Forgotten Innovations: The 12th Man as Field General
www.footballarchaeology.com
One of the significant transitions in football over the last sixty years has been the shift from quarterbacks to coaches calling the plays. The details of how that process occurred are available in an earlier post, but the summary version is that the shift took decades due to the tension between two opposing forces. On the one hand, the game's increasing popularity meant there was too much money at stake -and coaches' livelihoods- for playing calling to be left in the hands of mere students. Many coaches wanted to control their fate, and managing their team's play-calling assisted that process. Conversely, the belief in amateurism and the idea of football being an educational tool for its players remained strong. Many of the latter's strongest proponents were coaches who believed their duty was to prepare athletes to call the plays. Tad Jones, who coached Syracuse and Yale between 1905 and 1927, was among those arguing against coaches exerting greater influence during the game:
Forgotten Innovations: The 12th Man as Field General
Forgotten Innovations: The 12th Man as Field…
Forgotten Innovations: The 12th Man as Field General
One of the significant transitions in football over the last sixty years has been the shift from quarterbacks to coaches calling the plays. The details of how that process occurred are available in an earlier post, but the summary version is that the shift took decades due to the tension between two opposing forces. On the one hand, the game's increasing popularity meant there was too much money at stake -and coaches' livelihoods- for playing calling to be left in the hands of mere students. Many coaches wanted to control their fate, and managing their team's play-calling assisted that process. Conversely, the belief in amateurism and the idea of football being an educational tool for its players remained strong. Many of the latter's strongest proponents were coaches who believed their duty was to prepare athletes to call the plays. Tad Jones, who coached Syracuse and Yale between 1905 and 1927, was among those arguing against coaches exerting greater influence during the game: