- [Ryan] You know how the NFL has
a bad habit of making decisions
that don't feel very well thought out.
Particularly when it comes to player safety,
and things like that.
- [Will] Yeah like when they try to protect quarterbacks
by asking defenders to not sack a quarterback
with their whole body weight.
- [Ryan] Yes, yes that's exactly right.
What if I told you that
it's always been that way in the NFL?
- No.
- Mm-hmm Mm-hmm [Affirmative].
- The same NFL? - The very same one, friend.
It was so bad that even the first down chains
were dangerous for quite some time.
- Wait, what? - Yep.
- [Will] Were they using like left over landmines from WWII?
- [Ryan] They were just giant guns.
- [Will] They were? (laughing)
- [Ryan] Pointing at the ground.
Do you know who Bubba Smith is?
- [Will] Yeah, yeah.
The actor, you mean?
The actor Bubba Smith from Police Academy.
- [Ryan] Yes, the actor from the Police Academy movies.
Yes, Moses Hightower.
Well, it turns out he was actually
a very good football player before
he became a very good actor.
He was an All American defensive end for Michigan State,
he was one of the few players who's Jersey they retired.
- [Will] Oh wow.
- [Ryan] He was the number one draft pick in '67.
- [Will] Okay.
- [Ryan] And he was also huge.
He was a big boy, he was like 6'7", very fast.
- [Will] Could barely fit in the Academy.
(laughing)
- [Ryan] They had to, yeah ...
Well I mean there's that one scene
where he has to rip the back seat out
of the car so that he can fit in there.
- [Will] Improv.
- [Ryan] Yeah, completely improvised on set.
He actually has, unofficially, a rule named after him.
- Oh. - In the NFL.
- Good for him.
- Well not exactly, it's a little bit of a bummer reason
that he's got it named after him.
- Cool.
- Because back in the early '70s
- Thanks for having me on. - You're very welcome.
Back in the early '70s the first down markers
were like spikes on metal rods.
That they would shove into the ground
to pin the chains down on the sidelines.
- So they created a trip wire with the markers.
- So they essentially created a trip wire.
And they were like really in there,
they required some effort to pull out.
Which I can only assume meant that games
went on for six hours so every first down
they had to like yank these things out of the ground.
- Yeah, did they think like by calling it first down
there was only one?
And so they wouldn't have to move them.
- Right.
No, that semi-permanent thing that's totally fine.
You're not going to have to move those around.
In a preseason game in 1972 the Baltimore Colts,
the defense he was playing for at the time,
intercepted a Terry Bradshaw pass.
Bubba Smith goes to set up for the block
and he's running down the sideline
and of course the inevitable happens,
he gets tripped up in the chains,
blows out his knee,
basically destroys his leg.
- In preseason?
- In preseason where the games are so meaningful.
- Right, right.
- And misses all of the 1972 season.
And then after the 1972 season,
the NFL was like maybe we should change
some of this potentially lethal equipment.
- That's so NFL.
They waited until the end of the season.
- Yep.
- So what did they change?
Did they completely revamp it?
I'm guessing not because it sounds pretty
similar to how it currently is.
- It's very similar.
They basically just said go to the hardware store
and replace those spikes with the rubber tips
that you see on the end of walkers.
(laughing)
Or like tables in your kitchen.
- [Will] Just cut a tennis ball open,
slap that on the bottom.
- [Ryan] They could have even just sliced open a football.
And just used that. - [Will] Right!
We still use the chains!
- We still use the chains.
They're incredibly archaic.
But it's better than the alternative
that they had looked into
right around the same time in the early '70s.
Which was a laser system that would have required
permanent metal tracks along the sidelines.
Like a rail, for these lasers to slide up and down
that would have measured ten
- That can't be real.
- yards in front of the line of scrimmage.
- That can't be real.
- It's totally true.
And surely with the technology in the 1972
or whenever this was that would have meant
it would have been basically a giant,
one of those Husky toolboxes - [Will] Right, right, right.
- [Ryan] your stepdad keeps in his garage.
- [Will] With five dudes having to man it
because no one understood lasers really.
- [Ryan] Sure. It would basically be
the Booger McFarland cart they
have now with lasers attached.
- I love that that sounds peak NFL
saying okay you don't like this idea of
the chains that are just spiked into the ground.
Well what if we put two metal tracks
and then there's more obstacles on there.
Just so people can be like no that's a worse ideas.
They're like, "Okay, we'll stick with the one we have".
- [Ryan] I guess we'll stick with the less
dangerous option we already have.
- [Will] Forced our hand.
- Bubba Smith did eventually come back
- Okay.
to play for another three or four seasons
but he was never really the same.
He eventually retired and then got into policing.
- (laughs) He got into policing.
- He was featured into the documentary series
known as The Police Academies 1-14.
It's a bummer because Bubba Smith was really good.
He won a Super Bowl. - Oh!
- He won Super Bowl Five with Baltimore.
- Okay - He actually got to play in
Super Bowl Three but he didn't
wear the ring that he won in
Super Bowl Five because he was
convinced that the NFL rigged
Super Bowl Three (laughs)
in favor of the Jets to help the merger.
- That's great, that's great.
- So he was like I'm not going to wears this ring.
- I love that, I love that.
If a player playing in it thought that,
I'm now convinced that it was rigged.
They faked the moon landing, they could fake a Super Bowl.
- Easily.