Football: Long-Snapper

Football is a very funny sport. A man sits down in what seems to be an invisible chair, then hands the ball to another man between his legs. When this happens, 22 men run at each other and come together in very vicious collisions. Then, the defense (the team without the ball) tries to bring the ball carrier to the ground by means of throwing his body toward the ball carrier. You have four chances to get 10 yards, or 30 feet to receive a new "set" of chances (downs). Though most people kick the ball toward their own goal on their fourth and final down to avoid giving the ball to the other team. This is called a punt.

Teams will punt a ball when they are far away from their goal on 4th down. If they are close, they have an option to kick a field goal through uprights (like Rugby) to score 3 points. In both of these situations, a team will use a special position called a long-snapper.

Long snappers are only on the field on a punt, field goal, and a point after touchdown situation. Much like the center, the long-snapper snaps the ball. However, instead of snapping to the quarterback who will try to gain yards on a play, he snaps to the kicker or the holder. You will snap to a holder in a field goal or a PAT. The holder is on a knee, catches the ball, and puts in on the ground for the kicker to kick through the uprights. Punting doesn't require a holder because the main purpose is just to kick the ball as far as you can.

Another difference between the long-snapper and the center is the distance of the snap. The long snapper must throw the football behind him, through his legs 7-15 yards on target. Simple enough, right? No. Getting the ball where it needs to go is difficult. And that's the easy part. You've also got to shoot up and block a 300 pound defensive lineman from getting to the ball. Then you must tackle who catches the ball before he scores a touch down.

Long-snappers spiral the ball with two hands and aim to make the punter's job easy to kick without the kick being blocked by an opposing player. The defense will often times "load" one side of the field to leave them unblocked due to the offensive lineman not being to move to the other side of the ball. This is why there is distance between the kicker and the snapper. If there isn't enough, the defensive player can run around the outside of the line and block the kick- setting them up in good position to score. The long snapping position is very important.