Flag Football Strategy: How To Deal With “Bob”

We’ve all played with “that guy”, let’s call him “Bob”. You know, the one who makes sure to remind everyone around, even the guys on his own team, how incredibly awesome, jacked, ripped, fast or tall he is and how he used to play college ball or should have been in the NFL if it weren’t for (insert lame excuse here), and occasionally he’ll even be right.  Generally people with a highly inflated sense of self tend to have crazy unrealistic expectations when it comes to their role on the team and can quite often do more harm to a team than good.  Below is a very useful flag football strategy with tips to help you decide if you want to deal with players in this mold and how to manage them if you do, specifically from the quarterbacks point of view since they also tend to.

If you’re not sure that you’ve ever played with “Bob”, here are some questions to ask yourself and if the answer to even one of them is yes, the tips below may come in handy in the future.

1)  Does this person frequently wear no shirt and/or no shorts with just sliders to play in?
2)  Have the words “Bro if we were in pads you’d be layin’ on the ground right now” ever come out of his mouth?
3)  Can he go through an entire day without mentioning who he previously played high school, college or semi-pro football for?
4)  Does he occasionally refer to himself in 3rd person?  *According to associate clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, Referring to yourself in the third person creates distance between “I” and “he.” So if you have an exaggerated view of how great you are, you could be using this distance to make yourself even bigger.  AKA “Bob”.)  If he drops a pass or gets beat on defense, does he instantly start limping and complain of a tweaked calf, hamstring or twisted ankle, but then miraculously heal within a play or two?)  Does he constantly complain about not getting the ball even when he’s got Darrell Revis covering him, you’re winning by a large margin, and you’ve been beating up on the slow white dude on the other side all night long?

If you answered yes to any or all of the questions above, you’re in luck, because I have a sure fire way to deal with players like this.   Step 1: Delete their number from your phone.  Step 2:  Remember not to put his number in your phone next time.

This flag football strategy has been your public service announcement.

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Travis Burnett

A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.