Stuff that I Have Noticed #24 More Football!

What is it About Football?

CAVEAT: If you’re a hard core Baseball or Soccer fan this essay might piss you off. I apologize in advance and no disrespect is intended. This is solely the opinion and attitude of the admittedly biased author. Feel free to send me a profanity-laced email if it’ll make you feel better.

Football is the most popular sport in America* and the 9th most popular sport in the world. The 2018 season saw the NFL attendance at 17,177,582 fans watching games in stadia. That is more than any other sports league in the world. And there’s college football’s 46,985,000 fans as well as high school games and I have no stats for them.

Why do you suppose this game is so popular?

My Mother told me that the first birthday present from my Dad was a regulation size football. She said that it was almost as big as I was at the time. But, man-o-man, I grew into it. And I did love the game long before I got over my chubby, very unathletic pre-teens.

I’m neither a statistician nor a sports psychologist but having played three years at Hollywood high school, and another three at Whittier College college I have first hand knowledge of the game at a high level. After all, my two college coaches were NFL Hall of Fame’s George Allen (Rams/Bears/Redskins) and Don Coryell (Cardinals/Chargers).

The seventh installment in this series is entitled “Battle”**, which is the core ingredient of football. While not actual battle, the game is a sort of metaphor of mortal combat. George Carlin lays it out brilliantly near the end of this hilarious four minutes. And yet, while in some ways brutal, ultimately football is an exercise in finesse and teamwork.

Okay, all team sports involve teamwork. Why else would they be called “team sports”? The teamwork in football is profoundly different than that of other sports. For example in baseball, basketball, hockey and other field games, while variations are prevalent to some extent, most of the players need to have quite similar skills. I needn’t list them since they are obvious and the players all handle the ball (or puck). But different positions in football require extremely different virtuosities.

You readers who love the game already know the things I’ll describe in the next few paragraphs but I feel the need to do some ‘splainin’ to the uninitiated.

There are quite a few discrete skill sets on a football team and while this applies more to the offensive players, there are also several on the defensive squad. I’ll start with them.

Obviously the defense is focused on preventing the opposing team from moving the ball forward, especially across the goal line and into the end zone. There are three general groups: Linemen, Line Backers and Deep Backs and the size (but not necessarily the speed) declines in that order. The linemen and, to some extent, the line backers are responsible for stopping the run and rushing the passer. And some of the linebackers also cover the short receivers. The deep backs are Corner-backs and Safeties and they cover the mid-distance and deep passes. Occasionally linebackers and deep backs will rush the passer in a maneuver called a “blitz”.

I think the corner-backs have the most difficult assignments in the game. They cover the fastest men on the offense, who know where they’re going to run, and they have to do this while mostly running backwards.

The offensive unit has the Quarterback who guides the team, often changing the plan of attack at the line of scrimmage once he sees the defensive layout. He also must have prodigious skill at throwing passes of various lengths while avoiding the oncoming defenders who are doing their damnedest to “sack” him (knock him down). The Running Backs carry the ball, sometimes catch passes and/or block defenders. (Before the term was coined, I was a running back, in my day called the Fullback.)

Author Ben Bryant: Hollywood High Fullback

The receivers, known variously as Flankers, Tight Ends and Wide Receivers obviously are the primary targets for the QBs’ passes. The tight end, often more like a tackle with speed and good hands, is also a major blocker on running plays and, apart from the interior linemen, is usually the largest man in the offensive squad.

Now I come to the most important and least appreciated five men on the field, the interior linemen: The Center who snaps the ball to the QB and redefines the assignments of the other linemen at the line of scrimmage, the Guards and Tackles (two of each) who block opponents to open holes in the defense for the running backs and protect the QB on pass plays.

Sportscasters often refer to the players who handle the ball as the “skill” positions. I find this label offensive. Next time you watch a football game tear your eyes away from the backs and receivers and watch the linemen and then tell me that they are not highly skilled. The line play is where games are won and lost.

If you have never played the game – I mean with pads, helmets and full contact – you may find it difficult to imagine why we football players love it so much. Let’s admit that it hurts. It is a physically intense activity and people, large, strong people, ram into you and try to knock you down and you do the same. But unlike boxing (ugh!) the object of the game is not to damage your opponent but to advance the ball and score touchdowns.

From 1950 through 1955 I looked forward with mixed feelings to the end of summer when football practice would begin. My feelings weren’t so mixed in high school when the drills were for three hours after classes but in college we started a couple of weeks before school began and did three hours in the morning and another three in the afternoon. Late august in southern California was hot and humid and after the first two or three days in shorts we put on the pads and began hitting and it was brutal. And in spite of the exhaustion, the pain, the complaining and the mental stress we did love every minute of it.

My body may be eighty-four years old but in my mind I can still find that crease in the line, bowl over a linebacker and make that first down.

And get an “Attaboy, Benny!” from Coach Allen.

Here’s a piece I found on ESPN about my coaches.

There’s a lot about both of them in Three Stages.

NOTES: * Assuming you, like me, don’t count NASCAR

** Since I posted the “Battle” piece it has been posited that violent video games are not a factor in mass shootings. I’m skeptical of that position.