Logo of another Continental Football League team, the Charleston Rockets. The Rockets played in the league in all four years of its’ existence, three in Charleston before moving to Dallas for the CFL’s final season of 1969. The Rockets defeated the Toronto Rifles to win the league’s first championship in ’65, completing a perfect 14-0 season. The club’s most famous alumnus is defensive end Coy Bacon, who would go on to play 14 seasons with 4 different teams in the NFL, making four Pro Bowls.
1981 Topps football card of former NFL placekicker Ray Wersching. A native of Austria, Wersching played four seasons with the San Diego Chargers, then was lucky enough to hook up with the San Francisco 49ers during their golden years under coach Bill Walsh. He kicked for the Niners for 11 seasons, helping them win two Super Bowls. Wersching’s style of placekicking was unique, as he would run onto the field for every field goal or extra point attempt with his head down, never looking up until after he kicked the ball.
The Buffalo Bills, although they are on their way to another losing season, have been competitive in almost every game so far. That wasn’t the case on Sunday against the Steelers in Pittsburgh. After being humiliated by New England 55-31 last week, the Steelers, one of the NFL’s proudest franchises, were sure to come out with extra motivation against the Bills, and they did. They completely shut down rookie QB EJ Manuel and the Buffalo offense and coasted to a 23-10 win. There really was nothing whatsoever positive about the offense’s performance, except maybe for rookie tight end Chris Gragg scoring his first NFL touchdown to finish up a garbage time TD drive at the end of the game. Then again, Gragg had at least a couple of drops during the game. Manuel played like he wasn’t ready to return after missing games with a knee injury, as he consistently missed open receivers and looked antsy in the pocket. It didn’t help him that the running game did little to help. The Bills’ defense played a decent game again, getting a turnover on Jairus Byrd’s interception, registering four sacks on Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger (2 from Jerry Hughes) and holding Pittsburgh to field goals on all but two drives. Actually, it should have been all but one drive, but Marcell Dareus jumped offsides on a field goal attempt to hand the Steelers a first down and a second chance to score a touchdown, which they naturally capitalized on. That penalty was a continuation of the totally inexcusable mistakes the team has been making all season. With the season now 10 weeks old, the coaching staff deserves a lot of blame for not having this team playing disciplined football. The “young” team excuse doesn’t wash at this point. One negative in the Bills’ defensive performance was the play of cornerback Stephon Gilmore. Once again, he had a target on his back all day, and Roethlisberger burned him on third down consistently. Although he’s a high first round draft pick who came into the league with the reputation of being a “lockdown” corner, Gilmore is playing with no confidence at this point, and is the weak link in the secondary. The Bills, for the most part, fought hard all day on defense, only to have Gilmore burned for easy first downs on third down. The punt coverage team gave up 74 yards on 2 returns, setting up the Steelers with great field position with those two long returns. This game was one of those ugly contests that are discouraging to the coaches, players and fans, and showed that Buffalo is just not a team that’s ready for prime time.
Logo of a college football team from the Big Ten Conference, the Iowa Hawkeyes. This logo was used from 1962 until 1970. With all the movement of major college programs from conference to conference in recent years, it’s interesting to note that the Hawkeyes have remained in the Big Ten since 1900. Iowa has had one Heisman Trophy winner in its’ history, Nile Kinnick in 1939, and won the national championship in 1958. The program boasts three Pro Football Hall of Famers in Emlen Tunnell, Paul Krause and Andre Tippett. Other former Hawkeyes who played in the NFL are Alex Karras, Ronnie Harmon, John Niland and Chuck Long.
1965 Topps football card of former Buffalo Bills’ lineman Tom Day, a member of the Bills’ back-to-back American Football League championship teams in the 1960s. Day played one season in the NFL with the St. Louis Cardinals, then joined the Bills in 1961, playing on the club’s dominant defense, and also putting in some time on the offensive line at guard. He was an AFL All Star in 1965. Day was traded to San Diego in 1967 for star halfback Keith Lincoln, then returned to the Bills, playing his final season in 1968.
On this week’s NFL schedule of games, the Indianapolis Colts play St. Louis, and a game played in 1967 between these two franchises is the Thursday Throwback feature for this week. Of course, in 1967, Indianapolis had no NFL team, and the professional team in St. Louis was the Cardinals. The Colts were located in Baltimore back then, and the current St. Louis team, the Rams, were based across the country in Los Angeles. Even though the two teams were on opposite coasts, a quirky temporary re-alignment by the NFL that year placed them in the same division, and led to an odd season-ending game between the teams, an ending not seen before then and not possible today under the current league system. The NFL and rival AFL had agreed to a merger in 1966, establishing a common draft of players among both leagues starting right away, and a formation of one league, the NFL, with all the teams from both leagues playing under one commissioner, Pete Rozelle, beginning with the 1970 season. The two leagues, beginning in that 1970 season, would be split into the National and American Conferences.
The old, established NFL decided to freshen up their look for the three remaining “waiting period” seasons by re-aligning into four divisions that weren’t necessarily geographically friendly – the Century, Capitol, Central and Coastal divisions. The Colts and Rams were placed in the Coastal division, and each team played its’ division rivals twice per year. In 1967, with the league still playing a 14 game schedule, the Colts and Rams were both powerful franchises. They played to a 24-24 tie in Baltimore in their first meeting (there was no regular season overtime in those days), and were slated to play again on the season’s final Sunday. Amazingly, both clubs entered that final showdown undefeated, with matching 11-0-2 records. Because there was no “wild card” playoff format at the time, it meant that the winner of that regular season finale showdown would win the Coastal crown, and the loser was out in the cold, even though the other three division champs had all won only 9 games apiece. So the ultimate showdown “winner-take-all” battle took place on December 17, at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The hometown Rams defended their turf in style, routing Don Shula’s Colts 34-10 to win the division. Ram quarterback Roman Gabriel threw three touchdown passes and clearly outplayed his more heralded opponent, John Unitas, who was harassed by the Rams’ “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line, led by Deacon Jones and Merlin Olsen, all day long. Unitas was intercepted twice and sacked four times (unofficially since sacks were not an official statistic then). The celebration in Los Angeles was short-lived. The Rams lost to Green Bay in the playoffs the next week, with the Packers advancing to the NFL championship against Dallas in what would become the “Ice Bowl”.
Ram DE Deacon Jones harasses Baltimore’s John Unitas
Logo of the Jersey Jays football team, which played one season in the Continental Football League, in 1969, the league’s final year. The Jays, unlike other teams in the league, served as a “farm team” for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns. Legend has it that the late Clarence Clemons, saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, played briefly for the Jays. In his autobiography, “The Big Man” claimed to have been scouted by the Browns.
1962 Topps football card of former NFL quarterback Roman Gabriel. The 1962 set included, on every card, a black-and-white “action” shot of each player. This card was Gabriel’s rookie card, and also is an “error” card. Since Gabriel hadn’t yet played in the NFL, there were no action shots of him, so the inset appears to be Giants’ QB Y.A. Tittle (with his number altered). Gabriel was one of the top signal-callers of the 1960s and early ’70s, playing 16 NFL seasons, mostly for the Los Angeles Rams. He was a four-time Pro Bowler, and was named NFL MVP in 1969. Gabriel’s post-career activities included stints in broadcasting and acting.
The Buffalo Bills started the second half of the 2013 season at home against unbeaten Kansas City on Sunday the same way they’ve played for most of the first half. They played a competitive game, yet made enough mistakes to basically hand the Chiefs their ninth win, 23-13. Buffalo’s offense was handcuffed by having to use undrafted rookie Jeff Tuel at quarterback due to a rib injury suffered by Thad Lewis, who held the job the past few weeks because the regular starter, EJ Manuel, is also hurt. Tuel played well enough to give his team a chance to win, but his third quarter interception that Sean Smith returned 100 yards for a KC touchdown turned the game around. It was a 14 point swing that a young, unstable team like Buffalo has shown it is unable to overcome. That pick-six, along with T.J. Graham’s fourth quarter fumble that Tamba Hali scooped up and ran in for another TD, were the only touchdowns the Chiefs were able to score, and they were gifts courtesy of a Bills’ team that is starting to make plays like that a habit. Add in a block in the back penalty that wiped out a punt return touchdown by Leodis McKelvin early in the game, and you have the recipe Buffalo used on Sunday to put their season record at 3-6. The Bills’ defense held KC in check most of the day, with the only negative for that unit being Stephon Gilmore’s inability to cover anybody. Gilmore, since returning to the lineup from a broken wrist, has looked tentative and has actually become a target for opposing passers instead of the “lockdown” cornerback he’s supposed to be.
The Bills lost, and it’s disheartening, but there were a lot of positives in their effort against an unbeaten foe. Tuel, like Lewis, played well enough for his team to win, and his 59 yard TD pass to Marquise Goodwin was a thing of beauty. He kept drives alive all day with key third down conversions, but just couldn’t finish those drives, although some drops by his tight end Scott Chandler didn’t help his cause. The Bills’ running game, as usual, was impressive. Fred Jackson was his usual hard-running self, and the week off to rest his bad ankle did C.J. Spiller a world of good, as he rushed for 116 yards on only 12 carries and ripped off a couple of great long runs. The defense played another impressive game – Kiko Alonso and Jerry Hughes registered sacks, and Aaron Williams was a tackling machine in the secondary. Overall, they held the Chiefs to 210 total yards, while Buffalo’s offense amassed 470. The two six-point turnovers were the difference, and this game slipping away was not unlike the game against the Jets earlier in the year, when Rex Ryan’s team was penalized 20 times and still managed to beat the Bills. The Bills’ coaching staff needs to use the remaining 7 games in this season to reverse the team’s trend of finding ways to give away games, to stop beating themselves. To cut out costly penalties and turnovers. Until they do that, well, eventually the “young” team label will become the “losing” team label, the same one they’ve worn under the past four coaching staffs.
Logo of a pro football team from the old Continental Football League, the Chicago Owls. The Owls played in the league in its’ final two season of existence in 1968 and ’69. They played their home games at Soldier Field, occupying the lakefront stadium a couple of years prior to when the NFL’s Bears moved there.