How to Make a Paper Football (Classic Triangle Fold)

One sheet is all this takes. Rob pulls college ruled loose leaf out of a 150 sheet pack, and that is the paper to reach for if you have it. Loose leaf is thin, so it folds flat instead of fighting you on the last few layers when the stack gets thick.

Printer paper works fine too. It gives you a chunkier football that survives more punishment, at the cost of a harder final fold. If all you have is a spiral notebook, tear out a page and keep going. The ragged edge gets dealt with in the next step.

A page ripped out of a spiral notebook carries a frilly torn strip down one side. Get rid of it. Pinch the perforated strip and peel it away in one steady pull so you are left with four straight sides.

Straight edges matter more here than they look like they should. Every fold from this point lines up against an edge, and one wavy side compounds through six or seven folds into a triangle that will not sit square. Scissors and a ruler give the cleanest result if you have them within reach.

Lay the sheet down with the long side running left to right. Bring the bottom edge up to meet the top edge, square the corners before you commit to anything, then press the crease flat with your palm.

Slide your hand from the middle out toward each side instead of mashing straight down. That pushes the trapped air out sideways and leaves you a sharp crease rather than a soft rounded one.

Fold it the same way again. Then once more. Each pass halves the width and doubles the thickness, and by the third fold you are holding a strip roughly an inch and a half wide running the full length of the original sheet.

Crease hard every time. This strip is the spine of the football, and a lazy fold here turns into a triangle that will not lie flat at the end. Run a fingernail or the barrel of a pencil down the fold to set it.

Take one end of the strip and fold the bottom corner diagonally up across it, bringing the short bottom edge over to line up with the long side edge. You end up with a triangle at the end of the strip and a small square tab hanging off to one side.

This diagonal is the fold you are about to repeat all the way up the paper, so it is worth getting square. If the tab sticks out crooked, open it back up and redo it now rather than living with a lopsided football.

Fold the triangle over on itself, following the edge of the strip. Then again. Then again. Every flip walks the triangle a little further up the paper and stacks on another layer of thickness.

Keep the edges flush as you go and press each fold down before you start the next one. That is the difference between a tight football that flies straight and a puffy one that tumbles.

Sooner or later you are down to a single small square of paper with a diagonal crease running corner to corner across it. That square is the signal you are nearly there. Fold along the diagonal one more time and the football takes its final shape.

The paper is thick by now and it will push back. Pinch the fold at both ends and work it closed a little at a time instead of trying to crush the whole thing in one go.

There will be a small tail of paper left hanging off one edge. Find the open pocket along the side of the triangle, then slide the tail down inside it until it vanishes and the edge sits flush.

This tuck is the whole reason to fold it Rob's way. The quicker method everyone knows leaves the end loose, and it works itself open after a dozen flicks across a table. This one stays shut. If your paper is thick and the tail keeps popping back out, run a short strip of tape over the seam and call it done.

Stand the football up on one point at the edge of a table and hold the top corner steady with one finger. Flick the back edge with the index finger of your other hand and it takes off. Your opponent makes the goal posts by pointing both thumbs up with the index fingers touching.

Through the posts scores. Sliding it off their edge of the table without falling off scores too. The rules borrow from real football, which is how a paper triangle ended up with the name in the first place.