Internal Controls in Football

It’s that time of year when college and professional football are beginning their seasons.  Looking at how teams set up their defensive players, one sees an exercise in internal controls. By examining the functions of different defensive players, one can see how they act to neutralize offensive threats and learn from their best practices and incorporate them into the defensive game plan (internal controls).

Teams set up three layers of protection against the threat of the offensive team moving the ball down the field. The first layer of defensive internal control is the defensive line. If the offensive side tries to run the ball, the defensive linemen will act to tackle the player who carries the ball to stop his progress as soon as possible. If the offensive team calls a pass play, the defensive linemen act to sack the quarterback or knock down the ball. If either action is successful, the defense will have neutralized the threat of the quarterback passing the ball down the field.

The second layer of protection is the linebackers. In the event of running play, they assist the linemen in tackling the ball carrier. In the event of a passing play, they will either assist the linemen in trying to sack the quarterback, or disrupt passes that the quarterback throws. The players who make up the last line of defense (set of controls) are the cornerbacks and safeties. These players primarily guard against passes that the quarterback throws. In the event of a running play where the ball carrier gets through the linemen and the linebackers, the responsibility falls to the cornerbacks and safeties to neutralize the threat.

If we replace the setting of a football field with, say, a computer and the threat of the opposition advancing the ball into our territory with someone trying to access the computer, we can learn from those football analogies (internal controls). The computer is housed in a building. Our defensive line are the security guards who block access to the building, except for those individuals who have legitimate reason and are authorized to be in the building. Next, the computer should be set up in a locked room. Instead of linebackers, we have a locked door to the room that will block unauthorized access to that room. If a person is then able to get past the guards and get into the building, we have a password to the computer instead of cornerbacks and safeties.” Hopefully, the result of both set of controls will be the same.  The offensive attack will be stopped before any significant damage is done.

Internal Controls Provide Added Protection

Managers and employees alike often ask why do we always have to:

1. Lock the supply room door?
2. Display our identification card?
3. Sign documents prepared by our subordinates?
4. Ensure that all vendors are registered?
5. Maintain copies of documents supporting transactions?

Some of these requirements are in fact a matter of law or regulation. But even in those cases compliance is not the real reason. This is generally because the provision of the law or regulation was writtin the support the real reason.

In each case such rules, which are examples of frequently applied interanl controls, are imposed to make it less likely that some serious adverse consequence (known as a risk) would 0ccur. The underlying risks behind doing the five internal controls listed above are:

1. An unauthorized person could take some or a lots of supplied for personal use.
2. A non-employee could be gain access to the office, remove personnal or organizational property or information, and not be suspected of having an inappropriate reason for being there.
3. You assistant may make a serious error in preparing a document that could have costly consequences.
4. An unregistered vendor may turn out not be be a legitamit business.
5. It may be necessary to substantiate the validity or accuracy of a transaction at a later date.

An internal control is rarely an absolute quarantee that a problem will be avoided; neither is not doing the internal control a guarantee that there will be a problem. For example, it is possible that a supply room door could be unlocked all day and no items get taken for inappropriate purposes. However, leaving the door unlocked provides too high a likelhood of a theft to be allowed. Similarly, if the door is always kept locked there could still be a theft by an individual determined to commit a criminal act. However, the odds of this happening in an otherwise well managed work environment is appropriately low.
If you are wondering why a certain rule is in place in your workplace, contact Stu on Patrol at this website and he may provide you a likely underlying reason in the form the risk that the rule in designed to mitigate. On the other hand if you are worried that a certain bad thing may happen need an idea of what rule or device may make that problem less likely to happen, contact Stu on Patrol and he may be able to provide you some suggested actions.