Football Zombie (PvZ1+2)

**Football Zombie** is a zombie. Football Zombie first appears in Level 2-6, and he is the eighth zombie encountered in Adventure Mode.

Football Zombie, while just as durable as most other weaker varieties, wears a helmet that makes him even stronger than a Buckethead Zombie.

## Suburban Almanac

 Toughness: very high
Speed: fast
 Football Zombie gives 110 percent whenever he's on the field. He's a team player who delivers both offensively and defensively. He has no idea what a football is.

## Strategies

### Adventure Mode and Survival Mode

The player obtains the Hypno-shroom after beating Level 2-5, so they can try to hypnotize the Football Zombie to make the level easier when instant kills are not enough, and the Football Zombie is just as effective for the player as against them.

The Suburban Almanac also advises the use of a Magnet-shroom, which removes his helmet, making him no different than a faster Zombie. Otherwise, this zombie is very dangerous, being fast and having very high health, so tons of firepower will have to be piled onto him in order to defeat him with brute force. He's not the biggest threat, but never underestimate what he could do.

The use of heavy damage plants, such as Melon-pult or movement restricting plants, such as Snow Pea, Kernel-pult, and Winter Melon, are other options. If these options are unavailable, use an instant kill such as Squash. Spikeweed and Spikerock can heavily damage the zombie as he approaches the player's plants, though the two are better when in front of a Wall-nut, Tall-nut or a Pumpkin to stall him while being damaged. Also, Gatling Pea is useful to weaken their helmets quickly once the player buys them. Using Gatling Pea is better when combined with Torchwood.

Football Zombie also has a larger than usual hitbox, which means he can trigger an armed Potato Mine in a Pumpkin. This can either be a blessing or a curse, as while it allows the Football Zombie to be easily eliminated, it can cause the Potato Mine to miss other zombies.

### I, Zombie

Deploy this zombie when very large amounts of damage needs to be absorbed (sometimes, it may be more efficient to use a Ladder Zombie instead if there is a Snow Pea, as frequently less damage would need to be absorbed if the zombie in that row was able to move at a normal speed, and the freezing effect can't go through the ladder). Magnet-Shrooms are to be avoided per usual.

## Trivia

* In Zombies On Your Lawn, the Football Zombie states that he used to play football, contrary to his almanac description which states that he does not know what a football is.
	+ However, as the first part of the description implies that he used to play the sport, he might be only unable to recognize a football.
* Most zombies lose their left arm when they take enough damage. The Football Zombie loses his right arm instead (unless he has eaten a Hypno-shroom).
	+ Football Zombie, Dancing Zombie (when moonwalking), Zombie Yeti, and the hypnotized zombies (excluding Football Zombie) are the only zombies in *Plants vs. Zombies* that lose their right arm before death.
* If a Football Zombie chews on a Garlic, he will not stop and make a face, but he will instead go instantly to another lane.
* Football Zombie himself has the same health as a regular zombie (ten hit points); the only reason why his toughness is so high is because of his helmet, which absorbs seventy hit points. Because of this, Football Zombie's hit points are on par with an Imp, despite him being much bigger than the Imp, and he has less hit points than a Pole Vaulting Zombie or Ladder Zombie (seventeen hit points each).
* If a Football Zombie is hit by butter while running, he may get paralyzed in mid-air with both of his legs above the ground. This may also happen if he is frozen by an Ice-shroom. This happens due to his running animation.
	+ Football Zombie is the only zombie that can be frozen in mid-air. Balloon Zombies and Pogo Zombies cannot be frozen while they still have their balloon and pogo stick, respectively, even though they can be slowed down.
	+ Spikeweed and Spikerock can still damage Football Zombie when he is in mid-air.
* Football Zombie, Giga-Football Zombie, Zombie Bobsled Team, Balloon Zombie, Dancing Zombie, Backup Dancers, and Imp are the only zombies that fall backward when they die.
* Football Zombie has the second toughest headwear, the toughest being Giga-Football Zombie's headwear.
* He is one of the fastest headwear zombies, with the other being Digger Zombie while he is underground.
* The football helmet protects Football Zombie from projectiles and some plants like Spikeweed even though they mostly hit him in the other body parts except for lobber plants.
	+ This applies to any other headwear zombies.
* Football Zombie (with his helmet) makes the same sound when hit as Conehead Zombie and Digger Zombie.
* Football Zombie is one of three zombies to have facepaint, the others being Gatling Pea Zombie and Giga-Football Zombie. All of these characters have their facepaint under their eyes.
* Football Zombie is the most powerful zombie to show up in a first wave as he was in Column Like You See 'Em (not including Survival: Endless).
* Imp, Newspaper Zombie (after the newspaper is destroyed), Football Zombie, and Giga-Football Zombie are the only zombies that can look straight at the player's house.
* Many promotional images for the game show the Football Zombie as having a piece of dirt stuck in the mouth guard of his helmet.
* In the game, Football Zombie's eyes are red and he has black makeup on his face while in the artwork which is on promotional images, his eyes are normal and he does not have the eye black makeup on his face.
* There is a glitch that when the Football Zombie is hypnotized, the dirt kicks in front of the cleats rather than behind.
* For some reason the Football Zombie's eyes appear slightly red tinted, though not as red as a Giga-gargantuar's eyes. This red tint never appears again in any of this zombies subsequent appearances with new art including artwork from this game.
* He is the first zombie to not have a twisted leg