oldguyfb27

[oldguyfb27]

A New Game, Part 3

Finally, I'm down to the actual Rules of our game. As stated previously, we usually played with 6 players on a team and on a smaller, 80 yards by 40 yards field. When the kid whose Dad owned 2 sets of flags was there, we played flag football. Often, we just played 2 hand touch.

There were never any parents or officials to supervise our games. We policed ourselves, and the Honor System usually worked pretty well to resolve any judgment calls. No kid wants to be known as a Cheater, and no kid I ever knew wanted to play with one. So, all the worrying that modern parents do about that stuff is just wasted energy. Believe me; you're not necessary to their game.

Our games never started with a kickoff. The designated Visiting Team started out with the ball at their 10 yard line. They had 4 downs to make the 10 yards to the 20 yard line stripe. The next two 1st down lines were each 20 yards further down the field. A team could punt the football on 4th down. This was a Free Kick with no defensive men rushing the kicker. With 6 men on a side, there just weren't enough players to form a protective wall around the punter. Once the ball had been snapped to the kicker, and punted, we all chased after the punt returner.

We often played with a certain number of turns (possessions) per team. But most often we just kept playing until we ran out of time and had to go home for Dinner. The players were assigned to the 2 teams by the choice of the designated Team Captains, and were seldom the same from one game to the next. So it didn't really matter that much if your team won or lost. There was always the next game.

Personal performance was really important to most of us. It certainly was to me. We all kept track of our 'Stats', usually in pencil on notebook paper at home. How many catches, TDs, TD passes, and interceptions while playing defense were very important to us. This information was passed around at Study Hall in school.

I guess I was just an ordinary kid, not especially popular but not disliked either. I made a lot of friends playing these games. Like most kids, I already had a few friends, and a few enemies, going in. Like I've said previously, these games were a great chance to get even with somebody who'd been bullying you.

Where our game departed from most flag football games is that it was strictly a passing game. We discovered early (and I've watched quite a few flag Leagues that have not learned this), that most teams put their best athlete in to play QB. Conversely, most teams put their worst athlete in to be the Designated Pass Rusher on defense. He's usually the biggest or fattest kid, and has almost no chance of running down the fleet QB.

I've watched flag football games, and the play to play results are usually the same. The QB sends his receivers out deep, drawing most of the defenders with them. Then, with a mostly clear field, he scoots around the pass rushers and runs for a 20 or 25 yard gain. Same play every time. It's boring football.

In our game, the QB could not advance the ball by running. If he crossed the line of scrimmage, the ball was declared down at the original line, with loss of down. QBs were also banned from throwing really short passes to a player just across the LOS. This in effect was just a long handoff (running play). The ball was returned to the original LOS, with loss of down. The forward pass had to be to a receiver at least 5 yards downfield to count as a legitimate play. The only exception was for a point after touchdown (PAT). Those plays counted one point, and the pass receiver had to catch the ball in the endzone. For the PAT, the ball was put into play from the 2 yard line.

So, that was basically our game. Five guys went out for the pass; five guys covered them. Somebody usually got open, so we moved the ball up and down the field. One player had to count to 3 (1001, 1002, 1003) out loud before he could rush the passer. The games were competitive, and usually low scoring. We did have Canadian style, 20 yard deep endzones, which made it easier to score if your team had the ball close to the endzone. You could get open for an extra point pass, after a TD was scored, more easily as well

I think that our version is better, and much more competitive, than anything I've seen since.

[oldguyfb27]

My 1st Game On TV

I go back a long way with pro football. Over 60 years. The first game I can recall watching, as an entire game, was back in December of 1963. It was the NFL Championship game. I was 8 years old. I watched it with my Dad, my Uncle (Dad's older brother), and my older brother, age 12. They had all been football fans for a really long time, and my Uncle came over a lot to watch NFL games on Sunday afternoons.

I grew up in a small town in Central Connecticut, so we were fans of the New York teams, meaning the Giants and Yankees. Watching the Giants had become a ritual at home; a ritual that I was just joining. My Mom did not really participate, although she would sit and watch the game if she was home. Mostly though, she was absent on Sundays. She had a part time job and worked most Sunday afternoons.

It was a bitter cold day in Connecticut, which had a lot to do with making this my first ever game. I would normally have been outside playing with my friends, but the weather chased us in. At age 8, my understanding of the Rules was imperfect, although I had been playing backyard and schoolyard ball since I was 6. My brother and his friends played a lot, and I was often drafted into the game if one team was a man short.

My specialty was circling out of the backfield to catch a short pass. I had pretty good hands for a little guy and usually caught the ball, if it was thrown with a little air under it. I had one major flaw though. I hadn't clued in to the fact that you could catch the ball and run. I always caught it and fell immediately down, tackling myself. Somewhere in a musty old record book of Connecticut Schoolyard Ball, I have a record.

In 1961, I caught 29 passes for 207 yards and 1 TD, but my YAC was 0.0...

It was even colder that Sunday in Chicago, where the Giants would play the Bears. Cold and blustery. My Dad was very excited about the game and had set out sandwiches (his specialty) and snacks, along with beers and shots for him and my Uncle. I suppose it was an early 60s version of a Super Bowl party.

The Giants played very well in the 1st half, especially on defense, and were ahead 10-7 at halftime. Both my Dad and Uncle were sure that our team would finally win the title this year after losing the Big Game the last two seasons. A couple of extra shots were poured.

As the 2nd half started, my Dad decided to let my big brother and I in on the celebration. He had never done this before, and never would have if my Mom had been in the house. He poured my brother and I a shot glass of beer, each, to celebrate the Giants win. I downed my glass in one quick swallow, like the real men did. It tasted awful!

I'm sure that parents today are appalled at this, but the early 60s were a very different time. Almost none of the rules of today applied back then. When some guys bullied my older brother at school a few years before, my Dad never thought of calling their parents or the school principal. He bought us a big, canvas punching bag filled with sawdust, hung it from the tree in our back yard, and taught us how to box. He had done some lightweight boxing in the Army during WW2.

There was a ton of food around, but being 8 years old, I'd hardly touched any of it. Maybe a few potato chips, before I swallowed some Chicken Noodle Soup for lunch. So, the beer went to work on my inexperienced stomach. I remember getting really agitated, and absorbed in the game. A bit too excited for my Dad.

He began to get worried. Besides having the Giants to worry about, he now had a drunk, almost sick 8 year old on his hands. He made my brother and I each eat a whole sandwich, while my Uncle laughed like hell. He also swore us to secrecy. No matter what happened, we were never to tell Mom what debauchery had gone down.

Fortunately, it worked. Nobody got sick, except for the Giants fans. The Giants lost the game, 14-10. We were sent to bed early, because the 'excitement' had been too much for us. Or so Mom was told.

Neither my brother or I ever said a word about it. We'd gotten away with it, but the Giants still lost the game.

[oldguyfb27]

A New Game, Part 2

When choosing up teams to start a football game, we seldom had enough players for two 11 man football teams. We did manage it for our Saturday afternoon games, when we would trek over to the nearest real football field, about a mile away. These weekend games were always full tackle football. No one wore helmets or pads. If you got a little hurt or dinged, you just learned to live with it. It wasn't as dangerous as it sounds though. None of us were that big or strong, so NFL type collisions were pretty unlikely.

Most of our games were played after school, with many fewer kids. We often had games with 6 players on each team, so we did not play tackle ball. It was just too easy for a ball carrier to break one tackle and run the length of the field for a touchdown. There were just not enough players to cover the field. Flag football or simple two hand touch games became the norm. They were still a lot of fun, and it was easier to get a balance between offense and defense.

That's when the smaller field hockey field came into use. The Junior High field was right at the end of my street and it made a much more realistic arena for a game with only 12 players. It was much smaller than a standard football field. The 3 horizontal lines that crossed the field, 20 yards apart from each other, became our First Down lines.

Our standard offensive formation was 5 receivers on the line of scrimmage, with a quarterback in the backfield. One of the men on the line would serve as the Center and hike the football. After the snap, all 5 men would run out to (hopefully) catch a pass. The defensive players would line up opposite the men they would cover, with the 6th player positioning himself to rush the passer. We almost always used man to man coverage on defense. Trying to figure out which defender would cover which area of the field was just too complicated for us.

For people who are not familiar with flag football, it can be very different from the football games you see on TV. There can be many variations in the Rules, depending upon which people organized the games and the League the teams play in. Some of our Rules were borrowed from other football games; many we made up as we went along. I was lucky to have grown up in a place and time where this was encouraged.

Everything today is about compliance and uniformity. In the 60s, in the small Central Connecticut town where I grew up, compliance was the last thing on our minds. We played these games for fun and to get out of the house and away from our parents and older siblings. I think that they meant even more to guys like me. They were a way to make friends and gain acceptance. A guy who could play well with and against other kids earned some respect. That must sound funny today, but it's true.

It was also a great way to get even with neighborhood and schoolyard bullies. You tried to beat the crap out of them. It was sometimes easier than you'd think. Bully boys were often lousy athletes.

[oldguyfb27]

Old Time Kids' Sports & A New Game

I am writing this because I'm getting to be an Old Guy. A really old guy. I'm not sick at all, but I'm nearly as old as my Dad, Uncle, and Granddad ever got to be. I've outlived my older brother by 25 years. I want to record what I remember about growing up as a kid who played a lot of sports. I hope it's not too boring.

When I was young in the late 60s and early 70s, there was a lot more unorganized sports activity, created and run solely by kids, than there is now. It seems like only adult supervised sports activities take place today. Back then, neighborhood sports games were being played all the time. There wasn't much else for kids to do, and they got us out of the house. In those days, if you were just hanging around the house, your Dad put you to work in the yard or your Mom made you help clean the house.

There were organized youth sports leagues, but fast pitch baseball was the only sport offered. It ran in the Spring and early Summer. Each League was defined by age group. But, once the season ended in early June, we were on our own for the rest of the year. Also, all of the teams in the youth leagues came only from our town. The thought of playing teams from other towns and traveling back and forth for games was unimaginable in those days.

All of the games were played on local ball fields, which you had to walk or ride your bike to. Nobody in those days took the time to drive their kids to sports games. Back in the 60s, I only knew of one or two families that had more than one car. We had only one, and If Dad wasn't using the car for work, Mom was using it for errands or shopping. Also, parents generally did not come to kids' sports game, even the organized ones. They were just not a high priority for working people.

At the end of the youth league regular season, there were no playoff or Championship games. The team that finished in 1st place was declared the Champion. There were no personal trophies given out to the players either, like there are today. The League had only one trophy, which was awarded to the winning Coach. He and his team got to have their group picture taken with it. Afterwards, they had to give the trophy back.

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So, to keep our sports going, we made up our own teams and played games against kids from our own or from other neighborhoods. Although we all had dreams of playing professional sports, that was as close as most of us ever got to the Big Time. We played all of the major sports against each other, but football was the favorite and most often played, followed by baseball and ball hockey. Very few kids owned a hoop, so basketball was rarely played. Soccer was unheard of. I suppose that football was our favorite because it had recently become America's (New) Pastime. Also because you could play it with as many or as few guys as you could scrape up.

Our most popular form of neighborhood or sandlot football was played on the fields of a nearby Junior High school. There were two separate fields, but neither was designed for football. One was a soccer field; the other was for field hockey. Due to its size and layout, the field hockey field became our favorite arena. I'm pretty sure that the field was not the proper size for for real field hockey, but that's what the school called it and used it for. It was 80 yards long and 40 yards wide. Metal goalposts, about 8 feet high and 10 feet wide, were imbedded into the goal lines. The field had 3 horizontal lines running across it, one at the 40 yard line (midfield) and one each at the opposing 20 yard lines. Lastly, it had Canadian style, 20 yard deep endzones, instead of the usual American 10 yard deep ones.

It was perfect for the football game that we would design.

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