... boil'd shrimp ... baked shrimp ... grilled shrimp ...

Like Najeh Davenport.

Oh dear lord. Someone throw me a life preserver. Don't think I won't Google all of this.

"I envy you - taking these first steps into a new frontier."

Try www.Blackle.com. It uses less energy (it's a google search engine).

Okay, give me a minute. I'm in the middle of laundry, and my computer is running slow....

Then it should be easy to catch!

up back - ???
scatback - an offensive back in football who is an especially fast and elusive ballcarrier
phatback - ???
factor back - ???
defensive back - safeties and cornerbacks

Up back is just the dude standing behind the line of scrimmage on punts.

Phatback and Factor back are stupid media invented terms. Don't bother.

When I played football, we ran the split T formation and the wide receiver didn't exist. Would you like to know where the WR came from? OK, stay tuned. In 1959, a cadet called Bill Carpenter was the "Lonesome End" in a unique offense employed by Army. He just stayed out near the sideline on the wide side of the field. He rarely came back to the huddle. The "D" had to put a guy out there on him (the birth of the cornerback?) The concept worked so well that other teams started splitting the WR's out wide. Carpenter is now a Brigadier General who won the Silver Star for bringing in napalm on his own troops in Vietnam when it appeared his position would be overrun.

OK, would you like to know where platoon football came from? Back in the early 50's, most players played both ways. Paul Dietzel, head coach at LSU devised a system of using all of his players to avoid fatigue. In 1958, Dietzel used three separate teams in rotation. The White team (the first string offense and defense), The GO team, (the second team offense), and the Chinese Bandits, (the second team defense). LSU won the NC that year and platoon football was born, both college and pro. Ever since then, a player is rarely used "both ways".

"Two way Tom Barndt" notwithstanding.

Which is to say, the only coach we had that was competent on both sides of the ball.

He was more than competent, though.
He was as innovative as any coach in the last 50 years.

Yeah, most of those are sophisticated/reeruned terms for simple things.

Except, of course, for "defensive back" -- you've already got that down so I don't feel the need to go over it.

As far as the offensive side of the ball, everybody lined up in the backfield behind the QB who could carry the ball is a "running back," technically. But the two major types of running backs are "full backs" and "half backs" or "tail backs," which for our purposes is the same thing. But over time, the terms half- and tail-back just kind of melted away and RB replaced them.

So to depart from technical terms and jump into just regular conversation, when you talk about "running backs," you're no longer talking about anybody that's simply behind the QB when the ball is snapped, you're talking about the guy in the backfield who's there primarily to run the ball. Larry Johnson, LaDanian Tomlinson, Shawn Alexander. They're the flashiest of the "backs"; they're the ones who rack up the yards, touchdowns, and glory.

The other guy in the backfield is the "full back." He's a role player, typically only does one or two things, and many teams across the league have started phasing him out completely. The full back's main role in the offense is to charge through the holes that the OL creates and block for the RB. They rarely get any glory, but if they're good, they're very helpful.

On our offense, we converted a tight end to FB, Kris "Bigfoot" Wilson. He's very helpful because he's fairly good at opening holes, and he'll block pretty well for the QB on pass plays. Also, he's a threat to receive the ball as a check down receiver.

"Scat back" is just a term for the Tomlinson's who are small, fast, and elusive. "Power backs" are guys like LJ who want to run over you.

You always seem to think ahead to what my next question will be, and you answer it before I ask.