Tag Archives: Chiefs

Statistical curiosities of 2014 (Part 1)

Every NFL season has its statistical curiosities. In fact, if I can find a publisher, my next book might be Statistical Curiosities and the Fans Who Love Them (like me). Anyway, I just noticed one while scanning the final receiving stats. Ready? Here goes:

In 2014 Broncos tight end Julius Thomas became the first player in NFL history to catch 12 or more touchdown passes while gaining less than 500 receiving yards. (Quite a mouthful, huh?)

Thomas’ final numbers in 13 games — he missed three with an ankle injury — were 43 catches, 489 yards, 12 TDs. Others have had 12 or more TDs on fewer than 43 receptions. In 1985, for instance, the Seahawks’ Darryl Turner had 13 on 34 grabs. But nobody, not even in the early days, gained as few as 489 yards. That’s mind-boggling.

Of course, if Thomas had played all 16 games, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. But since he didn’t, we have a terrific Statistical Curiosity for an Offseason Day. The details:

     12 OR MORE TD CATCHES, 800 OR LESS RECEIVING YARDS

Year Receiver, Team Rec Yds Avg TD
2014 Julius Thomas, Broncos 43 489 11.4 12
1951 Leon Hart, Lions 35 544 15.5 12
1962 Chris Burford, Texans (AFL) 45 645 14.3 12
1985 Daryl Turner, Seahawks 34 670 19.7 13
1963 Gary Collins, Browns 43 674 15.7 13
1977 Nat Moore, Dolphins 52 765 14.7 12
2004 Randy Moss, Vikings 49 767 15.7 13
2012 James Jones, Packers 64 784 12.3 14
2013 Julius Thomas, Broncos 65 788 12.1 12
1965 Art Powell, Raiders (AFL) 52 800 15.4 12

As you can see, Thomas made the list twice. Last season he had 12 touchdowns on just 788 yards. I have no idea what his career holds for him, but I do know this: The man scores a lot of TDs and — just as important in this Recycling Era — he doesn’t waste yards.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

I could have run yet another photo of Julius Thomas here, but how often does Daryl Turner's name come up?

I could have run yet another photo of Julius Thomas here, but how often does Daryl Turner’s name come up?

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The myth of Super Bowl distractions?

Tom Brady wasn’t in a very good place when he began his Super Bowl preparations. Deflategate — and its attendant tempest — blindsided him worse than any Terrell Suggs sack. Some people thought the Patriots cheated in their 45-7 AFC title game win over the Colts. Some of those same people thought Brady, as the quarterback, must have had something to do with it. The NFL, meanwhile, was conducting an investigation at its usual glacial pace. Oh, it was a mess.

A mess, of course, that’s still to be resolved — which may or may not have made it worse for Brady. This much we do know: He took it, “very, very personal” (as Sonny Corleone said to Michael in The Godfather). Or as Tom put it on a Boston radio show:

I personalized a lot of things and thought this was all about me and my feelings got hurt, and then I moved past it because it’s not serving me.

I think what’s serving me is to try to prepare for the game ahead, and I’ll deal with whatever happens later. I’ll have my opportunity to try to figure out what happened and figure out a theory like everyone else is trying to do. But this isn’t the time for that, and honestly I’m not interested in trying to find out right now because we have the biggest game of our season ahead.

Well, how to you like the way Brady “moved past it”? Against a Seahawks defense that’s the best in the league and possibly the finest since the 2000 Ravens (if not the 1985 Bears), he had the greatest of his six Super Bowls on Sunday night. Not only did he complete 37 of 50 passes for 328 yards and four touchdowns, each to a different receiver, he drove the Patriots to two fourth-quarter TDs, the second of which capped a rally from a 10-point deficit and won the game, 28-24.

In other words, after taking Deflategate “very, very personal,” he did to the defending champions at University of Phoenix Stadium what Michael did to Sollozzo and the police captain at Louis Restaurant. Not to get too graphic about it.

That’s how you win a record-tying four Super Bowls — by being able to compartmentalize; by taking the latest scandal, zipping it up in a bag with the rest of the semi-inflated balls and going about your business. What a talent to have, apart from the passing and vision and decision-making and all the other things that go into quarterbacking. It might be what puts Brady a little higher on the podium than other QBs, past and present.

You know what’s really strange? There have been a handful of Super Bowl quarterbacks in 49 years who have been caught in a storm, so to speak, and every one has ended up playing well in the game. Brady is just the latest — and probably the greatest. But look at some of these other guys:

● Len Dawson, Chiefs, Super Bowl 4 — Early in the week, Dawson’s name was linked to nationwide gambling probe involving a “casual acquaintance,” a Detroit restaurateur who had already been arrested. He admitted being “shocked” by the development, and the pressure on him going into the game was heavier than Buck Buchanan.

“If we lose Sunday and he throws some bad passes, you know what they’ll say don’t you?” Chiefs defensive end Jerry Mays said. “Winning or losing usually is going to fall back on 40 players, but this one would fall back on Lenny.”

The upshot: Dawson responded with an MVP performance, hitting 12 of 17 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown in a 23-7 upset of the NFL’s Vikings.

● Doug Williams, Redskins, Super Bowl 22 – Williams had to deal with a different kind of stress: He was the first black quarterback to start a Super Bowl. (You can imagine what that was like.) He was asked question after question about it in the days leading up to the game, and answered each time with great equanimity.

The upshot: Another MVP performance, one highlighted by a Super Bowl record four TD passes in the second quarter. Final score: Redskins 42, Broncos 10.

● Joe Namath, Jets, Super Bowl 3 — The loquacious Namath brought the controversy on himself by saying he would “guarantee” a victory over the NFL’s Colts. To stir things up even more more, he nearly got in a fight with Baltimore’s Lou Michaels in a Miami cocktail lounge. Here’s Michaels’ version of it (as told to The New York Times), which begins with Joe walking in and introducing himself:

I’m still resentful of the way it started out. I thought Joe was at fault. I never had the privilege of meeting Joe, but I knew who he was. I went to school with his brother at Kentucky. Joe walked up to me, and the first thing he said was, “We’re going to beat the heck out of you,” only he didn’t say heck. And he said, “And I’m going to do it.”

If you’re looking for a fight, that’s going to do it. Instead of saying, “Hello, I’m Joe Namath, how are you?” I think he was a little arrogant there. I said, “Suppose we beat you?” And he said, “I’ll sit in the middle of the field, and I’ll cry.”

I believe in that little thing called modesty. I asked him about that, and he said, “That’s not in my dictionary.” I don’t know why he came on so strong. It worked out fine. I have nothing against Joe. If I was in his shoes, I’d be a little down to earth.

The upshot: Yet another MVP performance. Namath picked apart the vaunted Colts defense, connecting on 17 of 28 passes for 206 yards as the Jets won, 16-7.

So there you have it: four quarterbacks, all under the gun — even by Super Bowl standards — and they all came away with MVP honors, Brady included. Maybe this business about avoiding distractions before big games is a bunch of hooey. It certainly didn’t do Brady, Dawson, Williams and Namath any harm, did it?

After a chaotic week in which he got caught up in a gambling investigation, the Chiefs' Len Dawson was MVP of Super Bowl IV.

After getting caught up in a gambling investigation, the Chiefs’ Len Dawson was MVP of Super Bowl IV.

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In the days before diplomacy

Before players became so well behaved — in terms of their public pronouncements, I mean — Super Bowl Week was a lot more entertaining. I was reminded of this the other day when I came across a story that ran after the 1968 AFL title game between the Jets and Raiders.

Joe Namath’s team rallied to win the game, 27-23 – then went off to slay the NFL champion Colts, the biggest upset in pro football history. The visiting Raiders, who thought they were the better club (and may well have been), could only go home and stew for seven months.

In the walk-up to the Super Bowl, Jets cornerback Johnny Sample was doing what he did best: mouthing off. Sample was one of the early trash talkers — not quite as quotable, perhaps, as Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, but heck, Fred was practically Oscar Wilde.

One day Johnny was holding forth about the cornerback position — and about the notebook he kept that had detailed information on every man he covered. The Raiders’ Fred Biletnikoff, a future Hall of Famer, was just “an average receiver,” he’d decided. “You can’t compare him to the great receivers.”

This was a strange statement coming from Sample. Biletnikoff, after all, had torn him up in the AFL title game, catching seven passes for 190 yards and a touchdown. (In fact, Raiders owner Al Davis told The Boston Globe’s Will McDonough, “Fred has eaten him up the last three times he has played against him, and every time he does, Sample says he’s had a cold.”)

An enterprising reporter for the Oakland Tribune called Biletnikoff to get his reaction to Sample’s remarks. Fred was in a Los Angeles hospital at the time recovering from a collarbone injury that Johnny, apparently, had something to do with.

“The way I feel about it,” he said, “[Sample] should write a new book. He was really trying to shake me up in the first quarter, slapping at me and trying to talk me out of my game.

“When I dropped one on the 1-yard line, he said, ‘That’s the way it’s going to be today.’ But after I started beating him he didn’t say much for the rest of the game. I figure the game went 25 percent his way, 75 percent my way.”

I’m saving the best for last. Sample was suggesting at the Super Bowl that he might retire after the game — and it did, indeed, turn out to be his last season. How did Biletnikoff feel about that?

“I hope he doesn’t,” Fred said. “I’d like to play 14 games a season against him. That way I’d know my family is secure for a long time.”

Anyway, that’s what happened one day before Super Bowl III. Anybody say anything interesting today?

Source: pro-football-reference.com

The Jets' Johnny Sample (24) and the Colts' Tom Matte (41) go facemask-to-facemask in Super Bowl III.

The Jets’ Johnny Sample (24) and the Colts’ Tom Matte (41) go facemask-to-facemask in Super Bowl III.

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Player safety in the 1960s

My Internet wanderings recently led me, as they often do, to an unexpected place: a classic 1967 photo of Chiefs cornerback Fred “The Hammer” Williamson. It shows Williamson, famous for bludgeoning receivers with a karate chop to the head, wearing a cast on his feared right forearm — “THE HAMMER” written in big block letters across it. He’d broken the arm in an exhibition game two weeks earlier against the Jets. The New York Times described the collision this way:

In the first quarter [Jets quarterback] Joe Namath completed a 15-yard pass to Don Maynard, who was covered by Fred Williamson. The talkative Williamson tackled Maynard, his right elbow crashing into Maynard’s spine near the neck. Williamson’s right arm was broken on the play. Maynard suffered a slight concussion and was sent to University Hospital [in Birmingham, Ala., where the game was played] for observation.

Williamson’s “Hammer” — “having great velocity and delivered perpendicular to the earth’s latitude,” as he liked to say — usually won these battles. The year before, he’d fractured the cheekbone of the Dolphins’ Howard Twilley. Anyway, here’s the photo of Fred’s arm encased in plaster:

Fred Williamson in cast 8-27-67

Pro football back then was still fairly cavalier about shots to the cranium. The head slap had become a popular — and legal — weapon of defensive linemen, and high hitting like Williamson’s tended to be tolerated as long as the victim wasn’t decapitated. It was a far cry from the concussion-conscious times we now live in. In the ’60s there was no such thing as “targeting” a “defenseless” player. That was just, well, football.

It wasn’t until 1962 that the NFL made it illegal to grab the ball carrier’s facemask. (Until then, he was the only one exempted from the rule — for some strange reason.) In high school and college ball, grabbing anybody’s face mask had been a personal foul since 1957.

By then, David M. Nelson writes in Anatomy of a Game, “large numbers of players were wearing face guards, and opponents were grasping them legally and putting the wearer at a disadvantage. Citing the injury possibility with grasping and holding, the Rules Committee passed the first 15-yard face mask penalty.”

That happened this very week in 58 years ago (which is why I wanted to post about it). Talk about a red-letter day in football safety. The NFL was still a ways away, though, from giving the ball carrier the same protection. When it finally did, Commissioner Pete Rozelle made some interesting comments.

“It has been against the rule to grab face masks in blocking,” he said, “but you could grab the mask of a ball carrier. But the ball carrier actually is the most defenseless of all, and this new rule could prevent possible serious injury.”

More from Rozelle: “We didn’t have any serious trouble with this in league play. Actually, most of our injuries are of the knee or leg type. However, I did see one ball carrier grabbed by his mask and thrown several yards. It scared me a little.”

As well it might.

(I love this headline that ran in a newspaper the day after the rule was passed — specifically the “for ’62” part. Did people actually think the league might change its mind about rule and repeal it?)

NFL Facemask rule headlineIt took defensive players — some of them, at least — a while to adjust to the revised rule, as this 1964 photo shows. That’s Lions’ end Sam Williams trying to yank down Jim Taylor, the Packers’ Hall of Fame fullback:

9-30-64 Appleton Post-Crescent photo of Lion grabbing Packer's facemask

Just thought, with such a (needed) emphasis on player safety these days, it was a good time to revisit Fred “The Hammer” Williamson and celebrate the 1957 passing of the face mask rule — even if it took the NFL a little longer to wise up.

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Marvin Lewis and the perils of January

The Bengals have made the playoffs in six of Marvin Lewis 12 seasons. You’d think congratulations would be in order — first for surviving a dozen years in any coaching job, and second for steering his team to the postseason so often. But Lewis’ 0-6 record in the playoffs has folks wondering, rightfully, whether he’ll be working in Cincinnati much longer. This is, after all, the Not For Long League. It’s not enough to just win, baby. You have to keep on winning, baby, into January and beyond.

Not that he’ll take any comfort in this, but Lewis is hardly the first coach to trip over that final hurdle. Heck, there are guys in the Hall of Fame who tripped over that final hurdle — and several others who rank high on the all-time victories list. Indeed, if there were a Misery Index for coaches, it might look something like this:

100-WIN COACHES WHO HAD A LOSING RECORD IN THE PLAYOFFS

Span Coach (Titles) Teams Regular Season Playoffs
1986-01 Jim Mora Saints, Colts 125-106-0, .541 0-6, .000
2003-14 Marvin Lewis Bengals 100-90-2, .526 0-6, .000
1955-74 Sid Gillman (1) Rams, Chargers, Oilers 122-99-7, .550 1-5, .167
1931-53 Steve Owen (2) Giants 151-100-17, .595 2-8, .200
1966-77 George Allen Rams, Redskins 116-47-5, .705 2-7, .222
1984-06 Marty Schottenheimer Browns, Chiefs, 2 others 200-116-1, .613 5-13, .278
1973-86 Don Coryell Cardinals, Chargers 111-83-1, .572 3-6, .333
1992-06 Dennis Green Vikings, Cardinals 113-94-0, .546 4-8, .333
1973-94 Chuck Knox Rams, Bills, Seahawks 186-147-1, 558 7-11, .389
1967-85 Bud Grant Vikings 158-96-5, .620 10-12, .455
1994-14 Jeff Fisher Oilers/Titans, Rams 162-147-1, 524 5-6, .455
1996-08 Tony Dungy (1) Bucs, Colts 139-69-0, .688 10-12, .455

(Note: If you want to be technical about it, Grant won the NFL championship in 1969, then lost the Super Bowl to the AFL’s Chiefs. Also: Schottenheimer’s other teams were the Redskins and Chargers.)

That’s 12 coaches with 100 regular-season victories who have lost more playoff games than they’ve won. Four are in Canton (Gillman, Owen, Allen and Grant) and another has been a finalist (Coryell) and may eventually get elected. Clearly, then, a poor postseason record doesn’t have to be a reputation-killer for a coach. (And yes, Gillman’s and Owen’s situations are much different from the others’. All but one of their playoff games was a title game — back when that was the extent of pro football’s postseason.)

The biggest problem for Lewis, obviously, is the goose egg. Aside from Mora, everybody else in the group had at least one notable postseason. Owen, Gillman (AFL) and Dungy won titles; Grant, Allen and Fisher reached the Super Bowl; and Schottenheimer (three times), Coryell (twice), Green (twice) and Knox (four) all made multiple trips to the conference championship game.

As for Lewis and Mora, well, Jim probably said it best:

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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Road warriors

After Saturday’s 30-17 crunching of the Steelers, John Harbaugh’s Ravens are once again taking bows for their road exploits in the playoffs. They’re now 7-4 in such games under Harbaugh,

Ravens coach John Harbaugh

Ravens coach John Harbaugh

which would be an impressive record in any postseason venue.

Before anybody builds any statues, though, allow me to point out what the Chiefs — and their predecessors, the Dallas Texans — did in the ’60s. Not only did they go 3-0 in AFL championship games in those years, all three were on the road. Better still, in each of those postseasons they had to beat the defending champions on their own turf en route to the title. To review:

● 1962 — Beat the Oilers, 20-17, in double overtime at Jeppesen Stadium. Houston had won the previous two AFL championships.

● 1966 — Beat the Bills, 31-7, at War Memorial Stadium. Buffalo had won it all in ’64 and ’65 (the last two years before the Super Bowl).

● 1969 — The coup de grace. In the first round they beat the Jets, the defending titlists, 13-7, at Shea Stadium. Then they beat the Raiders, winners of the ’67 championship, 16-6, at Oakland Coliseum.

So they were 4-0 in the playoffs in those seasons, all four games on the road, and three of them against the defending champs, two of whom were the two-time defending champs.

The Super Bowl, of course, is played at a neutral site. But Harbaugh’s Ravens, let’s not forget, are 1-2 in AFC title games on the road, losing to the Steelers in 2008, the Patriots in 2011 and defeating the Pats the next year.

Anyway, just thought I’d throw that out there. You can go back to what you were doing now.

A triumphant Hank Stram after the Chiefs took down the Vikings in Super Bowl III.

A triumphant Hank Stram after the Chiefs took down the Vikings in Super Bowl III.

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“Stump the Football Stars”

Sportscaster Dick Enberg was in the news recently as the winner of baseball’s Ford Frick Award. He’s also done some fine football work, of course, calling eight Super Bowls and serving as the radio voice of the Los Angeles Rams. (He’s already, in fact, in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.)

Since we’re closing in on Christmas, I thought I’d post these clips from his syndicated game show, Sports Challenge. This episode pitted three Kansas City Chiefs (quarterback Len Dawson, linebacker Willie Lanier and wide receiver Otis Taylor) against a trio of Miami Dolphins (fullback Larry Csonka, halfback Jim Kiick and wide receiver Paul Warfield) — the year after the teams played their classic Christmas Day playoff game, won by the Dolphins in double overtime, 27-24.

Four of these six guys are now in Canton (Dawson, Lanier, Csonka, Warfield), and another (Taylor) probably belongs there. It’s always surprised me that ESPN hasn’t tried to revive Sports Challenge, just for fun. Who doesn’t enjoy seeing pro athletes stumped by relatively easy questions about their game’s history? Check this out:

Nobody knew the answer – not even Dawson, who at the time of the alleged Greatest Game Ever Played was a third-string quarterback for the Steelers. (The others had yet to play pro ball.) That’s almost — almost — like players not knowing that Adam Vinatieri won Super Bowls XXXVI and XXXVIII for the Patriots. (You know what would have been a great follow-up question, by the way? “For 10 points, what is the correct spelling of Myhra?”)

As I said, though, many of the questions on Sports Challenge weren’t very, well, challenging. Like this one, also about the NFL:

Come on! Do we have to dumb things down that much?

I’ll finish with this clip from earlier in the show. Enberg talks about Garo Yepremian ending the Chiefs-Dolphins overtime thriller with a field goal and asks Csonka, “Where were you at that time?” You’ll love the response:

The players weren’t always well-versed in their game’s history, but at least some of them had a sense of humor.

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Slingin’ Antonio Brown

The Steelers’ Antonio Brown has done something this season that hasn’t been done in a decade — and has been accomplished by only 10 receivers in NFL history. Care to guess what it is?

Answer: He’s racked up 1,000 receiving yards and thrown a touchdown pass in the same year.

Obviously, it’s much more common for a 1,000-yard running back to throw for a TD. For one thing, backs get their hands on the ball more than wideouts do. But with the Jet Sweep so popular these days, we might begin to see more scoring passes tossed by golden-armed receivers. Let’s hope so, anyway.

Here’s the short list of wideouts Brown has joined. Note that a couple of them — Randy Moss and Marty Booker — had two of these seasons.

1,000 RECEIVING YARDS AND A TOUCHDOWN PASS IN THE SAME SEASON

Year Receiver, Team Yds TD Pass Details
2014 Antonio Brown, Steelers 1,498 3 yards to WR Lance Moore vs. Texans
2004 Drew Bennett, Titans 1,247 26 yards to WR Derrick Mason vs. Packers
2002 Randy Moss, Vikings 1,347 13 yards to WR D’Wayne Bates vs. Dolphins
2002 Marty Booker, Bears 1,189 44 yards to WR Marcus Robinson vs. Patriots
2001 Marty Booker, Bears 1,071 34 yards to WR Marcus Robinson vs. Falcons
1999 Randy Moss, Vikings 1,413 27 yards to WR Cris Carter vs. Giants
1996 Curtis Conway, Bears 1,049 33 yards to RB Raymont Harris vs. Cowboys
1995 Jerry Rice, 49ers 1,848* 41 yards to WR J.J. Stokes vs. Falcons
1983 Carlos Carson, Chiefs 1,351 48 yards to WR Henry Marshall vs. Chargers
1974 Drew Pearson, Cowboys 1,087 46 yards to WR Golden Richards vs. Giants
1962 Tommy McDonald, Eagles 1,146 10 yards to RB Timmy Brown vs. Redskins
1960 Bill Groman, Oilers (AFL) 1,473* 3 yards to E Al Wicher vs. Patriots

*led league

(Brown, by the way, leads the league in receiving yards with two games to go.)

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Steelers wideout Antonio Brown gets ready to uncork one against the Texans.

Steelers wideout Antonio Brown gets ready to show off his arm against the Texans.

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Trading draft picks for coaches

There were more reports over the weekend that the 49ers might trade Jim Harbaugh after the season — perhaps to the Raiders, perhaps to some other desperate team. If it happens, it’ll be fascinating to see what the going rate is for a top coach. After all, Harbaugh has guided his club to the NFL’s Final Four three years running; the list of guys who’ve done that isn’t very long.

I’ve dug up nine cases of head coaches being dealt for draft picks — all since the 1970 merger. The moral of the story seems to be this: If you think you’re going to get much in return for a coach, you’re kidding yourself. Pennies on the dollar is more like it. The coaches generally do well with their new teams, but the picks are another matter.

By my count, these nine coaches have been traded for a total of 19 selections — five first-rounders, five second-rounders, five third-rounders and four later-rounders. The vast majority of them are/were utterly forgettable players who did little to improve the club that drafted them. Indeed, only two were ever voted to the Pro Bowl — DE Shaun Ellis and KR Leon Washington, once each. (Ellis made it a second time as an alternate.)

A breakdown of the 10 deals:

● 1970 — Don Shula from the Colts to the Dolphins for a 1971 No. 1 (22nd overall). Shula took Miami, then a fifth-year franchise, to five Super Bowls, winning two. He’s now, of course, in the Hall of Don McCauley cardFame.

Who the Colts drafted: RB Don McCauley, who rushed for 2,627 yards in his 11 seasons in Baltimore, many of them as a short-yardage back.

● 1978 — Don Coryell from the Cardinals to the Chargers for a 1980 No. 3 (81st). Coryell returned San Diego to relevance with his Air Coryell offense and led the Chargers to back-to-back AFC title games (1980-81). He’s been a semi-finalist for Canton the last four years.

Who the Cardinals drafted: LB Charles Baker, who spent his entire 8-year career with St. Louis and started 62 games.

● 1997 — Bill Parcells from the Patriots to the Jets for four picks. Parcells turned a 1-15 Jets team into an AFC finalist in two seasons.

Who the Patriots drafted:

1999 No. 1 (28th) — LB Andy Katzenmoyer: 13 starts in two seasons, 3.5 sacks.

1998 No. 2 (52nd) — WR Tony Simmons: nine starts in three seasons, 56 catches.

1997 No. 3 (61st) — RB Sedrick Shaw: one start in two seasons, 236 rushing yards.

1997 No. 4 (97th) — OG Damon Denson: four starts in three seasons.

● 1999 — Mike Holmgren from the Packers to the Seahawks for a 1999 No. 2 (47th). Holmgren guided Seattle to its first Super Bowl and fielded six playoff teams in 10 seasons.

Who the Packers drafted: DB Fred Vinson. Vinson spent one year in Green Bay, then was sent to Seattle (and old friend Holmgren) in exchange for RB Ahman Green. So if you want to look at it that way — that the Packers got Green for Holmgren — go ahead. Injuries kept Vinson from playing a single down for the Seahawks. Green, on the other hand, went to four straight Pro Bowls in Green Bay and set a franchise record by rushing for 1,883 yards in 2003.

(Note: Holmgren also was traded for a second-round pick in 1992, when the Packers hired him. But he was the Niners’ offensive coordinator then, not a head coach.)

● 2000 — Bill Belichick from the Jets to the Patriots for three picks (the Pats receiving two lower selections as change). In New England, Belichick has

Shaun Ellis

Shaun Ellis

finished what Parcells started, transforming the Pats into the Team of the 2000s. Under him, they’ve won three Super Bowls, lost two and appeared in eight AFC championship games.

Who the Jets drafted:

2000 No. 1 (16th) — The Jets moved up to 12 to get Ellis, a mainstay at LDE for 11 seasons.

2001 No. 4 (101) — DB Jamie Henderson: three seasons, one start, one interception.

2001 No. 7 (206) — DE James Reed: five seasons, 32 starts, seven sacks.

● 2001 — Marty Schottenheimer from the Chiefs to the Redskins for two picks. Schottenheimer lasted just one season in Washington, going 8-8 (with eight wins in his last 11 games). Owner Dan Snyder fired him after trying — and failing — to get Marty to replace one of his assistants.

Who the Chiefs drafted:

2001 No. 3 (77th) — WR Snoop Minnis: two seasons, 34 catches, one touchdown.

2002 No. 3 (84th) — You’ll love this: They sent the third-rounder to the Rams as compensation for coach Dick Vermeil, who took the Kansas City job in ’01. So you had one pick being used two acquire two different coaches.

● 2001 — Vermeil from the Rams to the Chiefs for two picks. Vermeil posted a 44-36 record in his five seasons in K.C. but failed to win a playoff game.

Who the Rams drafted:

2001 No. 2 (42nd) — LB Tommy Polley: four seasons, 49 starts, four interceptions.

2002 No. 3 (84th) — RB Lamar Gordon: two seasons, 526 rushing yards.

● 2002 — Jon Gruden from the Raiders to the Bucs for four picks and $8 million. With Gruden — complemented by a great defense — Tampa Bay went to its first Super Bowl in ’02 and blew out Oakland. He didn’t win another playoff game with the Bucs, though, and was dumped after seven seasons with a barely-over-.500 record (60-57).

Who the Raiders drafted:

2002 No. 1 (21st) — CB Phillip Buchanon (after trading up to 17): three seasons, 11 INTs.

2002 No 2  (53rd) — OT Langston Walker: five seasons, 33 starts.*

2003 No. 1 (32nd) — DE Tyler Brayton: five seasons, six sacks.

2004 No. 2 (45th) — C Jake Grove: 5 seasons, 46 starts.

*Returned to Raiders for two more seasons (2009-10) at the end of his career.

● 2006 — Herman Edwards from the Jets to the Chiefs for a 2006 No. 4 (117th). Edwards went due south in his three years in Kansas City – 9-7, 4-12 and 2-14.

Who the Jets drafted: Washington, who in four seasons rushed for 1,782 yards and returned four kickoffs for TDs.

And now there’s a chance Harbaugh may be on the market — though everybody’s denying, denying, denying at this point. The thing is, 12 years ago, the Bucs were insisting they wouldn’t give up draft picks for Gruden, as you can see here:

Jan. 22, 2002 AP story

Jan. 22, 2002 AP story

Three weeks later, the deal got made.

"I'm not angry. I'm not yellin'."

“I’m not angry. I’m not yellin’.”

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, prosportstransactions.com.

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The Jonas Gray Chart of the Day

First off, I’d like to thank NFL statisticians for making this post possible. On Monday morning it wasn’t — because, at that point, the Patriots’ Jonas Gray was credited with 38 carries for 199 yards in the 42-20 whupping of the Colts. On further review, however, Gray’s numbers were revised to 37 carries for 201 yards. This raises the question (since it happened with Jonas): How many times has a back’s first 100-yard rushing game been a 200-yard game?

I would have guessed a couple. To my shock, I came across eight other instances, including one in the Super Bowl.

BACKS WHOSE FIRST 100-YARD RUSHING GAME WAS A 200-YARD GAME

Date Running Back, Team Opponent Att Yds Avg TD Prev. High
11-16-14 Jonas Gray, Patriots Colts 37 201 5.4 4         86
10-23-11 DeMarco Murray, Cowboys Rams 25 253 10.1 1         34
9-22-96 LeShon Johnson, Cardinals Saints 21 214 10.2 2         42
10-14-90 Barry Word, Chiefs Lions 18 200 11.1 2         31
1-31-88 Timmy Smith, Redskins Broncos 22 204 9.3 2         72
11-30-87 Bo Jackson, Raiders Seahawks 18 221 12.3 2         98
9-2-84 Gerald Riggs, Falcons Saints 35 202 5.8 2         72
11-26-78 Terry Miller, Bills Giants 21 208 9.9 2         97
12-16-56 Tommy Wilson, Rams Packers 23 223 9.7 0         NA

Smith’s 200-yard game, of course, came in the Redskins’ 42-10 blowout of the Broncos in Super Bowl XXII — a day better remembered for Doug Williams’ four touchdown passes in Washington’s 35-point second quarter. He’d carried the ball in only four regular-season games before coach Joe Gibbs turned to him in the playoffs because of an injury to George Rogers.

Not all of these backs were rookies, by the way. Word was in his second year and Johnson and Riggs in their third. (Word’s big game came after he’d served prison time for cocaine distribution, which caused him to miss the previous season.)

I turned up several near misses, too — guys who rushed for 200-plus yards the second time they hit triple figures. That group includes such household names as Jim Brown, Tony Dorsett, James Wilder, Priest Holmes and Arian Foster.

In fact, Brown’s 237 yards set a single -game NFL rushing record. The same goes for Wilson, whose 223-yard day came in the ’56 season finale. “Touchdown Tommy,” as he was called, was such an obscure rookie — and reporters paid so much less attention to these things — that the Los Angeles Times didn’t even mention his feat until the fifth paragraph of its game story.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram, meanwhile, touched on it at the end of the fourth graph, but didn’t provide any details until the 11th. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:

Long Beach Press-Telegram headlineScreen Shot 2014-11-21 at 3.18.13 PM

Screen Shot 2014-11-21 at 3.18.51 PM

Screen Shot 2014-11-21 at 3.19.11 PM

A running back breaks the single-game rushing mark, and we’re 300 words into the story before the reporter tells us how many yards he gained. That should be in the record book, too.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

The Redskins' Timmy Smith keeps the Broncos' Tony LIlly at arm's length in Super Bowl 22.

The Redskins’ Timmy Smith keeps the Broncos’ Tony Lilly at arm’s length in Super Bowl 22.

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