From the The Complete Handbook of Pro Football for 1977: "Went wild last year with the kind of running Redskin fans hadn't witnessed since the physical punishment finally caught up to Larry Brown ... Followed his 919-yard rookie season with a 1,101-yard effort in 1976, and then snazzy running in the Pro Bowl ... Doesn't like the money he's making, a fifth-round draft choice who signed for beneath what he now is worth .... Has been unhappy, but if he can wait out, George will pay. Allen's special teams players make more than a number of regulars in the league ... Thomas was born July 17, 1953, in Greenville, Tex ... Started at Oklahoma, then transferred to Nevada-Las Vegas ... Two other brothers played in NFL." (1)
Thomas was the rare rookie to have started for George Allen and earned AP Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1975. His salary unhappiness apparently factored throughout his career with the Redskins.
---
(1) 1977 Edition The Complete Handbook of Pro Football Zander Hollander, editor (New York: New American Library, 1977) 155.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
NFL Strategy
The thing about pretty much any pre-Atari, board-game recreation of football for us stats and records geeks was figuring out a practical, believable solitaire version. The likelihood of having a sibling or next-door neighbor who was equally as mesmerized by the minutiae and had the patience to pile up game after game, season after season of handwritten game records was almost nil. This meant that, if you sought to recreate a league in decades of depth, you quickly realized that you were pretty much on your own.
(The ongoing ramifications of this realization for a 10- to 15-year-old boy is a topic to be tucked away for pondering. For the moment, we're just going to talk about football board games.)
Relative to its predecessors and contemporaries, NFL Strategy leant itself to such a pursuit pretty elegantly.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday Morning Football
I'm of the daily-newspaper/network-news/Collier's Encyclopedia school, but I'm adapting to the user-defined, "push," new-media experience. It has been a gradual metamorphosis, not without its fits and stops, but I'm getting there.
For me, Google news alerts and automated Ebay search reports are among the Internet's killerest apps. Every day in my inbox, I find email roundups of news stories with the phrases "former NFL" or "ex-NFL" and new sale descriptions containing the terms "1975," "football" and "cards." Browsing these links today brought a chill.
First, from Ebay, ...
"Up for auction is the complete set of APBA football cards for the year 1975. These cards were kept in a locked chest and are all in mint condition. These were my husbands and he was a sports fanatic. He wrote in the corner of each envelope the year and that teams stats for that particular season. Comes from a smoke free but pet friendly home. Please check out my store for other items that he collected! Thanks for looking."
And, then, by Ken Murray in The Baltimore Sun ...
"Heart surgeon Archie Roberts was speaking on cardiac disease to a group of doctors in 1997 when he felt numbness in his right arm and suddenly stumbled over his words in mid-dissertation. The man who had saved lives with his expertise in cardiology was having a stroke because he didn't follow his own advice and, as a former NFL quarterback, didn't think it could happen to him. It did. In short order, Roberts, 55 years old and 22 pounds over his playing weight of 193, was admitted to Bayshore (N.J.) Hospital with his life-threatening condition. ..."
Well, I've got to get to work, so I'm going to cut this short. But let me just line up the following facts in short order to create a framework for future posts:
For me, Google news alerts and automated Ebay search reports are among the Internet's killerest apps. Every day in my inbox, I find email roundups of news stories with the phrases "former NFL" or "ex-NFL" and new sale descriptions containing the terms "1975," "football" and "cards." Browsing these links today brought a chill.
First, from Ebay, ...
"Up for auction is the complete set of APBA football cards for the year 1975. These cards were kept in a locked chest and are all in mint condition. These were my husbands and he was a sports fanatic. He wrote in the corner of each envelope the year and that teams stats for that particular season. Comes from a smoke free but pet friendly home. Please check out my store for other items that he collected! Thanks for looking."
And, then, by Ken Murray in The Baltimore Sun ...
"Heart surgeon Archie Roberts was speaking on cardiac disease to a group of doctors in 1997 when he felt numbness in his right arm and suddenly stumbled over his words in mid-dissertation. The man who had saved lives with his expertise in cardiology was having a stroke because he didn't follow his own advice and, as a former NFL quarterback, didn't think it could happen to him. It did. In short order, Roberts, 55 years old and 22 pounds over his playing weight of 193, was admitted to Bayshore (N.J.) Hospital with his life-threatening condition. ..."
Well, I've got to get to work, so I'm going to cut this short. But let me just line up the following facts in short order to create a framework for future posts:
- I'm almost 41.
- I've got a great wife and 6-month-old baby girl.
- I love football.
- I've got a closetful of old football board games, cards, books, magazines, notes, kitsch, scraps, crap ...
- Twenty-two pounds?!? That's all?
- I really, really love football.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
NFL Films
Thursday, December 02, 2004 4:25 PM
As you know, I've decided to start watching more NFL Films. In the last 24 hours, I've seen about an hour of NFL Films, and they've been wonderful.
And I've made another important decision -- that I need to start studying for these episodes in advance. What happens is that I get stuck following the plot of the show and miss all of the details. If I already knew the plot, then I'd be free to focus on which player missed his block, the stadium signs, etc., instead of getting all caught up in whether or not the featured team wins. (I'm reminded how much richer Simpsons episodes on second and subsequent viewings. If you know how things are going to go, you're free to notice things like the "Krudler" joke.)
So, anyway, tomorrow's episode is the 1968 Baltimore Colts, and so tonight I'm going to spend some time reading about that team.
Now, here are some notes from the two episodes I've seen in the last two days.
I saw an NFL Game of the Week episode, hosted by Ray Scott, about the Oct. 7, 1973, Eagles-Bills game in Buffalo. First, isn't it astounding that a 1973 game between the Eagles and Bills would be considered worthy of Game of the Week status? The big deal here, though, is that Buffalo is 2-1 and tied for the AFC East lead with Miami. Also, the Bills had just drafted stud offensive linemen Joe DeLaimalleure and Paul Seymour in the first round of the last two drafts, so there's probably some thought that Buffalo is a coming power. O.J. Simpson is on pace to break Jim Brown's single-season rushing record, and a rookie, Joe Ferguson, has played himself ahead of Dennis Shaw at quarterback. Philadelphia, then, is of some interest because its new quarterback is former passing champion Roman Gabriel.
The game, at Rich Stadium, is back and forth. In the fourth quarter, Simpson is stopped after one yard on a third-and-2 by Eagles linebacker Marvin McKeever, and then John Leypoldt comes on to kick a 47-yard field goal for a 27-26 lead. Philadelphia comes back down the field, finally stopping the clock with three seconds remaining at the Buffalo 19. (The key play here was an amazing fourth-and-13 conversion where Gabriel throws high into triple coverage and rookie tight end Charley Young outleaps the three Bills defenders for the first-down catch.) On comes Tom Dempsey, who in 1973 looked a lot like I would look today in a skin-tight NFL jersey, and he immediately knows his 26-yard attempt is a miss. Buffalo wins.
A few other things:
-- I guess this must've been the last year of the goal post at the goal line. I don't remember ever seeing a game with it up there, and I think I definitely remember watching some of the 1974 regular season. Anyway, I love the idea of putting the defender back at the goal post to try to jump and block the kick back into the field of play. Hate it that that's illegal today.
-- O.J. was really, really, really great.
-- The Bills had won AFL titles in 1964 and '65 under Lou Saban, so I guess it's understandable that the NFL Films guys might've thought Buffalo was about to move back past Miami in the AFC East. That's only nine years removed from this game.
This morning, I watched a film on the 1968 Oakland Raiders, and I was more in an out with this one. But what an AFL West race that was! Kansas City and Oakland were tied for the division lead with three games to go, and both teams won out to force a playoff. Oakland opened a 21-0 lead -- all on long passes -- and then, in the second quarter, hold the Chiefs to six points despite two drives to inside the Oakland 5 (bad for Stephen). Late in the first half, Fred Biletnikoff catches a short pass, fakes Johnny Robinson and then high steps out of the reach of some lunging defenders for a 28-6 lead, and, ultimately, the Raiders win 41-6. Biletnikoff was a very impressive runner after the catch, and this show reinforces my feeling that Randy Moss is the Biletnikoff of his day.
Incidentally, the Raiders are trailing, 27-23, late against the Jets in the AFL championship and driving. Daryle Lamonica flairs a miserable pass behind a running back trailing out of the backfield, and the Jets recover the fumble to hold on for the win -- and head to the Orange Bowl for the Super Bowl with the Colts. During the offseason, John Madden is named the new head coach of the Raiders.
As you know, I've decided to start watching more NFL Films. In the last 24 hours, I've seen about an hour of NFL Films, and they've been wonderful.
And I've made another important decision -- that I need to start studying for these episodes in advance. What happens is that I get stuck following the plot of the show and miss all of the details. If I already knew the plot, then I'd be free to focus on which player missed his block, the stadium signs, etc., instead of getting all caught up in whether or not the featured team wins. (I'm reminded how much richer Simpsons episodes on second and subsequent viewings. If you know how things are going to go, you're free to notice things like the "Krudler" joke.)
So, anyway, tomorrow's episode is the 1968 Baltimore Colts, and so tonight I'm going to spend some time reading about that team.
Now, here are some notes from the two episodes I've seen in the last two days.
I saw an NFL Game of the Week episode, hosted by Ray Scott, about the Oct. 7, 1973, Eagles-Bills game in Buffalo. First, isn't it astounding that a 1973 game between the Eagles and Bills would be considered worthy of Game of the Week status? The big deal here, though, is that Buffalo is 2-1 and tied for the AFC East lead with Miami. Also, the Bills had just drafted stud offensive linemen Joe DeLaimalleure and Paul Seymour in the first round of the last two drafts, so there's probably some thought that Buffalo is a coming power. O.J. Simpson is on pace to break Jim Brown's single-season rushing record, and a rookie, Joe Ferguson, has played himself ahead of Dennis Shaw at quarterback. Philadelphia, then, is of some interest because its new quarterback is former passing champion Roman Gabriel.
The game, at Rich Stadium, is back and forth. In the fourth quarter, Simpson is stopped after one yard on a third-and-2 by Eagles linebacker Marvin McKeever, and then John Leypoldt comes on to kick a 47-yard field goal for a 27-26 lead. Philadelphia comes back down the field, finally stopping the clock with three seconds remaining at the Buffalo 19. (The key play here was an amazing fourth-and-13 conversion where Gabriel throws high into triple coverage and rookie tight end Charley Young outleaps the three Bills defenders for the first-down catch.) On comes Tom Dempsey, who in 1973 looked a lot like I would look today in a skin-tight NFL jersey, and he immediately knows his 26-yard attempt is a miss. Buffalo wins.
A few other things:
-- I guess this must've been the last year of the goal post at the goal line. I don't remember ever seeing a game with it up there, and I think I definitely remember watching some of the 1974 regular season. Anyway, I love the idea of putting the defender back at the goal post to try to jump and block the kick back into the field of play. Hate it that that's illegal today.
-- O.J. was really, really, really great.
-- The Bills had won AFL titles in 1964 and '65 under Lou Saban, so I guess it's understandable that the NFL Films guys might've thought Buffalo was about to move back past Miami in the AFC East. That's only nine years removed from this game.
This morning, I watched a film on the 1968 Oakland Raiders, and I was more in an out with this one. But what an AFL West race that was! Kansas City and Oakland were tied for the division lead with three games to go, and both teams won out to force a playoff. Oakland opened a 21-0 lead -- all on long passes -- and then, in the second quarter, hold the Chiefs to six points despite two drives to inside the Oakland 5 (bad for Stephen). Late in the first half, Fred Biletnikoff catches a short pass, fakes Johnny Robinson and then high steps out of the reach of some lunging defenders for a 28-6 lead, and, ultimately, the Raiders win 41-6. Biletnikoff was a very impressive runner after the catch, and this show reinforces my feeling that Randy Moss is the Biletnikoff of his day.
Incidentally, the Raiders are trailing, 27-23, late against the Jets in the AFL championship and driving. Daryle Lamonica flairs a miserable pass behind a running back trailing out of the backfield, and the Jets recover the fumble to hold on for the win -- and head to the Orange Bowl for the Super Bowl with the Colts. During the offseason, John Madden is named the new head coach of the Raiders.
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