"The One With the Football" is the ninth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. The One With the Princess Leia Fantasy is the first episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One Where No Ones Ready is the second episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With the Jam is the third episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With the Metaphorical Tunnel is the fourth episode of the third season of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With Frank Jr. ... The One With the Flashback is the sixth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With the Racecar Bed is the seventh episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With the Giant Poking Device is the eighth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One Where Rachel Quits is the tenth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One Where Chandler Cant Remember Which Sister is the eleventh episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With All the Jealousy is the twelfth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One Where Monica and Richard are Just Friends is the thirteenth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With Phoebes Ex-Partner is the fourteenth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One Where Ross and Rachel Take a Break is the fifteenth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One the Morning After is the sixteenth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One Without the Ski Trip is the seventeenth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With the Hypnosis Tape is the eighteenth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With the Tiny T-Shirt is the nineteenth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With the Dollhouse is the twentieth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With a Chick. ... The One With the Screamer is the twenty-second episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With Rosss Thing is the twenty-third episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One With the Ultimate Fighting Champion is the twenty-fourth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... The One at the Beach is the twenty-fifth episode of season three of the television situation comedy Friends. ... now. ... Friends is a situation comedy about a group of six friends living in New York City. ...

First aired: November 21, 1996 November 21 is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

Plot

The girls are cooking Thanksgiving dinner, while the guys watch football. Rachel, at one point, shoves a marshmallow up Monica's nose. Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks, traditionally to God, for the things one has at the close of the harvest season. ... United States simply as football, is a competitive team sport that is both fast-paced and strategic. ... Rachel Karen Green (or sometimes Greene) (born May 5, 1970) is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends (1994-2004), played by Jennifer Aniston. ... Pink marshmallows. ... Monica E. Geller (b. ...

Joey suggests the gang play a game of football in the park. Rachel and Phoebe think this is a great idea - even though neither of them have ever played football before. Chandler refuses at first, since he's still distraught over his breakup with Janice. Joey points out that Chandler hasn't wanted to do anything since the breakup, and this will be an excellent way to start getting over her. (Besides, if Chandler doesn't play, the teams will be uneven and everyone will be mad.) Joseph Joey Francis Tribbiani, Jr. ... Phoebe Buffay (also Buffay-Hannigan) is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends (1994-2004), played by Lisa Kudrow. ... Chandler Muriel Bing (b. ... Maggie Wheeler as Janice in Friends Janice Litman Goralnik nee Hosenstein was a fictional recurring character in the popular television sitcom Friends, played by Maggie Wheeler. ...

Monica and Ross initially refuse too - they'd been banned from playing football by their parents. Every year, they used to have a touch football game called the "Geller Bowl." During Geller Bowl VI, Monica broke Ross's nose - thus spurring the banishment, and their father throwing the "trophy" in a lake. They finally decide one game couldn't hurt, and go to the park to play. Dr. Ross Eustace Geller, Ph. ...

Monica and Ross name themselves team captains - Monica picks Joey and Phoebe; Ross picks Chandler and Rachel, who was upset that she was picked last. Then, she gets upset because Ross keeps telling her to "go long." It doesn't take long for the Geller siblings' rivalry to come out, and they spend the game at war with each other. Monica reveals that she fished the "Geller Cup" out of the lake - it's a troll doll nailed to a 2x4. They decide to play for the "Cup." Rachel gets even more upset when Ross "trades" her to Monica's team for Joey.

Joey and Chandler meet a pretty Dutch girl named Margha, who's in the park because her roommate is "ferschlocking" a businessman. They spend the game competing for her affections. Ross, sick of their fighting, asks her to pick one. She picks Chandler, but rescinds her choice when Chandler starts gloating.

During the last play of the game, Monica throws it to Rachel - who almost scores a touchdown. Once the gang realizes the ball is still in play, Monica and Ross dive for the ball and refuse to let go. They end up staying there most of the night, while the rest of the gang goes back to the apartment to enjoy dinner. Rachel and Phoebe had so much fun playing football, they wonder if there's a league they can join. However, when they realise that it's on Monday nights, they quit the idea on the basis that they work Monday nights.

Trivia

• When the episode was broadcast, the ending with Monica and Ross in the park fighting over the football was used during the credits. However, on the DVD version, a different ending was used during the credits: Monica and Ross toss the Geller Cup down the garbage chute - but Phoebe is at the bottom, catching it for Monica. She's about to leave when Ross walks in on her to claim it for himself.
• Throughout most of the eppisode, Phoebe is wearing a shirt saying That Girl. This is a television show that starred Marlo Thomas, who starred in previous episodes as Rachel's mother.

That Girl was a television situation comedy that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971. ... Marlo Thomas Marlo Thomas (born Margaret Julia Thomas on November 21, 1937) is an American actress, who first achieved fame on the TV series That Girl in the 1960s. ...

Additional cast

• Margha - Suzanna Voltaire