The Sid Gillman Offensive game plan was basic and straightforward. Utilize every inch of the field from sideline to sideline to advance the football from the line of scrimmage to the end zone. Advancing the ball across the goal line being the ultimate objective of the sport of football; Gillman maintained that the quickest and most effective means to that end was by the properly executed forward pass. He further realized that the most effective way to execute the passing game was to stretch the defense and force them to cover every inch of ground available. And so Gillman split receivers as wide as possible on each side of the field; utilized backs as downfield receivers, confused the defense by putting players in motion prior to the snap, divided the field into zones for the purpose of running precise routes, and attacked the opposition vertically with dump passes which were designed for “catch and run” advancement, along with deep passes downfield from sideline to sideline. This is not to imply that he did not recognize the value of the running game as a necessary element of the strategy of advancing the football, but Gillman’s theory was that the passing game creates space for the running game rather than the other way around. 

For today’s football fan, these strategies are fundamental at most every level of the game. The modern game in fact validates Gillman’s theory of football, for the sport itself is now played in accord with Gillman’s game plan. But such was not always the case.

In 1959, Sid Gillman was seriously pondering leaving the profession of football after a disappointing conclusion of his five year tenure as the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams. Granted,Gillman had led the Rams to the NFL Championship Game in his first season of 1955, but his final two seasons in particular had been dismal disappointments. When he left the Rams, Gillman is believed to have seriously considered entering the business world after more than 20 years as an assistant and head coach on the collegiate and professional levels. The implications of the state of professional football after 1959 without the influence of Sid Gillman are simply unimaginable. For beginning in 1960, Sid Gillman stamped the image of his game plan indelibly on the sport, and fortunately football has never been the same since. 

In January, 1960 Sid Gillman accepted an offer to become the head coach for the AFL’s Los Angeles Chargers. Both the AFL and the Chargers themselves were teams without a history, which allowed the innovator Gillman to create a team in his image. The result was an entertaining and effective style of football that functioned in accord with Gillman’s game plan. 

The 1960’s was a time for change. The entire decade was an era of social change, rebellion, rejection and adaptation of conventional ideology. There may have been no time more naturally prepared for the changes in the sport of football that were entailed in Gillman’s game plan. The fact is that the sport of professional football came into its own during the era of the American Football League, and no person was more responsible for the adaptations to its style of play from that decade onward than Sid Gillman himself. 

Gillman had already established himself as an innovator in the realm of coaching. He was the first coach to study film as a means to better understand the sport and in preparation for a gridiron contest. His background in the movie theater business inspired Gillman to utilize film in his efforts to be a more informed and prepared football coach. The utility of studying film was but a single area of the game of football wherein he proved to be an effective innovator. There are several routine norms in the world of coaching that originated from the mind of Sid Gillman. He was the first to maintain a taxi squad; that is a reserve of players who could be called into action in case of injury or lack of adequate performance by active roster players. Gillman was the first to hire a strength coach. He was even the first to seriously suggest an AFL-NFL Championship Game. But there is no doubt that Gillman’s primary contribution was the aerial assault game plan that he successfully implemented in full force during the 1960’s as the Head Coach and General Manager of the AFL Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers. 

Al Davis, who was an assistant under Gillman in the early ‘60s, once compared the experience of being on the mastermind’s coaching staff to being in a laboratory studying the science of football. When Davis took over as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders in 1963, he implemented Gillman’s game plan there and turned the worst team in the AFL into an exciting competitive team in his first season. Utilizing what he termed “the vertical game” to strike deep and early in an effort to gain an immediate advantage, Davis was simply implementing the Gillman game plan. In explaining the vertical game, he emphasized that a team had to have the players with the speed and skills to make plays downfield in order to effectively execute the vertical game. Davis was speaking from personal experience, for while he was a Chargers  assistant he himself had recruited and signed the player whose speed and skills would so effectively execute the Gillman game plan that by the end of the decade the game of football was never the same again.

When Al Davis signed Arkansas Razorback star Lance Alworth to a professional contract with the San Diego Chargers in 1962, the speedy running back was best known for his effective kick return skills. However; in what would have to be considered one of the most historic personnel decisions of all time, Gillman decided to move Alworth out of the backfield in order to add him to the Chargers receiving corps. The result was history in the making. Lance Alworth was perhaps the greatest receiver in all professional football throughout the decade of the 1960’s. In fact, he is arguably one of the greatest receivers of all time. Alworth gained over 1,000 yards annually for seven consecutive seasons (1963-1969). Keep in mind that those were 14 game schedules. He had an unprecedented five career 200 reception yard games. On the receiving end of passes from Tobin Rote early on, and from John Hadl for the majority of his illustrious career, Lance Alworth’s accomplishments legitimized the Gillman game plan. And in the process ushered in the modern era of offensive football strategy.

Although the Gillman game plan emphasized the forward pass as the primary means for advancement of the football; consistent to his theory that the passing game clears space for the running game, Chargers backs Paul Lowe, Keith Lincoln, and Dickey Post boasted a ground attack that produced rushing titles, 1,000 yard seasons, and even 200 yard games. Lincoln’s 329 all purpose yards performance in the 1963 AFL Championship game, which is the most ever accumulated in a regulation professional football game, showcased the benefits of clearing space for the running game by the utility of the passing game. Lincoln in fact had over 100 yards receiving to complement his 206 yards rushing. The Gillman game plan was realized in its most effective manner as the Chargers claimed the AFL Title over the Patriots that afternoon.

The Gillman game plan was utilized and successfully executed by both the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders throughout the ‘60s. The Al Davis vertical game that was demonstrated by bombs and outs from Raiders quarterbacks Flores and Lamonica to receivers Powell and Biletnikoff, was admittedly a variant of the Gillman game plan. In fact the Houston Oilers aerial assault style of play that led to the first two AFL Titles, as well as which produced George Blanda’s season and single game records for TD passes, utilized the field for vertical advancement in accord with the theory of Gillman’s game plan. As did Joe Namath a few years later when the New York Jets young star became the first ever 4,000 yard passer. Again, a feat accomplished in a 14 game schedule.

In essence, the aerial attack style of the AFL revolutionized the game of football and at the same time legitimized the fundamentals of the Gillman game plan. Over the course of time the sport itself has adopted the principle that the field should be used from sideline to sideline in order to advance the ball from the line of scrimmage to the end zone, and that the forward pass is the quickest and most effective means to achieve that goal. The traditionally rushing game oriented NFL initially seemed skeptical to adopt an offensive strategy based upon opening up the running game with the passing attack, yet in time even NFL Super Bowl head coaches Tom Landry and Dick Vermeil hired the aging Gillman as a consultant for their Offensive coaching staff. The value of the passing attack as a means to open up the field for the running game and for the vertical advancement of the ball is now routine and regarded as rudimentary at all levels of modern football. In essence, the sport of football now follows the once radical concepts of the Sid Gillman Offensive game plan.

Long the memory of Sid Gillman, the father of the modern passing game.

Long live the memory of the AFL.