Slow Getting Up: A Story of NFL Survival from the Bottom of the Pile by Nate Jackson Page B
Authors: Nate Jackson
Ads: Link
nobody but you, it’s probably man: especially if they’re up in your face. If it’s zone they’ll be looking in at the quarterback and looking inside at the other receivers. But be careful, sometimes they’ll be right up in your face breathing on you and you think it’s man, then they bail out right before the snap and drop into their coverage. You just gotta feel that.
—All right.
—But look, you see that tight end motion to the other side of the ball?
—Yeah.
—What happened when he motioned? What did the defense do?
—Nothing.
—Exactly. So what does that tell you?
—It’s zone.
—Yep. If it was man, whoever was covering him would’ve run with him, ’cause he’d have him in man coverage. But since no one moves, you know it’s zone.
—Exactly. That’s why we do those shifts and motions, boys. It ain’t just for the hell of it, all right? We’re trying to give you guys a pre-snap read so you know what’s coming. We’re trying to gain any advantage we can. Every little bit helps. Okay, next play.
On the movie screen, Ashley Lelie runs a comeback; twenty yards straight up the field and back downhill at a sharp angle toward the sidelines. Champ undercuts his route and bats down the ball like he was knocking an ice-cream cone out of Ashley’s hand.
Blade leans over to Ashley and whispers.
—On this comeback route, you’re really going to want to come back .
Blade’s dealing with what all former-players-turned-coaches deal with: explaining in words what they always knew how to do instinctively. We all know what Blade means. But Kube’s coach-speak is more refined. He takes it a few steps further.
—Ashley, you gotta come off the ball harder and attack his leverage. And get your full twenty-yard depth. Not eighteen, not nineteen—twenty. And keep your shoulders over your toes on your break. Don’t stand straight up and chop your feet at the top of your route like this. See, that’s when Champ reacted to your break, right when you started chopping your feet. And don’t veer off that straight line. See how you are veering off right here?
Laser pointer.
—No way that’ll work. Look at that. When you veer off like that, he knows you’re not coming inside anymore. Look at that. He read your ass like a book. And you gotta stick that inside foot in the ground at the top. Stick it in the ground!
Slo-mo.
—And keep those elbows high and tight and them arms pumping. Pull that elbow through, get your fucking head around, and come downhill. You got me? Come downhill at a sharp angle and attack the football. C’mon, Ash. We gotta get better at this.
It is a difference in schools of thought. One school, Blade’s school, trusts the instincts of the pro football player, because he trusted his own when he played. He allows more improvisation. He supplies the general parameters and steps back. The nuance of the game’s technique is decided by the player’s athletic instinct.
The other school, the one more common in the NFL, is the more rigid, systematic assembly line of angularly identical patterns. It believes that every football play has one right answer. If you choose the question you get to choose the answer. It is a tightly structured philosophy and has evolved steadily over the years. Blade and Kube both played in the NFL, but they had very different experiences. Blade was a wide receiver and played in every game. Kube was a career backup quarterback who knew the system inside and out but rarely got to play. With all of that studying and no playing, the game becomes conceptual, and as a coach, Kube trusts the concepts over the instinct of the player, who comes and goes. But Kube skillfully toes the line between player-speak and coach-speak, and knows how to communicate in terms we understand. And he serves as the perfect buffer between the rigid offensive system and our often unsystematic instincts as players.
They’re always hard on Ashley because he’s a first-round pick.
—All right.
—But look, you see that tight end motion to the other side of the ball?
—Yeah.
—What happened when he motioned? What did the defense do?
—Nothing.
—Exactly. So what does that tell you?
—It’s zone.
—Yep. If it was man, whoever was covering him would’ve run with him, ’cause he’d have him in man coverage. But since no one moves, you know it’s zone.
—Exactly. That’s why we do those shifts and motions, boys. It ain’t just for the hell of it, all right? We’re trying to give you guys a pre-snap read so you know what’s coming. We’re trying to gain any advantage we can. Every little bit helps. Okay, next play.
On the movie screen, Ashley Lelie runs a comeback; twenty yards straight up the field and back downhill at a sharp angle toward the sidelines. Champ undercuts his route and bats down the ball like he was knocking an ice-cream cone out of Ashley’s hand.
Blade leans over to Ashley and whispers.
—On this comeback route, you’re really going to want to come back .
Blade’s dealing with what all former-players-turned-coaches deal with: explaining in words what they always knew how to do instinctively. We all know what Blade means. But Kube’s coach-speak is more refined. He takes it a few steps further.
—Ashley, you gotta come off the ball harder and attack his leverage. And get your full twenty-yard depth. Not eighteen, not nineteen—twenty. And keep your shoulders over your toes on your break. Don’t stand straight up and chop your feet at the top of your route like this. See, that’s when Champ reacted to your break, right when you started chopping your feet. And don’t veer off that straight line. See how you are veering off right here?
Laser pointer.
—No way that’ll work. Look at that. When you veer off like that, he knows you’re not coming inside anymore. Look at that. He read your ass like a book. And you gotta stick that inside foot in the ground at the top. Stick it in the ground!
Slo-mo.
—And keep those elbows high and tight and them arms pumping. Pull that elbow through, get your fucking head around, and come downhill. You got me? Come downhill at a sharp angle and attack the football. C’mon, Ash. We gotta get better at this.
It is a difference in schools of thought. One school, Blade’s school, trusts the instincts of the pro football player, because he trusted his own when he played. He allows more improvisation. He supplies the general parameters and steps back. The nuance of the game’s technique is decided by the player’s athletic instinct.
The other school, the one more common in the NFL, is the more rigid, systematic assembly line of angularly identical patterns. It believes that every football play has one right answer. If you choose the question you get to choose the answer. It is a tightly structured philosophy and has evolved steadily over the years. Blade and Kube both played in the NFL, but they had very different experiences. Blade was a wide receiver and played in every game. Kube was a career backup quarterback who knew the system inside and out but rarely got to play. With all of that studying and no playing, the game becomes conceptual, and as a coach, Kube trusts the concepts over the instinct of the player, who comes and goes. But Kube skillfully toes the line between player-speak and coach-speak, and knows how to communicate in terms we understand. And he serves as the perfect buffer between the rigid offensive system and our often unsystematic instincts as players.
They’re always hard on Ashley because he’s a first-round pick.
Similar Books
