Football Zombie

The Football Zombie is a powerful zombie first encountered 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). The Football Zombie can be incredibly fast and using instant kills on it is a good idea. It is the eighth 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, and 75 normal damage shots.

The Football Zombie is the only zombie that has both a giga form and a miniature version out of all the zombies.



Adventure Mode and Survival
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 Survival Mode and Vasebreaker. The Giga Football Zombie has the health of a Gargantuar except that it moves around faster and has to chew on plants to eat them. Unlike normal Football Zombies, the Giga Football Zombie has spikes on its shoulder plate. Notice how its legs have red on them. That is the part of a Giga Football Zombie that looks like a Football Zombie.

Trivia

 * Most zombies lose their left arm when they take enough damage. The Football Zombie loses its right arm Fb.jpg.]]instead (Unless it has eaten a Hypno-shroom).
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * It is the fastest moving headwear zombie except for the Digger Zombie while it's underground.
 * The 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.
 * The Football Zombie is one of three zombies to have facepaint. The others being the Gatling Pea Zombie and the Giga Football Zombie.
 * It is unknown how the Football Zombie is able to eat with his helmet on, as the mouth guard would prevent that.
 * 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 Giga Football Zombie artwork doesn't have the spikes on it's shoulder because it is photoshopped.
 * 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.