven, Connecticut. He attended Yale from 1876 to 1882, where he studied medicine and business. Walter Camp was an author, athletic director, chairman of the board of the New Haven Clock Company, and director of the Peck Brothers Company. He was general athletic director and head advisory football coach at Yale University from 1888-1914, and chairman of the Yale football committee from 1888-1912. Camp played football at Yale and helped evolve the rules of the game away from Rugby and Soccer rules into the rules of American Football as we know them today.
One precursor to Walter Camp's influence was William Ebb Ellis, a student at the Rugby School in England. In 1823, Ellis was the first person noted for picking up the ball during the soccer game and running with it, thereby breaking and changing the rules. In 1876, at the Massosoit convention, the first attempts at writing down the rules of American football were made. Walter Camp edited every American Football rulebook until his death in 1925.
Walter Camp contributed the following changes from Rugby and Soccer to American football:
• one side retained undisputed possession of the ball, until that side gives up
the ball as a result of its own violations
• the line of scrimmage
• 11 on a team instead of 15
• created the quarter-back and center positions
• forward pass
• standardized the scoring system, numerical scoring
• created the safety, interference, penalties, and the neutral zone
• tackling as low as the knee was permitted - 1888
• a touchdown increased in value to six points and field goals went down to
three points - 1912
The NFL or the National Football League, was formed in 1920.
POSITIONS:
SIMPLE ENGLISH IN AMERICAN FOOTBALL: Make sure you checkout the video and English vocabulary lesson at the website below. It will teach you a little more about the game involving not a ball, but a pigskin. Enjoy!
http://funeasyenglish.com/classroom-free-online-english-language-lesson-january-30.htm
TERMINOLOGY: (taken from Dummies.com and written by Howie Long and John Czarnecki);
Football fans have their own language when they talk about the game. To keep up, it’s useful to know what terms like down, extra point, safety, and snap mean.
• Down: A period of action that starts when the ball is put into play and ends when the ball is ruled dead (meaning that the play is completed). The offense gets four downs to advance the ball 10 yards. If it fails to do so, it must surrender the ball to the opponent, usually by punting on the fourth down.
• End zone: A 10-yard-long area at both ends of the field — the promised land for a football player. You score a touchdown when you enter the end zone in control of the football. If you’re tackled in your own end zone while in possession of the football, the other team gets a safety.
• Extra point: A kick, worth one point, that’s typically attempted after every touchdown (it’s also known as the point after touchdown, or PAT). The ball is placed on either the 2-yard line (NFL) or the 3-yard line (college and high school) and generally is kicked from inside the 10-yard line after being snapped to the holder. It must sail between the uprights and above the crossbar of the goalpost to be considered good.
• Field goal: A kick, worth three points, that can be attempted from anywhere on the field but usually is attempted within 40 yards of the goalpost. Like an extra point, a kick must sail above the crossbar and between the uprights of the goalpost to be ruled good.
• Fumble: The act of losing possession of the ball while running with it or being tackled. Members of the offense and defense can recover a fumble. If the defense recovers the fumble, the fumble is called a turnover.
• Hash marks: The lines on the center of the field that signify 1 yard on the field. Before every play, the ball is spotted between the hash marks or on the hash marks, depending on where the ball carrier was tackled on the preceding play.
• Interception: A pass that’s caught by a defensive player, ending the offense’s possession of the ball.
• Kickoff: A free kick (the receiving team can’t make an attempt to block it) that puts the ball into play. A kickoff is used at the start of the first and third periods and after every touchdown and successful field goal.
• Punt: A kick made when a player drops the ball and kicks it while it falls toward his foot. A punt is usually made on a fourth down when the offense must surrender possession of the ball to the defense because it couldn’t advance 10 yards.
• Return: The act of receiving a kick or punt and running toward the opponent’s goal line with the intent of scoring or gaining significant yardage.
• Sack: When a defensive player tackles the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of yardage.
• Safety: A score, worth two points, that the defense earns by tackling an offensive player in possession of the ball in his own end zone.
• Snap: The action in which the ball is hiked (tossed between the legs) by the center to the quarterback, to the holder on a kick attempt, or to the punter. When the snap occurs, the ball is officially in play and action begins.
• Touchdown: A score, worth six points, that occurs when a player in possession of the ball crosses the plane of the opponent’s goal line, or when a player catches the ball while in the opponent’s end zone, or when a defensive player recovers a loose ball in the opponent’s end zone.
NOTE: I'll be posting more about this sport in the coming days and weeks. I hope at the very least, you learn some basics and some new English.
