All American Football

The standard stadium used by the NFL and NCAA is a rectangular lawn 360 feet (120 yards or 109.7 meters) long and 160 feet (53.33 yards or 48.8 meters) wide (some indoor games use artificial grass carpets). The longer boundary is called the sideline, and the shorter boundary is called the end line. The marking line in front of the end line is called the goal line. There is a 10-yard (9.1-meter) deep scoring area between the end line and the goal line on each side of the field called the end zone (also called the touchdown zone). There is an orange rectangular marker post (pylon) about 1 foot long at each corner of the end zone. The two goal lines are 100 yards (91.44 meters) apart, and the area between them is the playing field. A yard line (or 5-yard line) is marked every 5 yards (4.6 meters) from the goal line on the playing field, and numbers are marked every 10 yards until the 50-yard line reaches midfield. There are short horizontal markings in the middle and on both sides of the field parallel to the sidelines, called hash marks (or whole yard lines), and the yard marks close to the sidelines are called inbounds lines. Any player must kick the ball on or between the yard marks.

According to NFL rules, the inbounds of the field does not include the sidelines and end lines themselves. If the ball is above the sidelines or end lines, it will be judged out of bounds. The goal line is considered part of the end zone. If the ball is above the goal line, the offensive team will successfully score a touchdown.

Two goalposts (also called uprights) are set up in the center of the end zone, 18.5 feet (5.64 meters) apart, and connected by a horizontal bar 10 feet (3.048 meters) above the ground. The ball must pass between the two goalposts and above the horizontal bar to be considered a successful shot. In some low-level games, the goalposts are sometimes widened to 23.33 feet (7.11 meters) to increase the success rate of shots.