Tag Archives: Eagles

Dec. 7, 1941

If you’re looking for some black humor on this Pearl Harbor Day, check out this story I unearthed a while back — specifically the lead. It showed up on commentary pages in 1991, the 50^th anniversary of Japan’s attack.

I call attention to it because, yes, the NFL did wrap up the 1941 regular season on Dec. 7. There were three games that day — in New York, Washington and Chicago. But the Packers didn’t play in any of them. They had completed their schedule the week before and were waiting to see if there would be a playoff with the Bears to decide the West Division title. (There would, indeed. George Halas’ team beat the crosstown Cardinals on Dec. 7 to finish tied with Green Bay at 10-1.)

Let that be a cautionary tale, all you J-schoolers out there. It’s always a bad idea to reminisce about things that never happened, especially when it’s so easy to verify whether they did. Even if you don’t get caught right away, you might get exposed 23 years down the road by some curmudgeon like me. (Assuming, that is, I’m the first curmudgeon to arrive at the scene.)

OK, where was I? Right, Dec. 7, 1941. For the record, this is what the NFL scoreboard looked like at the end of the day:

Dodgers 21, Giants 7 (at the Polo Grounds)

Redskins 20, Eagles 14 (at Griffith Stadium)

Bears 34, Cardinals 24 (at Comiskey Park)

To give you a feel for what it was like at one of the games, here’s the Brooklyn Eagle’s coverage of the inter-borough Giants-Dodgers battle:

Sportswriting in that period was just fabulous, wasn’t it? Now that I’ve read this, I can hardly wait to describe a player as “a dark-brown warrior from the Iowa corn belt.”

It was Tuffy Leemans Day, by the way, at the Polo Grounds. The Giants’ Hall of Fame back was given a silver tray inscribed by his teammates and $1,500 in defense bonds. Two years later, the Steelers and Eagles merged into the “Steagles” — just to keep going. The Rams, meanwhile, shut down for the season and dispersed their players — the few, that is, that weren’t in the military — among the other clubs in the league.

Dec. 7, 1941. The Packers, as I recall, were off that day.

Sources: Brooklyn Eagle, pro-football-reference.com.

A quarterback crushes a 91-yard punt

Passing (for 207 touchdowns) and running (for 4,928 yards) are what Randall Cunningham will be most remembered for in his NFL career. But what happened Dec. 3, 1989 — 25 years ago today — shouldn’t be overlooked, either. That’s when he got off a 91-yard punt, the fourth longest in league history, to help the Eagles beat the Giants, 24-17.

We’re not talking about a quick kick, either, though Cunningham was helped by a 25 mph wind that gusted to 35. As you can see in this photo, it was a conventional punt, with him receiving the snap just inside the field of play.

Here’s how The New York Times described it:

Early in the fourth quarter, the Giants almost broke the 17-17 tie when Erik Howard sacked Cunningham and drove him into the Eagles’ end zone. The officials spotted the ball on the 2-yard line, making it fourth down and 33 yards to go for a first down.

Usually, Max Runager would have punted for the Eagles. But Cunningham, an outstanding punter in college, told Coach Buddy Ryan of the Eagles he wanted to punt, and Ryan let him.

It was a good decision. The ball sailed to the Giants 39 and bounced to the 7 before an apparently baffled [Dave] Meggett picked it up and returned it 9 yards.

Two plays later, the Giants gave up the ball again. Golic sacked Simms and stripped the ball, and Mike Pitts recovered for the Eagles on the Giants’ 7-yard line. Three plays later, from the 2, Byars squirmed into the end zone for the winning touchdown.

And here’s how it looked in the play-by-play:

Cunningham was, as the Times said, a very good punter at UNLV, an All-American who averaged 45.2 yards for his career. But by the late ’80s the NFL had become so specialized — and rosters so large — that position players weren’t needed to punt. A pity.

There were, after all, quite a few passer-punters in pro football’s early days, including Hall of Famers Sammy Baugh, Sid Luckman, Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin. They grew up, remember, in the era of the single wing, and the best tailbacks were triple threats who could run, pass and kick. When Cunningham boomed his 91-yarder, though, the league hadn’t had a starting QB pull double duty since the Cowboys’ Danny White in 1984. We may never see another.

Oh, well. At least Randall reminded everybody of The Way It Used To Be. And if anyone needed a refresher course, he blasted an 80-yarder five years later. That one was a quick kick — out of the shotgun, on third and 12 from the Philadelphia 4.

Something just dawned on me: Cunningham’s 91-yard punt was exactly 90 yards longer than the one Redskins QB Joe Theismann shanked against the Bears in 1985. Washington’s regular punter, Jeff Hayes, had just gotten hurt, and Theismann — who hadn’t punted in college — volunteered for the job.

Wisely, coach Joe Gibbs never gave him another opportunity. The boot, from right around the goal line, veered out of bounds at the Washington 14. The Bears scored on the next play and went on to win, 45-10.

“They told me to kick it right,” Theismann said, “and I did. Dead right.”

Source: pro-football-reference

The NFL’s All-Time Drinking Team

With the holiday season upon us, it might be a good time to roll out an idea that’s been rattling around in my head: the NFL’s All-Time Drinking Team. Let’s face it, the connection between pro football and alcohol — in stadiums, at tailgate parties, in sports bars and living rooms — has always been stronger than 100-proof whiskey. It’s in this spirit, if you’ll pardon the expression, that I present the following squad:

● Bob Margarita, B, Bears, 1944-46 — Was a big help to Chicago during the war years, when manpower was scarce. Best reason to raise a glass to him: In ’45 he finished third in the NFL in rushing yards (463), 10^th in receiving yards (394) and, on the other side of the ball, tied for second in interceptions (6).

● Tom Beer, TE, Broncos/Patriots, 1967-72 — The 32^nd player picked in the ’67 draft. (In other words, when Denver made what today would be the last selection in the first round, it said, “Beer, please, bartender.”) Best reason to raise a glass to him: In a ’68 game against the Pats he caught five passes for 98 yards, including a 5-yard touchdown, in a 35-14 Broncos win.

● Rich Martini, WR, Raiders/Saints, 1979-81 — Scored TDs in his second and third pro games. Best reason to raise a glass to him: He played special teams for the Raiders in their run to the title in 1980.

● Ed Champagne, T, Rams, 1947-50 — Appeared as a backup in the NFL championship game his last two seasons. Best reason to raise a glass to him: He was fined $300 by the league in 1950 — which was a lot of money back then — after he pushed an official while protesting a call. The Long Beach Press-Telegram said Champagne, who was ejected, “blew his cork.”

● Herb Stein (T-E, Buffalo/Toledo/Frankford/Pottsville, 1921-22, ’24-26, ’28) and Russ Stein (T-E, Toledo/Frankford/Pottsville/Canton, 1922, ’24-26) — Hey, you can’t drink beer without a couple of Steins, right? These rugged brothers were all-stars in the NFL’s early years. (The first five teams Herb played on posted a combined record of 44-9-7.) Best reason to raise a glass to them: They starred on the ’25 Pottsville Maroons club that got gypped out of the title because of a dubious league ruling.

● Terry Barr, WR, Lions, 1957-65 — OK, so there’s an extra “r.” It was either him or Garvin Mugg (T, Lions, 1945), and Mugg played only three NFL games. Barr, on the other hand, was a fine all-around talent who, in addition to his offensive exploits, intercepted three passes and returned a kickoff for a touchdown in 1958. Best reason to raise a glass to him: He had back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons in 1963 and ’64 and went to the Pro Bowl both years.

● Bourbon Bondurant, T-K, Evansville/Bears, 1921-22 — Believe it or not, Bourbon was his given name. Best reason to raise a glass to him: He kicked six extra points for the Crimson Giants in 1921.

● Napoleon “Let’s Roll Out The” Barrel, C, Oorang Indians, 1923 — If that wasn’t his nickname, it should have been. At 5-foot-8, 200 pounds, Barrel was even shaped a little like a barrel. Best reason to raise a glass to him: He played for the Oorang Indians, a team made up of Native Americans (the most famous of which was Jim Thorpe). Oorang, by the way, wasn’t a tribe, it was the name of a kennel near Marion, Ohio, that specialized in Airedales and sponsored the franchise for two seasons. Some of Barrel’s other teammates were Joe Little Twig, Ted Lone Wolf and Long Time Sleep (otherwise known as Nick Lassa).

● Jack Daniels, TB, Milwaukee, 1925 — His NFL career lasted just one game, but there’s no way you can leave him off the squad. Best reason to raise a glass to him: That Badgers juggernaut he played on finished 0-6 and was outscored 191-7. If anybody needed a drink, it was Jack Daniels.

● Darryl Tapp, DE, Seahawks/Eagles/Redskins/Lions, 2006-present — Our All-Time All-Drinking roster wouldn’t be complete without one current player. Best reason to raise a glass to him: He

Darryl Tapp celebrates a sack with the Seahawks.

had four sacks and a forced fumble in Seattle’s 33-6 victory over the Rams in 2007.

● Joe Brandy, coach, Minneapolis, 1924 — Brandy’s Marines were another of the pre-draft, pre-revenue sharing Have Nots, going 0-6 and putting up just 14 points. Best reason to raise a glass to him: At Notre Dame he played under Knute Rockne and in the same backfield with George Gipp.

Reserves:

● Jarvis Redwine, RB-KR, Vikings, 1981-83

● Chris Port, G-T, Saints, 1991-95

● Ken Vinyard, K, Falcons, 1970

● Michael Jameson, DB, Browns, 2002-04

● Gerry Sherry, FB, Louisville, 1926

● Arnold Ale, LB, Chiefs/Chargers, 1994, ’96

● Sam Adams, father (G-T, Patriots/Saints, 1972-81) and son (DT-DE, Seahawks/Ravens/Raiders/Bills/Bengals/Broncos, 1994-2007) (You could pour a Sam Adams into each of the Steins.)

● Scott Case, DB, Falcons/Cowboys, 1984-95

● Ted Ginn, WR/KR, Dolphins/49ers, 2007-12 (Sorry, it’s the closest I could come to gin.)

Home field: Where else but Tampa Stadium (a.k.a. The Big Sombrero before it was demolished)?

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Snow in Buffalo

The NFL has moved the Bills-Jets game to Detroit this week because the show, of course, must go on. Even when the president of the United States gets assassinated, the show must go on in pro football. In the current case, it’s due to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Mother Nature, who dumped six feet of snow on Orchard Park and forced the Bills to find another venue. So the game will be played Monday night, not Sunday afternoon, and the site will be Ford Field, not Ralph Wilson Stadium.

It wasn’t always thus. In the days before TV mega-contracts, postponements and even cancellations were hardly unheard of. Sometimes all it took was slow sales ticket sales or the threat of bad weather to get owners to reschedule — or to bag the game entirely. Why don’t we revisit some of these episodes so you can get a better feel for The Way Things Were?

We begin with a couple of games in New York that were snowed out Dec. 5, 1926 — one between the Giants and Bears at the Polo Grounds, the other between the Brooklyn Horsemen and Duluth Eskimos at Ebbets Field. (And yes, I’m as surprised as anybody that a game involving the Eskimos could be snowed out.) Here’s how The New York Times reported it:

What’s interesting about the first game is that it was the second of back-to-backers for the Bears. They’d lost the day before to the Frankford Yellow Jackets in Philadelphia — their only loss of the season, it would turn out, and one that would leave them second behind the Yellow Jackets in the final standings. (This was before the league staged a title game to determine its champion.)

I’m kind of amazed George Halas, their owner/coach/end, didn’t insist that the game be played at a later date — for the New York payday as much as for the potential W. But as you can see from the Bears’ 1926 results, it was just canceled (though they did play twice more before calling it a season).

Then there was the time in 1936 the Eagles and Pirates (as the Steelers were called then) got the brilliant idea to move one of their games to Johnstown, Pa. Naturally, there was a flood that caused a postponement. Well, almost a flood. The Pittsburgh Press put it this way:

Two years later, Pittsburgh owner Art Rooney caused a stir by putting off a game against the Cleveland Rams because — brace yourself — he had too many players banged up. The Rams were none to pleased about it, as you can see in this Press story:

What’s interesting about this tempest in a leather helmet is that the teams wound up playing the game in December in New Orleans. It was the first NFL game ever played in the Big Easy. (Why New Orleans, you ask? Answer: During the Depression, clubs that didn’t draw well at home would play anywhere they could get a decent guarantee. The next year, the Rams played their season finale against the Eagles in Colorado Springs.

Moving along, in 1954 the Browns pushed their Oct. 3 home game against the Lions back to Dec. 19 because they weren’t sure if the Indians would need Cleveland Stadium for a World Series game against the New York Giants. (The Indians didn’t. The Giants completed their shocking sweep the day before.)

This created a bizarre situation. When the Browns and Lions finally did meet, all the other teams had completed their schedules — and Browns and Lions had already wrapped up their conference titles. So they played on consecutive Sundays in Cleveland . . . with the whole pro football world watching. The Lions won the first game 14-10, and the Browns won the one that really mattered 56-10. What’s that, a 50-point swing in the space of a week?

I could go on, but I’ll finish with the infamous Bills-Patriots postponement in 1961. The game was supposed to be played on a Friday night in Boston but, with Hurricane Gerda looming, was held over to Sunday. Almost predictably, Gerda ended up being the Brian Bosworth of storms — dozens of area high school contests went on as planned that night — and Buffalo coach Buster Ramsay was convinced the delay was “a deliberate attempt to upset my team. . . . A bush-league trick.”

The Patriots actually had to get the city council approval to reschedule to Sunday. They were using Boston University’s Field, you see, and BU didn’t have a permit for games on the Sabbath, according to The Boston Globe.

When the Bills and Pats finally did play, the weather — 35 degrees with 25-to-30 mph winds — was far worse than it had been Friday night. A mere 9,398 showed up to shiver, and Ramsey’s worst fears were realized: His club came out flat and fell behind 45-0 in a 52-21 loss.

At least we know Buffalo’s postponement this weekend wasn’t “a deliberate attempt to upset” the Jets. There’s real snow on the ground — alps of it. And it’s nice nobody had to go to the Detroit city council to get them to OK a Sunday game. Now Rex Ryan’s bunch just has to keep the Bills from running off to a 45-0 lead.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Sept. 28, 1942 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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.

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

Runnin’ Russell Wilson

For a while Sunday, as the fourth quarter wound down, the Seahawks’ Russell Wilson was sitting with 100 rushing yards in 10 carries. And I’m thinking: Oh, great. He’s going to kneel down on the last play or two and lose his 100-yard game.

You have to understand: This wasn’t just any 100-yard rushing game. It was his third 100-yard rushing game of the season, which is as many as any NFL quarterback has ever had in one year.

My fears, as it turned out were unfounded. Wilson kept going (mostly) forward and finished with 107 in 14 attempts in Seattle’s 38-17 win. This enabled him to join Michael Vick atop the following list:

MOST 100-YARD RUSHING GAMES BY A QUARTERBACK IN A SEASON

[table]

Year,Quarterback\, Team,Rushing Yards (Opponent),No.

2014,Russell Wilson\, Seahawks,122 (Redskins)\, 106 (Rams)\, 107 (Giants),3

2006,Michael Vick\, Falcons,127 (Bucs)\, 101 (Cardinals)\, 166 (Saints),3

2004,Michael Vick\, Falcons,109 (Rams)\, 115 (Broncos)\, 104 (Giants),3

2013,Terrelle Pryor\, Raiders,112 (Colts)\, 106 (Steelers),2

2010,Michael Vick\, Eagles,103 (Packers)\, 130 (Giants),2

2002,Donovan McNabb\, Eagles,100 (Jaguars)\, 107 (Giants),2

1972,Bobby Douglass\, Bears,117 (Browns)\, 127 (Raiders),2

1951,Tobin Rote\, Packers,150 (Bears)\, 131 (Lions),2

[/table]

And, of course, Wilson still has seven games left, so he’s got a real shot at the record.

Only one of these quarterbacks, by the way, had back-to-back 100-yard rushing games. Any guesses? Answer: Rote. He did it, moreover, in the space of five days — against the Bears on Sunday and against the Lions on Thanksgiving. (Don’t count on another quarterback rushing for 281 yards in five days again. It’s one of those quirky marks that just might last forever.)

According to reports, Packers coach Gene Ronzani had Rote run out of a spread offense that was probably similar to what teams use today. An excerpt from the Milwaukee Journal story on the Bears game:

Rote had an even better game on Turkey Day. This is from the Journal again:

So Rote rushed for 131 yards against Detroit and threw for three touchdowns. Only two other quarterbacks have done that in the 63 years since: Vick in this game and the Eagles’ Randall

Tobin Rote demonstrates the stiff arm.

Cunningham in this game.

Rote might not have been a great quarterback, but he’s a fascinating one. In 1956, for instance, his first Pro Bowl season, he threw for 18 touchdowns (most in the league by six) and ran for 11 (second only to Bears fullback Rick Casares, who had 12). In all, he accounted for 29 of Green Bay’s 34 offensive TDs. That’s outrageous.

So what did the Packers do? They traded him to the Lions, one of their conference rivals, for three offensive linemen and a running back. “He is a great competitor — a great football player,” coach Lisle Blackbourn said, “but we need linemen if we are to have a chance.”

When Bobby Layne broke his ankle in the next-to-last game of ’57, Rote, who had been sharing the position with him, took over and led the Lions to an improbable NFL title. Six years later, he quarterbacked the Chargers to the AFL championship. Total points scored by his team in those two games: 110 (59 vs. the Browns and 51 vs. the Patriots).

Anyway, that’s the ghost Russell Wilson is chasing as he tries to become the second quarterback to rush for 100 yards in consecutive games in a season. The other QB in his sites, Vick, is — at last report — still up and running with the Jets.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Ryan Fitzpatrick is no “Little General”

Came across an interesting passage in Bill Simmons’ longer-than-your-small-intestine column Friday for Grantland. Wrote Bill:

By the way, I think we should put a bow on Ryan Fitzpatrick’s career as a starting QB.

Record as a starter: 31-54-1
Number of NFL teams that started him: 5
Number of winning seasons: 0
Most wins in one season: 6
Career: 117 touchdown passes, 101 picks, 28 lost fumbles, 185 sacks, 78.4 rating

Here’s why I brought this up. . . . Has anyone started 85 NFL games and won less than Fitzpatrick? We know Joey Harrington finished 26-50 and David Carr finished 23-56 . . . but did anyone win a lower percentage of 85 or more games than Fitzpatrick’s minus-23?

Fortunately, Grantland has one of the best editorial assistants/competitive eaters in the world: the one and only Danny Chau. Here’s what Danny found out: Only one player in football since 1920 has won less than Fitzpatrick after starting at least 85 games, a 5-foot-9 quarterback named Eddie “The Little General” LeBaron, who had a 26-52-3 record from 1952 to 1963.

Actually, if you study the information provided by The Competitive Eater (courtesy of pro-football-reference.com), you’ll see this isn’t true. Two other quarterbacks besides LeBaron started “at least 85 games” and had “a lower winning percentage” than Fitzpatrick — and two more had percentages that were nearly as bad. The list should read like this:

[table]

Years,Quarterback,Teams,W,L,T,Pct

1971-84,Archie Manning,Saints\, Oilers\, Vikings,35,101,3,.263

1952-63,Eddie LeBaron,Redskins\, Cowboys,26,52,3,.340

1961-76,Norm Snead,Redskins\, Eagles\, Vikings\, Giants\, 49ers,52,99,7,.351

2005-14,Ryan Fitzpatrick,Rams\, Bengals\, Bills\, Titans\, Texans,31,54,1,.366

1987-99,Chris Miller,Falcons\, Rams\, Broncos,34,58,0,.370

1990-2001,Jeff George,Colts\, Falcons\, Raiders\, Vikings\, Redskins,46,78,0,.371

[/table]

Note: The data lists LeBaron as having 85 starts but credits him with only 81 decisions.

Another way of looking at it, of course, is:

George (1990) was the first pick in the draft.

Manning (1971) and Snead (1961) were the second.

Miller (1987) was the 13^th.

And LeBaron (123^rd, 1950) and Fitzpatrick (250^th, 2005), the two outliers, have the least explaining to do.

And another way of looking at it is to say: For goodness sakes, whatever happened to context? Eddie “The Little General” LeBaron and Ryan Fitzpatrick have almost nothing in common except

Two Redskins lineman hoist Eddie LeBaron.

their position. LeBaron was one of the better quarterbacks of his era, a four-time Pro Bowler who was a magician as a ball-faker and even did some punting (averaging 40.9 yards on 171 kicks). He just had the misfortune of spending his first seven seasons with the Redskins (whose bigoted owner, George Preston Marshall, wouldn’t sign black players) and his last four with the expansion Cowboys.

Pro-football-reference.com lists LeBaron at 5-foot-9, but the Cowboys media guide in 1963, his final season, puts him at 5-7. When he retired, he was 13^th in NFL/AFL history in both passing yards (13,399) and touchdown passes (104). Those totals may not seem like much today, but the ’50s and early ’60s were a much different time.

Some of LeBaron’s individual seasons were outstanding. In 1957 (86.1) and ’58 (83.3) he finished second to Colts Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas in passer rating. In ’62 he led the league (95.4). That was the year he might have played his most amazing game. In a 42-27 win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh, he threw for five touchdowns in a mere 15 attempts while rotating at QB with Don Meredith. Repeat: He threw for five TDs despite playing only about half the game. Here’s Pat Livingston writing about it in The Pittsburgh Press:

Can you imagine anybody calling Ryan Fitzpatrick “a brilliant old pro who happens to be one of the most underrated performers in pro football”? So again, a little context, please. Fitzpatrick and LeBaron in the same sentence? They’re not even in the same universe. Going into this season, Fitzpatrick had never had a year when his passer rating was higher than the league average.

Yup, The Little General could play. And Fitzpatrick, the Harvard grad, will appreciate this: While Eddie was with the Redskins, he got his law degree at George Washington and practiced law in Dallas — that is, when he wasn’t busy throwing five touchdown passes in half a game.

The NFL’s last scoreless tie?

The record book says the last scoreless tie in the NFL was played Nov. 7, 1943 — 71 years ago today — when the Giants and Lions battled pointlessly in the rain and mud of Briggs Stadium. But I say it happened about two decades later, when the Giants’ Frank Gifford and the Eagles’ Timmy Brown competed against each another on “Password,” the popular TV game show, and posted zeroes in the second round:

You’ve gotta admit, that segment was every bit as exciting as, well, a 0-0 deadlock. By the way, how beautiful is it that Brown’s partner was Betty White? No one would have believed in the ’60s that fair Betty would go on to do a Snickers commercial in which she got flattened trying to catch a pass in a touch football game — a game played in conditions, you’ll notice, much like the “last” scoreless tie between the Giants and Lions in 1943.

If only Abe Vigoda had been teamed with Gifford on “Password.”

PRO FOOTBALL DALY

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

Tag Archives: Eagles

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Ryan Fitzpatrick is no “Little General”

The NFL’s last scoreless tie?