Logo of the Florida State Seminoles, a legendary college football program that plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The ‘Noles flourished as a national powerhouse under long-time head coach Bobby Bowden, winning 2 national championships and setting a record by gaining a top 5 ranking 14 seasons in a row. Some notable FSU players include Ron Sellers, Fred Biletnikoff, Deion Sanders, Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke, Warrick Dunn, Derrick Brooks and kicker Sebastian Janikowski.
1961 Fleer football card of former NFL defensive back Dick “Night Train” Lane, a Hall of Fame player with one of the all-time great nicknames. Lane was a receiver when he joined the Los Angeles Rams as a rookie in 1952, but the players ahead of him on the depth chart were future Hall of Famers – Tom Fears and Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch – so the team switched him to cornerback, where he fashioned a 14 year pro career, and even kept his #81 receiver jersey number for his entire career. The move to defense had an immediate impact as Lane intercepted 14 passes in his first year, a league record that still stands today despite the fact the NFL now plays a 16 game schedule, as opposed to only 12 games back then. He also played for the Chicago Cardinals and Detroit Lions, and was a 7 time Pro Bowler, a member of the NFL 75th Anniversary Team and was elected to Canton in 1974.
Not exactly a “classic” logo, but a good one to feature on Thanksgiving, is this logo of the New England College Pilgrims, an NCAA Division III school located in Henniker, New Hampshire that is best known for it’s mens’ and womens’ hockey programs, which both play in the Eastern Conference Athletic Conference (ECAC). In most other sports, the school competes in The Commonwealth Coast Conference.
An appropriate sports card to feature on Thanksgiving Day is this 1972 Topps football card of former NFL defensive lineman Joe “Turkey” Jones, who played 11 seasons in the league, mostly for the Cleveland Browns. Jones got his nickname when the team played its’ annual Thanksgiving joke on rookie players, sending them on drives to distant rural farms for phantom “free turkeys” which, of course, didn’t exist. Jones never caught on, and not only continued searching for hours for his “free turkey”, but also fell for the prank again in his second year with the team, along with that year’s rookie class. Jones immortalized himself in Cleveland sports history when he sacked Steeler QB Terry Bradshaw in a game, picking up Bradshaw after the whistle (which he claimed he didn’t hear) and depositing him directly on his head into the turf.
After picking 8 winners out of 14 games played last weekend, my season prediction record stands at 101 correct and 59 wrong. Here are the week 12 picks, starting with 3 very interesting Thanksgiving Day games:
Green Bay at Detroit – the Lions usually treat this game like it’s their Super Bowl, and have righted themselves after a brief slump. I believe they will shock the football world and upset the Packers.
Miami at Dallas – the Dolphins are riding high with 3 straight wins, and should stay competitive, but the Cowboys are the better team and won’t blow an opportunity to stay on top of the NFC East. Dallas wins at home.
San Francisco at Baltimore – the battle of the Harbaugh brothers should be a real slugfest. John’s Ravens have one of the NFL’s toughest defenses, but Jim’s 49ers have quietly played some stingy D all year also in compiling a 9-1 record. The Ravens have been terribly inconsistent all year, but I think their experience edge over the young Niners will carry them to the win.
Buffalo at New York Jets – the playoff hopes of the loser of this game will be effectively over. The Jets have not been the world-beaters they proclaimed themselves, but they have the Bills’ number lately, and Buffalo is in the midst of an epic collapse that they appear to not know how to get out of. The Jets win easily.
Minnesota at Atlanta – this should be a one-sided win for the Falcons on their home field, especially if Adrian Peterson is still hobbled from an injury suffered last week.
Carolina at Indianapolis – Cam Newton’s play has leveled off since early in the year, and I believe the Colts need to put it together and win a game to placate their disappointed fan base. The Colts win their first game of the year in a high-scoring game.
Houston at Jacksonville – Matt Leinart, a high draft pick bust in Arizona, gets an opportunity to revive his career as he takes over at QB for the Texans in place of the injured Matt Schaub. The Texans will win this game because of the play of their defense, which will stymie the Jaguars as Leinart finds his way.
Cleveland at Cincinnati – the Bengals have been sent back to Earth after consecutive losses to the Steelers and Ravens, but they still have a shot at the playoffs and are a much better team than the Browns, and will win on their home field.
Arizona at St. Louis – two teams playing out the string, and a very tough game to handicap since both are inconsistent. I’ll go with the Rams at home.
Tampa Bay at Tennessee – this has been a disappointing season for the Bucs, who especially haven’t done well on the road. The Titans keep their playoff hopes alive with a big win.
Washington at Seattle – the Seahawks are coming off a win, while the Redskins lost an overtime heartbreaker to Dallas. While the ‘Skins are still playing hard, they don’t have the horses to win this game. Seattle wins handily.
Chicago at Oakland – this is a game with serious playoff implications for both teams. The Bears’ defense will be the difference as they control the Raider offense and nail down a hard-fought low scoring game.
New England at Philadelphia – the Patriots, as they always do, are peaking at the right time. They’ll win this game to put the final nail in the coffin of the Eagles’ playoff hopes.
Denver at San Diego – the Tebow magic ends here. The Chargers are too good of a team to continue playing the sloppy football they’ve played this year, and they’ll put together a solid effort and win.
Pittsburgh at Kansas City – the Steeler defense against Chief QB Tyler Palko is a complete mismatch. Pittsburgh wins handily.
New York Giants at New Orleans – if the Giants can win at New England, they can win here. The Saints are considered a Super Bowl contender, but their defense can’t stand up to the physical Giants’ running game. I’ll pick New York to win and stay tied for their division lead.
Logo of another great college football powerhouse, the University of Texas Longhorns. The program is one of the winningest in college football history, boasting 4 national championships, 49 bowl game appearances, 105 winning seasons out of 117 seasons of play, 129 All American players, and 2 Heisman Trophy winners – running backs Earl Campbell and Rickey Williams. Some other great players in Longhorn history include Bobby Layne, Tommy Nobis, Colt McCoy, Vince Young and Brian Orakpo.
1987 Topps football card of former San Francisco 49ers’ receiver Dwight Clark, who played 9 seasons with the team and was a part of 2 Super Bowl-winning teams in the Bill Walsh/Joe Montana era. He was a two-time Pro Bowler, and is best known for making “The Catch”, a leaping end zone grab of a desperation Montana pass for a touchdown against Dallas that propelled the Niners into the Super Bowl. Clark worked as an executive in the front office of both the 49ers and Cleveland Browns after his playing days ended.
The Buffalo Bills’ game against Miami on Sunday, a resounding 35-8 Dolphin win, followed pretty much the same script as last week’s blowout loss in Dallas, as the team looked horrible again and was outcoached and outplayed in every phase of the game. For three straight weeks now, the team has looked not ready to play, and instead of finding answers it has gotten progressively worse in each loss. When a team isn’t physically or mentally ready to play, the result is their opponent winds up steamrolling them, and worse, these types of games become dangerous as the unprepared players getting physically whipped all day long start getting carted off with injuries. That’s exactly what happened to the Bills for the second week in a row. In the last 2 weeks it was Eric Wood, George Wilson and even kicker Rian Lindell, who hurt his shoulder making a tackle on a kick return because the rest of his kick coverage teammates were asleep. This week, Terrence McGee, Donald Jones, David Nelson and Fred Jackson all got hurt, with McGee and Jones probably now lost for the season. The Bills have been a great story early in the year, but the losses of Wood on the offensive line and Kyle Williams on the defensive front have effectively removed the aggressiveness from both units.
On offense, the Bills seemed to have a good plan on the opening drive, using screen passes to break big gains and slow down Miami’s aggressive pass rush. It might have been a good day for them, except that for the second week in a row, the defense couldn’t stop anything. In ending last week’s post reviewing the Bills’ loss to the Cowboys, I stated that if the Bills’ couldn’t find some answers to improve their defense, they would wind up making Matt Moore look like the second coming of Dan Marino. Moore wears jersey # 8, but he may as well have worn 13 on Sunday. The Fish scored touchdowns on their first 4 possessions. When that happens, the other team’s offense, in this case the Bills, is inevitably going to look bad trying to keep up. Granted, the offense didn’t help matters by turning the ball over and putting the D in bad spots, but on a supposed playoff team, shouldn’t the defense be expected to make a stand at some point when things are going bad? The Bills’ defense isn’t terrible, in fact they swarm to the ball, hustle and try hard on first and second downs throughout every game. Then on third down, they become clueless, passive and robotic and will continually give up first downs. It’s gotten to the point where Bills’ fans have that feeling on third down that they’ve had in the team’s worst losing seasons. If it’s third and one, they’ll surrender the yard. If it’s third and 3, they’ll give up 5, if it’s third and 12, they’ll allow a receiver to run a 15 yard pattern unchallenged and give up the first down. On the flip side, for this particular game, the Bills’ offense had ZERO third down conversions. ZERO. Not against the 1970s Steel Curtain defense, against the 2-7 Dolphins. This is a team that clearly has lost all of whatever momentum they had early in the year. They are 10 games into the season, and have now regressed on offense, defense and special teams. A missed blocking assignment on a punt that causes a blocked kick? In week 10? That’s just unacceptable. Going into next week’s game against the Jets, the coaching staff has to realize that at this point there are no more rookies or “young” players. They need to find some playmakers somewhere on the roster in a hurry, especially among the defensive players.
This is an “alternate” logo of a college football program that is one of the most storied in the country, Notre Dame. The logo was used from 1963 until 1972, when the Fighting Irish were coached by the legendary Ara Parseghian. They won one of the 11 national championships the school has claimed in its’ history during this time frame, in 1966, when they finished 9-0-1, with the tie coming in a game against Michigan State that ended 10-10 and has been called “the game of the century”. Some notable players from this era are Terry Hanratty, Jack Snow, Nick Eddy, Jim Lynch, Walt Patulski, Joe Theismann and 1964 Heisman Trophy winner John Huarte.