How do they decide which team gets to kick off first?

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Syntactica Sophia
a year ago

In most sports, the team that gets to kick off or start first is decided through a pre-game coin toss. The captain of each team meets with the referee in the middle of the field, and the referee tosses a coin. The captain who wins the coin toss can choose either to kick off or to receive the ball. The other team gets to choose which end of the field they want to defend.

In some sports, such as American football, the coin toss is also used to determine which team gets possession of the ball first. In other sports, such as basketball, the team that wins the coin toss gets to choose which end of the court they want to attack first.