No More Tackling in Ivy League Football Practices

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http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/ivy-league-football-tackling-in-practice-eliminated-030116

...."At this stage in their careers, these guys know how to hit and take a hit," Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens told the Times. "People look at it and say we're nuts. But it's kept my guys healthy."....
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Found this interesting and thought I'd see what you all thought.

To me this is the exact opposite of what should be done if we want football to be safer yet still similar to the game we know. I disagree with the part I quoted. If the quoted were true (I take "hit" to mean "tackle"), there wouldn't be the need for targeting rules, etc.

 
I have heard of some hs coaches who don't do any live tackling drills. They work a lot of form and when they do they dont wear pads or helmets. The idea is to keep kids from learning to use their heads as weapons, they take away the weapon so to speak

 
In the long run the players will lose the ability to be game ready. Consider a RS fresman in this system who may go over 2 years w/out real contact, seems like a good idea that might work for the guys getting meaningful snaps in every game but the guys down the depth chart I think would really be in for a shock when they get into a game. At least these teams don't have much to lose. I think some contact is needed to keep guys ready to play.

 
Without practice and the instruction that presumably a well coached team would have in connection therewith, tackling would become very dangerous in my opinion. To go from playing 'touch' or flag football all the time leading up to games and then suddenly playing full contact 'blocking and tackling' football, players will not be ready nor as safe. Injuries, particularly serious head, neck and back injuries, would be far more likely.

Although not to the same degree as if we were to simply run out into the stadium and randomly pick some fans to suit up and play a few snaps, the effect is similar. You would be nuts to decide after never practicing your routines to go to your first gymnastics meet and now start doing your double back with full twist into a layout landing off the high bar. Disaster is what will happen.

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Now if the "Ivy league boys' want to drop the block and tackle aspects of their league and play 'just for fun' flag or touch football, that would likely reduce injuries somewhat. But injuries are a part of life. The more you train and practice something, the better and safer presumably you become at it. Just common sense.

 
Of course there would be scrimmages. It is just that everybody wears a green jersey. Or maybe a nice pink or mauve.

 
To me, this just degrades the overall quality of the game. Taking away the ability for someone to practice something and then expecting them to be able to perform when asked is silly.

For Harry Potter fans out there, compare it to the 5th book - The Order of the Phoenix (apologies to those of you that don't know it, but I'll try to explain). Professor Umbridge, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, restructures the course to only use theory and books - no spells and no practicing. This ties into an overall plot point that the Ministry of Magic believes students could overthrow the government if they're able to use spells adequately. But, because Harry feels theory and books won't prepare them for the real world, he and several students form an underground club to actually practice spells.

The same fault in the logic applies to football - if you take away the physical act of doing something then it doesn't matter how good the theory is - it's not going to work the way you want it to and will lead to a degradation of the game. At some point, football coaches, executives and fans need to understand there is an inherent danger and long term risk associated with football. Moves like this destroy the game, and if protecting people who willingly choose to take part is such a priority, then perhaps football should just be eliminated.

 
Tackling is one of the most important fundamental aspects of football. I don't know how you can't practice that and then expect to execute once your live and actually expected to tackle someone.

I actually can't wait to see how their team does. This affects their offense too as those guys won't be getting tackled either.

Somewhat bizarre but with all of the talk about safety in football anymore I guess this is what we've come to.

 
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How do you get better at tackling if you're not practicing tackling and hitting live? This is a topic I'd like to hear more from players than from coaches and regulators. I think I'd have a hard time listening to a coach after a game go on to critique missed tackles or poor tackling if it's from a coach who also says they don't do much full contact in season.

+1 for the Harry Potter reference, had a lazy Sunday yesterday and watched that installment. My friend and I talked about how Umbridge was our least favorite character because of how much of a turd burglar she was.

 
This is the equivalent to baseball players only hitting off a tee/soft toss and expecting them to go out there and be able to square up a 95 mph fastball on a regular basis......It just doesn't work

 
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