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Safety (S) is an American and Canadian football position on defense. They are defensive backs, who line up from five to ten yards behind the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position in a typical formation, the free safety (FS) and the strong safety (SS). Their duties depend on the defensive scheme.

Safeties are the last line of defense, and are thus expected to be sure tacklers. Indeed, many safeties rank among the hardest hitters in football history.

As professional and college football have become more focused on the passing game, safeties have become more involved in covering receivers.^[1]

The strong safety has a lot of responsibility on the defensive side of the ball.The strong safety tends to be a bit larger and stronger than the free safety. He is tasked to handle the "strong side" of the offense, the side where the tight end lines up. The strong safety tends to play closer to the line and assist in stopping the run. He may also be responsible for covering a player, such as a running back or fullback or h-back, who goes in motion in the backfield and then out for a pass.

The free safety tends to be smaller and faster than the strong safety. His job tends to be to stay back a bit, watch the play unfold, and follow the ball. On pass plays, the free safety is supposed to close near the receiver by the time the ball gets to him. Offenses tend to call play action passes specifically to draw the free safety closer to the line to stop a long run. If the offense puts a receiver in the slot, then the free safety may be called upon to cover that receiver. Free safeties occasionally blitz as well. When this happens, the pressure is very severe since a blitz by a defensive back is not usually anticipated.

Sometimes instead of the safeties dividing up their jobs in terms of run support and pass support, the safeties will divide up the field into a left half and a right half, and each will be responsible for anything that comes into his half of the field. This type of division of responsibility is becoming more and more common,[2] and is called a cover 2 defense. The cover-2 was first used by the Steelers in the 1970's, but was made famous by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the late 90's. Led by head coach Tony Dungy and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, the Bucs built a dominating defense, with strong safety John Lynch at the forefront. This particular version of the cover 2 is referred to as the "Tampa 2". Since then, the popularity of the cover-2 has soared. Both of the teams in Super Bowl XLI, the Colts and the Bears, ran a primarily cover-two defense.

• phillyBurbs.com Football 101: The Free Safety