The rectangular field of play used for

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

games measures long between the goal lines, and (53.3 yards) wide. The field may be made of

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commerc ...

. In addition, there are end zones extending another past the goal lines to the "end lines", for a total length of . When the "football field" is used as

unit of measurement A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other quantity of that kind can be expressed as a multi ...

, it is usually understood to mean , although technically the full length of the official field, including the end zones, is . There is a

goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ...

centered on each end line, with a crossbar above the ground and goalposts apart extending at least above the crossbar. Between the goal lines, additional lines span the width of the field at 5-yard intervals. This appearance led to the use of the term gridiron in the 1880s. For a few years in the early 20th century, lines perpendicular to the lines at 5-yard intervals spanned the length of the field, giving it a checkerboard-like appearance. This article mainly describes the field used in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

, and other leagues playing (traditionally) outdoor 11-man football. Other variants of American football such as nine-man or

arena football Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller ...

typically use smaller fields with smaller end zones.

Field description

The entire field is a rectangle long by wide. The longer lines are the sidelines and the shorter lines are called end lines. NFL rules call for the sidelines and end lines to be wide, though the lines may be narrower on fields used for multiple sports or by college or amateur teams. In all cases the sidelines and end lines are measured along the inside edges of the boundary lines, and the lines themselves are out of bounds. Most distances on a football field are expressed in terms of

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

s. The goal lines span the width of the field and run parallel to each end line. The 100 yards between the goal lines where most gameplay occurs is officially called the ''field of play'' in the NFL rulebook. Additional lines span the width of the field at 5-yard intervals from each goal line.

End zones

The areas at each end of the field between the goal lines and end lines – including the goal lines themselves – are called the

end zone The end zone is the scoring area on the field, according to gridiron-based codes of football. It is the area between the end line and goal line bounded by the sidelines. There are two end zones, each being on an opposite side of the field. ...

s. The end zones are where

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

two-point conversion In gridiron football, a two-point conversion or two-point convert is a play a team attempts instead of kicking a one-point conversion immediately after it scores a touchdown. In a two-point conversion attempt, the team that just scored must run ...

s, and

safeties Safety is the condition of being protected against harmful conditions or events, or the control of hazards to reduce risk. Safety may also refer to: Places * Safety Island, Antarctica Government * The Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating t ...

are scored, and where

touchback In American football, a touchback is a ruling which is made and signaled by an official when the ball becomes dead on or behind a team's own goal line (i.e., in their end zone) and the opposing team gave the ball the momentum, or impetus, to trav ...

s occur. Orange weighted pylons mark the four corners of each end zone. Team or league logos or other patterns may be painted inside the end zone as long as they do not interfere with the mandatory field markings.

Goals

is centered on each end line, consisting of a horizontal crossbar above the ground and aligned with the inside edge of the end line, with vertical goal posts (colloquially "uprights") at each end of the crossbar apart and extending at least above the crossbar. The goals are where

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

s (including rare

fair catch kick The fair catch kick is a rule at the professional and high school levels of American football that allows a team that has just made a fair catch to attempt a free kick from the spot of the catch. The kick must be either a place kick or a drop kic ...

s) and extra points after touchdowns are scored. All NFL fields and many collegiate and amateur fields have slingshot-shaped goal structures, with a single gooseneck-shaped support post anchored to the ground out of bounds. Other amateur fields, particularly at the high school level, may have H-shaped goal structures with two support posts anchored to the ground directly below the crossbar; on fields used for multiple sports these goals may double as

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

goals at the appropriate regulation width for that sport, along with the goal structure behind it and netting. The NFL requires a ribbon to be attached to the top of each goal post to indicate wind direction and speed. Goal posts must be yellow in the NFL unless waived due to extraordinary circumstances; collegiate fields may have yellow or white goal posts. Amateur fields may also have shorter goal posts or a wider space between the goal posts.NFL Rules 2012, p. 2.NCAA Rules 2011–2012, p. 18.NFHS Rules 2012, p. 14.

Yard lines

A yard line refers to the distance of some point on the 100-yard field of play – usually the

line of scrimmage In gridiron football, a line of scrimmage is an imaginary transverse line (across the width of the field) beyond which a team cannot cross until the next play has begun. Its location is based on the spot where the ball is placed after the end o ...

or the spot where a play ends – from the nearest goal line. When moving away from one goal line, the yard line numbers increase from 1 to 50 (midfield), then decrease back to 1 approaching the opposite goal line. Each yard line is said to "belong" to the team defending the closer end zone; for example, during a period where Team A is defending the north end zone and Team B is defending the south end zone, the 25-yard line closer to the north end zone is said to be Team A's 25-yard line. Yard lines are identified with two rows of white numbers painted inside each sideline at 10-yard intervals (with some venues such as Tiger Stadium also marking 5-yard intervals and the goal line as "G"); the numbers 10 through 40 also include an arrow indicating the nearer goal line. NFL rules call for the bottom edge of each number to be 12 yards from the sideline. The yard lines are also identified at 10-yard intervals by orange markers placed outside the sidelines adjacent to the respective line. Yard lines other than multiples of 5 are marked by lines painted parallel to the goal lines at 1-yard intervals spanning the length of the field just inside each sideline as well as at the hash marks (see below).

Hash marks

The ''hash marks'' (officially ''inbounds lines'' in the NFL rulebook) are two rows of short lines running the length of the field that mark the boundaries of where a scrimmage down may start. If the ball is downed outside the hash marks or run out of bounds, the next play begins at the hash mark closest to the spot where it is downed. In the NFL the hash marks are from each sideline; in college football they are from each sideline. At each 5-yard line they are marked with lines painted parallel to the sidelines. Between the 5-yard lines they are marked with 2-foot lines painted perpendicular to the sidelines at 1-yard intervals. The hash marks are painted so that the edge farthest from the sideline is the required distance from the sideline. In the NFL and most forms of indoor football, the hash marks are in line with the goalposts. College and high school football fields have hash marks that are significantly wider than the goal posts. The college football standard, which was the previous standard in the NFL (from to ), is 40 feet apart (20 yards from the sidelines), introduced in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

. Previously, the college width was the same as the high school standard, at one-third of the width of the field (53 feet).

Other markings

A line is painted parallel to the goal line at the center of the 2-yard line; this denotes the line of scrimmage for a

attempt, and for an

extra point The conversion, try (American football, also known as a point(s) after touchdown, PAT, or (depending on the number of points) extra point/2-point conversion), or convert (Canadian football) occurs immediately after a touchdown during which the sc ...

attempt in college football (the NFL line of scrimmage for an extra point was also at the 2-yard line prior to 2015). A small X may be painted at the center of each 35-yard line on NFL or college fields to indicate the spot where kickoffs take place. Most professional and collegiate fields have a team or league logo painted at the 50-yard line. Special games such as the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the gam ...

or college

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

s may have the event logo painted at the 50-yard line. These logos as well as any other non-mandatory field markings require league approval and may not interfere with mandatory field markings. Decorative yard lines, either at the 25-yard or 20-yard line, are common, usually featuring either team colors or

American flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the ca ...

colors, and the 20-yard version indicates the start of the red zone. According to the high school rulebook recommendations, the field should be angled (or "crowned") at approximately 1.2° (rising inch per foot, or 1 in 48) upward from each sideline to the center of the field so that the center is higher than the sidelines, allowing proper drainage.NFHS Rules 2012, pp. 11–12, 13, 28.

References

{{Gridiron football concepts Field Sports venues by type Sports rules and regulations Grass field surfaces