Football season is back! FINALLY!

What's more fun than tailgating with your best friends on a Saturday and cheering for your team? Literally nothing.

But, if you're like me, you've gone a good portion of your life not actually knowing what's going on... even though you've sat through dooooozens of football games; high school games, Super Bowls, and college rivalries alike.

I've survived by gluing my eyes my eyes to the scoreboard and knowing the bare minimum. I cheer when someone on my side cheers, and feign shock when a crazy play happens. Honestly, it's proven to be quite effective.

BUT once you learn a little bit about what's going on, you will find yourself having an infinitely more enjoyable experience.

So without further ado, let's learn a little Football.

Alright, so first thing to know is there will always be 22 players on the field.

11 offensive players and 11 defensive players. Whichever team is on offense is actively trying to score a touchdown. So, they're the ones hiking the ball and trying to run with it to the other side. A coin toss at the beginning of the game is what decides who gets to choose whether or not they're on offense or defense first.

Even though it looks like a like of chaos with every snap (AKA every time the ball is hiked to the quarterback) it's actually very well thought out. The offense is running carefully orchestrated "plays". Each guy has a specific job. They have tons of different plays, and the quarterback is in charge of deciding what the next play they're gonna run is. The defense is responsible for reacting, because obviously they have no idea what each new play is going to entail. They want to make sure the ball makes as little progress down the field as possible.

The offense has 4 chances to move the ball 10 yards down the field.

If they're able to do that, they get 4 more chances to make a touchdown. These are referred to as "downs". So, if you hear "1st and 10" that means they're on their first down and have 10 yards to go. Or if you hear "3rd and 6", they're on their 3rd down and still have 6 more yards to go until they reach 10. If they do make it 10 years in those 4 downs, they call it having "the first down". At this point they're back to 1st and ten, and have 4 more chances to make another 10 yards.

Fourth downs are THE tricky thing.

Most teams never use their fourth down because if they do not make the full 10 yards on their 4th down (last chance) then the ball stays where it is on the field and is turned over to the other team in the exact same spot where the offense left it. Instead teams will use their fourth down to punt the ball away so the other other teams offense will have the ball as far away from their end zone as possible.

It is a BIG deal when a team "goes for it" on 4th down because they are gambling that they will be able to get the first down on their last chance.

This always makes for a nail biter! If they get to a point where there aren't 10 yards left for them before they're in the end zone, you'll hear it called "first and goal", or "second and goal", and so on. The goal is for a team to keep making first downs and drive down the field until they make a touchdown. (Honestly. the word "down" pretty much just means chance/attempt unless they're talking about MAKING a down which means they gained at least 10 yards in 4 snaps)

Each time they score a touchdown they get 6 points, and an extra point if the kicker makes a kick into the field goal. Or if they are feeling extra ~risky~ the team who scored the touchdown can forgo the extra field goal point and try to make two extra points instead by lining up on the 2 yard line and either run or pass the ball into the end zone.

But they only get one try to do this... so that is why most teams stick to the extra field goal point because its not as much of a gamble.

If the offense drives all the way down the field and gets to a fourth down, it may be too risky to go for a touchdown at this point.

The offense will want to get "for sure" points without taking the risk of not being able to execute and get the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. In this scenario, the offense will likely bring their kicker out to kick a field goal and gain their team 3 points. Sure, a touchdown would be better, but in an instance like this it is more important to have a sure shot at gaining points rather than risking not gaining any at all.

Sometimes you'll see the refs throw flags on the play.

This means some sort of rule was broken. For example, a flag could be thrown for a "false start" which is when someone on the offense budges even a TINY bit before the ball is snapped. Or perhaps there was an illegal block, face mask was grabbed, or a whole bunch of other things. If the penalty is on the offense, they may have to move back a certain number of yards. Likewise, if it's on the defense, the offense may get to gain a number of yards toward the end zone.

Football is a very complicated sport and there are countless other aspects to it.

But, these are just the basics to get you more excited about the season! And oh yeah... GO DAWGS!