Amid the various “oohs and aahs” we give today’s super athletes, we are also constantly scratching our heads and asking, “why the hell did he do that?” You may see Alvin Kamara make a few men miss with sick jukes, get to the next level, only to trot out of bounds with one man to beat. You are amazed by his speed and agility but at the same time you are asking, “why the hell didn’t he cut inside and make one more jabroni miss on his way to a score?” This is just an example of the frustration you will feel watching a football game. Other frustrations may include seeing Drew Brees lead a team down the field only to throw a pick when trying to wedge it between defenders to Josh Hill. Or you’ll see big dumb Joe Flacco scramble for a first down and slide awkwardly, turning his knee and injuring himself. You may also see players putting their heads down when tackling resulting in big whiffs or worse, paralysis. All of these goofs, these screw ups, are because there are various art forms in the sport of football that have gone by the wayside. The “lost arts” are either not taught or are blatantly ignored and the result are these head scratching moments in games.
There are many many lost arts in a variety of sports, but for now we will just stick to football because there are a plethora of lost arts that players have no grasp on which is why the game looks the way it looks today. Let’s start with the lost art of “throwing to the open man.” In the NFL today, you have receivers who run 4.3 40s, are six feet five inches tall and can jump as high as an NBA player. There are freaks like Julio Jones and Michael Thomas and oh boy is it a thrill to watch them go up and get it! Quarterbacks are as mesmerized with these super athletes as us and they forget about one of the essentially of quarterbacking, throwing to the open man. Case in point Thursday Night Football where Drew Brees though his big tight end Josh Hill could out jump and out battle a linebacker, a safety, and a nickel back in the end zone at the end of the game. Drew Brees didn’t look for an open man, he looked for a size mismatch and a touchdown. He ignored art and the Saints lost.
How about the “art of the slide?” How many times do you watch your team’s QB scramble and slide and you hold your breath? You are not nervous that he wil get clobbered because there are rules in place protecting him. You are nervous that they will tear an ACL or MCL because hardly any quarterbacks know how to slide feet first. It cost RGIII his damn career! The art of the QB slide has been lost because it is hardly practiced and because most of these players hardly played baseball growing up so they were never properly trained. Letting kids play all the sports makes them better athletes and artists.
Finally, let us talk about arguably the most important art form of them all; the “art of tackling.” It’s the most basic art form of them all, yet nobody remembers or utilizes the simple formula:
- Approach the ball carrier chopping your feet and in control
- Eyes on the belt buckle/face on ball
- Engage the target while sinking your hips with your eyes to the sky
- Explode through with the feet still chopping grass
- With your head across the ball carrier’s body shoot your hands through grabbing cloth/wrapping up
- Finish the tackle to the ground until the whistle is heard.
Instead of proper form tackling, in today’s NFL you see arm grabbing, flailing arms trying to punch balls loose, and dangerous crown of the head tackles. The reason Alvin Kamara is so elusive mostly because he is an awesome running back, but it is also because players today just cannot tackle properly. If you think Jack Lambert, Rickey Jackson, or Dick Butkus would have ever allowed Kamara to break one of their tackles, you are dead wrong. Those guys knew how to tackle. They were artists and they respected the football arts. Sad to say but Ryan Shazier’s injury would not have happened had he properly attempted that tackle. His head was down and he hit with the top of his crown and we saw first hand how dangerous the lack of form tackling in the NFL can be. Now everyone is calling for more rule changes and questioning if football should be played for much longer. These are dark days and they could be getting even more grim. The only way the violent sport of football will be able to survive our sensitive culture is if players, coaches, and parents start respecting the lost arts.
– Alan Michael