Flag Football Unit

Physical Education/Mrs. Mack-Thomas

How to Play American Football

Football, also known as American football, is a team game that combines strategy and physical play. The object of football is to advance the ball up the field by running and passing the ball, and scoring a touchdown by crossing the ball into the end zone. Professional football, high school football, and college football are all highly popular spectator sports in the United States.

Flag Football History

Football originated from a primitive game of rugby played in America in the 1840s. In 1880, Walter Camp, considered the "Father of American Football," exchanged the traditional rugby scrum for a line of scrimmage. In 1882, the four down system was introduced to negate Princeton and Yale's strategy to hold the ball without trying to score. The following year, Camp reduced the number of players to eleven, and introduced the seven-man offensive line, with a quarterback, two halfbacks, and a full back. The first professional game was played in 1895. The National Football League (NFL) began in the early 1920s. Today, football is one of the most popular sports in the United States.The game of Flag Football has been around nearly as long as tackle football.
Flag football was developed on military bases inthe early 1940's as a recreational sport for military personal. Recreational leagues soon developed in the late 40's early 50's. At that time St. Louis already enjoyed a long history of organized league play. St. Louis is the birthplace of the first national flag football organization - the National Touch Football League. It was formed in the 1960's and has played a national championship game since 1971. It also produced the first standardize rulebook and itsHall of Fame for flag football players has been adopted by other national organizations.The first non-intramural screen flag national championship game was first played in 1981.

Flag Football Rules

Games are played between two teams of seven (7) players each. A team may play with six (6) players, but their opponent may choose to play with seven (7). A football field is 120 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide, including a field of 100 yards and two end zones of ten yards each. All efforts must be made to reduce heavy contact. Tackling a player involves a motion to de-flag ONLY. Any other motion to obstruct a player’s motion is ILLEGAL. ANY CONTACT other than de-flagging against a passer in a passing motion is a penalty. Charging, running through an opposing player who has position on the field, on either offense or defense is illegal. Deflagging occurs when the clasp of the flag being worn by the ball carrier is judged by the Referee to have been unclipped by a defensive player. If a flag falls off inadvertently, play is still live until the player with the ball whose flag fell off inadvertently (or was deflagged prior to possession) is “tackled” by one hand touch from an opposing player. Deflagging prior to possession is a defensive unnecessary roughness penalty.The team that takes control of the ball has four attempts, called downs, in which to advance the ball ten yards. When the offense succeeds in gaining ten yards they receive a new set of downs. If the offensive team fails to gain ten yards after four plays, the other team gets possession of the ball.

How to Play

The ball is put into play by a snap, where the center passes the ball between his legs to the quarterback. The quarterback then has the option to throw, hand-off, or run the ball.

A down ends when:

  • The player with the ball has his flag yanked off
  • A pass is thrown out of bounds or hits the ground
  • The ball or player with the ball goes out of bounds
  • A team scores
  • An official blows their whistle to signal that a down is over

A change of possession occurs when:

  • A team fails to gain ten yards after four plays
  • A player from the defensive team catches a pass in the air (interception)
  • An offensive player drops the ball after displaying they had possession and a defensive player recovers it (fumble)

A touchdown is worth six points. A team scores a touchdown when a player runs into or catches a pass in the opponent's end zone. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Football Terms

Punt a kicker kicks the ball from a snap, and kicks it as far down the field as possible for the offense to try to run back as far as they can before getting “tackled” (to avoid turning the ball over on downs)

Downs each attempt a team has to get 10 yards (a team has 4 downs to get 10 yards)

Snap the ball is hiked from the ground into the quarterback’s hands through the legs of his teammate

Interception a ball that is thrown by the quarterback and caught by a defensive player

Fumble when a player loses possession of the football (dead ball in flag football)

Touchdown when a player takes the ball into the opponent’s end zone.

End Zone the end of the playing field on opposite sides to indicate the scoring zone

Deflaggingunclipping of the flag worn by an offensive player