What in the holy hell

Will make a good "Exhibit A"

That school's insurance policy just went up dramatically.

For the record I think this drill is absurd, I wouldn't run it, not like this, not full speed, not person vs person and certainly not everyday. But are we saying that a kid is never in this position in a game? A kid is never asked to make a full speed head on profile tackle with the ball carrier coming at him like this? A safety never has to cover down from 10-15 yards deep with a back hitting a hole full speed right at him? Kickoff doesn't present this very scenario multiple times a game? Again this drill is silly, I wouldn't do it, I wouldn't run it like this, We'd employ a bag or a tackle wheel or thud it up at contact or any number of alternatives, but Football seems to be the only thing in the world where we expect people to get better and safer by doing the fundamental tasks of the activity less and less.

Ok.... because literally every kickoff is this.  A returner with a full sprint and cover man with a full sprint more than 20 yards apart and a come to balance high impact collision.  Again I don't like the drill in fact I hate it I think you can accomplish something similar in a better way.  But this uproar of this is the absolute worst thing anyone'sever seen is absurd as well.  Multiple kids are going to be in this exact position tonight all across the country.  

More than zero which is the point I'm trying to make.  How safe is a kid if he's got a guy barreling down on him from 20 yards away and the runner decides nah we aren't going for the make him miss here we're going through him, and the kids never ever been in that position before?  Football is the only activity in the world where we now all of a sudden expect a kid or player to get better by doing the skills and tasks necessary for success less. 


I don't like the drill (hell we rarely tackle people but we get a million reps at it), my rant is more so on the continued limited contact, limited time, limited time in pads rules that are shoveled upon us.  Guess what..... you want kids to better safer tacklers making the game safer?  THEN THEY HAVE TO TACKLE!  How are we making kids safer if the first time they are in a situation is a 8:35 pm on 1 of the 10 Friday's throughout the year?  The people that are writing the rules haven't figured that out.    

We'll play a back next Friday that is 230 lbs he had a offer from Auburn as a Freshman he's a freaking beast he will have angles on safeties and DB's multiple times in games I've broken down and he won't take them infact he'll turn and make a B-line to initiate contact by going through a safeties face.  My message to our kids next week will be PROTECT yourself, and we will drill and drill and drill the heck out of it because The kid's first time having it happen can't be Friday night in the 2nd quarter when the RB breaks loose.  

I'm not being dramatic when I say those guys should never coach again. Set aside that they're holding that drill for their own sick pleasure. They are literally making their team worse by losing players to injury and making kids afraid to hit. Even Ronnie Lott at the end of his career wouldn't want to do that nonsense and he was fearless.

I do understand your point. But won't you just try and tackle low here instead of the head on head collisions in the OP?

When I played freshmen football 35 years ago, we lost a game, the other team had 2 or three long TD runs. So the coaches decided we needed to practice live pursuit angle tackling.

Half the team lined up at the 50 along the sideline, the others were on the 40 (nearest the goalline). On the whistle the kid on the sideline would take off sprinting, while the kid on the 40 would sprint at an angle and "clock" the ball carrier at full speed, somewhere between the 20 and 10 yard line.

It seems this may have gone on all practice, there were several injuries, the coaches didn't take into consideration of mismatches by size or ability, just where you happened to be in line.

Sounds like "Lover's Lane" or a "100 yards of bad road"... Very common JV and Freshmen football drills, along with "Bull in the Ring" back in my day.