...and other collisions of sports and faith

The Joys of Backyard Football

April 9, 2008 – 8:59 am | by bryan

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Remember playing backyard football with an odd number of guys? Someone wound up being “Official QB” for both teams, and eventually he would get accused of trying harder for the team that was winning. This would lead to a shoving match or a fistfight, and then someone would get called home for dinner and you’d make plans to do it all over again the next day.

Michael Vick remembers that whole Official QB business too, because it happened to him last month.

What else do you remember about backyard football? Here’s what I remember:

  • Yelling “No Takes!” when the kickoff (or throw off) was nonreturnable.
  • Arguing about pass interference calls.
  • Arguing about fumbles - “The ground can’t cause a fumble!”
  • Arguing about intentional grounding. (man, there were lots of arguments)
  • Whether your neighborhood counted 7-Miss (”1-Miss-2-Miss”) or 3-Mississippi (”1-Mississippi-2-Mississippi”)
  • How often you could call “Blitz!” per series
  • “My knee was never down!”
  • If you only had one end zone you had the “suckers walk” rule.
  • Did you play with running plays, or only passes?
  • The “everybody go deep” play
  • Did you have first downs? was it at midfield, or was it two completions for a first down?
  • Arguments over whether a lateral was forward or not.

So, what did I miss?

UPDATE: Apparently Vick wasn’t playing organized games…yet.  

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  1. 5 Responses to “The Joys of Backyard Football”

  2. By danny on Apr 9, 2008 | Reply

    pretending to be your favorite player.

    we counted alligators instead of mississippi’s. must be a california thing.

    and lots and lots of arguing.

  3. By bryan on Apr 9, 2008 | Reply

    alligators, huh? never heard of that one before.

  4. By Luke G on Apr 9, 2008 | Reply

    Two completions for a 1st down.

    I think, when we did run, we had a one run per 4-down rule.

    Was it one foot down for a catch, or two? Hmm. Don’t remember.

  5. By James on Apr 9, 2008 | Reply

    Yeah we did Alligators too in SoCal. We would always argue over college rules vs. pro rules. One foot or two, when your knee touches the ground are you down or not. The worst was our super fast friend that just went long every time and no one could stop it.

  6. By danny on Apr 10, 2008 | Reply

    thanks for the validation. i was feeling a little vulnerable.

    we also had the kid nobody could cover. it always stunk because i was the second best player and couldn’t be on his team. i lost every game because of shan-te williamson. and it wasn’t limited to football.

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