From: esti@quads.uchicago.edu (Paul A. Estin)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Cultural Exchange (was Re: Schooling)
Date: 8 Oct 92 05:02:59 GMT
Reply-To: esti@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: U. Michigan Cognitive Psychology


Gah.  OK, let's clarify some things about American football.  (I
would've stuck my authoritarian nose in earlier, but I'm way behind on
my news reading these days.  Anyways, I'm pretty up on the rules of
most sports, especially major American sports, so feel free to direct
inquiries my way on US football, baseball, basketball, etc.)

DM had a good question, why does a US football game with an hour on
the clock last 2.5 hours?  Actually, it's more like 3 hours!  The
reason, of course, is that the clock is not in constant motion... it
stops on an incomplete pass, a play ending out of bounds, a score, a
change of possession, a penalty, an injury, a team calling time out,
the "two minute warning" before the end of each half, halftime itself
(plus the end of the first and third quarters), the infamous TV time
out for more commercials, a ceremony complete with fireworks to
celebrate a player reaching a milestone like 200 touchdown passes
thrown, the Goodyear blimp crashing into the stadium and killing
thousands, a surprise visit by the Pope, a funeral for a quarterback
who gets accidentally decapitated, a strategic need for groundspeople
to help the home team by changing the entire field from grass to
Astroturf, a need to make a trade with another team to replace the
lineman killed by the blimp, and so forth...

Next question: what is a "pass"?  Well, there are two kinds of
"passes"...

A *forward pass*-- what most US football fans think of as a pass-- can
occur only once per play, and must be thrown from behind the line of
scrimmage (the yard line where the play begins).  (It doesn't matter
if the ball is caught behind or in front of the line of scrimmage,
it's where it's thrown *from* that counts.)  A forward pass is usually
thrown by the quarterback, who's also the player who receives the snap
from center to begin each play, though other backfield players (those
who start behind the line of scrimmage, as opposed to linemen) also
occasionally throw forward passes.  A pass is complete if the player
catches it within the field of play.  (There are some specifics I
won't go into now.)  Otherwise the pass is incomplete (play is dead,
clock stops, ball goes back to line of scrimmage for the next play).

A *lateral* goes partially backward.  There can be as many of these as
possible on one play, pitching the ball more or less sideways.  But if
a lateral is dropped, it's a fumble, which is why it tends to be done
a maximum of once per play (such as the quarterback receiving the snap
from center, and pitching the ball out to a halfback or fullback),
except in desperation situations, such as being behind and receiving a
kickoff with no time left on the clock.  Anyone want to relate the
famous "The Play" from the Stanford/Berkeley game of several years
back?

Let's see, what else?  There was a question of how many players had to
be at the line of scrimmage.  For the defense, there's no maximum
(though it would be dumb to rush *all* 11 players), and either no
minimum or something pathetic like 2.  More commonly, about 3 to 6
defensemen are on the line on a given play.  For the offense, there is
a minimum, I think 7 (but these can include receivers, who aren't
"linemen").  I could explain about all the different positions in
American football, but it'll have to wait for another day... this is
taking too long as it is.

On the subject of rugby players vs. US footballers... I suspect those
who felt that either team would win at its own game are correct.  If
the ruggers would "win easily" at US football, they'd have tried it by
now, you can bet.  I do want to caution, though, that US football
*does* have some *very* speedy players... indeed, due to some rule
changes encouraging more passing, speed is encouraged more than ever.
Or do you Aussies really want to pit your best speedsters against
ours, given that some of ours (Willie Gault, Ron Brown...) have been
Olympic sprinters? <-- unnecessary chauvinist dig. :)

We'll be back to our game after these commercial messages...

Snark
Paul Estin
estin@csmil.umich.edu
Newsgroups: alt.callahans