Do You Love Football?! by Jon Gruden & Vic Carucci

Author:Jon Gruden & Vic Carucci [Gruden, Jon & Carucci, Vic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Autobiography, Sport, Done, Non Fiction
Published: 2003-01-01T13:00:00+00:00

Coach Holmgren believed that when a receiver ran a slant pattern his split had to be two yards outside the numbers to give him some extra field to work with. Normally if you line up on the outside edge of the numbers as they are located on an NFL field, you're usually in pretty good shape to run any kind of inside or outside route. But when we ran a slant, an inside-breaking route, Mike wanted the guys to be a little wider in their splits, so we always referred to that as "plus two."

The receivers insisted on lining up closer to the numbers and Mike would get on my ass. "Their splits are too tight," he would say. "I don't like their splits."

So I'd go into our meetings and say, "Will you guys please take bigger splits?"

Sterling was the first to speak up on the subject. Naturally.

"I line up on the outside edge of the numbers on every play," Sterling said. "Runs, passes, inside routes, outside routes, I'm on the outside edge of the numbers. Period! That's what I do, that's my deal. I'm on the outside edge of the numbers. That way I have no split identification for me. I'm like a thief in the middle of the night. I don't give away nothing. I'm always on the outside edge of the numbers. Period!"

Another of our receivers with definite opinions about splits was Mark Clayton. He came to the Packers in '93, well after his highly productive seasons in Miami with Mark Duper and Dan Marino. I called him "The Riddler," like the character from Batman, because he had that same sick laugh.

"Hey, man, when I line up two yards outside the numbers, why don't I just give the corner a Hallmark greeting card and say, 'Hey, I'm runnin' an inside route'?" Mark said. "I ain't runnin' an outside route. I'm runnin' an inside route and the corner lines up inside, knowing I'm going in there.

"Now Don Shula wasn't a bad coach, either, man. Don Shula let me line up on the inside edge of the numbers and widen on my departure and then run the slant. When I line up on the inside edge of the numbers, the corner thought I was running an outside route and he lined up in an outside technique, so the slant worked better."

I was thinking, That's a hell of a point. Mark and Sterling both made valid points, but here I was with one receiver who wanted to line up on the outside edge of the numbers because he wanted to be a thief in the middle of the night, another guy who wanted to line up on the inside edge because that was how he was trained by the winningest coach in NFL history, and a head coach who wanted all the receivers to line up two yards outside of the numbers.

Robert Brooks? He'd line up six yards outside the numbers if you wanted him to. He'd line up on the sidelines.

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