Yes, I did back read the thread an hour or so ago and soxfan is actually right. No one said the BEST defensive back technique - period - is to play the receiver.
What people said is if the DB is already burned it's best to play the receiver. Which, in retrospect, really is sort of a nonsensical topic to even discuss, because if you're thoroughly beat, of course you have no other option than to play the receiver.
Which would mean, of course, if you're regularly being put in that position (to play the receiver), then you probably have no chance of playing the ball all that often anyways, which means you're probably not a very good NFL cornerback (which means your GM shouldn't have signed you to a fairly big money deal given your abilities).
But as I said in that thread, if we're talking about technique when the cornerback is in decent position and not relying on post-burned "oh shit, what do I do now?" technique, if the coverage is fairly close I think it's generally best to look for the ball.
And I think that's something that can be taught to a millionaire professional athlete; or, at least, it SHOULD be possible when, in a down year for cornerback deals (2013) a player who fits this profile was given a fairly high end contract.
And for those of you saying "oh you want everyone to be Revis, idiot?!", I think you need to stop exaggerating my point because there are cornerbacks in the league not named Revis or Sherman that often find themselves in position to play the ball and not have to regularly rely on a last ditch effort to jar a ball loose.
I think all of this really stems from whether you think average-and-above average NFL cornerbacks should be expected to regularly stay close to their man. If you don't, then the "playing the receiver" technique fairly often makes sense to you; if you do think average and better DBs should be able to stay close, then you're probably one of the people who scream "play the ball!" fairly often. I don't think you have to be Revis to be the latter, and I think that's where my opinion of proper technique branches off from some other people.