Sports Then and Now

On a cold Monday night in November of 1987, the Chicago Bears traveled to Denver to face off with the Denver Broncos in a game that featured two teams that had appeared in the previous two Super Bowls.

Entering the game with the league’s best record at 7-1, the Bears seemed poised for a second Super Bowl title in three seasons.

Chicago was still under the leadership of head coach Mike Ditka, but finally had a healthy Jim McMahon at quarterback and running back Walter Payton, who had announced he would retire at the end of the season.

While the Bears were establishing themselves as a Super Bowl favorite, the Broncos were having tough time defending their AFC championship as they entered the Monday night showdown with Chicago with a 4-3-1 record and in third place in the AFC West.

Despite their inconsistency, the Broncos still felt confident about their chances of a second straight Super Bowl as they still had quarterback John Elway at the helm.

But if the Broncos were to make that second straight trip to the Super Bowl, they could not afford to lose against the Bears.

The Bears got the ball to start the game and drove from their 10-yard-line to the 49-yard-line, where they faced a 3rd-and-2.

That is where McMahon faked a handoff to Payton, and fired a pass to Willie Gault, who made the catch at the Denver 40-yard-line, made a spin move, and outraced several Bronco defenders for a 51-yard touchdown that put Chicago ahead 7-0 just over three minutes into the game.

After forcing the Broncos to punt on their opening possession, the Bears got the ball back at their 14-yard-line where it took them eight plays to get back into the end zone, a 6-yard pass from McMahon to tight end Cap Boso to increase the Bears lead to 14-0 with 5:26 left in the opening period.

Following the Bears’ second touchdown, Elway finally got the Denver offense on track as he led them on an eight-play, 84-yard drive, culminating with a bizarre touchdown that brought the Broncos back into the game.

From the Bears’ 22-yard-line, Elway rolled out to the right and fired a pass intended for Steve Sewell, who was in front of the goal line.

However, the ball was tipped by Bears safety Todd Bell, only to be caught by Vance Johnson for the touchdown to make it 14-7 early in the second quarter.

The Bears responded to the touchdown with another long drive, as McMahon completed six of nine passes on a drive that covered 89 yards from the Chicago 10-yard-line to the Broncos’ one-yard line where Chicago faced a third-and-goal.

For the third-and-one, Ditka sent in defensive tackle William “The Refrigerator” Perry, who ran in for two touchdowns during his rookie season in 1985, including one in the Super Bowl.

This time, Perry was sent in as a blocker, but McMahon called an audible on the line of scrimmage, and handed the ball off to “The Fridge”, who had not carried the ball all season, only to have Perry be stripped of the ball by defensive back Mike Harden, short of the goal line. Read the rest of this entry →

Which quarterback would you rather have?

Of the two left-handed, running quarterbacks in the NFL, which would you rather have: Michael Vick or Tim Tebow?

At first that question probably seems a bit silly. After all, Vick has a decade of NFL experience while Tebow has started just seven games as a pro and the number of NFL “experts” who believe he will never be a quality pro quarterback could fill a stadium.

However, given that Tebow suddenly has the Denver Broncos in contention in the AFC West while Vick and the Eagles are the biggest disappointment in the NFC the question has at least some validity.

What is ironic about Vick is that for most of his career he had the reputation as the unconventional quarterback who didn’t put up great numbers, but did what was needed to win games.

During his six seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, Vick was 38-28-1 as a starting quarterback while leading the team to a pair of trips to the playoff and one appearance in the NFC Championship Game. He did that while never posting a season quarterback rating higher than 81.6 (75.7 for the six seasons) and completing only 53.8% of his passes.

Since becoming the starter for the Philadelphia Eagles, Vick’s numbers have suddenly become comparable to the elite quarterbacks in the league. He has completed 62% of his passes over the last two years with a quarterback rating of 94. However, after winning eight of 11 starts in 2010, Vick is now just 3-6 as a starter so far in 2011 despite having a team that everyone thought had the talent capable of contending for a Super Bowl berth. Read the rest of this entry →

In his first start of the season Tim Tebow led the Denver Broncos to victory over the Miami Dolphins.

Okay, perhaps that headline is a bit premature given that Tim Tebow just made his first start of the 2011 season and fourth of his career, but since so many NFL “experts” have been lining up since before he had even played an NFL game to predict that he would be a bust, it almost seems appropriate after his fourth quarter performance in Denver’s overtime victory in Miami to proclaim him as an all-time great.

The reality is that we don’t yet know whether Tim Tebow will be a great NFL quarterback, but it is up to Tebow and the Denver Broncos to find out and not former players or others who are quick to judge without giving him a chance.

Denver Head Coach Mike Fox is giving Tebow a chance and after looking like a young quarterback making only his fourth NFL start early on, Tebow did what he has done best throughout his career, he made the big plays when needed down the stretch to lead his team to victory.

Critics of the second year quarterback will be quick to point to the first half where he passed for only 24 years and Denver was held scoreless, but it should be noted that kicker Matt Prater missed a pair of makeable field goals (40 and 43 yards) that would have matched the first half point total for the Dolphins and ultimately may have kept Denver from needing overtime to win the game.

For some reason, many former players that are now earning their living analyzing the game have been unwilling to give Tim Tebow time to develop as an NFL quarterback. I find it ironic considering that many of them needed time themselves before they enjoyed NFL success.

One of the most vocal critics of Tebow has been former Pittsburgh and Chicago running back Merril Hoge. He has regularly said that Tebow will never be an NFL star and in the preseason was even quoted as saying that it would be “embarrassing to think that the Broncos with Tebow could win.”

Given how his career began, Hoge should be really glad that Chuck Noll didn’t come to similar conclusions about him without giving him a chance to show his stuff. Read the rest of this entry →

Lionel Taylor

It was 50 years ago that the October Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month became the first player in professional football history to catch 100 passes in a single season.

Reaching the century mark for receptions in a season has been accomplished by at least one NFL player in every season except one since 1990, but when Lionel Taylor caught 100 passes in just 14 games for the Denver Broncos it was an accomplishment that had never previously been approached.
Read the rest of this entry →

Though he is only in his second NFL training camp, some are already trying to rush to judgment about whether Tim Tebow can become a successful NFL quarterback.

One of the dangers in today’s era of instant communication and immediate gratification is that we want everything to happen right now. We don’t want to wait for a piece of information, an answer or for success. It is in this instant world that Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow is helplessly trapped.

After a record setting and highly successful college career at the University of Florida, most NFL experts said that Tebow could eventually develop into a capable NFL quarterback, but it would take time and patience.

Those are two words that don’t often fit into today’s sports world. With players receiving sizable salaries from the minute they enter the league, owners, coaches and fans don’t usually have patience to allow a player to mature and grow, especially at the quarterback position.

It didn’t use to be that way. In fact, the most recent example of what can happen when a team gives a young quarterback time to mature and develop was personified last February when Aaron Rodgers led the Green Bay Packers to victory in Super Bowl XLV.

Originally selected with the 24th pick in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft by the Packers, Rodgers threw only 59 passes in his first three seasons while sitting on the sidelines watching future Hall of Famer Brett Favre.

When he took over in 2008, Rodgers was ready to be a star and in three seasons as a starter has completed 64% of his passes for more than 12,000 yard, 86 touchdowns and 31 interceptions.

In just his third season as a starter, but sixth season in the Green Bay system, Rodgers and the Packers won their first championship in 15 years.

There was a time in NFL history when stories like Rodgers’ were common.

Ken Stabler joined the Oakland Raiders as a second round selection in 1968 after playing for legendary coach Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama.

After spending his first two seasons on the taxi squad, Stabler joined the active roster in 1970 and from 1970-72 saw limited action while George Blanda and Daryle Lamonica saw most of the action at quarterback for the Raiders. Read the rest of this entry →

Mecklenburg is a member of the Denver Bronco's Hall of Fame

“Today a Reader…Tomorrow a Leader” ~ Margaret Fuller

I remember so vividly how my first grade teacher used to assemble the whole class in the reading circle at the back of our room at Pleasant Street School. We’d all carry our little wooden chairs to the rear of the classroom and place them in a circle underneath a big bulletin board decorated with brightly colored construction paper. These were the days before some unnerved “teaching professional” placed tennis balls on the leg of each chair, so each seat made a loud clunk, followed by a screech as it was pushed into position ’round the reading circle.

Ten or twelve of us, at a variety of different reading levels, would sit around the slightly, mis-shaped sphere and learn of the escapades of Dick and Jane, or Horton and his Who or occasionally read rhymes about Mush and Brush and Hush. To the right of our non-exclusive group sat John Higgins.

John was a couple years older than the rest of us and sat in a small rocking chair with a picture book in his hand. He rarely looked at the book, but instead looked out the window and rocked. Every few minutes he would think of something that disrupted our group. Our teacher would look over at John and bring her hands to her lips, shoosh John and encourage him to look at his picture book. Read the rest of this entry →