11 players are on the line of scrimmage in american football.
11 players are on the line of scrimmage in american football.
how many players on the line of scrimmage in american football?
11
in both american and canadian professional football, every player on the defensive team is considered eligible. the offensive team must have at least seven players lined up on the line of scrimmage. of the players on the line of scrimmage, only the two players on the ends of the line of scrimmage are eligible receivers. the remaining players are in the backfield (four in american football, five in canadian football), including the quarterback. these backfield players are also eligible receivers. in the national football league, a quarterback who takes his stance behind center as a t-formation quarterback is not eligible unless, before the ball is snapped, he legally moves to a position at least one yard behind the line of scrimmage or on the end of the line, and is stationary in that position for at least one second before the snap, but is nonetheless not counted toward the seven men required on the line of scrimmage.
eligible receiver
the players on offense must arrange themselves in a formation, all behind their line of scrimmage (that is, on their side of the ball). for reasons of safety and competitive balance, there are strict rules which define the way in which the offensive players may line up. seven players must line up directly on the line of scrimmage while four players line up behind the line of scrimmage. within this formation, there are six eligible receivers who may receive a forward pass during play. these eligible receivers are either the running back, fullback, tight end, or wide receivers. the remaining five linemen, often called "interior linemen" do not normally handle the ball during a play. because of these rules, various leagues of american football have enacted strict rules of uniform numbering so officials may more easily judge which players were eligible and which were not at the start of a play. for example, in college football, ineligible players wear numbers 50–79, while eligible receivers wear 1–49 or 80–99. even within this structure, offenses can still present a wide number of formations, so long as they maintain the "seven and four" arrangement. receivers, for example, may play close to the other linemen or they may play some distance down the line of scrimmage, where they would sometimes be called split ends. of the four backs, they may play behind the linemen, or may play "split out" to provide additional wide receivers. these additional receivers can be flankers (if they play split far wide, but still in the backfield) or slot receivers if they play in the "slot" between the split end and the rest of the offensive line.
american football rules