we're gonna kick off this video with an
idiom kick off in this video we're going
over idioms relating to football and I
have my husband David here with me who
is a football expert to make sure that
we learn everything just right
the word kickoff in football is the
first thing you do to start the game and
we use this term idiomatically and it
just means to start something for
example we could say let's kick off this
meeting with introductions or you could
say let's kick off our summer with a
trip to the beach yeah in college there
was always a really fun talent show
called fall kick-off mm-hmm that was
really fun yeah bring some good energy
to the new school year mm-hmm in the
vocabulary video we also talked about a
handoff when you literally hand
something to somebody rather than
throwing it and we use this term for
other reasons as well when you use it
figuratively figuratively when you hand
off a project to somebody that means
you're done with it they're gonna take
over you're not physically handing them
something likely but they're taking it
over so if someone's taking it over from
you then you can say I'm handing this
off to you so the next idiom is an end
run
so in football this is a play where the
whole idea is to have a player run as
fast as they can out around the edge of
all the other players and so
idiomatically it gets used as a way to
say that someone is being a little bit
Shady and doing an end run around what
might be a typical process or in some
other way is just being a little bit
yeah a little bit sneaky maybe so going
around the usual processes to try to get
something done right and so the thing
that came to mind is is near where we
live there's a new concert venue that a
developer is trying to build but it's
controversial in the neighborhood
because it's close to a residential
neighborhood and so I feel like they
sort of tried to do an end run by having
some of the meetings about it be during
the summer when people are on vacation
and just you know trying to keep a
really low profile about it that's kind
of an end run around to keep a low
profile also to be under the radar means
to try to do something without many
people noticing mm-hmm so by doing that
being a little sneaky they're doing an
end run the usual process would involve
residents knowing what was happening
being able to comment on it right you're
trying to avoid that the term pylon in
football or any sport really this just
refers to one person jumping on top of
the other and we have pylons in football
when a ball is loose for example
everybody wants to get it everyone jumps
on it and then you kind of have to peel
the people back to see who got the ball
so piling on you could also use this
phrase idiomatically not referring to
actual people or even to something
physical you could say something like my
teachers really piling on the homework
here for the end of the school year or
something they just keep adding more and
more to the stack the idiom to drop the
ball I use this one quite a bit so in
football or perhaps another sport but
mostly football when you drop the ball
that means you you lose possession of it
you fumble it as you're running with it
or whatever as you're getting ready to
throw it you drop the ball you don't
want to do that so we also use that
figuratively to mean mess something up
stop the momentum the momentum of
something or you were in charge of
something and you let it go you failed
you didn't see it through mm-hmm and
I've I've had to say I've had to own up
to that to a supervisor
you know they've told me to do something
and I'll say yes I'll do that
and then they come back a week later and
they say hey why didn't you do this and
the reason was because I forgot to write
it down mmm ah I'm so sorry I dropped
the ball on that I'll get right on it
off home I'll do it right now yeah so he
dropped the ball he didn't see it
through he didn't do it he was supposed
to do okay the next idiom is Monday
Morning Quarterback
so an American football most games are
on Sunday and this idea of Monday
Morning Quarterback
is that as as fans talk about the game
on Monday and go back and say yeah they
made this huge mistake or why did they
run that play it was obvious that they
shouldn't
done that you know it's it's so clear
that if they had just passed the ball in
that situation they would have won the
game
that's Monday morning quarterbacking
because you know anybody can do that the
time that the decision is made is a win
it that's when it's hard okay so a
Monday Morning Quarterback if I'm
getting this right is somebody who
wasn't there but knows the outcome sort
of criticizes the way it was handled and
says I know better how to do that right
it's it's they should have they should
have they should have done this they
should have done that yeah it's sort of
like a backseat driver isn't it or a
race or okay so you're not actually
doing it but you have all sorts of
comments on how it should be done or
should have been done right I also
thought of hindsight's 2020 mm as a
phrase that we use so you know
hindsight's 2020 so sure looking back
it's clear what they should have done
but that's just Monday morning
quarterbacking yeah cuz in the moment
it's not always clear right so let's say
for example there's a meeting happening
and you're not involved in the meeting
and you hear about the outcome and you
think that wasn't handled right and then
you're talking to another colleague and
you say they should have done
XYZ you're kind of being a little bit of
a Monday Morning Quarterback because you
weren't there
and you're commenting on what should
have been done as if you know how it
could be done better I like that one
it's a good one
okay the next idiom is sidelined so in
football there is a sideline very
similar to soccer that signifies what's
inbounds and what's out-of-bounds and
the team the the players on the team who
are not in the game are on the sideline
and so that's literally what it means
figuratively
if you sideline someone it means to sort
of edge them out to keep them from the
central part of a decision maybe so that
the scenario I imagined was if a group
of employees is working on a project
together and everybody sort of agrees on
how to do this except for one person the
rest of the group could sort of sideline
that
person's opinion keep them kind of out
of it so that involves yeah because
things will go more smoothly if that
person is kept to the side or sidelined
so if you feel like uninvolved like
you're sort of being left out you could
say I feel a little sidelined here yeah
absolutely
mm-hmm another a great idiom is when
someone moves the goal posts so in
football the goal posts are the u-shaped
thing that you have to try to kick a
ball through and you know it's very
clear what distance you have to do
what's your goal well it can happen
idiomatically when you feel like you
know the parameters of a project and you
try to do everything to make that happen
and then the parameters of the project
or the rules move they change you can
say they keep moving the goal posts on
me right and this happened to me in
college I was working with a friend on a
project and the professor said the
presentations need to be 10 minutes long
and sort of made a point of saying don't
go longer than that and so we did our
presentation it was ten minutes we
thought it was pretty good but we got
some feedback from the professor that it
wasn't thorough enough and then another
classmate did this presentation that
went on for 50 minutes it was five times
as long as it was supposed to be and
they got an a on the project I felt like
the professor moved the goalposts part
of what was hard was keeping it short
right the professor said this is what
you have to do we thought we knew where
the goalposts were but they got moved on
us they got moved on yeah if you've
watched much football you may have heard
the term throw a Hail Mary right this is
a great term so this is like when
there's almost no time left on the clock
it is your absolute last chance you're
so far from scoring and then you throw a
Hail Mary that means you have one
receiver who just goes so long you just
throw it up into the sky it's your last
chance and you just hope that receiver
can catch it score a touchdown so you
can win the game so it's called a Hail
Mary and we use it for things
other than football as well it's like a
big push that you do for your last
chance for something and I actually
thought about when we bought this house
and we had very limited time because I
was pregnant with Stoney and at a
certain point we knew we wouldn't be
able to move because we would have a
newborn child or I would be about to
give birth so we were right up to the
last date where we could reasonably buy
a home before our son was born we were
living in a little one-bedroom apartment
I didn't really want to spend our first
several months as parents there so I
really wanted to get a house we've been
looking all fall hadn't seen anything we
liked then we came into this house and
we liked it and we threw a Hail Mary our
realtor said there are five other offers
on the house so we had to just get
together put together our best best
offer we offered ten over asking we
threw our Hail Mary and thank God it was
cotton we got the house yeah but that
was like the last best effort we could
make on getting the house that's right
how much do you know about American
football if you know nothing and you're
curious about it
then check out the video we made last
week where we went over the basics of
the rules and some vocabulary terms for
playing American football David thank
you so much for being here with me on
video David has helped me make several
idiom videos where we discuss idiom is
related to certain topics to see all of
those videos click here or in the
description below that's it and thanks
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