...for the Chuck Klosterman fans out there. ESPN published an excerpt on football from his upcoming book. But don't be fooled by the word "excerpt", it's long. And good.
Noteworthy point to Bengals fans. When he gets into his list of innovative football minds you see the following people (among others):
- Bill Walsh (basically realized that passing for small chunks of yardage and running for small chunks of yardage amounted to the same thing, but that it was much easier to pass for those yards - this became the west coast offense)
- Sam Wyche (wanted to find a way to exploit bad match ups and fatigue by never letting the opponent adjust between plays - no huddle)
- Dick Lebeau (dropped huge defensive ends in coverage and blitzed smaller/faster guys - zone blitz)
All of those guys came up with their ideas while at Cincinnati under the Paul Brown. For whatever the reason, it seems Paul Brown encouraged and incubated many people with fringe ideas (even if he sometime ultimately drove them away to our detriment - Bill Walsh).
I think we can all agree it's only a matter of time til Chuck recognizes the innovative offensive thinking by Brat and the open, free thinking atmosphere Mikey fosters as owner.
