More Language Foo

[howeird]

Football jargon has corrupted all the other sports, and I can't stand it.

The only sport which h has offense and defense is football. Don't be rattling your tongue around about offense in baseball or basketball or hockey or ping pong. Baseball has hitters and fielders. Catchers and pitchers are fielders with some extra responsibilities. Basketball has ten players, running up and down the court. They don't magically become offensive or defensive players when they start running the other direction, they are Players. Hockey has players and goalies. Yes, the goalie plays defense, but everyone else plays everything. As for soccer, see basketball, just change the number of guys and change the court to a field. Ping pong and tennis, players play, period.

If things keep deteriorating in the world of sportscasting, expect to hear about defensive plays in golf, swimming, skydiving and javelin catching.

Comments

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

I was going to argue about soccer, as I played center half in junior high and high school, but when I went to look at the rules I found that there's nothing that says that they have to stay on their side of the field.

Lacrosse has specific defensive positions other than the goalkeeper... I think.

[howeird]

Lacrosse is basically soccer with sticks - while it is strategically a good idea for the players nearest their goalie to help defend the goal, all players except the goalie can run all the way to the other side of the field as needed.

[farmount.livejournal.com]

Yes, but don't the 'defensive' players use different sticks?

[howeird]

Answering that question required some actual research. While the rules do call for three "defensemen", the stick they carry is longer than those of the midfielder and "attackers". Makes it easier to fling the ball farther down the field, which IMHO is not a particularly defensive move. Only the goalie's stick has a different (larger) sized cup. Draw your own conclusions. ;-)