American Football
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139 free American Football trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
63 free American football trivia questions with answers. Think you know American football? From Super Bowl champions to legendary plays, from basic rules to obscure records, these 63 football sports trivia questions cover every era of the NFL. Test whether you can tell your Steel Curtain from your Legion of Boom, recall who guaranteed victory in Super Bowl III, and remember the greatest comebacks in championship history.
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Q 01Which quarterback has won the most Super Bowl titles as a starter?
Tom Brady
Tom Brady won seven Super Bowls, the last at age 43 with Tampa Bay, after lasting until the 199th pick of the 2000 draft.
Q 02What team won the first-ever Super Bowl in January 1967?
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers beat Kansas City 35-10; CBS and NBC both televised the game, the only Super Bowl shown on two networks, and both later wiped their tapes.
Q 03Which wide receiver holds the NFL career record for most receiving yards?
Jerry Rice
Jerry Rice gained 22,895 receiving yards over 20 seasons; he traced his hands and work ethic to boyhood summers catching bricks for his bricklayer father.
Q 04What is the only team to complete a perfect season including a Super Bowl victory?
1972 Miami Dolphins
The 1972 Miami Dolphins finished 17-0 even though quarterback Bob Griese broke his ankle in Week 5; veteran backup Earl Morrall started the rest of the regular season.
Q 05How many points is a touchdown worth in American football?
6
A touchdown is worth 6 points, a value set in 1912; under the first scoring table of 1883 it counted for two, half as much as the kick that followed it.
Q 06Which head coach has won the most Super Bowls in NFL history?
Bill Belichick
Bill Belichick won six Super Bowls as a head coach; in 2000 he quit as New York Jets head coach after one day, scrawling on a sheet of paper that he was resigning as 'HC of the NYJ'.
Q 07Which rival league, launched in 1960, merged with the NFL in 1970 and supplied most of the new AFC?
American Football League
The American Football League, started by owners the NFL had refused franchises, forced the merger by bidding up the price of college stars; its ten teams joined three NFL clubs in the AFC.
Q 08Which running back became the first NFL player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, in 1973?
O.J. Simpson
O.J. Simpson reached 2,003 yards by running for 200 against the Jets in the final game of 1973, breaking Jim Brown's record of 1,863; he remains the only man to do it in 14 games.
Q 09What is the name of the trophy awarded to the Super Bowl champion?
Lombardi Trophy
The Vince Lombardi Trophy, handcrafted by Tiffany & Co., goes to the Super Bowl winner; it took Lombardi's name after his death in 1970 and was first presented as such at Super Bowl V.
Q 10Which team lost Super Bowl LI to New England after leading 28-3?
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons led 28-3 in the third quarter; late on, a 12-yard sack and a holding penalty pushed them out of field-goal range, and New England won 34-28 in the first Super Bowl overtime.
Q 11What position does the player who snaps the ball to the quarterback play?
Center
The center snaps the ball and, with the best view of the defense, usually makes the first call telling the other linemen how to adjust their blocking.
Q 12Which team lost four consecutive Super Bowls from 1991 to 1994?
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills lost Super Bowls XXV to XXVIII; they reached the third only after backup Frank Reich wiped out a 35-3 playoff deficit against Houston, a 32-point comeback.
Q 13What nickname did the 1970s defensive line led by 'Mean' Joe Greene carry?
The Steel Curtain
The Steel Curtain, Pittsburgh's front four of Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood, Ernie Holmes and Dwight White, got its name, a pun on the Iron Curtain, from a 1971 radio contest.
Q 21Which American football rivalry between two colleges, first played in 1897, is known simply as The Game?
Ohio State vs Michigan
Michigan and Ohio State have met every year but one since 1918, traditionally on the final Saturday of the regular season. Ohio's 1835 border dispute with Michigan, the Toledo War, is sometimes cited as prehistory for the feud.
Q 22Which halftime performer famously had a wardrobe malfunction during Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004?
Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson's costume was torn by Justin Timberlake in the show's final seconds; the FCC fined CBS $550,000, and a YouTube co-founder has said the hunt for the clip helped inspire the site.
Q 23After a safety gives the defense two points, what else does the scoring team receive?
Q 14Which team drafted Peyton Manning with the first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft?
Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts weighed Peyton Manning against Ryan Leaf right up to the draft; Leaf went second to San Diego and was released after three seasons with a 4-14 record as a starter.
Q 15Which areas stretch an NFL field from 100 yards between the goal lines to 120 yards overall?
The two end zones
The two end zones add 10 yards each; they were introduced in 1912, when the field of play itself was shortened from 110 yards to 100.
Q 16Which receiver nicknamed Megatron set the NFL single-season receiving-yards record with 1,964 in 2012?
Calvin Johnson
Calvin Johnson caught 122 passes for 1,964 yards in 2012 for a Detroit team that finished 4-12, then walked away after the 2015 season while still one of the game's best receivers.
Q 17Which undrafted Patriots rookie intercepted Seattle at the goal line to seal Super Bowl XLIX?
Malcolm Butler
Malcolm Butler, undrafted out of West Alabama, jumped the route at the goal line in the final seconds; Seattle, a yard from the lead, had chosen to pass instead of run.
Q 18Which 49ers coach built the West Coast offense and won three Super Bowls in the 1980s?
Bill Walsh
Bill Walsh worked out the short, precisely timed passing game as a Cincinnati Bengals assistant, so the 'West Coast' label, first applied to Don Coryell's Chargers, stuck to him by mistake.
Q 19Which two franchises were the first to win six Super Bowls each?
Steelers and Patriots
The Steelers and Patriots reached six titles in February 2009 and February 2019; Pittsburgh had needed four decades just to win a first playoff game, in 1972.
Q 20Which famous play decided the Steelers-Raiders 1972 AFC Divisional Playoff?
Immaculate Reception
The Immaculate Reception saw Franco Harris scoop a deflected pass just above the turf and score with seconds left; whether the ball came off a Raider or a Steeler, which mattered then, is still argued.
Possession, via a free kick
Possession, via a free kick, follows the two points, yet a team guarding a late lead may give up a safety on purpose to burn the clock, as Baltimore did in the final seconds of Super Bowl XLVII.
Q 24Which NFL quarterback was known as The Sheriff and retired after winning Super Bowl 50?
Peyton Manning
Peyton Manning sat out the whole 2011 season with a severe neck injury, then came back to win Super Bowl 50 in the last game of his career.
Q 25Which city hosted the very first Super Bowl?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosted Super Bowl I in January 1967 with about 33,000 of its 94,000 seats unsold, after local papers attacked the $12 top ticket; it is the only Super Bowl not to sell out.
Q 26Which position lines up at the outer edge of the line of scrimmage, mainly to rush the quarterback?
Defensive End
The defensive end is named for the men at each end of the line; on offense the old 'ends' became today's tight ends and wide receivers, while the defensive name stuck.
Q 27Which Giants linebacker known as L.T. terrorized quarterbacks in the 1980s and won the 1986 MVP, a rarity for a defender?
Lawrence Taylor
Lawrence Taylor, the Giants' pass-rushing linebacker, was named 1986 NFL MVP, the first defender so honored since Alan Page in 1971; The Blind Side credits him with making left tackles premium linemen.
Q 28How many players from each team are on the field during a regular play in an NFL game?
11
Each team has 11 players on the field during a play, for a total of 22 players. Having 12 or more players on the field results in a penalty.
Q 29Which annual award goes to the most outstanding player in American college football?
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Trophy took its name in 1936 from John Heisman, the coach whose Georgia Tech team once beat Cumberland 222-0; its stiff-arming figure was modeled on NYU's Ed Smith.
Q 30Which franchise moved from St. Louis back to Los Angeles in 2016?
Rams
The Rams got the move approved by a 30-2 vote of NFL owners in January 2016, returning the league to Los Angeles after a 21-year absence.