armchair quarterback
colloquial Primarily heard in US.
1. A fan who criticizes a football team or player with an air of authority while watching a game on television, especially at home. A: "I'm telling you, if they just had Williams run a route through the center of the field, he'd be wide open for a pass!" B: "Ah, many thanks to the resident armchair quarterback." Now that his playing career is over, he's been reduced to an armchair quarterback just like every other loser in town. You can always count on Grandpa—who stopped playing football in high school, by the way—to be an armchair quarterback during every NFL game.
2. By extension, a person who acts like they have all the answers to a problem, especially in hindsight, usually without having any experience in that area. Social media seems to have turned everyone into an armchair quarterback whenever political issues are discussed. Dad, you have no idea all the difficulties that led up to our company's collapse, so stop acting like an armchair quarterback. My dad hasn't had kids at home since 1975, but he's a total armchair quarterback when it comes to how I raise my kids in today's world.
Monday morning quarterback
A person who acts like they have all the answers to a problem, especially in hindsight, usually without having any experience in that area. Likened to fans and commentators who criticize a football team after a Sunday game. Primarily heard in US. Social media seems to have turned everyone into a Monday morning quarterback whenever political issues are discussed.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
Monday-morning quarterback
A person who criticizes or passes judgment from a position of hindsight, as in Ethel was a Monday-morning quarterback about all the personnel changes in her department-she always claimed to have known what was going to happen . This expression, first recorded in 1932, alludes to fans who verbally "replay" Sunday's football game the next day, the quarterback being the team member who calls the plays.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
a Monday morning quarterback
AMERICANA Monday morning quarterback, is someone who criticizes others after something has happened by saying that they should have dealt with it differently, although the people involved could not have known what would happen. It is very easy to play Monday morning quarterback, and I do not envy the choices put before a great many of the world's leaders. Note: You can also accuse someone of Monday morning quarterbacking. The Attorney rejects such Monday-morning quarterbacking, insisting that his lawyers did, quote, `an excellent job'. Note: In American football, the quarterback is usually the player who calls out signals which tell the team which moves to make. In the United States, most professional football games are played on Sunday. A `Monday morning quarterback' is someone, usually a man, who tells people what the coach should have done to win the game.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
Monday morning quarterback
a person who is wise after the event. North American In American football, a quarterback is the player stationed behind the centre who directs the team's attacking play. In North American English the word has also developed the sense of ‘a person who directs or coordinates an operation or project’. A Monday morning quarterback is someone who passes judgement on something or criticizes it when it is too late for their comments to be of any use, since the particular game or project in question has finished or been completed.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
ˌMonday morning ˈquarterback
(American English, informal, disapproving) a person who criticizes or comments on an event after it has happened: It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback and say that he made a poor decision. ▶ ˌMonday morning ˈquarterback verb criticize or comment on an event after it has happened: I don’t like to Monday morning quarterback any work that is done by another investigator. ˌMonday morning ˈquarterbacking noun: This is the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking.The quarterback directs the play in an American football game. Most games are played on a Sunday so Monday morning is the day after the game finished.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
quarterback
tv. to manage, lead, or direct someone or something. I quarterbacked the whole company for more years than I care to remember.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Monday-morning quarterback
A person who criticizes decisions or actions after the fact, with twenty-twenty hindsight. The term originated in the 1930s when football as a spectator sport was seen mostly on weekends, and office discussions of the previous weekend’s game would often be dominated by one or more “experts” who “revised” the quarterback’s instructions to the team so as to achieve superior results. In print the term appeared in Barry Wood’s What Price Football (1932), in which he applied it to sportswriters who were not content with reporting the game but felt they had to analyze it. In succeeding decades it was transferred to anyone second-guessing any past decision.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer