Pussifacation Of America: The NFL Has Banned The Oklahoma Drill From Training Camps
ProFootballTalk – The NFL has eliminated various types of high-contact drills from training-camp practices, including the Oklahoma drill and bull in the ring.
The move is the next step in the evolution of the game, as the league hopes to identify and to remove any and all situations that entail unnecessary helmet contact.
The Oklahoma drill is a key aspect of old-school football practice. Consider the reverence with which players and coaches spoke of the exercise only six years ago, when the Bengals returned to Hard Knocks. (Seriously, click that link and watch it.) Still, this change didn’t come from the ivory tower on 345 Park Avenue; coaches were directly involved in identifying and embracing the elimination of these concussion-inducing plays.
I’m sorry but back in my day, we wouldn’t even see a football at practice until it was the week before the first game of the season. It was nothing but sprints and Oklahoma Drills. You want to learn how to be a man? Well you’ll learn real quick when you’re in the middle of that ring and it’s either hit or get hit. The body craves contact and if your body does not, well then you can get the frick off of my team, pal.
And I mean why stop at taking Oklahoma Drills out of football? Why not just keep going? We can get just rid of tackling all together and make players hug each other to end every play. And you know what? Let’s stop keeping score of the games. Because if we really want to focus on the mental health of these players, we need to focus on their emotions as well. Nothing destroys your emotions quite like losing a game. So if we just get rid of keeping score, then nobody ever loses and everybody can always be happy. And don’t even get me started on playing time. I think that every single player on the roster deserves to get equal playing time throughout the game. Having starters and backups is such an outdated archaic way to look at sports. Just rotate everybody in to make sure that playing time is fair. And then at the end of each game, we can all go have a pizza and ice cream party while listening to the newest Coldplay album. Sorry for the ricochet shot, Coldplay, but it was the only way to get my point across.
P.S. – Yes. It is an incredibly smart idea to get rid of Oklahoma Drills especially during training camps when it’s 100 degrees outside and guys are all dehydrated and their brains are at their most vulnerable. I feel like Oklahoma Drill is just a crutch for coaches who don’t know any other way to motivate their players than to just play into the instinctual nature of the players and go full gladiator.