Football is quickly taking over baseball as our national pastime. Its hard hits and jaw dropping catches captivate audiences all over the globe. But it is much more than the pretty plays that make the sport popular. Behind the scenes there are many laws of physics that make the sport so captivating. Tackling The first concept of physics in football is tackling. There is a common misconception about how tackling in football works, the stronger player will always get the better of the weaker player. In reality, it is the player with more momentum that will come out on top. Momentum was defined by Sir Isaac Newton as mass times velocity. So even if a runner weighs 100 pounds less than the defender, he can make up for it by running fast enough and getting his velocity to a level where it needs to be. If both player mass times velocity equal each other it will obviously become a stalemate. Another vital part of tackling is the center of mass. The center of mass for most men is just about your belly button. And it is at the center of mass where it takes the most torque to bring somebody down. That is why most football coaches will tell their players to tackle low (further from the center of mass) versus high (closer to the center of mass) because it is easier to bring somebody dow further away from the center of mass. The same principle applies to linemen who line up on the line of scrimmage. Lineman who get lower to the ground have a condensed center of mass, so wherever the opposing player would hit him it would be near the center of mass, thus making him harder to bring down. Kicking When someone punts the football three factors are controlled; the velocity, angle of kick, and the rotation of the ball. The rotation of the ball has an enormous effect on what will happen to the ball once its in the air. A ball that spirals in the air will travel much farther than a ball that is kicked end over end because the air resistance will be much