Football Trivia for Kids
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
8correct to beat the crowd
This football trivia for kids quiz has 49 free questions with answers and starts with the American game: how many points a touchdown is worth, what a down is, why the ball is a pigskin, where the huddle came from, plus the Super Bowl, the Lombardi Trophy and the stars kids know from Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce to Lamar Jackson and Saquon Barkley. Then it switches codes for a soccer round: goalkeepers, penalties, hat-tricks, the World Cup, Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé, Haaland and the US women. Every question is answerable by kids aged about 7 to 12 who watch some football, and none of it is scary or grown-up. It works for a tailgate, a team bus, a classroom Friday or a family Super Bowl party. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's article on the player, team or rule, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many players does each team have on the field in American football?
Eleven
Eleven a side became the rule in 1880, when Walter Camp, the 'Father of American Football', got the rule-makers to cut teams down from fifteen players.
Q 02How many points is a touchdown worth?
Six
A touchdown is worth six points, the biggest single score in football; right after it the team gets one extra try for more.
Q 03How many points does a team get for kicking a field goal?
Three
Three points is the modern value: when point scoring began in 1883 a field goal counted five, more than a touchdown, and it was cut to three in 1909.
Q 04How many downs does a team get to move the ball ten yards?
Four
Four downs: gain the ten yards and the count starts again, fall short and the other team takes over, which is why teams usually punt the ball away on the last one.
Q 05A 'safety', when a ball carrier is tackled in his own end zone, is worth how many points?
Two
Two points go to the defense, and it gets the ball back as well: the team that gave up the safety has to kick it away from its own 20-yard line.
Q 06Players at Gallaudet, a college for deaf students, are credited with inventing which football tradition in the 1890s?
The huddle
The huddle is credited to Gallaudet quarterback Paul Hubbard, who pulled his players into a tight circle so that rival deaf teams could not read the plays he was signing.
Q 07Early footballs were made by blowing up which part of a pig?
The bladder
The bladder of a pig, blown up like a balloon, made an early football; it was later wrapped in leather, and that is thought to be why the ball is still nicknamed a 'pigskin'.
Q 08What is the prize given to the winner of the NFL championship called?
The Vince Lombardi Trophy
The Vince Lombardi Trophy got its name in 1970, after the death of the coach who had won the first two Super Bowls with Green Bay; a new sterling silver one is made by Tiffany & Co. every year.
Q 09Which Kansas City Chiefs star led the team to three Super Bowl wins between 2020 and 2024?
Patrick Mahomes
Patrick Mahomes was named MVP of all three wins; in the first, in February 2020, his Chiefs trailed San Francisco by ten points with seven minutes left and still won.
Q 10What position did Travis Kelce play for the Kansas City Chiefs?
Tight end
Tight end was not his first position: Travis Kelce was a quarterback in high school and switched in college, then set the record for 1,000-yard seasons by a tight end.
Q 11Where do the Kansas City Chiefs play their home games?
Arrowhead Stadium
Arrowhead Stadium is famous for noise: in 2014 Chiefs fans took the world record for the loudest stadium crowd back from Seattle with a roar of 142.2 decibels.
Q 12Which quarterback won a record seven Super Bowls?
Tom Brady
Tom Brady was only the 199th player picked in the 2000 draft, yet his seven titles are more than any single NFL team has won.
Q 13What is the name of the famous stadium in Green Bay, Wisconsin, nicknamed the Frozen Tundra?
Lambeau Field
Lambeau Field earned the nickname in the 1967 'Ice Bowl', a title game played there at about 15 below zero after the field's heating system failed and the turf froze.
Q 21Who headlined the Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans in February 2025?
Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar's show drew about 133.5 million viewers in the US, a record for a halftime show and more than the average audience for the game itself.
Q 22Which running back ran for more than 2,000 yards for Philadelphia in 2024?
Saquon Barkley
Saquon Barkley finished on 2,005 yards and then sat out the final game, even though he needed only 101 more to break Eric Dickerson's long-standing season record.
Q 23Which receiver drafted by the Vikings in 2020 is famous for the 'Griddy' touchdown dance?
Justin Jefferson
Justin Jefferson, a first-round pick from LSU, made the Griddy so famous with Minnesota that Fortnite added it as a dance emote in 2021.
Q 14Which team plays its home games at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas?
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys play beneath a giant video board that hangs over the field; in the stadium's first football game, in 2009, a punt hit it and the down had to be replayed.
Q 15Which team plays at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia?
Eagles
The Eagles took their name in 1933 from the blue eagle that was the emblem of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal recovery program.
Q 16Which Baltimore Ravens quarterback broke the NFL career rushing record for quarterbacks in 2024?
Lamar Jackson
Lamar Jackson was the fifth quarterback taken in the 2018 draft, with the last pick of the first round, after some analysts said he should switch to wide receiver.
Q 17Which team picked Josh Allen seventh overall in the 2018 NFL draft?
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills traded up five places to take Josh Allen, who had not been offered a single major-college scholarship out of high school and started at a junior college.
Q 18Which TV channel created the Puppy Bowl, shown every year on Super Bowl Sunday?
Animal Planet
Animal Planet has aired the Puppy Bowl since 2005; every puppy comes from a shelter, because the show's real aim is to get rescue animals adopted.
Q 19John Madden, the name on the Madden NFL video games, won a Super Bowl in which job?
Head coach
Head coach of the Oakland Raiders, John Madden won the Super Bowl in January 1977; a knee injury had ended his own playing career before he appeared in a single NFL game.
Q 20The Heisman Trophy is given every year to the best player in what?
College football
College football's top award was renamed in 1936 for John Heisman, who had just died; as a coach he once ran up the most lopsided score in the sport's history, 222-0.
Q 24In soccer, how does play restart after the ball goes out over the sideline?
A throw-in
A throw-in goes to the team that did not touch the ball last; no one can be offside from it, and a ball thrown straight into the goal does not count.
Q 25In soccer, which player is allowed to use their hands?
The goalkeeper
Only the goalkeeper may handle the ball, and only inside their own penalty area, never on a ball a teammate has deliberately kicked to them.
Q 26How long is a normal soccer match?
90 minutes
A normal soccer match lasts 90 minutes, played as a pair of 45-minute halves, plus whatever stoppage time the referee adds.
Q 27How far from the goal is the penalty spot in soccer?
12 yards
The penalty spot is 12 yards, or 11 meters, from the goal line; the penalty kick was the 1890 idea of Ireland's William McCrum, whose own job on the field was stopping shots.
Q 28What is the term for one player scoring three goals in a single soccer game?
A hat-trick
A hat-trick comes from cricket, where a bowler who took three wickets with three balls in a row was, by tradition, rewarded with a new hat; soccer borrowed the term later.
Q 29How often is the men's FIFA World Cup held?
Every four years
The men's World Cup is held every four years; it began in 1930 and was skipped only in 1942 and 1946 because of the Second World War.
Q 30Which three countries hosted the 2026 World Cup?
United States, Canada and Mexico
The United States, Canada and Mexico won the hosting vote over Morocco in 2018, 134 to 65, and staged the first World Cup with 48 teams.