American football offers several distinct ways to put points on the board, and each one carries its own point value, its own set of rules, and its own strategic context. This guide walks through every scoring method in the sport, from the touchdown down to the often-misunderstood safety, so you can follow a scoreboard with full understanding.
The Touchdown: Six Points
The touchdown is the most valuable single scoring play in football and the one every offensive possession is ultimately designed to produce. A touchdown is worth six points and occurs when a team either carries the ball into the opposing end zone while in possession of it, catches a legal pass while the receiver has at least one foot or another body part down in the end zone, or recovers a loose ball in the end zone under specific conditions. The end zone is the ten-yard-deep scoring area at each end of the one-hundred-yard playing field.
What makes the touchdown unique compared to scores in many other sports is that it does not stand alone. After a touchdown, the scoring team is immediately given a bonus opportunity to add more points, which is where extra points and two-point conversions come into play.
After the Touchdown: Extra Points and Two-Point Conversions
Once a team scores a touchdown, it lines up for one additional play from a yard line close to the opponent's goal line. The team must choose between two options, and this choice is made on every single touchdown.
- Extra point kick (1 point): The placekicker attempts to kick the ball through the uprights, similar to a short field goal. This is the lower-risk, lower-reward option and is successful the vast majority of the time at most levels of play.
- Two-point conversion (2 points): Instead of kicking, the offense runs a single play from scrimmage, typically a run or pass, and must get the ball into the end zone again just as it would for a touchdown. This is riskier because it can fail entirely, but it offers twice the reward.
The decision between these two options is a coaching choice based on the score, the time remaining, and how the extra points might affect the team's chances of winning. Both are governed by official playing rules published by the National Football League, and similar provisions exist in the rulebook used by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for college football, though exact placement of the ball for these plays can differ by level.
The Field Goal: Three Points
A field goal is worth three points and is attempted by the placekicker, usually on fourth down when the offense is within comfortable kicking range but has not reached the end zone. The holder receives the snapped ball and places it upright on the ground, and the kicker strikes it, attempting to send it between the two upright posts and above the horizontal crossbar at the back of the end zone. If the kick sails through that frame, the three points are awarded immediately and possession switches to the opposing team, who takes over near their own goal line.
Field goals are an important part of game strategy because they let a team salvage points from a drive that stalls before reaching the end zone, converting a potential zero-point possession into at least a three-point one.
The Safety: Two Points
The safety is the rarest and most unusual scoring play in football, and it is the only scoring play that awards points to the defense rather than the offense. A safety occurs when the offensive team is responsible for the ball becoming dead in its own end zone. This can happen in a few different ways.
- A ball carrier is tackled while in possession of the ball inside his own end zone.
- The offense commits a penalty, such as holding, that is enforced from within its own end zone.
- A blocked punt goes out of the back of the end zone, or the snap itself sails past the end line.
When a safety occurs, the defensive team is awarded two points, and in addition, the offense that just gave up the safety must then kick the ball to the defense from its own twenty-yard line, essentially handing over both points and field position in one sequence. Because it is relatively uncommon and only worth two points, a safety has an outsized psychological and tactical impact, often occurring when an offense is pinned deep in its own territory.
Reading the Scoreboard
A football scoreboard typically displays each team's name or abbreviation alongside a running point total, along with the current quarter, the game clock, the down and distance, and which team currently possesses the ball. Because scoring plays come in different values, six, three, two, and one, fans can often reconstruct roughly how a game unfolded just from the final score. For example, a final tally like twenty to seventeen suggests a mix of touchdowns, extra points, and field goals rather than any single dominant scoring pattern.
Scoring in Overtime
At a high level, overtime exists to settle games that are tied after regulation play. Rather than simply extending the clock indefinitely, most levels of football use a structured overtime period where teams are typically given possession under special rules designed to produce a winner in a reasonable amount of time. The same scoring values apply in overtime as in regulation: touchdowns are still worth six points, field goals still three, and so forth. The specific procedural rules for how possessions are allocated in overtime, such as whether both teams are guaranteed a possession, vary between levels of competition and are set out in each governing body's official rulebook, but the underlying point values for every type of score never change.
Quick Recap
- A touchdown is worth six points and is followed by a bonus extra point kick or two-point conversion attempt.
- An extra point kick is worth one point, while a two-point conversion is worth two.
- A field goal, kicked through the uprights, is worth three points.
- A safety awards two points to the defense when the offense is responsible for the ball becoming dead in its own end zone.
- Scoreboards track points, quarter, clock, down and distance, and possession together.
- Overtime uses the same point values as regulation, with structured rules for allocating possessions.