How to Begin a Play in Football

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Kenny Saylors and I'm here on expertvillage.com to teach you how to understand the great game of American football. Now we're going to talk about the beginning of play. Before each down each team chooses what we call a play, which is basically coordinated movements and actions that the team does that each individual player will follow during the course of the down. The ball is always put into play by what we call the snap. Except at the beginning of a half and after scores whenever a kickoff signifies the beginning of play. But for the most part, during an actual play during the game, the snap takes place and that's how you start the play. As you can see, the offensive players, and these are the offensive players right here. This position I've highlighted and made a little darker and filled in is the center position. He is the one who will snap the ball to the quarterback which means he will put it between his legs and hand the ball to the quarterback. The offensive line will line up against the defensive line which we will discuss. He passes the ball to the quarterback. Now, there are plays where the quarterback can be trick play and the he can snap the ball directly to the running back and be a trick play there. But, 9 times out of 10 goes directly to the quarterback. The quarterback can also line up a little further back, a little bit back here and he can snap the ball a long way to him and this is called shotgun position here. Like I said, in most cases the quarterback will be directly behind the center. Upon the snap when they say "hike" that's whenever the play goes in motion or the play begins."