Can YOU play quarterback?

• Decipher hand signals from bench while ignoring the ringing in your ears from that hit on the previous play.
  
  
• Communicate play call in huddle to teammates in can-do, commanding voice.
  
  
• Break the huddle and peek at the play clock.
  
  
• Check your team's alignment while walking up under center.
  
  
• Check defensive alignment while calling signals.
  
  
• Call audible when you notice the middle linebacker creeping toward the line of scrimmage, just the way you saw him do during hours of film study that week.
  
  
• Peek at the play clock again.
  
  
• Hurry the hell up.
  
  
• Remember the snap count, and remember what each of your teammates is assigned to do.
  
  
• Take snap and drop back, noticing that the middle linebacker has dropped into coverage after all and your hot receiver is not open.
  
  
• Look for second receiver.
  
  
• Pray he's open.
  
  
• Maintain downfield vision. Do not -- repeat, do not -- let your eyes drop to ponder the snarling All-America rush end who just whipped your left tackle and is sprinting toward your face.
  
  
• Stick your back foot in the ground and stand tall, ignoring the imminent threat of physical harm.
  
  
• Deliver the football, channeling muscle memory from thousands of practice throws to get every mechanical detail right for maximum accuracy and velocity.
  
  
• Ignore the crunch of the rush end's helmet into your sternum.
  
  
• Ignore the thud of your back slamming into the turf with the rush end panting on top of you.
  
  
• Ignore the fact that he has knocked the wind so far out of you that, for an instant, you fear it might never come back.
  
  
• Roll over and find out whether your receiver caught the ball and made the first down.
  
  
• Get up and do it all over again in the next 30 seconds.