OLB stuff

To answer your question about what makes a good outside linebacker....first I believe the most important ability any football player must posess, especially a linebacker is the mentality that when you really get down to it, it's not so much you against the other team, it's you against yourself. When you are tired, feeling weak, and your mind is telling your body to stop and rest, you have to push yourself, you have to find deep down inside your heart the will to go on, and go on even more intensely than you began. If you are always playing against your opponent and not yourself, then you will never come close to your potential, you'll always be either one step ahead or one step behind the other guy. Most people think of linebackers as a little crazy, oh well, I love to hit, and I love to hit somebody so hard that afterwards they are just laying on the ground, unable to move because they just got knocked out. This sounds sick, but it's true, that's the best feeling in the world when you just made a huge hit, the crowd goes oooooohhhhhhhh..... and you get up, not feeling anything but adrenaline coursing through your veins, and the guy you just hit is laying on the ground, not moving, eyes closed...then he stands up eventually, and wobbles back to the sideline or to the huddle.. I once hit a kid in the first round of a high school football game, and when he got back up, he started walking to our huddle, one of his linemen had to take him back to his huddle, leading him by the hand as the kid was holding his head. Maybe his coach didn't see it, but he kept him in the game and that kid didn't do anything for the rest of that series, he looked like he didn't know where he was. I love that! That is what makes a LB tick. As far as other attributes...controlled aggresiveness, quick feet, crazy explosiveness to make the big hit, he has to be smart to know the other team's tendencies more so than any other player on the defense, he has to have the ability to react quickly and be able to commit himself to his reads, if he hesitates on his read, that's the worst thing he can do. Commit yourself to your read, write or wrong, but do it full-speed! A linebacker has to be a leader, when he is tired wanting to put his hands on his knees, drop his head, he can't, he has to stay upright, focused, even if you are dead tired, you can't let your teammates see that, if they see you acting tired and you are their leader, then they assume it's ok for them to act tired. As a LB, when I see the offense in their huddle and some of their players are breathing hard, hands on knees, heads down, and that look in their eye like they can't wait to take a rest, I know they are beat, and I start licking my chops like a starving lion stumbling upon a wounded gazell. Every play after I notice they are looking tired and weak, I make it a purpose to hit them a little bit harder, it gives me motivation, I want to make it hell on them. That was a little lengthy, but I believe it's a good representation of some of the more important tools a linebacker must posess.