American football phrase

[nq:1]I hope someone can tell me what "to call the plays" means in American football.[/nq]
I highly recommend the Wikipedia article on American Football for a general background; you can read it at

The person who calls the plays is the person who says what the team will do next. Sometimes, this is the quarterback, other times, it's one of the coaches on the sideline.
This phrase i

[nq:2]I hope someone can tell me what "to call the plays" means in American football.[/nq]
[nq:1]The person who calls the plays is the person who says what the team will do next. Sometimes, this is the quarterback, other times, it's one of the coaches on the sideline.[/nq]
For those unfamiliar with the game, although it may seem to a casual observer like two teams of large men simply attem

[nq:1]I hope someone can tell me what "to call the plays" means in American football.[/nq]
American footballers prepare specific manoeuvres
for attack or defence. These are called plays.
A few have names (Red Dog) but most are just
numbered (and the numbers are not standardized
so a new member of a team has to learn its
particular play book as fast as possible.) The
per

[nq:1]The person who calls the plays (orders the tactics) is usually the quarterback (a player) but sometimes may be the coach (a non-player) who tells the quarterback what to do. (There are many stoppages in American football when coaches can easily confer with quarterbacks.)[/nq]
The coaches rarely confer with the quarterbacks other than when the team's defense is on the field or during time

[nq:1]The quarterback (the leader of the offense and the one who first gets the ball) will signal the selection to his teammates in code...[/nq]
At the start of each play, it's the center who has the ball first the quarterback gets it from him a moment later.
Specifically, it goes like this. First the team in possession "huddles" where they can't be heard by the opponents, and the quarterb

[nq:2]I hope someone can tell me what "to call the plays" means in American football.[/nq]
You are within cigar range, but a few minor corrections:
[nq:1]American footballers[/nq]
I have only heard "footballers" refer to soccer players...even in the US. In US football, it's "football players".
[nq:1]prepare specific manoeuvres for attack or defence. These are called plays. A few ha

[nq:1] I don't think I've ever heard of the game being played by women. I'm sure they do somewhere, but it is stereotypically a very masculine game.[/nq]
There are 125 professional football teams with all-female players. See: http://www.syracusesting.com/ for one of them.

[nq:1]At the start of each play, it's the center who has the ball first the quarterback gets it from him a moment later.[/nq]
Except when someone else does. Besides the obvious punter and placekick holder, there are various alternate snap sequences in every playbook. Typically, a snap to another back in the shotgun.
The Rams once pulled one where Warner stood up from center, looked around,

[nq:2]The quarterback (the leader of the offense and the one who first gets the ball) will signal the selection to his teammates in code...[/nq]
[nq:1]At the start of each play, it's the center who has the ball first the quarterback gets it from him a moment later.[/nq]
I would have said that the play starts when the center gives the ball to someone else. The quarterback is (typically) the

)
[nq:1](1) Of course, if you have a player who's good enough, you may not have to employ much deception. There are definitely cases of "Everybody in the stadium knew who was going to get the ball, and they still couldn't stop him".[/nq]
Joe Montana and any one of about six receivers come to mind.
Harry