Australians seeing the game for the first time often feel confused as Gridiron is a highly technical game. At a glance it looks like an incomprehensible mass of players dressed in armour, engaged in a stop-start game. It is anything but, and once you have the simplest grasp of the rules and the roles of the players, you will quickly find yourself becoming just as excited and involved as any American fan.

Aim of the Game

Unlike Rugby or League where the game tends to flow continuously until such an event as a team scoring, or a penalty, Gridiron is based on series of 4 'downs' within which the offensive team has to reach its goal of advancing the ball past the 1st down marker. The ball is advanced by running a 'play' where the ball is either thrown forward by the Quarterback to a receiver and caught, at which point he advances the ball on foot, handed off to a player by the Quarterback and advanced on foot, or passed laterally or backwards to a ball carrier who advances the ball. The ball can only be forward passed once (and only from behind the line of scrimmage) per play, but can be passed backwards or laterally as many times as is wanted, and from any point on the field. The play is dead when the ball carriers knee makes contact with the ground. The referee then 'spots' the ball at the point where the ball was when the play became dead. This is the spot where the next play is run from. If during the offence's 4 downs it advances the ball past the 1st down marker, the marker is advanced 10 yards from the last 'spot' and the offense is given another 4 downs to reach the 1st down marker, and so on, until it scores, or runs out of downs.
When the offense runs out of downs it either punts the football downfield hoping to get a good defensive position, or attempts a '4th down conversion' to reach the 1st down marker and get another 4 downs.