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Six things to keep in mind when it comes to football, courtesy of classic TV
When creating your game plan, don’t make these classic TV football mistakes.
If you’re a fan of football, it has been an exciting couple of weeks, as most levels of the game are underway.
Whether you’re a fan of the NFL, college, high school or if you’re a new fan, we wanted to share a couple of pointers on how the game shouldn’t look. Across classic television, there’s been plenty of blunders on the gridiron, making for some instantly recognizable scenes and funny moments that continue to live on.
Here are six friendly pieces of advice when it comes to football, and six examples on why you should follow it, courtesy of some of classic TV’s funniest football scenes!
1. Don’t take your eyes off the target – The Brady Bunch
After just hitting Bobby in the backyard endzone on the previous play, Peter Brady gets a little too confident at quarterback. After snapping the ball, Bobby runs out to the same spot hoping for another laser from Peter. But instead, Peter takes his eyes off his target, sending the ball right into Marcia’s direction. It not only caused a bruised nose, but it cost her a date with Doug!
2. Don’t trip over your own feet – Leave It to Beaver
When Wally and Eddie from Leave It to Beaver take up coaching, they just can’t seem to get through to the team during practice. Eddie Haskell never misses an opportunity to display his skills, no matter what they may or may not be. In this case, he’s showing the “owls” how to catch a pass and run it in for a score. He runs a nice fade route and Wally lays a perfect pass on him. When cutting across the field unopposed, he trips over his own two feet, falling short of the goal line. The team certainly shouldn’t be doing that!
3. Don’t fumble – Leave It to Beaver
With Beaver Cleaver under center and the team’s secret play, “old 98” up their sleeve, The Lightning Eleven football team looks to score. The Beaver takes the snap, play fakes and gets swarmed by the opponents, the Grant Avenue Tigers, who rip the ball away and score a touchdown. After this fumble, Ward tries to cheer him up by saying, "don't worry about it, you can't win all of them." To which Beaver responds, "Gee dad, we can't win any of them." Bonus tip: don't tell anybody what your secret play is!
4. Be aware of your surroundings at all times – Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
If you happen to throw the ball around this football season, look out for things that might be along your receiver route, especially trees! Stopped by security while trying to get the game ball out of the stadium, Sgt. Carter pitches to Pyle for a pass. After Carter runs out of the turnstile and into the clear, Pyle heaves the ball over the gate and perfectly places it in Carter’s hands. No matter how great of a catch it is, if you’re stuck short of the goal line it doesn’t matter, and that tree certainly knocked Carter out of his cleats!
5. Don’t overdo it – The Flintstones
The last thing you want for you, your relative or even your favorite pro football player is to overdo it. Let’s use Fred Flintstone as an example. He’s out of a job unless he goes back to high school for two weeks to get his diploma. While attending class, the football coach approaches and immediately recruits him for the team, as he’s bigger and stronger than the rest of the high school kids. In the Rock Bowl, Fred can do no wrong, scoring touchdowns, picking up fumbles and even flying through the goal post on an extra point! All that fun begins to fade when he comes home with a limp! Moral of the story: Don’t overdo it!
6. Be wary of those field-level seats – Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Let’s step off the field for this one. It’s everyone’s dream to watch the big game from field-level seats. For Sgt. Carter and Gomer Pyle, it’s a dream come true! Carter says it’s the “greatest day” of his life. That lasts all of one play, as the first of the game sees the running back bounce outside, into the sideline and into Carter’s face! That outcome could’ve been avoided if he were in the nosebleeds! To make things worse, that knockout collision cost him $50.00!
SEE MORE: Can you guess what decade these vintage football ads are from?
Plenty of companies and products try to score with this hard-hitting sport as the main selling point! TAKE QUIZ
