• Football brings out the kid in all of us.football image by Maria Bell from <a href='http://www.fotolia.com'>Fotolia.com</a>
  
  Whether you prefer the AFC West, NFC East, NCAA, or just have a young kid playing Pee Wee football, a football-themed party is a great way to express your love for the sport, your appreciation for friends, and your ability to throw a fun party. Football parties are unique in their rambunctiousness and the quality of the food associated with the party. Throwing a football-themed party is as simple as accounting for those two qualities, while decorating and creating games in accordance with a football theme.
  
  

The Standard Party

• The standard football party has good friends, beer, and snacks, and everyone surrounds a TV screen during a big game. Making it more thematic simply requires wearing a jersey of your favorite team and putting up a couple banners. If the party is in celebration of a kid's high-school or Pee Wee game, then you obviously would want to lose the alcohol, include more snacks, and ask the parents of the kid's friends for ideas that are most suitable for their children.
  
  

Tailgating

• The tailgating party is a football classic. Rule one: get to the lot long before the lot is jammed and it becomes no longer possible to start-up the grill in peace. Rule two: bring a grill, a fold-out table and some fold out chairs, hot dogs, burgers, beer and soda. Rule three: bring either a portable TV to watch the game or a radio. Consider bringing both if you want to watch the game while listening to music. Rule four: bring a football to throw around, just in case people are feeling extra rambunctious during the game and want to move a bit.
  
  

A Football Potluck Picnic

• You can leave the streamers, banners and jerseys home and just appreciate the game and your friends with a football picnic. Ideally, you would contact enough people to have a touch football game, and request that everyone bring a dish of their choice to the picnic. For a touch of panache, bring foldout chairs and beers to sit outside and just relax before or after the meal and/or game.