Monthly Archives: November 2014

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:

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 dead guy J.J. Watt just tied

Last week we had the Bears bringing the 1923 Rochester Jeffersons back from the dead. This week we have J.J. Watt, the Texans’ all-world defensive end, dredging up a player from 1938: Jay Arnold, a wingback for Bert Bell’s Eagles. To quote Flounder in Animal House . . .

As ESPN.com’s Tania Ganguli was good enough to note:

On Sunday in Cleveland, in a 23-7 win over the Browns, Watt became the first player since Arnold to catch two touchdown passes, return an interception for a touchdown and return a fumbled football for a touchdown all in the same season.

Watt, of course, did it as a defensive end. That’s probably more impressive than a two-way back in the ’30s doing it. After all, you wouldn’t expect a D-end to grab TD passes. In Arnold’s day, on

Eagles wingback Jay Arnold strikes a pose.

the other hand, a back could be expected to do just about anything, even kick. (And Jay did a little of that, too. In fact, he booted three extra points that season. So he still has a leg up — literally — on J.J.)

What’s cool about this cross-generational connection is that there’s virtually nothing else to remember Arnold for. Watt is a two-time Pro Bowler and pass-rushing maniac who’s building a case for Canton, but Jay had a mostly invisible career in which he scored all of six touchdowns and gained a grand total of 616 yards. He just happened, in 1938, to score TDs on both sides of the ball — and in three different ways. (Within a decade it became much harder to do this because, after the war, pro football evolved into a more specialized, two-platoon game. Fewer and fewer guys played both ways.)

But enough of that. Let’s take a closer look at Arnold’s ’38 season. Here’s something that might interest you: He scored three of those four TDs — on a reception, fumble return and interception return — in a single half, the first half of a 27-7 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. (They weren’t the Steelers yet.) They were the first three scores of the game and staked Philly to a 20-0 lead.

Nobody else in NFL history has had a game like that. Indeed, only four other players — Watt being the latest — have even had a TD catch, interception TD and fumble TD in the same season. (You’ve gotta love George Halas being one of them.) And again: Arnold did it in two quarters. The United Press summarized his heroics this way:

Did you notice how The Jay Arnold Story just got better? The “Whizzer” who coughed up the ball for the Pirates was their hotshot rookie running back, Byron “Whizzer” White. So Arnold not only had a once-in-95-NFL-seasons game, one of his scores was the result of a fumble by a future Supreme Court justice.

Arnold’s other touchdown that year also had some significance. It came in Detroit on the last day of the season against a Lions team that, had it beaten the Eagles, would have forced a playoff with the Packers for the Western Division title. To their horror, Philadelphia jumped out to a 14-0 first quarter lead and upset them 21-7, with Arnold scoring the second TD on a 7-yard pass from fullback Dave Smukler. This is from The Associated Press:

The Texans still have six games to play, so Watt may yet outdo Arnold. As he said afterward, “There’s a lot of season left, so hopefully that’s not the end of it.” But let’s not forget, Jay has those three PATs as his hole cards. Wherever he is.

Source: pro-football-reference.com, Spalding’s 1939 National Football League Official Guide.

Happy Chuck Bednarik Day

Tucked between Veterans Day and Thanksgiving on my football calendar (which would be available in our gift shop if this website had a gift shop) is another notable occasion: Chuck Bednarik Day. It was on this date in 1960 that Bednarik, uh, waylaid Frank Gifford at Yankee Stadium — a Hall of Famer vs. Hall of Famer collision that put The Giffer out of the game for more than a year.

If it isn’t the biggest hit in pro football history, it’s certainly one of the two or three finalists. When Frank returned to the Giants in ’62, it was as a wide receiver, not a running back.

Let’s relive that moment, shall we?

It’s amazing, after watching the clip, that Bednarik was accused by some — though not the Giants — of cheap-shotting Gifford. It was a clean, if high, tackle. The reason Frank was so vulnerable, running so upright, was that he never saw Chuck coming from behind.

Bednarik also got grief for his celebratory jig — with the concussed Gifford lying lifelessly at his feet — but he always claimed it was a victory dance. The Eagles, after all, recovered Frank’s fumble and were on the verge of a 17-10 win. It was a huge play in their (last) championship season.

Here’s some other footage of the hit that gives us a little more of the aftermath. You’ll notice, at the 1:33 mark, that Bednarik spends a fraction of a second exulting — if you want to call it that — then goes to the scene of the recovery. At the end of the clip he looks back at Gifford, who still hasn’t moved.

I side with Bednarik on this one. Why? Well, check out his very similar victory dance after the clock ran out in the title game against the Packers five weeks later:

Seems Bednarik, unlike most players in his era, was a demonstrative guy. Ahead of his time, you might say. So he was both a throwback (going both ways in ’60) and a Man of the Future. Interesting contradiction.

Since this is Chuck Bednarik Day, by the way, do yourself a favor and read — or reread — John Schulian’s definitive take on him for Sports Illustrated. Sportswriting doesn’t get any better. It’s included in the terrific new anthology he edited, Football: Great Writing About the National Sport. A sample:

[Linebacker] was where Bednarik was always at his best. He could intercept a pass with a single meat hook and tackle with the cold-blooded efficiency of a sniper. ”Dick Butkus was the one who manhandled people,” says Tom Brookshier, the loquacious former Eagle cornerback. ”Chuck just snapped them down like rag dolls.”

It was a style that left Frank Gifford for dead, and New York seething, in 1960, and it made people everywhere forget that Concrete Charlie, for all his love of collisions, played the game in a way that went beyond the purely physical. ”He was probably the most instinctive football player I’ve ever seen,” says Maxie Baughan, a rookie linebacker with the Eagles in Bednarik’s whole-schmear season. Bednarik could see a guard inching one foot backward in preparation for a sweep or a tight end setting up just a little farther from the tackle than normal for a pass play. Most important, he could think along with the best coaches in the business.

And the coaches didn’t appreciate that, which may explain the rude goodbye that the Dallas Cowboys’ Tom Landry tried to give Bednarik in ’62. First the Cowboys ran a trap, pulling a guard and running a back through the hole. ”Chuck was standing right there,” Brookshier
says. ”Almost killed the guy.” Next the Cowboys ran a sweep behind that same pulling guard, only to have Bednarik catch the ballcarrier from behind. ”Almost beheaded the guy,” Brookshier says. Finally the Cowboys pulled the guard, faked the sweep and threw a screen pass. Bednarik turned it into a two-yard loss. ”He had such a sense for the game,” Brookshier says. ”You could do all that shifting and put all those men in motion, and Chuck still went right where the ball was.”

From the Eagles media guide in 1960, the season Bednarik and Gifford intersected.

The offensive fireworks on Nov. 19, 1950

The yards have never come easier in the NFL. They’re up to 705.4 a game this season, which would be an all-time high if it holds. And yet the record for most yards by both teams in one contest, 1,133, was set in 1950 — on this very day, in fact — and has somehow survived all the rule changes favoring the offense and even the institution of overtime. Go figure.

Of course, the clubs involved, the Los Angeles Rams and New York Yanks, had the two most explosive attacks in the league. Indeed, that Rams team, with its two Hall of Fame quarterbacks (Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin) and two Hall of Fame receivers (Crazylegs Hirsch and Tom Fears) has never been given its proper due. Just last year a major website told its readers that Waterfield made it to Canton “possibly because he had the good sense to wife up to Jane Russell, the Megan Fox of her day.”

It would be a great line if it were true, but it doesn’t even come close. Waterfield, you see, wasn’t just a QB, he was one of the most multi-talented players in NFL history. Check out his 1946 season:

● Threw 17 touchdown passes (tying him for the league lead).

● Made 6 of 9 field-goal tries (giving him the highest success rate — 66.7 percent — and tying him for second in field goals).

● Averaged 44.7 yards a punt (third in the league).

● As a defensive back, intercepted 5 passes (tying him for fourth in the league).

That’s why Waterfield was in just the third class to be inducted into the Hall. The fact that his wife was a screen siren had nothing to do with it (though it made for great photo ops). So it

Jane Russell at her sultry best.

goes, alas, for players of that vintage. Their feats are often dismissed by the young Plutarchs of today, even though the competition in the 12-team era was probably fiercer than it is now.

The ’50 Rams scored 466 points in a 12-game season, an average of 38.8. That’s more than the Broncos averaged last year (37.9) when they totaled a record 606 in 16 games. The Rams racked up 70 against the Baltimore Colts, 65 against the Lions, 51 against the Packers — they were a veritable force of nature. They also came within a last-minute field goal of winning the title (which they won the next season).

The ’50 Yanks didn’t have nearly the star power — save for Buddy Young, their Hall of Fame running back. QB George Ratterman did top the league with 22 TD passes, though, and end Dan Edwards was fifth with 775 receiving yards.

Anyway, when the teams met at Yankee Stadium on Nov. 19, 1950, they put on a show — 1,133 yards’ worth (Rams 636, Yanks 497) — as the Rams won 43-35. The Brooklyn Eagle’s headline read thusly:

Both teams scored five TDs, which made the three field goals booted by the versatile Waterfield the difference. Individually, nobody went too wild, though two receivers (L.A.’s Hirsch and New York’s Art Weiner) and one running back (the Rams’ Dick Hoerner) went over 100 yards.

“The crowd of 43,673 had difficulty keeping track of the pigskins the Rams tossed in the air in the first half — 32 in all, “ the Eagle reported. “But after the intermission they varied their attack, dusting off the old Statue of Liberty play successfully twice.”

Yanks coach Red Strader, meanwhile, called the Rams “a tough team to play against. Speed on the gridiron is always hard to beat — one mistake and they’re away.”

In the 64 years since, only 13 NFL games have come within 50 yards of that 1,133-yard figure. The most serious challenge to the record came in the 2011 season finale between the Packers and Lions, who combined for 1,125. Logic tells you that, the way things are going, the mark is bound to fall at some point. But amazingly, it has endured for more than six decades — and could well last a few more.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

A touchdown a quarter

Everybody’s in love with the Jonas Gray story this week, and who can blame them? Few things are more fun than seeing a guy who’s worked his way up from the practice squad — in his case, multiple practice squads — have a breakout game on a national stage. And Gray’s 201-yard, four-touchdown performance in the Patriots’ 42-20 erasure of the Colts was certainly a stunner. (It made you grateful for names on the backs of jerseys, just so you could keep reminding yourself who was doing all this damage.)

A performance like that tends to produce a bunch of cool stats. Here’s one: Gray scored a TD in every quarter, making him one of just a dozen players to do that since the 1970 merger. (Note: In the chart below, the numbers represent yards, R = run and P = pass reception.)

PLAYERS WHO SCORED A TD IN EVERY QUARTER OF A GAME SINCE 1970

Date	Player, Team	Opponent	1st Q	2nd Q	3rd Q	4th Q
11-16-14	RB Jonas Gray, Patriots	Colts	4R	2R	2R	1R
10-29-06	RB Larry Johnson, Chiefs	Seahawks	3R	9P	2R	3R
12-14-03	WR Joe Horn, Saints	Giants	50P	13P	7P	18P
12-7-03	RB Clinton Portis, Broncos	Chiefs	11R	1R	59R	28R, 53R
12-18-00	RB Marshall Faulk, Rams	Bucs	2R	16R	27P	9R
10-29-00	RB Marshall Faulk, Rams	49ers	1R	1R	19P	16P
9-4-95	RB Emmitt Smith, Cowboys	Giants	60R	1R	1R	1R
11-24-94	WR Sterling Sharpe, Packers	Cowboys	1P	36P	30P	5P
10-14-90	WR Jerry Rice, 49ers	Falcons	24P, 25P	19P	13P	15P
9-7-80	WR Earnest Gray, Giants	Cardinals	10P	37P	42P	20P
9-16-79	RB Clarence Williams, Chargers	Bills	5R	1R	55R	2R
10-23-77	RB Wayne Morris, Cardinals	Saints	2R	9R	1R	12R

Would you look at Marshall Faulk? He did it twice in six games. (He missed two after his first four-touchdown day.) And really, who can get enough Clarence Williams in these charts? I know I can’t. I just wish it was the same Clarence Williams who played Linc on Mod Squad.

By the way, you know who else accomplished the feat — before the merger? Cowboys running back Dan Reeves.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Jonas Gray, the Patriots’ off-the-practice-squad rookie, got to do this in every quarter Monday night.

Bye week

Enjoy the archives.

A forgotten QB’s finest hour

You won’t find Steve Pelluer’s name on any All-Time Greatest Quarterback lists. He was 9-20-1 as a starter with the Cowboys and Chiefs in the late ’80s and had a career passer rating of 71.6. When Tom Landry’s Hall of Fame career came to an ignominious end in 1988, Pelluer was his QB.

Steve did have a few nice moments, though. In fact, on this day in 1986, he played — for my money, at least – one of the most amazing games by a quarterback the NFL has seen. He didn’t do this by throwing for a bunch of yards or touchdowns, either; he did it by surviving. Even though the Chargers sacked him 11 times (one off the record) for 93 yards, he didn’t throw a single interception, completing 18 of 33 passes for 246 yards and a touchdown.

But here’s the best part: In the late going, he took Dallas down the field, 61 yards in four plays, for the deciding score in a 24-21 victory — and did the honors himself by running two yards around right end. I ask you: How many QBs in pro football history have been more resolute than Pelluer was that afternoon in San Diego?

Twice, he was sacked on back-to-back plays. Another time, he was flushed from the pocket — such as it was — and managed to pick up a couple of yards (thus avoiding sack No. 12). Another time, Chargers defensive end Earl Wilson roughed him for a 15-yard penalty. But Pelluer never flinched, despite spending much of the game with rookie Leslie O’Neal (five sacks for 43 yards), the future Pro Bowl pass rusher, on top of him. His 11 sackings:

1. First quarter, 2^nd and 7, Dallas 25 — Loss of 10 (sacked by O’Neal).

2. Second quarter, 1^st and 10, Dallas 27 — Loss of 8 (NT Chuck Ehin).

3. Second quarter, 3^rd and 6, Dallas 11 — Loss of 8 (O’Neal). Fumble (Pelluer recovered).

4. Second quarter, 2^nd and 16, Dallas 38 — Loss of 12 (O’Neal). Fumble (OT Mark Tuinei recovered).

5. Second quarter, 1^st and 10, Dallas 39 — Loss of 11 (DE Lee Williams).

6. Third quarter, 2^nd and 4, San Diego 35 — Loss of 7 (Ehin).

7. Third quarter, 3^rd and 11, Dallas 42 — Loss of 7 (DE Dee Hardison).

8. Third quarter, 1^st and 10, Dallas 45 — Loss of 6 (Williams and LB Gary Plummer).

9. Fourth quarter, 1^st and 10, San Diego 40 — Loss of 5 (O’Neal).

10. Fourth quarter, 3^rd and 15, San Diego 45 — Loss of 11 (Williams).

11. Fourth quarter, 2^nd and 8, San Diego 42 — Loss of 8 (O’Neal).

After that last sack, which forced a punt, the Cowboys trailed 21-17 with 4:18 left. They got the ball back at the 2:09 mark, and then this happened:

Completion, completion, completion — followed by a quarterback keeper for a TD. How’s that for a finish to an 11-sack game?

Two weeks later, the Eagles’ Randall Cunningham was sacked 12 times in a 33-27 overtime win over the Raiders. He, too, ran for the deciding score. So why aren’t I writing about that performance? Because (a.) Cunningham threw a pick in the last two minutes of regulation to enable the Raiders to send it into OT, and (b.) because it was the Philadelphia defense that ultimately won the game, forcing a fumble that strong safety Andre Waters returned to the Raiders 4. (Why the Eagles punched it in from there instead of kicking a field goal, only Buddy Ryan knows.)

Usually when a team’s quarterback(s) get sacked 11 or more times, the result is pretty predictable. Since 1960, clubs are 2-28 in those situations.

But Steve Pelluer bucked the odds — and for that, Pro Football Daly salutes him.

(Which isn’t to say he was totally unaffected by the San Diego stampede. “On one play,” he said afterward, “I handed off to the wrong guy. That was a play after I got hit. It was that kind of rush.”)

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Running back consistency

Thanks to the Cardinals’ uncooperative defense in Week 9, DeMarco Murray’s quest to be the first NFL back to rush for 100 yards in every game of a season has been quashed. That said, 100 yards — as nice and round a number as it is — is still just a number. Would it surprise you to learn that no back has rushed for even 75 yards in all of his team’s games? I mention this because the Cowboys’ Murray had 79 against Arizona, so the feat is still within reach.

Indeed, only two other backs have gotten as far as DeMarco has — 75-plus rushing yards in each of the first 10 games. They are: Terrell Davis with the 1997 Broncos and Edgerrin James with the 2005 Colts. (Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson and Eric Dickerson didn’t even do it the years they broke the single-season rushing record.)

Sure, 75 yards is as arbitrary as 100, but it might be considered, at the very least, a “quality start.” Gaining that many yards week in and week out shows a fairly high level of consistency, does it not? Here are the backs who’ve come closest to doing it in every game of a season:

MOST GAMES WITH 75 OR MORE RUSHING YARDS, SEASON

Year	Running back, Team	75+	Low Game
2004	Corey Dillon, Patriots	15	79 vs. Bills
2011	Maurice Jones-Drew, Jaguars	15	63 vs. Texans
2012	Adrian Peterson, Vikings	15	60 vs. Colts
2008	Adrian Peterson, Vikings	15	32 vs. Saints
2003	Jamal Lewis, Ravens	14	68 vs. Jaguars
1985	Marcus Allen, Raiders	14	50 vs. Chiefs
2012	Alfred Morris, Redskins	14	47 vs. Vikings
2012	Marshawn Lynch, Seahawks	14	41 vs. Patriots
1984	Eric Dickerson, Rams	14	38 vs. 49ers
1983	Eric Dickerson, Rams	14	37 vs. Redskins
2009	Chris Johnson, Titans	14	34 vs. Colts
1992	Barry Foster, Steelers	14	25 vs. Bears
1997	Barry Sanders, Lions	14	20 vs. Bucs
1973	O.J. Simpson, Bills	13*	55 vs. Dolphins

*14- game season (so only once did he fall below the 75-yard threshold).

If you’re confused by Dillon’s line, let me explain: He missed a game that season. In the other 15, he rushed for 75 or more yards (gaining, on his worst day, 79 against Buffalo in Week 3. So he rushed for 75+ in every one of his games but not in every one of New England’s games.

Regardless, it’s an impressive accomplishment. Consider: The Patriots went 17-1 (postseason included) in the games Dillon played, capped by their Super Bowl win over the Eagles. And in the one they lost — 29-28 to the Dolphins — they blew an 11-point lead in the last three minutes. That’s how close he came to a perfect season. You’d have to think his utter reliability had something to do with it.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Corey Dillon tries to sidestep the Jets’ David Barrett.

Friday Night Fights X: Joe Savoldi vs. Man Mountain Dean, 1934

The Bears’ signing of “Jumping Joe” Savoldi, the star fullback from Notre Dame, late in the 1930 season was a national story. Savoldi had been booted out of school in mid-November when it was discovered he was married — a no-no for college athletes back then — and George Halas was quick to get him in a Chicago uniform, even if he had to pay a $1,000 fine because Savoldi’s class had yet to graduate. (This, remember, was several years before the NFL had a draft. Teams were free to sign any player they wanted.)

Despite making great money with the Bears, Savoldi played just three games for them — the only games of his pro football career. He then turned to wrestling and, according to

Savoldi practices the Flying Dropkick.

wrestlingdata.com, had over 600 matches in the next 23 years (and briefly held one of the dime-a-dozen heavyweight “titles”). Years later, he explained the sudden switch to Frank Blair of the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

His Bears teammates, he said, weren’t too thrilled when they found out what Halas was paying him, and

they quit blocking for me. . . . Here I was getting some $4,000 a game with my cut of the gate, and my teammates in the line and backfield were being paid $50 to $125 per man. . . . If I was worth 20 times as much as they were, I could make my own touchdowns without any help. After I had been riddled a dozen times trying to hit the line or sweep off tackle, I just fell down and stayed there. I didn’t have a chance.

So they took me out and kept me on the bench after the second game — not because I couldn’t play football, but [because] the other guys wouldn’t play and block for me. I had a contract for 18 games after that first season, with a guarantee of $500 a game, but I didn’t want any part of that pro football. I went into wrestling. In that business you don’t need blockers.

As you might expect of a wrestler with 600 bouts, Savoldi took on anybody and everybody, from legends like Strangler Lewis and Jim Londos to ex-football players like Bronko Nagurski (his former Bears teammate), Gus Sonnenberg, Jim McMillen, Sammy Stein, Mayes McClain and Roy “Father” Lumpkin.

Nagurski was the champion himself for a while. Wrestlingdata.com has him beating Savoldi three out of three, but it seems to have missed this match in 1938:

During World War II, Savoldi performed some kind of “secret mission” for the U.S. government. Jack Cuddy of The Associated Press wrote about it in 1945. Savoldi wasn’t able to provide him with much detail — it was all very hush-hush — but Cuddy had his suspicions. Joe, he noted, had been born in Italy, and not only was fluent in Italian but knew a fair amount of French.

All Savoldi told him was that he was “on special assignment. Yes, I am permitted to tell you what areas I visited. They were North Africa, Sicily, Italy — including Salerno — and France — including Normandy. Yes, I was under fire — plenty of times. No, I wasn’t wounded. This scar on my cheek and these cauliflower ears came before the war.”

After he retired from the ring, Savoldi trained the famed Bobo Brazil, whose signature move was the concussion-causing Cocoa Butt. Jumping Joe’s specialty, naturally, was the Flying Dropkick, which he demonstrates — to great effect — in the following clip. His opponent is Man Mountain Dean. They crossed paths several times, but I’m pretty sure this bout was in 1934.

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

The name’s the same

Spent the better part of the morning trying to put together sets of Triplets — quarterback, running back, receiver — who share the same last name (even if they didn’t play on the same club or in the same era). There was no fudging allowed, either. For instance, you couldn’t try to team Kerry Collins with Cris Collinsworth or Trent Green with BenJarvus Green-Ellis or, heaven forbid, Rob Gronkowski with Bruce Gradkowski. The receiver could, however, be a wideout or a tight end. The rules weren’t totally inflexible.

Anyway, it was harder than I thought it would be. There just aren’t many surnames that are very common in NFL/AFL history. I almost hurled my laptop, Frisbee style, when I was two-thirds of the way to paydirt with Jim and Leroy Kelly — Hall of Famers both — but couldn’t come up with a receiver any better than Reggie, the underwhelming tight end for the Bengals and Falcons.

Smith is another one. You’d think that would be a gimmie — Emmitt at running back, Jerry (or Jimmy or Steve or Rod or Jerry) at receiver and . . . good luck finding a quarterback worth a darn.

If you work at it, though, you can dig up some nice threesomes. Here are my nominees for:

BEST SETS OF TRIPLETS SHARING THE SAME LAST NAME

Last name	Quarterback	Running Back	Receiver
Young	Steve*	Buddy*	Charle (TE)
Johnson	Brad	John Henry*	Calvin
Sanders	Spec	Barry*	Charlie* (TE)
Anderson	Ken	Ottis	Flipper
White	Danny	Whizzer	Roddy
Jones	Bert	Dub	Homer
Green	Trent	Ernie	Roy
Williams	Doug	Ricky	Roy
Collins	Kerry	Tony	Gary
Mitchell	Scott	Lydell	Bobby*

*Hall of Famer

Only a few of these guys didn’t make at least one Pro Bowl or — in the case of pre-Pro Bowl players — all-pro team. Flipper Anderson didn’t, for example, but, hey, he holds the record for receiving yards in a game (336). In fact, he’s held it for 25 years, which is pretty remarkable considering how long receiving marks tend to last. And granted, Scott Mitchell was nothing special as a quarterback, but he did throw 32 touchdown passes one year for the Lions.

The first three listed are my gold, silver and bronze medalists. As for the others, you can order them however you like. I’m not sure it makes much difference. It’s kind of cool, by the way, that

Spec Sanders

Dub and Bert Jones are a father-son pairing. Dub, of course, is one of three NFL players to score six TDs in a game.

One last thing: I was fibbing about the no-fudging rule. Spec Sanders wasn’t technically a quarterback; he was a single-wing tailback for the New York Yankees of the All-America Conference in the ’40s. (He did play one season in the NFL, however, and intercepted 13 passes as a DB to lead the league.)

I included Spec because in 1947 he had one of the greatest offensive seasons of all time, throwing for 1,442 yards and 14 touchdowns and rushing for 1,432 yards and 18 TDs. (In his spare time, he ran a kickoff back 92 yards for another score.)

One day I spent a couple of hours on the phone with him, reminiscing about his playing days. He was utterly self-effacing, not the least bit impressed with his football feats. Just makes me want to keep his name alive.

From the New York Yankees’ 1948 media guide.

PRO FOOTBALL DALY

The whole 100 yards — and sometimes the end zones, too.

Monthly Archives: November 2014

The Jonas Gray Chart of the Day

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

The dead guy J.J. Watt just tied

Happy Chuck Bednarik Day

The offensive fireworks on Nov. 19, 1950

A touchdown a quarter

PLAYERS WHO SCORED A TD IN EVERY QUARTER OF A GAME SINCE 1970

Bye week

A forgotten QB’s finest hour

Running back consistency

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The name’s the same

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