Monday morning quarterback (also “armchair quarterback” & “armchair general”)
idiom (pejorative)

- a person who, after the event, offers advice or criticism concerning decisions made by others; one who second-guesses.

- one who criticizes or passes judgment from a position of hindsight.

Webster's New World Dictionary / American Heritage Dictionary

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PHRASE ORIGIN

Monday morning quarterback is a pejorative term, first used by Barry Wood, the quarterback of the Harvard football team, in a speech at a meeting of the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, in 1931.

The term comes from the fact that most American football games are played on Sunday, and it is easy to criticize a quarterback’s decisions in the heat of the moment from the vantage point of twelve or more hours after the football game has ended.

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SYNONYMS

a day late and a dollar short, captain hindsight, from the comfort of hindsight, in hindsight, MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK, nothing is obvious in foresight, post mortem, rear view mirror, retrospectively obvious, the best of prophets of the future is the past, venturing down the road not taken, wisdom after the fact, woulda coulda shoulda, would've could've should've, wise after the event

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MOONDAY TO MONDAY

The Latin term for Monday is dies lunae, which literally translates as “Day of the Moon”.

The Old English word Monandaeg inherited this and passed it on to the Middle English word Monenday, and from there to the modern English word Monday. Old English also influenced Germanic languages, with the Old German word Manetag leading to the modern German word Montag.

In many cultures, the moon is symbolically connected to the start of the week. This goes back to ancient conceptions of time based on lunar cycles. The moon's phases were used to track the passage of time, with the new moon marking the beginning.

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“I must admit to MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING myself — it can be a useful kind of post-mortem process.”

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THANKS to Tom for suggesting today’s OWAD.

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