A-11 RIP

I've been meaning to talk about this for a while, but the A-11 offense is finally dead.


(*If any officials read this, please correct me on any mistakes)

I do have an epic poem in which I completely tear apart not only the X's and O's but the "innovators" as well.

I'm pretty sure it's five pages, and I'm also pretty sure you guys don't want to read it. However, If we get too many dumb comments, I'll take a flame thrower to this mother.

Short History- The A-11, which stands for all 11 potentially eligible was based off of a scrimmage kick exception in high school football (punts)

Essentially in order to have a legal formation a team has to have 7 men on the line of scrimmage and five ineligible numbers (50-79...lineman)

Except...if you line up in a scrimmage kick formation (again, punt) Which states that if you have a player at 7+ yards to receive a snap a team can use eligible numbers. Basically, this rule was put into place so that dreamboat Sealand, and our own Don Delaware (fast kids) could run down the field to cover those wasikiwy punt wetuwnews. Instead of....well me.

(*note the wording for the NCAA and NFL rules is different, I won't get into it but suffice it to say...it's illegal to run the A-11 in those leagues.)

In comes the A-11 which saw this loophole and exploit.... excuse me, used it to their advantage. In simple terms they ran a fake punt every play. And yes, only six people are still eligible. (Looking at you Madden fans) The "creators" (disputed by some) Kurt Bryan and Steven Humphries went on an all out media blitz touting their offense as the future of football. They also claimed that it would help out the little guys, small schools who can't field lineman or compete with the big boys. So you can see this WAS legal because it followed the rules, but not necessarily the intent of the SKF rule.

(Side note-1. We are the most obese country in the world and we can't find lineman? 2. Typically schools play other schools with similar enrollments, its called a classification system. 3. My high school didn't have "lineman" types either, yet we still churned out 175 lb all conference guards. Why? We had a great O-Line coach. 5. We also spent a significant amount of time in this place known as the weightroom)

/Counts to ten.
//Takes deep breaths.
///Performs yoga.
////Finds happy place.

The NFHS who is the governing body for football in 48 states (TX, MA excluded) closed this loophole, effectively eliminating the A-11 during the 2009 rules committee.

Think it's over?

Wrong, Bryan and Humphries are attacking this the the American way.

Hire lawyers and sue those M-fer's.

If that doesn't work, they could also consider the take my ball and go home approach of starting their own A-11 league.

/laughs, thinks of the economy and travel costs, walks by group of individuals playing flag football in the park.
//continues walking.

I will say this, the outrage among coaches, and officials isn't about pro, or anti spread. It isn't about smashmouth or finesse. It's not about stifling innovation. It's about rules, and the respect for coaches who truly changed the game within those rules. And if the Madden players, or yahoo commentors still disagree...keep playing Madden.

To end this I won't talk about the fact that Bryan and Humphries are running the same plays every team in America runs every weekend. I won't talk about the fact that when I asked them if they really want to be super-spread (and legal) then why not place ineligible numbers at slot positions like the BYU formation of old. I'll definitely not talk about them wanting to become the next Bill Walsh. I won't talk about all the poor fools who bought their $199 installation manual, (don't forget the DVD's) and the $149 advance concepts manual

( Actually I will. What they created was a formation advantage, and do you really think that other coaches are so stupid that they couldn't form a cohesive offense given the SKF loophole???)

No, I'd rather talk about the Piedmont players, because at this point it definitely isn't about them.