Not perb related but back in the day we used that term when there was a group of us out on the prowl. There was always a group of gals putting it out there and invariably one of them was less hot than the rest. It became a thing of well bud, its your turn to take one for the team.
As opposed to an oldie goldie song by Toby Keith called Running Block ... where it went to who drew the short straw ...