An Author of the Modern NFL Offense

80 years ago, the game of football looked very different from the style of game we see today. Yes, the teams were different, jerseys very basic, and helmets extremely less safe, but the on-field product may be the most dramatic change. Passing the ball was certainly allowed, but most teams focused on running the ball in a more rugby-style sense. There were no routes like you see today or wide receivers streaking down the field. Pounding the run game was THE strategy. Sid Gillman was one of the first head coaches to develop the passing game, setting up the offensive style of football that is prevalent today.

Long before he headed the offensive revolution, Gillman worked at a movie theater. There, he would cut out the football segments that ran before the movies and study them at home. AT an early age, before the extrinsic motivation of winning, Gillman had a deep intrinsic passion for the game of football and he would use his job to study a bunch of different teams’ films. He had not yet found the problem that he was going to solve, but he collected and learned what he could from the existing game and began thinking of ways to make it better. The answer he came to was passing the ball.

The offense that Gillman creatively deployed as a collegiate head coach at Cincinnati and Miami and professionally at Cleveland and San Diego was based on looking first to pass the ball beyond the line of scrimmage. Oftentimes, he would have the running backs also go for passes, something that was not as popular as it is today. The 5-receiver set was something that Gillamn often used to get the most out of the passing game. Much like his days in the theater. Gillman studied film of his opponents and found the spaces that would be open downfield, targeting them in his receivers' routes. Today, the use of studying film is expected of all football players, but back in the 50s, Gillman was one of the first to do this. He would collect as much information on the other teams’ formations, even during their games, and create plays to exploit that. Even during his own practices, he would have the cameras rolling so he could study his players later. 

With the help of film, his passing offense often succeeded, leading his Chargers to an AFL championship in 1963 and his own nomination into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983. He certainly attains the Pro-c designation, but probably falls short of the Big-C title. He was very innovative and was able to implement passing into his plays like no coach before, but he is not a household name or even that well-known within football culture. There are numerous coaches who worked under Gillman who continued the evolution of passing and credited Gillman for setting it in that direction. Unlike most examples of conceptual change, Gillman did not face as much resistance from the field against his creative passing scheme because it won games. As it worked on the field, more coaches implemented passing attacks. Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes would certainly not have flourished in football had Gillman not opened the eyes of the sport to the effectiveness of a creative passing offense.

Sources:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jan-04-sp-gillman4-story.html

https://magazine.uc.edu/issues/0101/sports.html

https://www.cfbhall.com/about/blog/throwback-thursday-sid-gillman/