The Tight End Trend that helped set up National Tight Ends Day

Once nonexistent and now absolutely essential, the tight end position is an example of football innovation at it’s finest

When the Pro Football Hall of Fame welcomed its first class in 1963, there were no tight ends among the enshrinees. That same story would repeat itself for the next two dozen years.

Yet, that void is not as crazy as it might sound. After all, tight end was still a pretty new position in 1963. Even in the late 1970s, when Hall of Fame tight end KELLEN WINSLOW(Opens in a new window) came on the scene, it took him awhile to grasp not only the subtleties of the game, but the position he was playing.

“I didn’t understand football,” Winslow said, “until I realized it was chess.”

Winslow didn’t start playing football until his senior year in high school. That season and into his freshman year at Missouri, he admits he was “just out there running around.” Soon after, however, Winslow began visualizing the gridiron like a chess board. And he saw the tight end as being perhaps the most unique chess piece when it came to movement and responsibility.