A Game by any other Name (or) how to play Finger Football—

Names are important for games today. A name says a lot about a product, and can instill a sense of fun. For example, the name “Flibbix” comes from the words “Flip,” “Blend,” and “Mix.” These describe how you make a board game (or build a board game board) with Flibbix. Plus, we think the name’s kinda fun to say.

But some games are named for historical reasons. For example, American “Football” has a funny name, considering a foot only touches the ball a few times a game. It turns out that the game is a decedent of Rugby (or officially: “Rugby Football”), where you actually do use your feet on the ball…hence the shortened name “Football.” I guess they couldn’t call it “Handball,” since that name’s already taken. International “Football”—called “Soccer” in the US—seems to fit the name better since that game is still mostly about feet.

Back on topic, today we’re really not here to talk about names, but games. No matter what kind of football you prefer, there’s a classic indoor game that’s a blast to play. It’s especially a great game for those times when you don’t have any other games around: all you need is a piece of paper, a table, and a partner to play. Plus it’s a DIY (Do It Yourself) game. And we love DIY. By the way, you can mix this into your Flibbix game. Land on a Custom Tile and you can have a Finger Football shootout to see who gets to move ahead 8 spaces.

For those who haven’t played before, Finger Football is loosely based on the idea of American Football. The funny thing is that “Finger Football” is an even more mixed-up name, since there’s no foot or ball in the game at all. It’s a blast, though.

How to play:

Items needed:
- 1 piece of paper. US letter-size paper (8.5″ x 11″) works fine. A4 paper likely works as well.
- A rectangular table

Number of players: 2

How to Make a Finger Football:

Follow the steps in the images below to make your own Finger Football:

Playing for a Touch Down:

1. Flick or slide the Finger Football across the table towards your opponent’s end of the table. The goal is to get it all the way to their end of the table so that it’s sticking slightly over the edge of the table without falling off.
2. If you’re able to get the Finger Football to go slightly off the opponent’s end of the table, without falling off, you score a “Touchdown” (6 points). You can now try for a Field Goal.
3. If you slide it off their end of the the table, they can try for a field goal (see below) and get 3 points for making a field goal.
4. If you don’t slide it far enough (so it’s on the table, but not hanging off), then the other player “receives possession” and it’s their turn to take a shot for a touch down….from wherever the football is located.
5. If the football goes off of the sides of the table, it’s out of bounds, and the other player can go for a touch down from the point where it went off the table… or straight across the table from that point.

Playing for a Field Goal

1. You or your opponent should hold your thumbs and index fingers in the shape of an “L” and a backwards “L” so that the index fingers point at each other and thumbs point up. It should look the bottom corners of a picture frame. That’s the field goal.
2. You or your opponent hold the Finger Football so one point of the triangle is resting on the table, one held by a finger on top, and the third points towards the field goal.
3. Try to “flick” the Finger Football between (through or above) the field goal posts
4. Made it? Add an extra point to your touchdown.

Goal of the Game

There aren’t strict rules about how many points it takes to win the game. Pick a target number of points before you begin playing. Maybe 40 is a good number for you, or 60.

Or just play as long as you have time, and see who has the most points at the end.

That’s it! Have fun.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Classic Games, DIY, How To. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.