Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Cleaning out the Inbox: Football Passings

    Today our tributes are all from the football world.  

Goodbye to Pat Fischer at the age of 84.  

A four-time All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowler for the Cardinals and then-Redskins, Fischer wasn't drafted until the seventeenth round in 1961 from Nebraska by the Cardinals.

Fischer played seven seasons in St.Louis before signing with Washington in 1968 as a free agent as one of only four players to use the "Rozelle Rule" to sign elsewhere as a free agent with the player's former team receiving compensation.

Fischer would play seventeen seasons in the NFL intercepting fifty-six passes in his career.

The 5'9 Fischer's battles with the Eagles 6'8 Harold Carmichael were legendary and if you can find onYouTube any of those highlights, they have to be seen to be believed!

Goodbye to Greg Landry at the age of 77.

Landry was taken eleventh overall by the Detroit Lions in the 1968 draft from Massachusetts and would spend eleven years as a Lion before being traded to the Colts in 1979.

Landry made the Pro Bowl in 1971 and was named All-Pro, leading the Lions to their only division title of the seventies but spent much of the time battling another quarterback for the starting position, first Bill Munson and later Gary Danielson.

Landry almost threw for 3,000 yards for Baltimore in 1979, playing in twelve games for an injured Bert Jones, and was one of the first players to sign with the USFL in 1983, leading the Chicago Blitz to the playoffs and leading the Arizona Wranglers to the Western Conference championship in 1984.

Goodbye to Billy Shaw at the age of 85.

Shaw was an AFL All-Star guard eight times and named All-AFL on seven occasions for the Buffalo Bills from 1961 to 1969, winning two AFL titles in 1964 and 1965.

Shaw was voted into the Football Hall of Fame in 1999 and is currently the only player inducted into the Hall who never played a snap in the NFL.

The AFL-NFL merger occurred in 1970 and Shaw retired following the 1969 season, which led to his lone designation in the HOF.

Goodbye to Lonnie Warwick at the age of 82.

Warwick was the middle linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings' "Purple People Eaters" defense from 1965 to 1972 before playing for the Atlanta Falcons for two years and wrapping up his career with the WFL's San Antonio Wings in 1975,

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