American football shares with rugby the essence of being a territorial sport in which points are scored by carrying the ball to the other side of the field, but the similarities end there. Each team, with more than 50 players, is divided into sections: offense, defense and special teams. The progress of a match – 60 minutes of play that takes place over three hours – alternates opportunities for each attack, called unitto score points. A concept based on spectacularity, since each play can lead to touchdownthe prize for reaching the end of the rival field, the final area. The generous pauses that intertwine the entire meeting facilitate infinite commercial spaces and a succession of actions with extreme physical explosiveness. A product that arrives in Spain, which is hosting an NFL regular season game for the first time, which will be played this Sunday by the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Commanders at the Santiago Bernabéu.
How do you move forward?
When an offense receives the ball, it has four attempts or low move forward ten metres. That’s why each sequence starts with 1st and 10, which refers to the attempt (1st) and the meters to cover. Each play updates the count, because once the ball is in motion, the offense can advance or retreat. That is, the next one could be 2nd and 4 or 2nd and 20. When the team reaches yards ahead, they re-count and get another first below with ten meters to the next. So until you reach the end of the field, the touchdown. The aim of the defense is to avoid this. If an attack uses up four attempts without reaching the first mark below he must deliver the ball to the opponent where it remained, so it is common for the fourth below It is a kick to push the opponent away and not make his task easier. This key decision depends on many factors. First, the yards left for the first below: A 4th-and-1 is not the same as a 4th-and-20. Second, position: The further infield you are, the more risk-averse you are. And third, the score, as there are moments in the game, with time running out, when giving up possession is no longer an option.
The players: attack and defense
Each team has 11 players in each sequence, whether it’s offense, defense or special teams. Him quarterback He is the conductor of the attack: he receives instructions on which play to make via the headset, but has a lot of leeway to change it depending on what he observes on defense or the timing of the game. In general, he can pass the ball to his team running back to make him run, throw a pass to one of his receivers or, via slate or improvisation, run with him himself. The goal of the defense is to prevent the advance, a constant adjustment depending on the virtues demonstrated by the attack. If you move the ball by running, you will have to concentrate your forces to stop the run and you will leave the receivers more free. Another key decision is when to take risks by sending players on the hunt quarterback or when to stay behind waiting for the ride.
The annotations
The main score in American football is the touchdown: travel through the countryside and reach the final area rival is worth six points. And it gives the right to conversion. The easy one, with one point, is a club kick from close range. It is the most common. The difficult, with two points, gives the attack only one chance to enter final area from the two-yard line. If the defense stole the ball on any of the conversion attempts and returned it in the same sequence to the other end of the court, they would score two points. A rare recent addition. The other option that the add attack has is through the file field goala stick kick in which the line throws the ball back eight yards so that a player, the holderkeep it, and the kicker or soccer player try to stick it between the sticks. It is increasingly common to see kicks further away, but the probability of success decreases after 50 yards. Since those eight yards must be added to the ten between the 1-yard line and the sticks, it is rare to see kicks behind the 40-yard line of the opponent’s field. The defense can also score a touchdown steal the ball and return it in the same action. Also to safety: two points for tackling the opponent inside his own goal area.
How is possession changed?
Transition plays between offense and defense are a special teams issue. The game starts with a kick-offa kick with the ball in support in which the defending team passes the ball to the attacking team, an action in an open field which returner —a specialist—can bring the ball to the final area rival and get a touchdown. It’s not normal. The moment you release the ball, the attack sequence will begin. Whenever a team scores, they must return possession in this manner, unless the rush of the scoreboard forces them to insert a onside kickan attempt to maintain possession which involves kicking from one’s own 34-yard line, allowing the ball to advance ten yards and recovering it before the opponent does. An unsuccessful operation. When a team doesn’t want to play the quarter belowremoves the ball with an onside kick, a point. The other way to change possession is turnoverswhen the owner of the oval loses it. It can happen via an interception: a defender receives a pass from the quarterback– oh tinkerwhen the ball escapes the handler’s hands.
The handkerchiefs
The NFL is a pioneer in the use of video technology and in communicating decisions via public address system. It is common to see referees throwing yellow handkerchiefs during the game to indicate that a foul has occurred. At the end of the action, the main referee announces the infringement via the loudspeaker – it can be offensive or defensive – and the punishment awarded, from a number of yards to a first below automatic. All changes of possession and scores are automatically reviewed via video and coaches have a red bandana to call challengereview for other types of actions. They can request it twice: if they both get it right, they receive one more. They cannot request it in the last two minutes of each half or in extra time.
Match times
American football has the peculiarity that in the little more than three hours in which the action takes place, more time is spent not playing than playing. There are four halves of 15 minutes each with a break between the second and third which usually varies around a quarter of an hour; This time, with the halftime musical show – Bizarrap and Daddy Yankee will perform – it will be bigger, like it happens at the Super Bowl. The other transitions – between the first and second quarters, as well as between the third and fourth – do not interrupt the attack sequence, a change of field simply occurs. But the end of the second quarter is like the end of the game, as the second half resumes with one kick-off. If both teams are tied at the end of the fourth quarter, they must play a ten-minute overtime period. The first possession is drawn by tossing a coin, as happens at the start of the game – the winner decides whether he wants to receive the initial possession or the third quarter possession – and whoever scores a touchdown wins, like a golden goal. If the first team scores a field goalthe opponent has a repeated possession. If there were no points in the opening possession, the subsequent score would be final. If they don’t break the tie, they are tied, which has only happened once this season.
