I’ll be explaining why the quarterback lifts his leg.

This is intended to be an educational tip for the football fanatic.
If you wanted to know why do quarterbacks lift their leg, you’re probably a newbie to the sport.
That’s totally fine, there’s a lot of ticks that happen which could look totally foreign to the casual fan.
But let’s dive into it.
Why does the quarterback lift his leg?
There’s a few different reasons as to why a quarterback would lift their leg on a snap. They could range from the following:
- Cadence to snap the ball
- Fake Cadence
- Signal a player in motion
- Snap the ball in loud stadiums
Snap in a loud stadium
The quarterback lifts their leg up as a necessary measure to communicate to the center, especially in a loud stadium.
For the snap
Specifically on the snap, lifting the leg tells the center that you’re ready to get the ball.
Think about it, you’re already fighting against a loud crowd and you wanna make sure that the play goes well.
So the leg is usually shot up while yelling to make it crystal clear what you’re trying to do.
Fake cadence

However, there’s also more clever things that the quarterback will do in order trip up the defense.
You might’ve heard of this being called the cadence of the snap.
And sometimes the QB will fake shooting up the leg in order to make someone from the defense jump in order to cause an offsides penalty.
Send player in motion
Raising that leg is a choice made by the offensive coordinator, and depending on the play ran, it could function as an audible.
When you see the leg raised, it might signal the running back or someone to go on the other side of the field.
This is widely seen in the middle of a shotgun play, but it happens all across the game.
Final Thoughts
So at this point now, you should know what does the qb leg lift mean.
It could be to force the snap, fake one or even motion a player to run to the other side of the field.
These are the reasons why quarterback lifts foot.
For more football tactics, click here.
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