Cowboys hope running back drills stay noisy

Dallas Cowboys practice, or at least parts of it, has gotten quite a bit louder. Annoyingly loud.

And that's a good thing.

The Cowboys have begun using the High and Tight football, a regulation-size and -weight ball that loudly beeps when running backs are carrying it properly, so offseason practices this year have been noisy.

Created by Tom Creguer, the former head football coach at Northwood University, a Division II school in Michigan, the battery-operated ball forces players to hold it with the five proper pressure points: two fingers on the nose of the ball, one long panel firmly against their forearm, one long panel pressed against their chest, and the opposite tip in the crook of the arm at the elbow.

Dallas is the fourth NFL team to use the ball in practice, joining the San Diego Chargers, Indianapolis Colts and Baltimore Ravens.

Cowboys running backs committed four fumbles last season, and 12 total over the 2013-15 seasons. That's better than two of their three NFC East rivals; the Giants had just one running back fumble last season and nine over the past three years, the Eagles six and 13, and Washington six and 15).

Dallas' first-round draft pick, back Ezekiel Elliott, is a fan of the ball, if only because it is a safer option than he's used to.

"When you have the football in the perfect position with all the points covered and tight to your body, it sings to you,” Elliott told the team website. “When it stops singing you know you’re doing something wrong. So you want to make sure it’s singing the whole time.

“Those balls just came out this year, so it’s a new ball that I’ve never work with. At Ohio State, they had bats instead. They used to hit us with bats, so I like this better.”

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