KEEP IT RIDING DIRTY

Dirty30 is Washington Redskin safety, and former All American out of LSU, LaRon Landry, AKA LL-DrrTay, AKA LL-ThrrTay. When #30 is on the field it does not take long for him to make his presence felt, just ask Brodie Croyle or John Parker Wilson or Plexi-Glass Burress. Landry started for the 2003 National Champion LSU Tigers, played four impressive years there and was drafted as the sixth overall pick by the Redskins.

In his first preseason game against the Titans, Landry introduced himself("Dirty Thirty Style") to the Titans quarterback. His entire football career is filled with violent collisions. To some this may be seen as dirty, meaning cheap. To others, myself included, I see it as hard nosed football. I say it is the job of the safety to inflict damage to the offense. The opposing receivers can not be allowed to run free in the secondary. They need to know, deep down in their hearts that "The Dirty Thirty" is out there, waiting, lurking like an ominous cloud on the horizon.

Quarterbacks need to know that at any time they might taste the bone crushing hit from D-30, its not if, but when will the hit take place. Safeties are the enforcers, they are the hit men, players like Ronnie Lott, who may be the best safety ever, Jack Tatum, who might be the most dirty player ever, John Lynch, Roy Williams and Bob Sanders who uses his body like a hit seeking missile. All of these players walk that fine line that separates a hard nosed football player and cheap shot specialist.

Perhaps the most notorious safety in the last 20 years to have a rep of taking cheap shots is former Eagle safety Andre Waters, AKA "Dirty Waters". After hitting quarterback Jim(Chris) Everett, the NFL made it illegal to hit QBs below the waste while in the pocket; the unofficially named Andre Waters Rule.

So what constitutes a dirty hit? What makes a player dirty? Is it malice or intent that makes a player dirty? These guys are paid to hit, they are programmed to destroy the opposition. As mentioned before, it is the job of the safety to establish a presence of fear in a league where fear is not accepted or admitted. Call it fear, doubt, concern or self preservation, the opposing receivers will run wild if this presence is not enforced. The job of the offense is to score points. They will run up the score if they are allowed to every time, with no mercy. The offense would pound the ball down the defences' throat and score 50 points a game if allowed. Yards allowed per game and points allowed per game is how a defense is rated.

From high school football, to college football, to the NFL if a defence is abused on the field the week before they pay for it the very next week. They pay in practice, where they are run into the ground by angry coaches who are in fear of losing their jobs. Defenders are yelled and screamed at until something gives. Either the player decides football is too rough and they go play baseball or soccer, or, or a chip on their shoulder develops and they realize the only way to survive in football is to have the ability inflict punishment on the opposition or the ability to take all the punishment the opposition gives. It is hit or be hit. For a defender his job is to stop the offense. To win in football a defender must destroy the offenses ability to move the ball.

So where does a defender draw the line. Some players like Dirty 30 live on that line. That line is where they play the game. "The hit" is how players like Landry and Lott get paid. That line defines them and separates them from the rest. Defense wins championships. The safety is the last line of defense. That is why the safety plays the way he does. If the safety gets beat the offense usually scores. Every safety knows his responsibility, they carry this load every time they step on the field. With every bone crushing hit delivered the weight of that load diminishes.

In the end a player is not defined as dirty, in the end a player is perceived to be dirty. Perception is in the eye of the beholder. I say this is one of those deals where it depends on where the player in question plays or played, in other words if his momma call him Clay, I'm a gonna call him Clay.

Woa, where did that come from? In others words, if the player in question, "Dirty 30" for example, is on my team, I say he is NOT dirty, he is just a badass. BUUUT, if D-30 was from, I don't know maybe from hated Auburn or Alabama, I would say he was dirty as all hell. BUUUT, he is not from either of those ####ing schools, he happens to be a LSU Tiger, so ##** you if you think he's dirty.

POSTED BY THE MIKE STERLING (OF THE KENNY BUNKPORT MAINE STERLINGS)