Wide receiver

The wide receiver (WR) position in American football is the pass-catching specialist. Wide receivers are among the fastest, tallest, and most agile players in the game, and are frequent highlight-reel favorites.

History

The forward pass

The roots of the wide receiver are found in President Teddy Roosevelt's 1905 threat to ban the game of football due to the predominance of fatal injuries (18 in 1905, roughly 360 per year if expanded to present-day participation levels). http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/kidscorner/football.htm In 1906, as part of an effort to open up the playing field and avoid rugby-style scrums, the forward pass was legalized. Formations, however, remained relatively compact and players apart from the running backs were rarely able to escape defenders long enough to catch a ball.

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Formation evolution

Around 1920, Knute Rockne, coach of Notre Dame, introduced the Notre Dame Box formation. Rather than keeping all seven linemen shoulder-to-shoulder, the formation "flexed" the ends a yard or two away from the central five men. In addition to giving better blocking angles for inside runs, the position of the flex ends allowed them to more easily separate from the mass of defenders, an important requirement of the wide receiver to this day.

Related Topics:
Knute Rockne - Notre Dame

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With the introduction of a more angular ball in 1933, passing become more effective. New formations like the Single Wing moved Rockne's flex ends away from the line entirely to the current position of the wide receiver. The receiver on the line of scrimmage still retains the formal name of split end; conversely, ends adjacent to the five-man line adopted the still-current term tight end.

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