A minor thing, not meant to be a discouragement because I love when people reach out to new things. I love that you are reaching out to American Football and falling in love with it, and never will my intent be to stop that. I am here to help, as I've done before.

It's a Field in Football, not a Pitch. Baseball is also played on a Field. Ice Hockey is play on a Rink. Field Hockey is played... well, on a Field, as the name suggests. Basketball is played on a Court. And Futbol is played on a Pitch (except Americans will still say Field, because often we can be unaccepting of origins).

So as we wouldn't say a Basketball Game is played on a Field, and we wouldn't say Ice Hockey is played on a Field, we shouldn't say Football is played on a Pitch (and us Americans that do, should not say Futbol is played on a Field).

It's a very minor thing, but learning those minor things will have a greater impact. Just as you said "A defender false starts". I am sure you meant 'off sides'. Because you are learning and they are similar. It's the details, the little things. So getting 'Field' right will help you pay better attention when discovering other little things, like the difference in Offside and False Start.

Much like if I were learning Futbol from you, you'd want to impact upon me the little nuances of Futbol and their importance. You'd want me to call a Wing a Wing, a Striker a Striker... because that is what they are, and getting those fundamentals helps when things start to get more difficult.

I hope this in some small way helps, at the risk of being taken in the wrong way.

It's "soccer", played on a field.

Is a Pitch for Rugby or Cricket? I know a Pitch is a thing for a specific game. I think it's Cricket.

And as far as I know, the only people on the planet that call it 'soccer'... are Americans.

It was Association Football, that's what the sport was called. Then other sports evolved from it, like Rugby. So to differentiate indeed Brits called Rugby 'Rugger' and Association Football 'Soccer'.

But 'Soccer' was never the official name of Association Football. We (Americans) started using Soccer as the official name, which it never was, so Brits started to distance themselves from the term and go back to Football (Futbol).

No one else calls it Soccer. The Brits did for a bit to distinguish it from Rugby, and we followed suit, and the Brits pulled back from it around 1980. The rest of the world... it's Football. And even the Brits now call it Football.

We're the only ones left that call it Soccer.

Also, looking this up, a Soccer 'field' is absolutely called a Pitch.

It's used in Soccer, Cricket and Rugby.

It's a decidedly British term and these Sports were popularized there.

Now it is fair to say that 'pitch' does indeed mean 'playing field'... but it's still a Pitch because that's the term the inventors used.

We don't call it a Basketball Floor... though it is indeed a floor. We call it a Court.

But if some Englishman kept talking about playing on the Basketball Floor, we'd correct them.

It's only fair we accept the correction when we call a Pitch a 'field'.

ha ha thanks mate - made me smile when I read it! not taken the wrong way but worth putting that imo. I'm enjoying learning the sport of American rugger (!).
only last night I found out that a game can finish as a draw (or a tie as you'd say! ). I wondered what that empty column on the table (standings! ) was for. I'd seen some games finish tied but then I thought over time was played as a first one to score something wins the game.
clearly not.
I also saw last night that when a defender rushed too Quickly the commentator said:
"the qb spotted the infringement so knew he had a free pass" - once offside = they can't tackle him right bit like in rugby? or rugger (which I hadn't heard for 30 years! )

anyway I'm off for a game of golf on the new pitch in town before a quick game of tennis on the tarmac followed by some snooker on the green fuzzy stuff finished off with some darts on the cork board. ....

On the OT. In the NFL we have one 15 Minute OT Period (an extra Quarter as it were). A TD on the first drive ends it. A FG allows the opposing team the chance to score. Play continues after the initial drive until a Score, First Score Wins (after the Initial Drive Rule, where the opposition gets that single possession to try to tie/win). College is different. Each team gets a Drive starting at the 25, both get a Possession. Each period tied leads to another.

You can rewatch the Seahawks vs. Cardinals from today. It ends in a tie after the period. The difference is unlike Futbol or Play Off Ice Hockey, there is no 'shoot out' to break the tie.

Now on the 'free play'. In the NFL a Defender can cross the line of scrimmage (LOS) and not be a penalty UNLESS he (1) makes contact, (2) the ball is snapped while he is in the 'neutral zone' or (3) an Offense Player false starts DUE to the Off Sides, in which case the Offensive Player is 'forgiven' and the Defender is 'Off Sides' for causing the flinch.

So you can jump off sides, not touch anyone, no one flinch and the ball not be snapped... and you can get back on sides and it's not a penalty in the NFL.

I didn't fully answer your free play question, sorry.

So if I jump offsides and they snap the ball, the play continues UNLESS there is unimpeded process to the QB.

So he can drop back and try to throw for a big play, and take the Play Result or Penalty.

But if my jumping offsides gives me a clear shot at him the Ref will blow the play dead so I don't get a free hit on the QB... which would reward me for committing a penalty if I was allowed to (a hit on the QB in exchange for giving up Penalty Yards... some times that would be worth doing).

Hope that squares you away on it. There are so many situations, and we aren't even into Offensive/Defensive Schemes and Systems yet. :D

The exception in the NFL to a game ending in a tie after one overtime period is the playoffs where there has to be a winner, so they'd keep going for however long it took.