The Term \"Red Zone\"
Who coined the term red zone? From the latest Football Outsiders mailbag:
It might have been Joe Gibbs. I found a Washington Post article which suggests that, if it wasn’t Gibbs that coined the phrase, it at least was a novel term when Gibbs first started throwing it around in 1982.
"In the last three weeks, the Redskins have scored only two touchdowns, and one was a 65-yard pass Joe Theismann threw to Charlie Brown. The only touchdown that resulted from a sustained drive in which the Redskins moved inside the opponent’s 20–called the red zone by Gibbs–and then scored was on a 17-yard pass to Brown."
— Paul Attner, "Recent Dearth of Touchdowns Concerns Gibbs," Washington Post, Dec. 14, 1982, at C1.
The phrase wouldn’t appear in the New York Times, at least applied to football, for another two years.
"Noise levels did not rise again until midway through the second quarter, when the Colts stopped the Giants in the so-called red zone, between the 20-yard line and the end zone."
— Craig Wolf, "Colts Defeat Giants in Indianapolis Debut," New York Times, Aug 12, 1984, at S11.
The phrase didn’t appear in SI until 1989, in a Peter King article:
"Says Bengal offensive coordinator Bruce Coslet, "In 1987 we’d get into the red zone [inside the opponent’s 20-yard line], and we couldn’t score. So, going into 1988 we stressed scoring every time we got into the red zone. That was the whole difference in our team. Every possession was important."
— Peter King, "Inside the NFL," Sports Illustrated, Sep. 18, 1989, at 69.
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