Football Zombie

The Football Zombie is a powerful zombie first met in the Night levels. The Football Zombie itself is only as strong as a normal Zombie, but cannot be damaged unless its helmet absorbs enough damage to fall off or is stolen by a Magnet-shroom (without a helmet, it takes 10 normal damage shots like a regular zombie). The football zombie is incredibly annoying and is recommended to use Magnet-shrooms unless your defense is above average.



Overview
Absorbs 80 normal damage shots. Appearance changes upon absorption of 24, 47, 70, and 75 normal damage shots.

Adventure Mode and Survival


The Suburban Almanac advises the use of a Magnet-shroom, reducing the maximum absorption to 10 normal damage shots. The use of heavy damage plants, such as the Melon-pult, or movement restricting plants, such as the Snow Pea, Kernel-pult, and Winter Melon, are other options. In general, just pile tons of fire power onto it if these options are unavailable, or use an instant kill. Hypno-shrooms are also good against them in earlier levels if you have not obtained other Instant Kills.

I, Zombie
Avoid use around nearby Magnet-shrooms, Potato Mines a Squash in the same lane, or a Chomper that isn't recharging. Otherwise, deploy when large amounts of damage need to be absorbed. (Sometimes, it may be more efficient to use a Ladder Zombie instead of one 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 peas can't go through the ladder.)

Trivia

 * Most zombies lose their left arm when they take enough damage. The Football Zombie loses its right arm instead.
 * In the online version of Plants vs. Zombies, in Survival: Night (Hard): Endless, and Vasebreaker Endless, you can encounter a Giga Football Zombie, a black and grey Football Zombie with the health of a Gargantuar.
 * If a Football Zombie chews on a Garlic, it will not stop and make a face, but will instead go instantly to another lane. The only other zombies that do this are the Ladder Zombie and the Jack-in-the-Box Zombie. This is not known why they do not make a face. This maybe because Jack-in-the-Box Zombies are crazy while Ladder Zombies and Football Zombies have weird ways.
 * In the music video Zombies on Your Lawn, the Football Zombie says that it used to play football, but its Suburban Almanac entry states that it doesn't know what a football is.
 * Maybe he doesn't remember what the name of the sport is, but knows how to play it.
 * The Football Zombie's helmet is available in the Xbox Live Marketplace for 160 Microsoft Points.
 * In the online version of Plants vs Zombies, the Football Zombie has a regular Zombie head and a piece of dirt on the headwear, but in the game, the Football Zombie has purple eyes and looks at the house, and the piece of dirt is absent.
 * The Football Zombie is the one of the three zombies that have face paint. The other two are the Giga Football Zombie and the Gatling Pea Zombie.
 * In the photo that shows the detail of the Football Zombie, he has no face paint.
 * Instead of a number on the Football Zombie's jersey and helmet, there's a skull, indicating he is a zombie.
 * If a Football Zombie is hit by Butter while running, it may cause him to freeze in midair. This may also happen if he is frozen by an Ice-shroom.
 * This is the strongest headwear zombie in the game, not counting the Giga Football Zombie.
 * Football Zombie and the imp are the only zombies that will fall backwards when they die.