American football positions

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In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their position. Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players^[1] on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitutions", meaning that they may change any number of players during any dead ball situation.^[a] This has resulted in the development of three task-specific "platoons" of players within any single team: the offense (the team with possession of the ball, which is trying to score), the defense (the team trying to prevent the other team from scoring, and to take the ball from them), and special teams, who play in all kicking situations. Within these three separate platoons, various positions exist depending on the jobs that the players are doing.

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