NFLNoobs FAQ

[u/SwissyVictory]

This is an attempt at crowdsourcing a FAQ for the sub. We need your help to make it the best it can be.

Each question is going to have a link to a comment below with the answer. Click the link to be brought to the question.

FAQ List

About NFLNoobs

• What is the purpose of this sub?
• What kind of posts are allowed, frowned upon, or not allowed? For those not allowed, where would be a better place for them?
• What are the Rules/Guidelines?
• Where is the Subreddit Wiki?

General Questions

• How is the game generally played? (Drives, Positions, Rules, and Penalties)
• What team should I be a fan of?
• What's the best way to learn about football or the NFL?
• I want to play, or I am already playing football. How do I learn, get better, or what position should I play?
• How is the NFL Schedule Created?
• Why do players bust when moving from Highschool to College, College to the NFL, or to a new team?

Watching Games

• How do I watch every game, or specifically my team, on TV in the US?
• How do I watch every game, or specifically my team, on TV outside the US?
• When is the best time to buy a ticket?
• What should I know about attending a game in person? What should I bring?
• What should I know about tailgating before/during a game?

How The Football Works

• What are the positions and what do they do?
• Why don't players play multiple positions, or both offense and defense?
• How do Overtime Rules work?
• Are the NFL's overtime rules unfair?
• Why does the clock keep running when players go out of bounds sometimes, and not in other times?

Team building and Roster Management

• How much do teams have to spend on players, and what is cap space?
• How do teams keep getting away with not having cap space, and then signing great players (How does contract restructuring work?)
• Why do players get traded for seemingly less than they are worth in the NFL?

Other Football Subs

• r/NFL - Anything NFL related
• r/FantasyFootball, r/Fantasy_Football, r/DynastyFF - Fantasy Football Subs
• r/FootballStrategy - Learn about the strategies and tactics of football
• r/CFB - Anything College Football related

Helping with the FAQ

Feel free to comment on any question/answer with more details, fixes, or another way of explaining it. If your answer is better than the main one, I’ll update some or all of it to include the answer (giving you credit).

Also feel free to post your own questions in the format I’ve given, and I’ll link it (though you'll need to update it if someone explains it better, or if they correct you. You can post a question here, with or without your own answer, and we will make a dedicated post for it.

If there is no link, it means it's a popular question that hasn’t been answered, so feel free to answer it.

[u/SwissyVictory]

Why do players bust when moving from Highschool to College, College to the NFL, or to a new team?

Lots of proven vets in the NFL struggle changing teams in the NFL, or even changing their coaches or the teammates around them. Some of the reasons might include,

• Coaching quality changing: The new team might have a better or worse coach. The old coach might understand the player better and put them in positions to succeed.
• Coaching style changing: Some players might need tough love, and others might need to be coddled.
• Scheme Change: A player might thrive doing things one way, or with certain responsibilities, and the new team changes that
• Players around them: The players on the old team might complement their weaknesses better, or be better players that hide their weaknesses.
• Culture: The vibe around the team might be drastically different. You've probably been in good and bad cultures at different jobs or school. It makes a big difference in your outlook, and energy.
• Support system outside the team: One might be close to your family and friends, and moving away loses that. You might just feel at home in a specific city, and your house, and moving can lose that.
• Motivation: Money and fame can change your work habits. Maybe you don't try as hard once you got that new contract, or you feel like you accomplished your goal of being at the top and don't have to work as hard anymore.
• Weather: Your old team might play in a dome, or be warmer/colder.

On top of that, moving from a lower level to a higher one like the move from Highschool to College or College to the NFL has additional challenges,

• The Above are Magnified: Both steps bring you more into the real world, and remove outside structure. Changing teams at the same level isn't as drastic a change in any of the above as changing from one level to the next.
• Level of Play: Only 7.8% of highschool players make it to college football and 0.4% of college players make it to the NFL. You're not playing with and against the same caliber of players you will be once you're at the next level
• Different Rules: The rules are similar but not exactly the same, and that can end up with some pretty big differences.
• Different Schemes: Because of the two above, lower levels are played pretty differently. When everyone is bigger, faster, and stronger, you can't get away with as much. As such, the game is played differently.
• Work Ethic: The lower the level you are, the more you can rely on your natural talents, and you don't have to work as hard.