Today’s question:
Can you please tell me why in football the center, just before he snaps the ball, points at the other team?
There is a lot going on along the front lines of both the offense and defense. Defenses are shifting around, blocking assignments are changed on the spot, various dummy calls are being shouted or mumbled out.
The center is the person who is in charge of all this. He is responsible for calls on the line. While the defense is shifting around, the center points out to his teammates on the line to adjust the blocking assignments.
He might do this by pointing or yelling or whatever. Or he might just be pointing at random to confuse the defense.
And while all this is going on, the quarterback may be making an audible call after the huddle, the coaches on the sidelines are probably yelling something and, of course, there is the roar of the crowd.
It must all get kind of confusing.
Another explanation is that is pointing out the location of “the mike,” the one defensive player who is allowed to wear a microphone in his helmet to receive instructions from the sidelines.
(On offense, the mike is almost always the quarterback. Both mikes are identified by a black spot on the backof the player's helmet.)
As long as we’re discussing football, why does a does a quarterback in a shotgun formation stomp his foot before the snap?
It may be to signal a back to go into motion or to signal the center, who is looking back through his legs, when to snap the ball.
