Whisky's Football Fresher
Okay, so obviously I'm not done with the Running Play verse yet. So I thought I'd whip together a bit of a primer for those of you who aren't familiar with gridiron/American football ... like I was before I started that monster of a fic.
Something really weird happened to me over the course of this fic. I'd had this idea about Eames being a college football player, and Arthur being completely at odds with the football team, and it was cliché and I liked it enough to embark on it, but before I did, I had to reconcile with the fact that I knew literally nothing about football. I didn't know any position except for 'quarterback', I didn't know when football season even is. So I researched for a week before I even started on TRP, because I wanted it to be accurate and I didn't think I would be able to gloss over the football altogether and get away with it, so I read and read and read. And I kept reading over the course of writing this fic, and that's when the Weird Thing happened: ngl you guys, I started to like football.
I KNOW
I watched the Super Bowl. *hangs head*
More importantly, I started to understand football. Which was not easy, because even when I was trying to find, like, football for dummies, basically every website still talked like it was addressing someone with at least a basic knowledge, which I had not. So that's what I'm hoping to achieve here, a more basic guide, and maybe enhance the story for you guys a little bit.
PS I AM NOT AN EXPERT I'M A CANADIAN DON'T STONE ME IF I GET ANYTHING WRONG
I. Offense/Defense
I felt a little bad writing this story and only stopping briefly describe how a game goes, but it didn't make sense to halt the narrative and exposit when I was writing from Eames' and Arthur's perspectives, since they both understood the game very well. The only real chance I got was when Arthur was describing it to Ariadne, and then I wanted to simplify for the sake of not confusing everyone.
This is how it goes, and here's what basically separates football from other team sports: Each team is divided into three specialized units, which are the offense, defense, and special teams (kicker, punter, returners, Kurt on Glee, blah blah don't worry about it). When the offense team is on the field, the other team's defense is on the field, and vice versa. The offense team's job is to move the ball down the field; the defense's job is to stop them, or even push them back if they can.
Here is a picture that shows the defense/offense formations I mainly visualized when describing the Proclus Mustangs' plays:
The defense are in what's called 4-3 formation (for the four linemen, and the three linebackers). The offense are in the I-formation (because of the way the backs are lined up. Eames is the halfback).
To simplify the offense team, which is the team I focus more heavily on, you've got linemen (blockers), backs (Eames), and receivers.
The linemen are the offensive line (O-line). They stand across from the defensive line at the line of scrimmage, represented by that black line, which is the place where the last play ended (so, however far the ball managed to advance before the player carrying it was tackled). Their job is to protect the quarterback and give him enough time to either pass or hand off the ball, and to clear the way for runners. They rarely handle the ball.
The receivers, obviously, are your wide receivers, who are on either side of the line so as to avoid the defensive line when they try to catch a pass. (Wide receivers, and the cornerbacks who cover them, are generally the fastest players on the field. They're light and speedy, but not really compact enough to take the pounding the average running back does.) The receiver runs up the field and if he's lucky, he catches the ball when the quarterback throws it to him. This is a pass play.
If he doesn't catch it, it's an incomplete pass; the play ends and the ball returns to the line of scrimmage for them to try again. If a member of the defense team catches the ball, the teams' roles become switched; he can run with it and the offense players have to try and stop him. Once he's been tackled, run out of bounds, or has scored a goal, possession of the ball changes and the other team is now on offense.
The role of the tight end changes. He might be a blocker; he might catch a pass. As was pointed out in the story, fooling the defense is a big part of the game. Whichever side the tight end is on is referred to as the strong side, since there are more linemen stacked on that side.
The backs vary in their specialties, but are mainly runners. Quarterback aside, there are two in the normal I-formation: a fullback and a halfback, or tailback. Eames is the halfback. Generally there are two kinds of halfbacks: slower, heavier, more compact guys ('power backs'), who can smash right through the defense line; and lighter, less bulky guys ('scat backs', haha wat), like Eames, who have to rely on their fullback and O-line to open up running lanes for them. They have a lower centre of gravity and have to be extremely maneuverable to dart around the defense, or slip through the 'holes' between linemen. Then they just run or 'rush' the ball as far as they can. And that, ladies and gents, is a running play.
To touch on the defense team briefly, they're mainly set up to cover the offense. The defensive linemen occupy the offensive line and tackle the running back if they can; the linebackers are your all-rounders who can either rush the quarterback or cover receivers; and the defensive backs -- the cornerbacks and safeties -- are your secondary line of defense, covering receivers, trying to stop passes, etc.
I chose the running back position for Eames because it seemed to fit: he's a slippery guy. He can read people. And at the start of the story, what he enjoyed most about playing football was the glory. The running back is a more glamorous position. Physically, he also fits the bill -- kinda short, but wide and muscular, able to take a hit. I also wanted him to have a unique position; there are two wide receivers, two cornerbacks, three linebackers, but usually only one halfback on the field. I chose offense for him because, to me, it's the more complicated unit (again, they're the ones who have to fool the defense), and I thought the variety and trickiness of the plays would appeal to him. Defense plays are more about reacting to offense plays.
On the other hand, middle linebacker (or 'Mike') for Cobb made the most sense to me. The Mike is kind of like the defense team's quarterback. He's a leader. He's versatile, he has the most responsibilities during a play, and he calls the shots. Saito, alas, gets only brief cameos, but he's the strongside linebacker ('Sam'). The other outside LB is known as the weakside or 'Will'. Again, the strong side refers to the side the tight end is on, since there are more offensive linemen on that side (although the strongside LB often is, in fact, the strongest). Linebackers are unlike linemen in that they're a bit more versatile and reactive: what they do during a play depends on what the offense is doing. Whereas a tackle must simply tackle, a linebacker might be called on to blitz the quarterback, cover a player, stop a gap, or intercept a pass. I liked that about the LB position for Saito and Cobb -- they're strong, but must also be smart.
One last note: the linemen in TRP, defensive and offensive both, were pretty much characterized as being more brutish and vicious, particularly in regards to Arthur. This was mainly for the purposes of the story. I'm sure some football players are like that, but I'm sure many linemen are also very pleasant. Hey, I watched Blindside too. But this also represented the crux of Arthur's situation: it would be very hard to stand up to a bully who weighs 300lbs. Even when you know jujutsu.
II. Gameplay
Football games are very structured. They're divided into four quarters. Each quarter lasts 15 minutes (but because the play clock is stopped so frequently, this gets dragged out a lot).
Within the quarters are series. A series is the stint of time the ball is in one team's possession. When it switches possession, it's a new series. There's no set number of series in a quarter, I just thought I'd mention the term since I used it a few times.
During the series, whoever has possession of the ball plays offense. The offense team is given four chances -- four downs -- to move the ball 10 yards from the original line of scrimmage. If they've moved it 6 yards by their third down, you would call it three-and-four (third down, four yards to go). If the team gets their 10 yards, it's called a first down, and they start over again with four more downs until they either fail to gain a first down or lose possession.
Here's where special teams comes in: If they fail to get 10 yards by the fourth down, the offense will very rarely use their last down for another play. Instead, if they're within range of the uprights, they send out the kicker, who has the chance to kick a field goal and earn the team 3 points. If they're not near the uprights, they send out the punter (yeah, there's a difference, apparently), who punts the ball down the field and away from his team's endzone, so that the other offense team has a longer way to go when it's their turn. The other team's returner tries to catch the ball when it's punted, and runs down the field with it. Wherever he's stopped is where the new line of scrimmage will be.
A change of possession happens after the offense fails to get a first down, or when they score, or when they're on their fourth down and punt the ball to the defense, or when a defensive player makes an interception (catches a pass), or when an offensive player drops (fumbles) the ball and a defense player picks it up.
When either of those last two things happen, the defense can try to advance with the ball to the other team's endzone for a touchdown, but it's generally the offense team who do the scoring. A touchdown is worth 6 points. After a touchdown, the scoring team can attempt to kick the ball through the uprights from the 2-yard line for an extra 1 point. This is why touchdowns are almost always counted as 7 points. However, the team can choose to go for a 2-point conversion by lining up again and trying to run or pass into the endzone, like a second, mini-touchdown. This would give them 8 points. (This happened in the Super Bowl and it was very exciting.)
Safeties are worth 2 points, but they're rare and never happen in TRP, so I won't explain those.
III. Formations
I showed a picture of a 4-3 defensive formation and an I-formation at the top there. Those are pretty standard. However, teams can mix it up almost any way they'd like. There are 11 players on each team out on the field at a time, and depending on how many yards the offense team needs to gain, they can decide how many of those 11 players will be WRs, RBs, or tight ends. Wiki sez: "If the team needs only one yard, it may use three tight ends, two running backs and no wide receivers. On the other hand, if it needs 20 yards, it may replace all of its running backs and tight ends with wide receivers."
Here's an example of a spread offense formation called the shotgun:
I (along with Arthur) found I liked a spread option offense best, especially for the story, because it spreads out the offense players (forcing the defense players to also spread, thus creating more gaps), and also because option offenses like the spread rely on running plays, so it'd give Eames more to do. But the wildcat was more exciting, so that was what featured more heavily.
The wildcat formation often takes place in a spread offense and there are different variations of it. In TRP, Eames would be the one taking the quarterback's position when the ball was hiked (or 'snapped'); he'd then hand it off (or fake the hand-off) to the quarterback and they'd run in opposite directions. At that point, the one with the ball could also throw it to an available receiver. A faked hand-off can look really convincing and this confuses the defense beautifully. The wildcat uses the element of surprise. The best way to stop it is to blow up the play before it can even start, and by the time the defense work it out, there's very little time to adjust.
Is it a feasible strategy in the long run? No, not really. It's kind of a fad play. The Miami Dolphins used it with great success a couple years ago, and other teams picked it up as well, but it's fading out. At the college level, though, it's still a good play, and no matter what -- even if you don't like football -- it is really something to see in action! Here's a video of the Dolphins RB running the wildcat.
(As a point of interest, 'Run to Daylight' is another offensive philosophy, wherein basically the whole offensive line works to seal off a running lane for the RB to run through.)
Last but ... yeah, basically least:
IV. NCAA and the NFL (HERE BE TRP SPOILERS)
The NCAA is mentioned several times. It stands for the National Collegiate Athletic Association and it organizes all athletic programs in American colleges and university. All athletic schools are organized into Division I, Division II, and Division III. Divisions I and II are the ones that offer athletic scholarships. D-I is for the top players. Most professional players come out of D-I schools; they have larger budgets and better facilities, plus you're more likely to get noticed playing on a D-I team.
Proclus is a D-II school, which puts it in the middle of the scale. D-II schools offer athletic scholarships, but you aren't as likely to get noticed unless you're pretty awesome. This year, out of over 300 players who went to the scouting combine, only 6 of those were D-II.
The NFL scouting combine takes place over three days in February. There, players' mental and physical abilities are tested and they have to show off their speed and strength for the scouts and coaches. April is when the NFL draft takes place. There are seven rounds and the team with the worst record from the last season gets first pick of players (second-worst gets second pick, etc). The best players are drafted in the first and second rounds; coming from a D-II school, even with a great record, it's not unfeasible that Eames would be a fourth-round pick.
A lot of trades and changes happen during the draft. Teams don't get who they wanted, etc. In Eames' case, he was drafted by a kind of lame team (the Lions) and then traded to a sort of middle-of-the-scale team (the Seahawks). I skipped over that entire process because, even if it's one of the most exciting events in football, it would be pretty boring in writing.
Anway, I hope all of this helps in any way. I tried to make it as un-confusing as possible. xD Feel free to correct me where I might have slipped up, or ask more questions to clarify anything. And hopefully I will have something less boring and more fic-like up soon!
Something really weird happened to me over the course of this fic. I'd had this idea about Eames being a college football player, and Arthur being completely at odds with the football team, and it was cliché and I liked it enough to embark on it, but before I did, I had to reconcile with the fact that I knew literally nothing about football. I didn't know any position except for 'quarterback', I didn't know when football season even is. So I researched for a week before I even started on TRP, because I wanted it to be accurate and I didn't think I would be able to gloss over the football altogether and get away with it, so I read and read and read. And I kept reading over the course of writing this fic, and that's when the Weird Thing happened: ngl you guys, I started to like football.
I KNOW
I watched the Super Bowl. *hangs head*
More importantly, I started to understand football. Which was not easy, because even when I was trying to find, like, football for dummies, basically every website still talked like it was addressing someone with at least a basic knowledge, which I had not. So that's what I'm hoping to achieve here, a more basic guide, and maybe enhance the story for you guys a little bit.
PS I AM NOT AN EXPERT I'M A CANADIAN DON'T STONE ME IF I GET ANYTHING WRONG
I. Offense/Defense
I felt a little bad writing this story and only stopping briefly describe how a game goes, but it didn't make sense to halt the narrative and exposit when I was writing from Eames' and Arthur's perspectives, since they both understood the game very well. The only real chance I got was when Arthur was describing it to Ariadne, and then I wanted to simplify for the sake of not confusing everyone.
This is how it goes, and here's what basically separates football from other team sports: Each team is divided into three specialized units, which are the offense, defense, and special teams (kicker, punter, returners, Kurt on Glee, blah blah don't worry about it). When the offense team is on the field, the other team's defense is on the field, and vice versa. The offense team's job is to move the ball down the field; the defense's job is to stop them, or even push them back if they can.
Here is a picture that shows the defense/offense formations I mainly visualized when describing the Proclus Mustangs' plays:
The defense are in what's called 4-3 formation (for the four linemen, and the three linebackers). The offense are in the I-formation (because of the way the backs are lined up. Eames is the halfback).
To simplify the offense team, which is the team I focus more heavily on, you've got linemen (blockers), backs (Eames), and receivers.
The linemen are the offensive line (O-line). They stand across from the defensive line at the line of scrimmage, represented by that black line, which is the place where the last play ended (so, however far the ball managed to advance before the player carrying it was tackled). Their job is to protect the quarterback and give him enough time to either pass or hand off the ball, and to clear the way for runners. They rarely handle the ball.
The receivers, obviously, are your wide receivers, who are on either side of the line so as to avoid the defensive line when they try to catch a pass. (Wide receivers, and the cornerbacks who cover them, are generally the fastest players on the field. They're light and speedy, but not really compact enough to take the pounding the average running back does.) The receiver runs up the field and if he's lucky, he catches the ball when the quarterback throws it to him. This is a pass play.
If he doesn't catch it, it's an incomplete pass; the play ends and the ball returns to the line of scrimmage for them to try again. If a member of the defense team catches the ball, the teams' roles become switched; he can run with it and the offense players have to try and stop him. Once he's been tackled, run out of bounds, or has scored a goal, possession of the ball changes and the other team is now on offense.
The role of the tight end changes. He might be a blocker; he might catch a pass. As was pointed out in the story, fooling the defense is a big part of the game. Whichever side the tight end is on is referred to as the strong side, since there are more linemen stacked on that side.
The backs vary in their specialties, but are mainly runners. Quarterback aside, there are two in the normal I-formation: a fullback and a halfback, or tailback. Eames is the halfback. Generally there are two kinds of halfbacks: slower, heavier, more compact guys ('power backs'), who can smash right through the defense line; and lighter, less bulky guys ('scat backs', haha wat), like Eames, who have to rely on their fullback and O-line to open up running lanes for them. They have a lower centre of gravity and have to be extremely maneuverable to dart around the defense, or slip through the 'holes' between linemen. Then they just run or 'rush' the ball as far as they can. And that, ladies and gents, is a running play.
To touch on the defense team briefly, they're mainly set up to cover the offense. The defensive linemen occupy the offensive line and tackle the running back if they can; the linebackers are your all-rounders who can either rush the quarterback or cover receivers; and the defensive backs -- the cornerbacks and safeties -- are your secondary line of defense, covering receivers, trying to stop passes, etc.
I chose the running back position for Eames because it seemed to fit: he's a slippery guy. He can read people. And at the start of the story, what he enjoyed most about playing football was the glory. The running back is a more glamorous position. Physically, he also fits the bill -- kinda short, but wide and muscular, able to take a hit. I also wanted him to have a unique position; there are two wide receivers, two cornerbacks, three linebackers, but usually only one halfback on the field. I chose offense for him because, to me, it's the more complicated unit (again, they're the ones who have to fool the defense), and I thought the variety and trickiness of the plays would appeal to him. Defense plays are more about reacting to offense plays.
On the other hand, middle linebacker (or 'Mike') for Cobb made the most sense to me. The Mike is kind of like the defense team's quarterback. He's a leader. He's versatile, he has the most responsibilities during a play, and he calls the shots. Saito, alas, gets only brief cameos, but he's the strongside linebacker ('Sam'). The other outside LB is known as the weakside or 'Will'. Again, the strong side refers to the side the tight end is on, since there are more offensive linemen on that side (although the strongside LB often is, in fact, the strongest). Linebackers are unlike linemen in that they're a bit more versatile and reactive: what they do during a play depends on what the offense is doing. Whereas a tackle must simply tackle, a linebacker might be called on to blitz the quarterback, cover a player, stop a gap, or intercept a pass. I liked that about the LB position for Saito and Cobb -- they're strong, but must also be smart.
One last note: the linemen in TRP, defensive and offensive both, were pretty much characterized as being more brutish and vicious, particularly in regards to Arthur. This was mainly for the purposes of the story. I'm sure some football players are like that, but I'm sure many linemen are also very pleasant. Hey, I watched Blindside too. But this also represented the crux of Arthur's situation: it would be very hard to stand up to a bully who weighs 300lbs. Even when you know jujutsu.
II. Gameplay
Football games are very structured. They're divided into four quarters. Each quarter lasts 15 minutes (but because the play clock is stopped so frequently, this gets dragged out a lot).
Within the quarters are series. A series is the stint of time the ball is in one team's possession. When it switches possession, it's a new series. There's no set number of series in a quarter, I just thought I'd mention the term since I used it a few times.
During the series, whoever has possession of the ball plays offense. The offense team is given four chances -- four downs -- to move the ball 10 yards from the original line of scrimmage. If they've moved it 6 yards by their third down, you would call it three-and-four (third down, four yards to go). If the team gets their 10 yards, it's called a first down, and they start over again with four more downs until they either fail to gain a first down or lose possession.
Here's where special teams comes in: If they fail to get 10 yards by the fourth down, the offense will very rarely use their last down for another play. Instead, if they're within range of the uprights, they send out the kicker, who has the chance to kick a field goal and earn the team 3 points. If they're not near the uprights, they send out the punter (yeah, there's a difference, apparently), who punts the ball down the field and away from his team's endzone, so that the other offense team has a longer way to go when it's their turn. The other team's returner tries to catch the ball when it's punted, and runs down the field with it. Wherever he's stopped is where the new line of scrimmage will be.
A change of possession happens after the offense fails to get a first down, or when they score, or when they're on their fourth down and punt the ball to the defense, or when a defensive player makes an interception (catches a pass), or when an offensive player drops (fumbles) the ball and a defense player picks it up.
When either of those last two things happen, the defense can try to advance with the ball to the other team's endzone for a touchdown, but it's generally the offense team who do the scoring. A touchdown is worth 6 points. After a touchdown, the scoring team can attempt to kick the ball through the uprights from the 2-yard line for an extra 1 point. This is why touchdowns are almost always counted as 7 points. However, the team can choose to go for a 2-point conversion by lining up again and trying to run or pass into the endzone, like a second, mini-touchdown. This would give them 8 points. (This happened in the Super Bowl and it was very exciting.)
Safeties are worth 2 points, but they're rare and never happen in TRP, so I won't explain those.
III. Formations
I showed a picture of a 4-3 defensive formation and an I-formation at the top there. Those are pretty standard. However, teams can mix it up almost any way they'd like. There are 11 players on each team out on the field at a time, and depending on how many yards the offense team needs to gain, they can decide how many of those 11 players will be WRs, RBs, or tight ends. Wiki sez: "If the team needs only one yard, it may use three tight ends, two running backs and no wide receivers. On the other hand, if it needs 20 yards, it may replace all of its running backs and tight ends with wide receivers."
Here's an example of a spread offense formation called the shotgun:
I (along with Arthur) found I liked a spread option offense best, especially for the story, because it spreads out the offense players (forcing the defense players to also spread, thus creating more gaps), and also because option offenses like the spread rely on running plays, so it'd give Eames more to do. But the wildcat was more exciting, so that was what featured more heavily.
The wildcat formation often takes place in a spread offense and there are different variations of it. In TRP, Eames would be the one taking the quarterback's position when the ball was hiked (or 'snapped'); he'd then hand it off (or fake the hand-off) to the quarterback and they'd run in opposite directions. At that point, the one with the ball could also throw it to an available receiver. A faked hand-off can look really convincing and this confuses the defense beautifully. The wildcat uses the element of surprise. The best way to stop it is to blow up the play before it can even start, and by the time the defense work it out, there's very little time to adjust.
Is it a feasible strategy in the long run? No, not really. It's kind of a fad play. The Miami Dolphins used it with great success a couple years ago, and other teams picked it up as well, but it's fading out. At the college level, though, it's still a good play, and no matter what -- even if you don't like football -- it is really something to see in action! Here's a video of the Dolphins RB running the wildcat.
(As a point of interest, 'Run to Daylight' is another offensive philosophy, wherein basically the whole offensive line works to seal off a running lane for the RB to run through.)
Last but ... yeah, basically least:
IV. NCAA and the NFL (HERE BE TRP SPOILERS)
The NCAA is mentioned several times. It stands for the National Collegiate Athletic Association and it organizes all athletic programs in American colleges and university. All athletic schools are organized into Division I, Division II, and Division III. Divisions I and II are the ones that offer athletic scholarships. D-I is for the top players. Most professional players come out of D-I schools; they have larger budgets and better facilities, plus you're more likely to get noticed playing on a D-I team.
Proclus is a D-II school, which puts it in the middle of the scale. D-II schools offer athletic scholarships, but you aren't as likely to get noticed unless you're pretty awesome. This year, out of over 300 players who went to the scouting combine, only 6 of those were D-II.
The NFL scouting combine takes place over three days in February. There, players' mental and physical abilities are tested and they have to show off their speed and strength for the scouts and coaches. April is when the NFL draft takes place. There are seven rounds and the team with the worst record from the last season gets first pick of players (second-worst gets second pick, etc). The best players are drafted in the first and second rounds; coming from a D-II school, even with a great record, it's not unfeasible that Eames would be a fourth-round pick.
A lot of trades and changes happen during the draft. Teams don't get who they wanted, etc. In Eames' case, he was drafted by a kind of lame team (the Lions) and then traded to a sort of middle-of-the-scale team (the Seahawks). I skipped over that entire process because, even if it's one of the most exciting events in football, it would be pretty boring in writing.
Anway, I hope all of this helps in any way. I tried to make it as un-confusing as possible. xD Feel free to correct me where I might have slipped up, or ask more questions to clarify anything. And hopefully I will have something less boring and more fic-like up soon!