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There is something I remember about reading magazine articles about Raider players in the 1970's. I recall stories about George Blanda in particular. Blanda was quoted about his admiration for Al Davis, especially "now that I'm playing for him." The player would not say that he was "playing for...

I have written before on the Forum that John Madden was considered by some to be a lightweight as a head coach. This was because with Al Davis (who was Raider coach during 1963-65) as owner, Madden did not have authority over drafting, trades, or cuts. Al Davis had the final say in this area...

The book was titled, "Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play In The NFL." The authors wrote, "And we are not talking about just a few bad apples, here. Our research shows that 21 percent-one of every five-of players in the NFL have been charged with a serious crime." The authors found that...

Tonight, I happened to remember this thread and did a Google search for Justin Armour. I found a "Where are they now?" piece from the Baltimore Sun. The article is from December 28, 2007. In the article, Armour tells of a game-winning catch in overtime in Atlanta: "I'd just come into the...

The best thing about this version of the Bounty saga is that it is historically accurate. The portrayals of Bligh and Christian by Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson were the first time it had been done by the historical record. The movie stops with Christian arriving at Pitcairn's Island with...

One constant I have noticed in the 50 years I have followed football is that it is very rare for a team to trade its starting quarterback to you. It will happen if the QB is considered over the hill or has a bad arm. Another reason is if the QB has become very unpopular with the home fans. An...

Today, Donte Stallworth was charged with DUI Manslaughter. Over the last 15 years, how many current and former pro football players have been charged with either murder or manslaughter? This doesn't include Vick, by the way. Stallworth makes 3 (Little and Goodrich are the other 2) former...

When the story broke, it occured to me that Vick was in worse trouble for torturing dogs (which is a very bad thing) than he would have been if he had beaten up some white people. I also noted that Vick seemed to be treated harsher by the MSM than O.J. Simpson was initially when Simpson was...

I started following football in 1958, age 8. Joe Namath had the best arm anybody had seen when he entered the pros in 1965. Sonny Jurgensen was considered the best pure passer circa 1964, but his arm wasn't as strong as Namath's. Johnny Unitas was said to have the best overall skill of any QB in...

Yes, it was something of a cultural battle, and Namath was indeed a tool. Broadway Joe probably didn't know what some of the left-wing writers were talking about but he enjoyed the ride. There was a biography of Joe Namath a few years ago, in which the author wrote that if anything, Namath was...

The idea of athletes being positive role models really started to change with Joe Namath, especially after the Jets won Super Bowl III. From 1968 on, Namath was lavishly praised in the media for being the agent of this cultural shift.

I remember George Kell from the 1968 World Series. He was an announcer with Curt Gowdy for the 3 games that were played in Tiger Stadium. Harry Caray paired with Gowdy for the games in St. Louis. That was how the announcers for World Series TV games were chosen in that era, a home town announcer...

According to the reports I saw, Stallworth pulled up to a traffic light that was on Red with at least one car stopped in front of him. Rather than wait for the light to turn Green, Stallworth pulled around the stopped car and ran the Red light. The pedestrian naturally thought it was safe to...

I just made a cursory check of the 1st round picks for the 1969 draft, 40 years ago. Some teams had traded away their 1st pick so I counted the 2nd (or 3rd) choice as the first. There were 15 white players picked 1st in 1969 and 11 black. Three of the blacks (Grady Caveness, Eugene Epps, and...

Many years ago, I heard an NFL personnel director discuss what a 1st round draft choice is supposed to do for a team. He said that the player you draft on the 1st round is supposed to start for you in his rookie year. A QB may need a year of watching from the bench, but a first-rounder is...

In a way, Obama is following Bill Clinton's example. The thing about Clinton is that there was no escaping him. He was ALWAYS on TV. Clibton would be saying that something (health care, race relations, etc) needed some government iniative, or was the "right thing to do," and was hectoring the...

Don, thanks for the reply. I seem to remember this point being raised on the Forum a few years ago. Bennett seemed oblivious to the idea of trying to sign where he would have the best playing opportunity. He probably looked only at the immediate dollar sign without considering that even more...

Haven't their been white free agents in the past who insisted on signing with teams that were unlikely to use them?

I recall once seeing Mr. Hardball, Chris Mathews, pontificating on this topic. Mathews said something like, "You've got to like Mexico. You've really got to root for Mexico. The Spanish did it right. They married with the natives. They really did it right, unlike in North America."

Off the top of my head, I would say 60-65%. I recall a columnist writing that the 1977-78 Los Angeles Rams were almost exactly 50-50 with one Mexican, placekicker Frank Corrall. The rest of the league was pretty close to that. In the early 1970's, high schools in the South that had been...

As members of this Forum know, I go back to around 1958 in observing football. Johnny Robinson and Jerry Stovall were safeties in pro football, not cornerbacks. The 1965 Sugar Bowl received some national attention at the time because it was only the second time a team with black players had...

Since Bonds' perjury trial has been delayed, he could in theory play in 2009. While channel surfing, I came across ESPN boosting Bonds for this year. They reluctantly concluded that if no team wanted him in 2008, none will in 2009.

Strictly speaking, the white criminals in this episode were not street gangs. They were supposedly working men who staged brutal fights for enjoyment. Sam Waterston's character called them "hooligans" (what Nifong called the Duke LAX team). He charged them with "terrorism." The black detective...

Wednesday night on TV I saw white gangbangers. They were engaging in fights in public parks in Manhattan. There was a big fight between two gangs. Two people were killed, one an innocent bystander. The Manhattan DA charged them with Terrorism. This was not real life, by the way. It was the...

"It's just a golf tournament now. Not an attraction." This is from a column by Art Spander that I found. The rest is pretty much as Don describes.