Football Questions to Ask
For a watch party, a tailgate, Monday at the office or dinner with a date who owns a jersey, whether you live for football or are trying to keep up with someone who does. The 53 questions about American football follow the order the talk usually takes: Your team, This season, Debates, Players and coaches, Fantasy and game day, then New to the game, which opens with questions for a newcomer to ask and ends with ones for a fan to ask a newcomer. You can ask every one of them without knowing a nickel defense from a dime.
Want questions from the whole vault instead? Try the random question generator.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Your team
Who's your team, and who made you a fan?
Why ask it
A parent, a hometown or one good season watched in grade school is usually behind it. Hear the origin before you tease anyone about the record: a team handed down by a grandfather is not one they chose, and not one they feel free to drop.
What's the first football game you remember watching?
Why ask it
People tend to recall the room and who was in it better than the score. Ask where they were sitting and whose house it was, and you get a family story with a game attached.
Which rival can you not stand, and is the grudge yours or inherited?
Why ask it
An inherited grudge arrives with a grandparent's story, and a personal one with a specific game. Check who else is at the table first, because a fan of that rival turns this into a different evening.
What's the best game you've ever been to in person?
Why ask it
Being there adds weather, bad seats and the drive home to the memory. If they have never been to one, ask which stadium they would pick first.
Which loss still hurts when somebody brings it up?
Why ask it
Most fans have one and can still give you the down, the distance and the time left on the clock. Let them tell it start to finish without checking the details, since this is a grievance and not a trivia round.
Is there a second team you quietly root for?
Why ask it
A college team alongside a pro one, a spouse's team, the team of a city they moved to. The word quietly gives permission to admit it, and the reason is nearly always a person and not a roster.
Have you ever come close to giving up on them?
Why ask it
Years of losing, a franchise changing cities or a favorite player traded away can all bring a fan to the edge. Someone who says yes and then explains why they stayed has just told you what the team is really for.
What's the oldest piece of team gear you still own?
Why ask it
Usually a jersey with a long-retired name on the back or a hat nobody is allowed to wash. If they are wearing it today, ask what the team's record is when it comes out of the closet.
This season
How did your team do this week, and how are you taking it?
Why ask it
The plainest question on the page and the right one for a Monday when you watched none of it: they supply the score and you supply the sympathy. Follow with the one play that decided it, which a fan can name without thinking.
How are you feeling about this season: hopeful, nervous or already thinking about the draft?
Why ask it
Three options make it easy for a casual fan to pick one and give a serious fan something to argue with. In the offseason it works just as well about the year ahead.
Which game on the schedule did you circle first?
Why ask it
The answer names the rivalry or the grudge that matters most to them this year. Remember it, because texting them after that game is the easiest follow-up you will ever have.
Which team has surprised you most this year, good or bad?
Why ask it
Fans watch far more than their own team, and this lets them show it. If you have not followed the season, it is also a quick way to learn the two or three story lines everyone else is talking about.
What's the one thing your team has to fix before next week?
Why ask it
You are inviting them to play coordinator, which most fans have been doing from the couch for years. You do not have to judge whether they are right. Ask what they would call instead.
Who do you think wins it all, and who do you want to win it all?
Why ask it
Head and heart rarely give the same answer, and the distance between the two names is what to ask about. Someone who names their own team for both is either having a great year or cannot be reasoned with.
Which rookie or new arrival has been the most fun to watch?
Why ask it
New players are where hope lives for a fan of a struggling team, so this is a kind question in a bad year. Ask what they saw that convinced them, a single play if they can name one.
If the season ended today, would you call it a success?
Why ask it
It makes a fan say out loud what the bar was back in August. Follow with what would have to happen for the answer to flip.
Which game this year did you turn off, or wish you had?
Why ask it
Blowouts and collapses produce funnier stories than wins do. Find out what they did with the rest of the afternoon, and whether they checked the score anyway.
Debates
Who's the greatest quarterback of all time, and who's second?
Why ask it
The first name is often predictable, so the argument tends to live in second place. Ask what they are counting, championships, statistics or how it felt to watch, because people who disagree are usually measuring different things.
College football or the pros, if you could keep only one?
Why ask it
This one splits a room by where people grew up more than by taste. Anyone raised in a college town with no pro team nearby will often answer before you finish asking.
Does defense still win championships, or is that just something people say?
Why ask it
An old saying makes a good target because everyone has heard it and few have tested it. Ask for the team they would offer as evidence, and let the other side name theirs.
Fourth and short at midfield in a tie game: go for it or punt?
Why ask it
Give the situation exactly as written so there is something to decide. The answer is a read on temperament as much as on football, and it is fair to ask whether they would say the same if it were their team.
Which rule would you rewrite tomorrow morning?
Why ask it
Overtime, pass interference and what counts as a catch are the usual candidates. Have them explain the current rule first, because finding out that no two people at the table describe it the same way is most of the fun.
Would you take one championship followed by ten bad years, or ten good years with no title?
Why ask it
Fans of a team that has never won it tend to answer instantly, and fans of a team that has take longer. It is at its best at a table with both kinds.
Which stadium would you least like to visit wearing the away team's colors?
Why ask it
A gentler way to ask which fan base is the roughest, and it gets travel stories from the people who have done it. If someone from that city is sitting across from you, let them answer first.
Which team has the best uniforms in football, and which has the worst?
Why ask it
The one debate in this group that needs no knowledge of the game, so hand it to whoever has been quiet. Throwback uniforms get brought up within a minute.
Players and coaches
Who's your favorite player of all time, and what was it about them?
Why ask it
Favorite is not the same as best, and the difference is the reason to ask. It is often someone they watched as a kid, picked for a style or a jersey number more than for the record book.
Which player right now would you watch no matter who they played for?
Why ask it
The name shows what they come to football for: a quarterback who improvises, a runner who is hard to bring down, a pass rusher who wrecks a game plan. Have them describe one play from this season that explains the choice.
Who on your team does not get the credit they deserve?
Why ask it
Linemen, special teamers and the safety nobody outside the city has heard of. A fan who can answer this at once watches the whole field and not just the ball.
If you could take one player from any other roster, who would it be?
Why ask it
It doubles as a diagnosis: the position they shop for is the hole they think their team has. Asking what they would give up in return keeps it honest.
Which player were you sorriest to see leave?
Why ask it
Trades, free agency and retirement all end differently for a fan, and this is one of the few football questions that gets a quiet answer. Find out if they kept the jersey.
What do you make of your head coach?
Why ask it
Expect a paragraph. Fans study the sideline as closely as the field, so the follow-up that keeps it going is what they would want from the next one.
Which coach, past or present, would you most want to play for?
Why ask it
Some people choose the one who wins and some the one who seems decent to work for. Notice which, because it is really a question about what kind of boss they like.
Which position do you think is the hardest to play?
Why ask it
Quarterback is the reflex answer, so ask for a second choice. Anyone who played will defend their old position, and cornerback and offensive line both have loyal advocates.
Did you ever play, and where did they line you up?
Why ask it
Youth league, high school and backyard games all count. People who played watch a different game from people who did not, so this explains a good deal of what they have said so far.
Fantasy and game day
Are you in a fantasy league this year, and how is it going?
Why ask it
If you do not play, skip the roster and go straight to what the team is called, since the name is where many managers put their best work. If you do play, trade one start-or-sit dilemma each and stop there.
Who was the best draft pick you ever made, and the worst?
Why ask it
Fantasy players remember their steals for years and their busts for longer. The worst pick usually comes with a reason that sounded sensible on draft night.
Has fantasy ever had you rooting against your own team?
Why ask it
A small confession that most fantasy players will make with a wince. It also opens the bigger question of whether the hobby changed the way they watch on Sundays.
What happens to whoever finishes last in your league?
Why ask it
Leagues invent their own forfeits, from an ugly trophy on the desk to a sign held on a street corner. If you are starting a league, collect the harmless ones and leave the rest.
Where do you like to watch: your own couch, somebody else's or out in a crowd?
Why ask it
Worth asking before you invite a fan anywhere. Some want noise around them, and some need a particular seat and no talking during the snap.
What has to be on the table for it to count as game-day food?
Why ask it
Wings, chili, a seven-layer dip or a regional dish you have never heard of. Whoever makes it is the person to compliment, and the recipe is worth writing down if you are hosting the next one.
Is football part of Thanksgiving at your house, and who actually watches it?
Why ask it
In a lot of American homes the game stays on all afternoon whether or not anyone is looking at it. The stories are about who claims the good chair, who sleeps through the second half and whether there is a game in the yard first.
Do you have a game-day ritual you would be embarrassed to explain?
Why ask it
Get the origin: there is usually one specific win that the lucky hoodie or the assigned couch cushion gets the credit for. Then ask what happened the last time they broke it, because that game has not been forgotten.
What's your job at a tailgate: grill, setup, music or showing up hungry?
Why ask it
Every tailgate has an unspoken org chart, and people are proud of their place on it. If you are a guest, the answer tells you whom to thank and what to bring next time.
Are you a yeller or a silent sufferer when the game is close?
Why ask it
Good to know before you share a couch for three hours. Couples and roommates should answer for each other, which is usually more accurate.
New to the game
If I only watch one player today, who should it be?
Why ask it
For the newcomer to ask. One person to follow turns twenty-two moving bodies into a story, and fans like being trusted with the choice.
Who should I root for today, and what's the case for them?
Why ask it
Having a side makes the next three hours matter. Put it to two fans of different teams if you can, and let them compete for you.
What's a first down, and why does everyone get loud on third?
Why ask it
Four tries to gain ten yards is the engine of the whole sport, and third down is usually the try that decides whether a drive continues or the ball gets kicked away. A fan can cover it during one commercial break, and after that the line the broadcast draws across the field starts to mean something.
Why do the last two minutes take so long?
Why ask it
A fair complaint that happens to open the subject of timeouts and clock management, which is where much of the strategy sits. Ask it during those two minutes and you get a live demonstration.
What was the moment football finally made sense to you?
Why ask it
Lifelong fans often cannot say, but anyone who came to it late remembers the game or the person who explained it. Their answer is a decent map for how to learn it yourself.
What part of football makes no sense to you?
Why ask it
For a fan to ask someone new, and the tone decides everything: curious, not testing. Answer whatever they say in one sentence and stop, because a lecture ends the questions.
Do you watch the Super Bowl for the game, the commercials or the halftime show?
Why ask it
Nobody gets this wrong, so it suits the person at the party who came for the food. The follow-up is the best commercial or halftime show they remember.
What's the best football movie or show you've seen, and did it get the game right?
Why ask it
A way in for someone who has watched more football on a streaming service than on a Sunday. Fans in earshot will take the second part, usually to complain about how many last-second touchdowns one fictional season can hold.
What would it take to get you through a whole game?
Why ask it
Good food, good company and a player with a story are the usual conditions. Once they name one, you know what to arrange for next weekend.
How to talk football on game day
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Timing your questions
Ask in the breaks, not during the snap
Football hands you natural pauses: commercials, a change of possession, a review, halftime. Ask then. A question in the middle of a third-down play gets a raised hand and no answer, and the raised hand is not rudeness.
Check the score before you ask about the season
The same question lands differently at 4 and 0 than at 0 and 4. If their team is losing as you speak, stay in Your team or Players and coaches, where the answers are about the past, and leave This season for a better week.
Give a loss some room
Right after a bad loss most fans want ten minutes and a plate of food, not a debate. The question about the loss that still hurts belongs to another day, once this one has had time to become a story.
Mixed loyalties at one table
When rival fans are sitting together, put each question to both and keep score of nothing. The rivalry and away-stadium questions are fun among people who like each other and tiresome among people who have just met.
Where the questions fit
The halftime round
Pick one question from Debates and go around the room, one answer each, no rebuttals until everyone has spoken. Halftime is long enough for one question done properly, so resist a second.
At a tailgate
People are standing, eating and half listening, so short questions win: the oldest gear, the tailgate job, the game they circled. Save anything that needs a long answer for the walk to the gate.
Monday at work
One question is plenty by the coffee machine. Ask what their team has to fix, or which team surprised them, and they go back to their desk having been asked for an opinion and not a recap.
With a date or an in-law who is the fan
Start in Your team, because those are questions about a person's family and hometown that happen to involve football. Two or three of them tell you more than an hour of pretending to follow the game.
If you are the one still learning
Say so in the first five minutes
Fans are generous with someone who admits to being new and wary of someone bluffing. One sentence does it, and after that the questions in New to the game sound like interest and not like a gap being covered.
One question a quarter
Four questions across a game is a comfortable pace. More than that and the person next to you starts missing plays to answer you.
Borrow a side for the afternoon
Ask who to root for and commit until the clock runs out. You will care about the third quarter more than you expected, and you will have something to say at the end.
Learn the players first
A fan can talk for ten minutes about a favorite player and may struggle to explain a rule cleanly. Players, coaches and old games are the easy way in, and the rulebook arrives on its own as you watch.
What stalls the conversation
The name-five-players test
Asking a newer fan to name the starting lineup or recite a record is a test, and nobody enjoys a test at a party. Every question on this page asks for an opinion or a memory, which someone in their first season can give as easily as a season-ticket holder.
The fantasy monologue
A fantasy roster is fascinating to exactly one person. If you are that person, answer the fantasy questions in two sentences. If you are listening to one, the last-place forfeit question is a polite way to change the subject.
Settling it on a phone
Looking up the numbers in the middle of a Debates question ends the debate and usually the mood with it. Let the argument run on memory until the game is over, and check afterward if anyone still cares.
Doing their complaining for them
Fans may say anything they like about their own team, and that is a privilege a guest does not share. Until you know someone well, let them do the complaining and simply agree that the kicker has been a problem.