NFL

NFL Teams Start Your Engines!

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

That the NFL is a money-making machine is of no surprise.  It’s gross revenues, licensing deals, national and international reach, tv deals, and bottom line profitability make it one of the greatest brands this side of Coca Cola, nike, and Disney.  The reasons are many.  Stadium deals, fan loyalty, merchandise revenues, licenses, and expert marketing are some of the those reasons.  But, the main reason why is that their product is king.   How have they done it?

Ah, the sacred product.  Remember when Coca Cola reinvented the formula for Coke and called it New Coke?  The backlash, whiplash, and tongue lashing that they received was immediate and fierce.  You would have thought Disney took the mouse ears off of Mickey.

Sure, the NFL has moved goal posts and hash marks over the years.  And, it’s changed the rules on what is and is not a catch or is or is not a fumble roughly 43 times and counting.  But, through it all, its team v team product has produced game, division, conference, and Super Bowl champion finishes that hold fan interest the world over. “Maybe next year” is a hope that has real meaning to many millions of fans.

But, how have they done it?  While likely unintended, it’s modeled very similarly to the NASCAR season in a sense.  NASCAR modified their rules years ago to restrict or limit nearly every aspect of the crew chiefs, pit crews, drivers, mechanics, and car and tire manufacturers influence from gaining any real advantage.  The results of NASCAR races and its seasons since have much in common.  Many cars compete in close proximity on the last lap at the same time.  Gone for the most part are days when the leader is miles ahead of the pack.  Similarly, the season long standings remain bunched with many drivers still in contention for being the year-long points leader and capturing all of the money, prizes and adulation that comes with it.

Similarly, in the NFL hope springs eternal.  Each week games go to overtime, or decided on the last play, or in doubt in the last minute.  Upsets (a column for another day) defined by the Vegas lines are the norm too.  Division championships come down to the last weekend.  Playoff seeds remain undetermined often till the last hours of the last regular season weekend. Lots of new teams come from nowhere and run deep in the playoffs.

NASCAR does it with all sorts of engine tweak limits and body restrictions.  How does the NFL accomplish it?

It starts anew every spring in the NFL. First, the better your record was in the previous year the harder your strength of schedule is based on winning percentages of the year prior.  The worse your record was last year the easier you are scheduled in the coming year.

Second, teams draft in the reverse order of their finish from the prior year.  The better you are the later you pick and vice versa.  With each drafted position slotted in a tight window of what teams can pay (afford), the cost to a team drafting the fifth player in a round isn’t much more at all than at team selecting the 25th for example.  Importantly, this draft cap money is a rather small part of the total salary cap.

Third, free agency levels the playing field further.  With each team operating under the exact same salary cap good players who become free agents command more money in the open market.  Great teams have more good to great (real or perceived)players than not so good teams.   Great teams, therefore, cannot afford to keep all of those that made them what they are and soon to be were.

Fourth, teams in bigger markets that generate way more revenue cannot spend proportionately more on payroll than smaller market teams filling needs on their roster.  The salary cap rears it head again.  Point three and this one have huge impacts.  Ask MLB.

Fifth, a few years ago, concerned that some teams were taking the last game or two off to rest starters, the NFL adjusted its scheduling going forward.  Everyone now plays mostly in division contests in the final regular season weeks.  That adjustment insures most divisions are still undecided in December.

So, how is it working?  Quite well.  In the past five seasons, 18 teams have bounced back from a sub-.500 record to qualify for the playoffs. That’s an average of 3.6 per year.  Last year five teams; the Eagles, Saints, Panthers, Rams, and Jaguars each went from positions near or at the bottom of their divisions to postseason berths.

Several more could make the turnaround in 2018.  Last year’s participants are below.

2017-18 NFL Playoff Teams

AFC 

  1. New England Patriots (13-3)
  2. Pittsburgh Steelers (13-3)
  3. Jacksonville Jaguars (10-6)
  4. Kansas City Chiefs (10-6)
  5. Tennessee Titans (9-7)
  6. Buffalo Bills (9-7)

NFC

  1. Philadelphia Eagles (13-3)
  2. Minnesota Vikings (13-3)
  3. Los Angeles Rams (11-5)
  4. New Orleans Saints (11-5)
  5. Carolina Panthers (11-5)
  6. Atlanta Falcons (10-6)

In 2018 Buffalo is done.  Jacksonville is done.  Atlanta is done.  Carolina has lost five in a row and needs a major tune up.  With three weeks to go Tennessee might need to win out to return.  And, last year’s Super Bowl Champions, the Philadelphia Eagles need to win out and might need help from others to even attempt to defend.  That’s six of last year’s twelve out or leaking oil all over the field.

Enter Dallas, Chicago, Seattle from the NFC as possible to probable playoff newcomers.  In the AFC the mad dash is even more mad.  San Diego and Houston look like they will join the party.  At least one of Baltimore, Indianapolis and even Denver can crash it too.

Expect a minimum of six and maybe even seven newcomers to the second season’s hunt for the Lombardi Trophy.

True to years past that’s a lot of NFL teams “swapping paint” on the drive to the finish line.  Plenty teams can see the checkered flag.  But, the traffic is bad and there are lots of new drivers on the road.

Maybe Next Year

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

With only three quarters of the NFL season in the books, one team record is safe yet again.   Know what it is?  Mercury Morris knows.   It’s a record that has been achieved only once since the league started in 1920.   Jim Kiick and Larry Csonka know.  It’s a perfect season.  And, it’s been next to impossible to achieve.

Garo’s pass completion to the wrong team was Washington’s lone score

Head Coach Don Shula guided his 1972 Miami Dolphins to an unblemished 17-0-0 regular and post season won/ loss record.  This feat included an immaculate regular season of 14 wins as well as three playoff wins.  The final victory was a Super Bowl VII win over the Washington Redskins, 14-7.  Through 2018 they remain the only undefeated and untied NFL team since a playoff system began in 1932.

There have only been three undefeated regular season teams in addition to the ’72 Dolphins.   The Chicago Bears did it twice (1934, 1942).  And, the New England Patriots did so in 2007.  The Patriots are the only team to run the regular season table since the league switched to 16 games in 1978.

Each of these three seasons ended shy of the Dolphins mark with a playoff or championship game(yesterday’s version of today’s Super Bowl) loss.  The Patriots were heavy favorites over the New York Football Giants in Super Bowl XLII, but they fell prey to Eli Manning’s fourth quarter heroics.

Perfection, including the playoffs, is indeed hard to achieve.  But even losing just one game in the regular season is rare.  Since 1961, when the NFL expanded to a 14 game season, only 11 teams finished with one loss.  Four won it all in the post season while seven fell shy.

For many years Don Shula and several players from that ’72 team gathered in Miami to pop a few bottles of champagne in the days after the last undefeated team fell to an opponent.   Their longest wait was when 2007 turned into February of 2008 and Tom Brady and Bill Belicheck had their sights set on this ultimate prize.   No doubt the bubbly never tasted better.

A lot of teams have played a lot of years.  It’s amazing that only one, and only one time,  has been perfect from start to finish.

I Have Yet Another Story and a Moral Thereof

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

In the seasons leading up to and in the seasons after Tom Dempsey’s miracle kick there were plenty of other home Saints games that Boom Boom and I attended.  There were seven a year(14 game seasons) in fact, and nine including preseason games.

We went to all of them, and I mean all of them.  And we got there early and always stayed till the (often bitter) end.  And, I mean we got there early.  The gates opened at 10 AM for noon kickoffs.  We were in the car by 9:40 latest.  It wasn’t uncommon for us to arrive by 10:00 AM.  Why?  Well, for one, we beat the traffic.  We got a great parking spot too.  We always parked a mile away in a high school lot.  We always had the first spot closest to the exit.

I never asked why we got there so early, but it sure seemed fine to me.  Once I counted seven fans sitting on their old Tulane Stadium wooden bench seats in the entire 84,000 seat capacity stadium.  Seven.  And that count included the two of us.  Back then you could bring most anything in to the stadium.  We brought sandwiches, a canned soft drink for me, a thermos of coffee, and a flask of what dad called “snake bite medicine.”  There was something calming and exciting at the same time about sitting there, eating an early lunch, and chatting about the upcoming NFL football with dad.

Just about the time the sandwich was gone a few Saints would trickle out of the locker room.  This always included Tom Dempsey or the kickers that competed before and after him.   I would run from where ever our seats were to the end zone.  My goal was to catch one of the warm up field goal attempts that soared into the bench seats one after the other and then throw it back.  There were no nets back then.  I wasn’t alone.  The competition for a youngster was taller and older.  And, the football flew high, far, and fast.  I never caught one.  I did get my fingers on one once.   I actually dislocated a finger in fact.   It looked crooked and hurt much.  Around the stadium I went.   Dad gave it one good pull in spite of my protestations and it was back in place.  I started to ask if the “snake bite medicine” might soothe the pain.  Then I thought it better not to.

On one particular sunny Sunday morning we departed, as always, on time for the game.  I was looking forward to the sandwich, the chat, the opportunity to finally catch a ball, and the kickoff.  Surely this was the week that the Saints would break their losing streak.    After parking and walking we approached the ticket taker at our gate.  Boom Boom rooted around in his coat pocket (a sport coat and a tie were standard attire then) then his pants pockets.  His eyes got bigger with each empty pocket.  “Son, I think I forgot the tickets.”  “What do we do, Daddy?”  “Let’s run back home and get them,” he said.  His voice tone spoke volumes of the disappointment in himself.  “But, we will miss the kickoff,” I selfishly said.  “Maybe not” came the retort.

From the entrance we spun our heels and walked the mile back to the car.   Like salmon we wove our way back home.  Mom, being mom, heard the car and ambled outside worried about our arrival.

“What’s wrong?”  Boom Boom slowed down to a jog while passing her.  It was just long enough to admit that he forgot the tickets.

“Get back in.  Let’s go.”  And off we went.   Traffic had built, but not too badly.  Boom Boom had slipped the attendant a couple of bucks to save our parking spot.

One mile of brisk walk later we were in the stadium and headed to our seats.    We sat down for only a minute or so before we were asked to stand up as Al Hirt blasted the national anthem through his seasoned trumpet.

As the brass horn hit the last notes Boom Boom lamented, “Son, that’s the latest that I’ve ever arrived for any game. We almost missed the Star Spangled Banner.”   “ We made it before kickoff, Dad.”  “You never want to be late for anything,” he said.  Hmm.

By the end of the third quarter the Saints had done plenty enough wrong to insure another loss was well in hand.   We stayed until the final seconds though.   We always did.  Always.

During the game and then on the walk back to the car I thought about asking him why being in our seats before the Anthem was so important.   Then I thought it better not to.

“Thanks for taking me to the game Dad,” I chose instead.   “You bet,” came the quick reply.

So, what’s the moral of the story?  If you’re not early, you’re late.  And, don’t ask why.

 

 

Bet Against the Steelers When They Head West.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Some stats, when the body of work is accumulated over many years, are way more indicative of future performance than others.   The folks at Deadspin spun this very well done analysis of the Pittsburgh Steelers won/loss record when they travel west vs. when they don’t.  It compares their lack of success to other teams doing the same over a long period of time.

If you don’t want to read all of the meticulous detail, don’t.  Just be sure to bet against Big Ben and Company when they fly into the Mountain Time Zone and beyond.  The team’s performance, or lack thereof,  from the Chuck Noll era till now proves it.

It’s Better to Take and Not Give!

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Analytics are woven into the makeup and strategy of major team sports today much more than ever before.  It roots are in baseball way back when and it was designed to give the fledgling hobby of fantasy baseball a more cerebral look at who you were drafting and why.  It was called sabermetrics originally.  The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research, founded in 1971. The term sabermetrics was coined by Bill James, who is one of its pioneers and is often considered its most prominent advocate and public face.

From that seed of a start has grown a forest of stats, now called “analytics,”  covering baseball, football, basketball, hockey, as well as several other sports.   Ivy League savants are employed in many sports franchise front offices coast to coast and even across the pond where they play futbol, not football.

The bbr staff was working well into the evening last week and discussing these new metrics and their merits as well as their shortcomings.   In the background on our fat Samsung was a meaningless Tuesday night NCAA football game.  Buffalo and Miami, OH were trading touchdowns at a rapid pace.  The Bulls outlasted the Redhawks 52-41.  Bonus points to you if you know which team goes with which nickname.

One of the many team stats shown along the way was turnovers.  When shown the announcer referred to them as takeaways.  This prompted some research and debate among us.  Our research turned to the NFL.  Fansided.com. published an article that shows results from 2010-2014 that, while a bit dated, shows irrefutable evidence as to how critical winning the turnover battle really is.  An excerpted paragraph follows.

During that five-year span teams that finished in the top ten in turnover differential finished 521-278-1. That’s a winning percentage of 65.2 percent and equates to about 10.4 wins per season. On the other end of the spectrum, the teams that finished in the bottom ten in turnover differential finished 287-512-1. That’s a winning percentage of about 35.9 percent and equates to about 5.7 wins per season.

And just below from Boydsbets.com you can see what happens per game when you win the turnover battle by 1 through 4 or more turnovers covering all games since 2005.   It shows both straight up(SU) winning and how the stat affects betting against the spread (ATS).

TO Differential SU SU % ATS ATS %
+1 823-376-4 68.6% 801-366-36 68.6%
+2 655-142 82.2% 632-149-16 80.9%
+3 344-33-1 91.2% 330-41-7 88.9%
+4 or more 272-8 97.1% 266-13-1 95.3%
TOTAL (+1 or better) 2094-559-5 78.9% 2029-569-60 78.1%

Suffice it to say that if you hold onto the ball a bit better than your opponent you win.  If you hold on to it significantly better you almost always win.

But, we wonder.  We wonder in this day of advanced analytics if there is a deeper dive still to be taken.  Remember the announcer called a turnover a takeaway as if they were one.  We wonder if there really are two measurements that better depict how you got the ball from your opponent.

Aren’t there turnovers and takeaways?  A turnover could be defined as the offense inflicting damage upon itself.  If for example the QB overthrew, without pressure, a receiver by 5 yards into the waiting arms of the deep safety isn’t that more giving than taking?  If a running back is running free and clear and coughs it up on his own isn’t that more giving than taking?  What if you were DeSean Jackson?  He made a habit of giving not taking.

Conversely, aggressive and smart defenses create turnovers, or as we prefer, takeaways.  If you blind side the QB and he loses control prior to throwing it, it’s a takeaway.  If a cornerback  jumps an out route its taken, not given.

We readily admit that there is grey area in between the clear examples above.  However, there are grey areas in many judgement calls in sports.  An umpire uses his eyes about 250 times a game to decide in his judgement if a thrown baseball is a ball or a strike.   Surely we can split hairs on whether the D taketh or the O giveth.

How you lose possession speaks to how you protect the ball and how the D wants the ball.  We think bad teams give it away and good teams take it away.  We think that great teams don’t give it away on O, but take it away on D.  From the results shown above the most important stat battle that you must win to win a game is turnover differential.

Should there be two stats?  We think so.  Turnovers and takeaways aren’t the same.

In the NFL it’s a don’t give and do take world.

 

The Art of Long Snapping is Now a Science.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

People that really get into sports spend a lot of time talking to people who really get into sports.  Regardless of your favorite sport or sports, you often offer or are offered the following line, “Did you see the(pick one) play, kick, punt, bunt, goal, throw, hit, catch, run, shot, swing, jump, roll, fake, block, or tackle that so and so made in yesterday’s(pick one) game, match, set, event, or meet?”  It’s what sports fans do.  They live for the next greatest something and they talk about it.  Players one up players, and conversational high points one up conversational high points.

Athletes train smarter and harder than ever before.  Most focus on one sport early and attempt to master it.  Parents, coaches, trainers, nutritionists, and camps all focus on making the next generation better than the past.  In many areas this has taken good to great and great to elite.

One such area is place kicking a football.  Field goals have evolved from a hope to an almost certainty inside of forty yards over the last quarter century.  Similarly, field goal accuracy from fifty to sixty yards has improved to the point of no one being surprised when a game winner is struck from these distances.  The decade by decade percent converted improvement is geometric at all levels of competition.  This is but one example of many areas of improved expertise in athletic endeavors over time.

But one area has improved to the point of so near to perfection that we don’t even talk about it anymore.  Perhaps we don’t even see it when we look at it.  What is it?  Long snapping the football is what it is.  Think back through this year to date.  The NCAA FBS schedule is eight games in.  The NFL is seven games in.   Have you seen a bad snap on a field goal or a punt this year at either level?  Has there even been one?  Not the rain, nor the wind, nor the pressure has had even a marginal effect apparently.  This writer hasn’t seen one in person, live on tv, or on any high(low)lights.

A .43 second Google search for “long snapping” turns up thousands of potential matches.  You can watch “how to videos”(even the setup and approach prior to the snap), sign up for any number of snapping camps run by seasoned pros, or even see who has been offered a scholarship to a FBS school to snap.  Smart college coaching staffs value special teams.  Those that value special teams certainly recruit and sign a great snapper as one of their allowed 85 scholarships.

Great college snappers vie for 32 pro jobs.  Every NFL team has one excellent snapper.  That snapper makes the league minimum at a minimum.  How much is that? Well, for 2018 its $465,000 for a rookie and the scale increases gradually by years of employment.  If you are in your tenth year the min is a smooth $1,000,000.  The best of all make even more.

Long snapping might be the specialty of special teams play.  Every punt has a snap and a punt.  Every place kick has a snap, a hold, and a kick.  We watch the kicks.  We don’t even see the snaps anymore.

It’s great work if you can get it.  But shy of perfection you need not apply.

 

 

Five Foot Eleven Drew Brees Casts a Tall Shadow

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

October is a great time for sports nuts like us.  The NHL is skating.  The NBA is about to roll.  MLB playoffs are in full swing.  And football, from pee wee to pro, is everywhere.

So yesterday while a 27 time World Series champion NY Yankees team was getting pasted by a Boston Red Sox team that can come at you in many ways, the defending World Champion Houston Astros busily had their brooms out sweeping the Cleveland Indians.  All the while a proud LA Dodgers organization was showing continued excellence dispatching the young, upstart Atlanta Braves.

Oh, yes.  And there was a Monday Night Football game.  The Washington Redskins came to New Orleans to play the role of the Washington Generals getting worked by The Harlem Globetrotters.  The Redskins played the role perfectly as Drew Brees took the national stage and was crowned the all-time NFL passing yardage leader.  He needed 201 yards to pass Payton Manning.  He got the crown, a standing O, a kiss from his wife, and a hug from his coach by halftime.

All five foot eleven inches of Drew Brees casts a tall shadow indeed.   His 26-29 and 3 td performance brought his career total yards to 72,103.  He also ranks as number one ever for completion percentage.  Twenty-six for twenty-nine last night is almost his norm.

Rank Player Yards
1 Drew Brees* 72,103
2 Peyton Manning 71,940
3 Brett Favre^ 71,838
4 Tom Brady* 67,418

Once more, that’s 72,103 yards and counting.  That’s all but 41 miles.

He played QB at a football factory high school in football crazy Texas.  No prominent college team in Texas offered him a scholarship.  So, he “took his talents” to Purdue.  Purdue.  On draft night 2001 San Diego traded out of the very first pick.  With it the Atlanta Falcons took Michael Vick.  With the first pick in the second round the San Diego Chargers took Drew Brees.  His first pass attempt ever for them ended in a sack and a fumble.  San Diego chose Phillip Rivers, QB,  in the first round in 2004.  The proverbial handwriting was on the wall.

As a free agent in 2006 Drew wanted to go to the Miami Dolphins and play for some coach named Nick Saban.  Miami doctors feared that his rotator cuff injury was too risky to pay money for a starting QB.  New Orleans and a new head coach named Sean Payton came calling.  Saban’s loss, a rarity, was Payton’s gain.  The city was absolutely reeling at the time due to Katrina and the terror she brought.

Twelve years, 41 miles of passing yards, lots of rebuilding, and one Super Bowl win later Drew, the Saints, and its fans share a rabid passion and common bond.   Drew is the Saints.  Drew owns the town.  And the town owns Drew.

So, where to from here?  He keeps himself in great physical shape.  He’ll turn 40 on January 15,  roughly the time he hopes he is leading his team to another deep playoff run and a shot at ring number two.  It would not surprise anyone if Drew will play into his mid forties.  It would not surprise anyone if he got to 88,000 passing yards.  That’s 50 miles in case you wondered.

And, it says here that Brees will become even more of an off of the field leader than he already is. His charitable work is great.  He founded the Drew Brees Foundation that helps cancer patients live better lives. He has others that he is involved in as well.  His investments, local and national,  in various business ventures employ many.

It says here that a successful run for mayor of the city is very possible if he wants it.  He already is king of the city.

Anyone who doubts that misses who he really is.  Drew says,” nothing is given, everything is earned.”  Indeed.

 

 

 

Is Patrick Mahomes the Next Drew Brees?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Just three days before 2015 vanished and 2016 arrived a nondescript Advocare Texas Bowl game ended with LSU well ahead of an outmanned Texas Tech team, 56-27.   Unless you were a fan of either team its unlikely you watched it, much less remembered it.

The headliner going into and the story line coming out of the game was that Leonard Fournette ran over, around, and through the less talented Red Raiders.  But buried within the game was a stat line of Patrick Mahomes II, the Tech QB.  It read 28-56 for 370 yards and 4 TD’s.  Those numbers sound like so many other inflated,”run and gun,” forgettable QB’s that passed through the dust that Lubbock is.  Sonny Cumbie, BJ Symons, Billy Joe Tolliver, Graham Harrell, or Kliff Kingsbury don’t exactly evoke comparisons to greatness once they left that pass happy offense.

But Mahomes got his numbers that night in a different and impressive fashion that left this staff member duly impressed.  LSU’s defense can get after you.  He sat coolly in the pocket till flushed.  When flushed he completed passes to his left after scrambling right.  He completed passes to his right after scrambling left.  He ran only when it was a last resort.  He ran well when he did.  Gritty.  Smart.  Confident.

Mahomes was a junior then.  He completed his senior year and entered the 2017 draft last year.

The New Orleans Saints held the 11th pick in the first round.  The Buffalo Bills had the 10th.  Nine picks were gone and the woeful Bills were on the clock.  Sean Payton, head coach for N.O., knows a thing or two about quarterbacks.  Working side by side with Drew Brees masterfully carving up NFL defenses for 12 years lets you see what it takes to be one of the greatest of all-time first hand.

As Payton recalled it on the Dan Patrick show, “Here it was—pick 10—and we have two players in the bubble, Lattimore and Mahomes. Kansas City traded up to 10 and took Mahomes, which pushed Lattimore to us, but once we were at pick 10 with those two players we were assured one of those two players.”

Payton said that if the Chiefs would have taken Lattimore, the Saints would have selected Mahomes.  They loved both.

Marcus Lattimore was the defensive NFC rookie of the year in 2017 .  Mahomes rode the pine serving a one year apprentice at the shoulder of another quarterback whisperer Andy Reid.

Now its 2018 and Mahomes is starting and his Chiefs are 4-0, good for the best record a quarter way through in the AFC.  His Monday Night Football performance rallying his team past the loud crowd in Mile High Stadium was very impressive.  It reminded one of a certain otherwise forgettable 2015 Advocare Bowl.  However, this stage was much larger, the lights much brighter, and the crown much louder.

Is Patrick Mahomes the next Drew Brees?  Whoa!  Pump the brakes.  Four games does not a career make.  Brees has performed at the highest level for a dozen NFL seasons.  Afterall, last year DeShaun Watson was the next greatest QB starting as a rookie and tearing it up for the Texans. This year he has looked very average.  NFL defenses always adjust.  Always.  Oh, and by happenstance Watson was picked right after Lattimore.

Mahomes then Lattimore then Watson it went, 10,11, and 12.

Having Andy Reid and Sean Payton both wanting to employ you at QB is indeed high praise.  Over time we will know more.  For now the start is impressive.

 

 

Act Like You’ve Been There Before

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

There were football coaches back then.  But, there was but one Bum (Oail Andrews) Phillips.  Bum coached through every level and had a ten year NFL head coaching run with the then Houston Oilers and the New Orleans Saints.  He was the ultimate players coach.  His players loved him.   Loved him.   Bum was born and raised in Southeast Texas.  He coached a mega star who was born and raised in Northeast Texas.  His name was Earl Campbell, aka The Tyler Rose.

Campbell was an incredible runner at the University of Texas and won the Heisman before turning pro.  Campbell had tree trunks for legs, and a strong desire to find the goal line.   If you need your memory refreshed, click here.  Bum had many pearls of wisdom, colloquialisms, and funny thoughts.  He suggested to Earl that when he got to the end zone he hand the ball to the referee.  In the late 70’s and early 80’s spiking the ball or doing a dance in the end zone had become all of the rage.  “Act like you’ve been there before,” he suggested in a deep Texas drawl.

Campbell scored 74 NFL times.

09/07/1980 – Houston Oilers Earl Campbell (34) finds running room against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium.

He politely handed the ball to the ref 74 times. Bum was polite too.  He wore cowboy boots and a cowboy hat like a second skin.   Except.  Except he never wore the hat in the Astrodome nor the Superdome.  When asked why, Bum said, ” My mama taught me that when you walk indoors you take off your hat.”

Sixty-nine of those TD’s were in his first six years.  Bum worked him like a plow horse.  Defenses knew what was coming.   And what was coming just kept on keeping on.  Bum admired Earl so, “I wouldn’t say Earl is in a class by himself, but I’ll tell you one damn thing: It don’t take long to call the roll.”

Bum passed away in 2013.  Earl works for the University of Texas’ athletic dept.  One too many rushes and way too many hits have taken a toll on Earl’s health.

Their careers and dignity are forever intertwined.  Together they taught us a lesson.  Embrace success, stay humble, and most of all “act like you’ve been there before.”

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There are Stiff Arms and There Was This Last Night.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s amazing that great athletes can sometimes flat-out rag doll other great athletes.  Last night on MNF Tampa Bay fell back towards reality.  Pittsburgh went on the road, and got a much-needed win.  This seventy-five yard play that included a catch, run, STIFF arm, and run for a touchdown ignited the Steelers’ sideline and changed the momentum of the game.