[ad_1]
Getty Images
There is a misconception about Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s relationship with the media, that he doesn’t like talking to reporters and mostly grumbles about one-word answers. In fact, while Belichick won’t answer questions that he believes could provide information that could put the Patriots at a disadvantage, he does love to answer questions about football history.
Belichick gave a question about long snappers more time on Friday than any other NFL coach. Asked why teams should use a lineout point on a long snapper, rather than teaching a player playing another position how to take a long snap, Belichick spoke for over nine minutes and covered. over 1,500 words.
The answer was a full story of long clicks, all from the top of his head. The video is here, and the transcript, courtesy of the Patriots, is below:
“It’s an interesting conversation. One that is really, I would say, honestly in my coaching career, has kind of come this long, winding road since I came into the league. First of all, there weren’t any long snappers, but specialists, kickers and kickers were frequently position players, and that’s where they also came from in college, so a lot of good kickers and place kickers also played a position, then over time, starting with [Pete] Gogolak and guys like that, you know, they specialized in kicking, and then you had some of the punters who specialized in puntings, so players like Danny White and Tom Tupa and guys like who were very good positional players, you know, Gino Cappelletti, who became specialists because of, I would say, the importance of the kicking game, the number of games that the kicking game and of the opportunities it offered. Same thing with ghosts. There was very little pure feedback.
“I think long shots, for me, changed in the mid-80s, and really the key guy in that was [Steve] DeOssie in my opinion because Steve was the first cross that really, really allowed a spread punt formation against an all-out run. Before that, teams usually shot. First of all, there weren’t a lot of gunners, but when the teams started using gunners they would shoot one and walk away from the free guy in the back, and that was sort of the idea that the protection was to not let the snapper block against a nine-man rush with one player split. The return team would have a guy on the gun or the split, and a guy comes back, so you’ve got nine guys basically rushing at the punter who wasn’t a blocker or the split guy who wasn’t a blocker. and the snapper that really wasn’t a blocker, so it was nine on eight, and the idea was to block the most dangerous eight and let the ninth guy go and get away from him, then when the Cowboys went to clear the punt and the Cardinals called that pretty quickly, and they kept two shooters apart, and the snapper blocked a guy, so that created an eight-on-eight situation but put a lot of pressure on the snapper to deliver the ball 15 meters deep on the silver and still block a good rusher clearing and the gap A.
“I mean we’ve all seen offensive linemen have trouble making that block on a passing game, and so now you’re talking about a deep snap and a block, but as players get ‘were improving, this skill became more, I would say the players got more efficient at this, and then the teams decided to carry a long snapper rather than worry about having a punt block. there was also a level of consistency and durability with these players, so if you lose a positional player who is also a long snapper, you look at real issues, and that evolved into bettors, for the most part, going on to start. because of how much time they could spend with kickers rather than having a wide receiver or quarterback as a start, which again, again, doesn’t show much. Assuming a punter is, you know, capable and good enough and have good enough hands to be being the incumbent, and then that kind of whole unit really evolved into, you know, a specified snapper or a specified kicker, a specific bettor, and usually the bettor as a starting, so the three of these guys could work together. all workouts because they are all available.
“I know, again, when I first came into the league, you worked on field goals, and, I mean, it was maybe five minutes because it was only the time when the starting center and the starting receiver or the backup quarterback or whatever was available to practice that, then, like, is it that hard? It is quite a difficult job. Yes. It is quite a difficult job. It’s not as difficult as it used to be because you are not allowed to hit the center, especially on the baskets and crush them. There are a few limitations on the punt rush based on training and so on, but generally speaking it’s a hard block, and I think you see most of the punt rushes attacking the snapper. They buckle up the guys so the center thinks he’s going to the right, but then he has to come back to the left, or maybe they pretend to come back, but they don’t come back, so he not only has to crack, and then it arises whether you are a blind snapper and you watch the stroke and you just slam the ball, or if you are a snapper that looks back and you slam it, then after the snap you have to lift eyes and recognize what happened and do a proper block, but again, it’s a man-to-man blockage. Like this guy has to block someone or you’re a short guy, so it’s hard work, and the accuracy of spot kickers over the years has increased dramatically. Part of it is the surface. Part of that is not kicking the outside and so on. Part of that is the operation between the snapper, the incumbent and the kicker, which I would say generally speaking is at a pretty high level, which should be in the National Football League.
“I think if you go back and watch the back kicks when it wasn’t, you see balls rolling back and the rack coming out of a position that catches the ball and kind of. things you sometimes see in a high school game and that sort of thing. There’s just a much higher skill level, which it should be, but yeah. I think that’s a pretty tough position, and nobody knows or cares who the snapper is if there was a bad snap and all of a sudden it’s the story on the front page. There’s some decent pressure on that player as well, and not just on the snap but also like I said on blocking and punt protection. The rosters have grown in size. It was a lot easier to wear this player just like he is a lot easier to wear a real turner, and so in terms of depth and availability, you know, you don’t want z really not looking for one of these players in the middle of any time. In the middle of the game or in the middle of the season, but when you have him as a starting receiver, Lou Groza, a starting tackle, or whoever else. These guys and they play and something happens and not only do you lose a player but you also lose a key specialist, so yeah.
“I mean, that’s a great question. There would be so much value in a player who could do multiple things and save a spot on the roster, but I would say there are so few of those players available, even to the point where, you know, [Jets kicker Matt Ammendola] did a great job last week. It’s so rare that you even see a combination of bettor and spot kicker. Usually it’s one or the other, and I think part of it is on one level, it’s, I would say, relatively easy to get your foot on the ball, but at that level you know, the difference between the mechanics of kicks and the mechanics of volley kicks are so different that it’s really hard to be good at both, but you know, if a guy has a good leg and what ‘He’s a good athlete and he can have good contact with a ball, there is a time when, in high school, in college, that might be good enough. He might be the best guy on the team to do this, but I would say at this level it will take a lot. Now like Jake [Bailey] can kick. Jake can start. Jake can hit goals from the field. To be at the level you want it to be, for the person to split their time between the two, again I think that’s a lot to ask. I’m not saying it’s impossible or unheard of, but it’s asking a lot, and that’s why you don’t see it a lot.
“That’s a good question. It’s really interesting, and I would say if you look at how these positions have evolved since I’ve been in the league, but even a little bit earlier, because that’s really where it went. started going in the late 60s. i think [Pete] Gogolak was the first, or one of the first, where this trend really started, okay, we’re just going to keep a guy, and all he does is kick a kick. [Garo] Yepremian and guys like that. That’s all they did. It was a little unusual, but you know, it gradually became the new normal. “
[ad_2]
Source link