| This contest is fueled by the following news: |
|  The word is out: Miss Piggy is dressing like Jessica Simpson, monkeys are taking over office cubicles and networking druids are found yapping into cellular phones. What does this all mean? In short -- Super Bowl ads are on the way. Despite declining television viewership in recent years, the Super Bowl has proven resilient. The game is slated to air February 5th on Walt Disney's ABC and is expected to drawn an audience of 90 million people. Super Bowl commercials are expected to cost $2.5 for 30 seconds of air time, topping that of $750,000 for the Olympics. The Super Bowl usually is the most watched broadcast during the year.
American Football Rules:
The objective of game is to accumulate more points than the opponent within a stipulated time.
Field and players:
American football field:
The game is played on a rectangular field 120 yards (110 meters) long and 53 1/3 yards (49 meters) wide. Goal lines were drawn on each end of the field at a distance of 100 yards of each other. The 10-yard end zone is located between the goal line and end line.
The yard lines are marked after every 5 yards across the field. They are numbered from 10 to 50, from goal line to the centre, thus denoting the number of yards left for a team to earn a touchdown.
The goal posts, in the form of two high bars with a crossbar between them, are found at each end zone. Goals are scored over the crossbar between the high bars.
Simultaneously, each team can have 11 players on the field. Teams can replace any or all the players during the plays. Usually, players specialize in attack, defense or special teams (at moments, when the ball is hit by the legs). In every game, almost all 53 NFL team players can take part in the game in some or the other role.
Goal:
The goal size in American football is practically the same size of the goal in rugby. The height of the crossbar is 10 feet (3 meters), the distance between the uprights - 18.6 feet (5.7 meters). In stadiums, used exclusively for football, goals are often installed on a single central support.
Duration of game:
A game lasts for 4 periods of 15 minutes each with an intermission after second period. Each such period is called a "quarter". Time is stopped when the ball (or player with the ball) is out of the field, the forward pass was not received, the ball is passed onto another team, points were scored and in some other cases. Therefore, the game usually lasts for about three hours.
In the case of a tie in the NFL, an additional 15 minutes (overtime) is given for a result. In this case, the team, which earns the points in the first instance, is declared the winner. In regular games, if the scores are level even after completion of 15 minutes overtime, the game is declared draw and in playoffs, additional overtime is given till a winner is decided.
Advancing the ball:
The ball used in American football games:
The game consists of game points. In the beginning of each point, the ball is placed there (on the same line), where the previous game point ended.
The team possessing the ball has four attempts to advance the ball by 10 yards forward in the direction of the opponent's end zone. Such an attempt is called a "down". If the attacking team advances by 10 yards, it gets another 4 attempts to advance for the next 10 yards. If the attacking team cannot advance by 10 yards in 4 attempts, the ball is given to the opponent's team on the same line, on which the fourth attempt was done. During the telecast of match, game formulas -1st and 10 are displayed on monitors, which means that presently it is the 1st attempt and 10 yards to go for subsequent attempts. The distance, for which the ball is to be advanced, is measured by two markers, joined by a chain of 10 yards. Referees set the markers on the side lines of the field. Every time, when the attacking team advances the balls beyond final marker, the initial marker is brought to line, where the ball was and the game starts with first attempt.
Except for the beginning of game and second half and also scoring the points, the ball is brought back into the game with a throw back between the legs by the so-called snap. At the beginning of the game, both the teams are lined-up opposite each other along the line (line of scrimmage), on which the ball is placed. The central player passes the ball back through his legs to the player of his team - the quarterback (usually, the main player in the team and the leader of the offence).
Players can advance the ball in two methods:
Player can run with the ball in their hands, in this case, he should pass on the ball to other members of the team.
By throwing the ball (Pass). Only one forward pass is allowed during a down. The number of passes across the field or back is not limited.
A down is over when one of the following happens:
The player with the ball is forced to fall on the ground; (Game begins from the line, where he was forced to ground);
The player with the ball goes beyond the boundary of the field or the ball touches the ground outside the field; (game starts on the line, where the player crossed the boundary line, but if he downs the ball before crossing the boundary line, then the game begins from the same line, simply the attacking team loses one attempt). |
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