Saturday, October 25, 2008

Question of the Week

Kevin, Collinsville, IL
Subj: What’s in a name?
There’s something that’s always perplexed me: why are quarterbacks called quarterbacks?

The term harkens back to the sport’s early days and relates to the distance that the team’s signal caller stood behind his offensive line. According to the rigid structure of the time, the offensive line represented one extreme and the fullback represented the other, therefore the player playing half way between the two was the halfback and the player between the offensive line and the halfback was, quite literally, the quarterback. Who knew that football involved so much math?