Thick Six or Thicc Six? The Birth of Girth TDs
The Sickos Committee posted a video yesterday from a high school game showing a fabulous interception return by an exceptionally large defensive lineman. If you find joy in the little things in life, this video is not for you, but when the big things in life bring you joy, the video on the Sickos Committee’s BlueSky account is a must-see.
A touchdown scored by an offensive or defensive lineman is now known as a Thick Six, Thicc Six, or thicc-six, each of which is a play on the term Pick Six. As I show in Hut! Hut! Hike!, which covers the origins of 400+ football terms, interceptions existed in football before we legalized the forward pass, since the term initially referred to defenders who caught errant offensive laterals. “Pick off” came into use for intercepted forward passes by 1909, yet it took until the early 1980s for “pick” to become a noun. A pick returned for a touchdown became a “pick six” early in this century.
With that background, those who really care about football wanted to know when the term(s) came into use to describe scoring plays by the big fellas with big bottoms. Needing to do some serious research, not something half-assed, I pulled up my trusty steed, newspapers.com.
If you have seen a recent picture of me, you know that I am neither young nor Black, but the internet tells me that thicc became an alternate spelling of thick among some Black youths in the early 2000s. Often, thicc referred to a curvaceous woman, particularly one graced with enhanced buttocks.
The term then became applied to touchdowns scored by the game’s finest athletes, so, what is your best guess about when Thick Six or Thicc Six arrived on the football scene? Before revealing this critical piece of information, here’s an example of a close but no cigar passage. Since it showed up among the limited number of hits for thick and six appearing close to one another, it suggests the terms have seldom appeared together throughout football’s history.
As best I can tell, the birthday or girthday of Thick Six in a newspaper came in 2018, when Alabama defensive lineman Da’Ron Payne, now with the Washington Commanders, intercepted a pass and later caught a one-yard touchdown pass in Bama’s 2018 Sugar Bowl victory over Clemson. (There is a certain justice in the first Thick Six coming in the Sugar Bowl.) Here’s Payne’s Thick Six in video.
And, here’s the mention of his Thick Six as it appeared in print.
How about Thicc Six? When did it show up? The earliest example of that spelling in the newspapers came in a 2024 article about the San Antonio Brahmas. However, the title and description of the January 28, 2022, episode of ESPN Daily, with Pablo Torre and Mike Golic, Jr., includes the spelling “Thicc Six,” so that is the clubhouse leader for the term’s second spelling.
You may know of or can find an earlier example of Thick Six or Thicc Six. If so, please advise in the comments below.
Until then, we should reflect on the fact that while big boys periodically scored touchdowns in football’s old days, it is only in recent years that the game thought enough of their contributions to create a term to describe those glorious moments. The larger members of society can finally feel good about touchdowns scored by those with body labels assigned by girth.
Football Archaeology is reader-supported. Click here to donate a couple of bucks, buy one of my books, or otherwise support the site.
Do pro's Leon Lett and The Refrigerator count here? ..