Shawn's Favorite Five: Pro Football

     Shawn's Favorite Five will be a series that will look at my five favorite coaches from a sport that isn't my pick for the five greatest or best coaches; it's just a list of my five favorites in no particular order.

Pro Football will be the center of this version of Shawn's Favorite Five.

1: Buddy Ryan, Philadelphia and Phoenix 

The irascible and downright hilarious master of the "46" defense, Buddy Ryan, built one of the best defenses ever with the 87-90 Eagles, and it was Ryan who gave the Cardinals their first non-losing season (8-8) in the first of his two years in Arizona.

A terrific judge of talent, Buddy Ryan only had one problem as a head coach- he didn't like offenses, and it often hurt his teams in the clutch.

Ryan was 0-3 in the playoffs for Philadelphia, and his teams were known for playing up or down to their competition.

Still, I loved Buddy Ryan and his willingness to take on anyone ( he called Eagles owner Norman Braman "The Guy In France" and as the Houston Oilers defensive coordinator, he punched coaching staff member Kevin Gilbride during a game) and in his own way, Buddy Ryan was "Stone Cold" Steve Austin a decade before telling off your boss was cool.

Except that Stone Cold eventually won the championship.

2) George Allen, Los Angeles Rams, Washington, USFL Chicago, and Arizona

Known for his fanatical obsessions in looking for every advantage and his willingness to stretch the rulebook (Allen once traded draft picks that his team didn't own), Allen despised younger players lacking the patience to develop them for the future, famously uttering the phrase "The Future is Now!"

Allen traded draft picks like kids trading sports cards and usually obtained players near the end of their career, building a franchise with veterans known as "The Over The Hill Gang".

The vaunted Dallas-Washington rivalry was one created by Allen, who emphasised the games against the Cowboys to a manic level, and his greatest victory came versus Dallas, Washington's 26-3 victory in the 1972 NFC Championship.

Allen's clean-cut but intense style made him wear out his welcome in his NFL stops in Los Angeles and Washington, and when he received a second chance in Los Angeles in 1978, Allen lasted only two preseason games and would never coach in the NFL again.

3) Jerry Glanville, Houston Oilers and Atlanta.

Glanville's star blazed quickly through the NFL as he led the Oilers to multiple playoff berths and even the Falcons to a playoff victory, but "The Man in Black" would never coach in the NFL again after the Falcons fired him after consecutive 6-10 seasons following the 1992 season.

Glanville's teams were known for his quick wit, dressing in all black, and were known for their "aggressive" defensive play.

After being fired by Atlanta, Glanville worked in NFL media until 2005, when he returned to coaching as Hawaii's defensive coordinator under former Glanville assistant June Jones.

Glanville's post-Atlanta coaching stops include head coaching stints at 1-AA Portland State, and minor league TSL Conquerors (The Spring League), and the Alabama Airborne (Major League Football), and defensive coordinator positions with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (CFL), Tampa Bay Vipers (XFL) along with his current job at Division II Northwestern Oklahoma State.

4) Dan Reeves, Denver, New York Giants, Atlanta

A winner at all three stops, Reeves's teams always ran into better teams in the Super Bowl.

A Tom Landry protégé, Reeves was a bit more fiery than Landry and won with both great quarterbacks (John Elway), very good quarterbacks (Phil Simms), and average quarterbacks (Chris Chandler).

Reeves coached iu four Super Bowls, three with Denver and one with Atlanta losing all four to better teams (Denver losing to the 86 Giants, 87 Redskins, and 89 49ers, Atlanta losing to the 98 Broncos).

Reeves's teams may have fallen short in the Super Bowl, but they were usually reliable in big games other than the biggest games.

5) Bum Phillips: Houston, New Orleans.

"Bum", known for his cowboy hat for outdoor games that he wouldn't wear for home games because both teams that he coached played inside domed stadiums, took the Houston Oilers to their first three playoff appearances in the NFL, and two AFC championship appearances, and the start of the "Luv Ya Blue" Oilers behind the power running of Earl Campbell.

Phillips was surprisingly fired by Houston after the third playoff appearance in 1980, and after a few unsuccessful seasons with the New Orleans Saints, he retired from coaching.

The folksy Phillips was perfect for two southern franchises and helped to make his teams easy to root for, even for fans without a dog in the fight.

Cleaning out the Inbox-Non-Sports Edition

A non-sports edition of the Inbox starts with this from Planetary.org on the Soviet probe Venera 14 from 2015.
Venera 14 was the last of the four Soviet landers, which are the only crafts to land on Venus and survive long enough to send images back to Earth.
Venera 14 survived for 57 minutes in 1982 before succumbing to the immense pressure from the Venusian climate, which was measured at ninety-four Earth atmospheres.
I've always wondered why more landers haven't been sent to Venus (other than the bang for the buck factor) because the planet is similar to the size of Earth and is a virtual petri dish for what Earth could eventually have to deal with as the planet warms.

The Athletic writes about football, but not football as this article looks at the small town of Ada, Ohio where all the NFL footballs are created for the league by Wilson.
The content is based on the company and the process of making the football itself rather than the game, but I found the process and the business interesting to learn about.
I planned on touring the facility on a visit this year, but with the pandemic who really knows when I'll be in the area to take that tour.

ProPublica with the New Yorker writes of "how Dollar Stores became magnets for crime and killing".
The lower cost department stores such as Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree are often placed in urban and rural areas that larger stores with more expensive inventories often avoid for various reasons.
The article focuses on communities in St.Louis and Dayton with the crime increases with those stories, why so many have proliferated in the poorer communities, and how these businesses engage with some very questionable practices with their personnel.

Hopefully, a future article by someone will focus on the effects that these stores have on the rural communities as well.
The home that I grew up in is located on the Sharpsburg Pike and these stores are finally beginning to creep into a deeply rural area and I'm not sure how I feel about the sprawl continuing.
I certainly understand (Because I've been there) these areas being serviced by a store that would enable needed items to be bought quickly rather than driving ten miles away to buy a container of garlic powder.
At the same time, you are adding to the expanse of larger towns, putting the small convenience store that has served the area for years (although many items that a Dollar General carries will not be stocked by the other stores), and could make these stores a target for robberies as the main focus of money in an area without very much of it.
It's an interesting topic and one that won't be going away anytime soon as the economy appears to be in a long-term decline.

We finish up with three notes from the Bulwark with each making me think of something personal, albeit not always a recollection with anything to do with the topic.

Jim Swift writes about the late Betsy Rothstein and laments that he didn't know her better.
I had never heard of Rothstein before this article, but I thought of two things after concluding his tribute.
The first is Rothstein's "Mirror Questionnaire", which seems interesting to me because I wonder if I created a similar work, how many friends would answer?
It would take a great deal to open up in such a manner and this comes from a person that doesn't mind answering questions normally but despises answering surveys from the employer.
The other makes me think of how many interesting people that I haven't gotten to know that I could have known.
I wonder what I've missed out on and what I could have learned, had I been a little more gregarious and reached out more.
At the same time, we all have our personal quirkiness, and even thinking about this I still doubt that I would do more of this, but that doesn't mean that I haven't missed out or will be missing out in the future.

Ron Radosh makes one ponder about the power of Presidential clemency.
People will understandably rank Presidents according to personal preference.
However, historians tend to shuffle the same few Presidents around at the bottom of the pile with one name always part of that discussion is that of Warren G. Harding.
Harding, he of several scandals that hit the public after his death,  has been rated as the worst of all time by the occasional historian and is often mocked by political talking heads as the mile marker of any discussion on the topic.

However, Harding deserves credit for how he treated Eugene V. Debs with the power of clemency.
Debs, a former Socialist Party Presidental candidate both in and out of prison, was imprisoned for his violation of the Espionage and Sedition act during the administration of Woodrow Wilson.
The act was enacted to smother speeches and discussions that were anti-World War I, America's participation, and it could be said that few laws have taken away as many liberties (to use a buzzword of late) as that law.
Debs was arrested and sentenced to ten years in federal prison in 1919, where he served his time and ran for President in 1920 (finishing with 3.4 % of the vote) as an opponent to Warren Harding.
The conservative Harding would seem to be unlikely to pardon Debs, a polar opposite politically, yet Harding did so because the law had been repealed (in 1920), Harding found Debs to be non-threatening, and he thought it would be the right thing to attempt to bring together a fractured nation.
Compare that to the current President giving free passes to his pals and protectors and the final paragraph by Radosh rings home as a comparison to the present day.
No matter the politics and Harding's other Presidential decisions, we could look at things as Harding did on this issue and be better for it.

Sidebar: Before the blog started, I took Cherie and Rachel to the Harding Home in Marion, Ohio for a private tour and I highly recommend it for a look at early 20th-century living and Harding.
The house will be re-opening in the fall with a new Harding Presidental Museum on the premises.

We wrap with Amanda Carpenter's article on yet another, ahem, gaslighting statement by the current holder of the Presidency, his tweet yesterday hinting about, eye roll, the safety of voting by mail, and a postponement of the November election.
While I have zero concern about this happening (he legally lacks any power to do so), it's another example of traps that are set to get people talking about the wrong things rather than the right ones.
It's easy to take that bait and I've done that myself!
Carpenter writes of the importance of ignoring the wild three-pointer, keeping your offense running as it should (I'm using basketball-speak, not Carpenter), and don't take your eye off the most important thing to watch.
Carpenter's 2018 book on the subject has been on my watch list to rea and I'd really like to read that one before the election.

There are still sports items to be cleaned from the inbox and I'll be back with the weekend in boxing as the biggest dog day month of them all starts tomorrow.

Cleaning out the inbox

We clean out another inbox with an all football edition, so if the pigskin is not your plate of choice, hang in there there are some fun reads in here anyway!

We start with an excellent piece from ESPN as the "Worldwide Leader" looks back at one of those sports stories that not only is a fascinating "What If" tale but one of the rare stories that the story has not been told from the participant or one of their confidants.
Twenty years ago, Bill Belichick resigned as head coach of the New York Jets after holding the position for all of one day after Bill Parcells "retired" for the third time ( there would still be one more for Parcells and Belichick was promoted to head coach via a contractual obligation that was signed when Belichick joined the Jets as defensive coordinator under Parcells.
Various people commented that were with the Jets at the time and quotes are taken from a book that was written by Parcells about the 1999 Jets season, but not Belichick or anyone close to him.
It's an interesting read and you'll wonder what could have occurred had Belichick stayed as "the HC of the NYJ" rather than leave for the Patriots, but the true reasons and story might have to wait until Belichick's retirement.

Another 20th anniversary was recently marked and ESPN was there again as the Music City Miracle was remembered.
The Miracle talks to the players and coaches involved with "Home Run Throwback", which saw two laterals for the Tennessee Titans result in a touchdown with only seconds remaining to eliminate the Buffalo Bills in the AFC playoffs.
The article talks about the play, how it was drawn up, and why certain players were selected to be involved with the play.
It also talks with the players about the play, how it affected them thereafter and what they are doing currently.


One final ESPN story writes about the effect that the 2019 season had on the LSU Tigers with the National Championship won last Monday with a win over Clemson.
The article writes about the historic offense and Joe Burrow's SIXTY touchdowns passes, but it also looks back at Tiger history, which was interesting to me with the portion that I did not know about the influence of  Huey P. Long on the importance of building LSU as a football power.
Long's antics included telling coaches to run particular plays, giving halftime speeches in the locker room, promising players jobs if LSU rallied to win a particular game, and moved players into the locker room!
Imagine the NCAA fun with that happening today!
I enjoyed reading about the Tigers tradition but considering that LSU had won national titles in 2003 and 2007 (that one over Ohio State), I'm not sure I'll buy that their fan base has suffered that much in the last twenty years.

The Athletic takes over with an article on the Cleveland Browns and the people that they referred to as the "Sons of 1-31".
The Browns have only five players remaining from the 2016 and 17 Browns that combined for one win in thirty-two games and of those five players, most could be former Browns by next season.
Joel Bitonio is locked up under a long-term contract and long snapper Charley Hughlett will likely remain, but Christian Kirksey has missed a lot of time for an expensive player, Joe Schobert could sign elsewhere if the analytics group decides that his value isn't what their numbers say that it is and I would have thought that Rashard Higgins would have been on his way out after being buried by Freddie Kitchens, but it is possible that Higgins may stay, especially if Andrew Berry is the choice as general manager that I think he will be as Berry was part of the team that drafted Higgins.
The article talks to each of the five about 1-31, the disappointment of the 2019 campaign, and what and where their future could go.

The Athletic is again with a Browns draft pick, but it's the story of a Browns player that never played a game in Cleveland.
Ifo Ekpre-Olomu was the top-ranked cornerback for the 2015 NFL Draft, but a devastating knee injury in a practice for Oregon's Rose Bowl saw Ekpre-Olomu fall to the bottom of the seventh round to be drafted by Cleveland.
Ekpre-Olomu would spend the 2015 season rehabilitating the knee but was released before the 2016 season by the incoming regime (this one was the Sashi Brown version).
The Dolphins claimed him off waivers, but another knee injury in Miami ended his career without playing in even an exhibition game.
The article also discusses his background from Nigeria and what he's up to today as he is about to start a job with Nike as an athletic trainer.

We wrap with a football goodbye as George Perles passed away at the age of 85.
Perles was an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers for all four Super Bowl championships that the "Steel Curtain" won in the 70s, serving as the defensive line coach for all four teams and the defensive coordinator for the final two champions in 1978 and 79.
Perles would later become the head coach at Michigan State for twelve seasons and his 1987 team that won the Rose Bowl is the final Michigan State team to win an outright regular-season Big Ten title before the conference championship game era.
Perles left the Steelers to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Stars of the USFL in 1983, but before training camp opened for the Stars, Michigan State fired their head coach, Muddy Waters, and with Michigan State as the alma mater of Perles, Perles asked to be relieved of his obligation to the Stars, who reluctantly allowed Perles to leave and hired the then-unknown head coach Jim Mora.

Bob Kalsu and division

Memorial Day brings thoughts of the Americans that died in battle and the Forgotten Superstars series looks at the only active professional athlete to be killed in the Vietnam War.

Bob Kalsu played just one season for the Buffalo Bills before going to Vietnam and losing his life.
Kalsu had been an All-America guard at Oklahoma and in the waning days of the American Football League, Kalsu was the backup to future Hall of Famer Billy Shaw and was thought to be moving into Shaw's position upon his retirement (Shaw's final season was Kalsu's rookie year and it's easy to assume that would have happened without Kalsu's military commitment)

I'm not going to get into Kalsu's story too much here.
Sports Illustrated and the defunct Grantland did that in the linked articles and very well at that.
However, what it does make me think of is patriotism in the country then and now and how our country is as divided now as it was then, but for differing reasons.
Back then, the dividing line was the Vietnam War and I could respect someone's view on the issue, no matter the opinion.
War is a moral decision and one person's justified encounter can be another's invasion without cause and it is one that can be seen either way.

The Vietnam War divided a nation and yet here we are again with another divided country and the divisive party this time is not as much about a political party as much as it is about one man and his party relentless rolling over to his behavior.
Not that the opposition has done anything to make themselves a viable option other than say "we dislike....." and I think that's the problem in opposition.
Stand for something.
One side stands for keeping power no matter the cost, the other simply in taking that person away without plans for doing so and there is your divide over nothing.
Stand for something.

Bob Kalsu stood for something and left a potentially lucrative career to serve, much as Pat Tillman would do later, but I wonder what Kalsu would say today about the division in our nation.
Would he be as fast to serve again if needed today?
Would he be OK with a country grinding its gears against each other?
I wonder how far we have come in the interim since the Vietnam War and how as a country we haven't seemed to learn about unifying as a nation.
We can have differences in policy, opinions and how we see things, but as a nation, we have never seemed to recover from the cleaving of the nation over the Vietnam War,

That being the case, There are few people alive (and those numbers dwindle every day) that lived during a time that truly was Country first.
Not partisan ideas, Not political parties and certainly not over the political leaders that have been chosen to represent their parties over the last decades.
No matter your side, I'm not sure I'll ever see the days of a united country again unless it's a short term coming together after tragedy.
It's too bad and after a day of remembering lost lives for a country and way of life that the world used to envy, that my thoughts went to division, not unification.
Bob Kalsu and so many others like him., deserve better.

Rouge White and Blue Podcast

I was fortunate enough to be asked to appear with my old friend Joe Pritchard on the Rouge White and Blue podcast where I talked CFL, my background as well as some television talk, USFL and a little more.
If you listen, give them a review and tell them Thoughts Of RS sent you.

Football History: The Merger Alignment

When the AFL merged with the NFL, the divisional setups needed to be realigned after the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Colts all moved to the AFC.

The various interests involved couldn't agree on which of the five plans to accept and the official word is after many long discussions that commissioner Pete Rozelle pulled the eventual slip out of five choices.

I'd be surprised if Rozelle didn't prefer the grouping that was selected and "might" have bent a corner or another identifying characteristic to find the one that he wanted, much as the urban legend of the "bent corner" that David Stern allegedly found on the envelope of the New York Knicks in the first lottery drawing to deliver Patrick Ewing to the Knicks.


The divisions would remain in this lineup until the 2002 season where there were some minor tweaks that were needed after various expansions.
The interesting part of these are the rivalries that could have been and the rivalries that occurred via the only possibility of the five.

The Dallas-Washington rivalry that developed starting with the Tom Landry Cowboys against the George Allen Redskins was only listed on the eventual winner.
The Green Bay-Minnesota rivalry between neighboring states was also only an option on the winning option and had an eighty percent chance of not occurring as well.
The Atlanta-New Orleans rivalry would have been lost on two of the five chances.

The Redskins, Eagles, and Giants were one group guaranteed to stay together, as were the Bears and Packers along with the Rams and 49ers, so there must have been some type of agreement for some franchises to stick together.
The Vikings had an eighty percent chance of being with the Redskins, Eagles and Giants and the Packers were listed on none of those slips.

The rivalries that we could have taken for granted and instead never happened are even more fun to think about.
Yes, we could have lost Cowboys-Redskins, but on two choices, the Cowboys would have been in the same division as the 49ers and Rams.
Imagine Tom Landry's Cowboys playing twice a year vs Chuck Knox's Rams in the '70s and then the early '80s against the 49ers of Bill Walsh and Jimmy Johnson's Dallas teams of the early '90s against the Steve Young/Jerry Rice Niners.

Another side of losing Cowboys-Redskins that could have been a positive would have been the Minnesota Vikings with new rivalries.
I bet the Bud Grant Vikings against George Allen's Redskins would have been a really good one and would have progressed into the 80s when the Vikings had good teams under Grant and Jerry Burns against the Joe Gibbs era Redskins.
The Vikings of the 80s and 90s would likely have developed something with the New York Giants with both teams being at the top of the league.

The Falcons and Saints would have been far different in the two scenarios without each other.
The Falcons would have been in the Eastern with the three-team block and the Vikings with the Saints with the Central block with Chicago, Green Bay and Detroit as a real fish out of water.
In the other, it would have been the Falcons in the Central with the Saints aligned with the Rams and 49ers in the Western Division as they would be in the real-life NFL, but with Dallas, who they would have looked at as a rival, but would have spent years getting swatted aside by the Cowboys.

The biggest loser seems to be the St.Louis Cardinals, who in two possibilities would have had their best teams in the 70s with Don Coryell with weaker teams ( New Orleans and Atlanta still building off expansion) and (Chicago and Green Bay in a time that both teams were at their weakest) and even though they would have been in the same division with Dallas in both, it brings interesting thoughts.
Could the Cardinals have been the big rival to Dallas that Washington became?
If the Cardinals had become a perennial contender, could the Cardinals have remained in St.Louis and assuming that happened, Don Coryell never leaves and what happens to the Air Coryell Chargers without Don Coryell?
If the Cardinals stay in St.Louis, what team moves to Arizona or does the Valley of the Sun wait for expansion and which expansion team would have been muscled aside- Carolina or Jacksonville?

Football history decided with the luck of the draw.

CFL Memories

I've been listening to a CFL podcast of late and was able to reconnect with an old friend, Joe Pritchard, who is one of the hosts of the podcast.
Joe and his fellow hosts have reignited my CFL interest and I'm having to re-learn the league's rosters again, but I'm having fun doing just that.

I was a pretty big CFL fan in the early 80's when we first had cable available and ESPN showed a lot of CFL games.
Somewhere in the archives, I still have a booklet that ESPN sent out upon request that explained the rules and a little history on each team.
During that period, I mainly rooted for the Ottawa Rough Riders, even though they were terrible because they had J.C. Watts as their quarterback (remember my Oklahoma fandom in the Barry Switzer days?) ,but I also rooted for a team in the same division as well- the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and when Watts retired, I rooted more for the Ti-Cats.
I've always spoken well of the league to others and tried to make a few fans by recommending its high-octane and fast-paced game.

ESPN gave up the CFL rights in the US and the rights through the years shuffled between several networks and currently is back with ESPN, who streams a lot of the games and shows a fair amount on the "over the air" stations until the fall and the college season begins,but my peak CFL interest was the middle 90's and early 2000's with this thing called the internet and a device long forgotten-WebTV.

WebTV was our first entry on the WWW and one of the neat things was discovering Usenet, which was a message board on about every topic you could dream of including the CFL and hosted chat rooms on tons of topics as well.
Those chat rooms most notably here are remembered by the lovely Cherie meeting what turned out to be her best friend, Christine in a homeschooling chat room in what Cherie says was the ONLY time she ever entered a chat room!
I didn't use the chat often, but I did spend lots of time on Usenet discussing the CFL and actually listening to the audio of live CFL games.
This was after the Baltimore franchise had moved to Montreal to become the "new" Alouettes after the CFL's American expansion, I had watched a lot of those games and was very knowledgeable about the league and wanted to "talk" with other fans.
I was arguably more of a CFL fan than an NFL fan then as Baltimore had stolen the Browns and then had no further use for their CFL Stallions and passionately rooted for the Tiger-Cats.

I was a Doug Flutie fan as almost everyone was, but I liked other passers as well such as Damon Allen, Tracy Ham and my favorite of all- Matt Dunigan.
I was happy when Dunigan joined Hamilton following his season with the defunct Birmingham Barracudas, but alas Dunigan would play just a few games with the Ti-Cats with his career ending due to concussion issues and just one football card in a Hamilton uniform,
Dunigan was a quarterback before his time with a strong arm, but at 5'11, Dunigan didn't even have an NFL opportunity.
Had he played today, he would have at least been drafted and given a chance and he might have been an NFL starter in today's game.

Hamilton became even more fun to follow in 1998 and 1999 under new head coach Ron Lancaster as they split a pair of Grey Cups with Calgary.
CFL veteran Danny McManus manned the quarterback position with hard running back Ronald Williams combining with receivers Darren Flutie and Mike Morreale to pace a strong offense, but the defense was the best part for me with rush end (basically the CFL's version of a 3-4 outside linebacker that rushes the passer) Joe Montford along with CFL veteran linebackers Calvin Tiggle and Lamar McGriggs with a punishing hitter in Canadian safety Rob Hitchcock to lead the defense to two Eastern titles.
Somewhere in the archives, I have an official 2000 Grey Cup Football from those teams and I should dig it out sometime.
The CFL football is a little different than the NFL ball, a little thicker around the middle makes it a stubbier looking ball that you really cannot tell unless it is side by side with another football.

Another Ti-Cat that I liked was electric wideout Earl Winfield, who I remembered at first from his college days at North Carolina and even though Winfield wasn't part of the Grey Cup title teams (Winfield retired a few years before), he still was my favorite player from the era of the 80's.
Winfield was one of those players that you didn't want to take your eyes off because when he touched the football, he had the potential to take it to the (larger) end zone.
I was able to meet Earl (Now a CFL Hall of Famer) a few years back when Winfield and I appeared on a local radio show and what a class gentleman he is!
I took a picture with Earl, had him sign some cards and a Hamilton mini helmet and it ranked right up at the top with the famous people that I've been able to meet.

The Tiger-Cats have a new stadium now and I still haven't kicked the habit of calling their home Ivor Wynne (the name of the old park), so it'll be a little different as I start to watch more CFL, but there will be quite a few players that I'll be familiar with and it won't take me long to get back to speed.

There is one more thing that I love about the CFL and that is the better than average chance of getting some snow football during the postseason.
And with only one of the league nine facilities being indoors after Toronto's recent return to the great outdoors, even the championship game has a reasonable chance of inclement weather.
I remember quite a few snow classics during my years watching the CFL.
1993's Western Final with Edmonton upsetting Doug Flutie and Calgary, 1994 with BC on a miracle run to the championship (BC won two road games and then the Grey Cup over the top three teams in the league by a total of five points) in pulling a massive upset again over Calgary and Flutie with a touchdown on the last play of the game that ranks as the best CFL game I've ever watched and 1996's Grey Cup at Ivor Wynne with Flutie and Toronto holding off Edmonton in the snow daddy of them all for me, to just name a few.
Snow football is just so much fun to watch and the CFL allows you to see many battles in the white stuff!





Hope you enjoyed some of my CFL memories, I have a CFL Forgotten Superstars entry planned in the future and maybe even something else perhaps as well, if time permits.
Back later with game two of the Cavaliers and the Warriors-hopefully some real referees show up for this one!

Forgotten Superstars:Craig Morton

Photo Credit: Peter Miller AP Photo

The Forgotten Superstars universe is back with another segment, and as I've noted before, this series, despite its name, isn't always about superstars.

I belong to a Facebook group that strictly discusses the NFL of the "Golden Era of 64-94," and someone made a well, ridiculous statement comparing Joe Namath to Craig Morton, so after the thread, I started thinking about Morton's story, and I thought he'd be a good fit for the series.

Craig Morton's stats might be similar to Joe Namath's, but there really wasn't a comparison; Namath was a talented passer whose talent was eroded away by knee injuries that were destructive at that time but would be easily fixed today.
Morton, on the other hand, was a good, not great quarterback that might be better remembered if not for a few bad breaks in fortune.

A natural dropback passer, Morton was drafted by the Cowboys in the first round of the 1965 draft (5th overall) and looked to be blocked for a long time by starter Don Meredith, who was just 27 when Dallas drafted Morton.
An interesting note considering the discussion that brought Morton to mind: Who was the other quarterback drafted in the first round that year, seven picks behind Morton?- Joe Namath by the Cardinals, who couldn't sign Namath, who preferred the AFL Jets.
St.Louis Joe doesn't have the same ring as Broadway Joe, does he?

Morton would occasionally play in his four seasons behind Meredith, when Meredith was injured (Which was still more than you think a young QB would play in those times), but still looked to be blocked over the long term before Meredith surprisingly retired at the young age of 31.
If you really like the "What if" game, try these two questions without answers.
Imagine if Meredith had played until he was 39 (the age when Morton retired), Meredith's final year would have been 1977 so it could have been Meredith bringing Dallas to four Super Bowls (winning two and losing two in that time) and six NFC Championship games ( the four Super Bowl teams plus losses in 1972 and 1973), how much would that have affected the career of Roger Staubach, who either would have been a career backup or Staubach likely would have been traded elsewhere as Morton eventually was?

The other question: Would Monday Night Football have been as successful without Don Meredith sparring with Howard Cosell in the early '70s when MNF began?
Interesting to consider.

Back to Morton, who took over the starting job and, despite constant shoulder problems, would lead Dallas to two division titles in his first two seasons as a starter and brought the Cowboys to a Super Bowl against the Colts.

More unfortunate bounces, as some of the craziest plays that you'll see in arguably the worst-played Super Bowl ever saw Morton's Cowboys, who were likely the better team, lose on the final play of the game to the Baltimore Colts 16-13.
No matter the quality of the game, with some breaks (watch the NFL Films highlights of that game; every bounce went the way of the Colts), it would have forever been Super Bowl-winning quarterback Craig Morton, just as we remember guys like Mark Rypien, Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer, etc.


The following year, 1971, saw the Cowboys as the favorites to win the Super Bowl, yet with head coach Tom Landry paralyzed by indecision on whether to use Morton or Roger Staubach as the starter, and Landry getting to the point of using the two on alternate plays, the Cowboys stumbled to a 4-3 record halfway through the season.
Finally, the team asked Landry to make a decision between the two, without offering a preference other than a selection.
The selection of Staubach began the Cowboys' NFC reign of terror as the Cowboys would make the playoffs every year except one for the remainder of Staubach's playing days and would win the Super Bowl at season's end.

Morton did have another chance as he started all of the 1972 season after Staubach suffered a separated shoulder in the preseason, leading the Cowboys to a 10-4 record and the wild card (In 1972, there was just one wild card team) after finishing second to 11-3 Washington in the NFC East.
Again, Morton would come up short in the playoffs as Dallas trailed San Francisco 28-16 with minutes remaining.
Landry inserted Staubach into the game, watched him produce two touchdowns in 90 seconds, and pull off a miracle 30-28 victory.

Morton would not start another game in Dallas as he sat behind Staubach for the 1973 and half of the 1974 season before a shocking mid-season trade with division rival New York.
Can you imagine making a trade of a quarterback that has taken you to a Super Bowl in mid-season to a division rival, no matter how crummy that rival is? ( The Giants were 1-5 when making the trade and finished 2-12) ?
Morton had signed a "futures contract" with the WFL's Houston Texans in an attempt to find a team to start on, and the Cowboys decided to get something for him before the WFL contract kicked in.

Morton signed his contract with Houston, but wouldn't have played there as the Texans moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, halfway through the WFL's only full season.
Dallas received the Giants' first- and second-round picks for Morton and turned the first-rounder into Hall of Famer Randy White.
The Giants received two and a half years of mediocre football as they went 8-25 under Morton, who threw 29 touchdowns against 49 interceptions.
Morton's immobility meant he needed to be protected by a good offensive line, and the Giants didn't even approach average in protection, as Morton was sacked 99 times as a Giant.


The Giants were ready to move on from the 34-year-old Morton and swung a trade with Denver for their vagabond veteran Steve Ramsey in a trade immortalized in the book "Orange Madness" by the then-unknown Woody Paige with the quote "Our shit for their shit".
Morton brought the Broncos to their first playoff berth, division title, and AFC championship all in his first year despite numbers on the surface not looking special (1929 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions), but his season was exactly what the Broncos needed, with the best defense in the conference; Morton just needed to avoid mistakes.
Morton led the Broncos into the Super Bowl and ran into his old friends in Dallas, who mauled him with several sacks and allowed Morton to complete just eight passes in the game (Four of the eight were thrown to Cowboys) before driving him from the game in the third quarter.
Denver's only touchdown in the 27-10 loss was scored with Norris Weese taking the snaps.

After the 1977 season, despite the Denver success, the Broncos tried to replace Morton constantly.
In 1978, Morton held off Norris Weese for the starting job and guided the Broncos to a repeat division title and in 1979, the Broncos went to the playoffs as a wildcard at 10-6 with Morton as the main starter, but Weese started six games and with Morton throwing more interceptions than touchdowns in 79 (19 picks to 16 scores), the Broncos again attempted to replace Morton.
Denver traded their number one pick to the New York Jets for Matt Robinson and expected Robinson to be their anchor at quarterback.
Instead, Robinson was so bad (2 touchdowns to 12 interceptions in seven starts) that by the end of the 8-8 season that saw Red Miller lose his job, it was Morton with more starts, with nine.

With Robinson gone for 1981, Morton notched arguably his best statistical season under new head coach and former teammate Dan Reeves as the Broncos just missed the playoffs at 10-6.
Morton threw 21 touchdowns and notched his only season of over three thousand yards passing for the surprising Broncos, who weren't knocked from the playoff picture until the final week of the season when they lost to the Chicago Bears.

However, in that game, with the Broncos knowing a win would give them the AFC West title and a loss would leave them on the outside (Denver would tie with San Diego at 10-6, but lose a tiebreaker), Morton threw for under 100 yards and three interceptions before Steve DeBerg entered the game in a 35-24 defeat.
That was the last stand for Morton, who would start just three games for the 2-7 Broncos in the 1982 strike year, and the 39-year-old would retire at the end of the season.

Morton was out of football for less than a year, as in the middle of the 1983 USFL season, Morton was hired to replace his old coach, Red Miller, as the head coach of the Denver Gold.
Morton would finish at 12-12 over his season-plus with the Gold and would be replaced by Mouse Davis for the final season of the league.
That was the last football job for Morton, who is now retired and living in Northern California.

A superstar?
No, but the Forgotten Superstars series isn't always about being a superstar; sometimes it's just bringing back a memory or two.
We welcome Craig Morton to our Forgotten Superstar universe, and coming soon, I'll have another addition as well...

Forgotten Superstars: The 1983 Chicago Blitz

The USFL series continues with another addition to the Forgotten Superstars in the 1983 Chicago Blitz.

This installment follows the first edition (which I should have listed in chronological order, but I didn't think about doing the three-team series) which I wrote about the 1984 Arizona Wranglers.

If you read that piece, you'll understand how the switch from the Blitz to the Wranglers took place, so for the purposes of this post-I'm sticking with the 83 Blitz and what took place before that move.
I wrote in that same piece about why I picked the Blitz as my team when the league started, which was basically that I liked George Allen as the coach and general manager, the Blitz had a decent amount of former NFL players with two players that would have likely been first-round picks in the 1983 draft- Tim Spencer, a running back from Ohio State (that didn't hurt any) and Trumaine Johnson, a talented wide receiver out of Grambling.
Spencer would prove to have one other piece of TRS trivia-Spencer would be the only player who would play for all three teams (in three different cities) that I would root for in the three-year league history.
I decided to pick the Blitz over the runner-up Boston Breakers and went to that store at the mall that I mentioned in the Wranglers article- American Outfitters and bought the Blitz hat (the Super Stripe) to cement my fandom.

George Allen was well known for his tireless work ethic, and you had to figure that the Blitz were going to be talented because he was going to find talent, and veterans were going to want to play for the veteran head coach.

Allen signed the first player in league history as he signed UCLA tight end Tim Wrightman, who had been the Chicago Bears' third-round pick in 1982 but didn't sign in a contract dispute.
It was surprising that Wrightman would hold out for an entire season, as there weren't many options for players; they either signed or did not. But the USFL's arrival opened up options not seen since the mid-1970s WFL, and that would result in the huge increase in player salaries thereafter.
Allen's signing of Wrightman established that the league was for real and that NFL teams were going to have to take the USFL seriously as a legitimate player option, if not a challenger to the NFL's dominance.

The Blitz, mainly because of Allen and several recognizable names, were considered to be the pre-season favorites to win the USFL's inaugural season.
Accordingly, the first game on ABC for the national (non-ESPN) broadcast was the Blitz traveling to Washington, where Allen had coached the Redskins, to play the Federals at RFK Stadium.
Chicago crushed the Federals 28-7, and even though Washington would prove to be one of the weaker teams in the league, after week one, the Blitz did seem to be the class of the division, if not the league.


Allen's Blitz quickly proved that they weren't invincible with losses in their next two games that ranked among the most memorable in the 1983 season.
Chicago traveled to Tempe to meet the Wranglers and blew a 29-12 lead with eleven minutes to go in a 30-29 loss that features a two-point conversion quarterback chase by the Blitz racing after Arizona's Alan Risher that occasionally pops up in movies (you see a lot of USFL clips in films and television because their games are now considered public domain).


The following week saw the Blitz's first home game at Soldier Field on national television on ABC, and it was greeted with a snowstorm in a 16-13 loss to the Denver Gold.
You could blame the snow, but it did snow for both teams, and the league favorite was 1-2.



The ship was righted though as Chicago would win 11 of their final 15 with two whippings of Steve Spurrier's Tampa Bay Bandits (one of those the first defeat of the final undefeated team in the league), two overtime wins over Herschel Walker and the New Jersey Generals (Donald Trump would buy the Generals after the 1983 season) and a 31-7 season-ending win over the Pacific Division champion Oakland Invaders standing out among those wins.


Chicago was one of the more balanced teams with Tim Spencer and former New York Jet Kevin Long each rushing for over 1,000 yards on the ground, and the passing game was strong too, with former Detroit Lion Greg Landry and former New Orleans Saint quarterback Bobby Scott combining to throw for over 5,000 yards in the eighteen-game season.

Trumaine Johnson grabbed 81 passes for 1,300 yards and was one of the league's premier deep threats as the main receiver for Chicago.

The defense was filled with former NFL players as former Colt Joe Ehrmann led the team in sacks with 13.5 and two former NFLers led the team in interceptions with former Lion safety Luther Bradley picked off 12 passes (SIX of those in one game vs John Reaves and then the undefeated Tampa Bay Bandits) and Eddie Brown, who played for George Allen in Washington, intercepted six more.
CFL Hall of Famer Junior Ah You finished with eleven sacks, former Colts (and Ohio State) linebacker Stan White was the veteran crafty middle linebacker, but my favorite defender was former Bears corner Virgil Livers, who was this short corner that reminded me of former Redskin Pat Fischer, who was one of my favorites as a kid in the 1970's.

The biggest issue for the Blitz was losing both games to the Michigan Panthers (the eventual league champions), with whom the Blitz shared the Central Division championship.
Those losses would send Chicago to Philadelphia as the wild card for the four-team playoffs.
Had the Blitz been the division champion, they would have hosted the 10-8 Invaders instead.
It was time for another memorable game for the Blitz, and one long remembered by fans of the league.
The Blitz forced seven Philadelphia turnovers, four of those interceptions of Stars quarterback Chuck Fusina, and entered the fourth quarter leading 38-17.
That lead wasn't large enough vs Kelvin Bryant and the Stars as Philadelphia would score three fourth-quarter touchdowns to tie the game to force overtime, win the toss, and march down the field to end the Blitz's season with a 44-38 overtime loss.


Despite having one of the best teams in the league, the Blitz didn't really draw well and lost a lot of money with an average attendance of barely 18,000.

Those facts, the owner living in Arizona and wanting to own a team there, the off-season saw the strangest move in pro sports history, where the rosters and coaching staff were traded to Arizona for that of the 6-12 Wranglers.
If a championship contender drew 18,000 fans, a 5-13 team was going to attract even fewer, and that came true as the "new" Blitz averaged less than 7,500 customers.
Chicago, which was an important market (as Chicago usually is with any sports league), was essentially finished for the USFL and would not have a team for the league's third and final season.

My favorite Blitz memory (besides watching the games with my brother, as he was the only other local person that I knew who cared about the league)  from a personal standpoint was just before the season started.
I was a freshman in high school, and then, as now, I loved drafts, and with a startup league filled with such information in the non-Internet age, I devoured anything that I could get.
The Sporting News had a thin guide that came as a bonus to subscribers, the local paper had a list of players from the draft with the territorial assignments that the league used as part of the player process, and I constantly carried these things around with me to evaluate the league and who would be the league's contenders, etc.

For every minute that I spent in 7th period study hall (held in a beautiful cafeteria overlooking a hill, a dying creek, and a fence) spent on school work, I spent 40 minutes on USFL evaluation in the winter of 1982-83.
These stories show just how socially active I was as a high school freshman and just why I flourished in so many ways in 1983 (insert your snicker here), both socially and academically, as the USFL was more important to me than biology or algebra for sure.

Hope you enjoyed some memories of mine on the latest Forgotten Superstars in the TRS universe on the 1983 Chicago Blitz.
Sometime soon, I'll complete the final season of looking back at my three years and three favorite teams in the USFL with the 1985 Memphis Showboats...

Cleaning out the inbox

We start with the remarkable decision by Chili's to rescind their long time suspension of Pam Beesly Halpert from their restaurants.
The-then Ms.Beesly was given a lifetime suspension from Chili's for behavior 12 years ago during the Dundies award dinner in Scranton, PA.

Seriously, full credit to Jenna Fischer, who played Pam on the classic "The Office" for tweeting the picture to the left with the tweet reading "Should I go in?"
And to Chili's for playing along, we don't see enough of this type of harmless fun and playing to fans that love dearly a show that is off the air...

It's funny as Hagerstown just opened a Chili's and the lovely Cherie and I ate there shortly after opening.
That led to me (a passionate Office fan) asking Cherie, "should we spend our money at a place that won't serve Pam Beesly?".
Now I will never have to ponder those questions further!!

Former NFL running back and announcer of various sports, Mike Adamle is having issues with dementia and early signs of CTE.
Adamle's issues likely come from his days on the gridiron and the article looks at what Adamle can and cannot do on a day to day basis.
Adamle is best known for being the host of American Gladiators along with his work in sportscasting.

The New York Times reflects on the protest at the Oscars in 1973 when Marlon Brando refused his best actor Oscar for the Godfather and instead sent Native American Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to protest the Wounded Knee incident and the treatment of Native Americans in the film industry.
The interesting parts to me were when Littlefeather describes that she was given just 60 seconds on stage before she would be escorted off stage-possibly by John Wayne, who reportedly was being "Held Back" behind the curtain!
The other note of interest was that Littlefeather was an actress and after the protest, claimed that she never saw a film role again!
That's not quite true, as her Wikipedia entry shows, but it sure cast a knockout blow!

Bad, but understandable news for Giants fans as one half of the best broadcast team in baseball will miss some games this season.
Mike Krukow suffers from Inclusion Body Myositis, which weakens the muscles in the arms and legs, and with Krukow, makes it very difficult to get around without help.
Krukow will not travel with the Giants for non-division games, which will mean that he will be doing 120 games, which is still pretty good.
The replacements for the non-divisional road games with Duane Kuiper (TV) and Dave Flemming/Jon Miller on the radio will be former Giants relievers Jeremy Affeldt, who retired after the 2015 season, and recently retired Giants LOOGY Javier Lopez, who left the team last week.
Affeldt had been rumored to be headed for a role in the broadcasts since late last year when he sat in on a few games in the booth.
Lopez has a great voice and although it takes more than that to be a good announcer, it is a good start to being a success rather than having a shrill sound that is hard to listen to.... 

The XFL!

Recently was able to watch the 30 for 30 on the one year wonder that was the XFL.
Owned and operated by Vince McMahon,the XFL had one night of huge ratings and was followed by the worst ratings ever seen by a network by the end of the season.

The film focuses more on McMahon and his good friend and often time business associate,former NBC Sports head Dick Ebersole than on much of the talent in the league (coaches,players and front office types) and that is somewhat of a flaw,but an understandable one as the director of the film is Dick Ebersole's son.
That doesn't take away from the entertainment value,what it does is take away somewhat from the overall information that can be learned about the league.
Considering the filmmakers relationship with the two main persons of interest,the film was pretty honest and fair in dealing with the problems and demise of the league,if a little sappy at the end.

I was prepared to buy into the XFL from day one because I loved the USFL,have always believed that there is a place for spring football and still to this day believe that had Donald Trump (as noted in the past,this is my starting point for my Trump dislike) not stuck his stubby little fingers into the league that the USFL might have been around to this day.
At that time,the XFL was a perfect opportunity for me and my buddies (some of those guys are still around,others were "voted off the island" since then) to pick a team together that we could all root for together,
It's rare to have a chance like that to start from scratch,so we decided on the San Francisco Demons (who wound up losing in the championship game) and I remember all of us watching the first Demons game at our old apartment and we were actually getting into the game as the Demons defeated the Los Angeles Extreme 15-13 on a Sunday afternoon.
I seem to remember the Demons winning the game on a late field goal,but it was a good time by all.
I remember having a Demons cap that I know still has to be around here somewhere,but there was a problem with the league-mainly that the football wasn't up to par.
Don't get me wrong,it was passable and I remember seeing several players that were excellent players that were CFL all-stars that didn't dominate the XFL,but it wasn't what anyone beyond the super hardcore fan (like me) was going to devote their time to.

The lack of top talent in the league was what made it look minor league.
The USFL spent money (and lost much of it) on stars out of college,developed a solid level of talent and developed more of an audience.
Vince McMahon thought that it was more about marketing and flash than actual football talent and with the exception of Rod "He Hate Me" Smart,was wrong.
What the league turned out to be was neither fish nor fowl-the football wasn't going to be a draw for anyone other than fans like me and the braintrust discovered that the cheerleaders and all the other bells and whistles weren't enough to pull in viewers that tuned into wrestling.

The television product had some innovations that the NFL wound up using (the skycam and microphones on everyone in sight for just two),but the league also had some bad announcers,less than great camera work,the persistence of the wrestling side of the promotion cutting wrestling promos on the NFL and attempting wrestling angle type issues like Jesse Ventura constantly trying to rile up New York head coach Rusty Tillman with criticism.
The uniforms were about what you expect from the time period (over the top and ugly) although the helmets were decent enough and I thought the black and red football was pretty sharp,although red with black might have been more visual.

I liked a few of the rule changes that the league attempted.
The scramble to decide possession was fun to watch,although it provided many injuries and I didn't mind the no extra point rule.
I didn't care for the no fair catch rule (sounded better than it was because players couldn't get closer than five yards of the returner until he possessed the ball) and I thought the ten yard penalty when you punted the ball out of bounds was pretty dumb.
Give the XFL credit for trying things and anytime you try things,they won't all be winners,will they?

I have every XFL game ever televised in the VHS archives,although I am doubtful on the future of those since it is becoming harder and harder to find quality machines to transfer games to VHS.
I originally planned to just tape Demon games (they finished 5-5 in the regular season) ,but Ryan suggested that I should tape every game,I took his advice and did just that-If you want XFL games and have a VHS/DVD recorder,call me at ....

I liked the XFL for all of its flaws,although I must admit that I didn't hold it in nearly as high esteem as the USFL and wished that it would have been given more time,although from a business perspective,I certainly understand how and why the decision was made in order to cut their losses and end the league.
Give Vince McMahon one thing-when he fails,he fails spectacularly..

Podcast:Special Guest Chris Bopst

The podcast returns with Chris Bopst of Tudor Games to talk Electric Football!!

Buddy Ryan

I've been working on this for a while, but I finally have some time to bang this out on the passing of Buddy Ryan.

Most people remember Buddy Ryan as the defensive coordinator and innovator behind so many great defenses such as the Vikings Purple People Eater, the Eagles Gang Green, the Jets team that stunned the football world in Super Bowl Three, and of course, the legendary 85 Bears, but Buddy was a pretty good head coach too with a deceiving overall record.
55-55-1 doesn't look that great, until you consider that his final year (4-12) is what took him to the .500 level and his 1st year in Arizona (8-8) was the best record that the Cardinals had notched in the previous ten years.

The Bears' "46" defense was dominant, but I rooted for the Eagles because of Buddy Ryan.
I just loved the guy from his hard-hitting teams with attitude and that he just didn't take crap from anyone.
I never rooted for the Eagles before Buddy, but I was a diehard fan from the day that he took the job and I remained an Eagles fan until down the road with Andy Reid, different uniforms and colors etc.
How many coaches have games named after them "The Bounty Bowl", "The Miracle in the Meadowlands II" and most notably "The Body Bag Game" in which the Eagles knocked out each quarterback against Washington with the Redskins finishing the game with running back Brian Mitchell taking snaps on Monday Night Football.
Buddy even made headlines when he was not the head man with his battles in Chicago with Mike Ditka and his famous punch at Kevin Gilbride in Houston that was again on national television.

Being an Eagles fan was so much fun with Buddy Ryan around, but they could be very frustrating for a fan.
Buddy wasn't just 0-3 in the playoffs, but the Eagles under him typically would look tremendous against top-level teams and then lay an egg the very next week against a foe that they should roll over.
Buddy also had a tendency to almost ignore the offenses on his teams and rely on Randall Cunningham to as Buddy said famously "Randall will make five plays on offense and we'll win".
That sounds simple. but it's tough to develop consistency that way and often times in big games, it would come back to bite Buddy's teams.

Buddy Ryan was a coach that most guys loved to play for as the stories are plentiful from Buddy's goodbye to his Bears on the night before the Super Bowl to the loyalty shown to players during the 1987 strike and his siding with players in contract disputes with management.
Some of this came back to haunt him when Buddy often called his owner, Norman Braman "the guy in France" during a contract issue with I think Keith Jackson.
This didn't always help Buddy's standing with the front office!

Buddy's legacy is about more than being popular with the players and fans, he also is the father of current Bills head coach Rex Ryan and Rob Ryan, who has been the defensive coordinator with several teams.
Much of the attacking philosophy of the Buddy Ryan defense has been used by both of his sons throughout the years and why I always pulled for first the Jets under Rex Ryan and now the Bills with Rex coaching there.

Buddy is remembered by most for those tremendous 85 Chicago Bears, but I'll always remember him as the coach with the quick quip with lines that I've used to this day and for being one of the people that made sports so much fun to follow.....

Forgotten Superstars-Duane Thomas

We return to the forgotten superstars' universe with one of the most controversial players of his time and for a brief two-year window was one of the most exciting backs to run the football in Duane Thomas.

Duane Thomas is remembered by most for a tenure that saw bizarre behavior such as refusing to speak.
As in at all.
We live in an age where athletes will at times refuse to speak to the media, but in the early 70s, such behavior was downright shocking.
Considering the shunning of the media and adding that Thomas refused to speak to his teammates or members of the coaching staff and that was likely the act of a heretic in 1971.

Thomas and his act wore out so quickly in Dallas that after his rookie of the year season in 1970, Thomas and two other players were traded to the Patriots for running back Carl Garrett and the Patriots' number one pick.
Pete Rozelle then made a decision that hasn't been made since- Thomas and Garrett were returned to back to their original teams because Thomas refused to talk to or acknowledge Patriots coach John Mazur!
New England got Garrett and their top pick but kept the other two players by sending Dallas their second and third-rounders.
Can you imagine a trade being voided for a reason like that today?

Thomas had rolled up over 800 yards in 1970, averaged 5.3 yards per carry, and accomplished these numbers despite only starting eight of the Cowboy's fourteen games.
Thomas returned to Dallas and rushed for just ten yards less than in 1971 despite playing in three fewer games (he carried the ball 24 more times though-finishing with a still good 4.5 YPC) and led the league with eleven rushing touchdowns.
Thomas should have been the Super Bowl MVP in the Dallas win over Miami and reportedly was the winner in the voting, but Sport Magazine, which then gave the award (and car) was supposedly concerned about how Thomas would behave if he even would show up for the ceremony and gave the award instead to Roger Staubach.

Thomas never played another game for Dallas as he was traded to San Diego, where he would dress for one pre-season game, didn't play, and would sit out the 1973 season.
San Diego traded him to Washington, where he put together two pedestrian seasons that were most noted for one Thanksgiving game against- you guessed it, the Cowboys where he scored two touchdowns and would have been the talk of the league had not Dallas won the game on the immortal Clint Longley's bomb to Drew Pearson to win the game with seconds to go 24-23.
Thomas would leave Washington to play the 1975 season with Honolulu of the World Football League, which would fold in the middle of the 1975 season.

It's too bad that Thomas is remembered more for his personality than his running because he was one beautiful runner to watch,
Thomas could run over people but had a way of gliding that made it seem like he was about to be tackled and suddenly turned a hip and moved away.
The closest thing I've seen to Thomas in style was Gale Sayers.
Barry Sanders had some similarities, but Thomas was so much bigger than Sanders.
Watching Thomas run made me think of watching the water roll over a waterfall and then flow around the rocks on the river floor.
Just an awesome runner to watch.
Check the YouTube at 12 minutes for some Thomas highlights.

Comets tend to burn brightly and then flame out quickly and the career of Duane Thomas was exactly that, but for those who watched him run (and still can through YouTube), he was a tough back to forget...

Welcome, Duane Thomas to the forgotten superstars' universe...

Cleaning out the inbox

Time to clean out the inbox and we start with the passing of David Bowie at 69.
I would consider myself to be somewhat of a Bowie fan,although not nearly as large as some.
I prefer his 70's stuff a little more to his 80's comeback songs,which received tons of radio play when I was in high school.
Bowie was a master of re-invented himself through various personas and characters,most notably the Ziggy Stardust character,which is what is still most often recalled in shows and commercials that involve Bowie.
Bowie also appeared in several films,plays and television shows with one that I remember best was a cameo with of all people,Bing Crosby to sing "the little drummer boy".....

Another star of my youth passed away as Wayne Rogers,best known for his role as Trapper John on MASH,passed at the age of 82.
Rogers as Trapper was always my favorite character of the MASH bunch,but he left the show after three seasons as it seemed Alan Alda's Hawkeye was transitioned into the main star,where the movie (and book) had Hawkeye and Trapper as equals.
I always looked at the long run of MASH as three different shows-slapstick rebellion with Hawkeye and Trapper messing with Frank Burns,a funny transition period with Mike Farrell as B.J.Trapper's replacement and then more of a "Dramedy" after Larry Linville's Frank Burns left the show.
Rogers would later star in "House Calls" for a few years and played Major Anthony Nelson (replacing Larry Hagman,who wasn't interested) in a I dream of Jeannie reunion movie.
Rogers would leave acting in the 1990's for the most part to pursue a career in financial management and had been seen often in recent years on Saturday morning's on "Cashing In" a show about finances on the Fox News Channel.

Peter King does a great job in his Monday Morning Quarterback column in addressing the issues and answers on the possible move to Los Angeles from the views of the cities and fans in San Diego,St.Louis and Oakland.
I feel for all of those cities and fans....

The AKC has added two new breeds to its registry in the American Hairless Terrier and the Sloughi have been added.
The Hairless is a spinoff of the rat terrier off of one puppy born that way in the 1970's,while Sloughi is similar to the Saluki-an African hound built for long distance running.

If you like the cole slaw at Chick-fil-a,,you had better hurry up and get some because next Monday (18th) will be the last chance to buy yourself some.
The chain is discontinuing the slaw,but did put the recipe online,so you can get close to it at home.
If you click the above link,it'll give it to you as well...

Five players to avoid in Fantasy Football

Here are five players that I would avoid in your fantasy draft.
Some of these come with big upside and could have good seasons,but I bet they are overdrafted and go way before their eventual numbers indicate that they should...

1) Colin Kaepernick QB San Francisco 49ers

Kaepernick seems to have it all for fantasy success-big name,running ability and a wide open offensive system.
The problem is much of that is either gone or off an reputation that was better than he is.
The 49ers lost Jim Harbaugh as coach,Frank Gore in the backfield and Michael Crabtree at receiver.
Torrey Smith replaces Crabtree,but what Smith does best (run deep) is what Kaepernick does worst (throw deep).
Add in streaks of inaccurate passing and you have good reason to avoid Kaepernick.
Look elsewhere for your every week QB.

2) C.J. Anderson RB Denver Broncos

Anderson went in our first round and could put up good numbers after a breakout year in 2014.
The issue with Anderson is that he plays for the Broncos and a new coach in Gary Kubiak that use a belief in their running system more than a particular back.
Through the years,Denver more than any team befuddles fantasy owners by touting one back and using another,often one unknown.
If Anderson is the main back,he'll produce,but keep in mind who he plays for and try to tab Montee Ball to hedge your bets,if you must take Anderson...

3) Brandon Marshall WR New York Jets

Marshall's run of 1,000 yards seasons ended last season when he missed three games in Chicago before being traded to the Jets.
Marshall's problem is going to be his supporting cast as they are unlikely to take any pressure off him.
Eric Decker doesn't scare anyone on the other side,the running game is pedestrian to be nice and throwing the ball to him is Ryan Fitzpatrick and Geno Smith when he returns from injury.
Marshall may have a few standout games,but I'll bet he has more games with average at best numbers...

4) Jeremy Maclin WR Kansas City Chiefs

I had Jeremy Maclin last season and was rewarded with a big year,but going to Andy (Spread it around) Reid in Kansas City won't improve those stats.
Remember yesterday when I wrote about Travis Kelce being the player that benefits from the arm of Alex Smith?
Jeremy Maclin,despite excellent talent,will be the player that is hurt by that same arm.
If you can get him in the middle rounds as a flex player,go for it,but counting on him as one of your two top WR's is a huge gamble....

5) Jordan Cameron TE Miami Dolphins

Jordan Cameron has the type of talent to rank with the best tight ends in the game.
He makes big plays and has excellent hands-when he stays on the field that is.
Cameron never played an entire season with the Browns and he has had multiple concussions,so Cameron is one head shot away from missing the season,so make sure that you have a decent backup in case you take a chance on him...

Bonus Defender

Curtis Lofton LB Oakland Raiders

Remember for those of you new to IDP (Individual Defensive Players) that often times the players with the biggest names are mediocre fantasy defenders.
Linebackers that roll up tackles are the most valuable and Curtis Lofton has been among the best in his career with a career high 100 solo tackles last season with the Saints.
The problem is that you cannot count on that since he is now a Raider.
Many times a player that moves from team to team ,particularly when a veteran,doesn't compile the same stats whether it's a new position,a new defensive formation etc,so veterans with new teams can be risky.
I think Lofton will be productive,but perhaps not at the level that he played at in New Orleans.

Five players I love in Fantasy Football

 Most of you that play fantasy football are preparing to draft your teams.
Our league has already done so,this won't be tipping anyone off to affect my league.
This installment features five players that I love,if a player is a "love" more for a keeper league than a current one,I'll note that.
These also aren't players that are considered stars to the average fan,although they may be soon!
The plan is for a five players I hate as early as tomorrow...

1) Todd Gurley RB St.Louis Rams
I love Todd Gurley and I backed it up as I selected him as my first pick in our draft (We keep four offensive and three defensive players) that I obtained in a trade at the 2014 draft.
On my scouting charts (I know,I need more of a life) I had Todd Gurley as the best RB to leave college since Adrian Peterson and since I've had AP for his entire career,I feel good about Gurley.
A knee injury knocked Gurley down a bit,but he started practicing today and is above his scheduled return time.
It may take time for Gurley to be the regular workhorse and Tre' Mason might be a good idea if you draft Gurley,but tabbing him might win your league...

2) Brandon Cooks WR New Orleans Saints
Cooks was the Saints first rounder in 2014 and was projected to put up big numbers.
Instead,he was just OK and an injury finished his season after ten games.
This year,without Jimmy Graham,the Saints passing game is going to run through Cooks and I wanted him with my second first rounder (8th overall),but he went before that.
Cooks is sitting on a great season...

3) Travis Kelce TE Kansas City Chiefs
I picked Travis Kelce in the second round and I think Kelce,who was huge in the last five games for the Chiefs will be the red zone target for the weak armed Alex Smith,
Kelce caught 80 percent of the passes thrown to him last season (an excellent number) and when people knock him for having Alex Smith as his QB,smile and take Kelce,who will benefit from Smith's average talent..

4) T.J.Yeldon RB Jacksonville Jaguars
Yeldon went elsewhere in my draft and some worry about him being in Jacksonville.
My response is that Yeldon is a 15-20 carry a game back and can catch the ball,so you have a three down back in the making.
Besides,look at the Jaguars passing game and tell me which is more likely-The Jaguars winning games by running or passing?

5) Charles Johnson WR Minnesota Vikings
Johnson,who the Browns had on their practice squad injured for a year before a odd decision to release him,had a strong final month and seems to have a good rapport with Teddy Bridgewater.
Johnson was a pick of mine in my dynasty league and could help you in your regular ones as well....

Bonus Defender
Stephone Anthony LB New Orleans Saints
I know many of you don't play IDP (individual defensive players),but we have from day one (2015 will be our 16th year) and frankly,I'd never play in a league with team defense.
IDP is for the true football fanatic and once the hardcore player tries it,I'd bet they never go back to team defenses.
Anthony was the Saints first rounder out of Clemson and will be installed as the Saints middle linebacker,which means lots of tackles from day one.
I coveted Anthony so much (big numbers,plus I watch lots of Saints games) that when he wasn't picked by me (went just before I was ready to swoop in),I made sure to make a trade to secure his services.
I expect him to be so good that he'll be in the running for keeper consideration for 2016...

Hope you enjoyed this cheat sheet and stay tuned for five players that could break your fantasy team soon....

Cleveland Browns-Persons of Interest

Feeling a bit better so going to try to get through our Browns persons of interest.
Please be sure to check out our podcast with Jeff Obert-Thorn on the draft.
I apologize for the sound quality not being up to usual standards,but it was hard enough for me to do the show and there were some things that I just missed that day.I apologize for that.

The Cleveland Browns are in a difficult position of picking 12th in a draft that may not be able to hit their top needs.
In our mock draft (available on the podcast),none of the three elite wide receivers and the top defensive tackles were off the board and that could lead the Browns to want to trade down,if someone is interested.

I really like the top three wide receivers in Alabama's Amari Cooper,West Virginia's Kevin White and Louisville's DeVante Parker,but all three could be gone by the Browns selection.
If one of the three is available,it would likely be Parker and I'd be fine with the Louisville route runner.
If all three were available,I like Cooper the best of the three,despite not having the physical assets of White.
I would love to see the Browns have Ohio State's Devin Smith as a possibility in round two or even 19 if the board fell right.
Smith would provide the deep speed that none of the Browns current receivers possess.

I really like Washington's run stuffing defensive tackle Danny Shelton (pictured above) and think he would be an ideal fit for the Browns and the AFC North,but he may not fall to Cleveland.
I prefer Shelton,but Texas defensive tackle Malcolm Brown would a nice consolation prize.
Brown isn't quite as strong against the run as Shelton,but might be a better pass rusher.
If the Browns like Brown,I would hope to see a move down and maybe add a pick or two,but he should be productive.
On the outside,Kentucky's Bud Dupree might be a possibility in an attempt to provide the pass rush from the side opposite Paul Kruger as an end/linebacker.

I know that many observers think the Browns are loaded at running back with Terrence West and Isaiah Crowell,but I'm not convinced,especially if the intent is to run the football even more often than last season.
I'm bigger on Crowell than West,but I love Todd Gurley,the running back from Georgia to be the type of three down back that neither of the current pair can be.
Gurley can put his shoulder down to run over defenders and has breakaway speed with pass catching ability as well.
The only question is a knee injury,but I think that if someone takes it slow in the summer with Gurley,they will be rewarded with an elite NFL back.
I haven't rated a back higher than Gurley since the arrival of Adrian Peterson,so if the Browns decide to take the best player on the board in Todd Gurley,despite the appearance of young backs on the roster-I'd be fine with the selection as I am generally a proponent of the best player on the board theory...
Some prefer Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon over Gurley,I don't,but I like Gordon a lot as being the exception to the rule on Badger backs.
I'd be OK with Gordon at 19...

I don't think the Browns have the need on the O-line that many do,but I wouldn't be against a versatile lineman early like Florida State's Cameron Irving that could play all three positions on the line.
Center would be a wedge against the possible loss of Alex Mack following 2015.so Irving would make sense,especially at 19.
If the Browns would consider current starting guard John Greco as a Mack replacement,Brandon Scherff of Iowa or La'el Collins of LSU would each be excellent additions.
If the Browns like Schreff,they may have to take him at 12.

At quarterback-I like Marcus Mariota of Oregon,but not enough to overpay for,I like UCLA's Brett Hundley almost as much and especially in round 2 or 3,I'd be more willing to select Hundley.
Hundley is loaded with physical skills,but will need some developmental time,so he is not a plug and play guy.

I doubt the Browns take another corner early in the draft,but using best player on the board-I really like three corners with Trae Waynes of Michigan State most of all,but Washington's Marcus Peters and LSU's Jalen Collins have appeal as well.
I think the Browns could consider the best safety on the board at 19 in Alabama's Landon Collins.

These are a few of the names for the Browns on day one,if I have time,I might try to add a post that looks at some players I like for the remainder of the draft..