Sunday, sometime after the kick off in Super Bowl 47, there’s a pretty good chance you will see 49er q-b Colin Kaepernick throw a long pass to Vernon Davis. What you won’t see is Kaepernick throwing a long pass to Davis, three or four times in a row, every time San Francisco has the ball. If you know football, you know why. If a good defense knows or even expects a play is coming, it reacts like a hungry tiger to a piece of raw meat. And that explains why NFL offenses and defenses are complex, with many plays. The idea for the offense is to catch the defense off guard or penetrate a weakness for the defense; adjust coverage to stop what the offense is doing.
It seems to me that if we really want to solve some of our biggest societal problems, we should take the quest for solutions out of the hands of politicians and into the hands of the Harbaugh brothers, or Bill Belichick or Tom Coughlin or Nick Saben.
After the atrocious Newtown shooting spree - that slaughter of the innocents and their unarmed teachers, we felt a collective call to action. I stated on this broadcast that maybe it’s time we stop treating the second amendment like one of the Ten Commandments. No sacred cows. No special protection for gun owners, if guns are the problem.
Well the more I talked about these issues with gun owners, law enforcement professionals, attorneys and just plain folks with good common sense, I’m convinced we’re approaching this horrible problem the wrong way. This big focus on more gun control is like throwing 30 straight long bombs to Vernon Davis. You might get a touch down or two but a good defense will stop him, by double coverage or a quarterback blitz. Like a coach installing a balanced offense or a well prepared defense, we need to attack this problem from every side. 99 percent of gun owners are respectful, long abiding citizens. It’s that one percent or less that’s causing the carnage.
Strategies. Well, what makes them so insane is they could shoot up a room full of little kids or a mall packed with Christmas shoppers or a crowded theatre, a college campus, a work place. The gun laws are tough. Call time out and put the money and the dialogue into finding out what’s making people nuts and if someone knows they’re unhinged. What or who decided it’s ok to let them go uncounseled or unmedicated or out of the mental hospital or institution. Let’s look at the violent movies and video games that maybe, just maybe, numb people to violence. We learned something else from these shooting sprees: these well armed sick punks are cowards. They attack innocent unarmed people. If they know their target rich environment may have one or more people who could fire back, who could subdue or kill them, that potential target is off the list. So maybe more cops moonlight at the movies and the mall. Maybe licensed gun owners register with their local communities. Maybe unidentified, plain clothes armed citizens should be a requirement for a public assembly permit. In Houston and maybe in other places, moonlighting cops are often seen in bars and nightclubs. There’s virtually no shootings, drug dealing, or other crimes in the blotter when the cops and their visible weapons are apparent.
I’m not sure we need assault weapons’ second amendment or not but I also know just attacking the gun lobby is a one dimensional offense.
We need a dialogue..a national game plan...i welcome your thoughts…and i’m sure many of you have some strong opinions…i’ll keep ideas coming…we all should…solving this problem is literally a matter of life and death…we shouldn’t treat it like a game..but yes…we can learn from those who coach at the highest level…the best defense is a good, varied offense…
