Alabama Football
Alabama is home to many of the football teams in the United States of America. For those of you that aren’t too familiar with the sport, foot ball is a competitive team sport. Alabama football involves numerous organized leagues, and teams as well as numerous unorganized play of the game. The object of the game is to score points by advancing the football into the opposing team's end zone. The ball can be advanced by carrying the ball, or by throwing or handing it from one team mate to the other. Points can be scored in a variety of ways, including carrying the ball over the goal line, throwing the ball to another player past the goal line or kicking it through the goal posts on the opposing side. The winner is the team with the most points when the time expires and the last play ends. However, tied games can occur if the score remains tied after the conclusion of an overtime period.
Through time, football has developed to involve common techniques of playing the game, as well as players' positions, and offensive and defensive structures. While competitive football in Alabama is carefully regulated, numerous variations of football in Alabama have developed for casual play. Alabama football is also a popular spectator sport, especially with the college teams.
Rules of the Game
American football is played on a rectangular field of one hundred twenty yards, one hundred ten meters long by fifty three and one third yards or forty nine meters wide. The longer boundary lines are sidelines, while the shorter boundary lines are end lines. Near each end of the field is a goal line; they are one hundred yards apart. A scoring area called an end zone extends ten yards beyond each goal line to each end line.Yard lines cross the field every five yards, and are numbered from each goal line to the fifty-yard line, or midfield. Two rows of lines, known as inbounds lines or hash marks, parallel the side lines near the middle of the field. All plays start with the ball on or between the hash marks.
At the back of each end zone are two goal posts that are connected by a crossbar. Each team has eleven players on the field at a time. However, teams may substitute for any or all of their players, if time allows, during the break between plays. As a result, players have very specialized roles, and almost all of the forty six active players on a team will play in any given game. Thus, teams are divided into three separate units: the offense, the defense and the special teams.
The aim of the offense is to score touchdowns, which are points that are the goal of the game. A team scores points by the following plays: A touchdown is worth six points. It is scored when a player runs the ball into or catches a pass in his opponent's end zone. After a touchdown, the scoring team attempts a conversion. The ball is placed at the other team's three-yard line. The team can attempt to kick it over the crossbar and through the goal posts in the manner of a field goal for one extra point. A field goal is worth three points, and it is scored by kicking the ball over the crossbar and through the goal posts. Field goals may be placekicked (kicked when the ball is held vertically against the ground by a team mate) or drop-kicked (extremely uncommon in the modern game). A field goal is usually attempted on fourth down instead of a punt when the ball is close to the opponent's goal line, or, when there is little or no time left to otherwise score. A safety is worth two points. A safety is scored by the defense when the offensive player in possession of the ball is forced back into his own end zone and is tackled there, fumbles the ball out of his end zone, or commits intentional grounding in his end zone. Certain penalties (primarily blocking fouls) by the offense occurring in the end zone also result in a safety.