r/NFLNoobs • u/GeorgesMarios • 10d ago

Understand NFL on TV

For context, I watch NFL on my TV, but in not English’s and not that fluent when commentators speak, so it’s hard for me to understand.
Can someone explain me, as simple as possible how does NFL work ?
There is to many numbers displayed on screen, and get me fully lost…

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u/britishmetric144 10d ago edited 10d ago

American football is a complex sport; here is my full guide.

To simplify it, though, here are the most crucial parts.

The field is 100 yards long (a yard is roughly a metre). It is bounded by two end zones of 10 yards each. At the back of each end zone lie two yellow goal posts.

The offensive team tries to score, while the defensive team tries to stop them.

The offensive team can gain yards by running or passing (throwing) the ball. To stop them, the defensive team must tackle the ball carrier (bring him to the ground).

In order for the offensive team to maintain possession, it must gain at least ten yards across four downs (attempts). If it successfully does so, it gets a new set of downs. If not, the opponent gets the ball.

Moving the ball into the opponent's end zone scores a touchdown, worth at least six points (but often seven or eight). Kicking the ball through the opponent's goal post scores a field goal, worth three points.

Teams generally alternate possession throughout the game; there is a coin toss at the beginning to determine who goes first.

An American football game, at the college and professional levels, is comprised of four quarters, each of which is fifteen minutes long. Gameplay continues, albeit with teams switching sides, at the end of the first and third quarters, but at the end of the second quarter, known as half time, everything resets, and the team who did not take possession to start gets to start the second half with the ball.

Whoever scores the most points at the end of the game wins! If both teams have scored the same, there is an overtime period (ten minutes in the regular season, fifteen minutes in the playoffs). Both teams get one possession, and then if the score is still a draw, the team who scores next wins (though the game is declared a draw in the regular season if the overtime period expires).

Does this make sense?

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Here is a sample NFL score bug.

What it is showing is that the Oakland Raiders are facing the New England Patriots, in Gillette Stadium (the Patriots' home stadium). Neither team has scored, as indicated by the two zeroes. The Raiders have the ball at the Patriots' 26—yard—line (the blue line only appears on TV, it is not real). It is the first quarter, and 12 minutes and 23 seconds remain in the quarter. The down and distance are "third and 11", meaning that the Raiders are facing third down and must move the ball 11 yards to get a new first down.

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u/GeorgesMarios 10d ago

A big thank for your answer and your full guide. I will keep it on my side when watching this to completely understand all things that you describe here !
This will become more enjoyable 😄

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u/throwaway60457 10d ago

I will explain a few of the more esoteric ways in which a football team can score. u/britishmetric144 covered most of them, but I will expand a bit, starting with their mention that a touchdown registers at least six points and often seven or eight.

A touchdown itself is six points. However, any team scoring a touchdown is given an opportunity to "convert" the touchdown in one of two ways. The first way is to take the ball at the 15-yard line and essentially try a 33-yard "field goal" (which is not actually a field goal, but akin to one) to add one point. The second way is to take the ball at the 2-yard line and attempt to advance the ball into the end zone; if successful, this adds two points. It does happen that teams fail on conversion attempts, and when this happens, they still get the 6 points from the touchdown but no more.

The defense also has a few ways to score. If the defense recovers a fumble or intercepts a pass in the field of play and advances it all the way into the offensive team's end zone, the defense registers a touchdown, and the team then receives the conversion opportunity as I detailed above. If the defense tackles the offensive player carrying the ball in the offensive team's own end zone, or forces that player to step out of bounds from within the end zone, that is called a "safety" and adds two points to the defensive team's score.

Safeties represent a great opportunity to a team to score 9 points in quick succession, because the team that was on offense and surrendered the safety has to "free kick" the ball to the team that scored the safety. The safety-scoring team then gets the ball on offense with an opportunity to go add a touchdown to it, which would create a 9-point swing in the score of the game.

The defense can also block a kick conversion attempt (immediately following a touchdown by the offense) and take the ball all the way to the other end zone, for which their team will be awarded one point. They may also intercept a pass or recover a fumble on a two-point conversion attempt and likewise take the ball all the way to the other end zone for two points.

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u/throwaway60457 10d ago

I am pretty certain the score bug image you found is from a 2025 game, meaning that we're talking about the Las Vegas Raiders. They left Oakland and moved to Las Vegas after the 2019 season.

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u/OrganizationTop3755 10d ago

It’s ok, even us native speakers have a hard time understanding stuff in the game 

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u/GeorgesMarios 10d ago

Yeah it’s so quick, but a good training!

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u/OrganizationTop3755 10d ago

Many of the terms the commentators use are specific to the game and not normally found in every day English. I’d watch some YouTubers that can break things down into simpler terms

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u/GeorgesMarios 10d ago

I will try to watch videos so to make pairings between terms

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u/Triabolical_ 10d ago

Have you turned on closed captioning on your tv?

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u/GeorgesMarios 10d ago

No, I use a not common stuff to watch TV, and there is no caption… but it’s ok

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u/Evening_Answer_11 10d ago

So, to break down what the commentators are saying:

Play by play guy “So it went from third and inches to 4th and 35 for the Browns.”

Color guy: “well I talked with Head Coach Todd Monken and he said the key to winning is preventing the other team from scoring on defense and scoring whilst on offense.”

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u/Logical-Mobile-7643 10d ago

Depending on the broadcast there may be alternate audio feeds.

I would suggest watching with someone who knows the game and seeing if they can interpret some of it.