American Football Pitchers

Hey everyone, once again I'm going to go off topic and choose something interesting I saw relating to science this week, I use the term science very loosely. I'm going to push the boundaries on what comes under science, I'm going to discuss the implications of pitching in baseball can have on quarterbacks throwing techniques. It must slip under the science genre, it has physics and stuff in it!

The show 'Sports Science', you know that awesome segment on ESPN that shows how amazing certain sports player are, discussed how being a baseball pitcher in the past has affected two current quarterbacks. They claim two elite quarterbacks, Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick, the elite term being very debatable and an argument for another time (all Kaepernick can do is run and kiss his biceps if he gets a touch down (both not in a normal quarterbacks job description).

What Kaepernick does have is a pretty fast arm, in high school he clocked a 92 mph pitch and in the NFL combine he threw the second fastest throw recorded in the past seven combines at 59 mph. This extra speed can be linked to the increased rotation of the shoulder of baseball pitchers, 50% more compared to quarterbacks. Personally Kaepernick should stick to baseball and no that is not a personal opinion caused by what Kaepernick and his running game did to the Packers in the finals in 2012.

Russell Wilson, a far better quarterback than Kaepernick, brings a lot more from his relief pitcher days. Pitchers hold their elbows twice as far back as quarterbacks and cock their elbows 13 degrees less. Wilson holds his elbow quite a lot further back than normal quarterbacks and cocks his elbow  five degrees less which  creates a longer lever and more torque. Baseball pitchers, and Russell Wilson, hold their shoulders 10 degrees further back than the normal quarterback which creates more distance and therefore a higher traveling velocity on release. Wilson is definitely the better quarterback, all Kaepernick can do is pass faster which is great if the pass actually goes to the right person.

See lots of sciencey words were used like torque so this is obviously a blog about science! Quarterbacks in the pro footballs hall of fame, from both high school and college, are made up of 60% of ex or current baseball pitchers showing pitching can definitely create excellent quarterbacks. Hope you learned a lot today, the main fact being that Kaepernick is overated.

                                                            Russell WIlson in mid throw

                                         Pretty much a baseball pitcher right there, ok I lied I
                                         personally see no difference compared to other
                                         quarterbacks but the science is there!


Thanks for reading everyone :)