Each team has 11 players on a field and way more of them in the roster. There are three unit on each roster – offense, defense and special team.

The role of the offense is to advance the ball as far as possible towards the opponent’s end zone. It consists of:

Center – the player in the middle, he starts the game by passing the ball to a quarterback. He also has blocking functions.

Quarterback – after taking the ball from center he’s the player you want to watch – it’s his decision to either pass the ball to a running back, throw it or run like mad towards the end zone.

Running back – usually the most small and fast dude on the field, he’s the one who runs the most, trying to find a hole in the (wall of screaming crazies) defensive line.

Wide receiver – runs fast towards the end line without the ball and catches the pass. (If the defense lets him).

Offensive line consists of guards and tackles – the big dudes usually without the ball. They’re supposed to (punch the hell out of) block the defense, clear the way and protect the passer.

Tight end – they can play like the wide receivers (catch the ball) or like offensive linemen (block).

Defense basically makes everything to stop the offense.

The defensive line tries to clear the way for linebackers and make the offensive linemen busy by (attempting to murder) blocking them. They also try to send the running back or quarterback (the one with the ball) to the ground, before he passes the ball or gains the yardage.

Linebackers defend against the offense by trying to catch the passer before he manages to pass or covering the receivers so they cannot get the ball.

Cornerback – his job is to prevent the receiver from getting the ball either by punching the ball away or grabbing it by himself.

Safety – the last line of defense, usually helping the cornerbacks against deep passes.

Special teams are used only in some circumstances – punter to handle the punts, kicker to kick off the ball or attempt the field goal, holder to hold the ball for the kicker, long snapper who gets the ball to the holder or kicker. On the other side there will be a kick returner who will try to catch the kicked ball and push it into other direction and a wedge buster who runs full force in his direction to stop him and disrupt (the horde of wild beasts) the offensive line. Ouch!

So it’s not just a bunch of fat guys running in one direction and other bunch of fat guys trying to stop them! Surprise, surprise!