Last year on this blog, Ian Ayres wondered why, to truly keep their opponents guessing, football teams don’t pick plays at random.
Two California high school football coaches have taken the thought one step further and randomized the plays themselves — by scrapping the traditional starting formation and making every player a potential receiver (normally, only five players can receive a pass from the quarterback). That increases the possible number of plays the team can run, from the usual 36, to 16,632.
It’s called the A-11 Offense — all 11 players are eligible to catch the ball — and it works by introducing such unpredictability into where a quarterback will pass the ball that it baffles the defending team and gives the offense a better chance of breaking through.
And it works enough of the time that it has helped the Piedmont Highlanders, the high school team that first deployed it, improve its record for each of the last three years, as they run A-11 plays more and more often. The randomized plays have given the scrappy team an advantage over brawnier teams that used to regularly clean their clock.
A-11 isn’t legal in the N.F.L., and it is uncommon at the college level. It’s so controversial in high school football that it has been banned in 10 states.
But the success of the new offense has made its inventors, Highlanders coaches Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries, heroes to some, who say A-11 could revolutionize the sport. Their detractors say A-11 is dishonest and unsportsmanlike because it uses randomness to distract and deceive the opposing team.
Using randomness in sports strategy may be effective, but is it sportsmanlike?
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The purpose of rules is to make a game interesting. It is not a question of being sportsman like or not sportsman like. It is a question of whether or not in the long run it makes the game more exciting for spectators.
The whole idea that a new offense could be considered “unsportsmanlike” reminds me of two things I’ve heard, but never been able to verify (for lack of time):
(1) I’m told that the practice of making a V-shape with the skis when ski-jumping was considered bad form (“unsportsmanlike” and “unaesthetic”) when it was introduced.
(2) I hear a story on the radio about a sociologist who had studied national character as revealed by how sports’ rules are written. In particular – how man rules are written (and how many are unwritten). She (?) believed that most rules in the UK were unwritten, due to the relative homogeneity of the population, while most rules are written in the US, due to the US’s character as a “melting pot” leading to a lack of common understanding (making the written rules more necessary).
As such, I would say that bending the rules in an innovative way is very sportsmanlike in the US, but not in the UK – but since we’re talking about US football (and not UK football a.k.a. soccer), the innovation is not only sportsmanlike, but downright American (with a capital A)!
The greatest football plays are all about deception, so for someone to say deception is unsportsmanlike just shows they were deceived a little too much for their own liking.
While there is likely some merit to randomizing play selection, an A-11 offense would be a disaster if applied to the NFL. This is the case for several reasons. First, NFL team positions are highly specialized. Most offensive linemen simply would not do an adequate job of holding on to a received football after getting pummeled by a linebacker the way receivers are; massive amounts of fumbles would occur. Second, the quarterback would have to be constantly on the move due to a complete lack of protection; add to this that most defensive lineman are significantly faster than qb’s. So this would only work with highly mobile quarterbacks. Third, interference would be a significant issue and receivers would be forced to run further downfield. Unfortunately the quarterback would not have time to let them get there before getting sacked.
What it boils down to is that players on offense would take gruesome hits causing multiple fumbles. This isn’t as big of a problem in a high school team because all of the players are closer together in terms of all-around ability.
However, I applaud this team doing whatever it takes to win, and anyone calling it unsportsmanlike is simply just jealous.
“The rules are what the rules are. And changing the rules, after the fact, to eliminate innovation is the epitome of unsportsmanlike behavior.”
The shot clock was introduced when basketball teams with a lead–legally–slowed down the game to the point that the games were unwatchable.
Not all innovations are improvements, and there’s nothing unsportsmanlike about changing the rules to improve the sport.
“dishonest and unsportsmanlike because it uses randomness to distract and deceive the opposing team”
In that case, the NFL needs to ban:
Jim Johnson
The Zone Blitz
Receivers in motion
The Wildcat specifically and Ronnie Brown generally
Any movement on the defensive side of the ball
Troy Polumalu
Ray Lewis (though as a Steelers fan I would have to say this one is ok by me)
I don’t think it’s unsportsmanlike, but it’s a silly loophole and should be outlawed. Kudos to the guys who figured it out and have turned a buck, but this just isn’t football.
Calling the A-11 unsportsmanlike is absurd, but there are major problems with it. The coaches are being very short sighted for their players. It will never be allowed in serious college or pro football so anyone who plays in it in HS won’t get a second look from a college scout. Furthermore it makes the game about the coaches and not the players. That isn’t what high school football should be about.
Also, I played a team in high school that tried something like this. They were the dirtiest team I ever played because the refs couldn’t cover the field and the players knew it. I was one of four players who left the game after cheap shots. I got speared in the helmet from behind and can’t remember the entire previous day. I would be willing to bet that the difficulty in watching the entire field and the amount of open field contact greatly increases serious injurues.
Spreading the field isn’t revalutionary. Neither is having two quarterbacks on the field. Their revolution involves a loop hole in the jersey number rule. Finally, do we really need more TO’s and Chad Johnsons in the world.