The Injury to the QB

[Reginald Rutledge]

In the DFW League, championships have been won and lost based on an injury to the starting quarterback. In the early years of Michael Robertson's development, one of the DFW finest champions and HOF inductees, we played a playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos. Michael's starting quarterback, John Elway, went down in the first quarter. With him going down to an injury, meaning all quarterbacks considered Elway whether it was the mobile, stationary, or TTQB, a devastating blow had been handed to the Broncos championship dreams.

As the game progress, I saw that Mike had no confidence in his second-string QB, which was Bubby Brister. He would put in the TTQB Brister on passing situations and either throw and incompletion or interception. I would began to stack 9 in the box to stop the run. Mike had no solution for this on that day. History tells us he recovered in years after to remain one of the dominate coaches in DFW history.

Today we are faced with various rule changes in the DFW. A twist to a rule up for debate involves the scramble rule. This is a landmark-type rule because it may alter the way the game is played. But the twist for me comes in the form of the severity of injury to the QB. Now, thanks to new member Mark Villanueva's foresight on increased severity to QBs on scrambles, this is a very interesting topic. We have debate on each side and it really involves trying to re-define whether you want the QB taking off and running.

The % are being worked out but the gist of the "twist" is that if a QB takes off and run, he should have a higher percentage chance of getting hurt. If he has that higher percentage of risk, the QB will think twice about letting him run the ball. Additionally, there is an argument about the % increasing against the defense if the QB runs out of bounds to escape injuries via personal fouls or something to that nature. That was introduced by Michael Robertson.

These are valid arguments and help improve the game. Do you think injuries should increase or penalties toward defenders should increase?

Reg