The Football Field

The football field is a rectangle 120 yards (ca. 110 m) long and 53 1/3 yards (50 m) wide, defined by sidelines running the length of the field and endlines running the width. There is a goal line ten yards in from each end line and parallel to it. The two goal lines are thus 100 yards (90 m) apart. The area of the field between the goal lines is called the field of play.

At each end of the field, the end zone is the area between the goal line and the end line.

Within the field of play, additional markings include yard markers, as well as inbound lines (also called hash marks), every yard the length of the field. The inbound lines (hash marks), which are short lines perpendicular to the yard markers, differ in distance from the sidelines at each main level of the game:

NFL: 70¾ feet (21½ m) from the sidelines; this means that the hash marks are separated from one another by the width of the goalposts.

College: 60 feet (18¼ m) from the sidelines.

High school: 53 1/3 feet (16¼ m) from the sidelines, dividing the field into thirds.

Every 5 yards (4.5 m), the yard markers run the width of the field, and every 10 yards, they are marked by numbers indicating the distance, in yards, from the nearest goal line.

At the center of each end line is a set of goal posts, which have two upright posts extending above a crossbar. The distance between upright posts is 18½ feet in general and 23 1/3 feet in high schools (5½ m, 7 m), and the top of the crossbar is 10 feet (3 m) above the ground.

Tweet

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

> Return to Football Reference Section
> Return to Main Sports Reference Category
> Return to NEWSdial.com