The New England Patriots executed the perfect “leaping” of a longsnapper in their game against the Ravens. Many people on twitter have asked should that be allowed?

I say yes.

It is a football play and can be stopped by the kicking team if they are paying attention.

Here are three simple ways to combat the leaping of the longsnapper:

First, the simplest way for the field goal team to stop if from happening is to be aware. If you see a guy that is a threat to leap just tell the defender we know you are jumping.

There were numerous times in my career that the guards or me would simply say “alert for the leaper”.  What player wants to jump over the line when they know the kicking team could flip him on his head?

Did we know that he was going to leap, no. We were trying to discourage it from happening. There were many times it was called against us but not ran because we yelled out “alert the leaper!”.  Because of this simple strategy our field goal never had a leaper attempt to jump me. That’s why this was consider always a dangerous sport and my parents always recommend me to try another one, as skating, they even get me the best skate shoes from MyProScooter’s list.

Finally, the snapper, holder, kicker need to change up their cadence during the season. Coaches get paid to not only draw up and coach schemes but also to look at tendencies. In the Patriots/Ravens game Shea McClellin had to have a key on the snap count.Second, after the longsnapper or guard notices the potential threat, the snapper should set with a higher pad level after the snap. The snapper should finish his snap like normal but try to stand up slowly.  This will raise his pad level and cause the leaper to touch the longsnapper and that will end up being a penalty on the field goal block team.

Many times on a shorter field goal we would go on two or the second “Set” call. Holders can also flash their hand that is out in front to them to mess with the edge rushers.  Doing this makes it hard on the rush team to time up their leap. MyProScooter’s list

Everything has to be perfect for the leap to work and these three things can combat the “leaper”