the "evolution" of the offensive line

[Jimmy Chitwood]

there's a long article in the latest edition of Sports Illustrated (September 25, 2006) that reprints a portion of a book discussing changes in football.

the magazine story deals with the changing aspect of the o-line, and in particular the left tackle. the premise of the article is that left tackles are becoming more athletic. of course, the article barely mentions any white left tackles. and pictures absolutely none of 'em. nada. zero.

of the five pics in the article, 2 are of lawrence taylor who, evidently, was "the reason" the position had to change. the remaining 3 pics are ALL of black linemen. all of them.

furthermore, nary a mention was made of Tony Bosellithe first player ever drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars and the first player taken overall in the '95 draft, who most people regard as the most dominant and athletic offensive lineman of his day, possibly ever, despite his career being shortned by injuries. not even his name was to be found.

for those who don't believe in the caste system, this is just the latest example of the media at work...

 

[bigunreal]

Yeah, those new black offensive linemen are certainly "athletic." I think the plethora of huge black pigs in the NFL bothers me more than anything else about the game today. It is just an insult to someone'e intelligence to have these out of shape giants described as "athletic" by the jock-sniifers in the media. The other constant refrain by these lame, wannabe comedians is that "the NFL is a year round job now," as if anyone glancing at these blubbery buffoons could believe that they are working out at all, yet alone all year round. I'm sure they lift weights, but there is no way they're doing any other kind of conditioning or they would be visibly in better shape.

 

[Leonardfan]

I read an article a few days ago on cnnsi about linemen. It was written by Dr. Z, I do not know if you like him or not but it was an ok article. He was talking about all these atheltic lineman and the problems some teams are having with a rushing game is because these guys cannot run block. He went on to cite a few examples of linemen that were roadgraders, I think they all were white but he did give the unathletic caste type explantion to a certain extent, it was something along the lines of less athletic buta roadgrader who could make a hole for an rb.


Joe Thomas is an absolute terror and perfect OT. He is a road grader put can pass block as well, the most talented OT incollege out of Wisconsin.

 

[Don Wassall]

Dr. Z wrote an article a few months back where he actually used a system to grade o-linemen based on performance. O-linemen are unique in that there are virtually no statistics available to judge how they perform, other than penalties committed and sacks allowed. This is a major reason why so many black offensive linemen are way over-rated and end up in the Pro Bowl every year until they retire once the media gives them a "reputation" as a great player.


Dr. Z's system (can't remember now how it worked) resulted in almost all white linemen being the best performers. Big surprise there. And Dr. Z's hardly known as an opponent of the Caste System; his mid-season All-Pro team in '04 was entirely black, all 22 of them.

 

[sport historian]

I remember black offensive tackles being described as "more athletic" than offensive tackles "used to be," back in the 1970's.

Speaking of Paul Zimmerman, he wrote an article in SI calling New England Guard John Hannah, the best offensive lineman in NFL history. I believe this was in the early 1980's.

 

[white is right]

I remember black offensive tackles being described as "more athletic" than offensive tackles "used to be," back in the 1970's.

Speaking of Paul Zimmerman, he wrote an article in SI calling New England Guard John Hannah, the best offensive lineman in NFL history. I believe this was in the early 1980's.

Before when there were never any or hardly any black offensive linemen, you used to mostly see tackles, because the theory was black linemen had better footwork. Really racial stereotyping still is applied even here as the strength position on the line are the guards which are still predominately white in the NFL. As for the super pigs in the NFL I truely thing these guys have eating disorders. I recall Gilbert Brown checking himself into a clinic when his weight was approaching 400 pounds and he was as mobile as telephone pole. Really the only white super pig I can recall is Tony Siragusa who when he first hit the league I assumed was Samoan...

 

[Don Wassall]

The "thinking," such as it is in the NFL, is reversed when it comes to the defensive line. White d-linemen are usually ends, the "speed" position, whilethey have becomevery rare at tackle, the "strength" position.


But the main purpose of the move to sumo-like black o-linemen and black defensive tackles seems to be to clog up as much space as possible from theirsize alone. The oft-repeated line about their "athleticism"many timesdoesn't apply.

 

[Guest]

Its the same old black o-lineman in the Probowl because the "brothers" vote their race first. The probowl is an unwatchable waste of TV time.