Caste Football Time Machine

[Don Wassall]

Letter to the Editor, August 1994 issue of The Nationalist Times newspaper:

You touched upon some important topics in your outstanding editorial on the O. J. Simpson murder case in the July issue. I particularly agree with your assertion that black athletes are given far more hype and commercial endorsements than white athletes.

I also agree that this is being done because of the system’s desperately fanatical attempts to make blacks (and integration and miscegenation) more acceptable to whites than would otherwise be the case, along with the long-term plan to phase out all whites except for the ruling class ones.

It was fascinating to watch this year’s baseball season develop, before it was interrupted by a strike. Black “superstars” Ken Griffey, Jr. and Frank Thomas were being given all the hype early on, as they both got off to starts in this year of the “juiced” ball that threatened several longstanding offensive records from the Babe Ruth era. Griffey and Thomas were being made into gods, much like basketball players Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, and others. Commercial endorsements galore and continual stories in Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News were, and are, the order of the day for Thomas and Griffey.

Then, something unexpected and wonderful happened. Two white players began having even better years than Griffey and Thomas. Matt Williams, who had lingered just behind the two black gods in home runs for most of the season, passed both up and was suddenly the player with the best chance to pass the legendary 60 homers of Ruth and 61 of Roger Maris. And Jeff Bagwell suddenly ranked just behind Williams in homers, and first in virtually every other hitting category in the National League, putting together what looked to be the best all-around year since the 1930s.

Neither Williams nor Bagwell has any commercial endorsements. But the media finally began to give them some grudging recognition for their outstanding performances. Both white men are quiet and modest, excellent role models, just the opposite of the typical flashy black athlete, who enjoys celebrating his good plays even more than his fans do, and who seems unable to avoid periodic brushes with the law. But both Bagwell and Williams perform in relative obscurity, because their skin color is politically incorrect in a system in which only blacks are supposed to be the best dunkers, running backs, receivers, boxers, and home run hitters.

There is much more that could – and needs to be – said on the subject of anti-white racism in sports. Though many sports remain mostly or all white, the ones most promoted by the media are becoming almost totally black dominated. It is a curious role reversal: the once all-conquering, all-powerful white man, now impotent and the object of hatred and oppression in the land his forebears built, now devotes much of his non-working energies to cheering on the blacks who have displaced whites in professional sports, while his own life has become regulated, restricted, and increasingly meaningless.

 

[Leonardfan]

Letter to the Editor, August 1994 issue of The Nationalist Times newspaper:

You touched upon some important topics in your outstanding editorial on the O. J. Simpson murder case in the July issue. I particularly agree with your assertion that black athletes are given far more hype and commercial endorsements than white athletes.

I also agree that this is being done because of the system’s desperately fanatical attempts to make blacks (and integration and miscegenation) more acceptable to whites than would otherwise be the case, along with the long-term plan to phase out all whites except for the ruling class ones.

It was fascinating to watch this year’s baseball season develop, before it was interrupted by a strike. Black “superstars” Ken Griffey, Jr. and Frank Thomas were being given all the hype early on, as they both got off to starts in this year of the “juiced” ball that threatened several longstanding offensive records from the Babe Ruth era. Griffey and Thomas were being made into gods, much like basketball players Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, and others. Commercial endorsements galore and continual stories in Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News were, and are, the order of the day for Thomas and Griffey.

Then, something unexpected and wonderful happened. Two white players began having even better years than Griffey and Thomas. Matt Williams, who had lingered just behind the two black gods in home runs for most of the season, passed both up and was suddenly the player with the best chance to pass the legendary 60 homers of Ruth and 61 of Roger Maris. And Jeff Bagwell suddenly ranked just behind Williams in homers, and first in virtually every other hitting category in the National League, putting together what looked to be the best all-around year since the 1930s.

Neither Williams nor Bagwell has any commercial endorsements. But the media finally began to give them some grudging recognition for their outstanding performances. Both white men are quiet and modest, excellent role models, just the opposite of the typical flashy black athlete, who enjoys celebrating his good plays even more than his fans do, and who seems unable to avoid periodic brushes with the law. But both Bagwell and Williams perform in relative obscurity, because their skin color is politically incorrect in a system in which only blacks are supposed to be the best dunkers, running backs, receivers, boxers, and home run hitters.

There is much more that could – and needs to be – said on the subject of anti-white racism in sports. Though many sports remain mostly or all white, the ones most promoted by the media are becoming almost totally black dominated. It is a curious role reversal: the once all-conquering, all-powerful white man, now impotent and the object of hatred and oppression in the land his forebears built, now devotes much of his non-working energies to cheering on the blacks who have displaced whites in professional sports, while his own life has become regulated, restricted, and increasingly meaningless.

A well thought out and astute piece of writing. It's amazing how every single word of something that was written 26 years ago applies today.

 

[La France Blanche]

A well thought out and astute piece of writing. It's amazing how every single word of something that was written 26 years ago applies today.

It really is. All you'd have to do is replace the names of past athletes with contemporary ones and it could be sent to any editor, right now.

 

[Don Wassall]

More quarter-century old material from The Nationalist Times newspaper:

September 1995 issue, editorial titled “Thank you, Cal”: America in many ways has become a place where traditional values and standards have been turned upside down, and sports is no exception. Not too long ago, professional athletes played mostly for pride. All that has changed in the past generation, as the decadence and greed which has ruined everything touched by Big Business and liberalism has come to the world of sports in a big way.

Sports have become commercialized to the core, especially the ones dominated by blacks. Black athletes are glorified by Big Media, especially the arrogant, posturing, taunting, in-your-face mercenary types. Jewelry-bedecked jerks like Deion Sanders get all the attention and big corporate sponsorship contracts, while equally accomplished but much more modest-acting white athletes labor in obscurity. Even Dennis Rodman – who would probably be in prison for his antics if he were white – continues to do many commercials and enjoy a continuous media limelight.

Seven different black basketball players are currently making movies during their brief off-season. Almost all commercials featuring athletes showcase blacks, as do most of the puff pieces put out by the media. Sports are a prime area in which blacks and their mannerisms are promoted as the epitome of masculinity and as role models for impressionable young people.

That’s why it was such a magical moment when Cal Ripken, Jr. broke one of baseball’s most hallowed records on September 6th, when he played in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking the great Lou Gehrig’s mark. Gehrig’s streak had always been at the top of lists of baseball records that were thought to be unbeatable.

Baseball is first and foremost a game of numbers and statistics, more so than any other sport. It took Cal Ripken over 13 years to break Gehrig’s mark, doing so in an era when many players will not play when bothered by the least pain or injury, for fear of hurting their chances of getting the big multi-million dollar per year contract they have come to feel entitled to.

Ripken went about his business with a genuinely humble attitude, the kind of character trait that deservedly used to result in great athletes becoming heroes, but which is now lost in a sea of competing megalomaniacs and pampered showboats screaming for attention. This is the era of the prancing and gyrating athlete cheering his own feats, no matter how undistinguished, as wildly as any fan.

But Ripken’s persistence and consistency resulted in a record that brought him the national recognition he deserves. The fans of his team, the Baltimore Orioles, game him a 22-minute standing ovation after he broke the record, in a sweet, all-American celebration that will be remembered for many years to come.

Cal Ripken is a true hero of Middle America, personifier of the virtues and values and work ethic the great silent majority still aspires to even after decades of being bombarded with ever increasing doses of liberal poison.

That this country can still produce a modest hero with the values of Cal Ripken, Jr. gives us hope. That there are still so many Americans out there – unrepresented politically but still filled with the desire to see a return to the American Way of Life – who appreciate the virtues of Cal Ripken is proof positive that this country can and will be returned to the productive people who deserve nothing less than a government which will reflect their values and interests.

December 1995 issue: The recent World Series between the Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians caused much moaning and gnashing of teeth at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and The Oregonian. The two papers on the cutting edge of political correctness have banned the use of any sports names referring to American Indians. Thus the guilt-ridden white liberal reporters were forced to continuously refer to “Atlanta” and the “Atlanta baseball team” and “Cleveland” and the “Cleveland baseball team.” Maybe someday the Washington Redskins will change their name to the Washington White Liberal Losers in honor of the subversive bipeds who traipse the Capitol. . . . . . . . . . . . The University of Miami football team, long populated by a generous helping of inner city thugs who engage in outrageously poor sportsmanship and hot-dogging and are allowed to get away with it because of their “oppressed backgrounds,” has admitted guilt on six of ten charges made against it by the NCAA, but still denies the most damaging allegation – lack of institutional control by the university. . . . . . . . . . . . . The NFL in 1994 was 69% black, up from 65% black in 1993. In 1969, the league was 33% black, in 1982 51% black. Nearly 90% of starters on defense are black. There are no white cornerbacks in the entire 30-team league, and no prominent white wide receivers and running backs, in fact there isn’t a single white running back among the top 50 rushers in the league. The Philadelphia Eagles were the only NFL team to start more than three whites on defense in 1995. Most teams have one or no whites at all starting at the eleven defensive positions. With five white starters (and another projected starter out for the season because of injury), the Eagles have the league’s second best defense.

February 1996 issue: Some of the players participating in Super Bowl XXX apparently could afford to pay for some of the commercials aired during the broadcast, which went for a cool $1 million each (and which bedazzled the already fevered viewers with their high-tech wizardry). At least some of the Dallas Cowboys had enough to hire a limousine to take them to practice each day, for which they paid $1,000 a day to arrive in wealth-flaunting style. As Nate Newton, the Cowboys’ 350-pound offensive lineman said, “We’re stars aren’t we? Why shouldn’t we act like stars then?” . . . . . . . . The anti-White media, always on the alert for White racism, even in the almost all-black NFL, spread rumors that Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman is a “racist” because he supposedly yells mostly at black players. The controversy was defused when some of Aikman’s black teammates stuck up for him. Black player Charles Haley noted the obvious: “Ninety percent of the team is black. So when Troy yells at someone, he is usually going to be black.” Other than Aikman, fullback Daryl Johnston, tight end Jay Novacek, and offensive lineman Mark Tunei (who is half white half Samoan), all of Dallas’ starters are black. . . . . . . . . . In the National Basketball Association this season, there are only two whites among the top 50 scorers in the league: Boston’s Dino Radja is 21st in scoring with a 20.3 points per game average, while Tom Gugliotta of the Minnesota Timberwolves ranks 40th, averaging 16.4 ppg. Overall, however, the NBA is somewhat less black-dominated than the NFL these days. In the NFL there are virtually no white stars outside of the quarterback position, while most NBA teams have a capable white starter, and a few teams have more than one. There are a fair amount of good white players in the NBA, although the only superstar is John Stockton, Utah’s assist wizard who is nearing the end of his career. For example, of the top ten players in field goal percentage, five are white. In 3-point field goal percentage, six of the top ten are white, including the top three. A continuing influx of star European players into the league is helping to keep a white presence. . . . . . . Black supremacists and self-hating whites everywhere were mortified when white rookie Brent Barry of the Los Angeles Clippers won the slam dunk contest at this year’s NBA All-Star game festivities. Barry twice began his jump from the free throw line and dunked before returning to earth, an amazing feat that had previously been accomplished only by black demigods Julius Erving and Michael Jordan. The son of Hall of Famer Rick Barry, Brent showed a sly racial pride after winning the contest, saying, “I was going to wear a T-shirt that said ‘White Men CAN Jump,’ but I didn’t want to burst anyone’s bubble.” Brent is one of three basketball-playing sons of Rick; one other son is in the NBA, while the youngest son is a star player with Georgia Tech and will probably be a first round draft choice. Besides Barry’s win in the slam dunk contest, white player Tim Legler of the Washington Bullets won the league’s three-point shooting contest.

April 1996 issue: Seems the newest trend among NBA players is physically abusing referees. Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman – the freak who had already been fined or suspended 13 times for various team and league infractions – was suspended for six games for head-butting a ref. Then Nick Van Exel of the Los Angeles Lakers knocked a referee off his feet and onto a scorer’s table. After Van Exel’s behavior, the media went to his teammate Magic Johnson, who, like several other black athletes, is hyped by the power structure like some kind of god – to the point of being featured on the front cover of Newsweek recently wearing a Superman costume – for words of wisdom. Johnson strongly condemned Van Exel’s action, stating how much the players had changed since he entered the league in 1979. Then, four days later, yet another referee was physically bumped by a player. The player this time – none other than Magic Johnson!

 

[Don Wassall]

Came across this letter to the editor in a 1967 Sports Illustrated and it reminded me of Cris Collinsworth, who once claimed Donovan McNabb while on his knees could throw a football 80 yards with a flick of his wrist. Whoever wrote this about Terry Hanratty for SI was the Collinsworth of his day, albeit one who wasn't anti-White:

"In your September 11 college football issue it was stated that Terry Hanratty can throw a 50-yard pass 'without letting it rise more than 10 feet off the ground.' If you assume that he releases the ball at the goal line from a point 6 1/2 feet above the ground and merely hits the 50-yard line without allowing the ball to rise higher than 10 feet -- and even neglect air resistance -- then the ball still must be thrown at 255 mph at an angle of 7 degrees to the horizontal. This is more than twice the speed that anyone has ever thrown anything. Please try to stick to meaningful assertions and let Notre Dame's performance attest to its players' superhuman capabilities. Bill Shanks, East Lansing, Mich."

Hanratty, from Notre Dame as the writer mentioned, at a time when ND had a larger national following than it does now, was drafted in the second round by the Steelers in 1969, Chuck Noll's first season as head coach. Terry Bradshaw was drafted first overall the next year and for several years Hanratty was considered a threat to win the starting QB job as Bradshaw struggled for several seasons. Black QB Joe Gilliam notably started some games in 1974 before Bradshaw won back the job for good and led the team to their first Super Bowl victory that season.

But Hanratty was a bust, with 842 passing yards his single season best and finishing after 8 NFL seasons with 24 TD passes vs. 35 picks and just 2,510 total passing yards, and he only reached that very paltry yardage total despite starting 18 games.

 

[Don Wassall]

Have some time today and was perusing the September 18, 1967 Sports Illustrated, the big story in the issue being "Pro Football 1967." You can read the previews and the rest of the issue here: https://vault.si.com/vault/1967/09/18/43117-toc

On the front cover is running back Tommy Mason of the Rams, who was the first overall pick of the draft in 1961 by the expansion Vikings. He had a decent but not great career, rushing for 4,203 yards over 11 seasons with an average rush of 4.0.

The online articles don't have the accompanying pictures, all of the full-page variety, so I'll detail each one and what the captions say, of both White and Black players. The NFL at this time was about 25 to 30 percent black, or over twice the Black proportion of the population, not an unreasonable number as the NFL and AFL were thoroughly integrated in the 1960s. The Caste System became much more extreme over time, with today's template pretty well cemented in place by 1985.

The first picture, accompanying the write-up of the "Coastal Division" -- the NFL had some weird division names for a few years -- shows WR Raymond Berry of the Colts. The caption reads: "Raymond Berry of the Colts, whose NFL records outstrip all others, is 34 but still the master of sideline receivers."

The next page has a picture of RB Ken Willard of the 49ers. Wearing the number 40, in this pose he bears a strong resemblance to Mike Alstott, powerful and determined. "Ken Willard of the 49ers depends on strength to bull through lines. He leads the division's best backfield," reads the caption. It wasn't too long after that that Whites magically lost the ability to run the ball, even as power runners. Despite dominating strongman contests and despite the number of premium White athletes one currently finds in the NFL at tight end, that ability was remarkably lost when the careers of Larry Csonka and John Riggins wound down. Alstott briefly flickered memories of what used to be, but it looks like post-Alstott decades if not generations will go by until we see another White power back in the league.

The full-page picture accompanying the "Central Division" write-up shows running back Donny Anderson of the Packers. The caption states: "Donny Anderson of Green Bay, the long-striding halfback with fullback size, led '66 team in kickoff returns." The Packers also of course had Jim Taylor, the bruising fullback/running back, but again White men magically can no longer run with a football in their hands with an exception every 30 years or so.

The next picture is of Gayle Sayers.

The preview of the "Capitol Division" shows RB Dan Reeves of the Cowboys launching himself over some defenders. It reads: "Dan Reeves of Dallas vaulted over more than the Cardinal defense in leading all Cowboy rushers last season." Reeves is much better known for his NFL head coaching career, but he played eight years as a running back, mostly as a backup but did run for 757 yards in 1966 and 603 yards in '67. Not a great athlete, not a bad one, just a typical running back, one who would compare favorably today with many of the mediocrities at the position.

The next full-page picture is of placekicker Charlie Gogolak of the Redskins, a soccer style kicker, then still a rarity, who led Washington in scoring the previous season.

The "Century Division" (yes, some really strange division names that year) has a picture of Cleveland RB Leroy Kelly, who had replaced Jim Brown after Brown's unexpected retirement and was a very good running back.

The next color picture is a full page and two-thirds and is of 8 time Pro Bowler and Hall of Fame cornerback Larry Wilson of the Cardinals. "Larry Wilson of St. Louis, pros' finest pass interceptor, stole ball 10 times in 1966" is the description. Wilson was an all-time great but just as with running back and wide receiver, Whites magically lost their ability to play cornerback, to the point that even White safeties are now almost extinct as well.

The preview then moves to the two AFL divisions, leading off with the West Division and a picture of RB Mike Garrett of the Chiefs. Garrett won the Heisman Trophy in 1965 and was a rookie in '66. What's interesting about Garrett's rookie season is that he split carries with Bert Coen. Coen was 6'5" and 220 pounds and had 521 rushing yards in '66 with 7 TDs and two hundred yard games, while Garrett ran for 801 yards with 6 TDs. Just as with White power runners, when was the last time you saw a tall White RB in the NFL? I can't think of any other than Brad Muster, who played for the Bears during the Mike Ditka coaching era.

Clem Daniels of the Raiders was pictured on the next page.

Moving to the East preview, the first picture is of Bobby Burnett, a running back for the Bills. Looking up his stats, Burnett ran for 766 yards as a rookie in '66 but must have suffered a serious injury as he had just 96 yards in '67 and then 9 yards with Denver in '68 and was done.

RB Jim Nance of the Patriots was shown on the last picture in SI's NFL preview issue.

So that's a nice little snapshot of how much different a fully integrated NFL looked in the mid to late 1960s, with White stars and superstars at all of today's "taboo" positions.

 

[sport historian]

I remember seeing all the players mentioned on TV and reading about them in the sports magazines of the time.

Tommy Mason was a very good (short of great) player from 1962-65. He made the Pro Bowl (Pro Football Reference) three straight years (1962-64). Mason was having another good year in 1965 but tore up a knee after 10 games. He was never the same again. You have to take this into consideration regarding Tommy Mason.

In the early 60s, fullback and halfback were considered separate positions. Jim Brown and Jim Taylor were fullbacks. Tommy Mason and the Eagles Timmy Brown were halfbacks. There was a minor debate over who was better, Tommy Mason or Timmy Brown.

Mason had another knee injury and operation in 1966. The Vikings traded him and a tight end, Hal Bedsole, to the Rams for draft choices. It was thought Mason and Dick Bass would make an all-star (why Mason was on the SI Pro Football Preview cover) backfield, but Les Josephson beat Mason out. Mason started some games in 1968 when Josephson tore up HIS knee. After 1968 Tommy Mason was strictly a spot player. George Allen traded for him in 1971 along with a bunch of other Rams.

Larry Wilson was not a cornerback, he was a free safety his entire career (1960-72). It was Larry Wilson who pioneered the "safety blitz." Jim Brown, in his 1964 book, called Wilson the best safety he ever played against. Brown said on several occasions he broke free for a long TD run but Larry Wilson cut him down.

Dan Reeves, as mentioned, had two good years for the Cowboys, you will recall him throwing a halfback pass to Lance Rentzel for the lead in the 1967 Ice Bowl. In 1968, Reeves had a season-ending knee injury. Notice how often this happened to RBs in those days? They usually came back after an operation but were almost never as good again. Gale Sayers had his knee injured during the 1968 season.

The Cowboys replaced Reeves in 1968 with a White player, Craig Baynham, and drafted Calvin Hill for 1969. Reeves was a backup the rest of his playing career, before joining the Cowboy coaching staff.

Bobby Burnett gained nearly a thousand yards for Arkansas in 1965 as an I-formation tailback, drafted by the Bills he had a good year in 1966. And he wrecked his knee during pre-season 1967, never effective again.

Notice how many RBs had serious knee injuries during the late 60s? The sports medicine of the time didn't help much.

Just remembered, Tucker Fredrickson had a good rookie year for the Giants in 1965 and tore up a knee in a training camp drill in 1966.

 

[Don Wassall]

I confused Cardinals all-time great safety Larry Wilson with Cardinals all-time great cornerback Roger Wehrli. But the points regarding cornerback (and safety) stand, two positions that had great White players through the years, until they didn't. There's still a few outstanding White safeties here and there but the overall trend at that position like all defensive positions has been negative for a long time.

 

[Bucky]

Interesting @sport historian as I always figured the knee injuries are more prevalent now than in the past..

 

[Freethinker]

Thank you both for a detailed glimpse into the past. One I never got to experience, as I was born around the time Don says the Caste System was well cemented.

 

[HaywoodZarathustra]

Every now and then I'll watch some old game from the seventies and scan the comments. Here is the Raiders at Broncos from '73 and a comment below:

"a lot more white guys back then. Why is the NFL pushing them out. They did invent, play and coach the game ,with almost every play out there. Affirmitive action or something? Black guys crying racism , pushing there way onto the field. I dont get it."

 

[Don Wassall]

This may or not be of interest to young readers, but older ones will remember this. After one of the usual very hard-hitting games between the Steelers and Raiders in 1977, Steelers head coach Chuck Noll said that Oakland safety George Atkinson was part of a "criminal element" in the NFL. Atkinson then sued Noll for slander and the case ended up going to trial in a federal court in San Francisco.

The jury consisted of four women and two elderly men. According to the Sports Illustrated article about the trial, none of them knew anything about football. Atkinson's main attorney was none other than Willie Brown, the notorious militant California legislator who many years later allegedly "dated" Kamala Harris.

Under cross-examination by a different one of Atkinson's attorneys, Noll added Raiders safety Jack Tatum to the league's "criminal element" -- Tatum may have been the hardest hitting defensive back ever, including a hit that paralyzed Patriots WR Darrell Stingley -- but Noll also conceded that Mel Blount, Joe Greene, Ernie Holmes and Glen Edwards, all starters on Pittsburgh's defense, were also part of the league's criminal element. All the mentioned members of the "criminal element" were black; while most properly trained DWFs today would probably think first of Jack Lambert and likely haven't even heard of the others other than Joe Greene. Blount then turned around and sued Noll for calling him a criminal.

Al Davis was firmly in outlaw mode then and besides the pissing match between the two organizations, Davis and then Commissioner Pete Rozelle were enemies, with Rozelle and the league siding with the Steelers.

The jury came back with a verdict of no slander and no damages suffered by Atkinson. This may have been in part because Atkinson had had several brushes with the law and already had a bad reputation and slander and libel are about proving damage to one's reputation.

Anyone who wants to travel back to 1977 and read about this can go here: https://vault.si.com/vault/1977/08/01/a-walk-on-the-sordid-side The Raiders and Steelers in the '70s genuinely hated each other going back to Franco Harris's "Immaculate Reception" in 1972 and their regular matchups in the playoffs were always great theater and nasty too.

If you want to see the hit by Atkinson on Swann (who was regularly brutalized by defensive backs during his career) go to the 10 second and 20 second marks of this short video. It was after the one at the 20 second mark that Noll make his famous criminal element remarks:

 

[sport historian]

This may or not be of interest to young readers, but older ones will remember this. After one of the usual very hard-hitting games between the Steelers and Raiders in 1977, Steelers head coach Chuck Noll said that Oakland safety George Atkinson was part of a "criminal element" in the NFL. Atkinson then sued Noll for slander and the case ended up going to trial in a federal court in San Francisco.

The jury consisted of four women and two elderly men. According to the Sports Illustrated article about the trial, none of them knew anything about football. Atkinson's main attorney was none other than Willie Brown, the notorious militant California legislator who many years later allegedly "dated" Kamala Harris.

Under cross-examination by a different one of Atkinson's attorneys, Noll added Raiders safety Jack Tatum to the league's "criminal element" -- Tatum may have been the hardest hitting defensive back ever, including a hit that paralyzed Patriots WR Darrell Stingley -- but Noll also conceded that Mel Blount, Joe Greene, Ernie Holmes and Glen Edwards, all starters on Pittsburgh's defense, were also part of the league's criminal element. All the mentioned members of the "criminal element" were black; while most properly trained DWFs today would probably think first of Jack Lambert and likely haven't even heard of the others other than Joe Greene. Blount then turned around and sued Noll for calling him a criminal.

Al Davis was firmly in outlaw mode then and besides the pissing match between the two organizations, Davis and then Commissioner Pete Rozelle were enemies, with Rozelle and the league siding with the Steelers.

The jury came back with a verdict of no slander and no damages suffered by Atkinson. This may have been in part because Atkinson had had several brushes with the law and already had a bad reputation and slander and libel are about proving damage to one's reputation.

Anyone who wants to travel back to 1977 and read about this can go here: https://vault.si.com/vault/1977/08/01/a-walk-on-the-sordid-side The Raiders and Steelers in the '70s genuinely hated each other going back to Franco Harris's "Immaculate Reception" in 1972 and their regular matchups in the playoffs were always great theater and nasty too.

If you want to see the hit by Atkinson on Swann (who was regularly brutalized by defensive backs during his career) go to the 10 second and 20 second marks of this short video. It was after the one at the 20 second mark that Noll make his famous criminal element remarks:

I remember it very well. It started with Atkinson's hitting Swann in the neck during the 1975 AFC Title Game, knocking him out of the game with a concussion. Swann came back with his most famous performance in Super Bowl X.

George Atkinson caused another incident in the 1976 Raiders-Patriots playoff game. NE Tight End Russ Francis ran down the field. Oakland Strong Safety Atkinson (the ball went elsewhere) elbowed Francis breaking his nose. Don Meredith, at that time working for NBC, said on air, "If Atkinson can't do the job the right way, get off the field." I don't recall a penalty. The officials "never see it" when they are following where the ball is.

The SI article didn't tell that Lance Alworth (who had played against Atkinson) testified for Atkinson and the Raiders. Alworth looked at the films shown during the trial and said DBs tried that on him all the time during his playing days.

Johnny Sample, a famous "dirty" CB during the 60s, said in his book, "Confessions of a Dirty Ballplayer," that he tried to taunt Lance Alworth but soon gave up: "He didn't frown, react, speak, or anything. I just went back to trying to cover him, which was hard enough."

Lynn Swann seemed to attract dislike from his opponents, maybe due to his "nice guy" image. It took Swann a long time to get in the HOF. When selectors asked former players to compare Swann to Steve Largent, Raider DBs Lester Hayes and others said Largent was better than Swann.

I was unimpressed at the time by Chuck Noll's charges. No team in the 70s made more dirty hits than Noll's Steelers.

 

[HaywoodZarathustra]

Anyone here ever read Tatum's book "They Call Me Assassin"? He lived to injure people on the field. Claimed he felt he wasn't doing his job if receivers weren't waking up on the sidelines with train whistles sounding off in their heads. Tatum said that the players he hated to play the most were the ones who played fearlessly no matter what he did, like Howard Twilley. He also said he used to tackle Floyd Little so hard that "poor Floyd's eyes would roll up into his head and he'd go limp on the field." Also claimed his tactics didn't work on Larry Csonka, who he was constantly being abused by.

If you read up on those 60's through early eighties Raiders, it wasn't just Atkinson and Tatum. You wonder if Al Davis paid some of those guys to injure opposing players. There was Ben Davidson trying to kill Joe Namath. Lester Hayes spearing kicker Rolf Benirschke in the stomach with his helmet when it was common knowledge he had Crohn's Disease.

Maybe Don knows better than anyone here, being that he lives near Pittsburgh, but wasn't it the Raiders and Steelers who got the steroid train rolling in the seventies? Maybe there were always a few players using, but with the deaths of players like Lyle Alzado, John Matuszak, Steve Courson, Mike Webster, Joe Gilliam, etc., it seemed to get the ball rolling in that direction for loads of players. Here's one story...

LA Times story links possible steroid use to deaths of Steelers

By Rob Malsom Herald Sports Writer I WAS RECENTLY reading a very interesting article on the Pittsburgh Steelers by Sam Farmer of The Los Angeles Times. The story concerned the

www.sharonherald.com

 

[Don Wassall]

Maybe Don knows better than anyone here, being that he lives near Pittsburgh, but wasn't it the Raiders and Steelers who got the steroid train rolling in the seventies? Maybe there were always a few players using, but with the deaths of players like Lyle Alzado, John Matuszak, Steve Courson, Mike Webster, Joe Gilliam, etc., it seemed to get the ball rolling in that direction for loads of players. Here's one story...

LA Times story links possible steroid use to deaths of Steelers

By Rob Malsom Herald Sports Writer I WAS RECENTLY reading a very interesting article on the Pittsburgh Steelers by Sam Farmer of The Los Angeles Times. The story concerned the

www.sharonherald.com

Some sad demises listed in that article. Mike Webster suffered various maladies for years and died of brain disease when he was just 50. He admitted only to "experimenting" with steroids in his 20s and he certainly didn't look like a user as he was extremely powerful but wasn't bulked up. Looking at his Wikipedia article just now I found this: "It has been speculated that Webster's ailments were due to wear and tear sustained over his playing career; some doctors estimated he had been in the equivalent of '25,000 automobile crashes' in over 25 years of playing football at the high school, college and professional levels."

Sport Historian might know more about this topic than me. My main memory of the '70s and '80s and drug usage was a federal trial that took place in Pittsburgh in 1985. The Pirates locker room was a place heavily visited by drug dealers for several years, who sold to various Pirates players and players on other teams when they played the Pirates on the road. Their manager was easy going Chuck Tanner, who apparently was completely oblivious to what was taking place right under his nose.

Cocaine was the drug of choice and to quote from Wikipedia again: "The Pittsburgh drug trials of 1985 were the catalyst for a Major League Baseball-related cocaine scandal. Several current and former members of the Pittsburgh Pirates – Dale Berra, Lee Lacy, Lee Mazzilli, John Milner, Dave Parker, Rod Scurry – and other notable major league players – Willie Aikens, Vida Blue, Enos Cabell, Keith Hernandez, Jeffrey Leonard, Tim Raines, Lonnie Smith and Alan Wiggins – were called before a Pittsburgh grand jury. Their testimony led to the drug trials, which made national headlines in September 1985.

"Eleven players were officially suspended, but all the suspensions were commuted in exchange for fines, drug testing, and community service The Pittsburgh drug trials are considered one of baseball's biggest all-time scandals, albeit one that was 'behind the scenes' and did not affect play on the field."

 

[sport historian]

Anyone here ever read Tatum's book "They Call Me Assassin"? He lived to injure people on the field. Claimed he felt he wasn't doing his job if receivers weren't waking up on the sidelines with train whistles sounding off in their heads. Tatum said that the players he hated to play the most were the ones who played fearlessly no matter what he did, like Howard Twilley. He also said he used to tackle Floyd Little so hard that "poor Floyd's eyes would roll up into his head and he'd go limp on the field." Also claimed his tactics didn't work on Larry Csonka, who he was constantly being abused by.

If you read up on those 60's through early eighties Raiders, it wasn't just Atkinson and Tatum. You wonder if Al Davis paid some of those guys to injure opposing players. There was Ben Davidson trying to kill Joe Namath. Lester Hayes spearing kicker Rolf Benirschke in the stomach with his helmet when it was common knowledge he had Crohn's Disease.

Maybe Don knows better than anyone here, being that he lives near Pittsburgh, but wasn't it the Raiders and Steelers who got the steroid train rolling in the seventies? Maybe there were always a few players using, but with the deaths of players like Lyle Alzado, John Matuszak, Steve Courson, Mike Webster, Joe Gilliam, etc., it seemed to get the ball rolling in that direction for loads of players. Here's one story...

LA Times story links possible steroid use to deaths of Steelers

By Rob Malsom Herald Sports Writer I WAS RECENTLY reading a very interesting article on the Pittsburgh Steelers by Sam Farmer of The Los Angeles Times. The story concerned the

www.sharonherald.com

I read Tatum's book when it came out. His apologia for the hit on Darryl Stingley received considerable attention. Tatum said he had to play that way or Al Davis would cut his salary or trade him. Tatum ripped Franco Harris for running out of bounds along with "slipping, falling, and caking out" when about to be tackled.

I think Jack Tatum was most responsible for Franco's reputation for running out of bounds. Tatum called him "Sideline Harris."

 

[Don Wassall]

I'd say Franco was most responsible for his reputation for running out of bounds, not anyone else. In his first few years he was like a tank, running through and over people but then he developed his "dainty" style of running out of bounds to avoid contact rather than getting as much as possible out of a play as had always been the standard for running backs previously.

Franco was the first running back to run out of bounds regularly and he was widely criticized and mocked for it initially, including by Jim Brown for many years. (Brown at age 48 or so challenged Franco to a race as Harris closed in on his all-time rushing mark as Brown didn't consider it legitimate the way Harris ran.) But as with all the other changes away from traditional fundamentals in the NFL, what was first criticized was slowly accepted and then became the new norm.

 

[jacknyc]

I see that Puka Naqua broke the rookie receiving yards record, held previously by Bill Groman.

I had never heard of Groman, but found out that "He played in 13 of the 14 games in the (1960) Oilers season, and he caught 72 passes for 1,473 yards with 12 touchdowns...The following year, he played in 13 games and caught 50 passes for 1,175 yards (increasing his yards per catch from 20.5 to 23.5) and a league-high 17 touchdowns."
But like a lot of players football players listed earlier from the 1960s, he sustained a knee injury and was never the same.
It seems he could have been a great one.

Simon: Meet the receiver who outpaced Odell Beckham Jr.

Bill Groman caught 27 touchdown passes in his first 25 games, winning AFL titles with the Houston Oilers in 1960 and 1961. It's a pace we haven't seen again until now, with Odell Beckham. Jr.

www.espn.com

 

[jacknyc]

Another WR I am curious about is Billy Parks.
I came across his name by accident, but it seems like he was another great wide receiver whose career somehow didn't pan out.

During his rookie year - 1971 - he was leading the league in receiving after 10 games, before he broke his arm.
I found these quotes about him.

“He's Dart antelope,” says Weeb Ewbank, the Jets' coach. “He goes up and gets that ball like Marlin Briscoe of the Bills.”
“He's like George Sauer,” says Earlie Thomas, the Jets' cornerback who will cover him Sunday. “He catches the ball anywhere.”
“He's the greatest natural talent I've ever worked with,” says Jim Phillips, a Charger assistant coach. “He's special.”
“Sid Gillman (the late, legendary NFL coach, and Parks coach in his rookie season) said Billy had the best hands of any receiver he’d ever coached,” said Parks’ teammate, Jeff Severson. “That’s about as good a testimonial as you can get.

I am especially intrigued by the last quote coming from a Charger coaches. The Chargers had Lance Alworth up until 1971, and still had Gary Garrison, so to say that Parks was the 'greatest natural talent' and 'had the best hands' is incredibly high praise!

Does anyone here remember Billy Parks?

 

[HaywoodZarathustra]

Reading up on Parks, it seems he's another in a long list of players who had injuries take a toll on him before reaching his potential. He must've had a lasting impression on the Cowboys, because after his single year of 1972 they chose another white receiver about the same size who looked very like him in Golden Richards. And after Golden Richards left they chose another from the same mold in Doug Donley. In sprints Donley was a half step behind Dorsett and on any given day might have been faster.

 

[sport historian]

Another WR I am curious about is Billy Parks.
I came across his name by accident, but it seems like he was another great wide receiver whose career somehow didn't pan out.

During his rookie year - 1971 - he was leading the league in receiving after 10 games, before he broke his arm.
I found these quotes about him.

“He's Dart antelope,” says Weeb Ewbank, the Jets' coach. “He goes up and gets that ball like Marlin Briscoe of the Bills.”
“He's like George Sauer,” says Earlie Thomas, the Jets' cornerback who will cover him Sunday. “He catches the ball anywhere.”
“He's the greatest natural talent I've ever worked with,” says Jim Phillips, a Charger assistant coach. “He's special.”
“Sid Gillman (the late, legendary NFL coach, and Parks coach in his rookie season) said Billy had the best hands of any receiver he’d ever coached,” said Parks’ teammate, Jeff Severson. “That’s about as good a testimonial as you can get.

I am especially intrigued by the last quote coming from a Charger coaches. The Chargers had Lance Alworth up until 1971, and still had Gary Garrison, so to say that Parks was the 'greatest natural talent' and 'had the best hands' is incredibly high praise!

Does anyone here remember Billy Parks?

I remember Billy Parks. He was another White player of the early 70s who didn't always play up to his ability. Parks identified with the emerging counterculture. He was a hands and moves type. Sid Gillman had a soft spot for this kind of WR.

In 1972 with the Cowboys, before a game, Parks refused to stand for the National Anthem.

Before the start of the 1973 season, the Cowboys traded Parks and DE Tody Smith (Bubba Smith's younger brother) to the Oilers for their First and Third Round draft choices in the 1974 Draft. The Cowboys used the picks on Too Tall Jones and Danny White.

 

[Don Wassall]

Parks identified with the emerging counterculture.

As you and I have noted many times, White athletes in the 1970s were often flaky from being influenced by the cultural shifts taking place. The U.S. at the time was still overwhelmingly White and toxic feminism was still in its early stages, but Whites were being trained to reflect the counterculture, which predominated in the media and was associated with being "cool" and an "individual."

Another White WR on the Cowboys in the '70s was Peter Gent, who wrote the book North Dallas Forty, which subsequently became a successful movie with Nick Nolte playing Gent. Gent is perhaps the most well-known example of a White athlete from the 1970s who was influenced by the counterculture and then fought back in his immature way against what he perceived as the establishment of the time.

 

[Don Wassall]

Since I have some time today, I think I'll pat myself on the back a bit with my prescience, though it was overwhelmingly obvious to me and many others at the time. Was going through some "stuff" that I haven't looked at in many a moon and found an article from the long defunct Pittsburgh Press, dated May 26, 1991.

The headline is "Populists Claim No Bias, But Make Race an Issue." This was right after I was elected the National Chairman of the Populist of America after previously serving as its Executive Director. There's a big ass picture of me that takes up a good portion of the page, with an American flag in the background. I tried to find it online but as expected there's no trace of it. It's a long article so will just give a few highlights to let readers know that what we're facing now isn't new, only that much more advanced:

"When you walk through the door of the Populist Party's national headquarters in Ford City (PA), you enter a world far removed from mainstream American politics. The party, dedicated to protecting the rights and values of White Christians and preserving the 'ideals of the Founding Fathers,' operates out of a house on Fifth Avenue (actually it was a fairly large building that was used by various other businesses).

"Inside, Don Wassall, a young lawyer raised in a suburban North Hills Republican household, preaches his party's 'America First' platform with the fervor of a religious convert.

"As the party's national chairman, he blames the media for branding the party as a political haven for skinheads, racists, and anti-Semites. 'We are against all kinds of racial discrimination,' he said. 'But we do not want to see our country become a non-white, non-Christian country. We're going to be a Third World country in a generation.'

"Wassall, who is of English-German descent, said the United States is being undermined by an 'invasion' of illegal immigrants from the Third World and favoritism toward minorities.

"The party favors safeguarding the nation's borders and limiting immigration to citizens of countries with European, Christian roots, he explained. 'All we're saying is that America should be for Americans.'

"Wassall insists the party is not built on a foundation of white supremacy, even though its literature dwells on the problem of race relations. The party's platform for the 1990s says 'the government and media ruthlessly enforce the absurd notion that only whites are capable of racism and that only whites have negative attributes.'

"Wassall said those positions are consistent with the notion that all races, including whites, should have the right to practice their heritage without intrusion by other races or the government. 'A lot of white people think they're being discriminated against and that they've become second-class citizens,' he said.

"'We are trying to bring back the George Wallace coalition,' Wassall said, referring to the legendary Alabama governor and presidential candidate."


So that's a snapshot from 1991. The Populist Party grew very rapidly for several years and had balloted candidates for a decade in the 1980s and '90s. We ran David Duke for President in 1988 and Lt. Col. Bo "Rambo" Gritz in 1992, with both appearing on the ballot in a number of states. In the peak year of 1990 Populist Party candidates ran in every region of the country and averaged 8% of the vote in races against Democrats and Republicans, which was remarkable for an underfunded right wing third party that had no nationally known leader.

It wasn't long after this article appeared though that a concerted effort was made to destroy the Populist Party. We fought back aggressively and ended up eventually winning a civil suit for libel against some of the perps in 1997, but it dragged on for years and a third party can't survive that kind of prolonged intense pressure from much better funded and powerful sources. In the years since nothing has been put together to replace or duplicate what the Populist Party did, but very few people today, even those on the "far right," remember it or know anything about it. Down the memory hole.

 

[Freethinker]

Thanks for sharing and you certainly were able to see the writing on the wall early on while many of the masses are only catching on at this late stage.

I consider you an American hero and will be worthy of statues along side Duke, Wallace, Rockwell, Paul, Buchanan, Carlson, etc when we take back or form a new homeland on this landmass someday. A salute to you sir!

 

[Don Wassall]

Thanks but I'm no hero, just someone who for a long time tried to awaken folks to what was going on while offering solutions and ways for them to get involved. That to me is the American Way.