NFL 2007, Part One

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His playcalling is generally terrible. My main beef today was that during your 97 yard drive, he didn't sub out his exhausted defensive line. He keeps 10 linemen every year just so that doesn't happen! And then, when they need it, they leave them in!

It's a whole nother thing why they aren't in shape (poor training camp).

He's just in general a terrible coach, and today, not subbing in some rested D-linemen there cost them big time. I mean, we couldn't rush Brian Griese? Really?
 
Since everyone in this thread knows more about football than I do:

Where does the term "bye" come from, anyway? Why isn't it "by" or "buy"? Why "bye" like "goodbye"?
 
corianderstem said:
Since everyone in this thread knows more about football than I do:

Where does the term "bye" come from, anyway? Why isn't it "by" or "buy"? Why "bye" like "goodbye"?

I'm not sure, but the term "bye" is not exclusive to football. You hear it in other sports, as well.
 
corianderstem said:
Since everyone in this thread knows more about football than I do:

Where does the term "bye" come from, anyway? Why isn't it "by" or "buy"? Why "bye" like "goodbye"?

I'm not sure of the etymology of the word "bye", but it's used in sports to indicate that a team or individual player has received a pass to advance to the next round. Think of the word "bye" as meaning "free pass."

In the NFL, the term is used correctly in the playoffs when the top two teams in each conference are allowed to skip a game in the first week of the playoffs (and automatically advance to the second round). Wikipedia says the word is used incorrectly during the regular season, since the team is not advancing; they're just getting a week off. But this version has quickly become part of popular usage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bye_(sports)
 
No, I know what they mean when they say a team has a bye. I just wanted to know where the term itself came from.

But thanks. :wink:
 
Why'd they add the 'e'? Just one of a million quirks of the English language, I guess.

From http://www.word-detective.com/101404.html :

Live and learn. I know I'm supposed to affect a pose of omniscience when I write this column, but every so often a reader writes in with a query about a word or phrase of which I have never heard, but which seems to be rather well-known in some precincts. In this case, it turns out that "bye" in the sense you use it is well-established in a number of sports, and has been in use since the mid-18th century.

The earliest uses of "bye" (also spelled "by") were apparently in cricket, where it means, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "A run scored for a ball which passes the batsman, and which the wicket-keeper and long-stop fail to stop." I haven't the faintest idea of what that means, but the sense seems to be that a run is scored for a play which did not actually take place and the player advances without actually playing. This leads us to the more general sense of "bye" used in other sports, "The position of a player in a tournament who advances to the next round without playing, usually because there is an odd number of players." Skipping a game because of a lack of dart boards would, as in your case, also qualify as a "bye."

"Bye" in this sense is a specialized use of the common English preposition "by" as a noun meaning "something secondary" or "an incidental matter" as compared to the "main" thing. It's the same sense of "by" found in "byway" or "bypass" meaning a secondary road. So in a sense your "bye" simply means that you have "bypassed" playing a game this week.
 
Yahoo Answers' take (Can't help myself, the wordsmith in me is curious):

http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071002005505AAFeIPJ

Why is it called a "bye" when a team advances in a tournament without playing an opponent? What's the origin (etymology) of the term "bye" (when a team advances in a tournament without playing an opponent)? The word seems strange and doesn't seem to have any basis other than someone just making the word up.

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I've looked at Chambers and The Shorter Oxford. The latter doesn't mention the usage of 'bye' in the sense you query, Chambers does but gives no etymology other than to say 'bye' is a variation of 'by'. If that is correct, then the logical explanation is that it is because you pass 'by' other players. I'm not convinced however - Chambers explanation doesn't answer the etymology of the UK expression 'bye-law' in the sense of a rule made by an authority subordinate to Parliament, e.g. a local council.
 
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