As a unit for measuring area, football field is roughly equal to an acre or, to use another colloquial measurement term, a city block. As a measurement of length, it’s roughly 100 yards. The term can be useful when addressing anyone who might be unfamiliar with measurement terms, but it has obvious problems. First, it’s imprecise, as football fields come in many sizes. Second, it’s a cliche. Third, the term might come across as condescending to adult readers familiar with meters, yards, and acres.
Still, the term can be useful, and most readers probably aren’t bothered by it. For example, some may find nothing trite or condescending in these instances of football fields as a unit of measurement:
Nearly three football fields long and more than 14 stories high, the Iowa is one of the biggest warships ever built. [Los Angeles Times]
Left alone, the whole complex, which is larger than two football fields, could plummet to the ground. [CBC]
Nearly 38,000 solar panels are spread across land the size of several football fields … [NPR]
Pilgrims will camp out under the stars in an area the size of 48 football fields and hundreds of priests are on hand to listen … [Telegraph]
So if you have no problem with football fields as a measurement term, don’t listen to us. It’s probably fine.
