It’s September and football season is upon us. Thus, I will soon annoy the snot out of people who say “sportsball” and generally ignore sports. Some will be able to mute me on Twitter and avoid most of the annoyance. Others, however, work with me on teams and will have to put up with the times when I slip and work a football metaphor in to the process of software development.
What follows is a glossary of things I may say that are football and/or sports related and a simple explanation of what they are. I’ve omitted what the term means in football so you don’t have to learn any sportsball if you don’t want to!
Move the goalposts is when you change the rules so it’s easier for you to achieve your goal. It’s like how Captain Kirk solves the Kobayashi Maru test. (Ed. David Romerstein pointed out that moving the goal posts often means someone constantly changing the parameters of success such that it’s impossible to succeed. Beware!)
A lead blocker is someone who precedes a person trying to get something done and removes impediments to their goal.
If you start doing something before the official start time, or you start doing it and then have to stop and start over almost immediately, it’s a false start.
If you fully succeed in the task at hand, you have scored a touchdown.
A penalty flag, or just flag, is thrown when you break the rules.
If you force so many mistakes on your adversary that they run out of room to retreat, you have scored a safety.
If you’re doing really well, and you don’t mind giving up a few small victories to get closer to winning the overall game, you are running a prevent defense.
You might attempt to run out the clock if you’re winning and want to use a strategically conservative plan until the game is over and won.
A blitz is an aggressive plan to overwhelm by speed and force. Just like the blitzkrieg, but with less actual war.
The draw is about the simplest tactic you can apply on offense. You rely on one person to get the job done and everyone else supports them.
A read option is one of the most complicated offensive tactics where you prepare multiple different strategies and the leader choses which one to execute at the last possible moment depending on what they see in the situation they face.
More definitions coming soon! Leave a comment if there’s a sportsball term you’ve always wondered about and want a no-nonsense answer.
