hit them with your face

My friend at work was off to see his son's JV football game and off handedly said I should adopt a son or mentor one in football. Then I got an email with some great highlight shots of him in the game. This was my email response.

Awesome pictures. Jack looks great and doesn’t look at all like a Freshman to me. I’ve always said TE is the best position to play. Your pictures have inspired a post on dumbdumbdaddyo.blogspot.com which is a blog about my dad who taught me a lot about football. Chris, when you said I should adopt a son or mentor one in football I totally get what you meant. I’ve been thinking deep about what I would pass on to my son from my dad about football and what keeps coming to me is one of his great dumddumbdaddyoisms, “Hit him with your face!” This advice on several occasions kept me safe and allowed me to walk away with a concussion instead of a broken neck. Never spear, never lead with helmet, never put your head down, keep your chin up, keep your head UP, HIT HIM WITH YOUR FACE, he said these things over and over again. Hitting someone with your face may seem counter intuitive, but in football it does something magical. You see your way all the way through the hit, you greatly reduce your tendency to flinch just before contact, you start hitting with the sweet spots of the shoulder pads, you recover a lot more fumbles, catch a lot more passes, you fumble less, you beat everyone who puts their head down, you can see when a stiff arm will be useful, and most magically you will find a reflex that at the last instant throws your forearm up in front of your face and delivers the most devastating tool in the art of knocking people down, “The Forearm Shiver.” My dad also taught me how to harness the three greatest forces in the universe on the grid. Momentum, leverage and love and you would have to dig pretty deep into dumbdumbdaddyo to read my post on that. Attached is a team picture and my dad  #44 is in the front row. He was a Senior in 1951 and The Maryland Terrapins went 10 – 0 and then beat #1 ranked Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl.

My daughters are kicking butt in their sports and I couldn’t be more proud of each of them.

Chris I hope you are feeling better, hurts don’t it? Don’t come back too soon ;-)

Chris has recently broken his collar bone on his second ride with his new Trek road bike. This first draft of just hit them with your face or never put your head down was written right after looking at those pictures of Jack. I would posts them but have hit some technical difficulties. (Ah, figured it out). A great shot of him pancake blocking a defender and a bunch of him ketching passes as a TE! Those pictures really brought it back...

My dad taught me to never put my head down. He knew I was listening challenged and his way was to say things to me in several different ways over and over again hopping I’d listen to him at least a few. Keep your chin up. Don’t look down. Keep your head up. And my personal favorite, “Hit him with your face!”

Back in the day it was called spearing. Now they call it leading with your helmet. If you’ve read much of this blog you’d know the year my dad had his perfect season and played on the best college football team in the nation was 1952. They played with hard helmets and no face masks and his advice to me was to hit him with your face. Hit 'em with your face or you will break your neck. I suffered many concussions in my career and believe on many occasions I could have broken my neck if, at the moment before impact, I’d didn’t hear him in my head say, “HIT EM WITH YOUR FACE!”

This always helped me finish the hit and a coach once complimented me on a tackle in films when he said you can’t coach a person to hit like that. To run through someone, hit with your head up, and destroy them. I said it was my dad who taught me how to hit with my face.

Locker room celebration after the 1952 Sugar Bowl victory over #1 Ranked Tennessee to complete a perfect undefeated season. My dad, Jeff Keith, is under coach Tatum's left hand. Perfection looks like a lotta fun!