Talk:Tom Johnson (tackle, born 1931)

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A fact from Tom Johnson (tackle, born 1931) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 5 October 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Michigan's All-American 60-minute man Tom Johnson was the second African-American player for the Green Bay Packers?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2010/October.

Wikipedia

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There are two NFL players named Tom Johnson. This one and Tom Johnson (gridiron football), (b. 1984) a linebacker who recently retired from the NFL. "American football" and "gridiron football" are interchangeable, so not the best way to sort the two. I am suggesting the two players be sorted by position instead, moving this page to "Tom Johnson (offensive tackle)" and the other to "Tom Johnson (~~linebacker~~ defensive tackle)" with appropriate hatnotes. Before making this move myself, I want to see if there is any other input. Frank Anchor^Talk 12:29, 22 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Frank Anchor: Using "offensive tackle" does not make sense here since Johnson played principally as a defensive tackle. Cbl62 (talk) 03:01, 30 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Fair point. I had this one listed as offensive tackle since he played both positions and the other listed as a defensive tackle (When I made the suggestion last week, I mistakenly thought the other Tom Johnson was a linebacker, not a defensive tackle. The two players being the same position complicates things slightly). We could change to "Tom Johnson (defensive tackle, born 1931)" and the other to "Tom Johnson (defensive tackle, born 1984)" or just "American football" with the respective birth years. Any of these would be better than sorting as "gridiron football" vs "American football," as was previously the case. Frank Anchor^Talk 12:06, 30 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Frank Anchor: Your original proposal last week (found here) was to rename this article "Tom Johnson (tackle)". This makes more sense, as he played in the era when two-way football remained common. Because of the historic evolution of the game, our Wikipedia nomenclature encompasses three variations: defensive tackle, offensive tackle, and the more generic "tackle". The last option is the old two-way position and the one that I believe should be used for Tom Johnson. Also, when you make a move like this, please make sure that you update all the pre-existing links to "Tom Johnson (American football)", so as to avoid misdirection. A list of those links can be found here. Cbl62 (talk) 12:23, 30 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]