American Football Blocking

In American football, blocking or interference (or running interference) is a legal move occurring when one player obstructs another player's path with his body. The purpose of blocking is to prevent defensive players tackling the ball carrier, or to protect the quarterback while attempting to pass or hand-off the ball. Offensive linemen and fullbacks tend to do the most blocking, although wide receivers are often asked to help block on running plays and halfbacks may be asked to help block on passing plays, while tight ends performs pass block and run block if they are not running routes to receive catches.

As a general rule blocking is a push; one is not allowed to grasp someone or do any sort of pulling, and the hands must not be outside the line of each armpit, otherwise a holding penalty will be levied. Blocking is also not permitted beyond five yards from the line of scrimmage until the quarterback has handed-off the ball to a runner, or a receiver has touched the ball after it has been passed.

Outside sport, "running interference" is a metaphor that refers to a person's helping someone in the performance of a task without directly assisting in the task. Often this is done by attracting attention to oneself (so as to deflect attention from the other person) or throwing oneself into harm's way.

SPORTS

American Football

Game play in American football consists of a series of downs, individual plays of short duration, outside of which the ball is dead or not in play. These can be plays from scrimmage – passes, runs, punts, or field goal attempts (from either a place kick or a drop kick) – or free kicks such as kickoffs and fair catch kicks. Substitutions can be made between downs, which allows for a great deal of specialization as coaches choose the players best suited for each particular situation. During a play, each team should have no more than 11 players on the field, and each of them has specific tasks assigned for that specific play.