Professional Football Researchers Association Forum
PFRA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the history of professional football. Formed in 1979, PFRA members include many of the game's foremost historians and writers.
Quick history lesson number two (I know you’re thrilled about this): largely because the Flex was so great in the Seventies (Randy White and Harvey Martin were named co-MVPs in Super Bowl XII in 1978), the NFL began drastically changing the rules, producing a more exciting offense. Defensive players could only bump a receiver one time, offensive linemen were allowed more freedom to hold, and defensive linemen could no longer head-slap blockers. Naturally, NFL (earns turned to aerial attacks, and the only way the defenses could stop the passing game was through the blitz or through pass-heavy defenses where as many as seven defensive backs would come onto the field for certain plays. The new holding rules also allowed a different breed of offensive linemen to enter the game, big men who weighed close to 300 pounds and whose job was to tie up defensive linemen at the line of scrimmage with simple straight-ahead blocking. As a result, it became much more difficult for [he Cowboys’ Flex linemen to make their tricky moves.
The Flex was a great D to play in if you were a D lineman. Not so much if you were a D back. The Cowboys always underperformed in the secondary as to personnel and results.
Quick history lesson number two (I know you’re thrilled about this): largely because the Flex was so great in the Seventies (Randy White and Harvey Martin were named co-MVPs in Super Bowl XII in 1978), the NFL began drastically changing the rules, producing a more exciting offense. Defensive players could only bump a receiver one time, offensive linemen were allowed more freedom to hold, and defensive linemen could no longer head-slap blockers. Naturally, NFL (earns turned to aerial attacks, and the only way the defenses could stop the passing game was through the blitz or through pass-heavy defenses where as many as seven defensive backs would come onto the field for certain plays. The new holding rules also allowed a different breed of offensive linemen to enter the game, big men who weighed close to 300 pounds and whose job was to tie up defensive linemen at the line of scrimmage with simple straight-ahead blocking. As a result, it became much more difficult for [he Cowboys’ Flex linemen to make their tricky moves.
Don't you know that pretty much everyone changed the game?
That phrase is so over-used that it no longer has meaning.
