Running Back Awareness: The Redline

     Playing 6 years in the Pros has opened my eyes to a lot of position techniques and field keys that can enhance the average football players level of play.  Coaches always tell their ball carriers to get to the sideline.  One reason is that all of the defenders are to the inside and once you get outside of the corner there is a huge potential for big plays by the runner.  Coaches tell their runners to get to the sideline but some coaches and players aren’t aware of the field divider between the boundary and the numbers called the redline. 

     The redline is an imaginary line about 4 to 5 yards from the boundary.  This line is very important for the guys that carry the ball.  Whenever the ball carrier has the ability to get to the redline, he should do so, because this puts pressure on the tacklers.  The ball carrier is too far from the sideline to be pushed out of bounds so this changes the defenders tackling technique from a relatively low difficulty sideline tackle to a higher level of difficulty open field tackle.

     A lot of coaches fall into the trap of having gifted runners and they let those runners use their talents with relatively little coaching.  But just think, if you give that runner something as minor as the redline to look for every time they run, their big gains become even bigger because you made them aware of an imaginary line.