If Woody Strode is remembered today, it’s probably as an actor, not as one of the two players to reintegrate the NFL in 1946 with the Los Angeles Rams. His most famous role was as the title character in Sergeant Rutledge (directed by the legendary John Ford). He also played the Grand Mogul in the classic Batman TV series. But his most famous scene was in Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus, when he fought Kirk Douglas in one of the great cinema battles of all time. Take a look:
Awesome, no? (Yes, that’s Laurence Olivier taking the knife to Woody at the end.) Steven Spielberg certainly has a high opinion of it:
Anyway, how did we get from that exercise in thespian manhood to this? By this, I mean Strode’s wrestling match — date unknown — with Gorgeous George, one of the daintiest grapplers ever to climb in the ring? If you’ve never seen George’s shtick before, you’re in for a treat. The guy took Muhammad Ali’s “I’m so pretty” to a whole new level.
Besides his football and film careers, Strode also did some rolling around on the mat. He even wrestled Primo Carnera, the former heavyweight boxing champ — Sept. 27, 1956, according to wrestlingdata.com. (Alas, I couldn’t find any more information about it.) The character of Mountain Rivera in Rod Serling’s Requiem for a Heavyweight (played in this trailer by Anthony Quinn). is loosely based on Carnera.
Speaking of boxing, Strode refereed some bouts, too — including one in Ogden, Utah, in 1956 involving light-heavyweight champ Archie Moore. Moore’s victim was a wrestler-turned-boxer, Roy Shire, who — get this — had faced Woody a few months earlier.
OK, that’s enough backstory. Here it is, tonight’s main event: Woody Strode, who was built like a Greek god, vs. Gorgeous George, who would have been the first on his block to use Grecian Formula (if it had been around then).
Too bad Woody didn’t work that “long pitchfork,” as Spielberg called it, from Spartacus into his act.
Make that five touchdowns this season for the Texans’ J.J. Watt, the defensive end with a nose for the end zone. His latest — and third TD catch — came Sunday on a 1-yard pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick in Houston’s 45-21 win over the Titans.
How can I put Watt’s feat in perspective? Maybe this way:
RUNNING BACKS WHO HAD 350 TOUCHES IN A SEASON AND FEWER THAN 5 TDS
If you’re a frequenter of this site, you know I’m always on the lookout for the oddball game — the “snowflake.” Saints wide receiver Joe Morgan had one of the all timers Monday night against the Ravens.
Here’s what Morgan did the first time he touched the ball:
And here’s what he did the second time he touched the ball: That’s it. There was no third time he touched the ball. He finished with one rush for 67 yards and one reception for 62. Do the math and you get 129 yards from scrimmage — again, on two touches. That’s insane. It’s also something no one else has done since at least 1960.
In fact, only eight other players in that period have had even a 20-yard gain both rushing and receiving, never mind a 60-yarder, in a two-touch game. It’s just really unusual. (Note: I’ve excluded anybody who might have returned a punt or kickoff in the same game. I’m being strict about this: two touches — period.)
ONE RUSH FOR 20+ YARDS, ONE RECEPTION FOR 20+ YARDS IN A GAME
11-2-80,WR Leonard Thompson\, Lions,49ers,30,30,60
[/table]
*touchdown
(In a 1981 game against the Saints, the Cardinals’ Roy Green had one rush for 44 yards, one reception for 28 and one interception for 29. A performance like that certainly deserves mention, even if the pick disqualifies him from this list.)
What makes Morgan’s night all the sweeter is that touches have been so rare for him in his two NFL seasons. He’s had just 14 — 12 catches, 2 rushes. But he’s gotten a lot of yardage out of those opportunities, including 10 gains of more than 25 yards. Average gain on receptions and rushes combined: 36.9 yards (14/516).
Nobody does that. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Joe Morgan.
Source: pro-football-reference.com
The Saints’ Joe Morgan doing what he does best, making big plays.
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:
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.
Don’t ask me why — it’s a personal weakness, I’m sure — but whenever I think of the Broncos’ Two-Headed Thomas Monster, Demaryius and Julius, I think of Bob and Walt Tenor (Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear) in Stuck on You.
Yards-per-catch averages in the NFL have been going down, down, down for decades — from 14.5 yards in 1950 to 13.2 in 1970 to 12.5 in 1990 to 11.6 this season. You can blame it on everything from zone defenses to the West Coast offense to the rise of the tight end. So when a receiver averages 20 yards a reception, as the Redskins’ DeSean Jackson has done in the first eight games, it’s worthy of mention.
Thanks to a league-leading seven catches of 40 yards or more, Jackson is averaging 20.8 yards on 32 grabs. If he sustains that pace the rest of the way — 64 catches (a nice, round four a game), 20-plus yards a reception — he’ll be just the 10th receiver in NFL-AFL history to reach those levels. Here are the first nine, many of whom should be familiar to you:
RECEIVERS WITH 64 CATCHES, 20-YARDS-PER-CATCH AVERAGE IN A SEASON
[table width=”500px”]
Year Receiver\, Team,Rec,Yds,Avg
1998 Eric Moulds\, Bills,67,1\,368,20.4
1988 Jerry Rice*\, 49ers,64,1\,306,20.4
1983 Mike Quick\, Eagles,69,1\,409,20.4
1967 Don Maynard*\, Jets,71,1\,434,20.2
1965 Lance Alworth*\, Chargers,69,1\,602,23.2
1963 Bobby Mitchell*\, Redskins,69,1\,436,20.8
1961 Charley Hennigan\, Oilers,82,1\,746,21.3
1960 Bill Groman\, Oilers,72,1\,473,20.5
1951 Crazylegs Hirsch*\, Rams,66,1\,495,22.7
[/table]
*Hall of Famer
Five of the nine are in Canton, so it’s not just anybody who has accomplished this feat. Note, too that Groman and Hennigan did it in the first two years of the AFL, when the league wasn’t nearly as strong as it would be later. If you eliminate them, you’re down to seven receivers — an awfully small group. And Jackson might join them.
(FYI: If you want to lower the bar to 60 receptions, you get four more names, including James Lofton.)
It’s hard for a high-volume receiver to average 20 yards a catch. He simply runs too many underneath routes. The most a 100-reception guy has averaged is 16.1 (the Lions’ Calvin Johnson on 122 grabs in 2012). The most a 75-reception guy has averaged ––since Hennigan, at least — is 19.9 (the Rams’ Torry Holt in 2000 and Cardinals’ Roy Green in 1984). Jackson, though, has only once caught more than 62 balls in a season, so a 20-yard average is more conceivable for him. Indeed, he averaged 22.5 in 2010 (but on 47 receptions).
Yards per catch certainly isn’t the most celebrated statistic, but it reflects an ability to make big plays. Every offense needs a receiver like that, one who can stretch the defense and create space for his teammates.
Jackson, by the way, has four 100-yard games through Week 8. Only one receiver in Redskins history has had more: Mitchell, who had five in 1962, the year he helped integrate the franchise. The others, besides DeSean, with four: Santana Moss in 2005, Henry Ellard in 1994 and Mitchell again in ’63. Interesting: Mitchell (’62), Moss and Ellard were, like D-Jax, in their first year with the club.
The NFL has done a great job of making the past disappear. It’s accomplished this in two main ways: (1.) by lengthening the season from 11 games in the early ’40s to 16 now; and (2.) by tilting the rules, time after time, in favor of the offense. When you look at statistics from the ’60s and earlier, even the numbers put up by Hall of Famers, the players often seem diminished, not as good as the current crop.
Let’s see if I can disabuse you of that notion. In fact, why don’t I start here:
Tittle’s and Blanda’s totals (47) would put them behind only Peyton Manning (55, 49), Tom Brady (50) and Dan Marino (48) on the single-season list. Nobody ever points this out, though, because the NFL prefers to push the idea – sometimes illusory – that the game, and especially the players, have never been better.
Now let’s look at the best 16-game stretches for some of the running backs and receivers of yesteryear.
BEST 16-GAME STRETCHES FOR PRE-MERGER RUNNING BACKS
Note: Brown also had a 16-game stretch in 1964 (four games, counting the title game) and ’65 (12) in which he rushed for 1,855 yards, in case you’re wondering how great he really was. (The NFL record for a season, of course, is 2,105 by the Rams’ Eric Dickerson in 1984.)
Note: Five of the six yardage totals would be good enough to crack the single-season Top 10, and Hennigan’s (2,093) is well above the record held by the Lions’ Calvin Johnson (1,964 in 2012).
Yes, Charley, Maynard, Powell and Alworth all played in the AFL, which didn’t have the depth of the NFL (at least, not for the first five or six years). And yes, Hutson’s 1942 season was a war year (though the talent wasn’t nearly as depleted as it would be later on). But most of these guys, remember, are Hall of Famers. I just wanted to give you a sense of how much better their numbers would have been if their seasons had been longer — never mind if they’d been able to play under today’s rules.
Free agency can be such a monumental crapshoot. So I’m pleased to report that, through Week 6, four of the NFL’s Top 10 in receiving yards are wideouts who changed jerseys during the offseason. They are:
[table width=”400px”]
Rank,Receiver\, Team,Old Team,Yards
5th,Steve Smith\, Ravens,Panthers,573
T6th,Golden Tate\, Lions,Seahawks,495
9th,DeSean Jackson\, Redskins,Eagles,479
10th,Emmanuel Sanders\, Broncos,Steelers,473
[/table]
Granted, there’s plenty of football to be played, but these guys have made a terrific first impression with their new clubs. Smith’s yardage total projects to 1,528 over 16 games. Sanders’ projects to 1514 (because Denver has played only five games). Tate (1,320) and Jackson (1,277) also are on pace for big years. So far, these free-agent dollars have been well spent – and hurray for that. Too often they aren’t.
Smith, in fact, has a chance to become the first receiver in NFL history to have a 1,500-yard season with two different teams. Only a handful of wideouts have had even a 1,200-yard season with different two teams. The list:
RECEIVERS WHO’VE HAD A 1,200-YARD SEASON WITH TWO DIFFERENT CLUBS
[table width=”500px”],
Randy Moss,1\,632\, ’03 Vikings,1\,493 ’07 Patriots
Henry Ellard,1\,414\, ’88 Rams,1\,397\, ’94 Redskins
*Also had a 1,200-yard season with the Eagles in 2004.
(Note: If a receiver had multiple 1,200-yard seasons with a team, I listed his best season. Also, as you can see, Coles is the only one to do it in consecutive years. That’s what Jackson is trying to do this year. He had 1,332 receiving yards with the Eagles in 2013.)
It’s always educational to go back in time and see where the NFL was, say, 50 years ago and how it compares to today. So I decided to find out who the career leaders were in various offensive categories at the start of the 1964 season, just for kicks. What did it take to make the all-time Top 10 back then? Which players had fallen through the cracks of history? I learned plenty, I must say. Why don’t we begin with the running backs (since they were so much bigger a deal in the ’60s)?
[table]
Most rushing yards at the start of the 1964 season,At the start of 2014
9\,322 Jim Brown,18\,355 Emmitt Smith
8\,378 Joe Perry,16\,726 Walter Payton
5\,860 Steve Van Buren,15\,269 Barry Sanders
5\,599 Jim Taylor,14\,101 Curtis Martin
5\,534 Rick Casares,13\,684 LaDainian Tomlinson
5\,518 John Henry Johnson,13\,662 Jerome Bettis
5\,233 Hugh McElhenny,13\,259 Eric Dickerson
4\,565 Ollie Matson,12\,739 Tony Dorsett
4\,428 Alex Webster,12\,312 Jim Brown
4\,315 J.D. Smith,12\,279 Marshall Faulk
[/table]
Think about it: To be one of the Top 10 rushers in NFL history half a century ago, all you needed was 4,315 yards. Adrian Peterson surpassed that by the end of his third season (4,484). Eric Dickerson nearly got there in his second (3,913). By current standards, it’s not that much yardage. (Consider: Among active backs, the Colts’ Ahmad Bradshaw is closest to Smith’s total with 4,418. That ranks him 160th all time.)
But it was a significant amount of yardage in 1964, the league’s 45th year. Careers were shorter. Seasons were shorter. Only the rare player (e.g. Brown) put up numbers that had much longevity.
Note, too: Three backs on the ’64 list — the Bears’ Casares, the Giants’ Webster and the 49ers’ Smith — aren’t in the Hall of Fame and never will be. Yet there’s a good chance every back on the ’14 list will make it. The only ones who haven’t been voted in, after all, are Bettis and Tomlinson. But LT is a lock once he’s eligible, and Bettis has been a finalist the last four years and figures to get his ticket punched eventually.
And understandably so, I suppose. The threshold for breaking into the Top 10 — in all offensive departments — is so much higher these days. You not only have to play longer, you usually have to be fairly productive in your 30s, which for a running back is far from guaranteed. Payton, hard as it is to believe, rushed for more yards after his 30th birthday (6,522) than Van Buren did in his entire career (5,860). And Steve was the all-time leader for nearly a decade.
Finally, three of the Top 7 rushers 50 years ago — Perry (2nd), Johnson (6th) and McElhenny (7th) –actually played together for three seasons in San Francisco (1954-56), though they often weren’t healthy at the same time. “The Million-Dollar Backfield,” they were called (the fourth Hall of Fame member being quarterback Y.A. Tittle). John Henry, ever the joker, liked to tell people: “I’m still lookin’ for the million.”
On to the receivers:
[table]
Most receiving yards at the start of the 1964 season,At the start of 2014
8\,459 Billy Howton,22\,895 Jerry Rice
7\,991 Don Hutson,15\,934 Terrell Owens
6\,920 Raymond Berry,15\,292 Randy Moss
6\,299 Crazylegs Hirsch,15\,208 Isaac Bruce
5\,902 Billy Wilson,15\,127 Tony Gonzalez
5\,619 Pete Pihos,14\,934 Tim Brown
5\,594 Del Shofner,14\,580 Marvin Harrison
5\,508 Ray Renfro,14\,004 James Lofton
5\,499 Tommy McDonald,13\,899 Cris Carter
5\,476 Max McGee,13\,777 Henry Ellard
[/table]
That’s right, McGee, Paul Hornung’s old drinking buddy on the Packers, was No. 10 in receiving yards as the ’64 season got underway. I wasn’t prepared for that (though I knew he was a pretty good wideout). Here is he is (fuzzily) scoring the first points in Super Bowl history by making a one-handed touchdown catch:
Amazingly, Howton, who tops the list — and was McGee’s teammate in Green Bay for a while — isn’t in the Hall. I’ve always thought he belongs, even though he played on a series of losing clubs. But that’s a subject for another post.
Also excluded from Canton, besides McGee, are the 49ers’ Wilson, the Giants’ Shofner and the Browns’ Renfro. In other words, half of the Top 10 in receiving yards half a century ago haven’t been enshrined. Does that seem like a lot to you?
I doubt people will be saying that about the current Top 10 50 years from now. Rice and Lofton already have their gold jackets, and most of the others have strong arguments.
Speaking of Rice, that 22,895 figure never ceases to astound, does it? It’s almost as many as the Top 3 receivers combined on the ’64 list (23,370).
Something else that shouldn’t be overlooked: a tight end (Tony Gonzalez) has infiltrated the Top 10 (at No. 5) — and he won’t be the last. The position has become too important to the passing game.
Lastly — because I wanted to keep you in suspense — the quarterbacks:
[table]
Most passing yards at the start of the 1964 season,At the start of 2014
28\,339 Y.A. Tittle,71\,838 Brett Favre
26\,768 Bobby Layne,64\,964 Peyton Manning
23\,611 Norm Van Brocklin,61\,361 Dan Marino
21\,886 Sammy Baugh,51\,475 John Elway
21\,491 Johnny Unitas,51\,081 Drew Brees
19\,488 Charlie Conerly,49\,325 Warren Moon
17\,654 Tobin Rote,49\,149 Tom Brady
17\,492 George Blanda,47\,003 Fran Tarkenton
16\,303 Billy Wade,46\,233 Vinny Testaverde
14\,686 Sid Luckman,44\,611 Drew Bledsoe
[/table]
Both groups are well represented in the Hall. Seven from ’64 are in, including the Top 5, and the Top 8 from ’14 are destined to join them. And get this: The three ’64 guys who haven’t been ushered into Canton — Conerly (’56 Giants), Rote (’57 Lions, plus the ’63 Chargers in the AFL) and Wade (’63 Bears) — all quarterbacked teams to titles. Quite an accomplished bunch.
For those wondering where Otto Graham is, he did indeed rack up 23,584 passing yards, but 10,085 of them came in the rival All-America Conference. That left him 12th, for the NFL’s purposes, going into the ’64 season (with 13,499). It’s a bit unfair — and also affects some of his teammates (running back Marion Motley, receivers Dante Lavelli and Mac Speedie) — but what are ya gonna do?
At any rate, it takes a lot of yards to crack any of these Top 10s nowadays. You’d better pack a lunch — and maybe dinner and a midnight snack, too.
Someday, somebody’s going to break Jerry Rice’s receiving records. We know this because records are made to be broken, right? At least, that’s what we keep hearing.
Rice’s career mark of 22,895 receiving yards looks particularly daunting — inasmuch as he has almost 7,000 more than the next guy, Terrell Owens (15,934). What do you suppose it would take to surpass that Ginormous Number? Well, here’s one way of looking at it:
Say a receiver was 21 when he came into the NFL. And say, at every age, he matched the top yardage total of all time for that age. How long would it be before he blew by Jerry? You’ll find the startling answer below.
(Keep in mind: In some instances, depending on the player’s birthdate, a “year” straddles two seasons. That is, he could be a certain age for the last part of one season and the first part of the next.)
WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO BREAK JERRY RICE’S CAREER YARDAGE RECORD
[table]
Age,Receiver,Team\, Year(s),Yards
21,Randy Moss,Vikings\, 1998,1\,313
22,Josh Gordon,Browns\, 2013,1\,646
23,David Boston,Cardinals\, 2001,1\,598
24,Torry Holt,Rams\, 2000,1\,635
25,Victor Cruz,Giants\, 2011-12,1\,665
26,Calvin Johnson,Lions\, 2011-12,1\,933
27,Calvin Johnson,Lions\, 2012-13,1\,863
28,Jerry Rice,49ers\, 1990-91,1\,598
29,Michael Irvin,Cowboys\, 1995,1\,603
30,Marvin Harrison,Colts\, 2002,1\,722
31,Jerry Rice,49ers\, 1993-94,1\,714
32,Jerry Rice,49ers\, 1994-95,1\,533
33,Jerry Rice,49ers\, 1995-96,1\,749
34,Cris Carter,Vikings\, 1999-00,1\,388
Total,,,22\,960
[/table]
That’s all. It would just take 14 seasons — producing, in each of them, at the highest level in history — to overtake Rice. By 65 yards. I can hardly wait to see someone try.
Something else learned from this exercise: There have been some phenomenal performances in recent years by receivers other than Calvin Johnson. As you can see, Josh Gordon is now the leader at 22. The same goes for Victor Cruz at 25. Four things you can’t see:
● Last season, Chargers rookie Keenan Allen had 1,046 receiving yards. That’s the second most all time for a 21-year-old behind Moss.
● The Cowboys’ Dez Bryant had 1,599 yards at 24 (which for him spanned parts of the 2012 and ’13 seasons). That’s No. 2 behind Holt.
● The Bears’ Brandon Marshall (1,508 in 2012) is second in the 28 group behind Rice, and the Texans’ Andre Johnson (1,598 in 2012) is second in the 31 group, also behind Rice.
● Finally, even if erstwhile Patriot Aaron Hernandez is convicted of murder and never plays pro football again, he’ll go down in the books — for now, anyway — as having the most receiving yards in NFL history at the age of 20 (388 in 2010). So he’s got that going for him, which is nice.
