Sports Then and Now

The Carolina Panthers selected Cam Newton with the first pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.

A bizarre and rapid rise from obscurity to super stardom has taken an interesting turn with the selection of Cam Newton as the first pick in the 2011 NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers.

The selection means that the Panthers, who were 2-14 a year ago, are putting their future in the hands of a quarterback who has shown tremendous potential, but has just one season of experience as a starter at a big-time college.

Interestingly, this marks the first time since the initial draft for the franchise in 1995 that they have used a first round pick on a quarterback.

They certainly are hoping that this choice has better long term results than when they chose Kerry Collins with the fifth overall pick in the 1995 draft.

While Collins led the Panthers to the NFC Championship Game in just his second season in the league, by 1998 he was gone following a series of incidents that illustrated that Collins wasn’t mature enough to be the face of a football team when he joined the Panthers.

Panther fans are hopeful that history won’t repeat itself with Newton, a young man for which there are similar concerns about whether he has the discipline and maturity to be the face of an NFL franchise. Read the rest of this entry →

Clarke Hinkle played in an era before players wore facemasks and other protective padding.

If he were still alive today, you can bet that former NFL running back and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Clarke Hinkle would have some pretty terse things to say to both the players and owners in the current labor mess. Though Hinkle, who would have celebrated his 99th birthday on April 10th, passed away in 1988, words he wrote to me several years prior to his death are a great reminder of how different the NFL of today is from when he helped make the game popular in the 1930s.

As a teenager in the early 1980s, I sent letters to many former professional athletes expressing how much I thought of what they had done and asking for an autograph. Because this was in the days before autographs became such a big and lucrative business, I actually received many cards, pictures and letters back from former greats ranging from Otto Graham, Doak Walker and Bart Starr to Johnny Bench, Sparky Anderson and Happy Chandler.

In each letter I typically included a couple paragraphs talking about their career or something else that I thought was interesting.

In writing to Clarke Hinkle, I mentioned how I thought it was interesting that he had once been the NFL’s all-time rushing leader with 3,850 career yards. In fact, he held that honor from the time he retired in 1941 until being passed by Steve Van Buren in 1949. At the time I was writing to him, the record was held by Jim Brown with 12,312 yards and Walter Payton and Franco Harris were in competition to eclipse that total.

Usually what I received back from the athletes was a signed picture and occasionally a brief note or some other personal memorabilia (like a post card).

To my surprise, from Hinkle in addition to an autographed card I received a two page hand written letter in which he spent most of the time talking about how easy pro football players of the current era have it compared to players from his day. He said that the rushing records would be much less if those players had to play both ways (Hinkle played tailback and linebacker) and deal with players like Bronko Nagurski. Read the rest of this entry →

I don’t get it. How could there not be a NFL season this year? Last time there was a strike the league used replacement players and a handful of scabs. Why can’t they do that again?

There is something appealing about the use of replacement players every so many years. For once, no one knows how to handicap any of the teams. The whole standings are pretty much up for grabs. Any team can beat any other team. Worst to first is a definite possibility.

Oh, wait! Any team can beat any other team when the regular players play. Worst to first is a definite possibility then, and has happened frequently in recent years. But even more so, I suppose, with a whole roster of no-names.

On the other hand, none of the players would be under contract so what’s to stop them from organizing their own new league? Wouldn’t that be interesting? The NFL with its replacements would suddenly be the minors, while the new PFL (Players Football League) would be the real thing.

Or what’s to stop the UFL or CFL from signing a bunch of the NFL’s best and suddenly become the gold standard, again relegating the NFL to minor league status.

But here’s my proposal. Let every city field a team in a new league to be formed. Call it the Cities Football League or the Peoples Football League. Teams would be owned by the cities they represent in a stock arrangement like Green Bay, so no franchise would ever be bought out and moved, and all the profits would go back into team and league operations, including player salaries. Read the rest of this entry →

The announcement Thursday that the NFL and its Players Association have agreed to mediation is a sign of hope, but unless there is a major breakthrough in the next two weeks, it still looks like the NFL is headed for its first major labor disruption in 24 years. Given that residents across the United States are still feeling the pinch from the most pronounced economic recession since the Great Depression, don’t expect either group to receive much sympathy as they struggle to split more than $9 billion in annual revenue.

With the revenue and popularity of the NFL at an all-time high, it seems like a strange time for a labor dispute, but both sides seem more interested in annihilating the other side than reaching a compromise that would benefit all parties.

The owners, who opted out of the previous collective bargaining agreement two years early, are focused on receiving additional money off the top to cover expenses that they say are critical to growing the league and generating new revenue. Currently, the first billion dollars of revenue goes directly to the owners with the players then receiving roughly 60 percent of all remaining revenue.

In 2010 the result of this split was that the owners received $4.75 billion with the players earning $4.65 billion. All in all seems like a pretty good return for both sides. However, since the owners have never been forthcoming about their total expenses, it is difficult to tell if the owners are making a great profit or barely breaking even.

The owners have proposed taking an additional billion dollars off the top before any revenue splitting occurs. Conversely, the players are proposing that all revenue be split 50-50.

There is no question that escalating costs for stadiums, promotions and other elements of operating the business have increased over the last decade. Though revenues have continued to increase during the economic recession, the cost to generate these revenues has also increased.

In most businesses, he who takes the greatest risk typically receives the greatest rewards. However, professional football is somewhat different than the norm because while the owners are the ones taking the financial risks, it is the players who are taking the physical risks every Sunday.

With an average career length of barely four years and the very real risk of suffering injuries that will have an impact for years to follow, NFL players are very much focused on keeping as much revenue as possible.

Unlike the players in baseball, basketball and hockey, NFL players do not have guaranteed contracts, so their contracts often include large up-front signing bonuses. The owners would like to make it easier to recoup this bonus money when players break the law or violate the personal conduct policy, but the players are hesitant because up-front dollars are the only guaranteed money a player receives. Read the rest of this entry →

Aaron Rodgers didn't have just one great game, his play throughout the Playoffs lifted Green Bay to the title.

With his MVP performance in Super Bowl XLV, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has just completed on of the finest postseason runs in NFL history.

In light of this accomplishment and recent articles about the greatest individual performances in NFL playoff and Super Bowl history, here are the 10 greatest performances over the course of a single postseason in NFL history.

10. Thurman Thomas-1990 Buffalo Bills
Thomas showed his versatility as he gained 544 yards of total offense in three games during the Bills’ first of four runs to the Super Bowl.

Thomas run for more than 100 yards in all three games, rushing for 390 yards on 72 carries and scored four touchdowns, to go along with 13 catches for 154 yards.

But Buffalo fell short of winning the Super Bowl as Scott Norwood missed his potential game-winning field goal against the New York Giants.

9. Kurt Warner-1999 St. Louis Rams
The former grocery clerk completed his Cinderella season as he became the first quarterback as Warner completed 77 of 121 passes for 1, 063 yards, 414 of those yards coming in Super Bowl XXXIV, and threw eight touchdown passes, including the game-winning touchdown passes in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl, to lead the St. Louis Rams to a Super Bowl title after nine non-winning seasons for the franchise. Read the rest of this entry →

Aaron Rodgers proved that the Super Bowl stage wasn't too much for him to handle.

It was billed as a classic matchup between two of the most storied franchises in the NFL and Super Bowl XLV did not disappoint. The Green Bay Packers started strong and then held on to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25. The victory is the fourth Super Bowl win for the Packers and their 13th overall NFL title.

Early on it looked like the Packers might have an easy day at the office as they scored twice in a 24 second period in the first quarter and led 21-3 with less than a minute remaining in the first half.

However, the Pittsburgh Steelers have too much pride and experience to go quietly into the night and they drove down the field late in the first half and suddenly changed the momentum when Ben Roethlisberger hit Hines Ward for an eight yard touchdown with 39 seconds remaining before intermission.

The Steelers kept it going early in the second half as they scored less than five minutes into the second half to cut the margin to four points at 21-17.

It looked like Pittsburgh might take the lead as they were driving down the field before a hit by Clay Matthews knocked the ball from running back Rashard Mendenhall and was recovered by the Packers.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers then quickly took advantage as the Packers went 55 yards in just eight plays culminating with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Greg Jennings. Read the rest of this entry →