- The NFL Quarterback Challenge lives on in video games.football player image by Maria Bell from Fotolia.com
The NFL Quarterback Challenge was an annual event running from 1990 to 2007. It featured quarterbacks taking part in a series of tests of four elements of individual skill to find an overall winner. Competitors earned points in each challenge based on their position among the other players, with these score totaled to find the overall winner. The concept has since been used as a feature in several football-based video games. - Competitors threw the football at moving targets, made of an inflatable bull's-eye transported on a golf cart. The targets were set at a variety of distances from the player. Scoring was archery-style, with points for hitting the target and the top score for hitting the bull's-eye at the center.
- Competitors had to throw nine footballs in the space of 30 seconds, aiming for a target 45 yards away. The target was a bucket with a 5-foot square rim. Any ball landing in the bucket counted as a successful attempt, even if it then bounced out.
- Each competitor was paired with a wide receiver and attempted a series of throws with the receiver in differing positions. The wide receivers were NFL professionals.
- Competitors threw the football at fixed targets while running through a corridor of cones. Scores were based on the time taken, in comparison with the other competitors. There were time penalties for each target the competitor missed.
- An iPhone application released in 2009, "NFL Quarterback Challenge," adapted the rules. It kept the concept of testing passing accuracy under timed conditions, but put the challenges into new settings. Many of these were in locations other than a football field, such as a golf course or airport runway.
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