In the sport of football, and more specifically the National Football League (NFL), the trend over the last 10 years has been teams passing the ball significantly more often. The running backs of the league who once had the spotlight as the top players other than quarterbacks were now running less. Today, only a few teams have specific rosters for running the ball. One of them is the Tennessee Titans. Their star would happen to be Derrick Henry, the 2015 Heisman trophy winner, a prestigious award given to the top college football player in the United States each year. Clearly, not much has changed, because Henry won the 2019-20 NFL rushing title for the regular season.
On the weekend, Henry didn’t just break the internet with his shocking highlights against yet another quality team. This time he broke the record books too. Henry is now the only player in the history of the NFL to rush for over 180 yards in three consecutive games: a feat completely unprecedented given that modern offences have all but moved on from running in favour of passing the football.
It’s not a trend, nor is it the new norm; however, Derrick Henry is reminding football fans that running is not obsolete in 2020.
