Do we know as much football as coaches?

And most of the time they don't know how to use it.

 

Strictly speaking on the major collegiate and professional levels, there isn't a journalist who knows the sport better than the coach. No matter what any New York, Chicago or Los Angeles reporter/columnist might think.
Case closed.

All bets are off, though, and the junior college and prep levels.

 

That's pretty much what I was going to say. At the prep level? Maybe there are reporters out there who know the game as well/better than the coaches. At the college or pro level? Abso-fucking-lutely not.

 

In my time I have played, coached, scouted, written and blown a whistle.

You are correct about seeing things as the game progresses or on game films, but if you watched game film every week you would start to notice what the other coaches are noticing.

Two things have not been brought up coaches do which most writers underestimate: substitutions and running practices.

Trust me, planning two hours of solid practice is very difficult. I forget who said it, but coaches who scrimmage do not know how to practice. Great quote.

Also, as a coach you need to combine the players into one solid unit. Not an easy task.

Coaches are pros at what they do. If they tried to write a story it might read like Lloyd's blog. If we tried to plan a practice or manage an entire game, it might look like... Lloyd's blog.

Coaching for a spell or blowing a whistle is one of the best things a writer can do because it does give you a greater depth of understanding of what you are writing about.

 

I really think there is a fine line between knowing too much and too little.

If you don't know enough about something, it's hard to write about it without, obviously.

If you know too much about something, it's very easier to write straight over people's heads.

So having a good grasp but also being willing to say -- huh? -- at times is a good thing.

I hear some color guys on high school football broadcasts that are obviously former coaches who describe plays in coach dry coachspeak and it's comical. I bet 95 percent of the people don't know what the hell he is talking about.

Podunk is stacked on the left. The Wiccans are showing Cover 2.

Podunk runs a Dive to the 1 hole.

 

It's been hit on a few times here, but we essentially are interpreters for the general public and all we have to do is speak the language well enough to paint a clear picture. I think if we actually knew as much as the coaches we covered we'd be less able to dumb it down.

I'm stunned, actually, that anybody actually thinks they might know as much as a professional or D-I college coach.

It can be hard to tell in football, but there is so much teaching that goes on at practices that when you get a clear look at it, it's somewhat humbling. When I was a beat guy one of the coaches I was covering gave us pretty much full access to practice, so we could sit right down at the scorer's table and watch anything we wanted.

It was great to see what went on ... the relationships and all that, but the teaching was crazy good. The details that they worked on for hours gave me a lot of respect for what they do. I know a bit of basketball, kind of like they know how to write out their grocery list.

 

Can you double-switch?

 

That's too confusing. I expect my pitchers to be able to bat cleanup, if need be.

 

Good points, but you earn a lot of points with the coach if you ask a question that shows understanding of the game. They actually ease up and explain what was going on at that time.

When the coach knows that you understand the game, they are confident that you are not going to write something that does not reflect what happened on the field or court.

For example...

I attended a game this past weekend where the visiting team, coming off a terrible home loss, tries an onside kick to start the game. They screwed it up and found themselves down four TDs before the end of the first quarter. This should have been a close game, but it was obvious in my mind that the visiting players were demoralized by the play call. Home team rolled them before the visitors recovered.

This was probably the most dominant showing by the hosts over a decent visiting team in well over a decade.

When I read the gamer the next day, the onsides kick was 11 inches buried into the story. The writer chose to use the slant of people showing up late and leaving early. It had nothing to do with what happened on the field.

Sorry if I am ripping the writer on this game, but hell, I could go to games for the next 10 years and not have 60,000 (not high school) people watch an onsides kick to start a game by the visiting team.

 

well, know, but I can see where that might develop a life of its own. My reference is a baseball euphemism for the amount of curvature a batted ball has. The harder it's struck, the more it hooks. Or so the notion goes.

 

I don't think we know as much about X's and Os and technique and wouldn't be able to coach it, but just because of that doesn't mean you can't question the bonehead decision to go for it on 4th and 1, why your getting beat up on the o-line.

Why didn't Andy Reid help poor William Justice Sunday night? A little chip block from the tight end would help.

If this is true, I don't want any coach critiquing my writing since they are just non-writers.

It's silly to suggest that you can't critique a coach about his decision making because he knows more than you.

On straight technique I can't hang with coaches, but I feel because I cover so many more different games, and watch many more games of different teams, you get a good sense of what to do, what not to do, and what's a good call or a bad call.

I have watched thousands of football games in my life. I know what's supposed to happen and where people should be.

It's not brain surgery.

 

Or Winston Justice.