Firsthand Strategies Take Second-Guessing Out of Football

Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda loves to tell the story about an incident that occurred when he was managing winter ball somewhere south of the border.

A crucial situation came up one night involving a key managerial move. With runners on base, Lasorda made a pinch-hitting change that proved disastrous and resulted in the killing of a rally.

Later, in the clubhouse, the general manager of his club was all over Lasorda, criticizing his strategy.

A few days later, Lasorda says, he found himself faced with the very same situation. He looked out of the dugout and saw his general manager in a front-row box seat nearby.

Lasorda leaped onto the field, ran over to the box seat and yelled at the general manager, “What should I do?”

The general manager waved him off, telling him that it was his decision.

“No,” Lasorda screamed, “tell me now what to do before I make a move. Don’t second-guess me later. My wife could tell me what I should have done after the fact. Tell me now, before I make a move.”

No, the general manager insisted, that is what you get paid for.

Never again, Lasorda says, was he second-guessed by that general manager.

Coaches and managers in every sport have often wished they could do what Lasorda did that night. And now a couple of National Football League coaches have been given that opportunity. Sort of.

Miami Dolphin Coach Don Shula, San Francisco 49er Coach Bill Walsh and former Kansas City Chiefs Coach Hank Stram have been recruited to form an advisory panel for a new game that challenges Monday morning quarterbacks everywhere to put their advice on the line each Sunday during football season.

All of you experts who keep telling the Rams’ John Robinson to stop running on third and long after Eric Dickerson gets stacked up for a big loss, beware. Modern technology now allows you to call the shots right along with Robinson, just like he does before the snap of the ball.

QB1, the game that makes this all possible, is still in the experimental stage. It has been placed in 14 restaurants and bars across the country. Two locations are in the Valley area, at Tracton’s in Encino and Clancy’s Crab Broiler in Glendale.

Plans call for QB1 eventually to be wired into homes across the nation.

But this is not just a commercial endorsement for a product. It’s the next logical extension for the sports fan who was once content to plunk down his money, sit in the bleachers and root and cheer for the old home team.

First there were instant replays and reverse angles so he could sit at home and see the game better than the paying customers--and often better than the participants.

Then came the big screens so he could feel like he was right there in the huddle.

And now he can even call the plays.

How?

The QB1 player has a tiny control panel in front of him. He has the option of predicting, before the snap from center, whether the play will be a pass or a run, whether the play will be directed between the tackles, to the left side or to the right side, whether the run will be a draw play, whether the pass will originate out of play action.

After the play has concluded, he gains or loses points depending on how accurate he was in his predictions.

The people at QB1 take this stuff pretty seriously. They have an actual spotter at each game to determine just where the play was run, a fact not always ascertainable on the screen.

They even supply you with tendencies of the competing squads--New England runs 66% of the time, Chicago runs up the middle 48% of the time.

The grand climax for this first year of QB1 will take place today, Super Sunday, as players compete against each other at the 14 locations throughout the country, and also against the other restaurants and bars.

Should Tracton’s, for example, amass a higher average score among its 10 players than any other location, it will receive rings resembling Super Bowl rings. The rings will be presented to its players by Shula or Stram at a later date, according to the plan.

I told you, we are talking serious here.

Lesser prizes include caps, sweaters and sweat shirts.

QB1 players quickly forget old loyalties, according to Red Tracton, owner of the Encino restaurant.

“People begin to root for how they are personally doing,” he said. “It’s the darndest thing. The QB1 people will flash how we are doing against all the other restaurants at halftime and a big cheer will go up. You hear cheers or boos all the time and it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with how a particular team is doing, just which play was called.”

Future plans call for a similar game for baseball and a trivia game. The only thing left is to somehow get the guy in his living room in shoulder pads and cleats so he can throw a few passes himself.

I have no doubt that somebody, somewhere is working on that one right now.