LJ FB: Day 4, evening practice - Thurs., Aug. 3

In the "fun drill", three potential tacklers (left)

lie on the ground as running back Aidan McGill

(third from right, towards background)

holds the ball  and waits for the "cadence"-caller

(out of view to right) to start the play.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

The big event of this single-practice day, from 4:30-7:30 p.m. in the afternoon/evening, was what Viking Head Coach Tyler Roach called a "fun drill"--a ball-carrier with two blockers, versus three tacklers a short distance from the goal line.

The drill lasted only 15 or so minutes, but you could see players were getting pumped up and were salivating at the chance to show the coaches what they had in an urgent, physical, and blasting exercise you would only see on a football field. This is where the rubber met the road.

An assistant said Roach and his coaching staff had been discussing the "fun drill" for days in advance: the three tacklers lay on the turf, separated by hard foam dividers. At the "cadence" call of an uninvolved player, the ball carrier and his blockers would set off toward the goal line a mere 10 yards away.

Around the 3-on-3 warriors, the rest of the varsity and coaches stood shouting and cheering their teammates on in a quick, mini-version of the UFC chamber. Sometimes the rusher scored in an instant. Other times, he and his blockers had to endure multiple hits and detours, and he got pushed out of bounds for a failed goal-line attempt.

A plus of the drill was the increased animus and spirit of team members--they were out of breath, eyeing their next time in the "ring", some laying back, others wanting another try.

One thinks of former Charger Hank Bauer, who once visited the Catholic high school I taught at in Oxnard on a Monday, the day after an NFL game. His brother Jim was the school's head football coach. Bauer was the designated goal-line crusher to carry the ball over. On that Monday, I vividly remember--and probably imagined even more--the scratches and marks on his face from the mortal combat he endured the previous day on a goal line TD attempt. He would not infrequently go airborne as he tried to leap over the opposing defensive line--risking being flipped over on his back, in the worst scenario.

One shudders at the thought of the CTE brain damage Bauer absorbed in practicing and carrying out these gruesome, violent plays during his career, as he used his head as a battering ram.

The Viking drill wasn't nearly this violent, but one wonders. And fortunately, no one was using their head as a battering ram the way the powder-blue-and-gold running back did.

RB McGill (second from right) follows his

blockers to try to sneak the ball over

the goal line, as the rest of the team

watches from behind and to the left side.