Nose tackle is not a glamorous position. Never has been. Back in the 1970s, when 3-4 base defenses became the hot NFL trend, interior defensive linemen who were used to hunting in four-on-the-floor fronts had to adjust to gumming things up in the middle so that other defensive linemen could eat. The big man aligning straight over the head of the center, or to the left or right shoulder of the center, was going to get assaulted on every play.
“A lot of the time it’s very difficult,” Hall of Fame nose tackle Curley Culp told Sports Illustrated in 1979, “because as defensive linemen we want to get to the quarterback, but we have to be team-oriented first. Psychologically, it affects you if you let it, because you get off one blocker and there’s another one waiting for you, and it’s like that the whole game. So you just got to try and try and try and try.”
