You’re burying the lede here.
This is a Chiefs team which is going places because of its (uncharacteristically) good defense. Some of the magic has worn off the key pieces in the offense (not to mention a lot of injured skill positions), but the D is making the difference.
Until Watson’s next lawsuit. You know there’ll be one.
I have a tangible to give you then; the Patriots had Belichick and Brady, the Chiefs have Reid and Mahomes. In both cases you had a great HC/QB pair. I think there’s something to that.
Great point. Other examples back that up. Lombardi/Starr. Noll/Bradshaw. Walsh/Montana. Even Jimmy Johnson/Aikman.
I can’t find any online references to back this up, but what I’ve heard (maybe imagined?) is that some coaches, notably Belichick and his disciples, like to think of the field as being broken up into distinct areas.
The yellow area is from the offense’s own goal line to its 10 or 15-yard line. So called because of the implied danger when running plays in this region and how pinning teams down here dramatically reduces their chances of generating a scoring drive.
The green area is the center of the field from their own 10 or 15 to the opponent’s 20. This is the middle of the field where you have the whole playbook to work with.
The red area is just the red zone. But they shift the terminology to reflect the idea that this area is part of a continuum that spans the whole field.
Why they didn’t just stick with green zone and yellow zone is a mystery. Probably someone decided that coming up with a slightly new wording allows them to claim ownership of the idea in some self-aggrandizing way. But like I said, take this with a grain of salt, this is an idea I’ve somehow internalized, but I’ll be damned if I can find anything more official to support it.
I found your explanation almost exactly in this forum thread from 2007:
But they didn’t say where they got it from. I can’t find it repeated anywhere else.
This is anecdotal, but as a Patriots fan I can confirm that Belichick has been saying “red area” instead of “red zone” in press conferences for as long as I can remember.
Here’s evidence:
So I’m sure Tom picked up the habit from him.
I got curious and did some Googling and found this.
Same concept, but using zones instead of areas.
This one references a green zone, but omits the idea of a yellow zone.
Quora has another slightly different description of the green zone.
Here’s another different usage of green zone.
And one more that aligns with my description.
So what’s the take away? I think I can safely say I didin’t dream up the idea, but it’s at best a niche concept. As for why “area” vs. “zone”, maybe that’s just a Belichick thing.