Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Oklahoma Unstoppable with Bradford

There is a nationally ranked high school team here in the Tampa area that is undefeated and looks to be unstoppable on their way to another state title. The Oklahoma Sooners looked like national champions against the overmatched Texas Tech Red Raiders Saturday night, but what bugged me was the similarity between the Tampa high school team and the Sooners.
Both teams come up to the line of scrimmage on offense and get ready to snap the ball, then everyone on offense stops, looks to the sideline, the QB backs away from center and calls another play and then they go. Unfortunately both of these teams are extremely successful right now, so what can you say other than more teams are going to start doing it and that is a terrible thing for the game of football at any level.
Players play and coaches coach, but when the coaches coach right up to the snap of every play, it is a bit much. It takes away the players' abilities to think for themselves and most coaches probably want that, but I hate how it stops the flow of each play. Call me a purist, but when the whole team looks to the sideline to be told what to do, its just not a game anymore. We all know the plays come in from the sideline and the NFL put headphones inside the helmets of its QB's to stop the sideline signs or the running in of plays, but even they cut off the signal with 15 seconds to go before the snap, so the coach can't talk all the way to the snap.
On Saturday night, Sam Bradford had a wonderful game, but there once was a rule that the QB could not put his hands under center and then take them back out or else it was a penalty. Don't know when that was taken out of the rule book, but he does it every play. I may be the only one right now that cares, but wait until a few more teams do it (and you know they will because of the copycat clause in sports) and you too will be pulling your hair out like me. Thank goodness I still have plenty to yank on!

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