Toughness: very high
Speed: fast
Weakness: Magnet-shroom
Football Zombie gives 110 percent whenever he's on the field. He's a team player who delivers both offensively and defensively. He has no idea what a football is.
Overview
Football Zombie absorbs 80 normal damage shots, and its appearance changes upon absorbing 24, 47, 70 (at this point, the football helmet is destroyed), and 75 normal damage shots before dying at 80 normal damage shots.
The player obtains the Hypno-shroom after beating Level 2-5, so he or she can try to hypnotize the Football Zombie to make the level easier when instant kills are not enough, and the Football Zombie is just as effective for you as against you. The Suburban Almanac also advises the use of a Magnet-shroom, reducing the maximum absorption to ten normal damage shots, so it can also be used to significantly weaken him. Otherwise, this zombie is very dangerous, being fast and having very high health, so tons of fire power will have to be piled onto him in order to defeat him. The most important thing is to not underestimate him.
The use of heavy damage plants, such as Melon-pult or movement restricting plants, such as Snow Pea, Kernel-pult, and Winter Melon, are other options. If these options are unavailable, use an instant kill such as Squash. Spikeweed and Spikerock can heavily damage the zombie as he approaches the player's plants, though the two are better when in front of a Wall-nut, Tall-nut or a Pumpkin to stall him while being damaged. Also, Gatling Pea is useful to weaken their helmets quickly once the player buys them. Using Gatling Pea is better when combined with Torchwood.
Take note that he has a bigger hitbox than most zombies, meaning that he can activate an armed Potato Mine in a Pumpkin.
Deploy this zombie when very large amounts of damage needs to be absorbed (sometimes, it may be more efficient to use a Ladder Zombie instead if there is a Snow Pea, as frequently less damage would need to be absorbed if the zombie in that row was able to move at a normal speed, and the freezing effect can't go through the ladder). Also, avoid using him when there are Magnet-shrooms around, as they will remove his football helmet and render the Football Zombie almost useless.
Giga-Football Zombie is a black and white Football Zombie that is only seen in the online versions of Survival Mode and Vasebreaker. Giga-Football Zombie has the health of a Gargantuar except that it moves around faster, cannot crush plants, and has no Imp to throw. Unlike normal Football Zombies, Giga-Football Zombies also have spikes on their shoulder plates, although they are purely for cosmetic.
Gallery
Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Football Zombie.
In Zombies On Your Lawn, the Football Zombies states that he used to play football, even though in his Almanac description it reveals he doesn't even know what a football is.
Most zombies lose their left arm when they take enough damage. The Football Zombie loses his right arm instead (unless he has eaten a Hypno-shroom).
Football Zombie, Dancing Zombie (when moonwalking), Zombie Yeti, and the hypnotized zombies (excluding Football Zombie) are the only zombies in Plants vs. Zombies that lose their right arm before death.
If a Football Zombie chews on a Garlic, he will not stop and make a face, but he will instead go instantly to another lane.
Football Zombie's helmet is available in the Xbox Live Marketplace for 160 Microsoft Points.
Football Zombie himself has the same health as a regular zombie (ten hit points); the only reason why his toughness is so high is because of his helmet, which absorbs seventy hit points. Because of this, Football Zombie's hit points are on par with an Imp, despite him being much bigger than the Imp, and he has less hit points than a Pole Vaulting Zombie or Ladder Zombie (seventeen hit points each).
If a Football Zombie is hit by butter while running, he may freeze it in mid-air with both of his legs above the ground. This may also happen if he is frozen by an Ice-shroom.
Football Zombie is the only zombie that can be frozen in mid-air. Balloon Zombies and Pogo Zombies cannot be frozen while they still have their balloon and pogo stick, respectively, even though they can be slowed down.
Spikeweed and Spikerock can still damage Football Zombie when he is in mid-air.
Football Zombie has the second toughest headwear, the toughest being Giga-Football Zombie's headwear.
He is one of the fastest headwear zombies, with the other being Digger Zombie while he is underground.
In the Nintendo DS version of the game, when a Football Zombie loses its arm, instead of showing his arm falling off, the game shows the arm of an ordinary Zombie falling off.
The football helmet protects Football Zombie from projectiles and some plants like Spikeweed even though they mostly hit him in the other body parts except for lobbed-shot plants.
This applies to any other headwear zombies.
Football Zombie (with his helmet) makes the same sound when hit as Conehead Zombie and Digger Zombie.
Football Zombie is one of three zombies to have facepaint, the others being Gatling Pea Zombie and Giga-Football Zombie. All of these characters all have their facepaint under their eyes.
It is unknown how Football Zombie is able to eat with his helmet on, as the mouth guard would prevent that, although his headwear still has holes for his mouth which are pretty big.
In the Nintendo DS version of the game, Football Zombie eats and runs faster.
On the I, Zombie seed packet for this zombie, his head is bigger than it should be.
Newspaper Zombie (after the newspaper is destroyed), Football Zombie, and Giga-Football Zombie are the only zombies that can look straight at the player's house.
It is unknown how Football Zombies can kick up dirt on the Roof.
However, the "dirt" on the roof could actually be dust.
Many promotional images for the game show the Football Zombie as having a piece of dirt stuck in the mouth guard of his helmet.
In the game, Football Zombie's eyes are red and he has black makeup on his face while in the artwork which is on promotional images, his eyes are normal and he does not have the eye black makeup on his face.
There is a glitch that when the Football Zombie is hypnotized, the dirt kicks in front of the cleats rather than behind.
A rare glitch exists in the DS version when Football Zombie eats a Hypno-shroom, he can run infinitely in one place until he dies. This has a higher chance of happening on Survival Mode when lag occurs.
