Team sports and responsibility

I had a thought a few days, kinda out of no where, about something people can learn from team sports. It was about responsibility and how people sometimes skirt responsibility and hope that other people will do their job.

In team sports, like football, a player cannot rely on other players doing his job. It's usually very clear if a player is doing that or thinks that way. 

For example, a well known thing in football is for a defensive line player to shoot a gap in a situation where he's not supposed to do that (the chosen play does not tell that player to shoot a gap). This causes a situation where other players might have to do the job of the player that didn't do his job. His job was to read the offensive play (not shoot a gap) and then react to the offense. So like if he finds out that it's a pass play, then go after the QB. Or if he finds out it's a run play up his gap, then plug up the gap.

• I'm not sure this is a good example of what I was explaining. The example I gave is about a player who is gambling. He's hoping that the play is a pass play and that shooting the gap will dramatically increase his chances of sacking the QB. So like if he shot the gap and it was a run play, and if the run play did not go right up the gap that he's shooting, then he has completely taken himself out of the play, leaving a huge open gap, allowing the running back with the ball a huge opportunity to get a lot of yards, or a first down, or a touchdown. And the only way to correct this mistake (within the same play) is for another defensive player to tackle the running back (which was the job of the defensive player that shot a gap).

There are defensive plays where the job of a defensive player is to shoot a gap. But in those cases, the defensive play is designed so that another player is filling the usual role of the shooting-gap player.

• example: a linebacker shoots a gap and the lineman in front of him falls back and acts like a linebacker. 

So like players need to be on the same page about their roles such that their roles fit well together. Shooting a gap when the rest of the team doesn't know you're doing that is not good.

I can imagine a scenario where the defensive player that chooses to shoot a gap when it wasn't part of the play did so because he got some sort of indication that the play is a pass play. 

• One way that a defensive lineman can do this is if he recognizes that the offensive lineman in front of him is going to fall back (the determination is made before the play starts).
• Falling back means it's a pass play. 
• If it was a run play, the offensive lineman would not be falling back and instead he'd be rushing forward.
• usually. sometimes he will "pull", which means go parallel to the line of scrimmage, behind the other offensive lineman, running towards the end of the offensive line to block a defensive player there. 
• One technique I learned about that could help with this determination involves paying attention to the offensive lineman's fingers that are touching the ground. 
• If his fingers are white, then he has a lot of weight on his arm, which means he's leaning forward and intending to rush forward (run play). 
• If his fingers are not white, then he has not much weight on his arm, which means he's leaning backward and intending to fall back (pass play) (or he could be prepared to pull).
• But let's say this shooting-gap-when-not-supposed-to defensive player has not practiced this much and so he doesn't know how to judge such things very well. So his success rate is not high enough.
• One problem I have with it is this: an offensive lineman could trick the defensive lineman by leaning backward (causing his fingers to not be white) and then not fall back because it's a run play. This only works well if the offensive lineman is quicker off the ball than the defensive lineman he's up against.
• I guess other factors could matter, like whether or not the defensive team is winning or losing by a lot and how much time is left. If they are losing and there is not much time left, then riskier gambles make more sense.
• There's a way around this problem of a defensive lineman shooting a gap while other players don't know it's happening. The defensive lineman and the linebacker behind him could have a communication system that tells the linebacker that the lineman will shoot a gap. It would have to be something that the whole team knows could happen as part of the defensive play.