[Ads-l] "It's always easy to Monday-morning-quarterback a situation."

[Peter Reitan]

In December 2016, I posted on my blog about Monday morning, Sunday morning, grandstand, bleacher and drug-store quarterbacks (among others).


https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2016/12/grandstands-armchairs-and-drugstores.html



I did not look into the verb form and I don't think my post has any early examples.


Grandstand quarterback - 1927, credited to Percy Haughton, former coach of Harvard and Columbia.

Sunday morning quarterback - 1928, credited to Knut Rockne.

Drugstore quarterback - 1931 (similar to drugstore cowboy, 1922).

Monday morning quarterback - 1931, popularized after Harvard Quarterback, Barry Wood's, speech to a New England educators' convention (Bill Mullin has since found an earlier example from 1930 - http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2016-December/145522.html).


I posted information on ADS-L on December 7, 2016.  It doesn't come up in a search of the database, but I found it here: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2016-December/145500.html .




________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2018 11:37:28 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "It's always easy to Monday-morning-quarterback a situation."

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: "It's always easy to Monday-morning-quarterback a situation."
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HDAS does indeed have an entry for the verb, but allow me to Monday morning
quarterback it a bit.

_Monday morning quarterback_ v. Esp. _Journ._ to criticize with the benefit
of hindsight; second-guess. Hence _Monday morning quarterbacking_, n.

This seems backwards, since it's pretty clear that the noun "Monday morning
quarterbacking" is the original and the verb came about via back-formation.
HDAS takes the noun back to 1950 -- OED3 has 1946, which can be further
antedated:

_Pittsburgh Press_, Nov. 13, 1933, p. 26, col. 1
A little Monday morning quarterbacking.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16622411/

And as I mentioned in a bygone thread, "Sunday morning quarterbacking" goes
back even further, with cites back to 1931.

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2006-July/061131.html

The first HDAS cite given for the verb "Monday morning quarterback" is from
1973. OED3 doesn't cover it, but here it is from 1948.

_Pottstown (Pa.) Mercury_, July 31, 1948, p. 1, col. 6
Local weather prophets, industriously sucking their salt pills, sat back
yesterday and Monday morning quarter-backed that July was a "scorcher."
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16622518/

--bgz


On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 11:58 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Isn't the verb in HDAS II?
>
> Too lazy/busy to look.
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 10:50 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > It=E2=80=99s also easy, as Google hits (both literal and metaphorical) =
confirm,
> to
> > back-seat drive (a car, a relationship, an organization,=E2=80=A6)
> >
> > LH
> >
> > > On Jan 17, 2018, at 2:03 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> > >
> > > --
> > > -Wilson
> > >
>

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