6 Man Football: The Rules

You gotta love Texas six-man football. It is one heckuva game. It's like watching a bunch of road runners chasing a rattlesnake up and down the football field.

One minute a team can be down 20 points. Then a couple of minutes later up a couple of TDs. It never over 'til it's over. That's one of the many reasons it's not unusual for fans to travel hundreds of miles for a game.

First, for those who don't know it, high school football is big in Texas. Not just big...gigantic. Even the smallest schools in Texas, the ones that play six-man have been know to draw 2,000 fans on a Friday night. It's these schools, usually located in rural Texas towns with populations under 300, that play this unique brand of football.

Six men on offense. Six men on defense.

The game differs a bit from the eleven-man version. First, it's played on an 80 x 40-yard field. It takes 15 yards to make a first down. A touchdown gets six points. Run or pass a PAT and you get a singleton. Kick a PAT and you get two points. Make it over the 8-foot high goal post with a field goal attempt and a team racks up four points. Kicking the ball in six-man football is very difficult.

The other big difference is this: everyone is eligible for a pass. However, the quarterback has to either pitch or pass the ball before he can run with it. A thousand yards of offense is not uncommon.

"It's like indoor arena football," said one fan. "Except we're outside."

It is a run 'til you puke, hit 'til you collapse kinda game. Maybe that's why country boys play it so well. They're a tough bunch. They grow up on ranches and farms. And come from towns like Richland Springs, Calvert, Lometa, Fort Davis and Marathon. Towns so small that without a GPS unit, you couldn't find them.

While there are usually about 10-20 players on a team, it's not uncommon to see the same six on both offense and defense. It's also not uncommon for these small schools to start the season with seven or eight players and end the season with only six. There is a rule that at least six players have to suit up before a game can start. Games have often ended with only four or five on a team.

But there is a rule called the 'mercy rule." If a team goes up by 45 points or more after halftime, the game is over. No mas! It's called "getting 45'd." "My Kid 45'd Your Kid" is a t-shirt often seen in the stands at six-man games.

The governing body of Texas High school football, the University Interscholastic League, set up two divisions to make things more competitive. Division I consists of high schools with an average daily attendance of 66-125. Division II high schools have less than 66 students in the entire school. But rest assured - smaller numbers have never stopped these teams from going out and leaving it all on the field. That's what six-man is all about.