All Quarterbacks Watch Film

Watching film is an age-old study method for football coaches and players. Nowadays, it is often noted as a skill that is especially used by quarterbacks of elite stature. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady - if you listened to most analysts you would think these guys watch more film than Gene Shalit.

A message to football fans everywhere: All quarterbacks watch film.

They watch film of themselves in their previous games. They watch film of themselves in practice. They watch film of opponents and look for weaknesses and tendencies. They do this because it's their job and if they refused to do it, then they wouldn't have a job much longer. They do it because it makes them better, which in turn makes their team better and can earn them more rewards like trophies, cash, success, and fame.

To insinuate that one guy watches more film than any other guy out there suggests that the person who made the comment has interviewed every starting QB in the league, learned how much film they actually watch, and then compared them all to each other to see who in fact watched the most. I went to ESPN.com, NFL.com and pro-football-reference.com and could not find a stat called "Hours of Film Watched".

The act of watching film is treated like it's an awful, arduous task that only a few quarterbacks can stomach. It's worse than homework. But these aren't high school kids that go to school all day and then practice afterwards. Playing NFL football is a full-time job; a well-paying full-time job. Do you think they just practice for two-hours and head home and collect their million dollar paychecks? The NFL is cutthroat - these guys work hard. They all do.

It is quite possible that guys like Brady and Manning find the time between all of their commercial making and photo shoots and super-model dating and parenting and paparazzi-dodging to watch more film than any other QB. It is also quite possible that a guy like Ron Jaworski, after interviewing coaches and players, has a good feel for how much film these guys actually watch. However, don't you think by now that other QB's would have caught on and thought, "Hmm... if I want to be an elite quarterback like these guys, I have to watch a lot of film"?

For whatever reason, all the second rate football analysts and two-bit bloggers (like me, but the dumber ones) want to claim that guys like Brady and Manning are studious film-analysts above all others. I don't know the reason why... perhaps it legitimizes how two guys who don't always appear fast and agile could be so successful. Manning has been called "nerdy" and "dorky". Tom Brady famously ran a 5.23 in the 40-yard dash at the rookie combine. Preparedness is certainly part of their success, as is the ability to make quick decisions, throw the ball accurately, and effectively manage in-game situations with 75,000 fans looking down upon them.

You don't hear as much about Drew Brees' film study habits. Perhaps because he's not big enough of a star to be considered a great film-watcher yet. Or perhaps because he is a bit more gritty and athletic than Manning and Brady, that makes up for his lack of film-study.

Now do you get what I'm saying?

Analysts are filling in the blanks by attributing success to something that they cannot possibly judge. Hmm... he's not athletic, not fast, doesn't necessarily have a stronger arm than anyone else... it must be FILM STUDY!

Watching film is a necessary task for a successful quarterback. It can be an art-form in many respects. You cannot just sit in front of the TV, grab some popcorn and press "PLAY".  You need to know what to look for and how to process that information. But how can an analyst judge which quarterbacks are better film-studiers when they wouldn't know what to look for themselves?

It's one thing to report on something like "Peyton Manning used practice video of himself from a defensive perspective to see if he could read his own eyes". But judging quarterbacks on their film study habits and ability is something that nobody can or should do because you cannot possibly know which quarterbacks study more effectively than others. Perhaps Derek Anderson is the greatest film studier of them all, but he's just so awful in every other attribute of quarterbacking that he can't overcome his weaknesses on film study alone.

And lastly, can we please stop calling it "film"? It's not like they're plugging in the ol' projector and throwing a reel on there. It gives you the vision of the old coach, chompin' on a cigar in a smoke filled room with a drawn-down screen and a projector reel clicking away. This term is just perpetuating the myth that watching film is some sort of old school mystical method of becoming better. Players have video of themselves in practice. NFL teams provide multiple angles of every single play that is run in every game and players watch it on a high-definition flat-screen.  So let's stop pretending we know which quarterbacks watch the most film... because they all do.