Quote:
Originally Posted by pilight
Football actually requires the offense to have seven players on the line of scrimmage.
I don't think banning the shift is going to solve baseball's problems.
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Football requires 7 men on the line because in the early 1900s they ran a play called the flying wedge where players would start like 20 yards behind the line, interlock arms, and just run full speed at the defense with the ball carrier nestled just behind this wall of players. The primary way defenses had to stop the wedge was to leap over it, which, in the days before modern helmets and padding, caused a lot of broken necks (TBF it’d probably cause a lot of broken necks today if players did that a lot). More than 30 players died playing (mostly college) football one year and President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to ban the sport if something wasn’t done about it quick.
Baseball is experiencing a 2-3% drop in BABIP because some players can’t beat the shift. These are not comparable events.