|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Gangs of Four The four-man defensive lines, born in the '50s, ruled the NFL until changes in the game spelled their doom
By Paul Zimmerman SI NFL Classic Issue date: Fall, 1995
They ruled the National Football League like ancient war gods. They bent the game to their will, and finally they were brought under control through legislation. But for two decades the great defensive front fours set the tone for professional football. The four-man line came into being on Oct. 1, 1950, in Cleveland. Two weeks earlier, New York Giant coach Steve Owen had driven to Philadelphia to scout his next opponent, the Cleveland Browns, the last champions of the defunct All America Football Conference. The Browns were making their NFL debut in Philadelphia against the league's reigning champions, the Eagles, and what Owen saw that Saturday night terrified him. The upstart Browns shredded Greasy Neale's vaunted 5-2-4 Eagle defense 35-10. By the time Owen gathered his Giants for their next practice, he had divined the answer. He would line up his defense in a 6-1-4 and then drop, or "flex," his ends back into linebacker positions, creating a pure 4-3. He drew it up on the blackboard and then handed the chalk to his smartest player, Tom Landry, the defensive left halfback (they were not yet called cornerbacks), so that Landry might explain the thing to his teammates. "I remember it to this day," says Landry, who would later win two Super Bowls as the coach of the Dallas Cowboys. "It's where my coaching career started. I was 26 years old." SI NFL Classic Issue date: Fall, 1995
| ||||||||||||||||||
