Tuesday Tunes

I thought I'd start with a random hit off my computer catalog of music and blog about the first song that played. But, after staying up to watch Brett Favre's magnificent 82 yard touchdown pass in overtime, I changed my mind and decided to do a football song. I'm not talking about the songs performed during the promo spots or at the beginning of the shows, I mean a one-time top 40 hit about football. Sort of.

The year: 1969
The artist: Mel & Tim
The song: Backfield in Motion

You can find the lyrics here.

In football, it's a five yard penalty against the offense- more than one man in motion at the snap, and is called as illegal motion. The referee's signal is described as "Horizontal arc with one hand" and can be seen here.

The song also mentions the penalties of off-sides and holding, and strangely enough, a short baseball reference to balking. Must've been written in October.

I'm not sure when they started using illegal motion instead of backfield in motion, and haven't found any references to the switch. If anyone knows, please share the knowledge.

Jessie