Rules
In addition to those practical purposes, gradually, some rules have evolved that are unique to the final two minutes of each half and overtime. There is no special event at the ends of the first and third quarters, aside from swapping end zones, so there is no two-minute warning then, only at the halves.
The two-minute warning in the fourth quarter is an important milestone in the game for a team that is in the lead and looking to run out the clock. If the leading team has the ball on first down with less than two minutes to go in the game and the opposing team has no timeouts remaining, the quarterback can often safely end the game by "taking a knee" three times in a row without risking injuries or turnovers. This is because at the end of each play, the offensive team can take up to 40 seconds to start running the next play.
Read more about this topic: Two-minute Warning
Famous quotes containing the word rules:
“As no one can tell what was the Roman pronunciation, each nation makes the Latin conform, for the most part, to the rules of its own language; so that with us of the vowels only A has a peculiar sound.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There are different rules for reading, for thinking, and for talking. Writing blends all three of them.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“There is no country in which so absolute a homage is paid to wealth. In America there is a touch of shame when a man exhibits the evidences of large property, as if after all it needed apology. But the Englishman has pure pride in his wealth, and esteems it a final certificate. A coarse logic rules throughout all English souls: if you have merit, can you not show it by your good clothes and coach and horses?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)