A uniquely an American Game

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The NFL Quarterback

The successful NFL QB's I have been around were among the 3 or 4 smartest players on the roster - the mind of the successful QB moves at a rapid pace, he gives the coverage a presnap read that has about 2.7 seconds to make a throwing decision before the rush starts to try and put him on injured reserved. All have very good arms, but you can be a great QB without having a great arm. Joe Montana was probably the most effective QB I coached against, he did not wow you with his arm strength, but he had incredible ability to get the ball to the guy who you couldn't cover. Joe also had the leagues’ best QB coach in Bill Walsh (Bill and I both coached at Washington High School in Fremont, California). QBs are all good athletes and yet in most cases they don’t have the agility and speed of a corner, wide receiver or running back. They need agility and balance in a small area so they can slide away from the rush and buy time. It helps if they can run well enough that when forced to run, they can be a threat. If they have great running skills, they force the defense to play almost exclusively zone, so underneath coverage can keep their eye on the QB.

Smart, athletic, very good throwing skills, mentally tough and great leadership skills – only 32 start in the league and only 12 take their team to the play off each years – there are only about a dozen back ups good enough to replace the starter without significantly hurting a team effectiveness. Every team carries a 3rd QBs and most have a 4th on the practice squad – that’s only 128 guys getting a game check each Monday for being an NFL QB – a unique group of people and the ones I knew were good guys.

A few thoughts from the Coach

Our President was 100% right in firing McCrystal - The President leans way to far left for me, but he's our President and he received 53% of the popular votes. I think it's critical for the Republicans take back congress in November so we can put the brakes on the President, modify or repeal health care - we are a moderately right leaning electorate (where I live I would remove the word moderately) - we need to force the President to work with a congress much like Clinton was forced to do from 1994 on.

Our labor unions now represent a small % of today's work force, but they destroyed (with the help of management) the industrial Midwest.

The teacher's unions are now protecting incompetent teachers at the detriment of our kids. My kid’s all got excellent education, but fortunately they didn’t have to go to school in an inner city schools. How can we continue you to be a strong country where many kids at no fault of their own are getting such substandard teaching?

Where I live we have to great school systems and we are fortunate to have excellent teachers, but I have been in inter city schools where they are warehousing children, largely because the union control over the systems and parents and the public can’t seem to do anything about it.

The President claims he knows the condition of our schools and promises he is going to do something about it. Mr President please fight the teacher’s union which help get you elected if you do and are effective you will leave a lasting legacy in the lives of the kids. This something I would hope the republicans in congress would jump aboard on.

Changing the face of College Football

I was raised in a college football coaches family and then coached myself for 28 seasons 5 on Woody Hayes’s staff at Ohio State and then 15 seasons in the National Football League.

I personally am excited about the potential changes in the college football conferences. I live in SEC country about 45 minute drive from the University of Georgia and 30 minutes from Georgia Tech. My five years in Columbus, Ohio keeps me interested in the "Big Ten" and having played ball a the University of New Mexico I watch my alma mater on the Mountain West Channel.

I don't know for sure what the changes will be, but after the traditionalist get over the changes college football will be a better and more exciting product. Nebraska going into the Big Ten is going to bring much more exciting games into Lincoln.

I would like to see Texas and Oklahoma go into either the Big Ten or the SEC, it will make two fine conferences even better. I see Colorado has already committed to the PAC 12 a good move for the Colorado fans and well as West Coach college football.

What is going to happen to the schools which are not absorbed into the really big conferences? Their fans are all of a sudden will be supporting a team which for years had been an “also ran” will be competing for a league championship making their football much more exciting.

The big winners, the colleges because their game will be more interesting and generate more revenue, the TV networks who will have many more great games generating more advertizing dollars, can you imagine the ratings for a Texas Ohio State game? College fans our great game is getting even better

Let me mention one more thing and that’s the college football player, part of our educational experience is learning to compete and cooperate. Few experiences in school prepare us to perform on a daily basis at our very best than sports. You learn that part of being successful in life is to be a great teammate; your friends can absolutely count upon you. And you are a full day’s work for any of your opponents.

This is my first blog – my interests are high school, college and NFL football, Politics and Commercial Real Estate. I have always been interested in how our great country chooses our leaders at the local, state and federal level. When I left coaching I went into commercial real estate and am just as interested in how our markets create value in real estate as I am in factors in sport which allow some programs to consistently compete at a high level Plus

I am fascinated in the interesting people who I meet everyday who enrich my life and my understanding of the world.