What I Like About the A-11

[OverAndBack]

Originally Posted by TXMike

Obviously it has not affected many yet..it is too new. The point is to nip this in the bud before it DOES affect many people. Just because you may think it will never grow legs and start running is no reason NOT to shut it down before it takes off.

I do not recall ever saying that I thought it would never grow legs and start running.

I'm saying it's not affecting us now.

Like economists who have predicted 12 of the last 6 recessions, it seems like some may be ascribing too much power to this particular brand of offense.

Sure, it may be the new "West Coast Offense" and take hold some day, maybe even soon, but consider that football coaches are notoriously traditional, people who do avant-garde things like this when it comes to football are looked at askance, and it seems to me that the majority of high schools in this country either (a) don't have a need for an offense that allows them to compete with bigger, stronger, faster teams in a higher class because not everybody has the same situation as the originator in California where there weren't a lot of teams nearby in their class or (b ) don't have the personnel who could run it effectively, either physically or mentally.

You clearly must see the intent of the inventor to make this spread throughout the land and what he has to gain by it doing so?

Sure. Doesn't mean he can do it. My point is that even though he SAYS that lots of the powers that be have approved it, they haven't. And that even though he SAYS (and ESPN Magazine says) that it's spreading, we see no REAL evidence that it is. Yet there's all this hysteria about it.

You want to round up the villagers with pitchforks and torches, be my guest. But if I suggest that maybe the "nip it in the bud NOW" folks are being a touch overreactionary, I'd likely get the same response as those who said maybe one might want to tone down the rhetoric just a bit and stay on the civil side, the respectful, decent side. We all saw how the piranha came out on that one.

As another poster mentioned earlier, he could have just stayed out in his tiny little unknown piece of the woods and run this to his heart's content and nobody would have raised much fuss. He did not and his reasons for not doing so are plainly obvious.

Which doesn't mean he'd be able to do it anyway. For reasons (a) and ( b) I mention above, and with the preliminary evidence that it doesn't seem to be sweeping the country.

For me, I just want to officiate football. But I'm done talking with y'all about it. Take care.