38 Commandments of Football

In 1926 Robert Reese Neyland of Greeneville, Texas, was hired as head football coach of the University of Tennessee volnteers, perennial runnerup to Dan McGugin's mighty Vanderbilt Commmodores. Neyland was arguably the greatest athlete of his generation. Not only an All-American football lineman, he was also
the national collegiate boxing champion and a major league baseball pitching prospect.  Neyland's education set him apart  from other star athletes entering the coaching profession. A member of "the class the stars fell upon" at the US Military Academy, Captain Neyland arrived in Knoxville  determined to apply the lessons of military leadership, discipline, and tactics he had learned at West Point to the sport of football:

1. Thou shalt charge and block.
2. Thou shalt charge and fight.
3. A good blocker never looks back.
4. One good blocker is worth three ball-carrying stars.
5. A team that won't be beat can't be beat.
6. The team that makes the fewest mistakes wins.
7. Never stop till the referee's whistle blows.
8. Press the kicking game.
9. Make and play for the breaks. When one comes your way, score!
10. If the game or a break goes against you, don't like down: put on some steam.
11. Don't save yourself. Go the limit. There are good men on the sidelines when you are exhausted.
12. Football is a battle. Go out to fight and keep it up all afternoon.
13. A man's value to his team varies inversely as his distance from the ball.
14. If the line goes forward the team wins; If it comes backward the team loses.
15. Never lose the ball on downs.
16. You can't fight like a man with less than 100 percent loyalty and college spirit.
17. You can't do yourself justice without getting and staying in condition.
18. At least three men make every tackle. Gang tackling!!
19. Let no one escape.
20. First rush from scrimmage equals 6 yards.
21. Eleven men in on every play.
22. Use your head: 75 percent of football is above the neck.
23. One increasing purpose.
24. A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits.
25. Keep everlastingly on the job.
26. Be the first to line up.
27. Never stop fighting.
28. No good blocker and tackler was ever left off a football team.
29. Use your eyes, your hands, your legs, and your head.
30. Be aggressive. You can't win the game on your side of the scrimmage line.
31. If the game is going against you, keep your head up, set your jaw and dig in.
This is what tests the stuff you are made of.
32. (Neyland's handwriting faded and illegible.)
33. "Turf" their defense! Get them down!
34. A winning team quickens its play as it nears the goal line.
35. Get the jump on your teammates on the charge.
36. Follow the ball!
37. Play your own position well - first.
38. Line - charge with the ball!

Captain Robert R Neyland,
Knoxville, Tennessee, 1926


The lessons didn't sink in right  away.  In his first game as Tennnessee's head coach, the Vols eked out a win over Carson-Newman.

The Mainstream

Farragut Press:  Bearden at Walker Valley

Farragut at Bearden

Planet of the Zebras

The rules of high school football are
derived from collegiate rules.

NCAA Rules and Interpretations, 2009-2010

Few high school coaches have seen or read a current official high school  football rulebook published by  the NFHS which stands for, um..."Federation"
once I saw a copy of the federation rules in a coaches' office. I picked it up off the floor, noted that it was a couple of years out of date. someone had begun to read it, underlined a few passages , and given up on page fourteen. Little wonder, the presentation leaves a lot to be desired, and the wording appears to have been do of high school football,ne by teachers, no, "educators". I asked my colleague and mentor, a veteran of over a quarter century,of high school football, about his  familiarity with the with the book. "Aw, i never read those things," he said.

Somebody out in Colorado, presumably an affable zeeb, prepared this crib sheet to keep  coaches  from breaking  into the zebra den and taking the  county  association's Authorized Version of the NFHS Rules.
 NCAA/NFHS Football Rules Differences 2009

Remember, children: high school football rules have nothing whatsoever to do with the made-for-TV farce that is the No Fun League. The purpose of the NFL is to sell beer. NFL football can be appreciated, nay, tolerated , only by inebriated individuals. Persons who are too young to buy, sell, transport, serve, or consume alcoholic beverages have no reason to watch NFL football.

More about the zeebs than you ever wanted to know at Football Refs.org:
Rules revisions year-by-year