I’ve been looking forward to this column for so long. :) Slingin’ Sammy Baugh and Sonny. My father would be in heaven (of course, he already is, but he would have loved this). Remember those ancient NFL Films music videos of highlights set to popular songs? They had one that combined Sonny the player with Sunny the song, and it was glorious, probably the best one until the Packers and The Way We Were. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s part 2 which will no doubt include Joe Theismann changing the pronunciation of his own name, “Mad Bomber” Mark Rypien, Doug Williams’s career day in the Super Bowl, and so much more.
Walter Payton's 1977 season highlights set to "Nobody Does It Better" (best Bond theme and best Carly Simon song not written by Carly Simon) was my first encounter with the concept of nostalgia. ("Why do I feel happy and sad at the same time?")
Oh, wow, I forgot about that Walter Payton one. Yeah, that was fantastic. I wish they were online somewhere, but the music licenses must be prohibitive
I got very excited when I saw this entry on the youtubes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m42QZ6FlRBo), but sadly it's someone in the same boat as us: "In 1977 Walter Payton set the NFL single game rushing record with 275 yards. CBS Sports made a short tribute video of Walter, with the song, "Nobody does it better", by Carly Simon. As a kid at the time, I remember watching the video and have been searching for it ever since, with no luck.. So I created this video as close to the original version as I could remember."
And apologies to Mike and everyone for threadjacking.
Excellent, and very much looking forward to the next installment.
But--beware, baseball pedantry ahead!--your description of baseball during Babe Ruth's early career makes it sounds like he started in the 1880s, not the 1910s. Yeah, the 1910s was still different baseball than today (dead ball; racial segregation; gloves that were really gloves not oversized oven mitts), but it's also recognizably modern baseball, unlike a generation earlier when pitchers threw underhanded (that's what your softball line led me to think about), it took six balls to get a walk, and batters could tell the pitcher where the pitch should be thrown.
Not that any of this matters in a football blog. I'll show myself out.
As a kid wondering if this was the end of the Packer’s dynasty, I remember the Lombardi comment about Jurgenson unsettling, creepy and unfathomable as my Dad telling me he was leaving us for the hot waitress at the bowling alley.
Never lose a game with Sonny when they had lost hardly any that mattered from the time I was 8 until 15? And didn’t the QB call the plays back then? Was Sonny, a fine QB I admired, actually that great?
Lombardi simply bolted to the last team you would expect, did so little with it in his brief time there before dying, leaving this suddenly unmoored teenager to wonder just what in the hell was going on out there?
If you forced offensive players to also play defense, the all pro safeties would always be the most athletic quarterbacks. And if you forced position players to punt, Randall Cunningham would've undoubtedly been an all pro punter.
Not in any way to diminish Slingin' Sammy, but Dutch Meyer deserves a shout out in redefining the qb position. Baugh said he learned everything he knew about passing at TCU, and he'd certainly learned enough to be a dominant player in the NFL from his rookie year.
I’ve been looking forward to this column for so long. :) Slingin’ Sammy Baugh and Sonny. My father would be in heaven (of course, he already is, but he would have loved this). Remember those ancient NFL Films music videos of highlights set to popular songs? They had one that combined Sonny the player with Sunny the song, and it was glorious, probably the best one until the Packers and The Way We Were. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s part 2 which will no doubt include Joe Theismann changing the pronunciation of his own name, “Mad Bomber” Mark Rypien, Doug Williams’s career day in the Super Bowl, and so much more.
Walter Payton's 1977 season highlights set to "Nobody Does It Better" (best Bond theme and best Carly Simon song not written by Carly Simon) was my first encounter with the concept of nostalgia. ("Why do I feel happy and sad at the same time?")
Oh, wow, I forgot about that Walter Payton one. Yeah, that was fantastic. I wish they were online somewhere, but the music licenses must be prohibitive
I got very excited when I saw this entry on the youtubes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m42QZ6FlRBo), but sadly it's someone in the same boat as us: "In 1977 Walter Payton set the NFL single game rushing record with 275 yards. CBS Sports made a short tribute video of Walter, with the song, "Nobody does it better", by Carly Simon. As a kid at the time, I remember watching the video and have been searching for it ever since, with no luck.. So I created this video as close to the original version as I could remember."
And apologies to Mike and everyone for threadjacking.
Excellent, and very much looking forward to the next installment.
But--beware, baseball pedantry ahead!--your description of baseball during Babe Ruth's early career makes it sounds like he started in the 1880s, not the 1910s. Yeah, the 1910s was still different baseball than today (dead ball; racial segregation; gloves that were really gloves not oversized oven mitts), but it's also recognizably modern baseball, unlike a generation earlier when pitchers threw underhanded (that's what your softball line led me to think about), it took six balls to get a walk, and batters could tell the pitcher where the pitch should be thrown.
Not that any of this matters in a football blog. I'll show myself out.
As a kid wondering if this was the end of the Packer’s dynasty, I remember the Lombardi comment about Jurgenson unsettling, creepy and unfathomable as my Dad telling me he was leaving us for the hot waitress at the bowling alley.
Never lose a game with Sonny when they had lost hardly any that mattered from the time I was 8 until 15? And didn’t the QB call the plays back then? Was Sonny, a fine QB I admired, actually that great?
Lombardi simply bolted to the last team you would expect, did so little with it in his brief time there before dying, leaving this suddenly unmoored teenager to wonder just what in the hell was going on out there?
I think he was the greatest all around player of any era. All pro quarterback, all pro defensive back, and all pro punter.
If you forced offensive players to also play defense, the all pro safeties would always be the most athletic quarterbacks. And if you forced position players to punt, Randall Cunningham would've undoubtedly been an all pro punter.
Imagine the modern NFL if players were forced to play both ways. Would be fascinating.
Earl Campbell as a linebacker. Hines Ward as a safety. Any others?
Michah Parsons as a TE/WR combo.
I could probably find a couple of spots on my defense for Derrick Henry and Gronk, too.
Hey Mike, thanks for explaining why my dad was a Washington fan, even though he grew up in Tennessee
Was waiting for this one. The local broadcast was always necessary to hear Sonny before he retired from calling games.
Not in any way to diminish Slingin' Sammy, but Dutch Meyer deserves a shout out in redefining the qb position. Baugh said he learned everything he knew about passing at TCU, and he'd certainly learned enough to be a dominant player in the NFL from his rookie year.