By Colin Salt
American football is frequently indecipherable to outsiders. Yet the very names of the positions have potential for alternate history terminologies. We'll start with the offensive formation and who's who.
The standard modern formation in the NFL is 11 personnel: One running back, three wide receivers, and a tight end in addition to the quarterback and linemen. The old traditional formation back in the days when running was more dominant had only two wide receivers and two running backs, but their roles were (in a basic sense) the same.
This wasn't always the case. Special formations, as long as they equal eleven players, can also be done in edge cases. You can have four wide receivers and one running back if you want a spread passing offense, or two tight ends and two running backs if you need a short battering ram, but this is a brief introduction. Anyway, on with the show.
The Quarterback
Quarterbacks are the most important players on a gridiron football/handegg/whatever team. They receive the ball from a center and launch the plays. Now the term "quarterback" came from his original position in the line of scrimmage. The oversimplified version of how American football came to be is that it developed from rugby (little surprise) by Yale legend Walter Camp who wanted a more structured game. The players behind the center in the backfield of this stop-and-go rugby were the quarterback, then the halfback, then the fullback. About those...
The Running Backs
The name 'running back' is pretty self-explanatory, even if running backs can and do catch passes as well (they're considered the last-ditch backup on passing plays if none of the main receivers are open). The terms halfback and fullback kind of lingered around, but changed to "halfback" being a small agile runner and "fullback" being a larger brute force player who often stood, contrary to the original beginning, in front of him to clear a hole or defend the quarterback from pass rushers.
Wide Receivers
Also fairly self-explanatory. Wide receivers were called "Flankers", "Split Ends" or "Loose Ends" once formations opened up after the forward pass, and certain players consistently played some distance off from the linemen. Their main job is to catch, although they can occasionally do sweep running plays.
Tight Ends
Now we get to the trickiest part.
Originally there were just "ends", who played on offense and defense (splitting the two sides was, after the forward pass, the most consequential change in American football), who were the fast pass catchers AND blockers AND rushers on defense. Then came wide receivers and specialized players. Cue the "tight end", an eligible receiver who played tightly to the end of the line (hence the name) but spent most of his time blocking and screening.
...until tight ends got better at catching passes and began roving around the field like wide receivers, catching more and blocking less. A tight end has to be a specialist, bigger and stronger than a wide receiver but better at catching than a runner. Unsurprisingly, they're frequently the most raw athletic players on each team.
Linemen
At the center of the line is a player called the.... center. He snaps the ball and then blocks. Next to him are two inner linemen called "guards". On the outer edge, often considered the most important offensive linemen, are the two "tackles", who serve as the main reactionary shield.
Alternatives
Could these names have been different? Quarterback certainly, as it was based on an anachronistic formation. A name like "signal caller" (which is literally something they do) or "thrower" (similar to baseball's pitcher) potentially makes sense. I should note there was a real quarterback named Willie Thrower, a man with the perfect name for his job. There was also a hulking fullback named Mack Strong, also well-named.
Running back, receiver, and center are more stable IMO due to form following function. The terms "halfback" and "fullback" have become essentially the reverse of what they used to be. That said, there's definitely room for changes. The center could become known as the "Snapper" (players who snap the ball a long distance on kicking plays are called 'Long Snappers') to become even more literal. Likewise, "Rusher" or "Catcher" would work for running backs and receivers.
Tight end could be something like "heavy receiver" to be literal or something esoteric like "freestyler" if the situation resolved. Or they could just be called "offensive ends" to complement their defensive counterparts.
I think the guards and tackles would be the most suitable for change, as their names are neither very intuitive nor specific to their function. The literal ones would be "inside lineman" for guards and "outside lineman" for tackles. Or one could be superimposed on the entire line, with tackles becoming "outside guards" or guards "inside tackles".
You get the idea. If one is using alternate football position names in a story, I recommend having the term still be easy for a reader who only knows the real ones to understand. But if it's a worldbuilding exercise, go nuts.
Colin Salt is an author who, among other works, wrote The Smithtown Unit and its sequel Box Press for Sea Lion, and runs the Fuldapocalypse Fiction review blog.
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