What does "bite" and "quarter-backing" mean in this context?

Question

It's from the first few lines of the foreword to Karl Llewellyn's "The Bramble Bush":> These lectures grew out of an attempt in 1929 and 1930 to introduce> the students at Columbia Law School to the study of law. They were> privately printed in 1930, and met with reasonable favour. *But I> found out early that their **bite** for a beginning law student lies> rather in November than in September*; and a man's own> ideas--especially on perspective and whole view-- change as he gains> experience Hence for ten years I planned and worked over a rewrite.> Then it slowly became clear that I have no business to rewrite. The> young fellow who wrote these lectures just isn't here any more, and> the job he did had its own virtue, and I have no right to mess it up> with *Monday morning **quarter-backing** which has used two decades in> getting from Saturday to Monday morning*.Can someone give me an explanation of, if not some interchangeable words/phrases for, 'bite' and 'quarter-backing' in respect of the above context? Thanks.

Answer 1

I can explain the second phrase. It refers to American football. The on-field leader of the team on offense (as opposed to defense) is the quarterback. American football games are typically played on Sundays but can also be played on Saturdays. Football fans love to discuss the games on Mondays. They often criticize the strategies used in the games as if they are experts and would have known better what to do in a given situation. Of course, this is not fair since they already know the outcomes. It is easy to say on Monday what should have been done on Saturday/Sunday. It is much harder to actually know what to do in the heat of the moment in a game. Criticizing decisions made by others after one has the benefit of seeing the consequences can therefore be called "Monday morning quarterbacking". (This is similar to the saying, "hindsight is always 20/20".)