I remember my football baby steps, watching games in the '70s with my father. He separated the positions, offense and defense, helped make sense of the game. He explained the importance of field position. I learned that a nice start to a possession is anywhere beyond your own 20-yard line. A nice possession is gaining a couple of first downs and punting from midfield. All to turn field position to your favor. If you can keep the game on the opponents side of the field all day, a couple of scores win the game. That was then.
Field position doesn't seem to mean as much anymore. Having to trot out your punter is considered a failure, even after a couple of first downs. Teams score from anywhere on the field. They do what was unthinkable only decades ago. They throw with their backs to their own endzone. They throw everywhere and often. It's a track meet now. It's a race for points. There are so many excellent, accurate quarterbacks. Completion percentages were mostly in the high 50s in the '70s. Now, a quarterback is out of the league if he's completing at that rate. These talented quarterbacks have gotten a lot of help. Rule changes in the last 40 years have made passing easier. Pass defense was closer to assault back then. Now, the defense can't do much when the ball's in the air. The number of brilliant, big receivers have further helped the quarterbacks. Their increased catch radius alone has increased completions. Quarterbacks don't have to be perfect on every throw. It's kinda funny that as pass defenders have been forced to become more gentle the receivers have gotten much bigger. Well, it's not so funny for the defense. Nearly all of the rule changes since the '70s have helped the offense. This increase in offense puts the fans in the seats and television on the action. The powers that be have deemed that offense provides that excitement. The rule changes reflect that. I find the changes too one-sided. The exploding popularity of the NFL shows that it's best that I stay on this side of the decision-making process.
There's so much euphoria over the versatility of quarterbacks Robert Griffin III and Colin Kaepernick. A greater impact than the incredible individual talents of those players is that NFL coaches are finally letting their players loose. There have been versatile quarterbacks for years. Coaches just forced them to play from the pocket or moved them to other positions. I don't think that coaches like having a player's skills dictate their coaching. They'd rather their coaching dictate the player's skills. The coaches have nearly always wanted their players to play within their system. Paul Brown was one of the greatest NFL coaches. In his first ten years he was blessed with the perfect quarterback for his innovative offense, Otto Graham. Brown never seemed to recover when his perfect quarterback retired. He kept looking for the next Graham and there wasn't one. More recently, former Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress never gave his quarterbacks the freedom to react to what they saw on the field. They had to go with Childress' call and assigned audibles. He even wanted to put a leash on Brett Favre. Some coaches now seem to be more willing to loosen the reins. They seem more open to designing their schemes and strategies around the talents of their players. It could be the win-now-or-be fired mentality of NFL owners. For decades, NFL people have said that what works in college football won't work at the professional level. The NFL defenders are too skilled, too fast for the spread or read option offenses. Several NFL teams are now incorporating aspects of the spread offenses. Teams, Washington and San Francisco certainly, are finding quarterbacks that can run the read option. All these changes are geared to score. And score often.
Football will always be a game of ground acquisition. Teams are just acquiring that ground faster now than they did forty years ago. One of the great appeals of football is that it's always evolving. In twenty years, passing the football might move aside in favor of running the ball. I doubt it but you never know. It could happen. Football will always be fluid. Rule changes, unique skills of the players and innovative, open-minded coaches will all play a role in the constant evolution of the game.
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