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The 2014 National Football League season opens tonight, which means it’s time for the season’s first “Throwback Thursday” post of 2014, which highlights a game of the past that was played between two of the teams scheduled to play each other that week. The Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers open the 2014 campaign against each other on Sunday, and the obvious choice for a “throwback” game between these 2 franchises would be the 1981 NFC Championship game which became forever known as “The Catch”, as Dwight Clark caught a touchdown pass from Joe Montana in the back of the end zone to launch the Niners into a decade of domination. However, we’ll go back to an earlier playoff contest between the two teams, an NFC Divisional playoff game in 1972.

To set the stage for this game, these teams were fast becoming playoff rivals. The Cowboys had eliminated the Niners in 1970 and ’71, and this was a third chance for San Francisco to get revenge. Coach Dick Nolan’s 49ers came out flying, as Vic Washington returned the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown. When Larry Schreiber scored on a pair of one yard plunges to give the 49ers a commanding 21-6 lead, it looked like Dallas’ past dominance was about to end. Cowboy quarterback Craig Morton hit Lance Alworth for a touchdown to bring the Cowboys closer at the half, but when Schreiber scored from a yard out again in the third quarter to up San Fran’s lead to 28-13, it looked like a lost cause. That’s when Dallas coach Tom Landry made the decision to bench Morton, who had struggled all day, in favor of Roger Staubach. At this point, the 49er players figured the game was theirs, and began taunting the Cowboys, but little did they know that Staubach was about to write the first chapter of what would become a string of come-from-behind performances that would earn him the nickname “Captain Comeback”. Staubach proceeded to lead his team on three fourth quarter scoring drives, culminating in a Toni Fritsch field goal and touchdown passes to Billy Parks and Ron Sellers. When the dust settled, Dallas came away with a 30-28 victory, and the San Francisco players who had done the taunting slithered away with their tails between their legs.

 Dallas QB Roger “The Dodger” Staubach leads a stunning comeback

One of the highlights of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony weekend, for me, is touring the Hall itself. In fact, it’s probably better to check out the Hall on a visit that doesn’t include the inductions, since the crowd for the enshrinement is large. The Saturday of the ceremony this year was rainy during the daytime, so the crowd inside the Hall was even bigger than normal. You had to be patient to get to see one of the main attractions, the gallery of Hall of Fame busts, this year. Since I’ve seen the gallery on a few occasions already, I decided to skip it this year, but there were a lot of displays that caught my eye throughout the rest of the building. That’s the thing that makes Canton a special place to me. One of the guides working there once said that at any given time they are only displaying a small percentage of the artifacts they have on hand, and because of that there is always something new to check out that you hadn’t seen before. It is truly a lively, ever-changing  fluid museum that is worth the trip. Here are a few things I discovered on this most recent trip that are worth noting:

I was surprised to discover that the very first player transaction in league history involved a Buffalo franchise, the Buffalo All Americans, who acquired a tackle named Nasty Nash in 1920 from Akron for $300. I had no idea Buffalo had a pro football franchise way back then.

On display at the Hall is a football presented to Washington Redskins receiver Bobby Mitchell in 1962 for leading the league in receptions that year. The Redskins were owned at the time by a confirmed racist, George Preston Marshall, who swore he would never have a black player on his team, and only traded for Mitchell after being pressured by the government (they threatened to revoke his lease on D.C. Stadium). Although respected in the locker room (the ball presented to him was autographed by all his teammates), Mitchell wasn’t necessarily greeted with a warm welcome by the front office. He went on to complete a Hall of Fame career in Washington, and is one player who earned his bust in Canton for more than just his stellar play on the field.

This shiny new building on the Hall’s grounds is the Ralph C. Wilson Research and Preservation Center, which houses archives and artifacts for the museum and was made possible due to a donation from the late Bills’ owner. Wilson’s legacy as an NFL owner is that he always put the good of the game ahead of personal team interests, so the center is a fitting tribute to him. It wasn’t open to the public during enshrinement weekend since it was hosting private parties, but being able to tour it is a reason for a future visit.

Sections of the Hall are dotted with murals of Hall of Fame players, including large ones in the entrance, surrounding a statue of Jim Thorpe, of Jim Taylor, Dick Butkus and Bruce Smith, among others. This one caught my eye. Was Mike Ditka really ever this young?

Standing in front of a wall of paintings of former great players, from left to right, “Mean” Joe Greene, Deacon Jones, Jim Brown and the back end of Dick “Night Train” Lane.

This is an old down marker called the “boxman”. A box with four sides, numbered one through four, would swing on a dowel to mark the down. Technology for marking downs has changed some over the years, but not that much really.

When an injured Joe Namath showed up on the Jets’ bench wearing a fur coat it caused quite a stir. But how about the fancy, self-promoting sideline jacket Ernie Nevers of the Duluth Eskimos wore in the 1920s? I’ve really only scratched the surface as far as all the things there are to do inside the Hall. There are also interactive helmets that you can put on to simulate hearing a play being called in to you from the coach, artifacts and videos from all different eras of the game, a display of all the Super Bowl rings from every year that the game has been played, and the Super Bowl theater that plays NFL Films videos. It’s a can’t-miss trip for any true football fan.

Bills’ fans in Canton (photo courtesy of fansided.com)

The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio held its’ 51st annual induction ceremony over this past weekend, and with former Buffalo receiver Andre Reed among the inductees, the Hall’s grounds and the ceremony inside the stadium basically turned into what resembled a Bills’ home game. Rain dampened the afternoon of the day of the induction, but it didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the many Bills’ fans roaming the party area around the Hall. There was a sprinkling of team jerseys of the Giants, Buccaneers, Raiders and Seahawks among the party crowd, and even a couple of Cardinal jerseys, but the number of fans representing the Bills was overwhelming. The ceremony itself was clearly a Buffalo event. The crowd made it overwhelmingly a Bills’ event, as they came to honor one of the stars of the team’s glory years in Reed. It’s been a tough off-season for the Buffalo fan base, with the passing of long-time owner Ralph Wilson and the uncertainty of the team’s future with the franchise up for sale, the cancer struggles of another glory years hero, Jim Kelly, and the season-ending injury to one of the current team’s young stars, Kiko Alonso. It was almost as if the team’s fans needed the ceremony as a therapy session, to grab onto something positive to offset all the negative happenings surrounding the club. ESPN’s Chris Berman helped flame the Buffalo celebration by leading a “nobody circles the wagons…” cheer with the crowd, and totally amping things up when it came time to induct Reed. The night’s biggest cheers involved Buffalo moments that included Reed’s induction and speech, and the introduction of Kelly at the start of the ceremony. There were over 100 Hall members present, and they were introduced alphabetically at the beginning of the night. Kelly was given a long standing ovation when he was introduced. The guy I felt most sorry for was one of my childhood heroes, former Browns’ running back Leroy Kelly. His introduction following Jim Kelly’s was almost an afterthought, and was lost in the emotion of the fans still cheering for the former Bills’ quarterback.

When Ralph Wilson started the Bills’ franchise back in 1959, he was a businessman looking to own his own team, after serving as a minority owner of his hometown Detroit Lions for awhile. I’m sure he had little inkling of the monster his franchise would grow into as part of the country’s favorite pastime these days. His $25,000 investment is soon to be sold for probably over a billion dollars. I’m also pretty sure he never envisioned that the team would become so much more to the city than just a sports franchise. Over time, his Bills became a family, with an enduring bond among the fans, among the players and between the owner, players and fans. There’s a common thread of love for the team that spans generations. The love and emotion the fans have for their team shows when the entire Hall weekend is dotted with “Bon Jovi-Free Zone” signs and t-shirts. Fans from other cities may have been scratching their heads over the meaning of those signs, but all Bills’ fans present know what they’re all about. Sure, the Pittsburgh Steelers, fans and former players, would argue that their franchise is tops when it comes to support for their team, but it’s easy to love a team that’s won six Super Bowl titles. Bills’ fans and former players share a bond that’s endured many long periods of losing. Even in the glory years there’s the spectre of four Super Bowl losses, but the players from those teams seem to share a bond of love and loyalty like no other. Probably the closest thing to the special bond Bills’ fans have is the long-suffering fan base of baseball’s Chicago Cubs. Bills’ fans approach every coming season with optimism, and more times than not the optimism is crushed by another year of mediocrity or worse. But like those teams of the 1990s that never gave up, the fans come back re-energized and enthusiastic the following year. Like Berman said, nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills, and their fans.

Pro football history is littered with players that have interesting nicknames, so it was really difficult to trim this list down to a top ten. Here are some that didn’t make the cut: “Mean” Joe Greene, BenJarvus Green-Ellis “The Law Firm”, Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, Deion “Prime Time” Sanders, Christian Okoye “The Nigerian Nightmare”, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, “Broadway” Joe Namath, “Slingin'” Sammy Baugh, Jack Tatum “The Assassin”. All of these are classics, but here are my top ten:

1. Red Grange “The Galloping Ghost” – Grange played in the 1920s and ’30s for the Chicago Bears, in an era when sportswriters created nicknames for star players to enhance their stories about the games. He was probably the NFL’s most important star player in the league’s formative years, and was well known nationally at a time when pro football was considered a second-class, savage sport. Grange was the first football player to appear on a Wheaties box.

2. Reggie White “The Minister of Defense” – just like David “Deacon” Jones was dubbed “The Secretary of Defense” a generation before him, White earned his nickname by being the dominant defensive lineman of the 1980s and ’90s. A thirteen time Pro Bowler in his 15 year career, White was the cornerstone of Buddy Ryan’s dominant Philadelphia Eagle defenses of the time, then moved on to Green Bay, where he helped the Packers win a Super Bowl.

3. Bucky Pope “The Catawba Claw” – he has to be one of the most obscure players in NFL history, but his nickname is a classic. A product of tiny Catawba College, Pope had a sensational rookie year with the Los Angeles Rams in 1964, averaging over 31 yards a reception and scoring 10 touchdowns. He suffered a serious knee injury in the 1965 preseason, however, which basically ended his career.

4. George “Papa Bear” Halas – is there a more fitting nickname in all of sports than this one? Halas was the founder of the Chicago Bears’ franchise (originally the Decatur Staleys) and was the iconic face of that franchise, as coach and owner, until his death in 1983, a span of 63 years. He was one of the original class inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963, and the trophy awarded to the NFC champion each year is named after him.

5. Ted Hendricks “The Mad Stork” – Hendricks’ nickname was a product of two factors – his frantic style of play, and his tall, lean build. He was an early pioneer of the NFL’s free agency experiments, moving from the Baltimore Colts to the Green Bay Packers to the Oakland Raiders, while maintaining a level of play that ultimately got him elected to the Hall of Fame.

6. Billy “White Shoes” Johnson – always a fan favorite, this guy was the NFL’s original self-promoter. His white cleats set him apart from all other players (other than Joe Namath), while he was also the first guy to celebrate his touchdowns with an elaborate dance, which he called “The Funky Chicken”. Johnson wasn’t just a dancer, however, he was one of his era’s most feared kick returners.

7. Walter Payton “Sweetness” – the origin of his nickname is uncertain. Some say it came from his personality, or his grace as an athlete. Others claim it’s a sarcastic nod to his tough, aggressive playing style. Either way, it seemed to fit him perfectly. The NFL gives out an award in his name annually to a player for his contributions to the community.

8. William “The Refrigerator” Perry – there’s no ambiguity at all to Perry’s nickname – it came from his large size. He was also known, in abbreviated form, as “The Fridge”. Perry was one of the most popular players among Chicago Bear fans in the club’s dominant era in the mid-1980s, and became a national phenomenon. His legend grew when Bears’ coach Mike Ditka became using him as a blocking back on offense, and he even wound up scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl.

9. Dick “Night Train” Lane – one of the greatest defensive backs in NFL history, Lane’s single season interception record (14 in a 12 game season) has stood for over 60 years. He got his nickname because of his fear of flying, as he chose to take night trains home from away games. He wore an unusual jersey number (81) for a defensive back, but it was because he started his career with the Rams as a receiver. Two future Hall of Famers – Tom Fears and Elroy Hirsch – were ahead of him on the depth chart, so he was switched to defense.

10. Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch – speaking of Hirsch, he also makes the top ten list for his classic nickname, “Crazy Legs”. A star split end for the Los Angeles Rams, the funny name stuck after a sportswriter described his running style this way: “His crazy legs were gyrating in six different directions, all at the same time. He looked like a demented duck.”

‘Skins Chris Hanburger trying to decapitate New York’s Tom Kennedy in epic 1966 72-41 NFL game

The final regular season edition of my “Throwback Thursday” feature highlights a game played between two old NFL Eastern Division rivals, the New York Giants and Washington Redskins. The two clubs will close out the 2013 regular season with a meaningless match, as both teams are out of the playoff chase. The featured game was played on November 27, 1966, and at the time both franchises were struggling. The mid-60s were an era when the NFL was considered a “three yards and a cloud of dust” league, with teams playing a conservative style that featured an emphasis on the running game, combined with smothering defenses. This particular game bucked that trend, however, at least as far as scoring was concerned, as the Redskins outscored the Giants, 72-41. The final score would lead one to believe that it was a shootout between the resident star quarterbacks for these two clubs in this era – Washington’s Sonny Jurgensen and the Giants’ Fran Tarkenton. Jurgensen, in fact, played a decent game, tossing three touchdown passes. His statistics, however, were completely underwhelming. It wasn’t one of the typical 400 yard, five TD pass days you see in today’s game from Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, etc. Jurgenson threw only 16 times, completing 10 for a paltry 145 yards. As for the Giants, they didn’t actually acquire Tarkenton until 1967, and on this day the quarterbacking chores were split between two very forgettable players in Giant history – Gary Wood and Tom Kennedy. The Redskins’ leading rusher that day was a journeyman back named A.D. Whitfield, who carried 6 times for 74 yards. He ran for two scores and caught one of Jurgensen’s passes for a TD.  The only Washington player who racked up any eye-opening numbers in the game was their future Hall of Fame receiver, Charley Taylor, who caught 6 of the 10 Jurgensen completions for 124 yards and a pair of touchdowns. So with so little statistical yardage, just how did the Redskins manage to run up such an astounding point total? With the help of six Giant turnovers. Brig Owens had a stellar day in the secondary for Washington, picking off three passes and returning one of those 60 yards for a score. He also scooped up a Giant fumble and ran that back 62 yards for a touchdown. Throw in a 52 yard punt return for a TD by Rickie Harris and a 45 yard scoring run by Bobby Mitchell and you have the amazing nine touchdown big-play day by the ‘Skins. So how do two NFL teams combine to score 113 total points with only 776 combined offensive yards, a scant total by today’s standards? Well, it helped that both clubs were over 100 yards in penalty yards, another sign that it was a game played between two bad football teams that took turns playing bad on offense, defense and special teams. Still, on a September day in 1966, it was one for the ages.

Scoreboard message from classic Redskins-Giants 1966 contest