OFL: Our Football League

If you think about it, the most obvious thing a team on offense can do to move the ball down the field is to have the "snapper" (actually commonly called the "center") snap the ball to a teammate who simply runs towards the goal, with teammates blocking a path for him/her. A play without a forward pass is simply called a "running play".

I say it's the most obvious thing to do because:

"When the field gets muddy in baseball, they stop the game. When the field gets muddy in football, the players roll in it like boar hogs"
-Ira Berkow, sportswriter

Touchdown (6 points):

If a team is successful in moving the ball all the way down the field and they move the ball past the end of the field, into the "end zone", (the goal area), they score a touchdown, which is worth 6 points. A touchdown can be scored either by having a ball-carrier run into the end zone, or, by having a player catch a pass while in the end zone.

In American football the team with the ball -- the offense -- is given four plays to advance the ball a minimum of ten yards. If the offense cannot advance the ball at least ten yards in four attempts, the other team gets the ball.

"Lord, don't ever phone me the day after a game. I'll either be still getting drunk or lookin' for bail. When you're on a suicide team like I am, you don't wait till next week to start living."
-Mike Battle, New York Jets kick returner

"Football is a game designed to keep coal miners off the street"
-Jimmy Breslin, Columnist

The American version of football has been played in some form or another for a very long time, perhaps for hundreds of years. Like soccer and rugby and baseball it was first officially organized in the nineteenth century. In its present form American football is essentially based on the English game of rugby.