Roughing It on the Road: Bad Weather Games

VOLUME 35
NUMBER 6
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
T
H
E
The Official Magazine of the Professional Football Researchers Association
ROUGHING IT ON
THE ROAD
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
SUPER
BOWL V
and the END
of the AFL
Run-Pass Ratios
of NFL Coaches
Curly Culp Gets
the Call to Canton
www.profootballresearchers.org
TABLE of CONTENTS
PFRA-ternizing ..............................................PAGE 3
Super Bowl V and the End of the AFL
BERT GAMBINI .................................................PAGE 4
Fill the Air or Pound the Ground:
The Run-Pass Ratios of NFL Coaches
JOHN MAXYMUK............................................PAGE 11
Culp-Ability: Curley Culp
Receives the Call from Canton
ED GRUVER ......................................................PAGE 16
Roughing It on the Road:
Bad Weather Games Away from Lambeau
MICHAEL D. BENTER......................................PAGE 19
On the cover: Green Bay tackle Forrest Gregg on the sideline in a game against San
Francisco at Kezar Stadium on December 10, 1960 (Photograph by Vernon J. Biever)
Hmmm ... I can’t
remember when my
PF RA membership runs
out ... run ... that reminds
me of something I was
going to do ...
The Official Magazine of the
Professional Football Researchers Association
Staff
Editor: MarK Durr
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MarK l. FOrD, DEniS crawFOrD
Senior illustrator: JOhn richarDS
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Photographer: MarK PalczEwSKi
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2 | Vol. 35, No. 6 | The Coffin Corner
President: VacanT
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PFRA-ternizing
PFRA Election Results
Congratulations to the newly-elected officers of
the Professional Football Researchers Association.
Mark Ford was elected as president of the PFRA
and John Grasso as treasurer. They will assume
their new duties at the beginning of the year in
2014. Roy Sye and Chris Willis won re-election as
vice president and secretary respectively.
In other organizational news, the PFRA’s
current president, Tod Maher, tendered his
resignation to the Board of Directors on October 27,
2013. We would like to thank Tod for his service to
the group and wish him well. Thanks Tod!
New Committee on the Block
The PFRA would like to announce the formation
of the Education Committee. This committee will
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for instruction in math, history, geography and
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The 2012 pfra
award winners
The PFRA’s Ralph Hay Award is awarded for
lifetime achievement in pro football research and
historiography. The 2012 recipient of this award is
Chris Willis. He has been head of the NFL Films
Research Library since 1996. As the resident
historian at the company, Willis oversees all aspects
of research for NFL Films and its producers, assisting
historians outside the company as well. In 2002,
Chris was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the
HBO documentary The Game of Their Lives: Pro
Football in the 1950’s. He has written four books on
the history of American football, with Dutch Clark:
The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit
Lions being his most recent work.
The PFRA’s Nelson Ross Award is awarded
annually for achievement in pro football research
and historiography. The 2012 recipient of this award
is author Dan Daly for his book titled The National
Forgotten League: Entertaining Stories and
Observations from Pro Football's First Fifty Years
(University of Nebraska Press, 2012). A sports
columnist for the Washington Times, Dan has been
writing about pro football for more than thirty years.
His previous book (with Bob O’Donnell), The Pro
Football Chronicle, was judged one of the “truly fine
books about the sport” by ESPN.com’s Rob Neyer.
The PFRA’s Bob Carroll Memorial Writing Award is
awarded to the best Coffin Corner article of the year
as determined by the editors. The 2012 recipient of
this award is William J. Ryczek for his article on Pat
Palinkas in Volume 34 of The Coffin Corner. One voter
described the article as the essence of pro football
research—he was able to locate Mrs. Palinkas, more
than 40 years after her stint with the Orlando
Panthers team, interviewed her and preserved her
memory for posterity. This award is sponsored by
Dave Biesel of St. Johann Press and Bill will receive a
check for $100, as well as a one-year extension to his
PFRA membership.
Congratulations to all the PFRA award winners!
The Coffin Corner | Vol. 35, No. 6 |
3
AssociAted Press
Super Bowl V and
the end of the AFl
With Earl Morrall (15) holding, Jim O'Brien (80) of the Baltimore Colts kicks the game-winning field goal against the Dallas Cowboys in Super
Bowl V on January 17, 1971 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.
Bert Gambini
T
he merger in 1970 between the American Foot-
league was still the National Football League. That name
was not a reflection of NFL dominance. At the time of
the merger, teams from the AFL and the NFL had each
ball League (AFL) and the National Football
won two of the four Super Bowls played to date. From a
League (NFL) created one of the most successful
championship standpoint, the two leagues were com-
organizations in professional sports.1 Yet the union be-
petitively equal when they became one. Those two
tween former rivals came at a high historical price for
leagues, however, did not have an equal number of
the AFL.
teams, and the merger agreement called for one league
The merger created a new organization with an old
name. Despite the presence of 10 AFL teams, the new
4 | Vol. 35, No. 6 | The Coffin Corner
split into two equally represented conferences.
To right the imbalance, three of the NFL’s 16 teams
The Name
were shifted to the new American Football Conference
(AFC), which was rounded out by teams that had been
On January 17, 1970, one year to the day before
members of the AFL. The remaining 13 existing NFL
Super Bowl V, the AFL West All-Stars beat their Eastern
teams became part of the National Football Conference
counterparts, 26–3. Slightly more than 30,000 specta-
(NFC). Each conference, at the end of the season, held a
tors in Houston’s Astrodome, joined by NBC’s national
four-team playoff with the conference champions play-
television audience, witnessed the American Football
ing in the Super Bowl.
League’s last game.
The migration of the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland
Many prominent players did not want to see their
Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers from the old NFL into
league absorbed by the establishment, nor did they
the new AFC thus created the possibility of a Super
want to surrender their individuality as part of the new
Bowl without a past AFL representative. And “to the
arrangement that brought the leagues together. But as
2
considerable embarrassment”of the league, that’s just
the New York Times reported, “NFL Commissioner Pete
Rozelle emphasized the merger agreement called for
how history played out.
When the two 1970 conference champions met for
the AFL to come under the embrace of the NFL name
the world title on January 17, 1971, both the Dallas Cow-
for all sorts of reasons—prestige, identification of
boys and Baltimore Colts were teams that had played
equality and income.” 8
the previous year in the old NFL. Super Bowl V was an
So on February 1, 1970, the AFL’s ten member clubs
NFL game, an old NFL game without a hint of rivalry.
became part of the new American Football Conference,
In fact, that scenario of Super Bowls without a former
along with the Colts, Browns and Steelers from the NFL.
AFL club would unfold through half of the seasons
“The guys are really in despair about losing the
played in the 1970s.
3
identity,” said Gerry Philbin of the AFL’s New York Jets,
Writing for Sports Illustrated the year before the
after the all-star game in Houston. “I’m sick about it.” 9
merger, Tex Maule said, “When the pro football world
A day earlier, during a taping for the ABC television
is no longer divided into two vigorously warring camps,
program Wide World of Sports, Joe Namath of the New
4
the Super Bowl may be an anticlimax.” Peace notwith-
York Jets said he wished the two leagues had not agreed
standing, 64 million viewers tuned in to watch the
to merge.10 “The AFL is better than the NFL—hands
game—at the time, the most ever for a televised sport-
down,” he said.11
ing event.5
The Kansas City Chief’s Len Dawson joined Namath
That audience patiently overlooked a less than
on the show, both of them AFL quarterbacks and Super
super Super Bowl, “a sandlot exhibition,” as Arthur
Bowl MVPs who had beaten an NFL team for the world
Daley of the New York Times put it.6 Those millions of
title. Dawson was more diplomatic in his remarks, but
viewers also overlooked a championship matchup in a
stressed that the AFL approached the game with
new cooperative league that had no suggestion of the
greater imagination than the NFL.
Philbin, in the meantime, hoped for anything that
competition that brought it together.
Maule envisioned future Super Bowls as potentially
might preserve the league’s memory, from something
7
“upsetting to the faithful.” And Super Bowl V was up-
as simple as former clubs wearing a jersey patch to a
setting, and ultimately unsettling. Lacking a former
rewritten merger agreement that retained the Ameri-
member, the game represented the start of the Ameri-
can Football League’s name. “To anybody who has been
can Football League’s historical erasure.
connected with it, the name is important,” said Philbin.
The AFL needed 10 years to establish its equality
with the NFL. A decade following those achievements,
“It represents everything that everybody struggled for.”
12
And the struggle was critical.
memory of that success was largely forgotten, along
Going into Super Bowl V, the Baltimore Colts “never
with the recognition due many of the AFL’s greatest
had to suffer as the other [teams] did while waving the
players.
banner of the Americans, which meant the emotional-
The process was gradual, but it started with Super
Bowl V, an unmemorable game that took with it memories of the American Football League.
ism of the first four Super Bowls was missing from the
fifth.” 13
American Football League historian Angelo Coniglio
The Coffin Corner | Vol. 35, No. 6 |
5
says players in the AFL deflected years of insults about
of achievements as the AFL’s New York Jets beat the
their league before the merger. He immediately recog-
NFL’s Baltimore Colts. The win was very much a victory
nized the significance of the AFL name and how it
for the entire American Football League. “I am a life-
represented the league’s perseverance in the face of its
long Buffalo Bills fan, but the Jets win in Super Bowl III
struggle with the NFL. Following the merger, Coniglio
for me was like the Bills winning that game,” said
organized an Identity Committee for the AFL, a group
Coniglio. “We were in this together.”
dedicated to restoring the distinctiveness of the Amer-
Coniglio wasn’t the only Bills backer elated with the
ican Football League. To this day he maintains an
win. The Jets actually received a standing ovation in
extensive website devoted to the American Football
War Memorial Stadium the first time they played in
League.14
Buffalo after their Super Bowl victory. Bills fans, histor-
Two years after the merger he told the New York
ically
inhospitable
to
visitors,
welcomed
their
Times that the Committee received letters from fans in
opponents with a banner celebrating the New York Jets
40 states saying they preferred the idea of uniting pro
historic Super Bowl win.
football as a single, legal entity, with a Super Bowl and
That mutual respect among AFL teams arose from
a common draft, but composed of two separate
its rivalry with the NFL, but it was difficult to maintain
leagues—a structure similar to Major League Baseball.
the emotion and preserve a sense of that accomplish-
In fact, Philbin’s idea for an AFL patch was probably
ment without the identity associated with its creation.
motivated by the patch the Kansas City Chiefs wore in
Furthermore, what was difficult without its old name
Super Bowl IV. It was Coniglio who successfully lobbied
later became impossible when the Baltimore Colts sur-
the Chiefs to add the AFL symbol to their jerseys for the
faced in 1970 as champions of the new conference
game.
charged with carrying out the important, but unofficial
Those Chiefs happened to be the transplanted Dallas
mission of the former league.
Texans that Lamar Hunt founded at the AFL’s incep-
Fan perception was reinforced by public pro-
tion. Hunt, however, thought too much attention was
nouncement. “We don’t care what conference we’re
being paid to the AFL’s name and that fans and owners
in,” said Baltimore quarterback John Unitas. “My alle-
would try to retain the American-National rivalry. But
giance is to the Baltimore Colts.”
Super Bowl V, to Hunt’s chagrin, had no rivalry to retain
There was no trace of the AFL in Super Bowl V. “Un-
and consequently, albeit unintentionally, re-engineered
like a rose,” said Dave Anderson of the New York Times,
perception at the expense of the AFL: This was a new
“the American Football League by any other name will
NFL.
never smell as sweet to its players.” 15
The AFL lost its name with the merger, but in Super
Bowl V it began to lose its history as well. More than a
The Game
measure of sentimentality, that loss represents a failure
Without conflict and history, Super Bowl V, said
to understand and appreciate the forces responsible for
William N. Wallace in the New York Times, needed to
creating the modern NFL.
be a terrific game.16 It was not.
Moreover, the American Football League was not
“To chronicle the events is to catalog catastrophe,”
viewed by its supporters as strictly a business entity, an
wrote Tex Maule.17 And the game’s appearance was
agent of change driving the evolution of professional
first item in the catalog’s index. Played in Miami’s Or-
football. To its fans, coaches and players, the league
ange Bowl, Super Bowl V didn’t look right—and it was
represented a concerted 10-year effort to prove the le-
more than the absence of an old AFL team that con-
gitimacy of its existence and the quality of its play.
tributed to the distortion.
“That’s why we fought to have separate leagues with
separate names,” said Coniglio.
To start, the Cowboys wore their dark jerseys for the
game. For seven seasons prior to Super Bowl V, the
Rozelle may have espoused the NFL’s virtues, but
Cowboys wore white jerseys at home, deviating from
the AFL had a record of its own success and didn’t need
the NFL custom of the home team dressing in dark col-
the commissioner’s rhetoric to validate its achieve-
ors. While the rest of the league embraced the uniform
ments. Super Bowl III was the first milestone in that list
tradition, the Cowboys were rarely seen in anything
6 | Vol. 35, No. 6 | The Coffin Corner
other than their whites.18 But the Super Bowl was gov-
yard field goal in the game’s final five seconds, looks to
erned by rule, not ritual. Unlike the regular season and
have been thrilling. But the winning field goal, wrote
playoffs, the Super Bowl’s designated home team—Dal-
Arthur Daley, was a “merciful coup de grace” that
las, in this case—was required to wear dark jerseys. So
spared spectators “trapped” in the Orange Bowl from
the Cowboys had no choice but to don their blues.
enduring an overtime riddled with more of “the dread-
That requirement was far from an incidental
wardrobe detail. Being forced to break convention can
ful misfeasances [sic] that marked the less than epic
struggle.” 22
lead to superstition, but if the Cowboys were cursed at
The Washington Post called the game “The Embar-
least they would be clean in their uncharacteristic col-
rassment Bowl.” The Chicago Tribune’s Cooper Rollow
ors, since this was the first Super Bowl played on an
wrote, “Super Bowl V would have taxed the patience of
artificial surface. Two years earlier, the Colts lost Super
Job. And in the end, the capacity crowd of 80,035 didn’t
Bowl III to the New York Jets in the same stadium
know whether to applaud, giggle or collapse.” 23
where they faced the Cowboys in Super Bowl V. Be-
As if to prove Rollow’s point, a video of Jim O’Brien’s
tween those two games, the Orange Bowl’s natural
game-winning field goal shows the rookie placekicker
grass was replaced with a Poly-Turf surface that looked
triumphantly hopping down the field celebrating his
heavily worn the day it was installed.
success as rows of spectators sit still in their seats, ap-
The old grass surface enhanced the stadium’s geo-
parently relieved the game had finally ended.
metric beauty. From east to west, the rich green field
The post-game ceremony was also off-key, as Cow-
rolled softly into the end zone. It was a treat for specta-
boys linebacker Chuck Howley was named the game’s
tors as their eyes followed the color to its end, moved
most valuable player—the only MVP in Super Bowl his-
over a low grandstand, and then found a modest score-
tory to play for the losing team. “The award is
board that was softly nested against a backdrop of
tremendous, but I wish it were the world champi-
mature palms. With its new Poly-Turf, the Orange Bowl
onship,” acknowledged a gracious Howley. “They go
smacked of a living room populated with plastic-cov-
hand in hand.” 24 Apparently not.
Baltimore
ered furniture.19
defensive
lineman,
Bubba
Smith,
Adding to the dissonance was the fact that John Uni-
ashamed of his team’s slapstick performance in victory,
tas wore what looked like soccer shoes for the game.
refused to wear his Super Bowl ring. In fact, Smith
Unitas’ trademark footwear, black high-tops, had slowly
seemed more distraught beating the Cowboys in Super
fallen out of favor through the 1960s, and was anachro-
Bowl V than he did losing to the Jets in Super Bowl III.
nistic by 1971, if not totally inappropriate for the
Dallas’s gentlemanly Bob Lilly threw his helmet
down the field after the game, many observers claim-
modern surface.
That artificial surface was still a novelty in the early
ing it traveled a distance in the air nearly twice that of
1970s. Dave Anderson of the New York Times devoted
O’Brien’s winning field goal. “I was so disgusted with
an entire column to the turf’s potential impact on the
the way we had played,” said Lilly. “I just lost it.” 25
game’s outcome.20 Yet curiously, the artificial surface
that kept the uniforms unsoiled did not at the same
time prevent the game from getting sloppy. Super Bowl
Super Bowl V, said sportswriter Marty Ralbovsky, “set
Super Bowling back … well, five years to be exact.” 26
It set the AFL back even further.
V was a mess without mud. Baltimore and Dallas combined for eleven turnovers on the afternoon. “I hope I
don’t make that many mistakes in one day,” President
Nixon said on the Monday after the game to a group of
21
visitors to his office.
The ColTs
The Baltimore Colts were Super Bowl V’s fundamental problem. As an old NFL team in the new AFC, they
contributed no drama to Super Bowl V. “Their very
The miscues actually began before the opening kick-
presence eliminated the game’s most desirable ingre-
off when four Air Force fighter jets dispatched for a
dient—a representative of the old American Football
flyby to coincide with the closing notes of the National
League,” according to Ralbovsky.27
Anthem arrived two minutes late.
At a glance, the 16–13 Colts win, sealed with a 32-
The New York Times agreed, referring to this Super
Bowl as a “new National Football League championship
The Coffin Corner | Vol. 35, No. 6 |
7
game, no more, no less, no matter what you called it.” 28
To speak of Unitas and the Colts was to speak of
That an old AFL team failed to capture an American
nothing but the NFL, regardless of the 1970 realign-
Conference crown in 1970, says Coniglio, was as disappointing then as it is today. “I didn’t like that there was
ment that made them a member of the AFC.
Declared loyalties, bitter rivalries and claims of su-
no AFL team in Super Bowl V and I feel the same way
periority were all missing from the game, and the
whenever there is a Super Bowl with two teams from
league could not hide that reality behind pomp and
the old NFL,” he said. “The game should be between the
bunting. “No matter how hard the energetic young men
American League and the National League.”
in [NFL Commissioner] Pete Rozelle’s office attempted
The AFL faithful did not identify with the Colts, and
to camouflage the Colts’ presence, the team was not a
the Colts did not identify with the AFL. “I don’t want to
member of the old AFL; it did not have the moral back-
win one for the old AFC,” said Baltimore defensive
ing of the other teams in the AFL, most of which were
tackle Billy Ray Smith. “I want to win one for the old
charter AFL clubs,” wrote Ralbovsky. 31
Baltimore had certainly earned its place in the
B.R. and the Colts.”
Smith pinned his lack of loyalty on Baltimore’s sin-
game, but sentimentally they didn’t belong there. The
gle-season residency in the AFC. He was also among
Colts were like an unwanted guest at a family gather-
those who pointed out that the Colts playing in Super
ing, and whose presence siphons so much attention
Bowl V were the same team beaten two years earlier by
from other matters that everyone seems to forget who
Joe Namath and the AFL’s New York Jets in Super Bowl
actually failed to show up for the party.
III. The sting felt by the established Colts in falling to
In the case of Super Bowl V, it was an old AFL team.
the upstart Jets that day was still sharp for many of the
The Cowboys
players.
Ralbovsky even went as far to imagine a column in
The Dallas Cowboys could have entered the stage
which Baltimore’s H.L. Mencken asks whether the
perfectly cast for the role as the NFC’s representative—
Colts’ presence in the AFC was their punishment for los-
if only an old AFL team had awaited them.
ing to the Jets. “The Baltimore Colts are still the same
Founded in 1960, the Dallas Cowboys emerged not
old Baltimore Colts—and what the hell are they doing
long after then-commissioner Bert Bell had stated that
in this game?” wrote Ralbovsky.
the 12-team NFL had no expansion plans for the imme-
The Colts weren’t merely an old NFL team; they
diate future. The future, however, quickly became
were an iconic team. Despite entering the NFL only 17
more immediate when Lamar Hunt, spurned by the
years before Super Bowl V, they had three titles, includ-
NFL in his attempts to acquire a franchise in that
ing one from the 1958 championship game, often called
league, founded a league of his own, the American Foot-
the greatest ever played. Six Colts players from that
ball League, in 1960. He named his team the Texans
1958 team had already been enshrined in the Hall of
and put them in Dallas.
Fame by 1971. Enshrinement for a seventh player, starting quarterback Johnny Unitas, was inevitable.
While not publicly admitting so, the NFL, from the
beginning, saw the AFL as a threat. To the press, the
Unitas was 37 years old in 1971 and after 15 seasons
NFL called the AFL a “Mickey Mouse League,” but pri-
he owned every possible league passing record. In-
vately George Halas, owner of the Chicago Bears, went
juries had weakened his once-powerful arm, but
as far as telling Hunt, “You’re going to break us all with
Unitas’s prowess was measured as much by intangibles
this new league.” 32
as yardsticks. “[Unitas] is ‘the’ quarterback for all time,”
To counter Hunt’s venture, the NFL, despite saying
said sportswriter Frank Deford. “No matter what kind
it wouldn’t expand, immediately did so and assembled
of records are set, no matter what happens to the game.
an ownership group that charged directly into Dallas
29
with a team called the Cowboys. Hunt was even offered
At a dinner leading up to the Super Bowl, Hall of
a minority ownership in the club if he folded his Texans
Fame quarterback Sid Luckman of the Chicago Bears
and abandoned plans for a rival league.33 He declined.
went a step further, calling Unitas “the greatest pro
From the AFL’s perspective, that this new Dallas
Unitas is the one and only.”
football player of all time.”
30
8 | Vol. 35, No. 6 | The Coffin Corner
team was named the Cowboys, spoke to the pejorative
connotation of that term that arose out of Tombstone,
as the presence of the old AFL in Super Bowl V.
Arizona in the days of the Earps, Clantons, and the gunfight at the OK Corral. Those Cowboys were roughnecks
who in the 1880s brought disorder to the Old West, and
The 1970s
As the 1970s unfolded with Super Bowls V through
their namesake in the 1960s brought disorder to the
XV, the Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and Oakland
American Football League.
Raiders were the only old AFL teams to play for a world
Although it was not acknowledged as such, the NFL
title.
expansion into Dallas was an incursion, the first aggres-
When in 1959 Lamar Hunt sketched his plan for a
sive act in the war between the two leagues. The 1971
rival football league on a piece of airline stationary, he
Cowboys symbolized that conflict’s first shot, and they
considered some of the challenges such a league would
could have met a team who at one time represented a
face and asked why any fans should care about teams
league they were designed to destroy. Instead, they had
without history or tradition.
the Colts who, wrote Ralbovsky, “did not regard them-
Part of the answer was that public demand for foot-
selves as representatives of anything more expansive
ball was greater at the time than the 12-team NFL could
than Chesapeake Bay.” 34
provide. The NFL staunchly refused to expand, so when
This was the Cowboys’ first world-title appearance.
new teams formed in a new league, fan affinity devel-
Plagued with disappointment, the Cowboys were divi-
oped quickly and helped to build the AFL history and
sion winners the previous four years but had been
tradition that was in place at the time of the merger.
unable get through the playoffs.
The Super Bowl could have served as an annual re-
For the 1970 postseason, the Cowboys did not rely
minder of the AFL’s history—and with it, the old NFL’s.
on the speed of players like Calvin Hill, Bob Hayes,
But the Colts trampled that possibility in Super Bowl V,
Duane Thomas and Reggie Rucker, but instead, accord-
and though some great AFC teams followed them as the
ing to Maule, were “brutal and precise”: “They won
conference’s Super Bowl representative through the
with a formidable defense that over seven games gave
seventies, they were either old NFL teams or weak can-
up only one touchdown in the last 25 periods leading
didates for the historical task at hand.
up to Super Bowl V.” 35
Their offense ground out postseason wins, first with
a 5–0 victory over the Detroit Lions, then with a 17–10
The Miami Dolphins appeared in three consecutive
Super Bowls in the years following the Colts’ appearance in Super Bowl V.
win against the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Cham-
The AFL awarded Miami a franchise in 1965, but the
pionship Game. “It wasn’t pretty football,” said Maule.
Dolphins didn’t begin play until the following year. By
“But it was an impressive exhibition of raw power.”
the time the 1966 regular season began, the merger
Their roster included seven future members of the
agreement had already been announced. The Dolphins,
Pro Football Hall of Fame, although one member of that
although an AFL team, played in an era of peace be-
group, quarterback Roger Staubach, was still an under-
tween the leagues. The NFL and AFL maintained strict
study in 1970 and did not play in Super Bowl V. Craig
separation for the team’s first four seasons, until inter-
Morton was the Cowboys’ starting quarterback, and
league play began in 1970. So even the Dolphins, while
though the Colts’ John Unitas did not need a foil, Morton
one of the great teams of the 1970s, were not emblem-
certainly served as one.
atic of their league’s struggles.
In Super Bowl III against Namath, the Colts faced the
That leaves only Oakland and Denver in a Super
player who may have invented trash talking. Namath
Bowl as charter representatives of the old AFL in the
boldly guaranteed a Jets victory in that game and went
decade after the merger, and by the time the Raiders
on to deliver one. Craig Morton was not Joe Namath, in
beat the Vikings in 1977 in Super Bowl XI, the percep-
either style or ability. Morton’s skills were as average
tion of the new NFL was solidified.
as his demeanor, and even if he wanted to trash talk,
As AFL players began to retire, the league’s innova-
he couldn’t: the Cowboys quarterback had laryngitis
tions and breakthroughs—official time being kept on
the week before the game. After a few days he began
the scoreboard, players’ names on the backs of jerseys,
speaking to reporters in whispers, his stories as muted
the two-point conversion, zone-coverage, the vertical
The Coffin Corner | Vol. 35, No. 6 |
9
passing game, revenue sharing and the emergence of
about honoring the AFL that read, ‘Thanks for your in-
African-American athletes—became associated with
terest in the NFL.’”
the old NFL.
Coniglio points out that the Jets’ win over the Colts
in Super Bowl III is remembered as one of the NFL’s
greatest games by NFL Films, even though the victorious team had no affiliation with the NFL.
Furthermore, many great AFL players have been ignored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with only two
of the 18 players named to positions on the defensive
line, defensive backfield or as running backs on the
AFL’s All-Time Team enshrined in Canton.
Coniglio’s website at www.remembertheafl.com
points to AFL players who have been ignored by selectors
such
as
Abner
Haynes
(all-time
AFL
all-purpose-yardage leader), Gino Cappelletti (all-time
AFL scoring leader), Lionel Taylor (first pro receiver
with 100 receptions in a season), Charlie Hennigan
(first receiver to break Taylor’s record), Jack Kemp (alltime AFL passing-yardage leader) and Daryle Lamonica
(whose win-loss percentage as a quarterback is second
only to Hall of Fame member Otto Graham).
“Kansas City defensive back Johnny Robinson is another player who should be in the Hall. I don’t know
why he isn’t,” said Coniglio, before adding, “But I do
know why. It’s because Robinson was in the AFL.”
That the NFL’s success arrived at the expense of the
AFL’s history has nothing to do with design. The competitive forces of the 1970s simply produced conference
champions poorly suited to preserve the memory of the
old AFL. The NFL could have structured itself differently in 1970, but it didn’t, so memories of the
American Football League and what it gave to the game
began to fade through a decade that began with Super
Bowl V.
The NFL’s celebration of what would have been the
AFL’s 50th anniversary in 2009 makes for a curious epilogue to this story. After 40 years of ignoring its former
rival, the NFL unveiled throwback uniforms for the old
AFL teams, and even the officials dressed in the orangestriped shirts that distinguished the league’s crews
from their NFL counterparts.
Coniglio wrote a letter to the league in 2005 that suggested much of what was ultimately adopted, but he
doesn’t take any credit. “I can’t say I was responsible
for that tribute,” said Coniglio. “All I can tell you is that
I received a response from the league to my suggestions
10 | Vol. 35, No. 6 | The Coffin Corner
Bert GAmBini is a writer for the University at Buffalo. He spent
more than twenty years working as a broadcast journalist in Western
new York. His professional football research interests include prenFL football, the canadian game, and rival leagues, particularly the
rise of the American Football League in the 1960s.
Notes
1. “NFL is world’s best attended pro sports league,” Agence France-Presse,
http://sports.inquirer.net/80455/nfl-is-worlds-best-attended-pro-sports-league
2. Arthur Daley, “Family Affair,” Sports of the Times, New York Times,
January 18, 1971.
3. In addition to Super Bowl V, Super Bowls, IX, X, XIII and XIV were
without a team from the old American Football League.
4. Tex Maule, “It’s Cliché Time Again, But As You Get Triter, You Often Get
Righter,” Sports Illustrated, September 22, 1969.
5. Associated Press.
6. Arthur Daley, “Not Very Super,” Sports of the Times, New York Times,
January 18, 1971.
7. Maule, “It’s Cliché Time Again.”
8. “More Eyes on Football,” New York Times, February 15, 1970.
9. Dave Anderson, “A.F.L. Ceases as Entity After Today,” New York Times,
January 17, 1970.
10. George Vecsey, “A.F.L, to Namath and Dawson, Is the Thinking Man’s
League,” New York Times, January 16, 1970.
11. Anderson, “A.F.L Ceases as Entity After Today.”
12. Ibid
13. Daley, “Family Affair.”
14. Remembertheafl.com
15. Anderson, “A.F.L. Ceases as Entity After Today.”
16. William N. Wallace, “All of a Sudden, Miami Is Excited About Super
Bowl, as Indicated by TV Blackout Fight,” New York Times, January 14, 1971.
17. Tex Maule, “Super Bowl V: Colts-Cowboys, Eleven Big Mistakes,”
Sports Illustrated, January 25, 1971.
18. Paul Lukas, “The Island of Misfit Unis,” ESPN.com. Retrieved November 28, 2007.
19. The city of Miami would remove the Poly-Turf after just six seasons
and reinstall a natural grass surface.
20. Dave Anderson, “Artificial Turf Could Be a Factor,” New York Times,
January 16, 1971.
21. “Nixon Finds Bloopers in Super Bowl,” New York Times, January 19,
1971.
22. Arthur Daley, “Not Very Super,” Sports of the Times, January 17, 1971.
23. “Colts Win Zany Super Bowl, 16 to 13,” Chicago Tribune, January 18,
1971.
24. “One Cowboy Wins: Howley Gets Award,” New York Times, January
17, 1971.
25. Bob Lilly, A Cowboy’s Life (New York: Triumph, 2008), 92.
26. Marty Ralbovsky, Super Bowl: Of Men, Myths and Moments (New York,
NY: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1971), 186.
27. Ibid, 149.
28. Leonard Koppett, (Ed.) The New York Times at the Super Bowl (New
York: The New York Times Book Company, 1974), 183.
29. NFL Top 100 Players of All Time: John Unitas #6, NFL Films,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Ed1CdH6SA
30. William N. Wallace, “Unitas, Superstar, Facing a Supertest,” New York
Times, January 10, 1971.
31. Ralbovsky, Super Bowl, 149.
32. John Eisenberg, The Ten-Gallon War: The NFL’s Cowboys, the AFL’s
Texans and the Feud for Dallas’s Pro Football Future (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2012), 37–38.
33. Ibid.
34. Ralbovsky, Super Bowl, 149.
35. William N. Wallace, “Strategic Test Looms in Super Bowl,” New York
Times, January 17, 1971.
Fill the Air or Pound the Ground
The Run-Pass Ratios of NFL Coaches
Andy Reid
Philadelphia Eagles
Head Coach
(1999–2012)
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
DrEamstimE
FIGURE 1:
League-Wide
Run Percentage,
Year-by-Year
0%
1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012
John Maxymuk
seasons and four All-America Football Conference seasons, by dividing rush attempts by total plays (rush
iving in the Philadelphia area over the last 14
attempts plus pass attempts plus sacks). It should be
years, I have heard a lot of complaints on
noted that sacks were not recorded until 1949 and that
sports-talk radio about Andy Reid’s refusal to
successful quarterback scrambles are counted as runs,
L
run the ball at least half the time. As is usual with sports
even though they were intended to be pass plays, be-
talk, the discussion was heavy on anecdote and light on
cause there is no way to discern between a quarterback
even basic statistical analysis. Reid is now in Kansas
sneak and a quarterback scramble when looking solely
City, but still the question of who runs the most and
at league statistics.
who passes the most and what that run-pass ratio
It’s also important to note the relationship between
means is an interesting one, so I examined it for all
a coach’s ratio and the league average year by year—
coaches since 1932, the year official league statistics
it’s there that we see how each coach measures up to
were first kept.
his peers. It is no secret that the league has shifted fairly
I computed the run-pass ratio for each head coach
steadily and dramatically from rushing to passing over
and for the NFL as a whole for each of the last 81 NFL
the last eight decades. Graphically, the percentage of
seasons, as well as for 10 American Football League
running plays league-wide looks like Figure 1 above.
The Coffin Corner | Vol. 35, No. 6 |
11
Jim Leonard
1
plays, aside from a brief spike in the mid-1950s and the
steve Owen
deadball era of the 1970s, we could also look at a snap-
Greasy Neale
While Figure 1 depicts the steady decline in running
shot of run percentages at 10-year intervals to see the
trend as well:
1945
68.5
63.2
108%
23
1931-53
10
1941-50
67.4
62.5
108%
67.3
60.7
111%
Cap mcEwan
2
aldo Donelli
2
1933-34
66.8
72.6
92%
1944
66.3
63.8
104%
Luke Johnsos
4
1942-45
66.1
63.6
104%
Bill Edwards
2
1941
65.9
64.8
102%
Hunk anderson/
Year
run%
Trend
1932
75.6%
1942
64.3%
1952
53.0%
1962
50.8%
6
6
6
6
1962 (AFL)
47.0%
—
1972
55.6%
1982
47.4%
1992
45.8%
2002
43.3%
2012
42.3%
There are only three coaches on this list who had extensive careers in pro football. Table 2 displays the 20
runningest coaches who lasted at least 80 games in the
league. With this group, we find a heavy influx of
5
6
6
6
6
coaches who worked in the 1970s, but not one who extended past 1985. The lower end of the range now dips
below 55 percent. The only coaches in this group with
losing records are Kiesling, Kuharich, Van Brocklin and
Prothro, and this group of 20 coaches produced 37
Aside from that blip in 1972, the run arrow has
pointed down for each data point over the last eight
decades.
league championships—but all before the 1978 rules
changes that opened up the passing game.
TABLE 2:
Coaches with the Highest Run Percentage
(Minimum 80 Games)
Run, Run, Run
So professional football has evolved from running
the ball three-quarters of the time to roughly 40 percent
Coach
Games
Tenure
of the time over the last 80 seasons. It is then no sur-
Run% Lg. Run% index
Potsy Clark
118
1931-40
prise to find that the 20 coaches who have run the ball
steve Owen
268
1931-53
67.4
62.5
108%
the most in history are all from the pre-1950 era. Only
Greasy Neale
111
1941-50
67.3
60.7
111%
Jones, Clark, Sutherland, Owen, Neale, Anderson and
ray Flaherty
122
1936-42, 46-49 63.8
64.9
98%
Johnsos had lifetime winning records, and these 20
Curly Lambeau
380
1932-53
63.5
62.5
102%
coaches produced just seven league titles.
Walt Kiesling
90
1939-40,
60.8
60.2
101%
74.4
69.9
106%
42-44, 54-56
Jimmy Conzelman 167
TABLE 1:
Coaches with Highest Run Percentage
Coach
year(s)
Tenure
Run% Lg. Run% index
Lone star Dietz
2
1933-34
78.3
73.4
107%
ralph Jones
3
1932
77.6
75.6
103%
Potsy Clark
10
1931-40
74.4
69.9
106%
mike Getto
1
1942
73.1
64.3
114%
Johnny mcNally
3
1937-38
72.6
68.6
106%
Eddie Casey
1
1935
71.9
71.6
100%
milan Creighton
4
1935-38
71.7
70.4
102%
Paul schissler
4
1933-36
70.6
72.4
98%
62.5
97%
George Halas
497
1920-67
59.7
57.5
104%
Chuck Fairbanks
85
1973-78
59
56
105%
Jim Lee Howell
84
1954-60
58.5
55.4
106%
Buck shaw
150
55.4
105%
Paul Brown
326
1946-75
58.1
54.6
106%
John madden
142
1969-78
57.9
55
105%
Joe schmidt
84
1967-72
57.3
52.4
109%
1946-54, 58-60 58.3
Vince Lombardi
136
1959-69
56.8
50.9
112%
Joe Kuharich
142
1952,
55.9
52.5
106%
188
1949-64
55.8
53.7
104%
1961-73
54.8
52.2
105%
1971-72, 74-78 54.5
55.5
98%
51.3
105%
54-58, 63-68
Jock sutherland
4
1940-41, 46-47
69.9
63.0
111%
Buddy Parker
Luby Dimeolo
1
1934
69.2
74.4
93%
Norm Van Brocklin 173
Hugo Bezdek
2
1937
68.8
70.1
98%
tommy Prothro
88
Lud Wray
4
1932-35
68.7
72.9
94%
Bum Phillips
159
12 | Vol. 35, No. 6 | The Coffin Corner
1940-42, 46-48 60.4
1975-85
54.1
As alluded to above, however, the real measure of
who were most disposed to run the ball—not just those
how run-oriented a coach is comes when he is com-
who coached before 1950 or in the 1970s. Three active
pared to his peers, those who coached at the same time.
coaches have an even higher index number than
Both Table 1 and Table 2 include an index number that
Cowher but have coached fewer than 80 games: Jim
compares the coach to the league average during his
Harbaugh, 118 percent index; Rex Ryan, 116 percent
tenure. Table 3 ranks coaches according to that index
index; and Leslie Frazier, 114 percent index. The 20
number and identifies the real ground-and-pound ad-
coaches in Table 3 won 28 league titles, seven of them
vocates who soared the highest over the league
since 1978, while only Wannstedt, Del Rio and Kuharich
average.
had losing records.
TABLE 3:
Top 20 Coaches Above League Average Running
(Minimum 80 Games)
Coach
Run% Lg. Run% index
Taking Flight
Although the trend for offense for the last three
decades or so has been to pass first, that approach can
be an indicator of a losing team, because bad clubs are
Games
Tenure
Bill Cowher
240
1992-06
50.3
44.4
113%
playing from behind more often and must pass, no mat-
Vince Lombardi
136
1959-69
56.8
50.9
112%
ter what their normal inclination might be. Thus, Table
Greasy Neale
111
1941-50
67.3
60.7
111%
4 shows us the top 21 coaches in raw percentage of
Dave Wannstedt
169
1993-98,
48.7
44.1
110%
pass-play percentage, but only four of them (Martz,
mike Ditka
216
46
110%
records, and only Payton won a championship. In fact,
John Harbaugh
80
2008-12
47.4
43.3
109%
Joe schmidt
84
1967-72
57.3
52.4
109%
only six of the 21 lasted more than three full seasons.
2000-03
Caldwell, Groh and Payton) fashioned winning career
1982-92, 97-99 50.5
marv Levy
255
1978-97
51.2
47
109%
John Fox
176
2002-12
47.9
44
109%
ron meyer
104
Jack Del rio
139
steve Owen
268
Jeff Fisher
288
1982-83, 87-91 50.7
46.7
109%
2003-11
47.8
44.2
108%
Coach
Tenure
Pass%
1931-53
67.4
62.5
108%
rod marinelli
2006-08
65.5
55.6
122%
44
108%
marty mornhinweg
2001-02
64.2
56.3
118%
45
107%
Hugh taylor
1965
64.2
54.8
121%
Bulldog turner
1962
63.8
53
123%
June Jones
1994-96, '98
63.7
56.1
117%
Dennis allen
2012
63.6
57.7
114%
1995-2010, 12 47.3
marty
schottenheimer
327
1984-06
48.1
Chuck Noll
342
1969-91
53.9
50.5
107%
John robinson
143
1983-91
49.7
46.6
107%
Blanton Collier
112
1963-70
53.8
50.5
107%
Joe Gibbs
248
1981-92,
49.2
46.2
106%
55.9
52.5
106%
74.4
69.9
142
1952, 54-58,
Ken Whisenhunt
2007-12
63.5
56.7
116%
2009-12
62.6
57
113%
mike martz
2000-05
62.6
55.6
116%
Chris Palmer
1999-00
62.3
56.7
113%
106%
Jim Caldwell
2009-11
62.2
56.8
112%
106%
rick Venturi
1991
61.6
54.9
115%
1962-63
61.1
54.3
115%
2000
61.1
56.3
111%
1963-68
Potsy Clark
Paul Brown
118
326
1931-40
1946-75
58.1
54.6
Lg. Pass% index
Jim schwartz
2004-07
Joe Kuharich
TABLE 4:
Coaches with the Highest Percentage of Pass Plays
Jack Faulkner
So Potsy Clark, who was third and first in the previ-
al Groh
ous two tables, which looked only at the raw numbers,
mike munchak
2011-12
61.1
57.4
109%
drops to 19th in the indexed list because he ran the ball
Bobby Petrino
2007
61
56.5
110%
just 6 percent more than his peers in the 1930s. Mean-
Joe Vitt
2005, 2012
60.9
55.6
112%
while, Bill Cowher, who ran the ball essentially half the
sean Payton
2006-11
60.8
56.2
111%
time, tops the list because he was 13 percentage points
Vince tobin
1996-99
60.7
55.8
111%
out of sync with the league average during his tenure.
Cam Cameron
2007
60.7
56.5
110%
Table 3 identifies the coaches throughout NFL history
Kay stephenson
1983-84
60.7
52.4
117%
The Coffin Corner | Vol. 35, No. 6 |
13
As with the run-first coaches, we get more positive
vides the top 20 pass callers ranked by their index num-
numbers for the coaches when we set a minimum of 80
ber. More than half are winning coaches (11), and the
games. Still, the passing group is not as successful as
group has produced five championships, including be-
the running one. Just eight of the 20 coaches in Table 5
fore 1978 (Sid Gillman in 1963).
molded a winning lifetime record, and the group has
won a mere five championships; however, all five of
those titles have been won since 1978. That’s five more
than the run extremists have won in that time, demonstrating in another way the trend toward passing. Our
Philly friend, Andy Reid, pops up at number five in this
TABLE 6:
Top 20 Coaches Above League Average Pass Plays
(Minimum 80 Games)
Coach
mike martz
Games
Tenure
85
2000-05
table, but if the minimum were raised to 100 games, he
Ken Whisenhunt
96
would be number one.
marion Campbell
115
TABLE 5:
Coaches with the Highest Percentage of Pass Plays
(Minimum 80 Games)
Lindy infante
96
mike mcCormack
81
Pass% Lg. Pass% index
62.6
55.6
116%
2007-12
63.5
56.7
116%
1975, '83-85,
58.5
52
114%
54.5
113%
53.9
47
113%
1987-89
Coach
Games
Tenure
Pass% Lg. Pass% index
Ken Whisenhunt
96
2007-12
63.5
56.7
116%
mike martz
85
2000-05
62.6
55.6
116%
sean Payton
96
2006-11
60.8
56.2
111%
Lindy infante
96
1988-91, '96-97 60.6
54.5
113%
andy reid
224
1999-12
58.9
56.1
106%
mike mcCarthy
112
2006-12
58.8
56.4
106%
marion Campbell
115
1975,
58.5
52
114%
1983-85, '87-89
Dennis Green
207
1992-01,
58
55.6
105%
2004-06
rich Kotite
96
1991-96
57.6
55.6
105%
mike sherman
96
2000-05
57.5
55.6
104%
George seifert
176
1989-96,
57.5
55
106%
57.1
56.2
102%
1988-91, '96-97 60.6
1973-75,
1980-81
Jack Patera
94
1976-81
52.6
46.4
111%
sam rutigliano
97
1978-83
54.8
49.2
111%
sean Payton
96
2006-11
60.8
56.2
111%
Dick Nolan
156 1968-75, '78-80 50.6
46.4
108%
Don Coryell
195
1973-86
52.1
48.5
107%
sid Gillman
228
1955-74
51.1
47.6
107%
ray Perkins
117 1979-82, '87-90 54.9
51.7
107%
andy reid
224
58.9
56.1
106%
1999-12
Jack Pardee
164
1975-94
52.7
49.8
106%
Nick skorich
98
1961-63,
49.1
46
106%
George Wilson
160 1957-64, '66-69 51.6
48.7
106%
George seifert
176
57.5
55
106%
58.2
56.4
106%
1971-74
1989-96,
1999-2001
mike mcCarthy
112
2006-12
1999-01
Norv turner
237
1994-2000,
'04-05, '07-12
For the record, Andy Reid drops to 15th on this list,
but there is a point to be made in favor of the intuition
ray rhodes
80
1995-99
57
56.2
102%
Jim Haslett
108
2000-05, '08
57
55.6
103%
Joe Bugel
80
1990-93, '97
56.9
54.7
105%
Dick Jauron
142
1999-2003,
56.6
55.9
102%
56.4
56.5
100%
ran the ball 42.1 percent of the time, a personal high
56.4
56.1
101%
the ball 41.3 percent of the time, again a personal high
2006-08
Pete Carroll
112
1994, '97-99
2010-12
Wade Phillips
143
1993-94,
of Eagles’ fans regarding the importance of the running
game. In 2009, Sean Payton’s championship Saints ran
the ball 45.35 percent of the time, a personal high for
him. In 2010, Mike McCarthy’s championship Packers
for him, too. Mike Martz’s Super Bowl Rams of 2001 ran
for that coach. Andy Reid and Ken Whisenhunt are the
1998-2000, '07-10
Bobby ross
137
1992-2000
56.3
55.8
101%
only two coaches to reach the Super Bowl in a season
mike Holmgren
272
1992-2008
56.3
55.7
101%
that they threw the ball more than 60 percent of the
time, and they both lost. What I take from that is that
Again, the most instructive way to look at the most
there is a place for a reasonably effective running game
pass-happy coaches is by considering how each coach
in even the most pass-happy coaches’ plans. There re-
compares to the league average in his time. Table 6 pro-
mains a need for a balanced attack, even if the meaning
14 | Vol. 35, No. 6 | The Coffin Corner
POtsy CLarK
PauL BrOWN
BOB CarrOLL
DON COryELL
of balance is now 58-42 in favor of passing rather than
with the Bears and Redskins through 1980, but when he
50-50 as in 1964. The ability to run will take pressure
returned with the Oilers in 1990, he used the run-and-
off of your passer, open up the play-action passing
shoot offense and passed 20 percent more than the
game, rest your defense and run out the clock at the
league. Bud Grant ran the ball 56.1 percent of the time,
end of a close game.
3 percent more than the league through 1977; for the remainder of his career, the Vikings passed the ball 58.6
Breaking It Down
percent of the time, 1 percent more than the league.
We need to remember that these numbers are ca-
Even the strategic leaders in the coaching brethren make
reer figures for the coaches, but that some coaches
big changes over time. Don “Air” Coryell ran the ball 56
change quite a bit over time. Paul Brown ran the ball 6
percent of the time, the league average, in the mid-1970s
percent more than the league did when he had Otto
with the Cardinals; in San Diego, he ran the ball 12.5 per-
Graham, but 13 percent more when he had Jim Brown.
cent less often (43.5 percent), and 12 percent less than
By the time he formed the Bengals, coach Brown was
the league, as he led pro football into the future.
running at the league average, with 54 percent runs in
It remains to be seen how much higher the passing
the 1970s. In fact, one dominant player can make a big
percentages will go. Could they eventually match the
difference in how a coach runs an offense. Lou Saban
1930s running percentages and feature teams throwing
ran the ball just 1 percent more than the league until
the ball three-quarters of the time? Or would that un-
he got O.J. Simpson, when Saban’s index number
balanced, “basketball in cleats” approach prove too
jumped to 115 percent. Likewise, having Adrian Peter-
much for even the most offensive-minded fans of the
son ensures that Leslie Frazier’s Vikings are going to
sport? Andy Reid might go for it. After all, he once
run the ball more than Mike McCarthy’s Packers. When
called 25 consecutive pass plays in a 2005 game against
Don Shula coached the Colts with Johnny Unitas, Balti-
the Chargers when his quarterback, Donovan McNabb,
more ran the ball just 1 percent less than the league
was suffering from a sports hernia. Reid called pass
average. In the Bob Griese years in Miami, the Dolphins
plays at a rate of 85 percent that day and still had the
were running the ball 10 percent more than the league;
nerve to attempt play action. Even Andy admitted that
by contrast, the Dan Marino years saw the team passing
day, “You need to balance it up a little more. We are a
the ball 10 percent more than the league. Shula’s raw
little too heavy with the passing.” The elusive ideal run-
run ratio went from 49.9 with Unitas to 58.9 with Griese
pass ratio will continue to float in search of balance.
to 41.3 with Marino.
Sometimes a coach simply changes with the times.
Jack Pardee ran the ball 5 percent more than the league
JOHN maxymuK is a reference librarian at rutgers university, living in
Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He is the author of several books on the NFL,
including NFL Head Coaches: A Biographical Dictionary, 1920–2011.
The Coffin Corner | Vol. 35, No. 6 |
15
Culp-Ability
Curley Culp
Receives
the Call
from
John RichaRds
Canton
Ed Gruver
I
n 1969, Curley Culp took his place on one of the
“Curley Culp was a tremendous athlete,” fellow Hall
of Famer and former teammate Len Dawson said once.
“He had such strength and quickness.”
great defenses in pro football history. This past
Culp’s election is a fitting tribute to a man who
summer, he took his place among the game’s all-
played a pivotal role in one of the most important Super
time greats.
Culp, an immensely strong defensive tackle who
helped the Kansas City Chiefs to an impressive Super
Bowl victory in 1970 and the Houston Oilers to consec-
Bowls in history and later became the prototypical nose
tackle when the 3-4 defense was gaining popularity
among NFL teams in the 1970s.
Current Houston Texans defensive coordinator
utive AFC championship games following the 1978 and
Wade Phillips was the Oilers’ defensive line coach from
1979 seasons, was voted into the Pro Football Hall of
1976 to 1980. To Phillips, whose father, Bum, was Oilers
Fame in February of this year.
boss, Culp was so dominant over the center position
16 | Vol. 35, No. 6 | The Coffin Corner
that opposing teams had to resort to double-teaming to
ral Super Bowl in January 1967. They finished second
try and stop him.
in the Western Division to Oakland in 1967 and in 1968
“Curley made (the 3-4) work,” Bum Phillips said
once. “He made me look smart.” Interestingly, Culp
never really enjoyed playing the 3-4 defense, preferring
were routed by the Raiders in a playoff game to decide
the division champion.
The Chiefs finished second again to the rival Raiders
in 1969, but thanks to one of the great ironies in pro
instead the 4-3.
“I really don’t care for the three-man front,” he said
football history—NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s in-
then. “It doesn’t give you a chance to express yourself.”
stituting an extra round of playoffs for the AFL’s 10th
An All-America defensive tackle at Arizona State as
and final season—Kansas City qualified for the postsea-
well as an NCAA wrestling champion and a member of
son that year.
the 1968 U.S. Olympic team, Culp was 6–2, 265 when he
It would not be an easy road for the Chiefs to Super
was drafted by the American Football League’s Denver
Bowl IV. As a runner-up, the Chiefs would play all their
Broncos in 1968 before being dealt to Kansas City.
postseason games on the road. Of course, nothing had
He was initially considered by some to be too short
come easy all season for a squad that had to overcome
to play defensive line and too slow to play linebacker.
injuries to both Dawson and backup quarterback Jacky
Still, no one doubted his enormous strength, which he
Lee. “Our defense,” Stram said at the time, “was aged
developed by hoisting 50-pound barrels on his father’s
in disaster.”
farm. When Ernie “Big Cat” Ladd retired following the
First up for the Chiefs in the AFL playoffs was Joe
1968 season, Culp was inserted at left defensive tackle
Namath and the reigning Super Bowl champion New
for the Chiefs for the 1969 campaign, the last for the
York Jets at Shea Stadium.
Amid blustery, brutally cold conditions in New York,
AFL before its merger with the NFL.
“Buck”
the game devolved into a ferocious defensive struggle.
Buchanan and middle linebacker Willie Lanier gave
Kansas City owned a 6–3 lead in the fourth quarter, but
head coach Hank Stram’s defense an inverted triangle
Namath drove New York deep into Chiefs territory. On
Culp,
right
defensive
tackle
Junious
that ranks with the 1950s New York Giants (Dick
first and second down from the one-yard line, Culp
Modzelewski, Rosey Grier, Sam Huff), 1960s Detroit
fought off AFL All-Star center John Schmitt and helped
Lions (Alex Karras, Roger Brown, Joe Schmidt), and
stop the Jets power backs Matt Snell and Bill Mathis
1970s Pittsburgh Steelers (Joe Greene, Ernie Holmes
short of paydirt. “He had a knack for making big plays
and Jack Lambert) as the best in history.
inside,” Buchanan said later. “He was incredible.”
Modzelewski praised the abilities of a fellow little
Namath misfired on third down, and Kansas City’s
big man. “Curley Culp is fantastic getting off the ball,”
goal-line stand forced a Jim Turner field goal that tied
Little Mo said at the time. “He can get by the big people.
the score at 6. The Chiefs eventually claimed a 13–6 win
He won’t block a pass because of his shortness, but he’ll
on Dawson’s 61-yard completion to Otis Taylor on a
be on the passer.”
crossing pattern and a follow-up 19-yard scoring pass
The defenses Culp served as a centerpiece featured
four future Pro Football Hall of Famers in Culp, Lanier,
to Gloster Richardson.
One week later, the Chiefs were in Oakland for the
outside linebacker Bobby Bell and cornerback Emmitt
AFL’s final championship game. The Raiders had won
Thomas. They also featured three members of the AFL’s
both regular-season meetings in 1969 on their way to a
All-Time Team in Buchanan, end Jerry Mays and safety
third straight Western crown.
Johnny Robinson All Kansas City lacked was a catchy nickname. They
didn’t own a flashy moniker like “Steel Curtain,” “Fear-
At stake on January 4, 1970, was not only the final
chance to be crowned AFL champion but a berth in the
fourth and final AFL-NFL Super Bowl.
some Foursome” or “Doomsday.” What the 1969 Chiefs
The AFL title game matched two enormously strong
did own, however, was an inspirational AFL patch on
and physical football teams. On the eve of the game,
their jersey sleeve and a sizable chip on their shoulder.
Raiders rookie head coach John Madden said the AFL
Kansas City had dropped a 35–10 decision to Vince
championship would be a “match of strengths. If
Lombardi’s dynastic Green Bay Packers in the inaugu-
Kansas City is stronger, we’ll lose.”
The Coffin Corner | Vol. 35, No. 6 |
17
As the game wore on, the Chiefs did indeed prove
on Christmas Day that still stands as the longest game
stronger. Raiders quarterback and league MVP Daryle
(82 minutes, 42 seconds) in NFL history. Throughout
Lamonica was knocked from the game by defensive
the day and into the cold night, Culp engaged in a
end Aaron Brown. Culp (six tackles and a sack) and the
memorable battle with the Dolphins Hall of Fame cen-
Kansas City defense limited the league’s most prolific
ter Jim Langer. It was enough to impress a future nose
offense to just one score in a 17–7 win.
tackle, Miami’s Bob Baumhower. “Defensive linemen
Oakland’s Jim Otto, later voted the AFL’s all-time
watch other defensive linemen for technique,”
center, called Culp “perhaps the strongest man I ever
Baumhower said later. “I used to watch (Culp) and
lined up against.”
Langer go at it.”
The Chiefs were 12-point underdogs to Minnesota in
Longtime Dolphins offensive line coach John San-
Super Bowl IV, but Stram and his coaching staff de-
dusky was also impressed. “(Culp) had everything you
signed a defense aimed at taking away the slashing
would want in a nose tackle,” Sandusky said. “He was
runs of halfback Dave Osborn and the power thrusts of
short so he could get underneath a center. He was quick
fullback Bill Brown.
and strong. God put him on earth to play nose tackle.”
Stram alternated Culp and the massive 6–7, 270-
In 1975, Culp was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the
pound Buchanan on NFL All-Pro center Mick
Year after recording 11.5 sacks and helping lead Hous-
Tingelhoff. Late AFL writer Larry Felser, who covered
ton to its first winning season in eight years. In 1978
the Buffalo Bills at the time, wrote that the undersized
and 1979, Culp and the “Luv Ya Blue” Oilers earned a
Tingelhoff played Super Bowl IV as if his head was
national following as they battled the dynastic Steelers
“caught in a snowblower.”
in back-to-back AFC title games.
Culp (four stops) and the Chiefs defense overpow-
During that time, Culp’s wars with muscular Steelers
ered the Vikings, 23–7, and for the second straight game
center Mike Webster, a future fellow Hall of Famer,
knocked the opposing quarterback, in this case charis-
were as intense and intriguing as the games them-
matic Joe Kapp, from the game with an injury.
selves. “Culp is awesome,” Webster said at the time.
Kapp remembers the physically imposing Chiefs’ de-
“He’s so strong and quick.”
fense, outfitted as they were in their red jerseys,
Culp retired in 1981 following a stint with the De-
resembling a redwood forest. “We went into the game
troit Lions. He played in 179 games over his 14-year
wanting to run the ball,” Kapp said, “and they took it all
career.
away with great defensive play.”
Already enshrined in the Chiefs’ Hall of Fame, he is
The defensive dominance displayed by the Chiefs in
the ninth member of their 1969 Super Bowl squad to be
their postseason run ranks as one of the more impres-
inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, joining
sive in pro football history. Over the course of three
Hunt, Stram, Dawson, Taylor, Lanier, Bell, Thomas and
consecutive weeks, the Chiefs had gone on the road and
kicker Jan Stenerud.
held the defending Super Bowl champion Jets, and the
This summer, fans of the Chiefs, the Oilers and the
high-scoring Raiders and Vikings to a total of two touch-
AFL celebrated the overdue induction of Curley Culp, a
downs and 20 points.
man former Oilers defensive coordinator Ed Biles
Kansas City’s victory evened the AFL-NFL Super
called one of the smartest and most selfless defensive
Bowls at two wins apiece. That the Chiefs closed AFL
lineman he had ever been around. “He knows forma-
history in triumph was particularly fitting, since it was
tions, situations, what he’s supposed to do,” Biles said
Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt who founded the AFL a
then. “If you need him to eat up two people to try and
decade earlier. And it was the Vikings ownership who
free up somebody one-on-one, he’ll do it and not worry
spurned an AFL offer to join their league in order to be-
about the glory of a sack. He’s a real pro.”
come an NFL expansion team in 1961.
And now, a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
Over the decade that followed, Culp was named AllAFC five times and was selected to six Pro Bowls. In
1971, he and the Chiefs played in one of the great
games in NFL history, a double-overtime loss to Miami
18 | Vol. 35, No. 6 | The Coffin Corner
Ed GRuvER is a former sportswriter for the Daily News and the
author of several books on football. he lives in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania.
ROUGHING IT on the ROAD
Vernon BieVer
Bad Weather Games Away from Lambeau
“It’s a lineman’s face from the trenches,” was how photographer Vernon Biever later described this shot of Green Bay tackle Forrest Gregg
departing the sloppy field at Kezar Stadium on December 10, 1960.
Michael D. Benter
I
t will strike some readers as an irony that some of
“Mud GaMe”
San Francisco, december 10, 1960
the most memorable bad-weather games in Green
This was the game that produced the famous Vernon
Bay Packers history—or at least in the past 50
Biever photograph of Packers tackle Forrest Gregg, face
years—have occurred on the road rather than on the
so-called “frozen tundra” of Lambeau Field. Ironic or
not it’s true.
and helmet adorned with Kezar Stadium mud.
The Packers were guaranteed a share of the Western
Conference title if they defeated their West Coast
Detailed here are five games in which the weather
opponent and the other team on that coast, the Los
conditions equaled any in Green Bay for their
Angeles Rams, could upend the Baltimore Colts on the
unremitting unpleasantness. Perhaps, though, the
following day (Sunday).
team’s familiarity with such inclemency helped the
Packers, because Green Bay won four of the five.
Trouble was, Mother Nature, while not a 49ers fan,
wasn’t a fan of the Packers either. A hard rain on a field
The Coffin Corner | Vol. 35, No. 6 |
19
with little grass made the playing surface a “pigpen” in
Giants linebacker, repeatedly met the hard charge of
the opinion of the Milwaukee Journal’s Chuck Johnson.
Packers fullback Taylor with an unrelenting brute force
Vince Lombardi wrote much the same thing in a
of his own. “I never took a worse beating on a football
column attributed to him that appeared in the
Milwaukee Sentinel on December 12: “Kezar Stadium
was the worst field I had ever saw because there was
no grass in the middle—just a sea of goo slop.”
field,” Taylor told a UPI reporter after the game.
Taylor scored Green Bay’s only touchdown on a
seven-yard run in the second quarter.
When Y.A. Tittle attempted to put New York in for an
Eschewing the passing game and using a variety of
early score from Green Bay’s 15-yard line, Ray Nitschke
draws and traps, the Packers mounted a ground attack
tipped Tittle’s pass into teammate Dan Curry’s arms,
that netted them only 13 points, but that was enough to
and New York did not threaten again. Nitschke was
put away the 49ers, who were shut out by a suffocating
selected the game’s most valuable player. Besides his tip
defense.
to Curry, he recovered two Giants fumbles.
The San Francisco offense struggled so mightily
Another New York turnover, most likely affected by
against the elements and the Packers defense that it
the winds, was a Sam Horner fumble of a punt that
could muster only eight total yards and one first down
gave Green Bay the ball at the Giants’ 42-yard line.
in the second half.
From there the Packers marched to a Jerry Kramer
Green Bay’s rushing attack accounted for all 150 of
field goal. Given the conditions, it was amazing that
the Packers’ second-half total yards. Jim Taylor scored
Kramer, by trade a guard, drilled three field goals for
the only Green Bay touchdown and finished the day
the Pack, as the Green Bay defense limited New York to
with an impressive 161 yards rushing.
a single touchdown in a 16–7 win.
It was joked that Bart Starr had the cleanest uniform
By 8:00 p.m. the temperature had fallen to six degrees.
on the field because he had handed the ball off all
There were news reports that a 15-year-old boy had been
afternoon.
blown off the deck of a ferry and presumed drowned. In
With Baltimore’s 10–3 loss to the Rams the following
New Hampshire and Maine, blizzard conditions existed.
day, the Packers were assured a share of the Western
Back in Green Bay, the temperature that evening was
Conference title.
nine below zero, yet 10,000 fans turned out at the airport
to welcome the champion Packers home.
“Wind GaMe”
new York City, december 30, 1962
“FoG GaMe”
Baltimore, december 12, 1965
With winds ripping the reddened faces of foes and
fans alike, the Packers met the Giants of Allie Sherman
By 1965 the sun was starting to set on the productive
for the NFL title before a bundled crowd of nearly
career of Packers halfback Paul Hornung. Drafted as a
65,000 at Yankee Stadium. It was a rematch of title
“bonus choice” in 1956, Hornung had been on top of the
contenders from the year before, when Green Bay won
NFL world as the league’s top scorer in 1961, but his
convincingly, 37–0.
career path took a wayward turn in 1963, when he was
The grudge match was a hard-hitting affair played
in 17-degree weather, with swirling winds affecting the
suspended for gambling, and injuries hindered his
effectiveness in 1964 and most of 1965.
passing games of the two teams from the outset.
It was anything but sunny on Sunday, December 12,
Running the ball was only marginally more preferred.
at Memorial Stadium when Don Shula and the Gary
It was an intense match as Packers defensive back
Cuozzo–led
Colts
entertained
Vince
Lombardi’s
Willie Wood was ejected from the game in the third
Packers, the season’s eventual champion and a team
quarter for an after-play shove of an official. Wood had
Baltimore would meet 14 days later in a conference
been called for pass interference against receiver Del
playoff game.
Shofner and while protesting to an official accidentally,
in Woods’s explanation, struck him in the stomach.
A thick, almost otherworldly fog had settled over the
Baltimore area, rendering the game barely viewable on
Throughout the game there was an intense two-man
television. It was hard to see the players, follow the
battle between Sam Huff and Jim Taylor. Huff, the
action or even read the yard lines. Even the televised
20 | Vol. 35, No. 6 | The Coffin Corner
feed had a Twilight Zone quality to it, as the game was
on the first plays of the Packers’ first two possessions.
joined in progress “after the opening kickoff and
Those watching the Monday Night Football game must
another play or two” had taken place.
have been tempted to reach for the remote at that point.
On the field, conditions were almost as bad for
Undaunted by the heavy snow and winds gusting up
everyone involved. Everyone, it seems, except Paul
to 55 skin-piercing miles per hour, Green Bay
Hornung. His vision was 20-20.
quarterback Lynn Dickey was masterful, slinging
In one of the most impressive individual scoring
passes to receiver James Lofton, who caught a Bronco
five
secondary slipping and sliding around him as he
touchdowns—three rushing, two on pass plays over 50
totaled an impressive 206 yards for the evening. Dickey
yards—seeming to come out of nowhere in the
finished the game with 371 yards passing as the Packers
Baltimore fog just in time for the viewers at home to see
valiantly made a game of it, coming back from a 14–0
him cross the goal line.
deficit to lose by three, 17–14.
displays
in
NFL
history,
Hornung
tallied
Green Bay won the game despite turning the ball
Had the Packers’ Eddie Garcia made the two field
over three times. Bart Starr was intercepted early and
goal attempts he failed to convert, from 29 and 37 yards
the Colts returned his miscue to the 11-yard line. A
out, respectively, the Pack might have left the
Packers defensive stand held them to a field goal.
snow-capped city with a victory after one of the most
Later in the half, a Cuozzo pass was picked off by
linebacker Dave Robinson when the Colts were at
Green Bay’s four-yard line, and he returned it all the
inauspicious starts in post-Lombardi Packers history.
Cliff Christl, a Milwaukee Journal Packers beat writer
at the time, recalled the game:
way to the Baltimore 10. The Packers quickly converted
the turnover into seven points on Starr’s touchdown
The snow was what made that game
pass to Boyd Dowler. Green Bay took a 21–13 lead into
memorable, but I also don’t know if I’ve ever
intermission.
Playing exceptional defense when it counted, and
with Hornung setting the single-game touchdown
record for the Packers, Green Bay prevailed, 42–27,
despite giving up a couple of late scores on a
seen a team get down by that many points
that fast, especially one that received the
opening kickoff. Thirty-seven seconds into the
game, the Packers were down by 14 on two
fumbles returned for touchdowns. The snow
was a factor, but it shouldn’t have been for a
touchdown run by Jerry Hill and a five-yard scoring
team from Green Bay. The field was
strike from the second-year quarterback Cuozzo to
snow-covered, but it wasn’t Green Bay nasty.
Raymond Berry. (Johnny Unitas was on crutches on the
The
Colts sideline because of a knee injury suffered against
freezing mark, so it was a wet snow not a
the Bears the week before.)
Hornung had scored Green Bay’s first two
touchdowns of the first half and then added two more
temperature
hovered
around
the
whirling blizzard. I guess Green Bay’s
problem was bad football. It turned out to be
their sixth straight loss.
in the third quarter, giving the Packers a 35–13 lead
before the Colts made a game of it. He snuffed out any
chance of a Colts comeback by way of a 65-yard jaunt
with a Starr pass in the fourth quarter.
“SnoW GaMe”
denver, october 15, 1984
“HalloWeen GaMe”
Chicago, october 31, 1994
As a nation of sports fans rested their stocking feet
on ottomans, and ghosts and goblins scurried in the
streets, the Bears and the Packers met for the 148th
On October 15, 1984, in a heavy snowstorm that
time in their black-and-blue rivalry. It was a Monday
dumped 10 inches of snow on the Denver metro area
on October 31, 1994, Halloween night, at Chicago’s
throughout the afternoon and evening, the Packers
Soldier Field and the game was nationally televised.
“handed” the ball to the Broncos on two straight fumble
The weather outside was downright frightful. A 45
returns for touchdowns by Steve Foley and Louis
mile-per-hour wind propelled “swirling rain,” and a
Wright, respectively. Incredibly the turnovers occurred
field described as “muck” by Daryl Ledbetter of the
The Coffin Corner | Vol. 35, No. 6 |
21
Milwaukee Journal made playing conditions as nasty as
the hits Butkus and Nitschke used to inflict on past
combatants of Packers-Bears affairs.
In fact, Dick Butkus had his number retired in a
Football from
St. Johann Press
ceremony at halftime, along with Gale Sayers, for the
entertainment of those fans not in the concourse trying
to warm up.
There were close to 20,000 no-shows for the game.
To illustrate how bad the conditions were, consider
the plight of Craig Hentrich, the Packers’ able punter,
whose first three punts went a whopping 27 yards each.
Nor could the Packers rely on the howitzer arm of
Brett Favre given the conditions; they were forced to run
the ball instead, amassing more than 200 yards as Green
Bay pummeled the Bears, 33–6. Edgar Bennett rushed
for more than 100 yards and two touchdowns; Reggie
Cobb, for 54 and one touchdown; and Favre himself, for
58 on two carries, one a 36-yard scoring gallop.
Favre attempted only 15 passes, one a short
touchdown heave to Bennett, whereas his Bear
counterparts, Erik Kramer and Steve Walsh, attempted
to propel the pigskin through the elements 35 times,
having three wind-addled passes intercepted, two by
linebacker Bryce Paup. Chicago’s quarterbacking duo
threw for 174 yards to Favre’s 82.
Carrying the slippery ball often, the Packers
coughed it up to Chicago only once. Dave Wannstedt’s
Bears returned the favor with a fumble of their own.
“Red” Batty, the Packers equipment manager,
claimed after the game that the weather conditions
the badgers
Milwaukee’s NFL Entry of 1922–1926
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“probably cost the Packers $15,000.” Players’ and
coaches’ shoes were ruined, waterlogged footballs were
rendered useless, and some clothing, including the
team’s “throwback” uniforms worn for the game, was
deemed beyond repair as well.
So the next time an announcer recalls those thrilling,
bone-chilling games of “Titletown” lore, remember that
there were games which were every bit as cold, wet,
muddy and wind-driven. The only difference was that
on those occasions the visitors had “G’s” on their
helmets and the venue was someplace other than the
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tundra of Lambeau Field, frozen or otherwise.
Michael D. Benter is a freelance writer from Milwaukee. he is the
author of The Badgers: Milwaukee's NFL Entry of 1922–1926 and
two other books.
22 | Vol. 35, No. 6 | The Coffin Corner
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John MaxyMuk
Denis M. CrawForD
$49.95 softcover, 978-0-7864-6557-6
$29.95 softcover, 978-0-7864-6516-3
ebook 978-0-7864-9295-4
ebook 978-0-7864-8737-0
Joseph s. page
Frank p. Jozsa, Jr.
$35 softcover, 978-0-7864-4809-8
$35 softcover, 978-0-7864-4641-4
ebook 978-0-7864-5785-4
ebook 978-0-7864-5561-4