Sports Then and Now

Legend has it that future Hall of Fame center Jim Ringo (51) was traded by the Packers after bringing an agent to contract negotiations.

If he were still alive, I wonder what NFL Hall of Fame center Jim Ringo would think about the concept of an “un-capped” NFL salary structure or of the multi-million dollars in guaranteed money being given to players with only average NFL  pedigrees.

As legend has it, Ringo, an All-Pro center and anchor of the Packer’s vaunted offensive line, brought an agent with him to contract negotiations with Green Bay Packer head coach Vince Lombardi prior to the 1964 season. Lombardi then excused himself and when he returned five minutes later told Ringo and his agent that they would have to go to Philadelphia to discuss his new contract because he had just been traded to the Eagles.

Some historians claim that the actual incident between Ringo and Lombardi is just a myth, but what isn’t a myth is the sacrifice that many athletes from the past made to ensure that the players of today are able to freely negotiate and sign lavish contracts.

For more than a half-century, the contract of every player in Major League Baseball included what was known as the “reserve clause”, which bound a player, one year at a time, in perpetuity to the club owning his contract. Basically, it meant that the player was tied to the team until the team chose to trade or release the player and he had no opportunity to pursue employment with another organization on his own terms. As professional sports leagues started in football, basketball and hockey, owners in those leagues essentially emulated baseball’s “reserve clause.” Read the rest of this entry →

Merlin Olsen earned 14 Pro Bowl trips during his 15-year NFL career.

The sports world lost a gentle giant on Thursday with the death at age 69 of NFL Hall of Famer Merlin Olsen.

Though Olsen made his name as one of the best defensive tackles in NFL history, he is known to a generation for his post football work as a broadcaster and pitchman as well as for his role on one of the leading television programs of the 1970s and 1980s.

A three-time All-American and 1961 Outland Trophy winner at Utah State, Olsen was the first round pick in the 1962 AFL Draft by the Denver Broncos (second overall) and in the 1962 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams (third overall).

He chose to play for the Rams and the result was one of the greatest careers in NFL history.

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Dana Stubblefield proved to be great value for the 26th pick in the 1993 NFL Draft.

The San Francisco 49ers have two first-round picks in the upcoming NFL Draft. With two picks, how could you go wrong? Well, in the last twenty years, the 49ers have had two first-round picks five times (and one year with no first round pick at all) with varying degrees of success. Here is a look back at the last twenty years of 49er first-round selections.

1990     No. 25     Dexter Carter                RB     Florida State

Does anyone else remember Dexter “Fumble” Carter? He was used mostly as a returner and never managed to crack the starting lineup as a running back. He debuted in San Francisco with eight fumbles his first season. Dexter did manage to stick around the NFL for seven years and a total of 33 fumbles. Grade D

1991     No. 25     Ted Washington        DT     University of Louisville

This is a tough one to call. Washington has been described as the premier nose tackle of his era, yet the 49ers let him go after three seasons for a fifth-round draft selection. Perhaps they didn’t see him progressing as much as they liked, or they thought he was better suited as a true nose tackle in a 3-4 scheme and were unwilling to abandon the 4-3 that they ran at the time. Grade C+

1992     No. 18     Dana Hall                DB     University of Washington

Another three-year wonder, Hall just plain stunk. Do you smell toast? Grade D

1993     No. 26     Dana Stubblefield      DT     University of Kansas

The 49ers made amends for trading Washington as Stubblefield was named Defensive Rookie of the Year on his way to a long, decorated career in San Fran. Grade A
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Reports say that the Bears have landed the first big free agent of 2010 in Julius Peppers.

According to a number of reports, the Chicago Bears have landed the first huge fish of the NFL free agent period with the signing of former Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers to a six year contract.

Considered by many to be the brightest star in a less than stellar free agent year, Peppers should provide an immediate boost to a Bears defense that has been in decline in recent years.

The second overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft, Peppers is a five-time Pro Bowl selection and two-time first team All-Pro.

In 2009 he registered 10.5 sacks and two interceptions for the Panthers. He has reached double figures in sacks in six of his eight seasons in the NFL and has 81 for his career.

A year ago the Bears lost their leading defensive player, linebacker Brian Urlacher, to injury in the opening game of the season and never fully recovered. Read the rest of this entry →

First of all, let me just say how disappointed I am that Adam Joshua did not invite me to his bachelor party, especially considering that Adam’s bachelor party was down in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Kind of like rubbing salt in an open wound as I sit here in Pennsylvania shoveling myself and various other people out from under a record breaking 30 plus inches of snow.

OK, enough about me and more on Adam’s wife to be Heather, who by the way is the kind of young lady that every young blooded American boy would love to bring home to mom of course it doesn’t hurt that Adam Joshua; A.J. if you will, is also cut from that same All-American boy next door fabric.

Yes that’s right, former Eagles Quarterback A.J. (Adam Joshua) Feeley and his better half soccer star (Philadelphia Independence) Heather Mitts, will exchange wedding vows today (Feb 13) in Cabo San Lucas Mexico, and officially consummate their seven year, on again off again relationship.

Mitts is a two-time Olympic Gold-medalist as a member of the United States Women’s National Team for the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics who has represented the U.S in over 100 competitive matches. She was also a member of the US team who finished second in the 2006 Algarve Cup.

Mitts is also known as much for her looks as her athletic ability. In 2001, Heather was voted by Playboy Online, as the sexiest player in the former Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA). Read the rest of this entry →

In Some places, the Rugby Six Nations Championship is bigger than the Super Bowl.

You’d be forgiven—if you are American—for thinking that the entire sporting world fell into awed silence as the brouhaha that is Super Bowl swept along everyone with even the faintest of pulses.

And of course this year’s spectacle had the extra wow factor of an emotional New Orleans back-story: underdog, triumph over adversity, not a dry eye in the house.

For many on the other side of “the pond,” though, that New Orleans back-story was the front story, too, because American football remains an impenetrable anachronism for most of us…well for this particular correspondent, anyway!

So last weekend, our focus was rather more Euro-centred. While the padded up and helmeted Superbowl heroes began their campaign to the predetermined rhythm of the broadcasters’ advertising breaks, its stripped down, bare-knuckled equivalent—the Six Nations Championship—was just getting under way.

This is a competition where deep-rooted loyalties have been determined by the history books, with the English the common foe. It may be hundreds of years since a king Edward or a king Henry strode into Scotland or Wales, Ireland or France, but an unspoken resentment still simmers in the veins.

That complex tapestry of history, married with the visceral sport that is rugby union, makes the Six Nations championship one of the most intense and compelling competitions in sport.

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