The end of summer means one particular thing to most sports fans in the United States: Football! Football today is the dominant sport in the United States. Even meaningless professional football preseason games are reliably the highest rated television programming of the week. One the season starts in earnest, people will be talking about it left and right. Even if you’re not all that interested in the sport, it’s useful to get to know a little about how it works so that you don’t feel left out in conversation or if you find yourself watching games with friends or family.
Last year I wrote in-depth but high-level descriptions of how each position in football works. Today we’ll run through just the players on the offensive side. (In football these days, almost no player plays offense and defense.)
The quarterback is the leader of the team. He spends the most time with the ball in his hands and is usually seen as the key to winning or losing. His most important characteristics are quick decision making and fearlessness.
The running back comes in many shapes and sizes from agile star to laboring workhorse. He takes the most punishment of any player, and because of this, it’s more common now for teams to rely on several running backs with varying skills than a single transcendent one.
Although you might think that the quarterback is the smartest position on the field, it’s usually the giant offensive linemen that top the IQ chart. The offensive linemen are the construction vehicles of the game, plowing defenders out of the way for running backs and building protective dikes around vulnerable quarterbacks.
In the closely interdependent world of football, the wide receiver is the most dependent position. As the player whose job it is to catch passes, the wide receiver doesn’t have a chance without a good quarterback to throw the ball and a good offensive line to protect them.
The tight end is a hybrid between a wide receiver and an offensive lineman. Bad tight ends are jack of all trades but masters of none. Great tight ends are masters at both disciplines.
That’s a quick rundown of the offensive positions in football. Next time we’ll tackle my favorite side of the game, the defense.