Football
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100 free Football trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
15 free Football trivia questions with answers. Football trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is American Football trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In American football, how many points is a touchdown worth?
6
A touchdown is the highest-scoring play in American football, earning the scoring team six points. This often leads to an opportunity for an extra point or a two-point conversion.
Q 02Through the 2024 NFL season, which two franchises were tied for the most Super Bowl wins?
New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers
Both had six; the Steelers got theirs first, winning four in six seasons in the 1970s, while the Patriots collected all six between the 2001 and 2018 seasons.
Q 03Which quarterback holds the NFL record for most career regular season passing yards?
Tom Brady
Tom Brady finished with 89,214 regular-season passing yards and also owns the playoff record of 13,400.
Q 04The NFL franchise known since 1994 as the Arizona Cardinals began in which major US city?
Chicago
The franchise began as the Morgan Athletic Club in Chicago in 1898, making it the oldest continuously operating NFL franchise. It later moved to St. Louis before settling in Arizona.
Q 05What is the defensive formation with five defensive backs replacing a linebacker called?
Nickel
A 'nickel' defense involves having five defensive backs on the field, typically by replacing a linebacker with an extra defensive back, to improve pass coverage.
Q 06Which nation hosted and won the inaugural World Cup in 1930?
Uruguay
Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2 in the final at Montevideo's Estadio Centenario, a stadium built to mark the centenary of the country's first constitution of 1830.
Q 07Including the goalkeeper, how many players does one team field in a standard association football match?
11
11 per side is the maximum, and one of them must be the goalkeeper; the other ten are outfield players.
Q 08Which player holds the record for the most Ballon d'Or awards, with eight to his name?
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi has eight Ballon d'Or wins to Cristiano Ronaldo's five, and he is the only player to win it while playing outside Europe.
Q 09What is the global governing body for association football?
FIFA
FIFA, based in Zurich, is the global governing body of association football and also runs beach soccer and futsal; the Laws of the Game are kept by the separate IFAB.
Q 10With five titles, which nation had won the most men's World Cups going into the 2026 tournament?
Brazil
Brazil had five titles going into 2026 and is the only nation to have played in every single World Cup.
Q 11In which country did modern association football originate?
England
England is where the modern game was codified: the Football Association, founded in London in 1863, published the first unified Laws of the Game that December.
Q 12What rule penalizes an attacker who is nearer the goal line than both the ball and the second-to-last opponent?
Offside
The offside rule dictates that a player is in an offside position if they are in the opponent's half and closer to the goal line than both the ball and the second-to-last opponent when a teammate plays the ball.
Q 13In which year did Brazil host the men's World Cup for the second time, the fifth staged in South America?
2014
2014 brought the World Cup back to South America for the first time since Argentina 1978, and the Maracanã was the only stadium also used at Brazil 1950.
Q 21How old was Pelé when he became the youngest player to win a World Cup, in 1958?
17
Pelé was 17 when Brazil beat Sweden 5-2 in the 1958 final, scoring twice; he went on to win three World Cups, a record no other player has matched.
Q 22Pelé's real first name, Edson, was chosen in honour of which American inventor?
Thomas Edison
Pelé was named Edson after the American inventor Thomas Edison, a tribute to the electric light; the spelling dropped the 'i'. He was born in Três Corações, Brazil, in 1940.
Q 23Which AFL team owner coined the term 'Super Bowl', reportedly inspired by his children's Super Ball toy?
Lamar Hunt
Lamar Hunt, owner of the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs, first used 'Super Bowl' in the merger meetings; officially the game stayed the AFL-NFL World Championship Game until the name was adopted for Super Bowl III in 1969.
Q 14What name did Diego Maradona give the goal he punched in against England at the 1986 World Cup?
The Hand of God
The Hand of God was Maradona's own name for the punched goal; four minutes later in the same quarter-final he scored the 'Goal of the Century', dribbling past five England players.
Q 15Which club, founded in October 1857, is the world's oldest existing independent football club?
Sheffield F.C.
Sheffield F.C. held its inaugural meeting at Parkfield House in Highfield on 24 October 1857, and its 1858 Sheffield Rules predate the Football Association of 1863.
Q 16Which two men's World Cups were cancelled because of World War II?
1942 and 1946
The 1942 and 1946 World Cups were cancelled because of the Second World War; Germany and Brazil had both bid for 1942, and the next tournament, Brazil 1950, was the first to include England.
Q 17What happened to the original Jules Rimet Trophy, awarded to World Cup winners from 1930 to 1970?
It was stolen in 1983 and never recovered
The original Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen in 1983 from the Brazilian confederation's Rio headquarters and never recovered; Brazil had kept it permanently after its third title in 1970, and thieves are thought to have melted it down.
Q 18Besides its two World Cups, what do Uruguay's other two shirt stars represent?
Olympic gold medals of 1924 and 1928
Uruguay's extra stars mark the Olympic gold medals of 1924 and 1928, won in Paris and Amsterdam; FIFA organised both Olympic tournaments and Uruguay counts them as world titles.
Q 19World Cup Willie, the first ever World Cup mascot, was created for the tournament held in which year?
1966
World Cup Willie, a lion in a Union Jack shirt, was the mascot of the 1966 tournament in England, also the last World Cup played with a Slazenger ball before Adidas took over in 1970.
Q 20Since which World Cup have three points, rather than two, been awarded for a group-stage win?
1994
Three points for a win were introduced at the 1994 World Cup in the United States, which was also the last 24-team tournament before the field grew to 32 in 1998.
Q 24The Vince Lombardi Trophy is named after the coach who won the first two Super Bowls with which team?
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers were Lombardi's team for the first two Super Bowls, yet the first trophy bearing his name went to the Baltimore Colts after Super Bowl V.
Q 25The Super Bowl ranks second for American food consumption behind which holiday?
Thanksgiving dinner
Thanksgiving dinner is the biggest eating occasion in the United States; Super Bowl Sunday ranks second, when Americans eat well over a billion chicken wings.
Q 26The first American football game, in November 1869, pitted Princeton against which college?
Rutgers
Rutgers won 6-4; by 1875 the sport had shifted to rules closer to rugby union.
Q 27Which Yale figure, 'Father of American Football', created the snap, line of scrimmage and downs?
Walter Camp
Walter Camp, a Yale player and coach, introduced the snap, the line of scrimmage and the system of downs, and fixed teams at eleven players; the forward pass was only legalised in 1906.
Q 28Jerry Rice, the NFL's all-time leading receiver, played his college football at which small school?
Mississippi Valley State
Jerry Rice played at Mississippi Valley State, a small Division I-AA school in Itta Bena, drawn partly by coach Archie 'The Gunslinger' Cooley's pass-heavy offence.
Q 29The Heisman Trophy was first awarded in 1935 to halfback Jay Berwanger of which university?
Chicago
The Downtown Athletic Club originally limited it to players east of the Mississippi and only named it after John Heisman in 1936, after his death.
Q 30Through 2024, which university had produced the most Heisman Trophy winners, with eight?
USC
USC had eight winners through 2024, from Mike Garrett in 1965 to Caleb Williams in 2022, Reggie Bush's 2005 award having been reinstated in 2024; Ohio State, Oklahoma and Notre Dame had seven each.