Now that the rumors surrounding Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have pretty much been confirmed, there is no doubt that the NFL’s viewership will skyrocket with Swifties trying to get a glimpse of their favorite girl. So, in case you are one of those viewers but find yourself lost in the foreign language on your television every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday, here is your Swiftie Survival Guide to the sport of football. 

First, let’s start with the basics. Football is the sport where, historically, men throw around a brown ball and tackle each other. There are 32 teams that make up the NFL – the National Football League. The NFL is where you go to find all your information on these teams – kind of like Taylor Nation. They have all the news regarding your favorite, and least favorite, team. These teams are then divided into two conferences – the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC) –which are then broken down into 4 divisions – North, East, South, and West. Their division then determines who they will play in the regular season, etc.  

So, how is it played? Two teams play against each other in one game, each having 11 players on the field at a time. The basic premise is to try and get the ball – and a player – into the endzone. There are a few ways to do this, and each team has what they call “plays” but most commonly the quarterback, (think Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow), throws to either a wide receiver, running back, or tight end – that’s your guy Travis Kelce – and they run it into the endzone. These are called passing plays – but that isn’t important.  

Think of it like this: Taylor is the quarterback and does the singing and majority of performing so she gets all of the fame. However, though she sings the songs and does a lot of the heavy lifting, it’s her dancers and band that ties the whole show together. Football is basically exactly like that. The quarterback decides what play to run and though that decision has a lot of weight in what will ultimately happen, it’s the wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs that pull it all together and most of the time get the touchdown.   

When a team “has the ball” they are playing offense and are working to get the ball into the endzone. They basically have 4 tries/attempts to get the ball past a line that is 10 yards closer to the endzone – these are called downs – like how Taylor has two attempts to play your favorite surprise song. So, for example, when a sports announcer says a team is on their fourth down and whoever you’re watching with is stressed out, think about how you felt at The Eras Tour when you were on your second surprise song, and she hadn’t even hinted at “New Romantics” or “Clean” yet. Stressful! If a team makes it past this line, the whole ordeal repeats until they (hopefully) make it to the endzone. But, if a team uses up all 4 downs and hasn’t made any progress down the field, they hand over possession to the opposing team. 

However, if a team does make it into the endzone, it’s called a touchdown and is worth 6 points. They then bring out their kicker who tries to kick the ball through the two yellow posts at either end of the field – an extra point. If a kick is good, this adds another point for a total of 7, if a kick isn’t good, they move forward with 6 points. The kick being good is like if she sang “New Romantics” and “Clean” in the same show. There are numerous other ways to get points like going for a field goal on a down, but those aren’t crucial to know.  

Even if Taylor and Travis don’t end up going anywhere, (even though we are all rooting for them), you now should know everything you need to in order to impress anyone and everyone – a crush or an annoying coworker. The next Chiefs’ game is Sunday, October 1, and will be the perfect time to bust out your new football knowledge.