Last updated: 27th September 2026
American football is simpler at its heart than it looks from the outside. Two teams of eleven take turns trying to move the ball into the other team’s end zone to score, and whoever has more points after sixty minutes wins.
Getting there is the interesting part, and that is what this guide is for.
The object of the game
You score in four ways, and they are worth different amounts.
| How you score | Points |
|---|---|
| Touchdown | 6 |
| Field goal | 3 |
| Safety | 2 |
| Try after a touchdown | 1 by kick, 2 by run or pass |
A touchdown is the big one: the ball carried or caught over the other team’s goal line, worth six. A field goal is a kick through the tall posts, worth three, and it is what a team reaches for when the end zone is not going to happen. A safety is the rare one, worth two, and it is the only score the defence makes on its own, when the player with the ball is tackled in his own end zone. After a touchdown you get one more attempt, called a Try: kick it for one point, or run or throw it in for two.
I have taken all four apart, and the arguments about when to go for two, in how NFL scoring works.
One team, but really three
A squad is not eleven players. It is three separate units who swap on and off the field.
The offense (that is how the sport spells it) is the eleven who have the ball and are trying to score. The defense is the eleven trying to stop them. Special teams are the third unit, the kicking specialists who come on for field goals, punts and kickoffs.
Because substitutions between plays are unlimited, every change of possession means eleven players run off and eleven run on. Almost nobody plays both ways. These are specialists, and a player will spend an entire career doing one job.
What each unit actually does is a bigger subject than the rules alone, and I have pulled both apart in how the offense works and how the defense works. For who wears what number and who is allowed to catch the ball, see positions decoded.
Downs: the engine of the game
The offense gets four attempts, called downs, to move the ball ten yards. Make the ten and you earn a fresh set of four. Fail, and you hand the ball to the other team where you stand.
This is the engine. Everything else is built on top of it.
It is also where the commentary comes from. “1st and 10” means first attempt with ten yards to go. “3rd and 5” means third attempt, five yards left. Two numbers, the attempt and the distance, repeated all afternoon.
The full version, including the rulebook’s own wording and why a measurement can come down to the nose of the ball, is on NFL downs explained.
How long a game actually lasts
Sixty minutes, says the rulebook, and it is very specific about it.
NFL rulebook, Rule 4, Section 1, Article 1 (Length of Game). The length of the game is 60 minutes, divided into four periods of 15 minutes each. In the event the score is tied at the end of four periods, the game is extended by an overtime period (or periods) as prescribed in Rule 16.
So: four quarters of fifteen minutes, with a break at halftime. The thing nobody warns you about is that those sixty minutes take about three hours of your evening, because the clock stops constantly, for an incomplete pass, a player going out of bounds, a score, a penalty, a timeout.
Push it further and the gap gets stranger still. The ball is actually in play for only around eleven minutes, by some broadcast analyses. I have pulled that apart in eleven minutes of football, nearly four hours of television.
Kicking, and why a team gives the ball away
There are three kinds of kick, and one of them makes no sense until somebody explains it.
A kickoff restarts play at the beginning of a half and after a score. A field goal is the three-point kick above. And a punt is the smart surrender: on fourth down, rather than fail and give the ball up where they are standing, a team kicks it as far downfield as it can and lets the other side start deep in their own half.
Handing over field position beats handing over the ball. Once that clicks, the punt stops looking like giving up and starts looking like the percentage play it is.
Penalties: what the yellow flags mean
A yellow flag on the grass means an official has seen a broken rule. The team at fault usually loses yards, and sometimes the down is replayed.
These five come up most:
- False start. An offensive player moves before the snap. Five yards.
- Holding. Grabbing or blocking illegally. It costs yards and it wipes out whatever just happened.
- Offside. A defensive player is across the line before the snap.
- Delay of game. The offense takes too long to get the play away.
- Pass interference. Illegal contact with a receiver while the ball is in the air, and the most costly call in the sport.
You do not learn every penalty in a night. Spot the flag, wait for the referee to explain, and the common ones will stick soon enough. The full list, and why pass interference is the one with no limit, is in penalties and pass interference decoded.
Turnovers: how the ball changes hands
Failing on four downs and punting are the tidy ways to lose the ball. The other two are not tidy at all.
An interception is a pass caught by the wrong team, and the defence takes over on the spot. A fumble is a ball dropped while someone is carrying it, and either team can fall on it.
Turnovers swing games more than almost anything else, which is why you will hear a commentator talk about them long after the play has finished.
What happens if the scores are level
If the scores are level after sixty minutes, the game goes to overtime, and the rules are not the same in September as they are in January.
In the regular season you get a single ten-minute period, both teams are guaranteed a go with the ball, and if nobody is ahead when it runs out the game simply ends in a tie. Rare, but real. In the playoffs there are no ties: they keep playing fifteen-minute periods until somebody wins.
The detail, including what the rulebook actually says, is on NFL overtime decoded.
Common questions
Who makes the NFL rules?
The clubs do, collectively. A group called the Competition Committee reviews the game each year and drafts proposed rule changes, taking in views from coaches, players and the clubs. Those proposals then go to a vote of all 32 team owners at the league’s annual meeting, and a change only becomes a rule if enough of them agree. The written rulebook is maintained by the league’s football operations department, and a fresh edition is published every season.
How does a new NFL rule get approved?
By a supermajority vote of the clubs. A proposed rule change needs the support of 24 of the 32 teams, which is three-quarters, to pass. That is a deliberately high bar: it means no small group of clubs can force a change through, and it is why some popular proposals, like the recent attempts to ban the tush push, have failed even with a majority in favour. The core of the modern game traces back to Walter Camp in the 1880s, the “Father of American Football”, who introduced the line of scrimmage and the system of downs. Everything since has been added one approved vote at a time.
How long is an NFL game?
Sixty minutes of game clock, split into four fifteen-minute quarters with a break at halftime. But the clock stops so often that a game takes about three hours to play in real time. Extra time is added if the scores are level.
Where to go next
Each of these takes one part of the game and pulls it apart properly.
- NFL downs explained: four downs, ten yards, and what “first and ten” actually means
- Scoring decoded: every way to put points on the board
- Penalties and pass interference decoded: the flags, and the one with no yardage limit
- Overtime decoded: how a level game is settled
- Replay and challenges decoded: what a coach can and cannot ask them to look at again
- Positions decoded: the numbers, and who is allowed to catch a pass
- Glossary decoded: every term you will hear, in one line each
Beyond the rules themselves: how the NFL works for the season, the conferences and the playoffs, NFL stats explained for the numbers, and the Super Bowl for the one game everybody watches.
Everything on this page is checked against the official NFL rulebook, published by NFL Football Operations.hem with real play clips.