Football tackling
*Last Friday morning, I decided to pull in the Stan Savran show on 970 ESPN streaming online. I consider Stan to be far and away the best and most professional sportscaster in Pittsburgh. He knows his stuff and he’s great to listen to. Just as I pulled in the online stream, he was commenting on the exact same subject I am writing about this week. It had to with James Harrison’s recent tweets about the NFL rules and how it is making it more difficult for defenses to do their jobs. Well, Stan hit the nail on the head with me, as he said the exact same thing I have been thinking with regards to these rules and Harrison’s tweets.
I have watched a ton of football in my day and I am still a relatively young man. This is not your father’s NFL, sad to say. Far from it. Tackling is poor, at best, and the talent level is about mediocre and a little above average. Then again, when you have 32 teams in which to stock, not every team is going to get the best talent, the cream of the crop. Someone is going to get shortchanged.
Harrison has stated in the past that he hits the way he has been coached. Here is some news for Harrison, you better find yourself another coach. These head shots are not form tackling. All they are is a way to get you on a highlight reel. You penalized your team 15 yards for unnecessary roughness and you get yourself a fine. All this is, now, is a byproduct of the ESPN effect. Everyone wants to get on ESPN’s highlight film. Hey, how about just helping your team win without penalizing it for your stupid, selfish mistakes?!
Here is football 101 in a nutshell. If you are “properly” coached, then this is form tackling. Coaches, regardless of sport, tell their players to follow the belly button. Wherever the belly button goes, the rest of the body follows. In football, defenders wear shoulder pads. The defender needs to lead with the shoulder, preferably the right, hit the ball carrier in the midsection, or the belly button, and wrap their arms around the waist. If the ball carrier does not go down, wait for help. Just keep your arms wrapped around the player and hold tight. That, ladies and gentlemen, is football 101 for form tackling.
When I see today’s players, and yes the Steelers are guilty of this, go for the kill and the ball carrier just bounces off them, I want to put my fist through the television set and choke the defender. It is nothing more than a shoulder to the upper body, or shoulder to shoulder, and the ball carrier just stops, lets the defender bounce off, then keeps on going. You might as well just put a cape in front of the ball carrier, pull it away, and let the ball carrier just go right on through.
This has nothing to do with this being a “man sport.” I get tired of hearing that garbage. Go back and watch tape of the players who are in the Hall of Fame and you will see what I, and Stan, am talking about. Hit and wrap. Taking someone’s head off doesn’t make you a man. And if one of these guys who gets his ripped off happens to be a Steeler, I do not want to hear from any homers. There is no double standard where this is concerned. Last year, Heath Miller got his head, and neck, rattled and scrambled in Baltimore. No penalty was called; yet, to Miller’s credit, he did not complain about it. He had to take some time off to heal, then he was back in action.
Football is a gladiator sport, no question. But if your intention is to hit to hurt and the defender either buckles under the strain of this hit, causing a penalty to be called and a fine to be issued, or the ball carrier just bounces off you, you have not helped your team. On the contrary, you have hurt your team. Nice job. Now go back and learn how to hit the right way and this stuff won’t happen. I am tired of the complaining coming out of the players’ camp where this is coming from. You are being improperly coached and it’s time for coaches to go back and get themselves educated on the right way to form tackle. Do the job right, or don’t do it.
*It was learned this week, on Monday, that Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel resigned after allegedly covering up the scandal of players selling off items for cash and tattoos, and the supply of automobiles. By all accounts, Tressel is a good man, but he got caught trying to help his players and ended up costing himself his job. But, here is the real problem with the NCAA that has been going on for years.
Yes, these players get a full ride, a scholarship that covers their education. How many of them are actually going to class and getting an education? Most are there to play football and try to get to the next level. I am not at all saying this is right, nor am I defending it, but this is life on the college level and how the NCAA deals with it.
These players are getting their education paid for because they have skills most of us do not. Yet, when they lose a loved one, yet do not have the ability, or the money, to get home to be with the family, they resort to methods that get them, their school, and anyone else involved in real trouble. Some might say “tough” when it comes to a player’s inability to be able to get home without some kind of assistance from someone. You have a full ride, deal with it. Not so fast.
The NCAA has been screwed up for years. Its rulebook is a joke. If every rule was followed, it is highly doubtful most programs would able to land decent players for their athletic programs. It is supposed to level the playing field, but it does everything but. The same teams, year after year, are vying for titles and championships. That’s because some people know how to work the system to get what they need to compete.
Coaches are under a tremendous amount of pressure to win. Some are under tremendous amounts of pressure to beat certain schools. The players are the pawns in the chess game. They are pieces of meat when it comes to athletic programs and boosters and alumni. Win at all costs. Lose, and alumni pull their donations.
Players make tons of money for their schools. It takes tons of money to operate athletic programs. Some end up operating in the red. Yet when a player sells off items in order to make some extra money, it is frowned upon. This leads to a bigger mess in which Ohio State finds itself and now Tressel resigns and adds further disgrace to the school. This is the life of a NCAA sanctioned school and how people are treated like mere paupers in a chess game of the high and mighty. The sad thing is this will never change. It has been going on for years and it will continue. Ohio State is just the latest victim until the next scandal surfaces (see WVU and Dana Holgorsen)
At press time, Ohio State and the NCAA are conducting investigations into the actions of quarterback Terrell Pryor. This mess is only just opening up. Stay tuned.
*It was a wild racing weekend last week, as British man Dan Wheldon came out of nowhere to win his second Indianapolis 500 after the leader, rookie J.R. Hildebrand crashed coming out of turn four with victory in his sights on the final lap. This was Wheldon’s only ride all year and the only lap he led, but he led when it counted the most!
Not to be outdone, in the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading in the final lap before he ran out of gas coming out of turn four, allowing Kevin Harvick to claim the victory and gain his third victory of the season. The Sprint Cup series move to Kansas this Sunday.
I have watched a ton of football in my day and I am still a relatively young man. This is not your father’s NFL, sad to say. Far from it. Tackling is poor, at best, and the talent level is about mediocre and a little above average. Then again, when you have 32 teams in which to stock, not every team is going to get the best talent, the cream of the crop. Someone is going to get shortchanged.
Harrison has stated in the past that he hits the way he has been coached. Here is some news for Harrison, you better find yourself another coach. These head shots are not form tackling. All they are is a way to get you on a highlight reel. You penalized your team 15 yards for unnecessary roughness and you get yourself a fine. All this is, now, is a byproduct of the ESPN effect. Everyone wants to get on ESPN’s highlight film. Hey, how about just helping your team win without penalizing it for your stupid, selfish mistakes?!
Here is football 101 in a nutshell. If you are “properly” coached, then this is form tackling. Coaches, regardless of sport, tell their players to follow the belly button. Wherever the belly button goes, the rest of the body follows. In football, defenders wear shoulder pads. The defender needs to lead with the shoulder, preferably the right, hit the ball carrier in the midsection, or the belly button, and wrap their arms around the waist. If the ball carrier does not go down, wait for help. Just keep your arms wrapped around the player and hold tight. That, ladies and gentlemen, is football 101 for form tackling.
When I see today’s players, and yes the Steelers are guilty of this, go for the kill and the ball carrier just bounces off them, I want to put my fist through the television set and choke the defender. It is nothing more than a shoulder to the upper body, or shoulder to shoulder, and the ball carrier just stops, lets the defender bounce off, then keeps on going. You might as well just put a cape in front of the ball carrier, pull it away, and let the ball carrier just go right on through.
This has nothing to do with this being a “man sport.” I get tired of hearing that garbage. Go back and watch tape of the players who are in the Hall of Fame and you will see what I, and Stan, am talking about. Hit and wrap. Taking someone’s head off doesn’t make you a man. And if one of these guys who gets his ripped off happens to be a Steeler, I do not want to hear from any homers. There is no double standard where this is concerned. Last year, Heath Miller got his head, and neck, rattled and scrambled in Baltimore. No penalty was called; yet, to Miller’s credit, he did not complain about it. He had to take some time off to heal, then he was back in action.
Football is a gladiator sport, no question. But if your intention is to hit to hurt and the defender either buckles under the strain of this hit, causing a penalty to be called and a fine to be issued, or the ball carrier just bounces off you, you have not helped your team. On the contrary, you have hurt your team. Nice job. Now go back and learn how to hit the right way and this stuff won’t happen. I am tired of the complaining coming out of the players’ camp where this is coming from. You are being improperly coached and it’s time for coaches to go back and get themselves educated on the right way to form tackle. Do the job right, or don’t do it.
*It was learned this week, on Monday, that Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel resigned after allegedly covering up the scandal of players selling off items for cash and tattoos, and the supply of automobiles. By all accounts, Tressel is a good man, but he got caught trying to help his players and ended up costing himself his job. But, here is the real problem with the NCAA that has been going on for years.
Yes, these players get a full ride, a scholarship that covers their education. How many of them are actually going to class and getting an education? Most are there to play football and try to get to the next level. I am not at all saying this is right, nor am I defending it, but this is life on the college level and how the NCAA deals with it.
These players are getting their education paid for because they have skills most of us do not. Yet, when they lose a loved one, yet do not have the ability, or the money, to get home to be with the family, they resort to methods that get them, their school, and anyone else involved in real trouble. Some might say “tough” when it comes to a player’s inability to be able to get home without some kind of assistance from someone. You have a full ride, deal with it. Not so fast.
The NCAA has been screwed up for years. Its rulebook is a joke. If every rule was followed, it is highly doubtful most programs would able to land decent players for their athletic programs. It is supposed to level the playing field, but it does everything but. The same teams, year after year, are vying for titles and championships. That’s because some people know how to work the system to get what they need to compete.
Coaches are under a tremendous amount of pressure to win. Some are under tremendous amounts of pressure to beat certain schools. The players are the pawns in the chess game. They are pieces of meat when it comes to athletic programs and boosters and alumni. Win at all costs. Lose, and alumni pull their donations.
Players make tons of money for their schools. It takes tons of money to operate athletic programs. Some end up operating in the red. Yet when a player sells off items in order to make some extra money, it is frowned upon. This leads to a bigger mess in which Ohio State finds itself and now Tressel resigns and adds further disgrace to the school. This is the life of a NCAA sanctioned school and how people are treated like mere paupers in a chess game of the high and mighty. The sad thing is this will never change. It has been going on for years and it will continue. Ohio State is just the latest victim until the next scandal surfaces (see WVU and Dana Holgorsen)
At press time, Ohio State and the NCAA are conducting investigations into the actions of quarterback Terrell Pryor. This mess is only just opening up. Stay tuned.
*It was a wild racing weekend last week, as British man Dan Wheldon came out of nowhere to win his second Indianapolis 500 after the leader, rookie J.R. Hildebrand crashed coming out of turn four with victory in his sights on the final lap. This was Wheldon’s only ride all year and the only lap he led, but he led when it counted the most!
Not to be outdone, in the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading in the final lap before he ran out of gas coming out of turn four, allowing Kevin Harvick to claim the victory and gain his third victory of the season. The Sprint Cup series move to Kansas this Sunday.
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