Sound Bites II

“In the early ’30s our Brooklyn [Dodgers] team was [coached by] John J. McEwan. . . . Coach McEwan had an ironclad theory that there was no such thing as a legitimate end run, and it soon got around the league that we didn’t even have one from our tight double wing back formation. One day ‘Stumpy’ Thomason, a speedy halfback who had played at Georgia Tech, asked McEwan in utter frustration: ‘Coach, how do I run this play, anyway?’ McEwan, the former West Point head coach and English instructor, answered in a typical MacArthurian stanza:

“‘Son, dispatch yourself with the utmost precision and proceed as far as your individual excellency will permit.'”

— Herman Hickman, a guard on those Brooklyn teams, in the Feb. 7, 1955 issue of Sports Illustrated

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Darren Sproles and the NFL’s all-time Mighty Mites

Darren Sproles, hero of the Vertically Challenged and one of the best multi-purpose backs of his generation, was at it again Monday night in Indianapolis. The Eagles’ 5-foot-6, 181-pound dynamo had a career-high 178 yards from scrimmage as Philadelphia rallied to ruin the Colts’ evening, 30-27. (The breakdown: 152 receiving — also a career best — and 26 rushing.)

That means that in Sproles’ two outings since joining Philly as a free agent, he’s had momentum-turning 49-yard touchdown run against the Jaguars and a highlight-reel game against Indy, one that included catches of 57 and 51 and a 19-yard draw-play TD.

Nine years into his career, defensive coordinators are still trying to cover him out of the backfield with linebackers. (You almost felt sorry for Indy’s Josh McNary on the 57-yarder.) They’re still trying to pretend, when he comes into the game, that he doesn’t require special attention. Then again, maybe they don’t notice that he’s out there. He’s very adept at hiding behind his blockers.

Sproles’ running style might best be described as Duck and Dart — duck under the flailing arms of would-be tacklers and dart into (and through) hairline cracks in the defense. He doesn’t return kickoffs anymore, and he hasn’t run back a punt for a score since 2011, but he still has it in him. Even at 31, he’s got a nice burst.

He’s also been fortunate to play for coaches who maximized his abilities — first Norv Turner in San Diego, then Sean Payton in New Orleans and now Chip Kelly in Philadelphia. By the time he’s done, he’ll have, by my guesstimate, 7,500 of the quietest yards from scrimmage in NFL history. I say “quietest” because he’s never made the Pro Bowl . . . and probably never will.

Here’s all you really need to know about Sproles: In 10 playoff games, he’s scored seven TDs. (And in one of them, all he did was return kicks.) OK, here’s something else you could stand to know about him: In 2011 he just missed becoming the first running back in 53 years to carry 75-plus times in a season and average 7 yards an attempt. His numbers: 87 rushes, 603 yards, 6.93 average.

Which raises the question: Where does he rank among pro football’s all-time mighty mites? Answer: Well, he’s certainly a first-teamer. A look at some other notable players who measured 5-6 and under:

● Joey Sternaman, QB, 1922-25, ’27-30 Bears — 5-6, 152. Sternaman, a fine “field general” (as they were called in those days) and kicker, led the NFL in scoring in 1924 with 75 points (six touchdowns, nine field goals, 12 PATs), was third the next year with 62 and made all-pro both seasons. (He also was the younger brother of Dutch Sternaman, who shared ownership of the Bears with George Halas in the early days).

● Gus Sonnenberg, T-FB, 1923, ’25-28, ’30 Columbus/Detroit/Providence — 5-6, 196.   A wild man on and off the field, Sonnenberg, like Sternaman, did some of his best work with his right foot, booting nine field goals, including a 52-yarder, in 1926. He was voted all-NFL three times and started on the Steam Roller’s 1928 title team. He then turned to professional wrestling and became the heavyweight “champion” of the world (I use quotation marks because, hey, this is wrestling we’re talking about.)

Henry "Two Bits" Homan

Henry “Two Bits” Homan

● Henry “Two Bits” Homan, B, 1925-30 Frankford — 5-5, 145. Helped the Yellow Jackets win their only championship in 1926 by catching a last-second touchdown pass in the big December game against the Bears. (The thrower of the pass? Houston Stockton, grandfather of basketball great John Stockton.) Got his nickname, one of his teammates told me, from Guy Chamberlin, Frankford’s Hall of Fame player-coach. It was the same name Chamberlin had given his bulldog.

● Butch Meeker, B, 1930-31 Providence — 5-3, 143. Butch’s career was short and relatively nondescript, but he did have one shining moment. In a 7-7 tie against Frankford in 1930, he returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a TD and then — brace yourself — kicked the extra point. Has any other 5-3 player ever done that?

● Gil “Frenchy” LeFebvre, B, 1933-35 Cincinnati/Detroit — 5-6, 155. LeFebvre took a different route to the NFL: He developed his football talents in the Navy rather than in college. As a rookie, though, he set a record that stood for 61 years: He returned a punt 98 yards for a touchdown to nail down a 10-0 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Fielding the kick was a risky maneuver that surprised the Cincinnati crowd, the Associated Press reported, but “gasps turned to cheers as the runner . . . started down the field.” It was LeFebvre’s only TD in the NFL.

● Willis “Wee Willie” Smith, B, 1934 Giants — 5-6, 148. Let’s spend a little time with Smith, because I came across a story about him, written by Henry McLemore of the United Press, that actually quoted him (a rarity in the ’30s). Smith wasn’t just undersized, you see, he was also — unbeknownst to most — blind in one eye.

The first time Giants coach Steve Owen saw him on the practice field, he said, “Son, you’re too damn little. You wouldn’t last a first down in this business. You may have been a son of a gun out there with [the University of] Idaho, but these pro guys would bust you in two.”

Smith was undaunted. “Maybe they will,” he replied. “But what about letting me hang around until they do? My family will send for the body, so it won’t cost you anything.”

Willis "Wee Willie" Smith

Willis “Wee Willie” Smith

In his only year in the league, Wee Willie rushed 80 times for a 4-yard average, scored two touchdowns on the ground and threw for another as the Giants won the title. He explained his running technique to McLemore this way: “I just sorta roll with those big guys’ tackles like a fighter does with a punch on the jaw. I make it a point never to meet one of those guys head on. I duck ’em, like you would a train.”

Except for one time, when his competitiveness got the best of him and he sank his helmet into the stomach of Bronko Nagurski, the Bears’ block of granite. Nagurski’s alleged reply: “Mickey Mouse, you better watch where you’re going, else you’re going to hurt somebody.”

FYI: Smith’s listed weight of 148 might have been a bit on the high side. Dr. Harry March, the Giants’ first general manager, insisted Wee Willie was “about 140 stripped,” and McLemore joked: “Feed Willis Smith a dozen alligator pears, drape him in a double-breasted coat, give him the Dionne quintuplets to hold, and he might weigh all of 145 pounds.”

● Buddy Young, B, 1947-55 New York Yankees/Dallas Texans/Baltimore Colts — 5-4, 175.  Young needs less of an introduction than the rest. After all, he’s in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Few backs in his era were more dangerous running, receiving and returning. Not only did he have world-class speed (10.5 for 100 meters), he had — there’s no denying this — a weird-shaped body to try to tackle. What a nightmare in the open field.

● Billy Cross, RB, 1951-53 Cardinals — 5-6, 151. In The Sporting News, Ed Prell described him as “almost as small as the midget Bill Veeck of the St. Louis Browns smuggled into baseball.”

"Little Billy" Cross

“Little Billy” Cross

Whenever a sportswriter brought up Cross’ weight, Billy would be sure to say, smiling, “And that’s before a game.”

The kid was a terrific athlete, though, who at West Texas A&M high jumped 6-1 — seven inches above his height — and earned Little All-America honors as the quintessential scatback. In his second NFL game, he scored on an 18-yard run and a 39-yard pass against the Bears, and in his three seasons he averaged about 50 yards from scrimmage per Sunday. Pretty productive.

“When I’m going into a line and see a guy like [Hall of Famer] Arnie Weinmeister of the Giants,” Cross once said, “I know I’m not going through. He only outweighs me by 100 pounds. . . . But give me a little daylight, and the chase is on.”

● “Mini Mack” Herron, RB, 1973-75 Patriots/Falcons — 5-5, 170. Drugs derailed Herron’s career, but he’ll always have 1974. That was the season he set an NFL record for all-purpose yards (2,444), tied for third in the league in touchdowns (12) and also ranked high in yards from scrimmage (1,298, seventh), punt return yards (517, second), punt return average (14.8, fourth) and several other categories. He and fullback Sam “Bam” Cunningham were quite a combination in the New England backfield.

● Lionel “Little Train” James, RB-WR, 1984-88 Chargers — 5-6, 171. In 1985 James became the first NFL running back to rack up 1,000 receiving yards in a season — 1,027 to be exact. (Later the same afternoon, the 49ers’ Roger Craig became the second.) Just one back has gained more (Marshall Faulk, 1,048 with the Super Bowl-winning ’99 Rams).

And Sproles makes 11. My own personal Mount Rushmore: Young, Sonnenberg, Sproles and Herron (what might have been).

Sources for statistics: pro-football-reference.com, Total Football.

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Tommy McDonald on Tommy McDonald

“I have been knocked out five times in my seven years of pro football, and at one time or another I have played with a broken jaw, a shoulder separation and assorted cracked ribs. . . . My hands are no larger than my wife’s, and I wouldn’t say hers are large for a woman. . . . Size helps but it isn’t everything, except maybe in a hog-growing contest.”

— Hall of Fame wideout Tommy McDonald

Sports Illustrated ran “The Monsters and Me” — a first-person piece by Tommy McDonald, the Eagles’ Hall of Fame receiver — in 1964. His ghostwriter was Tex Maule, the magazine’s NFL guy. If you’ve got a few minutes, check it out. It’s worth your while.

McDonald was a small (5-foot-9, 178 pounds), utterly fearless wideout who, at that point in his career, had 66 touchdown receptions. Nobody remembers today, but no receiver in NFL history had caught that many TD passes in his first seven seasons, not even Don Hutson (53). In fact, Tommy still ranks in the Top 10 in this department. Wait until you see who he’s tied with:

MOST TOUCHDOWN CATCHES, FIRST SEVEN SEASONS

Seasons Receiver Team (s) TD
1985-91 Jerry Rice 49ers 93
1998-04 Randy Moss Vikings 90
1962-68 Lance Alworth Chargers (AFL) 73
1996-02 Marvin Harrison Colts 73
1996-02 Terrell Owens 49ers 72
1965-71 Bob Hayes Cowboys 67
1957-63 Tommy McDonald Eagles 66
2007-13 Calvin Johnson Lions 66
1959-65 Art Powell Raiders (AFL), 2 others 66
2004-10 Larry Fitzgerald Cardinals 65
1988-94 Sterling Sharpe Packers 65

Yup, Megatron himself.

McDonald was renowned for playing without a facemask — to the very end of his career in 1968. If you want proof, here he is in his next-to-last season with the Falcons (1967) and his final year with the Browns:

McDonald with no facemask, 1967              McDonald no facemask in last season

 

 

 

 

 

 

Occasionally you’ll see a photo of him with a facemask, but there’s an explanation for that. “Sometimes,” he said in The Pro Football Chronicle, “I’d crack mine [helmet], and the Eagles didn’t have a replacement for me. So I had to borrow one from a teammate. I had a very small head, 6 ¾. I’d take a towel, or half a towel, and stuff it in there to make it fit. That’s the only time I’d wear a facemask.”

In the SI story, McDonald mentions a scoring grab he made for Oklahoma against Texas in 1956, the year he finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting, that “someone said . . . was so far out in front of me I caught it with my fingerprints, not my fingertips.” Here’s the video of that, in case you’re interested:

And just think: “I have played for years,” he said, “without the tip of my left thumb. I lost it in an accident with that motorbike Dad gave me.”

In ’57 the Eagles drafted McDonald in the third round and Sonny Jurgensen in the fourth. Both, of course, are now in Canton. Can’t do much better than that. Sonny once told me he and Tommy had a drill they liked to run. They’d sit in a darkened room, back to back, and Sonny would flip a football over his head.

“Tommy never dropped it,” he said. “Not once.”

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, The Pro Football Chronicle.

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Friday Night Fights II: Mark Gastineau vs. Alonzo Highsmith, 1996

Now we’re getting to the Good Stuff. This was one of those classic Shield vs. Shield bouts, as Roger Goodell would put it, between two former NFL players — Mark Gastineau, the erstwhile Jets sack dancer, and Alonzo Highsmith, who’d had a more modest career as a running back after the Oilers took him third overall in the 1987 draft.

Both had a fair number of pro fights under their belts, though Gastineau’s were more of the State Fair variety. Indeed, Mark (15-1 with 15 knockouts) hadn’t fought in 2 ½ years. He’d supposedly gone into the gym — after a four-round no-decision against the immortal Craig Thurber in Topeka — to learn some ring craft and had emerged, at the age of 39, a more polished pugilist.

Highsmith, eight years younger and 31 ½ pounds lighter (223 ½ to Gastineau’s 255), had a somewhat better track record (15-0-1 with 13 KOs), but that’s not saying much. Two of his recent victims had records of 2-24 (Jim Wisniewski) and 0-23 (Ed Strickland) when they climbed between the ropes. In fact, Strickland was winless in 30 career bouts.

The Gastineau-Highsmith tussle took place Nov. 3, 1996, in Urayasu, Japan, outside Tokyo. Believe it or not, it was on the undercard of George Foreman’s bout against Crawford Grimsley for Foreman’s dime-store IBA and WBU titles. George, 47, won a unanimous 12-round decision, but laced up his gloves only twice more before returning his full attention to selling grills.

Our two gladiators are ready to rumble. Let’s go to the ring for the introductions:

Once again, the beginning of the end for Gastineau:

Bruce Keidan in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Highsmith is no great boxer, but compared to Gastineau he is Sugar Ray Robinson. . . .

“Gastineau didn’t even know how to quit,” an eyewitness reports. “He finally sat down. You’ve heard of guys taking a knee? He took a buttock.”

“The referee was counting in Japanese,” another reports. “Gastineau couldn’t be sure when it was safe to get up. So he just stayed down until he was sure the referee was done counting.”

Obviously, the second report was embellished. The referee, Tom Vacca “from Ashland, Ohio,” most definitely counted in English. But at that point, Gastineau was so groggy it probably sounded like Japanese.

Highsmith went on to fight 13 more times, against better competition, before calling it quits. Final record: 27-1-2 with 23 KOs. But for Gastineau it was his last bout — and wisely so. A better matchup for him would have been Sylvester Stallone — with the winner getting Brigitte Nielsen.

Screen Shot 2014-09-12 at 1.17.09 PMStallone and Nielsen

 

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Another tight end runs amok

If you don’t think the Era of the Tight End is upon us, consider this: When Julius Thomas caught three touchdown passes in the Broncos’ Week 1 win over the Colts, it was the 18th time in the 2000s a tight end had done that. What’s more, we’re talking about 16 different tight ends, everybody from Mark Campbell (Bills, 2004) to Greg Olsen (Bears, 2009) to Dante Rosario (Chargers, 2012 — his only three scores that season). The only ones who’ve had two of these games (playoffs included) are the Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski and the Chargers’ Antonio Gates.

Thomas also had 104 yards receiving. Three TD grabs and 100 receiving yards in a game aren’t so common for a tight end. In fact, there have been only 10 such performances in the last 25 years. The roll:

TIGHT ENDS WITH 3 TD CATCHES, 100 RECEIVING YARDS IN A GAME SINCE 1989

Date Tight end, Team Opponent Rec Yds TD
9-7-14 Julius Thomas, Broncos Colts 7 104 3
1-14-12* Rob Gronkowski, Patriots Broncos 10 145 3
10-22-06 Alge Crumpler, Falcons Steelers 6 117 3
10-30-05 Antonio Gates, Chargers Chiefs 10 145 3
11-16-03 Shannon Sharpe, Broncos Chargers 7 101 3
9-29-02 Tony Gonzalez, Chiefs Dolphins 7 140 3
12-14-97 Ken Dilger, Colts Dolphins 5 100 3
10-6-96 Shannon Sharpe, Broncos Chargers 13 153 3
10-3-93 Johnny Mitchell, Jets Eagles 7 146 3
9-17-89 Keith Jackson, Eagles Redskins 12 126 3

*playoffs

For sheer economy, you can’t do much better than Lions tight end Joseph Fauria did last season against the Browns: three catches, 34 yards, three touchdowns. The only TEs since the merger who’ve topped him — that is, scored three times in fewer yards – are, well, see for yourself:

FEWEST RECEIVING YARDS IN A GAME FOR A TIGHT END WITH 3 TD CATCHES 

Date Tight end,Team Opponent Rec Yds TD
10-12-75 Mack Alston, Oilers Browns 3 22 3
10-14-90 Eric Green, Steelers Broncos 4 28 3
10-13-13 Joseph Fauria, Lions Browns 3 34 3
11-21-04 Mark Campbell, Bills Rams 4 37 3
12-18-88 Damone Johnson, Rams 49ers 4 42 3

I’ll say it for you: Stats don’t get any more obscure than that.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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The statistical phenomenon that is DeAngelo Hall

Statistics were invented for a player like DeAngelo Hall. He isn’t that rare Shutdown Corner everybody lusts for — a Darrelle Revis or a Richard Sherman — and at going-on-31 his Pro Bowl years are probably behind him. The Redskins, strapped for cap dollars, deemed him expendable enough to release him during the 2013 offseason, though he eventually re-signed with them and played well enough to earn a four-year extension.

But Hall does have value, even if it’s declining. He may not be a great cover man, but he’s durable and — here’s where the stats come in — opportunistic. In fact, he’s the football equivalent of that guy at the beach with the metal detector. He’s always finding “loose change” by hanging around the ball. And he’s especially good at doing something with said ball once he latches onto it.

Stat No. 1: Because Hall came out of Virginia Tech early and was 20 when he played in his first NFL game, he played 143 games in his 20s. That gave him an unusual amount of time to make his statistical mark, and he took advantage of it. Consider: Since the big rule changes in 1978, the ones that turned the league into a Picnic for Passers, only one pure corner has had more picks in his 20s than DeAngelo did. The Top 10 looks like this:

MOST INTERCEPTIONS BY A CORNERBACK IN HIS 20S SINCE 1978

Seasons Cornerback Teams(s) Ints
1981-88 Everson Walls Cowboys 44
2004-13 DeAngelo Hall Falcons, Raiders, Redskins 42
1999-07 Champ Bailey Redskins, Broncos 42
2003-10 Asante Samuel Patriots, Eagles 42
1992-00 Terrell Buckley Packers, Dolphins, Broncos 38
1991-97 Aeneas Williams Cardinals 38
1996-03 Donnie Abraham Bucs, Jets 36
1988-95 Eric Allen Eagles, Saints 35
1995-03 Ty Law Patriots 35
1989-96 Deion Sanders Falcons, 49ers, Cowboys 34

Note: Ronnie Lott (43) and Ray Buchanan (38) aren’t included because they got some of their interceptions at the safety spot (enough, at least, to take them below the cutoff of 34).

Granted, Hall has a tendency to gamble, but 42 picks are 42 picks, particularly in an era with low interception rates and a ton of one-possession games. Often, One More Takeaway can be the difference between victory and defeat. That’s what Hall, for all his flaws, gives you.

Stat No. 2: Last season Hall ran back two interceptions and one fumble for touchdowns. That brought his career totals in those categories to five and four. Only one other player in NFL history has returned at least four INTs and four fumbles for scores. Here are the 11 with 3 or more of each:

PLAYERS WITH 3 INTERCEPTION TDS AND 3 FUMBLE TDS, CAREER

Seasons Player Team (s) Int TD Fum TD
1997-12 Ronde Barber Bucs 8 4
2004-14 DeAngelo Hall Falcons, Raiders, Redskins 5 4
1997-11 Jason Taylor Dolphins, Redskins, Jets 3 6
2000-09 Mike Brown Bears, Chiefs 4 3
2000-09 Adalius Thomas Ravens, Patriots 3 3
1991-04 Aeneas Williams Cardinals, Rams 9 3
1988-00 Cris Dishman Oilers, Redskins, 2 others 3 3
1989-98 Anthony Parker Vikings, 4 others 4 3
1969-81 Bill Thompson Broncos 3 4
1970-82 Lemar Parrish Bengals, Redskins, Bills 4 3
1964-79 Paul Krause Redskins, Vikings 3 3

Not a bad bunch. Williams and Krause are in the Hall of Fame, Taylor is surely headed there and I’ve never quite understood why Parrish’s eight Pro Bowls and excellence as a returner don’t merit him serious consideration. Also, did you notice that five of the 11 played at one time or another for the Redskins (for whatever that’s worth)?

Anyway, like I said, DeAngelo Hall was made for stats.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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Cordarrelle Patterson and the Snowflake Theory

A snowflake fell in St. Louis on the first Sunday of the NFL season. Not the shoveling kind; the Dave Kindred kind. “At every game, if you’re paying attention, you’ll see something you’ve never seen before,” the esteemed sportswriter once wrote. “It’s my Snowflake Theory. Every game is somehow different from every other game ever played.”

Often, of course, these snowflakes are barely visible to the naked eye, of little consequence in the course of human events. Sometimes, though — when we get lucky — they’re big, fluffy things, happenings that are discussed, analyzed, marveled at and even laughed about long after the clock hits zeroes.

Which brings us to Cordarrelle Patterson, the Vikings’ multi-purpose wide receiver. Patterson, you may have heard, rushed for 102 yards in the Vikes’ 34-6 win over the Rams. No wide receiver — in the modern era, at least — had ever had a 100-yard rushing game. Before that, the best rushing performance by a wideout was 86 by the Seahawks’ Joey Galloway. (He got them all on one play, a touchdown run against the Jaguars as a rookie in 1995.)

Patterson had a quiet offensive day otherwise, though — three catches for 26 yards — so we’re still waiting for a wideout to rack up 100 yards receiving and 100 yards rushing in the same game. That’s the Holy Grail — like 49ers’ Colin Kaepernick flirting with an unthinkable 300 yards passing/200 yards rushing game against the Packers in the 2012 playoffs. (He settled for 263 and 181, which is ridiculous enough.)

Here’s some Stat Candy for you:

WIDEOUTS WITH 100 YARDS RECEIVING, 50 RUSHING IN A GAME SINCE 1960

Date Player, Team Opponent Rec Rush
11-12-95 Joey Galloway, Seahawks Jaguars 5-114-2 1-86-1
9-20-82 James Lofton, Packers Giants 4-101-0 1-83-1
11-5-06 Javon Walker, Broncos Steelers 6-134-2 1-72-1
1-16-83 James Lofton, Packers Cowboys 5-109-1 1-71-1
10-11-87 Kelvin Edwards, Cowboys Eagles 6-100-0 1-62-1
12-5-76 Freddie Solomon, Dolphins Bills 5-114-1 1-59-1

Note: Figures are receptions (or rushing attempts), yards and touchdowns.

Kind of thought Percy Harvin would be in this group. But Harvin’s top rushing total in a 100-yard receiving game is 45 in ’09 vs. the Bears. In fact, he’s rushed for as many as 50 yards just once — on a day he was held to 42 receiving.

Still, Percy strikes me as the kind of player who has a snowflake or two in him. He and Cordarrelle both. This gets me thinking about other snowflakes, other singular single-game events — or, at the very least, exceedingly rare events. The list I came up with:

● Intercepting a pass and scoring a safety. In modern times, the only player who has this double on his resume is James Harrison. Against the Chargers on Nov. 16, 2008, the Steelers linebacker sacked Philip Rivers in the end zone, caused a fumble that was recovered by tackle Marcus McNeill, then tackled McNeill in the end zone for the two points. Later Harrison picked off a pass and ran 33 yards to the Pittsburgh 43. I don’t remember anybody making a big deal of this. And in addition to being highly unusual, it happened in a single quarter (the second). What got more attention — for whatever reason — was that the game produced the first 11-10 final score in NFL history. (Thanks to James’ heroics, Pittsburgh eked it out.)

● 100 rushing yards and 100 punt-return yards. Bears Hall of Famer Gale Sayers did this the same day he tied the NFL record by scoring six touchdowns against the 49ers (Dec. 12, 1965). He was 9 for 113 rushing (long: 50) and 5 for 134 running back punts (long: 85). No one else has managed it since.

● Throwing an interception and intercepting a pass. A Steelers rookie named Tony Dungy chalked up this exploit on Oct. 9, 1977. At safety, the future Bucs and Colts coach picked off a Dan Pastorini throw for the first interception of his pro career. As if that weren’t enough, he also served as Pittsburgh’s emergency quarterback in the fourth quarter — after Terry Bradshaw and Mike Kruczek got hurt — and threw a pair of INTs. (He’d been a QB in college at Minnesota.) Maybe Bill Belichick could let Julian Edelman try this. Edelman, the all-purpose Patriot, has seen action at DB in addition to playing receiver and was a quarterback at Kent State.)

● Three touchdown catches and a punt-return TD: Az-Zahir Hakim, Rams, vs. Bengals, Oct. 3, 1999. TD receptions (all from Kurt Warner): 9, 51 and 18 yards. Punt return: 84. Five players since 1960 have had three (or more) touchdown grabs and also scored a rushing TD — all backs — but only Hakim has accomplished this particular combo. And it’s getting harder to do with all the specialization now.

● 100 punt-return yards with a punt-return TD and 100 kickoff-return yards with a kickoff-return TD. Walter Payton’s younger brother, Eddie, had a game like this for the Vikings against the Lions on Dec. 17, 1977. Kick returns: 5 for 184 with a 98-yard score. Punt returns: 3 for 105 with an 87-yard score.

● 150 yards from scrimmage and 150 yards on punt and kickoff returns. Since 1960, it’s been done as many times in the playoffs (2) as in the regular season. Go figure. The postseason guys:

— Darren Sproles, Chargers, Jan. 3, 2009 vs. Colts: 150 yards from scrimmage (105 rushing, 45 receiving), 178 return yards (72 on punts, 106 on kickoffs). He also scored the winning touchdown in overtime on a 22-yard run.

— Ed Podolak, Chiefs, Dec. 25, 1971 vs. Dolphins: 195 yards from scrimmage (85 rushing, 110 receiving), 155 return yards (153 on kickoffs, 2 on punts). This was the famous Christmas Day game, the one that went into the sixth quarter. Snowflakes (single-game division) that haven’t fallen yet:

● Catching a touchdown pass and returning an interception for a TD. Or to put it another way: Scoring on a pass on both sides of the ball. Nobody in the modern era (read: since 1960) has done it. Surprised? So am I — a little. Especially since Deion Sanders and Roy Green (among others) swung between defensive back and receiver and Mike Vrabel snuck out for 12 TDs as a goal-line tight end when he wasn’t backing up the line (and picking off 11 passes).

● 100 yards rushing, 100 receiving and 100 returning. Again, nobody in the modern era has done it. The Browns’ Greg Pruitt came closest on Nov. 23, 1975 against the Bengals (121 rushing, 106 receiving, 77 returning). A snowflake that hasn’t fallen in decades, but seems bound to with all these quarterbacks running around:

● 50 yards passing, 50 yards rushing and 50 yards receiving. The only player to do it in the last 50 years is Walter Payton, who had 50 passing, 81 rushing and 55 receiving against the Lions on Dec. 22, 1985. Nowadays, though, one of the Mobile QB Brigade — Colin Kaepernick, Cam Newton, Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III — seems more likely to pull it off. Somebody just needs to catch the defense napping.

Now, you can question the significance of some of these feats, and I respect that. But regardless of how you feel, you have to admit: We’re not talking about walking and chewing gum here. If we were, players would do this stuff a lot more regularly.

Fear not, by the way. Pro Football Daly will keep an eye peeled for any future snowflakes and dutifully report them. It’s one of our hobbies.

Or to put it another way: Snowflake Fever — catch it.

1 Which reminds me: In Week 1 of that First Sack Season, the Browns’ Chip Banks began his NFL career with a three-sack day against the Seahawks. No rookie in the 31 years since has made a better Week 1 debut, sack-wise (though the Titans’ Carlos Hall tied Banks with three against the Eagles in 2002).

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia.

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Down go the Seahawks

The Seahawks got their first reminder Sunday: When you’re the defending champs, every game is the Super Bowl — for the other team, at least. Beyond that, I’m not sure how much we should read into their 30-21 loss to the Chargers in Week 2. They caught a possible Hall of Fame quarterback, Philip Rivers, on an afternoon when he played like a definite Hall of Fame quarterback. It can happen to anybody.

As I said at the top, though, Seattle had best gear up for a long grind, because that’s what you’re looking at after you’ve won it all. Jerry Kramer, one of Vince Lombardi’s favorite Packers, had a great quote about defending your title. It went something like this: “Winning one is hard. Winning two in a row is really hard. And winning three in a row” — as his Green Bay club did from 1965 to ’67 — “is an absolute bitch.”

If it’s any consolation to the Seahawks, the ’93 Cowboys dropped their first two and still repeated as champions. (I know, I know. Emmitt Smith was holding out and didn’t play until the third game. But it’s not the kind of start any contender wants.)

As for the best starts by teams that have just won titles, you’ll find those here:

      BEST STARTS BY DEFENDING NFL CHAMPIONS

Year Team Start Result
1934 Bears 13-0 13-0 in regular season; lost title game.
1998 Broncos 13-0 14-2 in regular season; won Super Bowl.
2011 Packers 13-0 15-1 in regular season; lost in playoffs.
1942 Bears 11-0 11-0 in regular season; lost title game.
1962 Packers 10-0 13-1 in regular season; won title game.
1990 49ers 10-0 14-2 in regular season; lost NFC title game.
1931 Packers 9-0 12-2 final record gave them the title.
1930 Packers 8-0 10-3-1 final record gave them the title.
1948 Browns 14-0 14-0 in regular season; won title.

I threw in that last one to make sure you were paying attention. The Browns were still playing in the rival All-America Conference, of course, in ’48. (They didn’t join the NFL for another two years.) Still, that was a fabulous Cleveland club whose perfect 15-0 season — unlike the Dolphins’ 17-0 mark in ’72 — has been mostly forgotten. So whenever I get the chance, I give them a little pub.

Note that five of the nine teams won the championship again, and two others lost the title game. Also, when the ’30 and ’31 Packers successfully defended their crown, they did it based on their regular-season record. There were no playoffs until ’32.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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