Tag: NFL

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NFL General

Nov 28 in Sports History: Ernie Nevers scores 40 points


In 1929: In a feat that would be almost impossible to accomplish today, Ernie Nevers of the Chicago Cardinals scored all 40 of his teams points in a 40-6 victory over the Chicago Bears. Nevers, a 6’4” 200 pound fullback, scored six touchdowns and kicked four extra points (he missed two). A current player would have to score seven touchdowns in a game, and nobody has scored six in a game since Gale Sayers did it for the Bears as a rookie in 1965. Dare we say it will Nevers be done again? (sorry…)

In 1981: Paul “Bear” Bryant’s Alabama Crimson Tide defeated rival Auburn for his 315th career victory, then an all-time record for college football. Bryant, wearing his signature checkered hat, passed Amos Alonzo Stagg. Bryant (1913-1983) coached Division I football for 37 years at Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Alabama (where he played) and led the Tide to six national championships. He finished with 323 victories and died in 1983. He was eventually passed on the all-time list by Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden. (bryantmuseum.ua.edu)

In 1982: If mom and dad wouldn’t be proud enough if one of their sons made it to a professional league, how about six of their seven sons playing in the NHL at the same time? When Ron Sutter played his first NHL game as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers, he helped the family set an all-time record with five brothers in the league (his twin brother Rich signed with Pittsburgh the following season to make it an even half dozen). Although the Hockey Sutter’s played for many teams, at that time Ron was with the Flyers, Brian played for the Blues, Darryl played for the Blackhawks, and Duane and Brett played for the Islanders. Gary Sutter was the only brother to never make it to the NHL. (The Northern Iowan)

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NFL General

OJ’s book and TV special cancelled



Back to selling cars

In a rare showing of decency (or was it the negative backlash?) Fox has decided to pull the OJ Simpson special and book titled “I killed them and this is how I did it you suckers. Now I’m going to go play golf” … or something like that. Rupert Murdoch, head of Fox pulled the plug on Monday.


I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project,” Murdoch said. “We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.

Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister (god, we thought we’d seen the last of her) said that News Copr offered them all the proceeds of the television special and book as “hush money” but the family rejected it. Meanwhile, some copies of the book were already shipped to retailers but will be recalled and destroyed… so, uh, look for it on ebay any day now.

Links:
[MSNBC]: Simpson’s `If I Did It’ book, TV special canceled

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New York Yankees

Nov 21 in Sports History: There’s where Joltin’ Joe went


In 1934: The New York Yankees officially became a dynasty as they made the seamless transition from aging, hot dog-gorging Babe Ruth to young, starlet-banging Joe Dimaggio by purchasing his contract from the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. Dimaggio, who tuned up for his 56-game hitting streak in 1941 with a 61 game streak as an 18-year-old Seal in 1933, joined the Yankees full-time in 1936 and was an instant superstar. He started every game in centerfield and led New York to a World Series that October. Dimaggio became a fixture in the Fall Classic, playing in 10 of 13 Series’ (winning nine) during his career (of which he missed 3 seasons due to military service). He was also an all-star in every single year he played and was named the game’s greatest living player at the centennial celebration of baseball in 1969. (baseball-library.com)

In 1982: Hard as it might be to believe, the NFL was once just as dumb as baseball and hockey as a 57-day player’s strike finally ended. A shortened, nine-game season was the result, with a hokey eight-team “tournament” to temporarily replace the traditional playoffs. As of press time, we’re still not sure if the 4-5 Lions or Browns of 1982 have hanging banners that proclaimed themselves “Wild Card” teams.

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NFL General

What do you mean IF, OJ?



And then I’d poke em in the eye…

After 74 consecutive weeks at the top of the “Will Do Anything for a Buck” charts, the Black Eyed Peas have finally been knocked off by O.J. Simpson. O.J. is pimping a book titled “O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened”. The original rejected title was “Hell Yeah I Did It, You Suckers”.

Here’s the promo copy from Fox:

O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the crimes. In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade.

In a case of corporate synergy that would make Disney/ESPN stand up and applaud, Simpson will also be doing a two-part interview on Fox (owned by News Corp which also owns the publisher of the book) to be aired Nov 27 and 29.

Links:
[CNN]: O.J.’s latest: ‘If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened’

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NFL General

The Denver Broncos have the best logo

According to Logodesign.com and a panel of 25 design experts, the Denver Broncos have the best logo in the NFL. Here are the top 10:

1.        6.
2.        7.
3.        8.
4.        9.
5.        10.

It’s hard to disagree with something so subjective but the Jaguars logo is kinda lame. It’s like the designers just latched on to whatever was new when something classic like the Bears’ logo is much better. At least they didn’t put the ugly Ravens logo in the Top 10.

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San Francisco 49ers

Everyone relax… it’s still the San Francisco 49ers



Hello Santa Clara!

Everyone is up in arms today because the 49ers have announced that they’re going to build their next stadium in Santa Clara instead of the current site at Candlestick Point. Let us fill you in on something, it’s all just one big suburb of San Francisco anyway. If you can drag yourself to freezing ass cold (by SF standards) Candlestick, you can drag yourself to Santa Clara.

Yes, technically the closest big city is San Jose but there’s no way that the name of the team is going to change from the San Francisco 49ers to the Santa Clara 49ers or the San Jose 49ers. The team’s headquarters are already in Santa Clara, what’s the difference if they play their games there.

As owner John York said:


Nothing will persuade us to change the name of the San Francisco 49ers, one of the most storied brands in the world of sports.

And by “storied” he means “marketable”.

Now, let’s just hope the new stadium has a better name than Dick’s Stadium or the short (never?) lived Pink Taco.

Links:

[SFGate.com]: 49ers seek new stadium in Santa Clara
[SFist]: It’s Thursday– Do You Know Where Your Sports Team is Playing?

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NFL General

Nov 8 in Sports History: NFL-AFL merger allowed



Alvin “Pete” Rozelle

In 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson (you know, the president that according to conspiracy theorists staged a coup during the JFK presidency) signed into law an exemption to the antitrust statutes that allowed the merger of the American Football League and the National Football League. The two leagues would keep the NFL name and logo and be split into two conferences.

The Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers (three of the original 16 NFL teams) agreed to join the 10 AFL teams in the new American Football Conference. The other 13 teams remained in the NFC. However, the owners could not agree how to allocate teams by division and so finally, the divisions were aligned by putting the team names into a hat and drawn by Pete Rozelle’s secretary. (Of course, this doesn’t explain how even after expansion and realignment, the St. Louis Rams play in the NFC West.)

In 1959: Elgin Baylor of the Minneapolis Lakers set a then-NBA record by scoring 64 points in a game against the Boston Celtics. Baylor’s record stood for another year until he broke it himself with 71 points against the New York Knicks. Throughout his career, spent entirely on the Lakers (they moved to Los Angeles in 1960), Baylor averaged 27.4 points, was an eleven-time all star and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1977. Baylor is also a member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team, and many have considered him to be Michael Jordan before there was Jordan. Baylor has even turned around the Clippers as a GM (although for years he was considered the worst GM in all of sports) by winning NBA Executive of the Year in 2006. (nba.com)

In 1981: Leave it to ESPN to help ruin things a little more. The fledgling all-sports network turned World Ruler/Destroyer gambled that redneck, uh, we mean sports fans would be interested in watching NASCAR races from beginning to end when it aired the entire All-American 400. Of course it worked and both are multi-billion dollar empires. People for some reason can’t stand hockey, but they can sit and watch traffic for four hours? (espn.com, Bill Maher for the classic “traffic” joke)

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LA Lakers

Nov 7 in Sports HIstory: Magic Johnson announces he has HIV


In 1991 Magic Johnson shocked not just the basketball world but the entire nation by announcing that he was HIV-positive and would retire immediately from basketball. (video here) At the time, relatively little was known about HIV and AIDS and it was assumed that Magic would soon be gone. (At his press conference, Larry Bird/Basketball Jesus wept.) However, 15 years later, Magic is alive and well.

Even though he was retired, Magic was voted into the All-Star Game in 1992 and won the All-Star MVP award. Magic’s basketball career continued briefly when he won gold with the 1992 Dream Team.

In 1943 the New York Giants and the Detroit Lions played to a 0-0 tie, the last scoreless tie in NFL history. The Giants were terrible that day, only getting into Lions territory once and finishing with three passing yards. The Lions on the other ahnd managed to get into field goal range three times but Augie Lio missed from 32,50 and 25. Now if only the Raiders could play the Raiders on Monday night, we’d have our first scoreless tie in 63 years.

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NFL General

Nov 2 in Sports History: Useless NFL record trivia


In 1969: If you had to answer the trivia question, “Name the two quarterbacks who combined for an NFL record 12 touchdown passes in one day,” an easy guess would be something like Dan Marino and Jim Kelly in the old Miami-Buffalo shootouts, or John Elway vs. Dan Fouts, or even a Joe Namath-Johnny Unitas clash. Of course, you’d be way off. In a game at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium, two unlikely gunslingers named Billy Kilmer of the Saints and Charley Johnson of the Cardinals put on an aerial display that would’ve made Broadway Joe himself blush with inadequacy and embarrassment (not that wearing pantyhose ever did). Each tossed six TD passes and threw for well over 300 yards in the Saints 51-42 victory. Of course, neither team could keep up the pace the rest of the season (or the century, for that matter), as the Cardinals finished 4-9-1 while the Saints didn’t have a winner until 1987.

In 1997: Chargers’ running back/kick returner tied his own NFL record when he ran back two punts for scores – including an 85-yarder – in a 38-31 loss to the Bengals in Cincinnati. Metcalf also pulled the same trick in October of 1993 against the Pittsburgh Steelers while playing for the Cleveland Browns. Metcalf holds the NFL record with 10 career punt returns for touchdowns. Useless trivia to take into your weekend (we know it’s only Thursday, but hey, take a long one!): Metcalf was traded at the end of the season from San Diego to Arizona so the Chargers could move up one spot in the draft. Who did the Chargers end up jettisoning Metcalf for? Ryan Leaf. Ouch. (The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia).

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Cleveland Browns

Oct 27 in Sports History: Art Modell steals away in the night



Suckers!

In 1995: It is well known how miserable of a sporting existence Cleveland fans have suffered, but this might have been the lowest point, the cruelest blow, the coup de grace gut punch. Browns’ owner Art Modell signed a secret agreement with the city of Baltimore to move his franchise – which probably had the most loyal fans in the NFL – there for the 1996 season. Modell cried poor and blamed Cleveland officials for refusing to build him a new stadium. He took a sweetheart deal from Baltimore (who was desperate for a franchise after losing the Colts in similar fashion in 1984), the Browns became the Ravens and changed their logo and uniforms, and the Mistake by the Lake was soon a memory (it caught fire during demolition just to remind Cleveland what it really was). Cleveland kept the rights to the Browns nickname and colors and was granted an expansion franchise for the 1999 season. The Ravens won the Super Bowl in 2000 while the Browns have gone 37-81 to this day.

In 2002: Emmitt Smith of the Cowboys took a handoff from Chad Hutchinson and ran off left tackle for 11 yards. They were last of 16,727 yards he needed to break the late Walter Payton’s career rushing total. The game was stopped for five minutes to honor Smith, and a post-game celebration was also held despite the Cowboys losing 17-14 to the Seattle Seahawks. Smith is the NFL’s all-time career rushing leader in yards, attempts and touchdowns.

In 1986 and 1991: A pair of memorable World Series Game 7’s took place: In 1986, the Mets completed their stunning comeback by finishing off the Boston Red Sox 8-5 and continuing the Curse of the Bambino for the 68th consecutive year. In 1991, Jack Morris of the Twins turned in a legendary complete game, 10-inning shutout of the Atlanta Braves and a Gene Larkin bases-loaded single clinched the second World Series in four years for Minnesota.

And no Boston, we didn’t forget that the Red Sox clinched their first championship since 1918 with a four game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals on this day in 2004.