Ivy’s move latest in tend toward less tackling in practice

In 2010, Dartmouth head football coach Buddy Teevens chose to do away with full-contact practices during the regular season.

Amid increasing concern over player safety and concussion prevention, Ivy League football coaches voted last week to eliminate all full-contact practices during the season. “So it wouldn’t be a dramatic change for us, nor would it be for the majority of people”.

Ivy League schools dominated college football from 1869 through 1919, with member institutions winning the first 29 national championships and 42 of the first 49. “But it’s kept my guys healthy”.

Teevens also claimed his players have become better tacklers since the ban was enacted, with the number of missed tackles in game reportedly falling by more than half. The Ivy League as a whole had already significantly reduced the amount of contact in practice in recent years and now will just make the move to eliminate it completely.

The decision to end tackling during practice is expected to be formally adopted after it’s reviewed by Ivy League officials.

Harvard, Yale, and the rest of the Ivies are set to join Dartmouth and cut full-contact from practices.

This is the most radical step taken by any league towards reducing the contact players take during practice. Players instead take on dummies, including the “mobile virtual player”, a padded robot device that “moves across the field the way a player would”. For a good – or terrifying, as it were – glimpse into what concussions can do to a person’s ability to function on a normal level, look no farther than this first-person account from former professional hockey player and Dartmouth graduate, Adam Estoclet. Other teams paid attention to Teevens’ methods.

He coached at Tulane, Illinois, Florida and Stanford in between.

Teevens has eliminated all live tackling from practices, including spring and preseason.

From a medical perspective, the benefits have been unequivocal.