How to read a football field.

I don’t know about you, but there are a few things I think of when I hear the word “hash:”

• My favorite Chicago brunch – a scrambled egg skillet with potatoes!
• Something I may or may not have tried in college…
• A tool used in social networking– truly the best way to label your topics in Twitter.

But only recently did the word “hash” make me think about football…Let’s start from the beginning.

The Football Field
From grade school up through the NFL, a regulation football field measures a little more than an acre – 100 yards long and 53 yards wide. The look of the field is also pretty standard with the exception of team logos and designs spray-painted in the end zones and on the field.  The Boise State Broncos even have blue Astro Play turf on their field, the only stadium in the world!
Oh, and those colorful logos and lines that appear during live games, yep, only on the screen.  That’s ok, I thought they were real too for a few seconds…
At both ends of the field are white lines to mark the end zone, which extends 10 yards on each side to the back line. By the way, get to know the end zone – this is where the magic happens (scoring). And finally, a thick white line borders the whole field to mark the boundaries.

Other white lines run parallel to the end zone lines and cross the field at 5-yard intervals with the 50-yard line in the center. These lines are crisscrossed by two rows of dashes that run parallel to the sidelines known as hash marks! So, there you go – a new use for “hash.”
These marks help the players, officials, and the fans keep track of the ball. Before each play, officials place the ball between these rows closest to where the previous play ended.
Goalposts with 10-foot vertical poles topped by 18.5-foot horizontal crossbars sit in the middle of each end line at the back of each end zone. Vertical poles extend from either end of the crossbar to provide a target for kickers attempting a field goal or an extra-point conversion.
And that, ladies, is Football Field 1o1.