If the people who run football had their way, you’d see their game not in terms of a mere battle between offense and defense, but rather in the context of another game.
The metaphor is that the players are pieces on a giant grass-covered chess board and the coaches are master tacticians.
The two featured strategists at center stage in Sunday’s Super Bowl, Eric Bieniemy of Kansas City’s offense and Robert Saleh, San Francisco’s defensive coordinator, were at the helm of dynamic units that held even the casual observer in thrall.
