Zero2Cool
13 years ago

Good, hard, sharp, and sure tackling is the very essence of a successful defense, and no player should hope to be placed upon a team unless he has become adept in this most important of football fundamentals. No team is going to be severely beaten, even if it has no offense at all, if it is composed of eleven good tacklers....

—GLENN SCOBEY (POP) WARNER

May 1927

On a November Sunday in Cleveland last year, Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez completed a pass to wideout Braylon Edwards in the shallow left flat. Browns cornerback Sheldon Brown jumped forward to perform the essential job that Pop Warner had described 83 years earlier: Tackle the ballcarrier. (Huddle. Repeat.) Football plays can end in various ways: with touchdowns, field goals, incompletions, fair catches, dead-ball penalties and stepping out-of-bounds. But most end with the ballcarrier being taken to the ground by the defense. It is absolute. After a tackle, whistles are blown, the ball is spotted and the offense must draw up another play and start anew.

But tackling has also become one of the most uncertain elements in the modern NFL, altered not only by evolutions in strategy (sideline-to-sideline passing attacks supplanting between-the-numbers power running) and performance (more elusive athletes with each passing year), but also most recently by rules changes designed to protect ballcarriers from injuries by limiting concussive, helmet-to-helmet hits. The pure, unbridled, bone-jarring tackle is a fading memory.

As Brown moved up on Edwards, his instincts told him to blast headlong with little regard for the consequences, tactical or physical. There are two basic ways to tackle: either "break down" into a balanced crouch to reduce the possibility of getting juked in the open field, or barrel into the ballcarrier at full speed. Brown had played his first seven NFL seasons for the Eagles under the late defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, who gave his troops only one option.

"Coach Johnson taught us to never break down, just keep running through like knives," says Brown. "And if I miss on the correct side, one of my teammates will be right behind me, running like a bat out of you know where, and he'll make the hit and maybe force a turnover. One of the knives will hit." (Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who worked under Johnson in Philadelphia, says, "Arrow through snow" that's what Jim used to say: Attack like an arrow through snow.")

As an Eagle, Brown lived Johnson's credo. In January 2007 he laid out Saints running back Reggie Bush with a blowup hit by driving hard upfield on a swing pass, a shot so monumental it made the cover of SI six months later. But here, against the Jets, Brown hesitated. The previous month, after the notorious Oct. 17 afternoon so packed with violent, concussive hits that it became known as Black Sunday, the NFL announced it would stringently enforce rules against head shots. That clouded Brown's mind. "I tried to break down and then come up," says Brown of the play on Edwards. "He dipped his shoulder, and that got him lower than me, and I took the brunt of the hit. They talk about defenseless receivers. I put myself in a defenseless position, and I hurt my shoulder. I was confused with all the changes, and I made an adjustment." (Though his forward momentum was stopped, Edwards never did go down—four other Cleveland defenders threw themselves into the play, and the whistle blew with the Jets receiver still standing.)

Brown is sitting on a shaded bench outside the team's headquarters in Berea, Ohio, after a morning practice during training camp. He covers receivers for a living, but he makes tackles, too, and it's much too late to change his approach. "Not trying to be dirty, but I've got to play the game the way I've always played it," he says. "I've got to run through tackles. If [league officials] punish me, they punish me."

For a very long time, coaches at all levels taught players to tackle with their shoulders. "It goes all the way back to playing the game without face masks [which entered the NFL in the mid-1950s]," says Patriots coach Bill Belichick, for whom the history of the game is an avocation. "Guys were taught to lead with their shoulder and turn their head to the side to protect their faces. Then equipment changed, and techniques changed. Players were taught to generate all their power in a straight line. Both hips, both legs. That allowed you to put your face in the middle of the runner, keeping your eyes up. It was a fundamentally better way of tackling."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1189947/index.htm 

Tim Layden wrote:


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Zero2Cool
8 years ago
Nearly five years later and the question yet to be answered.
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DarkaneRules
8 years ago
It's sad and you know it drives coaches crazy.
Circular Arguments: They are a heck of an annoyance
Fan Shout
TheKanataThrilla (now) : There always seems to be a high draft pick that slips and is there when we pick.
Zero2Cool (1h) : Aaron Rodgers hopes to sign with the Vikings, per Mike Silver.
Zero2Cool (3h) : You're not gonna go for what your board says? Just straight up positions?
Martha Careful (3h) : my drafts would be OL DL and CB centric. Preferably from power 4 conferences who have started 2+ years
Mucky Tundra (15h) : How much of that is guaranteed?
Zero2Cool (19h) : $45m over three years. Yikes.
dfosterf (20h) : Seahawks sign Cooper Kupp
Zero2Cool (14-Mar) : Colts sign CB Corey Ballentine.
dfosterf (14-Mar) : At least give it some spins in your mocks. Not Martha, she's disqualified, lol
dfosterf (14-Mar) : You have to like Tyliek Williams DL from Ohio State to agree with me on this
dfosterf (14-Mar) : quality dl in the 2nd and quality edge in the 3rd
dfosterf (14-Mar) : Taking Mathew Golden WR in the 1st is consistently working out for me in getting q
Zero2Cool (14-Mar) : LB Eric Wilson to Vikings
Zero2Cool (13-Mar) : Hobbs said Jaire reached out and congratulated him.
Martha Careful (13-Mar) : ditto, I wish nothing but the best for AJ Diilan and Josh Myers. and yes dfosterf, you are correct
Mucky Tundra (12-Mar) : Love AJ but it was time to move on. Also, gonna be interesting to see how he does behind Phillys oline
Mucky Tundra (12-Mar) : Josh Myers to the Jets one a one year, 3.5 million dollar deal
dfosterf (12-Mar) : Wish nothing but the best for AJ Dillon!
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : Eagles landed AJ Dillon
wpr (12-Mar) : The Packers did not tender restricted free agent John FitzPatrick. The tight end played in nine games after signing with Green Bay
wpr (12-Mar) : The Eagles are signing former Packers running back AJ Dillon, a league source confirms.
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : Might be waiting for the right place, or right cash, or both
dhazer (12-Mar) : I can't believe Chubb is still a free agent why wouldnt someone take a chance on him he is a stud with stuff to prove
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : I wanna find it too
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : if they find it, i wanna know how !!
dfosterf (12-Mar) : According to the OTC cap figures, Miami has one minute to find 10.3 million in cap space lol
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : lol nice one
dfosterf (12-Mar) : MVS to the Seahawks. I know Martha is relieved, lol
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : Pelissero: Cooper Kupp to be released by the Rams.
dfosterf (12-Mar) : OTC has increased Packers cap room to over 32 mil
Martha Careful (12-Mar) : RIP Junior Bridgeman. An excellent businessman and NBA er
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : It's better to have $17m to use on players who will be on the field. That's why trade/release is talked
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : post june is $7m cap hit with $17m saving
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : oops meant $10m cap hit
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : And pre june is $10m savings
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : Can't make him play.
dhazer (12-Mar) : I am curious why the big need to release Jaire, we have 29 million cap space we arent spending and would only gain $6 million/ make him play
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : Joey Bosa signed with Bills?
dfosterf (12-Mar) : What they are offering is a left over case of Leinies from the Chippewa Falls plant
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : 27, 59, 91, 129 gets you Jaire and our 3rd
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : they give us those five, or even first four, they can have Jaire.
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : 27, 59, 91, 129 and 136 are only ones worth having of theirs.
dfosterf (12-Mar) : What they don't have is cap space, at least presently at 5.6 mil
dfosterf (12-Mar) : Poor bastards only have 11
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : Ravens ain't got crap for picks.
Zero2Cool (12-Mar) : Aaron Rodgers is choosing between Steelers and Giants. The Vikings are officially out on him, per RapSheet
dfosterf (12-Mar) : Current cap space 29.6 million.
dfosterf (12-Mar) : Hobbs 2025 cap hit just under 6 million. Banks 2025 cap hit just over 9 million
Mucky Tundra (12-Mar) : beast, this is news to me! Tell me more about these, "draft picks." They seem mighty mysterious! 😉
beast (12-Mar) : Yes, the Ravens have draft picks
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