# American football - only team sport with specialized offense and defense players **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 27, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-only-team-sport-with-specialized-offense-and-defense-players/747321 "2016-02-27T18:51:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-only-team-sport-with-specialized-offense-and-defense-players/747321/21 "2016-02-29T22:04:02Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > That’s not at all what I mean. Those players are playing a mixture of offense and defense. Like soccer. > > I mean an entire unit dedicated to \*offense only \*and an entire \*separate \*unit of \*defense only. \*That’s what you see in American football. No attackmen are the offensive unit and play offense and stay on the offensive side of the field… defensemen are the defensive unit and play defense and stay on the defensive side of the field. The midfielders play both sides of the field and even that, wiht on the fly switching, there are offensive middies and defensive middies as separate units. There will be an occasional turnover, like in football, where defense will be the offense or vice versa, but in general, they play separate roles on seperate sides of the field. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-only-team-sport-with-specialized-offense-and-defense-players/747321/22 "2016-03-01T00:08:29Z")
Manute Bol hardly ever went up to the opponents’ ring. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-only-team-sport-with-specialized-offense-and-defense-players/747321/23 "2016-03-01T15:07:04Z")
> [@bmoak](#): > > To be fair, American football was played for several decades by players who lined up on both the offensive and defensive sides of the line. > > When my mom was in high school, she said girls’ basketball was played six-on-six, with three players in the offensive zone and three in the defensive zone and no player allowed to cross the half-court line. That was back in the 50s, but I believe that version of girl’s b-ball survived in parts of the Midwest for a while. It was still played like that in Iowa in the late 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-only-team-sport-with-specialized-offense-and-defense-players/747321/24 "2016-03-01T16:05:52Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > I’d have to look it up to be sure. I believe the NFL had baseball-like substitution rules until WWII. During the war I believe they changed to if you were subbed out, you were gone for that quarter. They also used a you can sub any three players at a time (and you cold come back in). Unlimited substitution was adopted experimentally for 1949, then adopted permanently for 1950. There have been no important changes since. > > Again that’s all from memory. According to [this site](http://www.sportsattic.com/araig/NflRulesHistory.htm), which lists when various major rule changes were made, you’re exactly right. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-only-team-sport-with-specialized-offense-and-defense-players/747321/25 "2016-03-01T17:58:09Z")
> [@bmoak](#): > > To be fair, American football was played for several decades by players who lined up on both the offensive and defensive sides of the line. > > When my mom was in high school, she said girls’ basketball was played six-on-six, with three players in the offensive zone and three in the defensive zone and no player allowed to cross the half-court line. That was back in the 50s, but I believe that version of girl’s b-ball survived in parts of the Midwest for a while. That was how it was played in my high school in 1970. But it was a variation where the positions were two forwards, two defense, and two rovers, who could play on both halves of the court. I actually liked that version more than the men’s version (though the women who played defense sometimes complained that they could never make a basket). ---
**Author:** ![kurtisokc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kurtisokc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kurtisokc)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-only-team-sport-with-specialized-offense-and-defense-players/747321/26 "2016-03-03T22:22:39Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > It was still played like that in Iowa in the late 70’s. 6 on 6 girls basketball was played in Iowa until 1993, though the larger schools gradually adopted 5 on 5 starting in the mid 1980s. Oklahoma played 6 on 6 until 1995 though, again, the larger schools had already switched by that time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-only-team-sport-with-specialized-offense-and-defense-players/747321.md?page=1)