Who Invented the Spread Offense?

[DTP]

I started watching in the 00s.

Wait really? Then you only know football how it is now. Probably the only major difference is the targeting rule. I started watching football in the 80’s when passing offenses started to take off. The older generation hated it. They didn’t like how DBs weren’t allowed to hold and grab receivers all over the field anymore. They wanted the old days of Franco Harris running it up the gut for 3 yards 30 times a game. They thought football should have been 14-7 slugfests and the fancy passing offenses led by Joe Montana and Dan Marino were sissy football. Bill Walsh was only a good coach because of the “rule changes”. The changes were to make the game faster and more exciting. The changes are why the NFL blew past baseball in popularity and is now the most popular sport in the country by a mile.

Do I miss the big hits that aren’t legal now? Yeah but i also understand the safety of players was largely neglected for way too long so I get some of the new rules. The thing is, the game doesn’t go backwards. It never has. You don’t have to enjoy the way it’s played now but if that’s the case you might as well take up a new sport to watch.

 

[DTP]

Canadian Football has been doing this for years, and I'm lucky enough to have coached an delayed university up here.

What's funny is the "striker" position have been around up here before I started playing college ball and that was 2006.

Essentially the purpose of the defense is, especially in four down is to say
"Go ahead and do whatever you want, but at some point one of our DL is gonna beat your OL and then you'll be behind the sticks, whether that a run or pass, then we know exactly what you'll do.

This goes to even the pro-style teams. I'll built my DL to be disruptive to force a negative play or at the very least a low yards getting play, now you're in 2 and 8 or 9, then what do you do again a defense that was initially designed to stop the pass anyway?

I can get into the X's and O's or the type of player you would rather have at certain defense positions on the field and what they're main job is, but that moot, you'll see team moving towards strength of the field soon enough (i.e., field and boundary) as some already have (i.e., Vtech with Bud foster), instead of right and left, which is dumb, and this includes on offense as well.

I think the wider field and three down rules naturally made for a more spread-friendly game. Bunching up your players and running for 3 or 4 yards when you’ve only got two plays to get 10 is counterproductive. The wider field means more space to cover so it only makes sense to use extra defensive backs instead of lumbering linebackers.

 

[TemplarCane]

I think the wider field and three down rules naturally made for a more spread-friendly game. Bunching up your players and running for 3 or 4 yards when you’ve only got two plays to get 10 is counterproductive. The wider field means more space to cover so it only makes sense to use extra defensive backs instead of lumbering linebackers.

One of the few Bobby Bowden quotes I’ve ever bothered to remember was a suggestion, maybe in jest, that the hash marks be replaced with a single hash down the middle of field. This quote was back in the Charlie Ward seasons.