The first time you watch an American football game, it's very difficult to understand what's happening on the football field. It's very different from Swedish football, which Americans call soccer . Football is one of the most popular sports in the US, together with baseball and basketball. Every high school has it's own team in these sports. The National Football League, includes twenty-eight teams from the big cities all around the country. There are two leagues in the NFL - the National Football Conference, NFC, and the American Football Conference, AFC. Each league has 14 teams. The Football season is between September and January, when the winners from the NFC and the AFC meet in the Super Bowl. So how do you play football? First of all, a player must have 18 pieces of equipment on, so that he doesn't get hurt in this tough game. Each team has 45 players, but only 11 can be on the field at the same time. The game starts with a kick-off. The team who has the ball has 4 attempts to move the ball 10 yards up the field. The other team tries to stop them. The player who has the ball, can run or pass another player. The most important player on the field is the quarterback. He tells the other players what to do on each play, when they get together in a huddle. All the players must know about 150 different plays off by heart. When the quarterback signals to the other players, he often uses a code with a number and a letter. If one team takes the ball into the other team's end zone, it's a touch- down, and the team gets 6 points. If the "kicker" can kick the ball between the goal posts, the team scores another point. A defensive player must stop the player who has the ball. He can tackle the player, but he can't hold his mask, or kick him. There are very strict rules in this tough game.

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