Q&A on Football

[HighLordDave]

That's right, folks, it's Q&A time and the subject is the greatest sport in the world: Football . . . er, American football.

On one of the football threads some of our friends from across the pond have asked some questions about America's favourites sport (dare I say, our national past time?) and I invite anyone to ask question on any subject related to football. You can ask about professional football at the major levels, college football, the history of the game, rules; you name it, and we'll try to cover it.

I'd like to keep this thread as factual and objective as possible, so I ask that some of the game's more rabid fans to use another thread to glorify their favourite team(s) or to tear down their least favourite team(s).

[Tybaltus]

Who were the starting Offensive Tackles for the very first Cincinnati Bengals game (In their franchise history)?

[HighLordDave]

Quote:

Originally posted by Tybaltus Who were the starting Offensive Tackles for the very first Cincinnati Bengals game (In their franchise history)?

I'm not sure who started, but the offensive tackles on the roster for the 1968 Bengals were Dan Archer, Howard Fest, Bob Kelly, Pete Perreault and Ernie Wright. Perreault and Fest split time at guard and Kelly also played defensive tackle, so I would hazard the guess that Archer and Wright started at OT for the 1968 Bengals.

Incidentally, that first game was against the San Diego Charges, who won 29-13.

[Tybaltus]

Quote:

Originally posted by HighLordDave I'm not sure who started, but the offensive tackles on the roster for the 1968 Bengals were Dan Archer, Howard Fest, Bob Kelly, Pete Perreault and Ernie Wright. Perreault and Fest split time at guard and Kelly also played defensive tackle, so I would hazard the guess that Archer and Wright started at OT for the 1968 Bengals. Incidentally, that first game was against the San Diego Charges, who won 29-13.

Well while Im disappointed in you because you didnt give me a sure answer, I AM quite impressed at the info.

How about: Who was the first NFL player to wear the number 13 on the field? And when was it? (That being an unlucky number for superstitious people, Im not sure if it took a while for players to wear the number)

[HighLordDave]

Really into the trivia tonight, huh? I can't find the first player to wear the number 13, but there are a fair number who do, so not all football players are triskaidekaphobic, but as you say, most are superstitious. The most famous person to wear the number 13 is simply the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins.

The person generally credited with assigning jersey numbers to players is the great Amos Alonzo Stagg who is also associated with introducing the huddle, widespread use of the forward pass, the reverse run, the flea-flicker, the tackling dummy and the man-in-motion. The earliest record I can find of numbers on jerseys is in the mid-1910s, although I will continue to try and find this out for you Tybaltus.

The Monday Night game is about to start here, so I'm taking off until half-time.

[Tybaltus]

Trivia is fun. And Im trying hard to stump you.

Right. When the games on, Ill be out of here for the night.

[Xandax]

Bah -here I come in the hope of finding some nice football talk, and all I see is talk about that sport where people use the *hands* (see - us in europe have another sport for that - handball ).

Play some decent football

hehe - well actually I like seeing that handsfootball the americans play, and catch some matches whenever they are shown on danish TV. Something I can't understand, though, is the seemed lack of good kickers in american football - but I guess it is cause most youngsters over there learn to catch and throw the ball

[HighLordDave]

@Xandax:
Kickers get no love from anyone unless your team is down by two with six seconds left and they need the three points for a field goal. I think many good athletes stay away from the kicking positions simply becuase there's not much money to be made.

The best college football kicker of all time was Sebastian Janikowski of Florida State University who won the Lou Groza Award for being college football's best kicker twice. He was drafted by the Oakland Raiders three years ago and aside from his off the field antics (which include arrests for marijuana and GHB, the "date rape" drug) and a strange foot infection he had last year, Janikowski is considered the best new young kicker in the league.

Janikowski and his mother emigrated from Poland where he was a soccer player, but since soccer gets no love over here either, he tried out for the football team doing what he did best: kicking the ball. Unlike most other kickers, Janikowski is a big guy (he's something like 6'3" tall and weighs 255 lbs.) and in college was reputed to hit 70 yarders in practise on a fairly regular basis (the NFL record is 63 yards set by Tom Dempsey in 1970 and tied by Jason Elam in 1998).

Coaches talk a lot about having a good kicking game, place kickers for scoring points and punters for field position, but when it comes to paying, many teams in the league will cut a proven veteran and replace him with a younger guy so they don't have to pay them more. This is what the Vikings did last year when they released Gary Anderson, the most prolific scorer in the history of the league, and brought in Doug Brien who they're paying substantially less.

Quote:

Originally posted by HighLordDave Really into the trivia tonight, huh? I can't find the first player to wear the number 13, but there are a fair number who do, so not all football players are triskaidekaphobic, but as you say, most are superstitious. The most famous person to wear the number 13 is simply the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins. .

The Greatest Quarterback to ever play the game? Simply? I thought this thread was suppposed to be about facts. And objective.... Not rabid opinions.....sigh......Simply the greatest?

[HighLordDave]

Dan Marino holds every major passing record in the National Football League. If that doesn't qualify him as the greatest quarterback to play, I don't know what does, especially since he played on some pretty horrible Dolphin teams.

Well, he cranked up the records AGAINST teams during the years where the afc had the worst teams known to man. ..face it...he was great at numbers but choked when it came crunch time. Yet ALL those records.......seem to be missing some very important ones...like THE most important one..QB rating

PASSER RATING
Highest Passer Rating, Career (1,500 attempts)
96.8 Steve Young, Tampa Bay, 1985-86; San Francisco, 1987-1999
92.3 Joe Montana, San Francisco, 1979-1990, 1992; Kansas City, 1993-94
86.8 Brett Favre, Atlanta, 1991; Green Bay, 1992-2001
Highest Passer Rating, Season (Qualifiers)
112.8 Steve Young, San Francisco, 1994
112.4 Joe Montana, San Francisco, 1989
110.4 Milt Plum, Cleveland, 1960
Highest Passer Rating, Rookie, Season (Qualifiers)
96.0 Dan Marino, Miami, 1983
88.2 Greg Cook, Cincinnati, 1969
84.0 Charlie Conerly, N.Y. Giants, 1948

Unless you consider the most important stat to be how many times the leader lead......in that case.......lets see.....nope..no super bowl rings either.....Greatest Quarterback to ever play??? Not hardly. Not even on facts alone. Of course that is just my humble opinon......but I am not a rabid fan either.

[HighLordDave]

If championship rings were the only indicator of greatness, then are you ready to declare the following people among the greatest to play the game: Jim Plunkett (XV, XVIII), Trent Dilfer (XXXV), Jim McMahon (XX), Doug Williams (XXII) or Mark Rypien (XXVI)? (The jury's still out on Brady (XXXVI), at least until he either establishes himself as a franchise quarterback or blows up as a one-year wonder).

Conversely, would you revoke the Hall of Fame memberships for Jim Kelly, Dan Fouts and Fran Tarkenton because they either never got to the big game (Fouts) or were on teams that were beaten and/or outplayed in the championship game (Kelly, Tarkenton).

Marino holds records for completions, TDs and yards (although if you count Warren Moon's CFL yards, he eclipses Marino). Hell, he personally has more TD passes than the entire Tampa Bay Bucaneers franchise. The problem with a team sport is that it's hard to compare individuals, especially when they played in different eras and systems. For instance, Steve Young and Joe Montana played in a system that breeds a high pass efficiency rating (Favre plays in a similar system). They also happened to be on good teams and have the greatest receiver to play the game on the other end of their passes (this one isn't up for debate; Jerry Rice was light years better than anyone else who has ever played, and he's still playing). Marino played on bad teams with average receivers and often a poor running game, yet he still managed to put up huge numbers.

[Quark]

Kickers get no love? Man, you don't know the Eagles then. Akers and Landetta are two of the most revered players on the team.

Their combo gives you practically the most consistent kicking in the NFL ...

[HighLordDave]

Quote:

Originally posted by Quark Kickers get no love? Man, you don't know the Eagles then. Akers and Landetta are two of the most revered players on the team.

I think a lot of people respect kickers and realise that they play an important part on the team, but when it comes time to pay them, most teams turn them away when they get older or ask them to take pay cuts to help out the team's salary cap.

Last February, Adam Vinatieri probably could have been elected governor of Massachusetts, and he could probably kill four people, admit to it and still get acquitted by a jury in Boston today. However, kickers will never make "franchise" money, nor will a kicker ever be the first overall pick in the draft.

[Vivien]

HLD:

Questions on football...

Why are you talking about boring football when you could be talking about something fun and stimulating with me??