This is going to be a pretty short post this morning. As the NFL season finally starts to wind down and we have another college football season well in the books, my mind drifts back to a conversation that was had around Thanksgiving this past year.
Fair warning, if you aren't an American Football fan or your don't know much about the game, this post either isn't going to land with you or it is going to be well over your head. Feel free to move along. I don't usually get many rewards on these posts anyway. I just do them because I enjoy it and it keeps my writing in practice for my main account posts.
Anyway, we were watching the Thanksgiving day football game on TV and one of my brothers in law pointed out that players on defense don't seem to wrap their tackles like they used to. Many times in games you see players just shoving other players hoping they will fall down. Either that or they try these fancy moves that never seem to do the trick.
This isn't to take away from the physical prowess that many players on offense possess. Some of those guys are quite talented and they can juke, spin, and dodge their way out of anything. If you watch though, you will also see an abundance of players just kind of phoning it in on their tackles.
That's what drives me nuts. I get it, it can't be easy these days with all kinds of rules protecting the players. It's gotta be hard to know when you can take someone down to the ground and when you are going to get flagged for doing it.
I have to believe though there is a happy medium and unfortunately players just aren't finding it. Go back and look for yourself. Many of these players are allowing huge yardage gains that could have been avoided if they just focused on wrapping up the other player instead of shoving them or some other silly move.
If I have to watch another Lions game where they blow a huge lead because they fail to properly tackle the other team, I think I am going to freak right out.
Again, I don't know if it is complacency, concern about injuries, or something else, but it is quite infuriating.
Have you noticed this trend? What do you think about it? Let's talk in the comments!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
