Goal Post in Football – All You Need to Know (2022 Review)
What is a Football Goal Post?
Football refers to a huge yellow post that is placed on the end line behind each end zone as the goal post. A goalpost has a crossbar, which is a horizontal bar, and uprights, which are two vertical bars.
The crossbar is thirty feet tall and 18 and a half feet broad in both NFL and Division I football. The uprights are twenty feet tall and the bottom post is ten feet high. The base of the post sits farther back than the crossbar and uprights, which also offsets it from the field.
In American football, the goal posts (GP) have undoubtedly changed over time. The goalposts used in American football originally consisted of a crossbar that was 10 feet (3.05 meters) above the ground. It is 10 feet tall and 18.5 feet broad (5.64 meters) (4.572 meters).
In essence, American Football adopted the rugby goal posts as the goal posts for their own sport by reducing the height of the uprights.
History of football goalposts
On a football pitch, the goalposts have evolved over time. The first end zones were adopted in 1912.
They formerly positioned the GP on the goal lines. However, as you can guess, they impeded scoring plays and were just an obstruction. They consequently relocated the goalposts to the end of the field, behind the end zones, in 1927.
Since 1927, the goalposts have always been positioned at the end lines in college football conferences. But in the NFL, they relocated the goalposts to the goal line in 1933 and remained there until 1974. Previously, they had been located at the front of the end zone.
The GP was once more shifted back to the end lines in 1974, where they still are today.
What is a goalpost used for?
The kicker must kick the ball past the goalpost in order to score points. Teams can opt to kick a field goal during a regular down rather than rushing or passing the ball. When the kicker enters the game, he or she will attempt to kick the ball through the uprights.
That team receives three points if the ball enters the GP without first touching the floor or another player. These kicks can be challenging because the kicker may be far from the post, making accuracy much more challenging.
When the ball is kicked through the uprights following a touchdown, one point is additionally awarded. A PAT, or point after touchdown, is what this is. A touchdown is worth 6 points, and the point immediately following one increases its value to 7.
A team has the chance to attempt an extra point after scoring a touchdown. The kicker enters the field once more and attempts to place the ball through the uprights. If they are successful, their group earns an extra point.
How goalposts are made
AdjustRight goalposts are the most popular GP. This mechanism makes it possible to quickly lower and removes a football GP from any sporting field.
The goalposts are made of six-inch schedule 40, 6061 aluminum. Schedule 40, 6063 aluminum pipe makes up the gooseneck stanchion part. The NFL size of 18 feet and 6 inches is fitted to the aluminum crossbar using a saw.
The next step is to gas metal arc weld an aluminum gooseneck coupler into the crossbar’s exact center. Due to the significant heat difficulties with this hollow aluminum pipe, the NFL developed two convex crossbar positioning fixtures to minimize deformation.
Curvatures that were simply inaccurate were resolved by this fixture. It is possible to work on two crossbars at once. The material is then loaded beforehand to account for heat-induced distortion, which prevents potential bending.
The top of the crossbar is then cut to provide holes on either end, into which a rotating sleeve is inserted. After that, they soldered a stub into the sleeve. Then, each end is closed with an aluminum cap that has been welded on. Last but not least, a built-in wind-directional flag clip is welded.
Sum up
Today, a lot of goal posts for colleges, high schools, and rec leagues are designed with a football upright and a soccer net. Hope that with this article, you can learn more knowledge about football goal post. Don’t forget to follow us – Footballterms to update more information about American football.
Thanks for reading!