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 taken by a Magnet-shroom (without a helmet, it can take 10 normal damage shots like a normal zombie).

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

Adventure Mode and Survival: Endless
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.

I, Zombie
Avoid use around nearby Magnet-shrooms, a Squash in the same lane, or a Chomper that is not 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 cannot go through the ladder.)

Trivia

 * Most zombies lose their left arm when they take enough damage. The Football Zombie loses his right arm instead.
 * In the online version of Plants vs. Zombies, in Survival: Night (Hard): Endless, and Vasebreaker Endless, you encounter a black-and-grey "Imitater" 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.
 * 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.
 * This may be because most zombies seem to be somewhat unintelligent, so it may have forgotten.\
 * The Football zombie is the only zombie that can run.
 * The Football Zombie has very flexible legs that twist when it is running