Longtime NFL writer Ron Borges discusses the importance of proper tackling techniques in the Nov. 21 issue of Pro Football Weekly.
Ever since the crackdown on illegal, unnecessary hits and excessively dangerous head shots in the NFL, there has been much hand-wringing in many corners about how the sport is being neutered, Borges writes. This is nonsense.
What is enlightening is to examine video from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, a time when pro football began its ascendency to the high place it now holds in American culture. What you will find may be surprising, continues Borges, who viewed NFL Films programming featuring game action from those decades.
What I was struck by was the fact very few ball carriers or receivers were being struck in the head in those days, he adds. Why? Because the tacklers were actually tackling. They were hitting with their shoulder, wrapping their arms around the ball carrier and fiercely taking him down. They were doing it with more than enough violence to impress anyone, but not with helmet shots to the cranium.
Whether this is an issue of lost technique, poor (or changing) coaching or both, Borges concludes, todays defenders do not tackle the way the game originally intended.
