(For all my retro cards, click here.)

OK, now that we’re through the farce that is the Pro Bowl, it’s almost zero hour for the 2011 NFL season. So I thought it only proper to bust out a pair of Super Bowl-related retro cards. Up first is New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, as grafted onto a 1956 Topps card.

And for the AFC’s New England Patriots it’s Pro Bowl tight end Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski, on a 1984 Topps.

Of the two, the Manning was the easier to produce. I used a ’56 Charley Conerly card. Conerly was the QB of the Giants during the 1956 championship season, which is why I went with it. The stroke/halo effect is present on that ’56 set so I reproduced it as close as I could. Like with the Drew Brees card, I had a hard time finding a good helmetless pic so I just went with a regular shot.

The Gronkowski was a little trickier. I was going to go with a 1963 Fleer as the template, as that was the only year the Boston Patriots even made the AFL postseason. But it’s not a particularly inspiring layout to work with, so I went back to the ’84 Topps set. It’s probably the one I collected more than any other as a kid, and is still one of my favorites.

The trick was to find a usable picture of Gronkowski wearing the Pats throwback uniform. I then grafted it onto a John Hannah card, as it already had the additional Pro Bowl graphic on it. All I had to do was replace the name and the position text.

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I had so much fun designing my retro Drew Brees card, I got started on my next one right away. So here’s Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian “All Day” Peterson. I used a 1975 Chuck Foreman Topps card as the template.

I used a headshot of Peterson as Topps still relied mainly on them in the mid-’70s. Astute fans will notice that the Vikings patch on the jersey chest is missing. I removed it to maintain consistency, as Topps did not have the right to use team logos throughout the 1970s. Logos returned starting with the 1982 set.

All Day failed to reach 1,000 for the first time in his pro career, but that’s only due to injures. He is poised to become the Vikings’ all-time leading rusher within the first game or two of the 2012 NFL season, surpassing Robert Smith’s 6,818 yards. Foreman is the team’s third all-time rusher with 5,887 yards from 1973-1979.

Related articles

• Retro Football Cards – Drew Brees, Topps 1969 Style (grayflannelsuit.net)

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I can’t believe I’m saying this as a football fan of three decades, but I’ve seriously given thought to not watching the Super Bowl this year. Not because I don’t think it will be a good game, and certainly not because it lacks for good story lines. It’s just that I’m not the kind of football fan who will watch a game just because it’s football.

I need some kind of rooting interest — some reason to pull for one team over the other, even if it’s a silly one. But with Super Bowl XLVI, I am struggling to think of one so far. Unlike the last time the Patriots and Giants faced each other, in Super Bowl XLII. It was easy to root for New York then. I, like 99% of decent-minded sports fans, wanted desperately for a season’s worth of Boston-centric hubris and obnoxiousness to come crashing down on the perfect Patriots’ heads. So when Eli Manning found David Tyree on that improbable third-and-five play in the final period, and later hit Plaxico Burress for the winning TD, all felt right with the universe.

Is there a way Super Bowl XLVI can end in a tie?

But I will get no such sense of satisfaction if the Giants win this time. Not because the Patriots are suddenly the feel-good story of the year. No, I still loathe them. But taking a longer view of the league, I have to marvel at their consistency. Over the last decade they’ve posted fewer than 10 wins just once, and they’ve made the playoffs for all but two seasons. In a league where back-to-back winning seasons is a dream for some fans (myself included), that’s outstanding.

And let’s face it, will a fourth Super Bowl title really make New England fans even more entitled and annoying? I doubt it.

On the other hand, I don’t really have any specific reason for not rooting for the Giants. I’m a big Tom Coughlin fan, and Eli Manning seems like a good dude and he’s definitely a clutch quarterback. It’s just living in the greater New York area most of my life, enough already. I’m not even going to tune into the local sports talk radio station, WFAN, for the next few weeks (even though they have probably already started to talk about baseball).

The pretentious football purist in me feels like the Giants caught a lot more breaks this year than the Patriots. They stumbled their way through most of the regular season, and benefited from a weak division. And let’s not forget how Dallas once again shit the bed in December, as they seem to always do. I know that it’s the playoffs that count, and New York is certainly the hotter team, but I’m of the belief that consistency throughout an entire year should be rewarded in some way.

GAH, it’s all so confusing! Well I’m sure that the understated media approach to the Super Bowl this year will help me decide who to root for. Or I’ll just go with Plan B and watch some tapes of old Super Bowls from the ’70s I have stored in the basement. I just need to find a VCR.

Miscellaneous Debris – My AFL project is past the halfway mark! My collection of programs and media guides from the 1966 season is up. And a new retro football card is coming this Friday, so mark your calendars!

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My American Football League Program project has had me in an even more retro mood than normal. And as I wind down the bulk of the work (programs and media guides through the 1966 season are up now), I’m already looking for a new project. And so I struck upon the idea of retro football cards. So what’s that mean, you ask?

Simply put these are actual football cards from yesteryear, modified to show modern players. I haven’t collected football cards for years, as it stopped being a fun hobby when I saw it turning into big business. But when I was into it, I amassed a pretty decent collection. I still have most of them, in fact, and treasure them more than any of the baseball cards I collected.

So this project is a way for me to reconnect with the joy of collecting, as well as a way to keep my Photoshop skills up — meager as they are. So my first retro card, for no particular reason, is New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees. I used a 1969 Billy Kilmer Topps card as the template. I think it turned out OK for my first try.

The only “new” elements are the picture of Brees, of course, and the text for his name.

I had a hard time finding a picture of Drew Brees striking some kind of football pose — but without his helmet — that looks more like the types of poses featured in cards of this period. Cards in the ’60s didn’t feature action shots as a rule.

I hope to do more of these, so if anyone reading this has a suggestion I’m open.

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Eli Manning - Future Hall of Famer?

I’ve been listening to a lot of New York sports talk radio, and Giants fans are rightly happy with their team’s playoff win over the Falcons last weekend. And I’ve heard at least a few callers raise the question about whether Eli Manning is on track for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

It’s not a completely silly question, and one that deserves a closer look. First off, Manning is a Super Bowl champion. That automatically puts him in a special group of NFL signal callers. But if he never wins another title and continues to put up good passing numbers for the next five or six (or more) seasons, is that enough?

It may be instructive to look at the QBs who are already enshrined in Canton to see how Manning stacks up against them. Perhaps there is some unofficial criteria that can be applied to Manning’s career (or any other current NFL quarterbacks with similar careers)?

The Theory

It seems to me that the three surefire ways for a QB to get into the Hall of Fame are:

1. Win multiple championships (I am including the AFL in this discussion).
2. Put up gaudy passing statistics, at least compared to other QBs of their time.
3. Do both.

The Champions

There are 23 quarterbacks in Canton from what the Hall of Fame calls the “Modern Era.” Of these, 16 (70%) have won multiple league titles.

• Bart Starr (five NFL, two Super Bowls)
• George Blanda (three AFL)
• Otto Graham (three NFL) — Graham also won four AAFC titles, which may not be a factor.
• Len Dawson (three AFL, one Super Bowl)
• Johnny Unitas (two NFL, one Super Bowl)
• Joe Namath (one AFL, one Super Bowl)
• Terry Bradshaw (four Super Bowls)
• Joe Montana (four Super Bowls)
• Troy Aikman (three Super Bowls)
• Steve Young (three Super Bowls)
• John Elway (two Super Bowls)
• Bob Griese (two Super Bowls)
• Bobby Layne (two NFL)
• Roger Staubach (two Super Bowls)
• Norm Van Brocklin (two NFL)
• Bob Waterfield (two NFL)

The wild card here is Warren Moon. Moon did win five Canadian Football League championships, but I’m not sure how much that factored into his HoF induction. I think it does, but in addition his career stats are mighty impressive, so let’s make him the 17th member of this group.

Dan Marino, Miami Dolphins legend

The Outliers

OK, so now we’re left with six Hall of Fame quarterbacks who have no titles at all.

• Dan Fouts
• Sonny Jurgensen
• Jim Kelly
• Dan Marino
• Fran Tarkenton
• YA Tittle

Let’s see if any of these QBs fit into the second criteria — no title, but big-time stats.

Dan Fouts — Fouts is currently ninth on the all-time passing yards list, and was higher upon his retirement after the 1987 season. He’s also a Top 20 QB in terms of pass completions and touchdowns, as well as a six-time Pro Bowler and a member of the 1980s All-Decade Team. He fits.

Sonny Jurgensen — Ah, our first old-timer. Jurgensen finished his career in 1974, so his yardage and completion stats simply don’t stack up against modern superstars. He did, however, win three NFL passing crowns in the ’60s and was selected to five Pro Bowls. He was a consistent standout in an era when the running back was king of NFL offenses. He fits.

Jim Kelly — Poor Jim Kelly, always the bridesmaid. Kelly’s stats were neck-and-neck with the most prolific passers of his day, and he retired with the fourth-most passing yardage and third-most completions. This in spite of the fact that he had Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas on the same offense. He fits.

Dan Marino — I don’t even need to look this up. Marino is the greatest QB to never win a title I have ever seen. He fits like an Isotoner glove.

Fran Tarkenton — I’ll just go ahead and steal this from the Hall of Fame website: “At the time of his retirement, Fran owned every significant passing record – 3,686 pass completions, 47,003 passing yards, and 342 touchdowns.” To say nothing of his numerous Pro Bowls, playoff appearances, and the fact that his scrambling redefined what a quarterback could do. He fits.

YA Tittle — Like Tarkenton and Kelly, Tittle had plenty of chances to claim the ultimate prize but fell short. His New York Giants lost in the NFL championship game in 1961, ’62, and ’63. He had some of his best years when he was on the other side of 40 years old, which would be a miracle today. I think Tittle is another QB from the old days whose numbers don’t quite match up to modern passers, but were right there with the greats of his day. He fits.

Conclusion

I think we can safely conclude that while Eli Manning’s one Super Bowl win helps his candidacy, a second would pretty much make him a lock. The only QB of the Super Bowl era with two or more titles who is not in the Hall of Fame is Jim Plunkett, unless you want to credit Phil Simms for getting the Giants most of the way there in 1990.

But what if Eli never wins another title? At this point, he doesn’t have the numbers to get in. If he spends another five or six years with the same kinds of numbers he’s getting now, he enters the discussion.

As for other quarterbacks lighting it up these days — Peyton Manning is already in (on numbers alone), as is Tom Brady with his multiple titles. Drew Brees is just about there and probably will be soon. The one recent QB with no rings but excellent stats that will merit debate is Donovan McNabb.

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The Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs entered the 1971 NFL playoffs evenly matched. They both finished the regular season with identical 10-3-1 records and both scored more than 300 points on offense. By virtue of the rotation system then in place in the league, the Chiefs hosted an AFC divisional playoff game on Christmas Day ’71. It was to be the last game at the old Municipal Stadium, and it ended up as the longest game in NFL history.

Miami spent most of the game playing catchup to Kansas City. The Chiefs took an early 10-0 lead before the Dolphins finally answered back with a Larry Csonka TD run in the 2nd quarter. Kansas City scored two more TDs but each time Miami responded with one of their own. Miami tied the score at 24-24 with just 1:25 left in regulation when Marv Fleming hauled in a five-yard pass from Bob Griese.

The Chiefs had a chance to win 35 seconds left but Hall of Fame kicker Jan Stenerud missed a field goal attempt. He had another field goal attempt blocked in overtime.

Finally, about halfway through a second overtime, Miami kicker Garo Yepremian (laces out!) nailed a 37-yard field goal to win the longest game in NFL history — 82 minutes, 40 seconds — and send Miami to the AFC title game against the defending NFL champion Baltimore Colts.

Another record was set on that Christmas day in 1971 — Chiefs running back Ed Podolak racked up an amazing 349 all-purpose yards (8 receptions for 110 yards, 17 carries for 85 yards, 3 kickoff returns for 154 yards). It’s an NFL playoff record that still stands, and is currently the fourth-highest total in any league game.

I couldn’t find any video footage of that game, since the NFL seems to police YouTube pretty vigilantly for it. You can see the NFL Films account, complete with John Facenda narration, here. I did hunt down a few images.

Dolphins RB Larry Csonka rushed for 86 yards.

Chiefs RB Ed Podolak had a game for the ages on 12/25/71.

Miami RB Jim Kiick plunges for a 3rd-quarter TD.

Dolphins End Marv Fleming caught 4 passes for 37 yards and a TD.

Garo Yepremian kicked the game-winning FG in double overtime.

And that's the ballgame.

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First, big site news. My latest project — a comprehensive gallery of every American Football League program ever — is underway. So far I only have cover images from the 1960 season up, but more will follow before too long. Check it out here.

In searching for more cover images for the project, I stumbled across a very cool piece of 1960s ephemera from the NFL. The Packerville blog posted scans from a 1964 NFL publication called The NFL and You. The purpose of the booklet was to convince up-and-coming football players (and perhaps league veterans) that the NFL was the way to go, and not the “inferior” AFL.

The whole post is worth reading but two pages caught my eye. The cover image is a very cool snapshot of the helmets from all 14 NFL franchises in ’64. Many of them have changed very little, like the Colts, Steelers, or Browns. But dig the domes for the Eagles, Redskins, and Rams. Excellent stuff.

But even more striking and cool is the back cover, featuring a gallery of all 14 team logos.

Oh now that is sweet. I’ve seen most of these already, but it’s fun to look at them again. That cartoonish steel worker from the Pittsburgh Steelers logo is in pretty stark contrast to the image the franchise would cultivate starting in the ’70s. And what’s not to love about the rootin’, tootin’, gun shootin’ San Francisco 49ers logo? I also love the Cardinals, Cowboys, and Colts logos. That New York Giants one looks like football clip art. Blech.

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One of these days, when I’m independently wealthy, I’m going to amass the largest collection of American Football League game programs around. Until then, I’ll just pick them up on eBay from time to time and collect scans from the internet. Here is but a sampling of cover images from AFL game programs during the ten-year existence of the league. Much like the AFL itself, these programs reflect a great deal of character and color.

To see more of these great old programs, check out the AFL program gallery on the main site.

Dallas Texans vs. Oakland Raiders. Sunday, July 31, 1960.

AFL preseason game program -New York Titans vs. Los Angeles Chargers. Saturday, August 6, 1960.

AFL game program - Boston Patriots vs. Denver Broncos. Friday, September 9, 1960.

AFL game program - Oakland Raiders vs. Boston Patriots. Sunday, October 16, 1960.

AFL Championship game program - Los Angeles Chargers vs. Houston Oilers. Sunday, January 1, 1961.

AFL game program - Buffalo Bills vs. Denver Broncos. Sunday, September 10, 1961.

AFL program - Buffalo Bills vs. Houston Oilers. Sunday, September 9, 1962

AFL Championship game program - Boston Patriots vs. San Diego Chargers. Sunday, January 5, 1964.

AFL game program - Miami Dolphins vs. San Diego Chargers. Sunday, November 12, 1967.

AFL Championship game program - Oakland Raiders vs. New York Jets. Sunday, December 29, 1968.

AFL game program - Miami Dolphins vs. Houston Oilers. Sunday, September 28, 1969.

AFL game program - Cincinnati Bengals vs. Oakland Raiders. Sunday, December 7, 1969..

AFL Championship game program - Kansas City Chiefs vs. Oakland Raiders. Sunday, January 4, 1970.

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Brett who?

Through eleven games this NFL season, the Green Bay Packers are the league’s lone undefeated team. Equally as impressive has been Aaron Rodgers’ season at quarterback. Rodgers is making a serious run at a handful of league records — completion rate, passer rating, and touchdown passes. Here are the current record-holders for each of those categories:

Completion Percentage

1. 71.8% — Aaron Rodgers, Packers (2011*)
2. 70.6% — Drew Brees, Saints (2009); Ken Anderson, Bengals (1982)
4. 70.3% — Steve Young, 49ers (1994)
5. 70.2% — Drew Brees, Saints (2011*); Joe Montana, 49ers (1989)
7. 69.3% — Brian Griese, Buccaneers (2004) — Didn’t see that coming did you?
8. 69.2% — Daunte Culpepper, Vikings (2004)
9. 69.1% — Troy Aikman, Cowboys (1993)
10. 68.9% — Tom Brady, Patriots (2011*); Chad Pennington, Jets (2002)

Passer Rating

1. 127.7 — Aaron Rodgers, Packers (2011*)
2. 121.1 — Peyton Manning, Colts (2004)
3. 117.2 — Tom Brady, Patriots (2007)
4. 112.8 — Steve Young, 49ers (1994)
5. 112.4 — Joe Montana, 49ers (1989)
6. 110.0 — Tom Brady, Patriots (2010)
7. 110.9 — Daunte Culpepper, Vikings (2004)
8. 110.4 — Milt Plum, Browns (1960)
9. 109.6 — Drew Brees, Saints (2009)
10. 109.2 — Kurt Warner, Rams (1999); Otto Graham, Browns (1947, AAFC)

Touchdown Passes

1. 50 — Tom Brady, Patriots (2007)
2. 49 — Peyton Manning, Colts (2004)
3. 48 — Dan Marino, Dolphins (1984)
4. 44 — Dan Marino, Dolphins (1986)
5. 41 — Kurt Warner, Rams (1999)
6. 39 — Daunte Culpepper, Vikings (2004); Brett Favre, Packers (1996)
8. 38 — Brett Favre, Packers (1995)
9. 36 — Tony Romo, Cowboys (2007); Kurt Warner, Rams (2001); Steve Beuerlein, Panthers (1999); Steve Young, 49ers (1998); George Blanda, Oilers (1961, AFL); Y.A. Tittle, Giants (1963); Tom Brady, Patriots (2010)
23. 33 — Aaron Rodgers, Packers (2011*) is tied with 13 others.

(all statistics courtesy Pro Football Reference)

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Today marks the 60th anniversary of one of the more ignominious contests in the annals of the NFL. On November 25, 1951 the Chicago Bears met the defending NFL champion Cleveland Browns at venerable Cleveland Municipal Stadium and made league history.

The Browns crushed the Bears 42-21 thanks in part to an amazing six Dub Jones touchdowns, but the stat that is even more eye-popping is the penalty line. Here are the game totals:

• Chicago Bears — 16 penalties, 165 yards
• Cleveland Browns — 21 penalties, 209 yards

As a Raiders fan I’m familiar with penalties, and 37 of them are a lot. There was one flag thrown every 96 seconds on average on that day. During one drive the Browns were penalized three consecutive times for personal fouls. Numerous players from both teams were ejected, including Cleveland’s punter.

Those 37 infractions between the two squads represent a dubious feat that has managed to stand the test of time for six decades, which is probably a good thing. A writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer covering the game wrote the following poem to commemorate it:

“Over and over you would hear the man say, ‘It’s being called back — there’s a flag on the play.’ “

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