re: I hate where Football is headed

1) The "speed spread" offense dates back several decades. It predates most, if not any, of these rule changes in question.

2) Texas A&M was late to the game, NOT the harbinger of this speed spread stuff. Virtually the rest of the Big 12 was doing it and we were not. We didn't do it until our first year in the SEC (= the first year of Coach Sumlin).

3) This Aggie, and I dare say almost any Aggie older than 30, misses the hell out of having a great defense. Because he remembers having great defenses. There were a lot of years when we won 9, 10, 11 games without being able to complete a forward pass. The last 3 years (granted, the first 3 years most of y'all have seen much if any Aggie football) have been an exception. From World War I to very recently A&M football has meant defense, first and foremost.

4) I, particularly, MUCH prefer 9-6 over 98-80. The Nebraska game in 2010 ended with that score. (Did Alabama and LSU get a similar score once? Or something?) It was among the greatest games I have ever witnessed. I came home and watched it on DVR. I remember hearing Brent Musberger say to Kirk Herbstreit as the game faded to commercial, with a passionate feaux dialect as if he wanted to be a Texan: "We're gettin' some DEFENSE bein' played down here in TEXAS tonight!" And Herby whispering, "Oh, yeah!"

But, then, I'm a small ball guy when it comes to baseball, as well. A 3rd strike looking is WAY sexier than just another long ball. (Yeah, Babe Ruth showed it's possible. I get it.)

And prolonged tenacious defense in basketball is far more impressive than are slam dunks and swooshy 3's.

I'm this way because I get it. Can't help it.

4) The targeting rule is a sad sack of shame, no question. But concussions are serious shite and I fear that the bleeding hearts are going to try to outlaw high school football in the very near future. I'm not kidding. They'll argue that no CHILD under 18 has the life experience ergo wisdom to choose to expose himself to the potential jeopardy that is "chronic concussion syndrome" or whatever they'll call it. The kid's parental consent notwithstanding. And, VERY VERY SADLY, it WILL be hard to argue this. "Kid isn't grown up enough to vote or drink! How the hell can he choose to risk permanent disability?" they'll argue.

Kill high school football and football as we know it dies. Choke on that for a time.

GD bleeding hearts.

Anywho~ The Roughing the fill-in-the-blank crap has been preposterous for decades. The targeting thing needs to be better defined and the officials need to be allowed to relax less paranoid. (The ncaa IS paranoid, for the bleeding hearts are going to kill football thing I've already mentioned).

5) No one wants to read a post this long.

6) It could seem noteworthy to point out that whenver YOUR punter gets hit you WANT the roughing penalty!

7) I remember distinctly opening up the old World Book Encyclopedia in 4th or 5th grade to the article in Volume "F" entitled "Football". It stated (and I quote [almost verbatim]): All rule changes in American Football from its onset to present have been enacted to prevent injury or to maintain a wanted balance between the offense and defense, or both." It's the "wanted" part that harms the game. Most football fans (the ones who watch the games on TV and buy the beer there touted) prefer the 99-85 shite. The NFL and the NCAA hear with their wallets.

8) I, as a Texas Aggie, would rather have a defense than an offense any year of the century. Ultimately I want the best of both and to beat all of y'all 98-0.