Sports Then and Now

Jim Plunkett

It was 40 years ago that the November Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month earned NFL Rookie of the Year honors and began a 16-year career that would include twice leading his team to the Super Bowl Championship.

After leading Stanford to the Rose Bowl Championship and winning the Heisman Trophy in 1970, Jim Plunkett was tapped by the New England Patriots with the first pick in the 1971 NFL Draft. Read the rest of this entry →

In the late 1990s, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kordell Stewart was a case of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” as his up-and-down play would often frustrate his teammates and fans, but a lot of times would still come away with the victory.

That was the case in the Steelers’ December 1997 game against the New England Patriots when Stewart bounced back from a pair of interceptions to lead his team to an overtime victory in Foxboro.

After spending two years as a quarterback/running back/wide receiver (thus earning the nickname “Slash”) Stewart was given the starting quarterback job by head coach Bill Cowher.

Stewart would be prone to making mistakes, yet show flashes of talent, sometimes in the same game.

An example would be in the Steelers’ fifth game of the season against the Baltimore Ravens when Stewart threw three interceptions in the 1st half as Pittsburgh fell behind 21-0, only to account for five touchdowns to lead his team back to a 42-34 win.

Pittsburgh entered their game with the Patriots with a 10-4 record and a chance to clinch the AFC Central Division title for the fourth straight year.

Meanwhile, the Patriots entered the game with a 9-5 record under first-year head coach Pete Carroll and in the hunt for the playoffs.

Carroll’s success benefited from having all-Pro quarterback Drew Bledsoe, running back Curtis Martin, and wide receiver Terry Glenn at his disposal. Read the rest of this entry →

Before he came to New England, Sam Cunningham was one of college football's significant players

It was September 12, 1970 that a man who would soon be a vital part of the Boston sports scene helped change the course of college football history. USC had a big fullback by the name of Sam Cunningham. When opposing players saw him in street clothes they thought he must be an offensive lineman because of his 6’3” 225 lb frame (yes, times have changed). But he was in the Trojan backfield and the night of 9/12, USC visited Alabama to face an all-white Crimson Tide team. Cunningham ran over and around the Tide, piling up 135 yards rushing as his team won 42-21. Legend has it that Alabama coach Bear Bryant made the decision to integrate his team based on Cunningham’s performance.

There’s some urban legend mixed in with this story. In truth, Bryant had already signed an African-American player to come on board the following year, but Cunningham’s performance didn’t hurt the coach’s effort to achieve more complete racial integration. It was a rare case where an athlete’s on-field performance takes on social significance and after three years of success at Southern Cal, Cunningham was drafted in the first round by the Patriots prior to the 1973 season.

It was the start of a good 10-year run for player and team, though it got off to a rough start. Cunningham rushed for 516 yards in his rookie year and was the leader of a mostly pedestrian backfield on a team that went 5-9. The following year Cunningham, gave way to Mack Herron as the team’s leading rusher, something that would occasionally take place in his career, given the importance of the fullback as a blocker. Something worked in ’74, because the Patriots got off to a 7-4 start before losing their final three games and missing the playoffs. Before we think that this collapse was akin to the ’74 Red Sox saga we looked at last week, bear in mind that New England played the AFC’s three great powers, Miami, Pittsburgh and Oakland in the season’s final three weeks.

Read the rest of this entry →

In 1985, the New England Patriots pulled off one of the most shocking runs to the Super Bowl as they won three straight road games in the postseason to win the AFC Championship.

The third and final road victory was a 31-14 win over the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Championship Game that not only clinched the Patriots their first Super Bowl berth, but was the first time the Patriots defeated the Dolphins in their home stadium, the Orange Bowl.

The 1985 season was the first full season for head coach Raymond Berry, who had taken the head coaching reins midway through the 1984 season after Ron Meyer was fired because of a rift between Meyer and the players.

The Patriots got off to a slow start in 1985 as they dropped three of their first five games for a 2-3 record.

But after Steve Grogan replaced starting quarterback Tony Eason who separated his shoulder in the sixth game, New England went on a six-game winning streak until Grogan broke his leg in an overtime loss to the New York Jets in the twelfth game of the season.

Eason once again became the starter and helped New England to wins in three of their last four games to finish the season with an 11-5 record and a Wild Card playoff berth. Read the rest of this entry →

Aaron Rodgers and the Packers appear poised for a repeat run to the Super Bowl.

After seeing some of my “5 Bold Predictions” for college football come crashing to the ground after just one week (thanks Notre Dame and TCU), I approach my NFL predictions with a sense of caution knowing that they could be totally off-base before the first week is even complete.

Even with a shortened off-season, this promises to be an exciting NFL campaign. I think because of the lack of preparation time you will see some teams that rely on preparation struggle early while teams that have superior talent will be able to hit stride right away.

It is already apparent that one huge issue in 2011 will be injuries. Several teams have lost starting players to season ending injuries and because players have gone at full speed for such short times during the preseason expect that to continue to happen throughout the regular season.

Prediction 1: The New York Giants and Indianapolis Colts will miss the playoffs

This statement might seem a bit bolder if Peyton Manning’s season wasn’t in limbo and if seemingly half of the defense for the New York Giants wasn’t already out for the season with injuries.

Every year there seems to be at least one team that has their season derailed or significantly altered by injuries. It appears that both the Giants and Colts will have a difficult time overcoming the injuries that have already impacted their season.

Of the two teams, I think the Giants can probably still be a decent team even without Terrell Thomas, Johnathan Goff, Marvin Austin and the others. However, in a division that includes two other likely playoff contenders in the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, there is little margin for error and as they learned last season, even a 10-win season doesn’t guarantee a playoff spot. Read the rest of this entry →

When he was at his best, Randy Moss was as good as any receiver in NFL history.

In a hectic week that included a lot of surprises, perhaps one of the biggest is that wide receiver Randy Moss has decided to retire after 13 seasons, rather than join what would have been his fourth team in the last year.

Anyone who saw Moss toward the end of last season may have thought he was already retired, but just within the last couple weeks his agent, Joel Segal, said that Moss was in great shape and ready to prove that he could still be an NFL star.

Even at the age of 34, there was no reason to doubt that if he was completely dedicated that Moss couldn’t regain the prowess that made him the NFL’s most dominant receiver at two different stretches during his NFL career.

It is interesting that while his contemporaries at receiver like Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco have always craved the spotlight and don’t seem interested in giving it up anytime soon, Moss has never been an overly vocal player and now, assuming that the reports are accurate, is quietly retreating into the shadows.

Just looking at his career statistics, 954 receptions (8th all-time),  14,858 receiving yards (5th), 153 touchdowns (2nd), it is obvious that he is one of the finest receivers of all-time.

Yet, knowing that there were occasions throughout his career that he wasn’t giving it everything he had on every play, you can’t help but wonder how much better he could have been.

Given his unbelievable physical tools, what might Moss have accomplished had he possessed the work ethic of all-time greats like Raymond Berry or Jerry Rice?

I believe the answer is that we would be talking about Moss, instead of Rice, as the greatest receiver of all-time. Read the rest of this entry →