The Dallas Cowboys’ new offensive line coach has a unique approach to evaluating players.
In his 2011 book, Perform: A Journey for Athletes, Musicians and Teachers, Paul Alexander writes that his litmus test for determining an offensive lineman’s qualifications is their method of getting ketchup out of a bottle.
He notes that the “57” is strategically placed on a Heinz bottle.
“It’s placed at the precise spot where if one taps gently on the tipped bottle, the ketchup flows freely,” he writes.
A player who doesn’t know this has no place on a Paul Alexander offensive line, apparently.
“When I see a large football player turn a bottle of ketchup upside down and pound at its heel with tremendous force yet with limited success, I immediately make the mental note:
He must either play defensive line, or if he plays offensive line, he can’t play for me.”
It’s worth noting here that, while I have for some time hit the neck of a ketchup bottle and not the bottom like a Neanderthal, I had not connected the dots of the optimal location of the 57. I’ll never look at a bottle of ketchup the same, thanks to Coach Alexander.
It’s also worth noting that the ketchup bottle trick is likely not a literal assessment of skill or NFL-readiness, but rather a metaphor for the philosophy of a lineman.
In 2015, the average NFL lineman stood at a towering 6-foot-5, 312 pounds, according to Business Insider. But it’s a position that has to analyze seemingly countless schemes and moving parts. Alexander’s ketchup metaphor represents the problem-solving skills needed for a successful lineman, rather than a reliance on the brute force many possess.
The rest of the ketchup bottle excerpt from Alexander’s book:
“Offensive linemen need to be the smartest, most cohesive group on the football field because they are responsible for the combinations of problems that eleven coordinated defenders can cause. In football, there are eleven defenders and eight gaps that they can charge. Assuming each man can choose a gap, there are 437,514 possible defensive alignments that the offensive line must deal with. Football strategy can be complicated much like an advanced level math problem. Offensive linemen and their coaches seek to solve complex problems with simple solutions.”
The Cowboys hired Alexander in January. He's spent the last 23 seasons coaching the offensive line of the Cincinnati Bengals.
(h/t Bobby Belt)