NFL newbie Q&A thread...

Ok.... alot of new fans of nfl specially from australia, new zealand and pacific islands.. so as i dont know much about the game and alot of others dont either as ive been seeing in other threads questions being asked and answered thought id start a thread where you can post questions about the game/ a player and their role on the team or about schemes/ plays etc etc.... please remember we are newbies at this sport and some questions might just be dumb...

Welcome aboard! Ask away.

Ok ill start first might sound stupid as i said what hell is licking of the hands kap does before every snap??? Is the ball slippery or something.... never played or touched an nfl ball in my life so not sure i notice every one else wears gloves

Originally posted by aussiepeter:

Ok ill start first might sound stupid as i said what hell is licking of the hands kap does before every snap??? Is the ball slippery or something.... never played or touched an nfl ball in my life so not sure i notice every one else wears gloves

The balls are generally pretty tacky, just a habit I would guess. A lot of basketball players do it before shooting free throws too.

Originally posted by ChipDouglas510:

The balls are generally pretty tacky, just a habit I would guess. A lot of basketball players do it before shooting free throws too.

thanks...

Is this a touchdown or an interception?



I think some of the newbie fans in Seattle might be wondering...

Great idea for a thread!

Nearly every question I've had so far has been answered by google, but some of them took quite a bit of digging through useless unrelated crap to find - so it'll be good to have a place to come when answers aren't obvious!

First up one thing I haven't been able to find out, do plays change based on which hash mark the ball gets snapped from? I can see an advantage to having more space for your X or Z on certain plays, but would that over complicate things? And does the left or right handedness of the QB play a bigger factor than the advantage of the extra space?

X, Y, Z- please explain.

Ted, Mike, Will, Sam - also please explain. Are there more?

Originally posted by VinculumJuris:
Is this a touchdown or an interception?



I think some of the newbie fans in Seattle might be wondering...

LOL. I was reading .nut and one poster there asked what the big deal was about the Fail Mary. Said it was a legit touchdown..

Here's a legit question. Is there such thing as a "Seahawk"? I thought it was just a Seagull?

Why does it seem like there's no defender for the tight end? For years the commentators on Madden games have mentioned this difficulty with the tight end and now I'm watching the game I notice there's always some giant king Kong guy strolling into the end zone with little 5 foot tall fleas jumping up at his hips and he easily catches a pass and dances like he's some hero and it just seems totally silly. Why have they still not worked out to have some athletic 6'6 to 7 foot guy on d whose job it is to follow around the tight end and disrupt his free wheeling dominance over the whole sport?

Given this though the average TEs that don't easily score every time their team is in the red zone must be really terrible.

Originally posted by Stud:
LOL. I was reading .nut and one poster there asked what the big deal was about the Fail Mary. Said it was a legit touchdown..

Here's a legit question. Is there such thing as a "Seahawk"? I thought it was just a Seagull?

Yes. Otherwise known as osprey.

Hi guys, appreciate the help.
In regards to catching Punt or Kick returns, must the KR/PR feet remain on the ground, or can he jump in the air to take the catch?

Originally posted by AUniner:
X, Y, Z- please explain.

Ted, Mike, Will, Sam - also please explain. Are there more?

I don't have these letters and names committed to memory but basically:

X, Y, Z are your different types of receivers......deep threat, possession type, slot guy I believe. I'm pretty sure X is deep threat (Torrey Smith on our team).

Ted, Mike, Will, Sam are your linebackers in a 3-4 defense.....I believe Will and Sam stand for Weak side and Strong side outside linebacker (strong side means the side with tight end and weakside the side without). Ted and Mike are your middle linebackers. I believe one of them primarily does the dirty work eating up blocks while the other is free to roam and make plays.

This is an advanced question.........kudos to you for asking it. 99% of football fans do not know what these are off the top of their head (maybe 95% are familiar with the terms)......

The damn "Mike" is probably well known because you can hear the Manning brothers constantly calling out who the Mike is before snapping the ball.

I believe Mike is middle linebacker in a 4-3, so Ted is the extra guy.

Originally posted by Tonedog:

Why does it seem like there's no defender for the tight end? For years the commentators on Madden games have mentioned this difficulty with the tight end and now I'm watching the game I notice there's always some giant king Kong guy strolling into the end zone with little 5 foot tall fleas jumping up at his hips and he easily catches a pass and dances like he's some hero and it just seems totally silly. Why have they still not worked out to have some athletic 6'6 to 7 foot guy on d whose job it is to follow around the tight end and disrupt his free wheeling dominance over the whole sport?

Given this though the average TEs that don't easily score every time their team is in the red zone must be really terrible.

They don't make many 6'6" to 7 foot dudes big enough and athletic enough to do that and most of the ones who are play basketball.

Well start luring in basketball players, seems fairly important to not have opposing teams tight ends scoring on you at will. That's what springs to mind every time I see gronk score a td actually, where is LeBron to stop that s**t, or Ron attest.