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Leverage Equals
Kryptonite! When this head shaking statement was made, all I could do was think of the uninitiated fledgling viewer, which could represent a young child, or a teenager, or woman that never had the opportunity of delving into a sport like football to understand why these commentators are shaking their heads, as if we all understand. Ladies just cannot invest years of watching football to understand the fundamentals gentlemen, and maybe that's why many of them want no part of it. In reality, there are many hungry minds ... feed me Seymore! Today, we are bombarded with sports information. They'll tell you who's the great sport hero, or they'll provide some mindless comentary over the exceptional highlights, but they do little to explain to the uninitiated exactly what their talking about. These commentators assume that their audience knows all this stuff, and maybe, just maybe, they're afraid that if they explain these rudimentary fundamentals of the game that somehow they'll embarrass or offend that easy chair that occasionally burps and emanates fumes of sulfurous gas. The ladies know what I'm talkin' about. It took me many years of watching football before someone one day took the time to explain to me the key difference between a passing and a running play. In fact, I recall that it was explained to me by offensive lineman ... the unsung hero's of the game. Even a young child understands the principles of weight, but leverage, on the other hand, isn't quite so clear to understand. Leverage, simply stated, is a force applied at a distance. In other words, it would be quite easy to push you down if you were off balance or bent over. Your weight or your mass doesn't change, but when your bent over, the "leverage distance" changes and what this does is multiply your pushing skills (blocking), or your forces, by many times. Imagine, if you will, a 125 pound woman, with the strength of Superman. Believe me, this Kryptonite can bring any man to his knees. When standing, your center of gravity is located just above your the top of your hip (pelvis) bone and just below your belly button (This doesn't apply for Eve's Adam). When your bent over, the weight of your head is no longer over your belly button, so it becomes easy to tip you over with only a little effort or a little force. Leverage is the reason that offensive lineman, tight ends, full backs and yes, even wide receivers absolutely love running plays. When a running back cuts (changes direction), so to must the defense change its direction, and when that happens, defenders find themselves to be off-balance and ready to be tipped over with the mighty force of a finely-tuned-feather-duster (Description stolen from Vince Lombardi's Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer). Talk about embarrassment. To the defender, a 100 pound force could feel like a 400 pound weight. Is there any wonder why the running game is king. That same offensive lineman then explained that on a passing play, "I get pounded on by the defenders and I'm the one fighting off the leverage applied by quick defensive lineman and I'm the one that has no clue where the defense is going to attack from". In other words, if you in the right place at the right time, you have a leverage advantage. Now here's the rub! Quarterbacks and wide recievers don't get paid mega-bucks for their blocking skills and quarterbacks touch the ball on just about every offensive play ... sort of a conflict of interest! Ego's (quarterbacks), in general, control this game except when they are reliant upon a running game. So guess what wins championships? The bulk of these commentators, that are shaking their heads, are past NFL players. They understand only too well the concept of applied leverage. Fear manifest itself in many forms, but their is no greater force on this planet than the ability to transform a mighty huge specimen of a man into a tiny-member-90-pound-weakling and not one of them wants to be exposed on national TV. Talk about fear! The 2007 Minnesota Viking are the very best at running the ball and they are the very best at stopping the run! Fear manifests itself in the power-cuts of two unassuming men by the names Taylor and Peterson. Now, you can understand why a former player like Emit Smith (The NFL's leading rusher) is shaking his head. Leverage Equals Kryptonite! The Viking Ghost
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