If I were a football coach, I would request at least three unusual things of my players:

First, I would request that any of my ball carriers try to position himself for first-and-ten on the 11 yard line, rather than first-and-goal on the 10 yard line, even if that meant going down sooner and giving up a yard. Doing this gives your team a shot a four extra downs to score (even without a penalty on the defense).

Second, with less than five minutes left in a game and the other team inside our 10 yard line, I would request that my defense allow them to score a touchdown, if the game was tied or we were ahead by one or two points or the other team was ahead by only one point. This keeps the other team from running out most of the clock and then kicking a field goal to go ahead or extend their lead. My strategy would give us time to tie or win the game.

Third, I would require that my defensive players avoid intercepting a pass on fourth down unless they are certain they can bring the ball past the line of scrimmage. Otherwise, the interception is costing our team valuable field position and becomes a net negative. I'm thoroughly amazed at the number of players, both college and pro, who will dance and prance around after intercepting a 30-yard fourth-down pass! They obviously don't realize that they have just hurt their own team. Their coach should quickly clear that up for them.

Terry Mitchell

Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, blogger, and amateur political analyst from Hopewell, VA. He's been in the software development/engineering line of work for over 24 years.

He blogs and writes about various subjects such as current events, politics, cultural and social issues, health and well-being, personal finance, religion, technology, media issues, law, government, sports, humor, and trivia.

Through the BlogBurst network, his blog entries are often carried on the Website of the Houston Chronicle, one of the top newspapers in America. In addition, his columns and essays regularly appear on American Chronicle's network of 21 online magazines. They have also appeared online on American Daily, Media Monitors International, Opinion Editorials, The Washington Dispatch, Arrivenet, and hundreds of additional websites.

Terry never misses an opportunity to assail political correctness and take pot shots at the conventional foolishness. He's not a bandwagon jumper - he writes stuff that others should be writing, but are not. He thinks of himself as a kind of modern American philosopher. His blog offers commentary from a unique point of view that is not often found in mainstream media.

Terry would love to have his blog picked up and syndicated by a major news or web organization. He also plans to write a book based on his blog. But, for now, he mainly writes for free as a hobby and enjoys having his aritcles posted on as many websites, ezines, news letters, newspapers, and magazines as possible.