One on One

When I was a little boy around 6 or 7 years old I loved playing one on one. But wait, isn’t that a basketball game? Nope. Not the way we played it. Our one on one was football and I’m sure others of you played it in some form too. I can’t believe my buddies and I were the only ones in America that played this game. How about two on two, three on three, four on four, four on five? Or how about one against all which we called “kill the man with the ball”. You name it, it’s just good old fashioned backyard, sandlot football.

Actually, I would play one on one all the way up to when I was in high school if I could find someone to play against. As a young boy I was enthralled with running with the ball trying to avoid tacklers, tackling the guy with the ball, piling on, the smell of the grass and dirt when you hit the ground, the smell of the leather football and best of all – getting dirty. I could go home with dirt all over me and grass stains on my jeans and when Mom demanded to know what happened, I just said, “I was playing football.” Although I’m sure she still wasn’t happy, she didn’t say anymore.

I don’t know how you guys played one on one, but here’s how we did it. The yard was the football field. A small tree on each side, or a thrown down rag or shirt served as the goal line. We didn’t need a kick off; we would just start on the “twenty”. The guy with the ball would snap it to himself and run right, left, or straight ahead. The defensive guy would line up anywhere he wanted but generally right over the guy with the ball. Kind of like a nose guard over the center, except in this case the center was the ball carrier. When I was the offensive guy I snapped it to myself and usually tried to just veer left or right. I liked running hard at a 45 degree angle and trying to pick up four or five yards as I was being dragged down. With four of these gains in a row, a twenty yard drive could be achieved and a touchdown! Of course, if you were playing a tough kid, he would limit you to about a one or two yard gain. In this case I would have to be more creative. I might pull out my end run, where my first two or three steps were flat, and then I’d try to beat him around the end with quickness. I was a little guy so sometimes I could make this work. If I could hit it real quickly, sometimes my end run would break to a big play and a TD. My next play was when I would snap the ball, take a hard step left, plant, and run back hard to my right. It was my “fake left, go right play”. Of course, we call that a counter play as big boys. This could also turn in to a big play. Defensively I liked lining up like a nose guard although we didn’t call it that. Heck, I didn’t even know what a nose guard was. As my opponent started his play I just hit him around the waist or thighs, wrapped up with my arms, and dragged him down. I got pretty good at tackling and used this technique all the way through high school. Come to think of it, I can remember the high school coaches “teaching” us to tackle. I guess I wasn’t very coachable because I tackled my way. No one needed to teach me how to tackle, I could tackle anyone! Arrogant little rascal, wasn’t I?

When it came to two on two, which also was a great game, the center would hike it to the quarterback. The center would block or go out for a pass. Defensively we would line up with a nose guard and a linebacker right behind him. Another option was a two man line on defense, but someone had to cover the center if he went out for a pass. How many hours could I play these games? How many hours are in a day? Three on three, four on four, it didn’t matter, we would make it work.

As I look back now I realize that this is how football should be played when you’re a kid. Adults just get in the way. We didn’t want to do drills when we were ten years old and stand in line waiting to block a dummy. We didn’t need some old guy thinking he was Vince Lombardi trying to get us in shape by running sprints. We ran all day long, why did we have to get in shape? We just PLAYED THE GAME! For hours.

Here I am now fifty years later and guess what? I’m still figuring out ways to stay involved in football. I enjoy sites like www.chiefpigskin.com so that I can stay close to the game. I’m not sure how many little boys still play backyard football. I hope they do and I hope they invent their own versions of football. That’s what makes it fun.