Well hello there, I was wondering if anyone here could help me to understand the names given to different players in a football game. I have really started taking an interest in watching football games this year, but I am having a terrible time remembering what exactly a “fullback” does or a “tight end”? Is there any system to the names or is it more or less random? If there is a pattern I have not figured it out yet and continually embarass myself trying to fake it. Is this something your average football fan knows or are we all out there faking it to some degree? Any help would be appreciated…
Welcome. You’re right, the names don’t make much sense. If there is a Tight End, where is the Loose End? There is a Quarter Back, Half Back, and Full back, but I don’t know why. Sounds like the start of a Gallagher routine.
In the days of the single wing offense (and not many of us have seen that), the offense would line up four players in the back field, the quarterback, the fullback, and two halfbacks.
In the single wing, the quarterback rarely carried the ball or even took snaps. Usually there was a direct snap to one of the halfbacks. The names just sort of evolved as a way to identify where everybody would be positioned. Even when the T formation was developed, there would still be four backs, except the QB would be under center, with the fullback lined up behind the QB and the two HBs standing behind and to either side of the FB.
The tight end got his name because he lines up on the end and “tight” to the rest of the offensive line. He is a blocker most of the time, but can also go out and catch passes. There is another end who lines up away from the rest of the line who is called the split end, because he is “split” from the rest of the line.
The other big designations are strong side and weak side. The strong side is the side that the tight end lines up on.
Unless you are running a two tight end offense …
The tight end normally lines up on the left side, since this is a right-handed quarterback’s blind spot, so he offers extra blocking protection on that side. I presume that for left-handed QBs this is reversed, plus for running plays this is irrelevant. But there are inumerable permutations for this.
Anybody know from whence is the term “h-back” derived. The h-back is a recent (I think) combination of a fullback/tightend type position.
I’m not sure who developed the H-back position. It probably sprung up sometime in the 1980s, when single running back formations were all the vogue.
The H-back is sort of a mobile tight end who lines up in the backfield and then usually goes in motion the same direction as the running play is designed to go to. This way you’ve got a big, fairly fast guy running at close to full speed ready to knock over some lineman or linebacker.
Most likely the coach who developed the system of the H-back was just using letters to designate positions and “H” was available.
And Split Ends aren’t the beginning of a plug. In lieu of keeping an End in tight, sometimes an offense will have the End split relatively further away from the line than the Tight End. This arrangement is often referred to as split right or split left. And there’s no restriction on running a couple of Split Ends if it’s an obvious passing situation and you’re looking for extra yardage.
On the line you’ve got your Center in the middle snapping the ball, a Guard on either side of him and Tackles outside the Guards. Then your End(s).
And that’s just the offense.
I’m just speculating here again, but I think the H-back may have first been named by Washington coach Joe Gibbs, who popularized the single back offense. The Falcons were running it around the same time also in the early 1980s.
lieu, why are their “tackles” lined up on the offensive line? I thought only the defense “tackled” someone. How confusing…
So did the terms originally refer to how far back of the line the players were?
Also, wasn’t there an S-back not so long ago?
More than you ever wanted to know about the various flavors of the single wing.
I can’t answer that, Don.
WAG but you have Offensive Tackles and Defensive Tackles and maybe the position was named for the defensive player first and the monicker then was applied to the player opposite him on the line. Again, just a WAG.
IIRC, the offensive tackle name arose because the same player would play the corresponding position on defense back in the days of one platoon football.
If a team uses three down lineman on defense, they will have usually a nose guard and two defensive ends. But if they use four down lineman on defense, there are two defensive tackles and two defensive ends.
Most football position names are holdovers from a long time ago. Coaches usually refer to players by different names depending upon what offensive and defensive schemes they use.
Fullback - all the way back
Halfback - half the way back
Quarterback - quarter of the way back
Back from what, you ask? The line of scrimmage.
------------line
- Quarterback (at snap)
-
Halfbacks -
- Fullback
My question is, where is the 3/4 back?
- Fullback
BTW, it’s older than the 80’s - wasn’t Paul Hornung a fullback?
The quarterback is what you insert into the slotback.
You might get a nickelback as a result.
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Tight end, left end, right end - what I want to know is where are the beginnings for those ends?
IIRC, Paul Hornung was a halfback at Green Bay. Jim Taylor was in the backfield with him. They were both very big for the era, around 215 lbs according to one site. That site also says that Lombardi used them interchangeably, which lead to the more common current definition of running back.
And let’s not forget the ever popular wingback. No need to go into what he had coming out of his uniform.
I played four years at a small college that ran the single wing (1957-1960). There was no quarterback, and the back closest to where the QB is today was a blocking back. He could get the ball on trick plays, but in truth was never used. Another back, called the Wing Back lined up like a wide receiver and mostly blocked or ran pass routes and never got the ball from the center. There was a Fullback who got the ball from center some of the time and the Tailback that got it most of the time. Single wing was considered out of date back then, but it gave the other teams trouble trying to defend against something they had never seen.
In high school, I played for a team that used the “T” formation. The Great Gazoo correctly stated why the backs were named QB, HB & FB. It gets confusing because the “T” formation was named after the way the backfield was set up, with the QB at the bottom, the FB at the junction and the HBs on the outside.
Back then the linemen including the ends never lined up apart from each other. In some single wings you could have the line shifted so that the two guards were on the strong side of the center, but that was rare. Then:
That was the beginning of lining players up the way that they do today. The truth is that the “tight end” is really the only one that plays end the way it used to be played.
The answer to why tackles are on offense was correctly given. If there was a 6 man line (which was not unusual) then you had 2 guards, 2 tackles and 2 ends, who would play in the holes between the offensive line. In that case there were two linebackers which were usually the center and fullback, although in high school our quarterback played that position. If you played a 5-3 defense then one of the quards would play the middle linebacker. 4-4 the other guard dropped back. Remember we weren’t getting to switch players and so you didn’t want to have to move far if you went to another defense. Also there wasn’t as much passing because you almost had to run the next play.
In Rugby Union (see the Explain Rugby thread for more info), there are also positions that have (or used to have) the names HB, FB and three-quarters, although never QB.
The scrumhalf and flyhalf are collectively known as the halfbacks, while the last line of defense is still known as the fullback. The wings were often refered to (in the past) as wing-threequarters. I am not sure that the names originate in Rugby, but they owe their nomenclature to the same phenomenon as The Great Gazoo described.
FWIW
Gp
The term “three-quarters” is still used for the centres and wings. In New Zealand they also call the stand off (fly-half) and the inside centres “five-eighths.”