Football squares is the one game at a watch party that works for people who don't follow football. Nobody needs to know what a nickel defense is. They just need to know the last digit of each team's score.
The grid
Draw a 10 by 10 grid, 100 squares in all. Write one team's name across the top and the other down the left side. Guests write their name in squares until the grid is full. With 10 guests, everyone takes 10 squares; with 25, everyone takes four. Uneven numbers are fine, just let the leftovers go to whoever wants extras.
The draw
Only after every square is claimed, draw the digits 0 through 9 at random for the top row, then again for the side column. Slips of paper from a bowl work fine. This order matters. If the numbers go up first, people pick squares by number and the game stops being luck.
Every square now has a pair of digits: one for the top team, one for the side team.
Who wins
At the end of each quarter, look at the last digit of each team's score. If the top team leads 17 to 10, the winning square is where 7 across the top meets 0 down the side. Four quarters means four winners, so even a slow game gives the room something to watch for.
Settle two house rules before kickoff:
- Overtime. Decide whether the last winner comes from the score at the end of regulation or the final score after overtime. Most grids use the final score. Either works if you say it before kickoff.
- Repeat winners. One person can hit more than once. That's part of the fun, not a bug.
Not all squares are equal
Football scores move in 3s and 7s, so final digits of 0, 3, 7 and 4 come up far more often than 2 or 5. Whoever draws 7 and 0 is in great shape. Whoever lands on 2 and 2 is mostly there for the snacks. That gap is exactly why the numbers go up after the names: it keeps the luck honest.
Keep it to bragging rights
You don't need money on the grid for it to work. Small prizes do the job better at a mixed party: first pick of dessert, the last wing, a printed certificate, or the right to choose the next game. Kids can play, and nobody leaves annoyed.
The printed version
Our Football Party Games kit includes a ready-to-print squares grid with spaces for both teams and all four quarter scores, alongside game day bingo, prop picks and cook-off ballots. Thanksgiving hosts will find a squares grid in the Friendsgiving & Thanksgiving Games kit, and our guide to Friendsgiving ideas covers how to fit it around dinner.