A Green Bay Packers fan wonders why a quarterback who’s tackled is said to be sacked. The roots of the word sack as in “bag” goes back thousands of years, all the way to Akkadian, later spreading through Greek, Latin, and then to Romance and...
spearing n.— «A helmet-to-helmet hit on a quarterback, or on a receiver in the act of making a catch is illegal. Also illegal: hitting a player already on the ground with a helmet or “spearing,” as it’s commonly called.» —“The message is clear to...
lunch-pail mentality n.— «He has what I call a lunch-pail mentality.…Tommy comes to work every day, and outworked people in practice. He called all our signals in the secondary, and was our quarterback on defense. Tommy is not only a good football...
robber coverage n.— «Lions had success deploying what’s called “robber” coverage. That’s when safety Barron Miles drops down in an alley in front of deep-zone defenders, but behind the underneath zone, or sometimes, man-to-man defenders. That kept...
against air other.— «He recounted how he’d watch other teams warm up before games, and how those opposing quarterbacks would have problems completing like 70 percent of their passes “against air,” which means in the football vernacular no one...
slash role n.— «Jesse Palmer and Shaun Hill are vying for the third-quarterback spot behind starter Alex Smith and Dilfer. For that reason, Pickett was poised to change positions to what Nolan refers to as the “slash” role—a combination running...