Football question

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

So, I’m working on a PC, and the Coach who is also the middle school pricipal and has his office door propped open with “Modern Curriculum” tries to tell me about last night’s football game against what even I know was a superior force.

“The center snapped the ball to the quarter back and it went into the end zone and he fell on it and they got two points.”

I responded "I didn’t understand any of that except the verb and the noun “quarterback”. N or END? End of what? The player’s reach? The field? Civilization as we know it? He frowned. Verb. Action word.

Anyway, I digress.
My questions:

  1. Why does the center give the ball to the quarterback? Why not start the play with the guy who is supposed to have the ball having it?

  2. When the guy jumps on the ball like it was a hand grnade, why does the other side get two points?

Thank you.

#2

http://www.nfl.com

#3

http://www.nfl.com

#4

  1. The center gives the ball to the QB because the defense is lined right up on the ball and this give the time and space needed for the play to get started. If the center started with the ball, everyone would jump on him right off and nothing would happen except a plie up every play.

  2. If you are tackled with the ball in your own end zone ( the last 10 yards of the field behind you when the play is set in motion) or if the ball goes out the back of your end zone when you have posession, a safety is awarded to the other team. They get 2 points and you have to kick the ball to them from your own 20 yard line.

#5

http://www.nfl.com

#6

Now, wait a minute…

#7

http://www.nfl.com

Can you tell I don’t like working on Saturday?

#8

Disregard the word “center” there and substitute it with “the person who’s supposed to get the ball.”

What he means is if the person who is supposed to get the ball has the ball at the start of the play, then the defense would know who to tackle right from the start. By the center snapping the ball to the quarterback to start the play, the defense doesn’t immediately know who to go after.

#9

That’s a great explaination Crunchy, but I have feeling that the next question would be along the lines of:
What’s a defense?
Why is it bad for it to know who is going to get the ball?
And why would it want to tackle some body?
And why is called football? It doesn’t look like a foot.

#10

Hey, I know it doesn’t look like a foot. You call it that to piss off the Brits.
What, you think I’m stupid?
:slight_smile: