The NIRSA Flag & Touch Football Rules Book & Officials' Manual contains the official rules for flag and touch football. The book standardizes the rules and mechanics for the game of screen-blocking (noncontact) football.

The 2015 & 2016 NIRSA Flag & Touch Football Rules Book & Officials’ Manual is a standard in the field of recreational sports. In its new 17th edition, the NIRSA Rules Book and Manual provides you with the latest rule changes and updates for sport. Whether you are a coach, an instructor, official, player or fan of the sport, this is the essential rules book for Flag & Touch Football. This easy to read and follow pocketsize rules book is the resource for you before, during, and after the game. Regardless if you are an official in campus recreation, a community parks and recreation department or any number of recreational sports programs, the Official’s Manual helps you keep on top of the sport with the newest rules and requirement for playing Flag & Touch Football.

NIRSA, the leader in collegiate recreation—with its membership serving over 8 million students—provides the latest rule changes in flag and touch football with its 18th edition of a classic in the field. The 2017 & 2018 NIRSA Flag & Touch Football Rules Book & Officials’ Manual also offers updated information for the Flag & Touch Football Officials’ Manual as well as instruction on proper mechanics for three-person and four-person crews. This new edition highlights the rule changes in the book, making it easy for you to pick out what’s new or changed. And the pocket size of the book makes it easy to consult at games, whether you’re a coach, instructor, official, player, or fan of flag and touch football. The 2017 & 2018 NIRSA Flag & Touch Football Rules Book & Officials’ Manual, developed by the NIRSA Flag Football Editorial Board, offers a section on the changes for 2017 and 2018 and explains the following rules: Rule 1. The Game, Field, Players, and Equipment Rule 2. Definitions of Playing Terms Rule 3. Periods, Time Factors, and Substitutions Rule 4. Ball in Play, Dead Ball, and Out of Bounds Rule 5. Series of Downs, Number of Down, and Team Possession After Penalty Rule 6. Kicking the Ball Rule 7. Snapping, Handing, and Passing the Ball Rule 8. Scoring Plays and Touchback Rule 9. Conduct of Players and Others Rule 10. Enforcement of Penalties The book also offers summaries on these topics: • Fouls and penalties • Co-rec football rules • Youth football rules • 4 on 4 football rules • 10 commandments for clinicians and observers The NIRSA Football Officials’ Manual is then presented in seven sections: Part I. Officiating Basics Part II. Game Administration Part III. Officiating Responsibilities Part IV. Communication Part V. 3-Person Mechanics Part VI. 4-Person Mechanics Part VII. Code of Official Football Signals This easy-to-read rule book and officials’ manual reflects NIRSA’s continuing commitment to the development of flag and touch football and the organization’s efforts to keep training and officials’ manuals current and relevant. As such, this book is an essential resource for officials, coaches, and players connected to flag and touch football in various settings, from youth levels through collegiate levels.

"This is the first football history to chronicle year by year how playing rules developed the game. Football - a four-dimensional game of rushing, kicking, forward passing, and backward passing - has had more playing rule changes since its inception than any other sport. The Anatomy of a Game follows football rules from the game's European roots through its beginning in the United States to its position as the number-one spectator sport in the 1990s. Highlighted are details of the crisis years that changed the character of the game, with coaches and rules committee members the featured players. David M. Nelson, who served on the NCAA Rules Committee longer than Walter Camp, provides personal insight into all Rules Committee meetings since 1958, as well as an appendix - chronological and by rule - listing every change since 1876." "Ever since the first two human beings kicked, threw, or batted an object competitively, there have been playing rules. Games are mentioned in the Bible, and the Romans brought football's forerunner to Britain, from where it was exported to the United States. It was in the United States that college students decided to make their game rugby rather than soccer. Although the students invented United States football and made the first rules, their ruling power was eventually lost to the faculty, administrators, coaches, rules committees, and the NCAA." "Beginning as a brutal sport, football survived several crises before and after the turn of the century, eventually becoming respectable. The 1931 injury crisis split the high school and college rules and the same year the professionals went their own way, with rules largely based on spectator appeal." "Today the sport is a national treasure primarily because of its playing rules, over seven hundred in total, which make college football unique among the world's team sports. Moreover, football remains an American game, never having the same impact in other countries as do baseball and basketball." "Rules make the game, but people make the rules. Football survived the major crises that threatened the game because committee members adhered to the precepts that had governed football since its inception. The game began with an attempt to have a consistent code of justice, personal accountability, and equality. In some sense the playing rules are a type of moral precept that explains in the simplest terms what can and cannot be done. The Football Code, which first prefaced the rules in 1916, makes the game - more than any other sport - a moral one because it sets standards for coaching, playing, sportsmanship, and officiating."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

So You Think You Know Football? is the motherlode of NFL rules and their interpretations. Whether you know everything about on- and off-field rules or are a true novice, Austro deftly illustrates the ins and outs of the NFL rulebook using examples from actual games. Test your inner referee with questions about the correct call and how slight changes might affect the ruling. Do you know why spiking the ball immediately to stop the clock is not considered intentional grounding, while hesitating a few seconds then spiking the ball is? See if you would have made the right call in a game played between the Chicago Bears and Oakland Raiders on November 27, 2011—with additional quiz questions from other games involving similar controversies. Keep this book right next to your favorite football-watching chair to consult during the game and visit ThinkYouKnowFootball.com to stay updated on interpretations affected by rule modifications.

2023 & 2024 NIRSA Flag & Touch Football Rules Book & Officials' Manual provides the latest rule changes in flag and touch football, including updated information for officials.

NIRSA, the leader in collegiate recreation—with a membership serving over 8 million students—provides the latest rule changes in flag and touch football with its 19th edition of a classic in the field. The 2019 & 2020 NIRSA Flag & Touch Football Rules Book & Officials' Manual highlights all the rule text that has changed since the previous edition, making it easy to locate what is new or changed. Updated information for officials includes instruction on proper mechanics for three-person and four-person crews. And the pocket size of the guide makes it easy to consult at games, whether you’re a coach, instructor, official, player, or fan of flag and touch football. The manual also offers summaries on fouls and penalties, youth football rules, and 4 on 4 football rules, and it presents the 10 commandments for clinicians and observers. It contains detailed explanations of the following rules: Rule 1. The Game, Field, Players, and Equipment Rule 2. Definitions of Playing Terms Rule 3. Periods, Time Factors, and Substitutions Rule 4. Ball in Play, Dead Ball, and Out of Bounds Rule 5. Series of Downs, Number of Downs, and Team Possession After Penalty Rule 6. Kicking the Ball Rule 7. Snapping, Handing, and Passing the Ball Rule 8. Scoring Plays and Touchback Rule 9. Conduct of Players and Others Rule 10. Enforcement of Penalties The officials’ portion is then presented in seven sections: Part I. Officiating Basics Part II. Game Administration Part III. Officiating Responsibilities Part IV. Communication Part V. 3-Person Mechanics Part VI. 4-Person Mechanics Part VII. NIRSA Official Flag Football Signals This easy-to-read rule book and officials’ manual reflects NIRSA’s continuing commitment to the development of flag and touch football and the organization’s efforts to keep training and officials’ manuals current and relevant. As such, this pocket guide is an essential resource for officials, coaches, and players connected to flag and touch football in various settings, from youth levels through collegiate levels.