Im Greek and when I was a child we used to play soccer everywhere. Dirt, grass, gravel, asphalt did not really matter. If there were not good trees for the goal we used to put trash bins or even our backpacks. No need for referee since rules were simple, just don’t kill while tackling the other team and offside had to be way too obvious to be considered.
Is there any similar way to play American football? With all these rules I cannot imagine it easily. You have to have yard lines and the huge goal (excuse me if it’s not how you call it) on each side. Then the rules can be also tricky. Pass interference? False start? How can you enforce these rules without atleast two referees?
Thank you for your answers
33 comments
“Back yard” football is usually some sort of “touch football”. There is no tackling. The endzone can be trees or trash cans. You have a variety of rules available for first downs.
As for penalties, it’s just like pickup basketball or pickup soccer If you think it was a penalty, you holler PENALTY and then you get to argue over it.
Yes.
Rules are much toned down.
Literally anything can symbolize what the end zone is, past this trashcan, past that tree etc.
Usually no punting or kicking field goals, just running + passing.
Tackling is rough so it’s usually single or two touch.
Touch football is more common. To tackle someone you have to touch the runner with two hands.
Yes, usually flag football, where you have a flag (more like a ribbon) on each side that you have to grab instead of tackling. More often, we’d just play two hand tag also called touch football. You have to get two hands on a player to “down” them instead of tackling.
Usually the field was very informal – the goal lines might be a tree or bush or somebody might toss a hat on the ground. Rarely is it actually full size.
You enforce the rules like you do in pickup basketball – you have to call it yourselves informally. Like how you might have to call your own fouls in soccer.
Flag football has developed into having it’s own rules at higher levels and there’s international play: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bODdMqc-7c0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bODdMqc-7c0)
Kids will play football. Usually it isn’t tackle football, but touch/flag. Kids will play on a non-regulation size field. They also rarely call fouls or penalties unless it is egregious.
I used to play football with our neighbors. It was usually touch (two hands above the waist is considered a tackle) football. We had a great time. It was frequently co-ed since there was no tackling. I played center a lot since I couldn’t pass for crap.
Who cares about rules, just go throw the ball around. The only rules we’d generally mess with are offsides and two-hand touch, which is having to tag the runner with both hands to count as a down.
Another thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that kids will play with much fewer players than a full team. It can easily be 3v3 4v4. One player is the qb with a rusher that can only rush the qb (usually after a certain count) the other 2 are receivers. Also odd numbers work sub subbing the qb and not allowing the qb to run.
To not require an Offensive and Defensive line, Back yard football usually has a count associated with defensive players being able to cross the line. This is typically expressed in some agreed upon number of “Mississippis”. The count must be done out loud by a player on the defensive team.
One Mississippi
Two Mississippi
Three Mississippi
Four Mississippi
After the count, if the Offensive team still hasn’t advanced the ball past the line of scrimmage, whoever has the ball is fair game for the defensive team to tag (or tackle depending on how the game is being played).
I used to play football all the time as a kid with the other neighborhood kids in the small little park or in various backyards. Backyard football is a lot more free flowing than organized football and can be touch or tackle, depending on who’s playing.
Not as a contact sport, usually. Or at least it’s not SUPPOSED to be until it sounds fun or things get a bit heared lol. Touch football or just passing games crop up. The rules are simplified and any call of a foul results in a lot of arguing rhe same as kids playing soccer.
Soccer and especially basketball are really common for kids to just pick up and play. Minimal gear, there’s hoops all over parks and such for the basketball side.
I think a common misconception is that we don’t play soccer. LOTS of kids play soccer, to the point where the image of a mom with a mini van running kids around to all sorts of events is a “soccer mom”. It’s just not the most prestigious sport so many switch over to focusing on one of our big four to the exclusion of soccer in junior high or high school, basically early teens.
I dont know about everyone else here, but right up through high school we were tackling each other. There were no pads or anything, but we absolutely played pickup tackle football. The game was played similar to tag or flag only with tackling.
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Though that may explain a few of my head injuries over the years
When I was a kid my cousins who lived in the city would just play in the street.
I used to play football all the time with my friends when I was in middle school. We’d play touch football or sometimes tackle. Ostensibly there were rules but it was on each player themselves to follow them and call others out for not.
We played backyard tackle up to high-school. Usually minimum of 5. If it was an odd number, the QB wasn’t allowed to run unless a defender crossed the line of scrimmage. If it was an even number, defense couldn’t cross until after an outloud 5 Mississippi count. No field goals. Kickoff was whatever you wanted. “tee” style with someone holding it upright (like they do on TV during windy games), punt or just throw it. Fields were whereever you were at. Goal lines, yard to gain marker and line of scrimmage were hoodies, hats, cones or whatever. Out of bounds wasn’t really a thing because it was a street or fence or something. On small fields, you had to get to mid-field in 4 plays and a touchdown in the next 4. Penalties weren’t really a thing. We had one kid that was banned from offense. He got so strong and fast no one could tackle him. I remember him dragging 3 of us the length of the field. He ended up playing RB for University of Oregon.
Yes but it’s usually two hand touch. Often there’s not enough kids to make good teams so in the end it was just us throwing around a ball.
When I was a kid we played football most days in our neighborhood. There are a lot of random rules for small time, pick up football that might not be obvious to someone who didn’t grow up in the US. And there are a bunch of different ways to play, which would be agreed upon before the game starts.
You actually only need 3 people. One all time quarterback, and then two people play against each other as the receiver / defensive back. Or you can play 2 on 2, 2 on 2 with an all time QB, 3 on 3, etc.
There are no offensive or defensive lines.
Most of the time 1st downs are earned by 2 completed foward passes, instead of the 10 yards gained in normal football. Running plays gain yards, but don’t count towards earning a 1st down. Or sometimes running plays are banned. Or they can be banned except in the case where the defense crosses the line of scrimmage to blitz the quarterback.
Blitzing the quarterback is allowed either 4 seconds after the play begins, once per 4 down block, or is just not allowed.
You can play two hand touch (where touching the ball carrier with two hands counts as a tackle) or normal tackle football.
Penalties are called by the players themselves, but pass interference is the only common penalty that you have to call. Whether the ball was successfully caught and fumbles are the only common judgement calls necessary. They are also made by the players themselves.
There’s usually no kicking, so you don’t need a goal post. You just need a marker that counts as the goal line.
Yeah, it’s usually “touch” football, meaning you just have to touch the ball carrier with 2 hands to stop them.
No one bothers with yard measurements. There’s obviously no field goals. Usually there’s just a line to cross to designate the end zone. And penalties, just like with any other casual backyard sport, have to be obvious to be called.
Young children often play flag football. A flag of sorts will be attached around the waist of an offensive player. If a defensive player manages to pull it off, the player is considered down and the play is over.
You got some good answers about actual American football, but soccer is a really common sport for kids to play- most people I know played it as kids, I did, my little cousins now do too. We have actual children’s soccer leagues, but also it’s common for kids with access to a field to play it casually too.
Basketball, soccer, and baseball are all common things to see groups of kids playing around neighborhoods where there is space. You sometimes see kids playing football, but for the reasons you described I see it the least.
Flag football;
Two-hand touch;
One-hand touch;
Powder Puff;
500;
All-time QB;
That’s all I can think of right now.
Kids on the playground or backyard play a simplified version using 2-hand touch of Velcro flags to tackle, simplified rules in terms of down.
We tackled when playing on grass. Touch football when playing in the street.
YES- Google Pop Warner football. Tackle football for kids. Snoop Doggy Dog was a coach!
There are a lot of Redditors who aren’t into sports as much as gaming, so there are lots of wrong answers here.
At my school, when we’d go out for recess in elementary school, most of the guys (& occasionally one or two of the girls) would play football. They used the blacktopped playground, from the fence separating the teacher’s parking lot from the play ground on one side to the end of the blacktop on the other. Obviously due to size, equipment, time & all that, a few tweaks had to be made from the full rule set. But it was close enough.
The informal games kids play in backyards and fields is much simpler.
That said, there are leagues for the actual game for kids as young as 7-8 years old. They have actual fields they play on and have refs and pads and everything. It’s usually organized by the city parks and recreation department.
Then when you get to middle school and highschool school leagues take over.
Every recess where the weather was nice enough to get on the grass we played no-tackle American football. If it wasn’t but still OK we played basketball or kickball (baseball-like game) or tag. If we had to stay inside it was basketball.
Every HS and small college game I’ve ever attended had a group of younger kids playing no-tackle football off to the side away from the field and the seats.
Lots of pick up games if you could get 8+ players, less than that we usually opted for basketball.
Two pass completions for a first down. You only need one endzone, Just like in playground basketball you call your own fouls, but if you are a wuss your call will be ignored.
It’s a good time.
Yes, I played football in the field in my neighborhood up until probably middle school. Where I was, we played full contact mostly, meaning we tackled and everything. Flag/touch football existed but wasn’t as popular.
Absolutely. By boys and girls.
Lot of people saying “two hand touch” are showing their age😂 As someone in their mid 30’s yes we absolutely played and as long as we had grass or dirt without aggressive rocks we played TACKLE.
I feel like an old boomer but these young kids are absolutely getting soft🤷🏻♂️😂
All the time. My parents poor front lawn had a permanent worn spot in the middle. We’d play touch in the street and at school while authority was watching and tackle when they weren’t. Once in a while if we had enough people we’d go to the local high school. You modify the rules depending on the situation.
It’s funny to see so many people are saying “no tackling” when that’s all we did unless we were playing in the street. Sometimes then, too.
When in the street we would usually use light or telephone poles to indicate the end zones.
1st downs were usually gained through 2 pass completions.
Generally know kicking other than someone wanting to be fancy after a touchdown.
Not really, Football is a very physically violent sport so its not really played outside of an official game. You need a lot of equipment to properly play the sport, like helmets, pads, etc.
What is more common is playing a game of backyard football where you just throw a ball around on a soccer field.
Yes, in parks and people’s yards. “Pick up” football with no real teams is very common and “flag” football where everyone wears plastic flags you pull off their waistband instead of tackling them is common in schools.