The MVP, or Mobile Virtual Player, became the means by which Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens moved to eliminate tackling from practices during football season -- tackling of other players at least. The MVP is a robot programmed to move like a football player -- not just with speed, but making cuts and other elusive maneuvers. While the move had immediate benefits for team health, Teevens was concerned about his team lest its skills get rusty. When Dartmouth engineering students (including a former Dartmouth football player) came up with the device, Teevens jumped at it.
It turns out Dartmouth won a piece of the Ivy League championship this past season (after third- and second-place finishes in previous seasons), and the rest of the league took notice that they did so while only tackling that Mobile Virtual Player device instead of each other during in-season practices. Possibly as a result, the league has voted -- unanimously, at that -- to eliminate tackling drills during the season throughout the league.
There are things to be excited about here, and things not quite worth jumping up and down about. The latter first, so one blog entry can end on an upbeat note:
1. This is the Ivy League. There are a few players from the Ivies in the NFL; New York Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick of Harvard might be the most prominent right now. The Ivy League schools have some of the longest and most storied histories in college football, but one can't deny that the Ivies fall rather far outside the current power structure in the NCAA. In short, this move by itself is unlikely to be the start of a trend in the NCAA.
2. This is the Ivy League. Only a very limited number of high school players are going to be able to make the cut academically to play in that league, and many of those players will not be interested in doing so because of point #1 above -- they don't represent a likely springboard to the NFL. The number of players who will be affected by this move is pretty small.
3. This is the Ivy League. For a large part of the culture surrounding college football or football generally, the league's adoption of these standards will merely be proof that they don't play "real football" in that league.
4. This is the Ivy League. Probably every school in the league can afford a squadron of MVPs if they so desire. And while no doubt the Ohio States and Alabamas of the world could corner the market on the devices were they to try, that's less true of the Division II and III schools in the world or even the Tulsas and San Diego States and Marshalls out there. Should such technologically aided practices start to sweep through the college game, the division between the haves and have-nots will only become more stark. Then make the leap down to high schools and youth football programs and the divisions become even deeper, even as restrictions on tackling in practices have had dramatically positive results in reducing head injury (keep reading, you'll get to it). Technology as a leveler of the field isn't typically that accessible.
5. We are still acting under the assumption that technology can fix everything and save football as the country knows it (football as the world knows it is what we call soccer, to be clear). The evidence of this just isn't all that persuasive. There's a real desperation about it sometimes as well. From the next great helmet to the MVP to sensors designed to warn coaches or trainers that a player might be on the verge of brain injury, the technological hits keep on coming. Only the real hits also keep on coming.
OK, let's be positive:
1. There are coaches out there who actually care about the health and well-being of their athletes (one can't always be sure about this). It's good to be reminded of this amidst the jaw-droppingly bad headlines these days, not just on head trauma.
2. At least some coaches can cut through the macho jargon and see not only a way to improve player health, but apparently also performance on the field. Whether Dartmouth's improvement really correlates to reducing hitting in practice or is simply a function of Teevens being a good recruiter, or goes to randomness somehow, at least this success might persuade a few coaches elsewhere to ease up on the full-contact drills during the week.
3. While the NFL still seems to see most of its brain injuries take place during games, at lower levels practice seems to be the more perilous time for players. If this move helps persuade youth football or high school programs to think about cutting back on contact and those injuries drop as well, so much the better.
I've made it clear in this blog that I can't stomach watching football any more. That doesn't mean I'm particularly eager to see more and more players suffering concussions at whatever level of the sport they play; I've also made it clear that I don't consider it my place to tell people they can't play football, although I won't shy from speaking my mind on the subject here in this blog and elsewhere, and I continue to believe that there are serious theological and/or ethical problems with participating in the economic system of football. Anything that might offer a small amount of hope for cutting back on concussions or subconcussive hits is a positive by me.
It doesn't mean I'll be watching again any time soon, though.
Dartmouth's MVP might really be Dartmouth's MVP after all...
p.s. for those who don't recognize the title phrase, it comes from this little musical ditty...
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