Anyone who has ever put on shoulder pads and a helmet will tell you that football–real, American football–is hard work. It requires stamina, strength, speed, and usually a few broken fingers. It cost me a broken collarbone. And, just like anything hard, it teaches men hard lessons. Here are a few life skills I picked up during my high school days:
1. Hit and Squeeze
When you’re playing on the defensive line, you’ve got to learn to stay at home. When I was younger, I got to the quarterback by shooting through the line on every play. Being a thin, stringy kid, I was actually pretty good at it. I mastered the rip and swim moves, plus I was faster than a lot of the hogs on the offensive line. The second the ball was hiked I zipped past the guard and got in the quarterback’s face. This was great on pass plays, when I hurried the quarterback on almost every play.
Unfortunately, as I moved into the world of varsity football, the game changed. It became a more complicated game, and the other team took advantage of the hole I created in the defensive line by sending run plays right at the spot where I used to be standing.
I learned that you have to hit and squeeze: pop the offensive lineman, then stand your ground for a second or two to let the play develop. If the run came toward me, I was there to create a traffic jam. This was a lot less exciting for me, and it required more hard work, but it made me a better player because I stopped more runs.
In life, you don’t always get to do what’s fun, or the stuff that you’re good at, and you definitely don’t get to do what you want to do. Sometimes you need to suck it up and do your job, even if it’s hard and you’d rather be doing something else.
2. Fill The Gap
My coached loved pulling linemen. That means that when the ball was hiked, one of the offensive linemen, usually a guard, would leave his position and run to another spot to knock someone on their can. It’s effective if it’s done right because it’s like you bring in a blocker from out of nowhere; sometimes the defense doesn’t expect it.
The difficult job in this equation is the lineman next to the one who pulls, because he leaves a gaping hole in the line that you have to fill. Sometimes you’re left trying to block two defenders. And if you don’t do your job, someone will come through the line and smash your running back from behind.
When you’re on a team, you don’t always get to do the fun jobs. In fact, the guy next to you might get the job you wanted and leave you to cover for him. That’s okay. That’s why it’s called teamwork. Do what’s best for the team, not yourself.
3. Hit Hard
This one is a bit more obvious. If you’re going to hit someone, hit them hard. If you don’t, they’ll put you on the ground. If you don’t dish out a hit, you’re going to take one.
Now, physical violence isn’t exactly what I have in mind on this one, but I guess the point still applies. If you’re going to do a job, do it with all your might. There’s no greater sound than the crowd’s roar of approval. And conversely, sloppy work usually comes back to bite you.
4. Wrap Up
One of football’s basic-level skills is tackling, and the basic rule of tackling is to wrap your arms around the guy before you try to put him on the ground. If you don’t wrap up, you’re just hitting the guy, and that’s not tackling. This sounds simple enough, but I still scream at the TV, “Wrap him up!” when some overpaid show-off Free Safety tries to knock down a receiver by running into him, only to see the WR slide off and run for a touchdown.
Much of life revolves around the fundamentals, doing the basics and doing them well. Razzle-dazzle is great when it works (Who doesn’t love those neck snapping shots?), but more often than not you’re just going to miss, and your team will pay the price. Don’t worry about being fancy. Just do things right.
5. Get Back Up
I hope that I haven’t given the impression that I was any good at high school football, because I was barely mediocre. I wasn’t very big back then, and probably shouldn’t have been playing line positions, but I also wasn’t a very fast runner. Being lined up on some guys literally twice my size, I got pushed around a lot on the field. And one some plays, I got run over.
In the end, I fought through my high school football career. I came home with a lot of bruises, but I always came back.
But there were those glorious moments, those hits that I still remember, when another lineman underestimated me, or a linebacker didn’t see me coming, and slobberknocked ‘em. Those hits made the bruises worthwhile. That’s what kept me coming back for more.
Some days you’re the windshield, and some days you’re the fly. On some plays you bring the pain, and on others, you take it. That’s life. It’s like Vince Lombardi said, “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” The most important part is that you stand up, shake it off, and line up for the next play, because you never know who will dish out the next hit.
What About You?
Did any of these lessons catch your attention? What lessons did you learn playing sports? Let us know in the comments!
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