What it is

Yard lines are the lines painted across the field every five yards, with numbers every ten. They show how far a team is from the goal line.

In a game

The numbers count up from each goal line to the 50 in the middle. Teams and announcers use them to describe where the ball is.

More detail

Short marks at every yard help officials place the ball. The goal line and the end line are separate lines with their own meaning.