rushing up, passing down

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:18 PM -0600 1/14/08, Scot LaFaive wrote:
>  >Is the distinction between "rushing up the middle" and "passing down
>the middle" one that is actually in use among commentators or
>spectators?
>
>That's a tough one. I think I would most likely say "up" with rushing, but I
>think I would say either "up" or "down" with passing. That's just me. Not
>sure what most commentators say.
>
>Scot

Ditto on all counts, except that "down" is more likely with passing
if the sense is a long pass.  Cf. also "penalty flag downfield" on a
long pass play, or a receiver who's adept at his downfield blocking
(never, or hardly ever, "upfield").  Googling "downfield passing
game" returns 5260 hits, vs. just 1 of "upfield passing game".
There's also running downhill, which is easier than running uphill
(in football as well as real life).

LH

>
>On Jan 13, 2008 5:49 PM, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>
>wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>>  Subject:      rushing up, passing down
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  I was looking at the play-play information for NFL games provided by
>>  Yahoo! Sports and noticed they use a formula for representing rushing
>>  and passing plays:
>>
>>  X passed to Y to the left/right for N yard gain/loss.
>>  X rushed (to Y) to the left/right for N yard gain/loss.
>>  X passed to Y down the middle for N yard gain/loss.
>>  X rushed (to Y) up the middle for N yard gain/loss.
>>
>>  See, e.g.:
>>  http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/boxscore?gid=20080112009&page=plays
>>
>>  Is the distinction between "rushing up the middle" and "passing down
>>  the middle" one that is actually in use among commentators or
>>  spectators?
>>
>>
>>  --Ben Zimmer
>>
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>>
>
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