Why is the player called a 'quarterback' ? Were there once other backs called half-backs, three-quarter backs and so on in American football ? In rugby that's exactly what we have. The full-back is at the very back, the last man in the defence. In front of him are the four 'three-quarters' and in front of them the two 'half-backs' sited behind the scrum of eight forwards.In New Zealand and Australia one of the half-backs, the one nearer to the three-quarters, is called 'the five-eighth' (which is taking fractions a bit far: we call him the fly-half )
[History does give us odd names which were once accurate: the 'bowler' in cricket did once bowl the ball underarm, like a tenpin bowler, not hurl the ball down with a vertical, straight, arm above his head, and the 'wicket' was once a wicket gate for sheep, not three sticks in the ground ] +++++++++++++++++ 04-20-06, 08:04 AM DorianGreyed At one time, the offensive backfield of an American football team was made up of a fullback, two halfbacks, and a quarterback.
04-20-06, 08:42 AM Koz
quote: The full-back is at the very back, the last man in the defence. In front of him are the four 'three-quarters' and in front of them the two 'half-backs'
It is kind of the same thing here in American football. The fullback is the man in the back furthest away from the line of scrimmage. The half backs are between the fullbacks and the quarterback.
In other words in regards to the line of scrimmage the fullback is all the way back, the halfback is halfway back and the quarterback is a quarter of the way back from the line of scrimmage, hence the name “quarterback”. Wink
The big difference in the terms in American football is that these are offence not defense like in rugby.
Nowadays there are many different offensive formations and some have one or two halfbacks, and some do not even employ halfbacks.
04-20-06, 05:46 PM FredPuli
quote: Originally posted by Koz:
The big difference in the terms in American football is that these are offence not defense like in rugby.
In rugby only the full-back is defensive. The line of four three-quarters are for attack when their side has the ball: the two wing three-quarters play out wide and are usually the fastest men on the field and the two centres the next fastest. However when an opposition player has the ball then they are expected to tackle. The half-backs are the playmakers of the team.
The forwards will tell you that they do all the real work, both attacking and defending , whilst the backs get all the glamour !
04-22-06, 03:46 PM coldfuse It must be noted that very few formations used today have a quarterback, two halfbacks and a fullback. The terms are simply traditional from old formations such as:
It is possible for the quarterback to be the farthest back, in what we call a "shotgun" position ready to receive the ball in a position set for an apparent passing play.
Quite often the fullback is just behind the quarterback, with another back behind him! If that's not confusing, the back behind him would have traditionally been a halfback! It is more appropriate today to call the fullback a "blocking back" and the halfback a "tailback" or "running back" to describe their function more than their position.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,
