Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm 4-5.6 G Lens

I just purchased a Nikon D40X camera to shoot my son's college football games and am having trouble with the 70-300mm lens. I can't get it to auto focus. Any ideas?

Hi Blondie, welcome to PR :) That lens won't auto focus on your D40. The D40's require AF-I or AF-S series lenses which have the AF motors built into the lens. The only G series lenses that work with the D40 are the ones that are also AF-S, which your 70-300 is not. Here's a lens compatibility chart that might help you out:

http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/slr-lens.html