Giving some love to the big men.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Getting their nose dirty: a nose tackle is a human shock absorber. He gets pounded on every play and hammered from every angle. It's a high-pain, no-glory job?and essential to the success of the 3-4 defenseImagine walking down a crowded New York sidewalk and colliding head-on with someone heading in the other direction. While the two of you try to disengage, another guy sideswipes you. Then, someone else shoves you from the other side. These other pedestrians are big, strong and wear heavy body padding, and the jostling continues block after block after block.Now you know how it feels to be a 3-4 nose tackle in the NFL. Sort of. "To play that position, you really have to be a stud" says the Raiders' Ted Washington, 36, who is playing nose tackle for the 14th season and with his sixth team. "You get pounded on every play.""You've got to be a bad ass to play there, no question" says Ravens defensive line coach Rex Ryan.Nose tackle is a down-and-dirty position--the most physically demanding in football. It comprises lots of exertion, body trauma and grunt work but no glamour and little recognition. It requires you to sacrifice your body so your teammates can make the tackles and capture the glory.Here's the job description: Needs to be strong and stout. Has a quickly diagnose blocking schemes and plays. Must stand his ground, plug the gaps on either side of the center, take on constant double- teams and keep offensive line men from reaching linebackers. Physical distress is to be expected."Oh, man, everything hurts," says Steelers nose tackle Casey Hampton. "Your legs hurt, your hips hurt from getting hit so much. All my fingers are jammed by the third or fourth game of the season. You just get used to it. The best nose tackles share several physical characteristics besides aches and pains. Necessary traits include girth, balance, quick hands, a low center of gravity, explosive hips and strength in both the upper and lower body. Nose tackles must establish hand position on the center, absorb--and sometimes shed--combination blocks and stay on their feet. If they can't make the play, they have to keep linebackers free so they can.A 3-4 nose tackle has to stay square to the line, get underneath the center's pads, anchor and hold his ground. His primary responsibility is to control the "A" gaps, the two openings between the center and guards, and not get pushed back into his linebackers. If a running play comes through one of those gaps, he must make the tackle or control what is called the "jump-through"--the guard or center who is trying to get out to the linebackers.For example, if the Texans' Seth Payne can stop a lineman from getting to the next level, inside linebackers Jamie Sharper and Jay Foreman can be free to make tackles. And if the nose tackle can penetrate inside and collapse the pocket on a pass play--a bonus--it creates one-on-one matchups for the ends and outside linebackers.Leverage is essential. Half the battle is getting inside hand position on the center, jamming him and standing him up. That's why being shorter isn't necessarily a bad thing. The taller the nose tackle, the more he has to bend his knees. Lean, slender bodies need not apply.One of the biggest challenges for a nose tackle--especially in the face of all the double- and sometimes triple-teams--is to stand his ground and not allow himself to be displaced. "The worst thing is not knowing where that double-team is coming from when you're head-up on the center;' says Washington. "You're looking for the ballcarrier, and one of the guards can ring your bell."It's not always the guards. Sometimes another offensive player can ambush an unsuspecting nose tackle on what is called a "wham" play. For example, a tight end can creep down the line behind the tackle and guard and then burst into the nose man. "It can clean your clock" says Washington.Although the constant banging has taken its toll over the years, Washington is considered the prototypical nose tackle of this era. "In his prime, Ted Washington was the ideal guy" says an AFC pro personnel director. "He was huge, had long arms, and you couldn't budge him. He could hold off a 320-pound lineman with one hand and make the tackle with the other."Nose tackles share one more attribute: a healthy appetite. They like to eat, and they have the bellies to prove it. Payne (6-4, 303) has one of the better physiques, but he admits he needs help to keep it. "My wife does a good job of keeping the junk food out of the house," he says. "But if she messes up and lets me go shopping, I'm going to come home with a half-eaten apple pie."Filling in the gaps--and then someNose tackles come in all shapes and sizes. They can be as big as Washington (6-5, 365) or as small as the Ravens' Kelly Gregg (5-11, 310).If you went shopping for the ideal nose man, you'd leave Gregg on the shelf. Not only does he lack size, he has short arms. When the Ravens signed Gregg to their practice squad in 2000 (originally he was a sixth-round draft pick by the Bengals in 1999), defensive tackle Tony Siragusa nicknamed him "Buddy Lee."</div>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m120...i_n6249316/pg_3
Cool article, i've always wondered how those guys can take all that pounding. I love that quote from Rex, "You really have to be a badass to be a nose tackle." So true.
