Amid all the Super Bowl hype was an excellent story by Andrew Callahan on Masslive.com  regarding the assistant coaches for the Patriots and what it takes to play for them.  Of note was special teams coach Joe Judge’s comments on the snapper as an overlooked part of special teams.

Here is the entire quote from Judge, since any long snapper will appreciate his comments:

“The importance of the long snapper. Without him having a good snap, it’s extremely hard for a Ryan (Allen) to have a good punt or Steve (Gostkowski) to have a good kick. And you factor in the details of people rushing him, people hitting him, weather situations of rain, snow and cold. There’s a lot of things that go into it that you take for granted like, ‘Oh he’s just snapping a ball.’

“Well, you try and throw a perfect spiral at someone’s left hip at 15 yards in a rainstorm with someone trying to take your head off and your head between your legs.”