RSS
 

Archive for October, 2015

Classic Sports Card of The Day

08 Oct

63fleerburford

1963 Fleer football card of former pro football receiver Chris Burford, who played his entire eight year career in the American Football League for the Dallas Texans, who later moved to Kansas City and became the Chiefs. Burford was an astute route runner and a favorite target of the Chiefs’ star quarterback of that era – Len Dawson. Burford was a clutch receiver who was very underrated, although he was a two-time AFL All Star, and also played on a pair of AFL title teams, in 1962 with the Texans, and again in ’66 with the Chiefs club that advanced to the very first Super Bowl against Green Bay.

 

NFL – Bills’ Game Review

04 Oct

The 2015 NFL schedule has now completed the first quarter of the season, and one conclusion can be drawn so far about the Buffalo Bills. They are wildly inconsistent, and have a real problem with undisciplined play. Sunday’s 24-10 loss to the New York Giants was a prime example of the “bad” Bills. Just like the New England game two weeks ago, the Bills were outplayed, outcoached and out of control as they took one personal foul penalty after another. It seems like Buffalo puts together a great game plan, goes out and executes it to near perfection and pulls out an impressive win, then they follow that up with a performance where they appear to have read too many of their press clippings and can just show up and easily defeat their opponent without any effort. And when that opponent, in this week’s case the Giants, takes it to them in the trenches and dominates the game, they respond with childish, macho actions after the whistle and wind up embarrassing themselves. Coach Rex Ryan has to figure out how to get his players focused each and every game so that they put in a consistent effort against every opponent, not just in the games after they’ve been humiliated. This game followed the same blueprint as the Patriots’ contest. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor was under siege early on and the running game produced nothing. It was an abysmal performance by the offensive line. Just like in the New England debacle, Taylor righted himself in the second half and guided the offense to touchdown drives. Unfortunately, two of those scores were nullified by bad penalties, the kind of mistakes players make when they’re not prepared to play. Overall, it just looked like the Giants wanted this win more than the Bills. Were there any positives to come out of this game? Rookie running back Karlos Williams didn’t fare very well in his first opportunity as a feature back with LeSean McCoy sidelined, gaining only 40 yards on 18 carries. He did, however, score a touchdown for the fourth consecutive week by hauling in a nifty 23 yard scoring pass from Taylor. On the drive where the Giants gained most of their yardage through dumb Buffalo penalties, Stephon Gilmore came up with an interception, Mario Williams deposited a Giant runner on his head with an emphatic tackle, and Corey Graham had a solid game at safety with 13 tackles and a sack. None of that could stem the tide of the poor play, bad penalties, missed tackles and general bad execution by the Bills. Next week’s opponent is the Tennessee Titans, led by rookie QB Marcus Mariota, who is enduring typical growing pains while learning on the job and should be an easy mark for the Bills’ defense, which will be in its’ bi-weekly, angry and ready- to- redeem themselves mode.

 
No Comments

Posted in Football

 

Classic Team Logo of The Day

04 Oct

skinsalt6065

This is an alternate logo of a team that plays in the National Football League, the Washington Redskins, used from 1960 until 1965. Although the team has been a fairly successful NFL franchise, they did not manage a winning season during this era, and in fact had the worst record in franchise history (1-12-1) in 1961. They also were involved in a controversy involving the integration of the team, as owner George Preston Marshall, an avowed racist, had refused to allow a black player on his roster. Under pressure from the U.S. government, Marshall finally relented in 1962 and traded with the Cleveland Browns for Bobby Mitchell, a halfback who played wide receiver for the ‘Skins and wound up having a Hall of Fame-caliber career.

 

Classic Sports Card of The Day

04 Oct

64toppsbills

1964 Topps football card, a feature of the set known as the “team picture” cards, of the Buffalo Bills. The Bills won the American Football League championship in ’64, however, this team photo is actually of the 1963 Bills, who also had a winning season but wound up tied for first place in the Eastern Division with the Boston Patriots. The teams played a playoff game to decide who would play the San Diego Chargers for the AFL title, and the Pats won 26-8. That game is still the only time the two old AFL rivals have ever met in the post-season.

 

NFL – Throwback Thursday: Norwood’s Nightmare

01 Oct

For the third time in the first four weeks of the young NFL season, the 50th Anniversary celebration season of the Super Bowl, our Throwback Thursday feature game is one that has a pair of clubs matching up on the schedule who previously faced each other in the big game. This week it’s the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills, who met in one of the most exciting Super Bowls ever played, Super Bowl XXV. The game was played under heightened security measures with our country engaged in the first Gulf War, and the atmosphere was a patriotic display of flags waving and a stirring rendition of the National Anthem before the game, provided by Whitney Houston.

 

Super Bowl XXV: New York Giants v Buffalo Bills

Whitney Houston sings the Star Spangled Banner

 

The game featured the Bills and their high-powered “K-Gun” offense, which operated in a hurry-up mode, against coach Bill Parcells’ grind-it-out Giants, who fought their way into the game using a backup quarterback, Jeff Hostetler, and an offensive attack bent on slowing down the game, controlling the ball and minimizing the opponent’s possessions. The Giants had used that tactic to perfection in the NFC Championship game, stifling the high-powered San Francisco 49ers and QB Joe Montana on their way to a 15-13 win. The conservative offensive approach was teamed up with a tough, aggressive defense led by All Pro linebacker Lawrence Taylor. Parcells and defensive coordinator Bill Belichick employed the same tactics against the Bills, sometimes rushing only 2 players and dropping all the other defenders into coverage, daring the Bills to run rather than allowing Buffalo QB Jim Kelly to pick apart the secondary. That strategy allowed Bills’ running back Thurman Thomas to rush for 135 yards on 15 carries, a performance that surely would have won him the game’s Most Valuable Player Award if the Bills had managed to win. Unfortunately for him and the Bills, however, Parcels’ strategy worked, as the Giants controlled the ball for 40 of the game’s 60 minutes, keeping the vaunted Buffalo offense off the field for most of the game. Still, when Thomas ran 31 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, the Bills took a 19-17 lead. New York drove to a Matt Bahr field goal to retake the lead at 20-19, setting up a dramatic game-ending drive by the Bills. Kelly drove his club into position for a 47 yard field goal attempt by Scott Norwood, but the Buffalo kicker was wide right and the Giants escaped with the win by the narrowest of margins. It is still, to this day, the only Super Bowl game to be decided on the game’s final play. What became known as the “Wide Right” game formed Norwood’s lasting legacy, which is really not fair considering he was only a 50/50 proposition from the 47 yard distance on grass for his career, and he had made a lot of kicks during the regular season to help get his team into the big game.

scott-norwood-super-bowl-xxv

A dejected Scott Norwood leaves the field as Super Bowl XXV ends

 

Classic Team Logo of The Day

01 Oct

cardchamps4748

Logo of an old team from the National Football League, the Chicago Cardinals, used to commemorate the team’s 1947 championship season along with their Western Division title the following year. Players who starred for the Cardinals in that era include Paul Christman, Charley Trippi, Pat Harder, Red Cochran and Buster Ramsey. Incidentally, 1947 was the last year the Cardinal franchise, which relocated to St. Louis in 1960 and later to Arizona, won an NFL title.

 

Classic Sports Card of The Day

01 Oct

82toppsottisanderson

1982 Topps football card of former NFL running back Ottis Anderson, who split a 14 year career between the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Giants. He was named Rookie of The Year with the Cardinals in 1979 and was named to the Pro Bowl twice. Anderson had his greatest success with the Giants, helping them to a pair of Super Bowl titles, including Super Bowl XXV when he was named the game’s MVP. “O.J.” has kept busy in his post-playing days, as a successful entrepreneur and with involvement in many community organizations, including United Way, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.