Long snapper In American football and Canadian football , the term long snapper refers to a player who is a specialized center during punts , field goal s , and extra point attempts . His job is to snap the ball as quickly and accurately as possible . During field goal s and point after touchdown , the snap is received by the holder typically 7 - 8 yards away . During punt plays the snap is delivered to the punter from 13 - 15 yards away . Following the snap the snapper often executes a blocking assignment , and on a punt he must cover the kick . A good , consistent long snapper is hard to find , and many marginally talented players have found a niche exclusively as long snappers . A " bad snap " is an off - target snap which causes the delay of a kick or the failure of a play . In college football . Many college football teams run a spread punt formation which can free the snapper from blocking assignments and allows for concentration on covering the return or downing the ball farther inside the opponent ' s territory . A traditional or " cup " formation typically gives the snapper a blocking assignment before covering the punt . The snapper in a punt formation can be referred to as a deep snapper or long snapper synonymously and the term short snapper is reserved for the snapper in field goal or PAT formations , but these terms are often used loosely . Scholarships for snappers used to be rare , but are becoming more popular as colleges begin to recognize the importance of special teams . In the NFL . Before specialization , the long snapper was often a player who primarily played another position . A recent example would be Allen Aldridge , who started at linebacker for the Detroit Lions and also served as the team ' s long snapper . This allowed the team to dress another non - specialist player . Now , every team in the NFL has a specialized long snapper . In the NFL long snappers are usually amongst the least known players because of their highly specialized and not very visible role on the field . They are also in general not drafted and normally are acquired as undrafted free agent s . Ryan Pontbriand of the San Francisco 49ers has the distinction of being the highest - drafted long snapper in the history of the NFL Draft . He was drafted in the fifth round ( 142nd overall ) of the 2003 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns . Zak DeOssie , long snapper for the New York Giants , was drafted in the fourth round ( 116th overall ) of the 2007 NFL Draft ; however at the time he was drafted as a linebacker . Todd Thomas was selected in the fifth round ( 124th overall ) of the 1981 NFL Draft , for his long snapping abilities , by the Kansas City Chiefs . At the time draft records listed him as a tackle , but he served as the long snapper for the Chiefs during the 1981 season . Despite their anonymity , a team lacking a skilled long snapper can be seriously undermined . A famous example of this was on January 5 , 2003 during the 2002 wild card playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants . The Giants during the regular season had suffered missed field goals due to the lack of an experienced long snapper , and signed Trey Junkin out of retirement to be the snapper for the playoff game . Junkin botched a snap on a field goal attempt that could have won the game for the Giants , who had led 38 - 14 at one point in the game . Brad St . Louis of the Cincinnati Bengals was another long snapper who , besides having already misexecuted two snaps in clutch situations in 2005 ( wild card play - off game against the eventual champions Pittsburgh Steelers ) and 2006 , gained even bigger notoriety in 2009 , when he delivered five bad snaps on either field goal or extra point attempts ( leading to missed , aborted or blocked kicks ) in the first five games of the season , which led to the then ten - year veteran being released from the team .