A football play is the activity of the games of Canadian football and American football during which one team tries to advance the ball or to score, and the other team tries to stop them or take the ball away. Once a play is over, and before the next play starts, the football is considered dead. A game of American football consists of many such plays.

The term is also used to denote a specific plan of action, or its execution, under a particular set of circumstances faced by either team. For instance, the offensive team may be faced with one or two downs left in a possession and still ten or more yards to go to earn a new set of downs. In this instance, they may decide to employ a forward pass. Well in advance of the particular game, a number of different kinds of forward pass plays will have been planned out and practiced by the team. They will be designated by obscure words, letters and/or numbers so that the name of a play does not reveal its exact execution to outsiders. The team's coach, or perhaps the quarterback, will choose one of the pre-planned forward passing strategies, and tell the team, during the huddle which one has been chosen. Because of planning and practice, each player will know what his role in the play is to be, and how to execute it. This will be the offensive play.

Conversely, the defensive team will know that the offense has to cover a good deal of ground in a single play, will expect a forward pass, and will know from earlier study something of the propensities of the offense they face. The defensive captain is likely to call out a specific formation or defensive play, to anticipate and counteract the expected action by the offense.

The play will begin with the snap of the ball from the center to a back, usually the quarterback, and it will end when the effort by the offensive squad to advance the ball has either succeeded in scoring, or has been frustrated by the ball being downed before the aim of the offensive play is accomplished, or by the defensive squad having managed to come into possession of the ball without first downing it. In the event of change of possession during a play, the team newly in possession of the ball may try to advance it toward their own goal, which the team formerly in possession with naturally resist. Change of possession during a routine play may occur by interception or by fumble.

Change of possession may also occur in other ways. A change of possession can occur on downs, if the offensive team fails to achieve a first down or a touchdown in four attempts. Another way is through a change of possession play, when the offensive team, having surmised the unlikelihood of scoring or achieving a first down within four attempts, kicks the ball away in what is known as a punt. kickoffs and free kicks are not considered true change of possession plays

See also

• Glossary of American football