Playing Field

What does Playing Field Mean?

This is the field on which the football game takes place. The field is rectangular in shape and 120 yards long and a little over 50 yards wide. This includes a ten yard end-zone on each side. The field has yard markers, also known as hash-marks, for every yard, and lines which run across the field in five yard increments to denote the distance to the goal line. These lines are numbered every 10 yards with the distance to the goal line. The fifty yard line is the absolute middle of the field, and the lines are numbered down from that spot. On each side of the fifty yard line is a forty, thirty, twenty, and ten yard lines. At either end of the field are goal posts which serve as the uprights for field goals and extra points. The uprights are connected by a cross-bar which keeps them eighteen-and-a-half feet apart, the standard in the National Football League. The uprights are typically yellow and stand at the very back of the end-zone.

The long borders of the field are known as sidelines, and the short sides are known as end-lines. If the ball or player crosses either of these boundaries, they are out-of-bounds.

Also referred to as "Field of Play."

Sporting Charts explains Playing Field

The playing field may be made of grass or artificial turf, it depends on the stadium. Other than the material used, fields in the NFL must follow strict rules to ensure fair competition on every playing field. Modern stadium will sometimes put a slight curvature on the field; the middle of the field is higher to allow water to drain to the sides more easily. Although rarely used in the US, the playing field is sometimes referred to as the "pitch."