In American football, each team has four downs (plays, attempts) to move the football 10 yards down the field.
Each down begins with a snap or a kick, and ends when the ball or the player in possession of the ball:
- is declared down by an official,
- a team scores,
- or the ball or player in possession of it leaves the field of play.
On each play, the offensive team must get the ball 10 yards downfield (toward the goalposts), from the start of play – this is called “1st and 10.” If the next 10-yard line is less than 10 yards downfield they are to achieve “1st and goal.” If the offense moves the ball past that line, they make a new first down.
If a team achieves 10 yards in four plays or less, it has another four attempts – a new set of downs – to cover the next 10 yards, and they just keep going this way until:
- a touchdown is scored
- they scrimmage the ball to get the first down again
- they kick the ball (either by punting or making a field goal attempt)
There you have the basics of the four downs. Since this is Football 101, we’ll stop there for now. Stay
tuned for more football basics. In the meantime, does anyone else have the Jay Sean song featuring ‘Lil Wayne in their heads now??
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