The basic premise of football is that each team has four tries to move the ball 10 yards towards their own goal.

The best way to approach these jobs are to first identify which teams you're dealing with in the segment.
Logos and team names:

http://www.sportslogos.net/teams/list_by_league/7/National_Football_League/NFL/logos/

Once you've found the teams, pull up the team page. Be sure to look on graphics, etc for year of the game. If you're not sure, just start with the current year starters and roster and work backwards as needed.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

This is by far your BEST resource for these jobs. It includes comprehensive breakdowns of teams, players, games, scores, play-by-play, referees, uniform numbers, etc. ''

The Basics

A football game is broken up into four quarters of 15 minutes each with a halftime period. The clock counts down. 15:00, 14:59, 14:58, etc.

"8:39 to go in the first quarter" is a common way of saying how much time is left in each quarter.

There are three "phases" of a football team:

1. Offense - The quarterback (QB) plays on this side. It's TEAM A's turn to have the ball and attempt to move it 10 yards.
2. Defense - TEAM B has their defensive players on the field to try to stop TEAM A from moving the ball the allotted amount of yards.
3. Special teams - Mostly, a core group of guys who specialize in kicking the ball, either punting or kicking field goals (kicking the ball through the yellow U aka upright at the end of the field)

Ways to score in a football game:

1. TEAM A throws or runs the football into the end zone (the area at either end with the logos).

• They sometimes call this "taking it to the house" "taking it home" or if it is an easy touchdown "walking the dog."
• The ball must "break the plane." You'll mostly hear this on replays if you get them, trying to determine if the ball, not the player, crossed the imaginary boundary of the end zone.
• "Diving for the pylon" The pylon is the orange rectangle in the corners of the end zone. If a player hits the pylon, it's usually a guaranteed touchdown.
• A touchdown is followed by either: an extra point (kicking through the yellow U for 1 additional point) or a 2-point conversion (essentially, throwing or running the ball into the end zone again for 2 additional points)

2. Kick a field goal

• If the offense can get close enough to the uprights but isn't confident they will "convert" on their fourth-down try (convert = move the ball far enough to get another four chances), they can opt to attempt a field goal.
• If it is "good," the ball went through the uprights and the kicking team scores 3 points.
• It can be blocked or tipped by the defense or just be a bad kick, and then it is "no good" and no points are scored.

3. Pick six.

• Somewhat rare - the ball is "picked" or intercepted by a defensive player. That player runs the ball into the end zone, scoring 6 points for their team. Hence, pick six.

Who gets the ball?

1. When the offense has the ball, they have four tries to "convert" and get a new set of downs. If they're successful, they'll eventually score.

• Even though each team gets four tries, most times, if they don't get 10 yards on third down or before, they will opt to punt the ball away. This is strategic and often crucial. Depending on the situation, teams may "Go for it" on fourth down, ie attempt to "convert" and take a risk of "turning the ball over on downs" and giving the opposing team good field position.
• Third-down conversions is a statistic they talk about for offense and defense as a measure of how good they are at getting or stopping a new set of tries on that third down before they have to potentially punt it away.
• The defense's entire job is to "make a stop" = not let the offense get the 10 yards they need. If they do this successfully enough that the offense doesn't get a first down after coming back onto the field, it's called a "three and out."

2. After either a score or a stop, the teams switch and TEAM B's offense comes on to try to score, and so on and so forth until time expires.

What's a drive?

A drive is the totality of the plays where one team remains in possession of the ball. Often giving in either time or distance. "A 86-yard drive" doesn't mean they went 86 yards at once or even in the same set of downs, but rather the entire time they've held the ball on this turn. "An epic 13-play drive by Aaron Rodgers" is also another way they may phrase this.

The types of speakers on these jobs are usually off-screen commentators and mic'd up players/coaches.

Commentators tend to use a bunch of Common Terms in similar manners across these segments. The audio is usually clearer, but they do get excited and yell. They're also talking in real time. This is where you will encounter most of the names of players and need to do more research.

• Don't forget to use the video as a guide. If you can see a player's jersey number *and you've already identified the team from the start," you can find the player's name by searching the database above.

• Always double check name spellings, even ones you think are common. For example, Green and Greene are both players in the NFL.

• They also use nicknames. Again, use context, jersey numbers, etc + nickname in Google to find out what they're saying. It could be random. It usually is. DeAndre Hopkins' nickname is Nuk after a brand of baby pacifiers. Ha’Sean Clinton-Dix goes by Ha-Ha so frequently I had to just Google his real name.

Commentators say things like:

• First and 10, Cowboys.
  • This means the Cowboys have the ball on offense. They're on their first try (down) of four and they have 10 yards to go. Other iterations of this would be second/third/fourth AND yards/inches/goal/long/short, etc. Can sometimes be more than 10 yards in cases of penalties or if the offense had a play "for a loss."

• Prescott under center.
  • Prescott (Dallas Cowboys quarterback) is standing close to the player known as the center, who is the one who picks the ball up and starts the play. The center hands the ball backwards to the QB between his own legs. This action is called "the snap."

• Prescott in shotgun / gun.
  • This is a stance where the QB is further away from the center and the ball flies through the air and is caught by the QB before he continues on the play.

• Prescott gives to Elliott.
  • QB hands the ball off to another player, doesn't throw it through the air.
  • also "Handoff to Elliott."

• Prescott looks, rolls left, looks again, pump fake, throws to the near sideline.
  • QB is trying to find open players, so he's looking, moving around, pretending to throw, and then throwing it to the side of the field.

• Prescott under pressure.
  • The defensive players are closing in on the QB.

• Prescott staying in the pocket.
  • The pocket is the QB's area where he can stand and look around to make the play. If everything goes well, his offensive line / O line will hold off the defenders so he can throw the ball. If everything goes badly, the "pocket collapses" and the QB is in trouble.
  • QB can also run "outside of the pocket" and is frequently described as "scrambling" or "keeping a play alive with his legs." Basically, he's buying himself time.

• Prescott sacked by Perry.
  • Perry, a defensive player, hits the QB while the QB still has the ball. This is a big deal. There's lots of celebrating from the defensive side.

• The blitz is coming.
  • The defense is focusing all of their people on charging at the quarterback instead of spreading them out over the field to deal with the players who might catch the ball.

• Man coverage / man-to-man / playing man
  • A defensive player is matched up with an offensive player and follows him to obstruct the ball

• Ezekiel Elliott rushes for 10 yards.
  • "rushes" just means running
  • rushing yards is a statistic of how much running any given player or team does

• 3-4 defense
  • common defensive alignment consisting of three down linemen and four linebackers

• 4-3 defense
  • defensive alignment consisting of four down linemen and three linebackers

Check these sites for other wacky terms:
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1184750-25-craziest-football-terms-and-where-they-come-from
https://ww.footballoutsiders.com/info/glossary_general

If you can't find it, just do your best phonetically and throw a bookmark on there. Why are they talking about dogs in football? Who knows, but they probably are.

The players say...all sorts of things.

Mic'd up segments are very difficult for a myriad of reasons. Sometimes the players have mouthpieces in. Sometimes there are multiple people talking. They're often talking in their jargon with other teammates.

If you're really struggling to hear something/make out what they say, watch their mouth as they speak if possible. In all likelihood, they are swearing, which means the audio is dropped around the offending term but can sometimes bleed over into other words. use ... q! per standards and do your best.

Grammar is oftentimes not "correct," so remember to scribe what they say as much as possible.

Players often hype each other up / encourage each other. Use context of what happened in the play before to help determine what's being said.