I love Yoshi, but...

[TecnoGenius]

Yoshi = Hardrick (the team's nickname for him, not mine)

I'm a huge Hardrick fan, but now he's a member of the Evil Enemy(TM), so...

I've watched him Like A Hawk(TM) for so many years now, I know his quirks.  This coming season when we play SSK we should get in the refs' ears and point out (i.e. flag beg):

a) He usually starts standing before the snap.  Like nearly every time.  He goes by the cadence, not by the ball, and he's always the earliest one up.  Usually by 1-3 tenths of a second.  Ya, it's not much, and refs are pretty lenient, but maybe we can have them watch out for the times he's pushing 4-6 tenths.

b) Before the snap, in the final 1-2 seconds, including the final second where they have to be absolutely still, he's always bobbing up and down a bit.  I think he has some physical or neurological thing that makes it impossible to be perfectly still.  Just watch him and compare to everyone else.  Refs never call it, but it is distracting movement and I'm surprised D's never complain.

He may have gotten a special waiver if he has some legit condition, though it would be nice if this was public, as any special ref treatment should be.  No other OL is allowed to bobble like that, and I've seen IP called for less.

Again, I love Yoshi and wish him great luck when he's not playing us.  But all is fair in love and football, eh.  For years I've marveled at how Yoshi gets away with things other OL don't.  I've kept it to myself for all this time (not easy!).  For any snap where it looks like there might be OS of IP I do the ol' freeze/step frame to study the 0.5s pre-snap.  I've gotten a chuckle out of the ol' Yoshi early-rise for years.  Ya, I know, refs don't care about 1/10th sec, but they should, and often do, on 4/10th.  And we all know the MOS chirping (in his case, polite request and fatherly guidance) has worked before (C moving the football forward, anyone?)...