Watchin' Game Film

I spent some time hanging out with a friend of mine today. His coach told him to go back and watch all of his game tape from this past season. My friend John is a guard which, if you don't know much about football, is one of the least glamorous positions to play. Running Backs, Quarterbacks, and Wide Receivers get all the attention while offensive linemen do all the work.

I watched film with him for about an hour. We watched as he missed some important blocks in games early on in the year. At other points we watched as he made great physical blocks only to have his quarterback or running back choose another route. You work really hard on the offensive line and it doesn't always pay off.

Let me stop here and say I don't know a lot about football. I love it, and I love watching it, but even John teased me by saying that I had been enlightened to 'some' of the nuances in football. Which I think might be just a nice way to say, "Matt, I am the one who plays football, not you."

All that being said, you have to do a lot right for a play to succeed when you play on the offensive line. You have to have solid footwork, and keep leverage against your blocking assignment. On top of that if you don't communicate with your other linemen you could end up not blocking everyone and that can be disastrous. Your hands are important too. You want to use them to keep whoever you are blocking close, but you can't hold because that would be a penalty.

As you are beginning to understand there really is a lot that goes into playing offensive line and you really don't get any credit at that position. If you talk with a linemen though its not like they hate playing their position or they hate the lack of recognition. They almost feed off of it. They like the fact that they make it possible for awesome plays to happen. They love it when they open up a hole for a running back to break a big play.

No one has ever said, "Imagine a world full of offensive linemen." Probably because there wouldn't be enough food for all of us. Still, I think most of us could use the character and grittiness of an offensive lineman. They work hard on every play. They trust that everyone else is doing what they are supposed to even though they can only take care of their part. I think thing that sets them apart though is that even though they only get noticed if they make a mistake, they still go out there and do their best to help their team succeed.