Football Basics: Timeouts

Football Basics: Timeouts

Football is played in four 15-minute quarters, with one 12-minute half-time period. Each team gets 3 timeouts per half, and timeouts do not carry over from the first half to the second half. There is a timeout at the two-minute point in the second and fourth quarters, called the two-minute warning, that is not charged to either team.

There are also TV timeouts, which are called by the officials and not charged to either team. Watching the game at home, it’s not noticeable. Watching the game at the stadium, there are periods when the teams aren’t playing.

A regular season overtime game has one overtime period, and each team gets two timeouts for that one overtime period. Pro football plays a sudden death overtime, which means that the first team to score wins, even if the other team didn’t get a chance to score. College football gives each team a chance to score; if neither team does, they continue alternating turns until someone scores, and both teams have had an equal number of chances to score.

Understanding football is easy once you learn the basics of the game.