[2] The title character is a local sports television reporter who used to be a defensive lineman in the National Football League, hence his nickname.

The strip focuses primarily on contemporary American athletics, which allows it to remain topical and also to dabble in related subjects such as politics and social issues.

The local professional teams are fictional American major-league franchises (baseball's "Bashers"; football's "Smashers"; ice hockey's "Igloos"; basketball's "Stuffers").

In earlier years, Tank was portrayed as a buffoon ex-professional athlete (an NFL defensive linebacker, jersey number 55) unqualified to do his journalistic job.

Recurring gags focused on Tank's "fumble-mouth" mistakes (such as presenting the "Norts Spews"), and on his tendency to jump on anything loose on the floor as if it were a fumbled football.

Angela was the single mother of an athletically gifted son to whom Tank served as a father figure, and she eschewed competing in sports since a youthful tennis talent took over her life.

One popular example is its Sports Jerk of the Year award, which allows readers to nominate the figure they have found most objectionable and then vote on who is the worst.

Previous "winners" include Terrell Owens (2x), Bud Selig (2x), Daniel Snyder, John Rocker, Lleyton Hewitt, Latrell Sprewell, Ronald Curry and Roberto Alomar.

Marking the strip's fortieth anniversary in 2014, readers were invited to submit nominations for the Sports Jerk of the last 40 years, which was "won" by Lance Armstrong, with Dennis Rodman and Pete Rose as runners-up.

In addition to Tank McNamara, Bill created, writes and draws the feature Buzz Beamer in the monthly Sports Illustrated Kids.

He also illustrated the feature According to Guinness for ten years, and created two experimental short-lived comic strips Clown Alley and Longshots for The Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday page.