When former New England Patriots offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia talks, people in football listen. Scar is a legend and six-time Super Bowl champion for his work over several decades with the Pats, seemingly gentle yet commanding and known to have a big voice that can crank up the heat when needed. So when he calls WEEI-FM out of the blue to scold Christian Fauria AND preach the value of practice, people really listen. And maybe smile.
Fauria, in the middle of the The Gresh and Fauria Show, said that OTAs (optional team activities) are useless. The Pats happened to be in the middle of one on Wednesday, no less. Scarnecchia, who said he was driving home from the hardware store and listening to WEEI, “like I do”, was so incensed by Christian’s comment that he felt compelled to call in and preach the value of the spring football workouts that are basically pad-free practices.
The man they call Scar said the time spent in OTAs is “invaluable to developing linemen,” opining on how there was practice time for run blocking and pass protection, but that working on blitz pick-up especially was important because there’s no running in pad-free practice.
“Those are invaluable to get young men to understand protection systems, where the weaknesses are in the systems, and the adjustments that have to be made relative to the fronts which are dialed up in so many different ways.”
Yeah, take that, Fauria!
The call, which can be heard in its entirety in the player above, is a great football guy chat, informative for those ignorant to OTAs and how line development works. For the record, Fauria was actually coached by Scarnecchia to a degree in his time with the Pats as there is a lot of crossover for tight ends with the offensive line and receivers as well (when interviewing Scarnecchia for The 6 Rings & Football Things podcast a few weeks ago, he told me off mic that Christian was a good player and responded well to coaching, for what it’s worth).
Great to hear Scar still has the passion and was willing to share his perspective. And WEEI hosts best watch out what they say! You never know when a Pats legend or former positional coach may be listening.
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