Go_Jibbs! Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Excellent. I imagine my grandfather probably had similar experiences watching the Skins during that same time period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LetThePointsSoar Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Oldfan - AWESOME read, thank you for sharing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tastes Like Chicken Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Thanks for sharing. I'm curious Oldfan, what's your perspective on the rule changes and evolution of the game in general? Better or worse? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldfan Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 Thanks for sharing. I'm curious Oldfan, what's your perspective on the rule changes and evolution of the game in general? Better or worse?It's a better game now. I never liked the cheapshot artists in the game even when they played for our side. The rules now make it difficult for players to get away with that kind of play. It's also more difficult for coaches to win now by playing boring, conservative football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 outstanding post! Thank you for sharing, what a great perspective I especially got a kick out of this part I lay claim to a few redeeming qualities as a human being. One of them is that I don't hold grudges. Life's too short. Forgive and forget. That's why I can't explain about Ed Sprinkle. I don't know why, after more than 60 years, I still hate the prick. The other thing that jumped out at me was getting to see those old Baugh Teams in the Burgundy and Gold. (live in person of course). I have this perpetual vision of them in black and white. To think that they actually existed in color (burgundy) is obvious but something that is deeper down in the recesses of my brain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnhay Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Phenomenal. Hopefully when I reach that age I can come onto ES version 10.6 and tell the youngsters about what it was like back in my day when Portis' pockets were straight. Probably won't have the same ring as your story, OldFan. Your story gave me goosebumps OldFan. Great writeup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldfan Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 ...The other thing that jumped out at me was getting to see those old Baugh Teams in the Burgandy and Gold. (live in person of course). I have this perpetual vision of them in black and white. To think that they actually existed in color (burgandy) is obvious but something that is deeper down in the recesses of my brain.That gets funnier the more I think about it.---------- Post added January-10th-2011 at 03:00 PM ---------- Once again, I very much appreciate all the positive responses to my post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikie Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 good, candid, writing, OF. Hopefully you'll share some more of your experiences with the board (and less of your QB theories) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldfan Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 good, candid, writing, OF. Hopefully you'll share some more of your experiences with the board (and less of your QB theories) Funny you should mention that, bikie. I was just thinking that I might lay off trying to educate the membership on grading QBs. I mean, I've converted the brighter members and, if the rest of you dimwits, don't have it by now, you're never going to get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Est.1974 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 As a boy, it gave me pleasure to hate some world-class villains: Adolf Hitler of Germany, Hideki Tojo of Japan, Benito Mussolini of Italy, and Ed Sprinkle of the Chicago Bears. That's a great line. What a great read that was Oldfan, it's hard to imagine having such vivid memories dating back over 60 years. Especially back to times like those..amazing & thanks for sharing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikie Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Funny you should mention that, bikie. I was just thinking that I might lay off trying to educate the membership on grading QBs. I mean, I've converted the brighter members and, if the rest of you dimwits, don't have it by now, you're never going to get it. hahaha.... seriously though, I do hope you share some more of your experiences being a skins fan back in the day...it is a unique perspective lacking on this board... and p.s. tom brady and joe montana read your piece and said it was just "above average" and mostly the result of the "narrative essay" system with which it was constructed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldfan Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 ...and p.s. tom brady and joe montana read your piece and said it was just "above average" and mostly the result of the "narrative essay" system with which it was constructed... Nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss_Hogg Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Post of the year! in 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky21 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I don't believe a word of it but the prose was nice. Good off-season thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebluefood Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I don't believe a word of it but the prose was nice. Good off-season thread. What about it don't you buy, Rocky? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky21 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 What about it don't you buy, Rocky?I don't believe Oldfan is 75 years old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebluefood Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Any reason why you don't believe that, or you just...don't believe it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldfan Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 I don't believe Oldfan is 75 years old.I had my wife read the OP. She didn't believe I could remember all those names from so long ago. But, the memory is a funny thing. I can remember phone numbers of friends from 50 years ago, but I struggle to remember my current number. I can watch a new movie tonight, then watch it again in five or six months as though I'd never seen it before. So, there are a few advantages in short-term memory loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 So, Oldfan... can you talk about the speed and athleticism on the field nowadays -vs- then? No doubt it's superior today, but I also kind of think that people underestimate how badass some of those old school footballers were. Anyways, I imagine those early football games must have felt a lot like rugby. Baugh pretty much revolutionized the game with the concept of the forward pass, didn't he? The kick/pass option is kind of cool. Call me crazy but I think there could be a place for that in the modern game. I remember the Eagles used to have Randall C. kick a lot out of a shotgun formation on 4th down... the defense had to respect his ability to throw and keep their defense in, all but negating a return. People called the wildcat dead until 3 seasons ago... makes you wonder what other forgotten schemes could be leached from those old playbooks. ---------- Post added January-11th-2011 at 02:35 PM ---------- Also, if I'm reading your post correctly, Baugh would get the ball out of the shotgun in the single/double wing. So why does Tom Landry get credit for inventing the shotgun? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I always assumed that Oldfan was really 45. Now, I'm confused. Either he is the hippest 75 year old on the planet or a remarkably good writer. Either way, it's a worthwhile thread. To piggyback on what zooy is saying, football is the most cyclical of sports - especially at the college level. The game has moved from tight formations to wide formations to tight formations and now we are back to wide formations again. I have a feeling that tight formations are going to come into vogue again - because defenses have been getting lighter and ligther to cover all these spread out sets. I mentioned this, but I went to a 20th reunion of my high school football team recently (we had won a state championship in 1990). 90 percent of the dudes showed up and we ended the night in a bar watching the game tapes on DVD. What blew me away was how tight everything was. In the first game against a really really good team from Ohio, we ran almost exclusively out of the wishbone and they ran almost exclusively out of the T. Combined, we threw six passes - four of those coming on a last-minute drive that we needed to win. Earlier that night, we saw our high school team played and they ran everything out of the shotgun and usually had three wide receivers on the field. My guess is in ten years, the fullback belly will be back in vogue. ---------- Post added January-11th-2011 at 04:19 PM ---------- Also, if I'm reading your post correctly, Baugh would get the ball out of the shotgun in the single/double wing.So why does Tom Landry get credit for inventing the shotgun? I don't think anyone but Cowboy fans credits him for inventing it. It's usually acknowledged that he revived it. In the old Single Wing, there was a short shotgun snap, but I believe it went to the halfback. The quarterback was more or less a blocking back. And it was essentially a running formation. My dad's high school used the Single-Wing in 1963, I think. When I was a freshman, my high school played a team from Northern Ohio that used an offense called the Wing-T. It took a lot of Double Wing concepts and modernized them. We had no idea how to defend it. That offense is very similar to what Georgia Tech and Navy run now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldfan Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 So, Oldfan... can you talk about the speed and athleticism on the field nowadays -vs- then?The pro game then was more like the college game is now. The players were smaller and slower, which made the field play bigger.Anyways, I imagine those early football games must have felt a lot like rugby. Baugh pretty much revolutionized the game with the concept of the forward pass, didn't he?Baugh was already in his ninth year, when I saw him. So, I can't add much to what you're read about his early years. It wasn't until my high-school years that I started thinking more about the game's strategies and its formations. By that time, there were few teams, at any level, running the single wing that Sammy ran early in his career.Playing the game without a facemask involved more risk, particularly for ball carriers. It was easy to spin those leather helmets when tackling so the guy ended up with his nose stuck in the earhole. And in a pileup, there was a 50-50 chance of taking a forearm to the face. The worst part of that was that, by the time they unpiled, the runner couldn't identify the culprit. The kick/pass option is kind of cool. Call me crazy but I think there could be a place for that in the modern game. I keep waiting to see it now that we're seeing the shotgun more on third-and-long.Also, if I'm reading your post correctly, Baugh would get the ball out of the shotgun in the single/double wing. So why does Tom Landry get credit for inventing the shotgun? The shotgun has been around for ages. Landry brought it back to the game on third-and-long situations when no one else was using it in the NFL.---------- Post added January-11th-2011 at 04:05 PM ---------- In the old Single Wing' date=' there was a short shotgun snap, but I believe it went to the halfback. The quarterback was more or less a blocking back. And it was essentially a running formation. My dad's high school used the Single-Wing in 1963, I think.[/quote']I never played in it, but I played against a team running the old single-wing. I think you're right that the "quarterback" was actually a blocker positioned right behind a guard. I believe the "tailback" took about a five-yard snap.On its signature "buck lateral series," the tailback took the snap and could run it off tackle with the QB leading him through the hole. Or, the tailback would head into the hole, the QB would turn to face him, take a handoff, and then lateral to a halfback running wide. It was supposed to be deceptive, but I don't remember having much problem shutting it down. That buck lateral thing looked like a whole lot of wasted motion to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HapHaszard Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Thanks for the article, it brings back some memories of the old stadium and the bleacher seats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebluefood Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Oldfan, I have to ask you: were Philadelphia fans as boorish back in the day as they are today or is this behavior a fairly recent phenomenon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldfan Posted January 12, 2011 Author Share Posted January 12, 2011 Oldfan, I have to ask you: were Philadelphia fans as boorish back in the day as they are today or is this behavior a fairly recent phenomenon?If memory serves, the first mention I heard about the Eagles fans came from the Monday Night Football crew which would have been in the 70s. The story, true or not, was that they even booed the appearance of Santa Claus at one of their games. Before MNF, I don't remember broadcasters discussing crowd behavior at all.Your question triggered an old Griffith Stadium memory, though. I was in the crowd one afternoon when we delayed the game for 10-15 minutes after three terrible calls by the refs in close order. At the time, the visiting team was allowed to have the crowd quiet so they could hear signals called. When the crowd booed loudly, the refs would threaten to penalize the home team if the booing continued. On this particular day, the refs threatened, Redskins coaches turned to the crowd and asked for quiet, but the noise continued. Had the refs penalized the Skins, all hell might have broken loose. Remember, there were a few thousand of us in those bleachers right on the field. After a long break in the action, the visiting team came out and ran a play despite the noise and the action continued. The Skins had been trailing to that point, but they made an amazing comeback to win it. After that season, the NFL changed the rules to force the visiting team to run their plays despite crowd noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebluefood Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Good to know the Redskins played a part in changing the rules for the better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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