I'm glad you said this. I feel like I have to be serious for a moment and defend football. It's MUCH more tactical than any other sport. Most of you have no idea how much goes into each play. Here are four play calls from NFL Films segments in which former Tampa Bay and Oakland coach Jon Gruden was wired for sound. Gruden is a descendant of the Bill Walsh-Mike Holmgren coaching tree and pupils of the West Coast Offense — which is known for complicated verbiage. Can you read each play out loud once, memorize it and repeat it cleanly?
1. Pass 94 punch x deep cross
2. Trips left 73 Reno halfback slow screen right
3. West right tight, f left, 372 y stick, z spot
4. Green right x, shift to viper right, 382 x stick lookie
I grew up playing American football from the age of 5. I was obsessed from an early age. It really is chess. It's a great game. You have to learn to enjoy and appreciate the mental aspect of it, because it's not constant action. The time between plays is a chance for everyone to think about down and distance, score, field position, what has been working, injuries (who is in the game and out on any different play).
Ask yourself if there is any real difference between watching players huddle between plays or two teams passing it back and forth for 30 seconds in the midfield before starting a forward movement or two teams knocking it back and forth 30 yards in midfield and never entering the final third at each end.