On the TUNNEYSIDE of SPORTS August 31, 2015 #556 Up next…“Thanks, Mom!”
After further review…With football season now underway, the TunneySide thought you might like this story about junior league football from Steve Young, Hall of Fame former quarterback of the San Francisco Forty-Niners who tells this story about his early days as a football player:
“I have often been told that I am a quarterback with the mindset of a running back. People always commented on my ability to scramble, yet that wasn’t always my style. All professional athletes retain vivid memories of events that helped mold them into the players they are today. The following story marks the beginning of my scrambling techniques.
I was nine years old and playing in a competitive game of Pop Warner football. I played running back for the North Mianus Indians (Riverside, Connecticut). We were playing against the Belle Haven Buzzards and our quarterback tossed me the ball. I took a few tentative steps and while I was trying to figure out where I should run, I was tackled. It was an illegal neck tackle that threw me on my back and knocked the wind out of me.
As I tried to catch my breath, I saw my parents run onto the field towards me. I thought, ‘Oh, gosh, please Mom, go back to the sideline’. See, it was okay to have my dad run onto the field, but it was certainly not cool to have my mother come charging over with him. When they finally reached me, and much to my surprise, as my father bent down to see how I was doing, my mother leapt over me, ran several more yards and grabbed the kid who had tackled me. She picked him up off the ground by his jersey, she shook him and shouted: “Don’t you ever neck-tackle!”
Needless to say, I was fine, but I’m not sure that kid ever recovered from the shock. From that moment forth, I learned to scramble, and quickly. I lived in fear of being tackled and had visions of my mother storming onto the field to reprimand the tackler. So, through a little motivation from Mom, I learned that there are tremendous advantages to scrambling and avoiding tacklers.”
Will you learn proper techniques in playing any game?
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