This activity was developed by a student or students at Mainland High School which is located in Daytona Beach, FL.   It is still a "work in progress" with editing and improvements yet to come.

    Professional football is the largest spectator sport in this country. Although there are many rules, regulations, and strategies the basic focus of the game is to score the most points by moving the football either into the end zone or kicking it through the goal posts.

    Each time a team has the ball, it is given four chances, or downs, to gain a minimum of 10 yards. Each time this is accomplished it is called a first down and the team gets four more chances to make a first down.

    The quarterback either passes the ball, or runs with the ball to gain yardage. When a player violates the rules of the game, the team is penalized a certain number of yards. This negative yardage moves the ball back and the team has to gain 10 yards plus the penalty yardage.

    During the Warrior's first possession, the quarterback began the first set of downs at their own 20 yard line. He completed a pass for five yards. On the next play, the quarterback was sacked and lost 7 yards on the third down the quarterback handed the ball to a running back who gained 8 yards.

1. Model the first set of downs on a number line.

2. On what yard line is the ball? ____________________________________________________________________

3. How many yards do they need to make the first down? ____________________________________________________________________

The chart shows what transpired during the Warriors' first scoring drive.

Note: A penalty against the Warriors is a loss of the indicated yardage and a penalty against the opponent is a gain for the Warriors. (None of the penalties influences the yardage.)

4. Calculate the total yards the Warriors moved the ball during this scoring drive.

     ____________________________________________________________________

5. Look at the diagram of the football field. If they ended at the goal line, on what yard line did the Warriors begin the scoring drive?

    ____________________________________________________________________

Find the net yardage of each play.

   6.  -2+5       __________           7.   -5+(-3)   __________           8.    7+(-3)   __________

  9.  -13+4       __________         10.   11+(-9)   __________         11.   22+(-6)  __________

 12.  -4-(-7)    __________          13.   -7+5       __________         14.   6-12     __________

15. Attend a school football game or watch a college or professional football game on television and keep statistics of the teams. Focus on the play-by-play action of either a scoring drive, a quarter, a half, or the whole game. Record your data in this chart or make one of your own. Use a newspaper wrap-up the day after the game to help you.

Visiting Team ____________________________________________________________________  

Home Team ____________________________________________________________________

In exercises 16-20, use the data organized in your chart.

16. Number of yards gained per quarter ____________________________________________________________________

17. Number of yards lost per quarter ____________________________________________________________________

18. Number of yards gained during the game ____________________________________________________________________

19. Number of yards lost during the game ____________________________________________________________________

20. Draw five separate number lines to show the total gains and losses for each quarter of the game.

21. A sports caster announces that a running back has -8 yards on a carry. Explain how a player can run for negative yardage.

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

22. If the player in Exercise 21 normally averages 12 yards per carry, how many yards does he need to run to meet his average?

____________________________________________________________________

23. Use the information that you gathered during the football game and write a newspaper article about the game. The first paragraph should give the most important information - who, what, where, why, and how - while subsequent paragraphs give the supporting details. The focus of your article should be on the game's statistics.