It's odd how this works sometimes.
At times, there are very few for the tributes and then suddenly there is a sad flurry as happened over the last three days.
Goodbye to Matt Blair at the age of 70.
Blair, pictured to the right, played his entire career with the Minnesota Vikings after the Vikings drafted him in the second round of the 1974 draft from Iowa State.
Blair was an all-around linebacker for the Vikings that could cover running backs and tight ends and rush the passer, but players that played against him in college claim he never returned to form after a knee injury at Iowa State.
Blair must have been some player there as with the Vikings, Blair would make six Pro Bowls, make All-Pro in 1980, and All-NFC five times from 1977-81.
Blair was also noted as one of the best kick blockers ever as the pictured shows Blair blocking Pittsburgh's Bobby Walden's punt in Super Bowl Eight that would result in Minnesota's only points when Terry Brown would scoop the ball and run into the end zone in the Vikings 16-6 defeat.
Blair's 20 blocked kicks ranks him third all-time in league history.
Look for Matt Blair as a Forgotten Superstar down the road.
Goodbye to Herb Adderley at the age of 81.
Adderly played twelve years in the NFL for the Packers and Cowboys before being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980.
Known as perhaps the best cover cornerback in the NFL in the 1960s, Adderly started on all five of Vince Lombardi's world champion Packer teams and finished his career with Dallas, where Adderley played on the 1971 Cowboys to win another ring.
Adderley was drafted by Green Bay in 1961 from Michigan State as a running back but was sitting on the bench behind fellow Hall of Famers Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung when Lombardi tried Adderley at cornerback due to injuries and was so good that the Packers moved him to corner permanently in the following season.
Adderley made the All-NFL first or second team in all but one (1968) season in the 1960s and holds a league record for interceptions returned for touchdowns in a season with three in 1965.
Adderley also is the first player to return an interception for a touchdown in the Super Bowl when he returned a Daryle Lamonica pass sixty yards for a score in the final quarter.
Adderley is one of only four players in NFL history to win six world championships along with Packer teammates Fuzzy Thurston (Adderley's Packer team and 1959 Colts) and Forrest Gregg (same six teams as Adderley) and Tom Brady.
Adderley is also related (his cousin's grandson) to current Los Angeles Chargers defensive back Nasir Adderley, who would play for Temple where Herb Adderley did commentary on Temple games on the Owls radio network.
The 1958 Rookie of the Year with the Steelers, Orr would make two Pro Bowls (1959 Steelers and 1965 Colts) and win a Super Bowl in the final year of his career with the Colts in 1970.
Orr caught 400 passes in his thirteen-year career and finished seasons with double-digit touchdowns twice with the Colts in 1962 (11) and 1965 (10).
Known for his sure hands, Orr notched a surprisingly high (to me when researching this) yards per reception for his career with an average of 19.8 yards per catch and finished four seasons with twenty-one yards or more per reception.
For all of the accomplishments in Orr's career, Orr may be remembered by many for his frantic waving of his arms in Super Bowl III in an attempt to grab the attention of quarterback Earl Morrall.
Orr was wide open late in the first half as the Colts were driving down the field for what seemed to be a sure score and Morrall didn't see Orr, who would have walked into the end zone and instead threw to fullback Jerry Hill with the pass being intercepted by the Jets Jim Hudson.
Two stories from the play each seem credible when you watch the highlights of that game.
First, the game was played under clouds, but during the play, you can see the sun briefly shine right into Morrall's sight and that could be the reason that Morrall didn't see Orr.
The other reason could be this- with halftime approaching the Colts marching band can be seen in the end zone preparing for the halftime show.
The band's all-blue uniforms matched the jersey color that Baltimore wore that day and Orr could have blended in with the band and hindered Morrall's ability to find the open receiver.
Goodbye to Chris Isaac at the age of 61.
Isaac was a shooting star as a quarterback in the CFL for the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1982 as Isaac threw for a rookie-league record for passing with eighteen touchdowns and over three thousand yards in a campaign that won Isaac the CFL's outstanding rookie award.
In Isaac's first start with Ottawa, Isaac threw a team record-tying five touchdown passes and for a team-record 471 yards in a 55-5 destruction of the then-Montreal Concordes.
Isaac's career would end the following year when future U.S. congressman J.C. Watts returned to the Riders after skipping 1982 in a contract dispute and returned to his role as the Ottawa starter.
Isaac would play in eleven games in 1983 and wouldn't play professionally again.
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