I was listening to the interview of Buffalo Bills Owner Ralph Wilson Jr who will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame later this year. And something he said after being nominated struck me. He criticized other owners, that in his opinion, ‘took the easy way out’ and abandoned their cities for greener pastures. And Wilson’s right. What ever happened to loyalty? The truth is, loyalty in sports went out the door in 1984. In 1984 sports, and pro football in particular,  became all about the money.

Wilson said there were many times when he had considered moving his team but when it came time to pull the trigger, despite being tempted by more money and greater profits, it always came back to doing what was right for the city and doing what was right for the people of Buffalo. He said that he had gotten in to sports ownership for the thrill of competition, not for more money. As he put it, and I paraphrase, “if you’re an owner of a pro team, you’re doing ok financially.”

He needs to be applauded for staying loyal to the people and city of Buffalo. Oh if there were only more professional sports owners with this mindset today!

Unfortunately, Mr. Wilson is an increasingly rare breed of owner. Even as he grows older and talks about the future of the Bills after he passes, he admits that they will likely be sold to the highest bidder. It would be great if former Bills great Jim Kelly, could swoop in and save the Bills, but it already appears the league is shopping them around, even scheduling Bills games in Canada to ‘expand the fan base.’ Whatever.

It’s a sad situation, especially if you know any Bills fans. They are some of the best, most loyal, most knowledgeable fans around. It would be a shame to give them the shaft.

But as I said above, there was a pivot point, a time when this type of thing became acceptable. Sports stopped being about hometown pride and loyalty and started to be about cash. Sports were always about hometown spirit and building legend. But a fateful night in 1984 changed it all. Other teams had changed cities before. But it had mostly happened when a league failed, realigned, or disolved. When the storied Baltimore Colts franchise, under the ownership of Robert Irsay, snuck out of Baltimore under cover of night, pro football officially changed. It no longer was about hometown spirit or pride, or loyalty, it became all about expediancy and the money.

Irsay set a precedent. Is your team having a down year? Not filling the stadium? Simply want a shiny new stadium? There’s an easy, quick answer- move the team.  Unfortunately now that’s the mindset of most owners. Now each year loyal fans are subjected to the rumors about the professional teams likely to relocate.

So for the Bills fans out there, I am rooting for you. I truly hope that Jim Kelly comes through or that another Ralph Wilson type buys the team. But in the meantime, steel yourself. Prepare for the fact that football is no longer about city pride or loyalty. Enjoy the games, support your team at every opportunity. Enjoy the great product on the field and the amazing athletic feats that are performed. But don’t get too attached to the players or even the colors on the jerseys. Harden your sensibilities and embrace the fact that football is all about business these days, not the name of the city on the jersey or the hearts of the fans that fill the stadiums. But don’t be too sad, it’s been that way since 1984.

WIth the Super Bowl over and the Pittsburgh Steelers using an improbable last minute drive to beat the Arizona Cardinals, I started thinking about the recent Pro Football Hall of Fame inductions.

This year’s class included such great players as Bruce Smith, Rod Woodson, Randall McDaniel, Derrick Thomas and Bob Hayes. But not one quarterback made the final cut.

The quarterbacks that did get nominated this past year include Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason, Jim Plunkett, Phil Simms, Ken Stabler, Joe Theismann, Doug Williams- All great QBs in their day. Many with extraordinary numbers and longevity. But if you’re an NFL QB, what do you really have to do to get in the Hall of Fame?

The answer, if you are a QB anyway, is to win the Super Bowl, repeatedly. And Ben Roethisberger’s win, last night, put him in elite company- Hall of Fame company.  

Ben Roethlisberger recently improved his chances at getting in to the Pro Football Hall of Fame by winning his second championship.

Ben doesn’t put up flashy numbers. In fact Ben’s numbers this season and on his carrer so far have been pedestrian. But he manages the game well, comes through in the clutch when he needs to and he wins.

But the good news for Ben is that the precedent has been set. If you want to get to Canton as a QB you simply win the big game- back to back or multiples are best.

After scouring the Hall of Fame’s website, I count 12 QB’s who have won back-to-back titles and 10 of them have already been selected to the Hall of Fame. That’s a clip of 83%. And Tom Brady is still playing. If you only include retired, Hall of fame eligible QBs, a whopping 92% that win back to back titles are Hall of Famers. Tommy Thompson is the only one left out.

Sid Luckman CHI
(1940-1941)

*Tommy Thompson PHI
(1948-1949)

Bobby Layne DET
(1952-1953)

Otto Graham CLE
(1954-1955)

Johnny Unitas BAL
(1958-1959)

Bart Starr GB
(1961-1962, 1965-1967)

Bob Griese MIA
(1972-1973)

Terry Bradshaw PIT
(1974-1975, 1978-1979)

Joe Montana SF
(1988-1989)

Troy Aikman DAL
(1992-1993)

John Elway DEN
(1997-1998)

**Tom Brady NE
(2003-2004)

* Not in the Hall of Fame

**Still active

Ok, So back to Ben.

The good news for him is that QB’s don’t really have to win back to back to get into the Hall of Fame. They can also win two or more titles in their career, like Mr. Roethlisberger…

Here’s the longer list of multiple title-winning passers. There are 19 total that have won two or more championships.  Of the 17 retired multiple championship winners, 15 (88%) are in the Hall of Fame:

Arnie Herber GB
(1936, 1939)

Sid Luckman CHI
(1940, 1941, 1943, 1946)

Sammy Baugh WAS
(1937, 1942)

*Tommy Thompson PHI
(1948, 1949)

Bob Waterfield Cle/L.A. Rams
(1945, 1951)

Bobby Layne DET
(1952, 1953)

Otto Graham CLE
(1950, 1954, 1955)

Johnny Unitas BAL
(1958, 1959, 1970)

Norm VanBrocklin L.A./PHI
(1951, 1960)

Bart Starr GB
(1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967)

Bob Griese MIA
(1972, 1973)

Terry Bradshaw PIT
(1974, 1975, 1978, 1979)

Roger Staubach DAL
(1971, 1977)

*Jim Plunkett OAK/L.A.
(1980, 1983)

Joe Montana SF
(1981, 1984, 1988, 1989)

Troy Aikman DAL
(1992, 1993, 1995)

John Elway DEN
(1997, 1998)

**Tom Brady NE
(2001, 2003, 2004)

**Ben Roethlisberger PIT (2005, 2009)

* Not in the Hall of Fame

**Still active

So things are looking good for the young Pittsburgh QB.

But before you start mixing the plaster, everyone needs to take another look at the list of this year’s nominees and who didn’t make the cut. The way the Hall of Fame is structured, only allowing as many as seven new inductees each year, means the importance of getting in on your first ballot is even greater.

Take this year for example. Left off, again, were two field generals, with average numbers and two championships- Oakland and LA’s Jim Plunkett and Philadelphia’s Tommy Thompson. And Mr. Thompson wasn’t even nominated.  

Jim Plunkett, despite winning multiple championships has yet to be named to the Hall of Fame.

With the biggest sports game in the world set for later this week, an unexpected contest has been stealing all the headlines recently. And the game wasn’t even close. In fact it was a blowout.

Once again, ethics and sports have become front and center with news of a girls high school basketball game where the score got out of hand. In Texas, Covenant School defeated Dallas Academy 100-0.  That’s not a misprint!

Following the game, the winning school offered an apology saying, “a victory without honor is a loss.” In the subsequent days, Covenant’s coach refused to apologize for the win or his players performance and was later fired by the school.

But this blowout, isn’t anything new. It just highlights the age old question - what is the goal of amateur sports? Are athletics all about winning or is there much more to it?  Without getting too much into it, I’ll simply stick with the latter.

Speaking of lopsided scores, this also brings me to an interesting fact for stat buffs. What was the largest margin of victory in college football history?

The answer - In 1916, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222- 0. The only picture of game action is posted above.

So what do both losing teams have in common aside from their lopsided losses? Now both Dallas Academy and Cumberland wear their losses as a badge of honor.

The scoreboard from the infamous 222-0 game.

In September, a birthday passed with little acclaim: the most monumental invention in football, the forward pass. 

It seems strange now to think that football didn’t always have the pass.  But nothing exists in a vacuum.  Football evolved from Rugby, where the forward pass is illegal, so in the start, it was only natural to not allow passing.

To trace the pass, you have to go back over a hundred years ago.  There is no “real” professional football.  Passing has only been used illegally, accidentally, and/or experimentally.  The game is popular in high schools and colleges and it is extraordinarily violent.  Violent as in people were dying violent.  There was some movement to try and ban the sport.

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Continuing our look into the stories behind the names of the NFL playoff teams, we now move on to the NFC.

The New York Giants
Technically the New York Football Giants, this team is one of the oldest in the league.  They joined the league in 1925 and have been forever in the ownership of the Mara family.  Before 1956 the team played in New York’s famed Polo Grounds which at the time housed the New York Giants of baseball, before they moved to San Francisco.  I haven’t been able to find it absolutely confirmed anywhere, but in the era (see Pittsburgh Steelers) football teams who were tenets of baseball teams often took the same name as their hosts.

One Sunday in December by Lou Sahadi gives a nice breif history of the club.

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