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Improving Your Skills as a Defensive Linesman

The best defensive linemen at any level all share the same qualities. playing and tackling with leverage, excellent “hand to hand combat” skills, and superior quickness (given their size of course). It is possible to teach and to imrpove on all these qualities in any given player. Leverage is extremely important to a defensive lineman because it is just that rare that he will be able to make a tackle without being already engaged by another offensive lineman. All the talent in the world as a tackler is for nothing if a player doesn’t know how to tackle while engaged.

Practice and due diligence needs to be put forth in mastering this kind of tackling and a defensive lineman should work on it every chance he gets. The next most important thing for a lineman is his technique, but most importantly his hands. He needs to be able to slap, pull, grab, and throw people out of the way with proper hand placement and power. If he can get his hands on an offensive lineman’s inside (between his shoulder pads) or in a place of controlled leverage and power he will win every time. It is also important to keep a blocker from gaining such an advantage on the defender. Practicing “hand to hand combat” everyday in order to find these advantages will produce a highly skilled and unblockable d lineman given substantial upper body strength. Quickness is just as important as hand technique and leverage. A defensive lineman should strive to be just as agile in spinning, starting quickness, and sideline to sideline movement as any offensive skill player. And these finess moves should be worked on extensively because if your the quickest to the ball, you can’t hardly be engaged let alone blocked! These qualities coupled with an explosive strength program will put you the absolute best position to succeed every play on the defensive line.

History of the Dallas Cowboys

While the Dallas Cowboys are an extremely popular NFL team, they didn’t necessarily start out that way. The Cowboys joined the NFL in 1960 as an expansion team. The first season, they didn’t win a single game, in fact the only tie they had was against the New York Giants. The next year they were able to make their first NFL Draft pick. This got them started on the road to becoming “America’s Team.”

The Cowboys spent the rest of the 1960’s building a roster to help them become contenders in the NFL as well as courting the loyalties of the Dallas fans. They made it to their first Super Bowl in 1971 and played Baltimore in Super Bowl V. By week six of the 1971 season, they were moving into Dallas Stadium, where they have remained ever since. They would make it to the Super Bowl again for Super Bowl VI and win. They beat the Miami Dolphins and still hold the record for the only Super Bowl where a team was held to no touchdowns.

For the rest of the 1970’s, Dallas gained a larger fan base, not only in Texas, but all over the United States. They worked on community service and still made it to Super Bowls X, XII, and XIII. They won Super Bowl XII and by the end of the 70’s, they were the winningest NFL team of the decade.

The 1980’s were a time of discontentment within the Cowboys franchise. In 1984, they were sold to H.R. Bright and then sold again in 1989 to Jerry Jones. The first thing Jones did was to fire head coach Tom Landry, who had been the coach since the team started, and hire Jimmy Johnson. The Cowboys did not make it to another Super Bowl all through the 80’s and would not be back at a Super Bowl until Super Bowl XXVII in January of 1993.

Jimmy Johnson quickly rebuilt the Cowboys throughout the 90’s. There was an obvious friction between Johnson and owner Jerry Jones, and that came to a head just weeks after that Super Bowl when Jimy Johnson announced his resignation. He was replaced by Barry Switzer, who led the Cowboys to victory in Super Bowl XXX.

Free Agency and injuries took a definite toll on the team and Switzer was replaced in 1998 by Chan Gailey. Gailey was let go after the 1999 season, and Dave Campo was named the new head coach. Despite all the troubles they were having, the Cowboys still posted more wins than any other NFL team in the 90’s.

Dave Campo would only coach for three seasons before being replaced by Bill Parcells, whom Jerry Jones convinced to come out of retirement. He would coach 3 years and then be replaced by Wade Phillips.

Throughout all of the trials and tribulations, the Dallas Cowboys were able to build an international fan base, perform countless hours of community service, and still be one of the best franchises in the NFL. Perhaps the most severe of all of their problems to date happened on May 2, 2009 when the practice facility was blown down. 12 players and coaches were injured, most severely were Rich Behm and Joe DeCamillis.

The Cowboys have proven time and time again that they are here to stay and that they will overcome adversity. This is why they are known as “America’s Team.”