If you play football and are looking to find out how big the field is, then this is the post for you. Discover just how long is a football field in feet and how long it takes for the ball to travel that distance.
Most football fields are expected to be about 100 yards long, and in most cases, this gives players enough space for running backs to cover the distance between each end of the field multiple times.
This is easy enough to determine because during play, we are guided by time and not distance.
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How Long is a Football Field
From endzone to endzone the football field measures 57 yards. But that is only after the ball has been kicked off. To start the game, the length of the field is set at 100 yards (300 feet). A team gets two “downs” or attempts to reach this distance. If a player or the offensive team does not get to that distance, then they must attempt a “kickoff”.
How Long Is a Football Field in Feet
If you want to measure the football field in feet, so how long is a football field in feet? It is often said that a football field is about 360 feet long. This number can be obtained by multiplying the width of each sideline by 36 and adding them together. However, professional fields are only 328 and a half feet in length.
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The reason for this variance lies in whether or not there is an endzone or not. On the side without the endzone, there are sidelines that are 18 feet in length and on the side with an endzone, they are 20 feet in length. Therefore, each end zone adds an additional 12.5 feet to the length of a football field when it is complete.
How Wide Is a Football Field?
Normally, the field has a width of 160 feet. However, there’s no fixed rule as to how wide a football field should be, but there are rules regarding its width at specific points
There is a 25-yard line that is considered to be the deepest point on a football field. As such, it is considered to be the widest and has a width of about 40 feet at this point.
The goal line is 10 feet wide by rule, while the goal posts are usually 6-6.5 feet in width. The two end zones are also 6-6.5 feet in width while they are 16 feet wide when they are complete.
Central to any football field is the white line that marks the boundary of each endzone. This is 17 feet in width and 14 feet in length.
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How Far Away Is the Goal Line?
The goal line is 2.5 yards behind the line of scrimmage, which is also known as the “ballmarker” or “snapper”. On a regulation width field, a ball marker will be located between each hash mark.
A NFL field has a goal pylon at each endline and these are 12 feet high and 6 feet wide. These are made of fiberglass with aluminum on the side that makes them very lightweight. When a touchdown is made, they are considered to be 10 yards apart.
How Far Away Are the Endzones?
There is 5 yards between the goal line and the endzone, and this is the line of scrimmage of every play. This number can be found by subtracting 2.5 from 5.4, which is the total number of yards on each side of a football field.
The Endzone
An endzone is an area of the field where a team scores points. There are two endzones on a football field, which means that there are two goal lines per football team. The term “endzone” was coined in 1931, and it used to mean an area that was at the end of the field.
However, today, it refers to the area where touchdowns are scored in a game. It got its name from the French word “en-deçà”, which means “within”.
How Long Does It Take for the Ball to Travel the Entire Length of the Football Field?
For football players, it is usually the case that the only time they notice how long the field is, is when they have to travel that distance with the ball.
This is where we get to see just how big a football field really is, especially because it takes a while for the ball to travel from one end of the field to another especially during play.
During regulation play, the ball can be expected to travel the length of a football field in about 26 seconds as during this time, there are 11 plays that usually end with the quarterback throwing or handing off the ball.
Conclusion
Although the following factors might influence the running speed of players on the football field, they can be safely used to give an approximate figure for how long it would take a running back to cover the entire length of a football field.
