[Ads-l] leave it all on the field

Neal Whitman nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET
Sun Nov 13 03:55:50 UTC 2016


This agrees with what I've found in the past hour: "leave it all on the 
field" dates to Nov. 10, 1996:


https://www.aceticket.com/new-england-patriots-tickets/new-york-jets

Nov 10, 1996 - Patriots vs Jets. When the Patriots & Jets get together 
you know you'll see an entertaining game regardless of the current 
standings. These division rivals leave it all on the field when they play.


As for "leave nothing on the field," the earliest I have is Nov. 15, 2000:
http://www1.gmnews.com/2000/11/15/south-river-left-nothing-on-the-field-in-final-loss-rams-fall-to-colts-neck-in-cj-i-final-2/

South River left nothing on the field in final loss


After that, examples of "leave nothing on the field" are a bit scarce, 
but pick up quite a bit in 2007, which seems to be the year of a Nike 
football-focused commercial series called "Leave Nothing."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eYeC0IEqDY


Neal


On 11/12/2016 10:42 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 10:51 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
>> It's an old expression beloved of football coaches and sportscasters.
>>
> I agree. OTOH, though it seems to me that this expression is two days older
> than water and it gets about 2.000,000 hits, the oldest is from only 1996.
> And it's the sole pre-21st-C. hit.
>
> Youneverknow.

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