The California state legislature passed a bill last week limiting high school football teams to three hours a week of seasonal tackling practice.

The law — which allows for 90-minute sessions per week — will go into effect in 2015.

While I applaud California lawmakers for wanting to protect the players, I think the law is misguided and not well thought out.

Legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi was famous for saying, among other things, “Dancing is a contact sport. Football is a hitting sport.”

The fact is, football is more of a collision sport than a hitting sport.

Richard Pickens, a former University of Tennessee fullback from the 1960s, died last week from complications associated with frontal lobe dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. It was estimated that Pickens, who led the Southeastern Conference in rushing in 1968, had more than 20 concussions while playing high school and college football.

As frightening as Pickens’ story is, he last played football more than 45 years ago, when ball carriers and tacklers led with their heads. Rule changes now often penalize players for using their heads as battering rams.

And while rules have changed, today's players are bigger, stronger and faster than their predecessors. More size, strength and speed will lead to bigger hits with an increased chance for injuries on the practice field and in games.

Yes, the force of some collisions on a football field can be life threatening, but taking away time for tackling practice isn’t going to solve the problem. I believe, if anything, the limited time devoted to tackling will increase the risk for injuries.

Most high school coaches are former high school, college or, in some cases, professional football players. These men are highly qualified to teach proper techniques of keeping.

Granted, some poor coaches don’t teach the game's fundamentals, including tackling in a way that is safe for both the player making the tackle and the one getting tackled.

A few years ago I witnessed first-hand what could have been a devastating hit when a defender led with his helmet's crown into the head of a player already on his knees.

The player making the hit might very well have been caught up in the moment's excitement. But he also might have been coached that way. The truth is only the player and his coaches knew if it was poor coaching or an excited kid trying to make a play.

I don’t think a team needs to hit two or three hours a day to learn proper tackling form, but three hours a week is a little lacking when trying to teach kids who have never played the game the right way to tackle.

Some steps can be taken to make football a safer game. But limiting practice time on one the most important fundamentals of the game isn’t a step in the right direction.

Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: Football players need tackling practice

In less than two weeks, high school football teams across Florida officially open fall practice.

Friday nights soon will be filled with the best of what makes high school football, I believe, the greatest sport in the world.

High school is the final stopping point for most football players. A 5-foot-9, 175-pound kid can still play the line or linebacker and be successful in high school. That same kid, if fast enough, might have a chance to play receiver or defensive back at the college level.

The high school linebacker who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.9 or 5.0 seconds might not get a second look at the next level, but can excel against his high school peers.

Sometimes we are lulled into false expectations for the kids we see star on Friday night. We want to believe the running back who rips off 60-yard touchdown runs against Milton or Northview is capable of playing in the Atlantic Coast or Southeastern Conference.

The truth is that greatness in high school — even record-setting greatness — doesn’t always translate into a college football career.

I’ve seen a number of great players in my 40-plus years of following high school football.

In the early 1970s Walton had a tailback, Mitzi Jackson, who went on to play at Auburn. Jackson was a special player in high school and a solid college player, but he probably came up short of people's expectations when he graduated from high school.

Marianna had a big defensive tackle, Wylie Barnes, who was a high school All-American in 1975 and signed with Alabama. Barnes was 6-4, 280, but he never impressed me. One of my Gulf Breeze teammates who weighed 145 pounds manhandled the big man.

I wasn’t surprised that Barnes was a bust at Alabama.

Eighteen years ago, while working at a Lenoir City, Tenn., newspaper, I covered Travis Adams, a tailback. Adams set the state single-season record for rushing: right at 3,000 yards. He seemed to have enough size and speed to play big-time college football, but it never happened.

The University of Tennessee offered Adams an opportunity to join the Vols as a preferred walk-on. Adams decided to attend Austin Peay University on a full scholarship. He lasted one year at Austin Peay before returning home to marry his high school sweetheart and go to work for his father’s roofing company.

An elite few transcend the norm and go on and star at the college and professional levels.

Back in the fall of 1984, my dad and I attended the Gulf Breeze-Escambia game. Escambia had a little sophomore running back who torched the Dolphins for something like 200 yards and three or four touchdowns, and he sat out most of the second half.

As we were leaving the stadium at Escambia, I turned to Dad and said, “I don’t know who that kid from Escambia is, but he’s going to be a great one.”

That kid — Emmitt Smith — was a high school All-American, a college All-American at Florida and the leading rusher in National Football League history.

Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: High school football, a special game

Tim Hatten has proven to be a breath of fresh air in the 16 months since he arrived at Crestview High School to take the job as head football coach and athletic director.

In an age when too many high school football coaches and athletic directors are focused on all football, all the time, Hatten takes a more relaxed and realistic approach to football and sports.

“We’ve got to the point where we are a specialized society and kids focus on one sport and say, 'Let’s do this,'” he said. “And only 1 percent of the kids, maybe, are going to play pro ball. So why are we tailoring what we do for the 1 percent?

“What about the well-rounded kid that plays four or five sports. I love four or five-sport lettermen. I think they are better rounded people for the community and the workforce because 99 percent of the people are going to be in the workforce, not NFL football players.”

Hatten is thankful that his high school coaches allowed him to participate in baseball, basketball football and track.

He quickly points out that it’s not just football that has pigeonholed many young men and women into becoming one-sport athletes.

Too many sports, with an emphasis on travel ball, have become year-round activities, he says. Even though football doesn’t have travel ball, many coaches, especially at the high school level, tend to force talented athletes into committing to only football.

Hatten, like most coaches, has a summer program. But don’t expect him to put the Bulldogs through a high school version of bootcamp as Crestview prepares for preseason camp on Aug. 4.

“We are going to get our summer workouts in,” he said. “But we are going to be in a relaxed atmosphere and we are going to be in a teaching atmosphere. We are not going to grind them out.”

Hatten’s philosophies about specialized athletes might differ from many other coaches, but that in no way means he lacks a burning desire to win and bring the Bulldogs success.

Tim Hatten sees the big picture beyond the games played on Friday night at Jack Foster Stadium.

He understands that high school students need to enjoy a full and well-rounded high school experience as they enjoy just being kids.

Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: Tim Hatten gets it

I returned home from vacation Saturday only slightly worse from the wear of sleeping on my mom’s sleeper sofa for two weeks.

Vacations these days mean spending as much time as possible with Mom, who celebrated her 82nd birthday June 26.

We had hoped to make a trip to the mountains, but her health didn’t allow us to travel the 500-plus miles from DeLand to Tennessee or North Carolina.

We did manage to take a trip to Port Canaveral with my 8-year-old great-nephew, Connor.

'WORTH THE WAIT'

The trip's purpose was to take Connor to a free fishing clinic offered by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and sponsored, in part, by Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration.

I learned about the clinic through an email I received from the FWC.

I really didn’t know what to expect from the clinic. We arrived at the designated terminal about 10 a.m. to be greeted by a line long enough to make Disney’s Magic Kingdom proud.

But the day was about Connor and the opportunity for him to learn how to fish.

It took about 90 minutes for us to make it to the terminal, where stations were set up to teach children knot tying, the basics on bait and tackle, casting and a touch tank.

After completing the final station, each child was given a free rod and reel along with bait to try their hand at fishing.

The look on Connor’s face told me it was well worth the wait. It was his first time to put a line in the water and he quickly figured out the proper casting techniques.

REMINISCING

Unfortunately, Connor didn’t catch anything that day, and circumstances prevented me from taking him fishing another time during my visit.

Watching Connor, I was reminded of my first fishing experience with an old cane pole on the banks of Grenada Lake in north Mississippi.

 I was about 4 years old at the time, and I was fishing with my grandparents.

I don’t remember if I caught anything, but I do remember being stung by a big old red wasp as I was putting some bait minnows back in the lake.

ENJOYABLE HOBBY

These days, I don’t do much fresh water fishing. I prefer to go for a flounder or a sea trout off a pier or dock in Fort Walton Beach or Navarre.

As I’ve mentioned before, my dad wasn’t a fisherman, but he did have friends that instructed me on the basics of the sport that has given me a lifetime of enjoyment.

A tried-and-true saying goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him once. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

I believe that statement is only partially true. Yes, if you teach a person to fish they will have a means for feeding themselves and their family.

But if you teach them to fish they also will have a hobby to enjoy in the great outdoors the rest of their lives.

Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: All kids should learn to fish

Friday, we celebrate our nation’s 238th birthday — and what a 238 years it has been.

I studied communications, but also took as many history electives as I could in college for love of the subject.

One of my favorite classes was History of American Sports. Yes, I made an A in the class. And no, the class wasn’t all about baseball, football and basketball; but there was a healthy dose of those sports, too.

Long before Babe Ruth hit his first home run for the Boston Red Sox, or his last home run for the Boston Braves, or Knute Rockne challenged Notre Dame's football team to win one for the Gipper, sports dominated America's landscape.

Many of those sports — such as hunting and horseback riding — were used in everyday life. We Americans have always wanted to test our skills against the best to see how we measure up.

Before Abraham Lincoln became our nation’s 16th president, he was one of the best wrestlers in the Midwest. Abe wasn’t bad at splitting logs, either.

Many of our presidents were college athletes.

Dwight Eisenhower played football and baseball at West Point before having his athletic career cut short trying to tackle Jim Thorpe. Gerald Ford was a star center at Michigan. George H.W. Bush was captain of the Yale baseball team. John Kennedy was a swimmer at Harvard. Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan played small college football as well. And Reagan, who played the Gipper in the 1940 biopic "Knute Rockne, All American," also was a sportscaster before moving to acting and then politics.

Our sports heroes and our military heroes often are the same people. The Baseball Hall of Fame is filled with men who sacrificed years of their careers to defend the United States during World War II.

Boston Red Sox left fielder Ted Williams was a fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean Conflict. Yogi Berra, the great New York Yankee catcher, worked on a rocket launching boat during the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Cleveland Indian pitching great Bob Feller served as a gunner’s captain on the Battleship Alabama.

Dallas Cowboys Coach Tom Landry, an Army Air Corps pilot, flew 30 missions over Europe in a B-17. Chad Hennings, a Cowboys defensive lineman in the 1990s, is an Air Force Academy graduate who flew fighter jets before retiring from the military. Rocky Bleier almost lost his life in Vietnam, but came back to start at halfback on the great Pittsburgh Steeler teams of the 1970s.

Roger Staubach, who won the 1963 Heisman Trophy while playing quarterback at the Naval Academy, led the Dallas Cowboys to their first two Super Bowl wins.

David Robinson was 6-foot-8 when he entered the Naval Academy — 7-foot-1 when he graduated — and was the top pick in the 1987 National Basketball Association draft. He led the Spurs to two NBA championships.

Yes, many other brave men and women have entertained us on the athletic fields and served on the battlefield. Some, such as former Arizona Cardinal defensive back Pat Tillman, gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

This weekend, as you celebrate all that is America, take time to remember the people behind the games who gave of themselves for our freedom.

Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: Remember athletes who served for our freedoms