Football Zombie

The Football Zombie is a powerful Zombie that is first encountered in the Night levels. The Football Zombie itself without it's helmet is only as strong as a normal Zombie, but cannot be damaged until his helmet is removed by damage or stolen by a Magnet-shroom. Without a helmet, it takes 10 normal damage shots just like a normal zombie. The Football Zombie can be incredibly fast. Its helmet takes 70 normal peas. This is the zombie you encounter in level 2-6. Football Zombie is the 8th Zombie you will encounter in Adventure Mode.

Suburban Almanac Entry
 Football Zombie 

Football Zombie makes the big plays.

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
Absorbs 80 normal damage shots. Appearance changes upon absorption of 24, 47, 70 (at this point, the Football Helmet is destroyed), and 75 normal damage shots before dying at 80 normal damage shots.

Appearances
Adventure Mode: 2-6, 2-7, 2-10, 3-2, 3-5, 4-2, 4-5, 5-4, 5-10

Mini-games: It's Raining Seeds, Beghouled, Beghouled Twist, Big Trouble Little Zombie, Portal Combat, Column Like You See 'Em, Last Stand, Dr. Zomboss's Revenge, Buttered Popcorn, Heavy Weapon, BOMB All Together!, Zombie Trap, Sunny Day, Big Time

Puzzle Mode: Chain Reaction, M is for Metal, Scary Potter, I, Zombie (Level), All your brainz r belong to us, I, Zombie Endless, all Last Stand (iOS Puzzle Mode) levels except Last Stand: Fog

Survival Mode: all levels

Co-op Mode: all levels except Co-op Day, Co-op Night, Co-op Bowling

Others: Vs. Mode

Adventure Mode and Survival Mode
The Suburban Almanac advises the use of a Magnet-shroom, reducing the maximum absorption to 10 normal damage shots. It is very fast and has very good defense. 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, use an instant kill. Hypno-shrooms are also good against them in earlier levels, if you have not obtained other Instant Kills. Spikeweed and Spikerock can heavily damage the Zombie as it approaches your plants. Also, the Gatling Pea is useful to weaken their helmets quickly, once you buy them.

I, Zombie
Deploy when very large amounts of damage needs 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 freezing effect can't go through the ladder).

Giga Football Zombie
Main article: Giga Football Zombie The Giga Football Zombie is a black, white, and gray Football Zombie that is only seen in the online versions of Survival Mode and Vasebreaker. The Giga Football Zombie has the health of a Gargantuar except that it moves around faster, has to chew on plants to kill them and has no Imp to throw. Unlike normal Football Zombies, the Giga Football Zombie has spikes on its shoulder plate.

Trivia

 * Most zombies lose their left arm when they take enough damage. The Football Zombie loses its right arm instead (unless it has eaten a Hypno-shroom).
 * This may be because it holds in its left arm out while it is running.
 * If a Football Zombie chews on a Garlic, it will not stop and make a face, but will instead go instantly to another lane.Badge-226-2.png
 * 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. The almanac could have referred to a real football, or it might have forgot what a football was. Alternately, it may have just simply gone around and tackled everyone, and never actually saw a football.
 * The Football Zombie's helmet is available in the Xbox Live Marketplace for 160 Microsoft Points.
 * The Football Zombie itself has the same HP as a regular zombie (10 HP) but the only reason why its toughness is so high is because of its helmet which absorbs 70 HP. Because of this, the Football Zombie's HP is oddly on par with an Imp despite it being much bigger than the Imp and it has less HP than a Pole Vaulting Zombie or Ladder Zombie (17 HP each).
 * If a Football Zombie is hit by Butter while running, it may freeze it in mid-air, while running. This may also happen if it is frozen by an Ice-shroom.
 * The Football Zombie is the only Zombie that can freeze in mid air, not counting the Giga Football Zombie. 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).
 * It is the one of the fastest moving headwear zombies, with the others are the Balloon Zombie and Digger Zombie while it's underground.
 * The Football Zombie, the Giga Football Zombie,the Zombie Bobsled Team, the Balloon Zombie, the Dancing Zombie, the Backup Dancers, and the Imp are the only zombies that fall backwards when they die.
 * The Football Zombie has the second toughest headwear, the toughest being the one of the Giga Football Zombie.
 * In the DS version of the game, when a Football Zombie loses its arm, instead of showing the Football Zombie's arm falling off, the game shows the arm of an ordinary Zombie falling off.
 * It is odd that the football helmet protects the Football Zombie from projectiles and some plants like Spikeweed, as they mostly hit it in the other body parts except for Lobbed-shot Plants.
 * Perhaps this is because of the Football Zombie's other body armor, or spiked shoes.
 * A Spikeweed and a Spikerock can still damage the Football Zombie even when it's in mid-air.
 * The Football Zombie (with helmet) makes the same sound when hit as the Conehead Zombie and Digger Zombie.
 * The Football Zombie is one of three zombies to have facepaint. The others being the Gatling Pea Zombie and the Giga Football Zombie.
 * All those characters all have their facepaint under their eyes.
 * It is unknown how the Football Zombie is able to eat with his helmet on, as the mouth guard would prevent that.
 * But its headwear still has holes for its mouth which are pretty big, perhaps this is how it is able to eat plants and brains.
 * The Football Zombie is the most powerful zombie to show up in a first wave as it was in Column Like You See 'Em (not including Survival: Endless because you may not pass the advanced waves).
 * The Football Zombie's Almanac Entry's main information doesn't seems to be very helpful since it says "Football Zombie makes the big plays" and it doesn't play with anything.
 * It is quite useful for defeating Zombies after it eats a Hypno-shroom.
 * In the DS version of the game, the Football Zombie eats and runs faster, making it very hard to stop.
 * It technically eats at the same rate, but appears to eat faster.
 * This also makes it more useful for Vs. Mode.
 * The Football Zombie has skulls on its Helmet and Chest Guard.
 * The Football Zombie and the Pole Vaulting Zombie are the only zombies that do sports in the game.
 * On the I, Zombie seed packet for this zombie, it's head is bigger than it should be.
 * The Football Zombie, the Dancing Zombie (when approaching), the Zombie Yeti and the Hypnotized Zombies (excluding Football Zombie) are the only Zombies that lose the right arm before die.
 * Despite what other sources say, a Football Zombie is more dangerous than a Gargantuar. The only reason for this is because of its speed in comparison to the speed of a Gargantuar.
 * The Football Zombie appears in the icon for Buttered Popcorn.