Pittsburgh Steelers Quiz: 1) Who holds the record for most
receptions, career? 2) Interceptions? 3) Single game rushing
record? 4) Passing yards, game? 5) Who are the only two Steelers
to score four TDs in a game? [This really isn’t fair…but no one
ever said your editor was fair and balanced.] Answers below.
De-Fense…De-Fense…
The other day I noted the passing of former Pittsburgh Steelers
defensive coordinator Bud Carson. Today I want to
acknowledge his best effort, the 1976 Steelers.
Carson worked with Head Coach Chuck Noll from 1972 to 1977,
including the Super Bowl championship teams of ’74 and ’75.
But it was the innovative Carson’s ’76 edition that has been
called by Sports Illustrated’s long-time football expert Paul
Zimmerman “the best defense I ever saw.”
In 1976, as the Steelers went for an unprecedented three Super
Bowls in a row, they got off to a poor 1-4 start, with quarterback
Terry Bradshaw getting hurt in the 5th contest.
Here are the first five scores.
Oakland…L…28-31
Cleveland…W…31-14
New England…L…27-30
Minnesota…L…6-17
Cleveland…L…16-18
No doubt, the Steelers had their backs up against the wall as they
turned to backup quarterback Mike Kruczek to help right the
ship. Kruzcek would appear in 10 games that season and throw
just 85 passes, completing 51, with zero touchdowns and 3
interceptions. [In fact for his career, parts of five seasons, he had
0 TD and 8 INT.] Instead, the Steelers relied on the running
game of Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier, both of whom rushed
for over 1,000 yards (Harris had 1,128, Bleir 1,036 as they
finished #3 and #4 in the league), quite an achievement in those
days of a 14-game schedule.
But it was the defense that really responded to the call. Check
out the next nine games.
Cincinnati…W…23-6
New York Giants…W…27-0
San Diego…W…23-0
Kansas City…W…45-0
Miami…W…14-3
Houston…W…32-16
Cincinnati…W…7-3
Tampa Bay…W…42-0
Houston…W…21-0
28 points in nine games, just two touchdowns! Of course this
‘D’ was anchored by the likes of Joe Greene, Jack Ham and Jack
Lambert.
So with the run the Steelers made the playoffs at 10-4 and blitzed
Baltimore, 40-14, in the first round. But Harris and Bleier were
both hurt and unable to play against Oakland in the AFC
championship game, which Oakland won 24-7 before going on
to win the Super Bowl vs. Minnesota.
That ’76 Steelers defense allowed just 138 points total, while the
team scored 342, an amazing ratio.
But what were some other great defenses? Just perusing the NFL
record book, in the modern era you’d have trouble beating
Minnesota’s three-year run…1969-71…when they allowed 133,
143, and 139 points; all in 14-game seasons or, basically, just 10
points a game for three years.
Since the league went to a 16-game schedule in 1978, only a
handful of defenses have allowed fewer than 200 points for a
season. The best effort was Baltimore’s Super Bowl winning ‘D’
of 2000, which gave up just 165 points and went on to defeat the
Giants in the Super Bowl. [Then Ray Lewis went out and
stabbed a man to death…or rather, he didn’t actually do it but a
guy riding in his limo did…but since Lewis didn’t really get in a
lot of trouble over this incident, and since my umbrella policy is
only for $2 million or so, I better stop this line of writing.]
But while we’re talking defense, the record for sacks in a game is
12, held by four teams:
Dallas vs. Pittsburgh, 1966
St. Louis vs. Baltimore, 1980
Chicago vs. Detroit, 1984
Dallas vs. Houston, 1985
And then you have the 1965 Philadelphia Eagles, who in a
contest on Dec. 12 picked off a record 9…count ‘em, 9…passes
against the hapless 2-12 Steelers. [Philly wasn’t much better at
5-9.] So I had to look up just how awful Pittsburgh QBs were
that year, Bill Nelsen being one of them, and the ’65 Steelers
threw 10 TDs while tossing 35 interceptions. Boy, that has to be
an all-time worst ratio.
[And a note of warning on the NFL record book when looking at
“team defense.” The idiots who put this book together would
have you believe some great marks were set in 1982. Like
fewest rushing yards allowed for a season. Only one problem.
1982 was a freakin’ strike year and just 9 games were played!
But try finding a footnote to that effect. This is a travesty. Get
me Paul Tagliabue on line 3.]
Blackfeet!
Gather round, boys and girls, while I tell you a very gross tale
from 200 years ago.
It’s been a long while since I perused the book “Forgotten
Heroes,” edited by Susan Ware. In it, historian Robert Utley
writes of Mountain Man George Drouillard, a forgotten hero of
the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806. Others, such as
John Colter, Alexander MacKenzie, Zebulon Pike and Jedediah
Smith, let alone Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford), may be
better remembered for their roles in settling the Rockies, while
Utley himself singles out other frontier heroes from Daniel
Boone to Kit Carson (overrated) to Annie Oakley as being more
familiar historical figures.
But as for George Drouillard, he wasn’t just a hero of the Lewis
and Clark expedition, he was also a pioneer in the beaver
trapping business in the Rockies, 1807-1810.
Utley writes that Drouillard is also inseparably linked with John
Colter. However, in his journals Meriwether Lewis never got
Drouillard’s name right, using “Drewyer,” who Lewis
nonetheless called an “excellent man.”
Drouillard was the offspring of a French-Canadian father and a
Shawnee Indian mother, and while George was somewhat
literate, his value to Lewis and Clark was as a master of the
Indian sign language and his performance as a hunter.
Drouillard and Colter, who was signed on as a soldier, were the
two big hunters for the expedition. Utley writes:
“More prolific and dependable than any of the other hunters,
Drouillard performed prodigies of hunting. Grizzly bears
seemed to offer a personal challenge. Huge, belligerent, swift,
deadly, and exceptionally hard to kill, they roamed the plains and
mountains in large numbers and posed a constant danger to the
corps. Confronting a grizzly, Drouillard behaved as aggressively
as the beast itself, rushing to the attack despite the risk or the
state of his weaponry.”
But despite bringing in prodigious amounts of meat for the corps,
his prime duty was still as Indian interpreter. And in the summer
of 1805 it was necessary to meet with the Shoshone Indians for
the purpose of obtaining new horses.
Of course Sacagawea was with Lewis and Clark then, but it was
Drouillard who was in the advance party that brought Sacagawea
to the Shoshone chief, who she then learned was her brother.
While the S Babe had to jump through hoops translating, helped
by Toussaint Charbonneau, her trapper hubby, Drouillard’s sign
language was actually more effective. And so the corps got their
horses, while with Drouillard’s help Lewis and Clark obtained
maps from the Shoshones.
But on the way back from the West Coast, where Lewis and
Clark and the boys caught some Portland Trailblazers games,
Drouillard played a key role in a momentous event. The
Shoshones, Flatheads, and Nez Perces needed firearms to battle
the Blackfeet and Hidatsas; the latter two having been armed by
British traders.
Well, that July, as the corps was traversing the Missouri River,
Lewis (this was when he was split from Clark, if I recall
correctly) and Drouillard came across some Blackfeet. They
held a council, wherein Lewis learned the Blackfeet were pissed
off his expedition had been arming their enemies.
Oh, don’t you know there was trouble a brewin’, sports fans, and
the next morning Lewis and Drouillard realized the Blackfeet
had stolen their rifles, but they pursued the culprits and
decisively routed the Indians, killing two and recovering their
weapons. However, this would mark the beginning of ongoing
violence between the two sides.
And so we fast-forward to 1808 and John Colter. Utley:
“The most astonishing (of Colter’s exploits) occurred in the
autumn of 1808, when he and John Potts fell captive to Blackfeet
warriors. They killed Potts, butchered the corpse, and flung the
limbs in Colter’s face. Then they stripped Colter naked and sent
him fleeing across a cactus-studded plain in a race for life, a
howling mob in pursuit. A powerful man and swift runner,
Colter gradually outdistanced all but one, who kept close on his
heels. Suddenly stopping and turning, Colter confronted his
adversary, who rushed forward with a spear. Colter seized it and
threw the man off balance. The spear broke, leaving the head
and part of the shaft in Colter’s hands. The Indian fell on his
back, and Colter rammed the spearhead through his body.
Retrieving the weapon and grabbing the dead man’s blanket,
Colter resumed his dash and at last, after five punishing miles,
plunged into the Madison River and found refuge beneath a raft
of driftwood. The Blackfeet pursuers searched for several hours,
without success. Naked except for a blanket, his feet shredded
by cactus, weaponless except for the spear point, Colter made his
way over two hundred miles of wilderness to Lisa’s fort, which
he reached, more dead than alive, eleven days later.”
Meanwhile, Drouillard scouted great tracts of country unseen by
either Lewis or Clark, becoming quite the cartographer. But then
in April, 1810, a group of trappers, including Drouillard and John
Colter, began building a log stockade to act as a base for
exploiting the beaver streams of the Jefferson and Madison
rivers. Utley:
“While the stockade rose, some of the men trapped down the
Missouri and others up the Jefferson. On April 12, only ten
miles up the Jefferson, Blackfeet fell on eighteen trappers. By
the time help arrived, two had been slain and mutilated, and three
others were missing. Gone too were traps, skins, ammunition,
and horses.
“John Colter had been with the party scattered by Blackfeet. He
escaped and found his way into the post. He had once promised
his Maker to leave this country, he declared, hurling his hat to
the ground, and ‘now if God will only forgive me this time and
let me off I will leave the country day after tomorrow – and be
damned if I ever come into it again.’ And leave he did, never to
return.
“Although discouraged, Henry and Menard hung on. In May the
trappers resolved to endure constraint no longer. In a party of
thirty, kept together for self-defense, they worked their way back
up the Jefferson. This proved unwieldy and inefficient, so they
divided into groups of four: two men to tend camp, two to work
the traps. Garnering more pelts and observing no Indian sign, all
grew bolder.
“George Drouillard, who should have known better, began to
venture out alone. Others protested, but he turned them aside. ‘I
am too much of an Indian to be caught by Indians,’ he answered.
Twice his solitary quests met with success. ‘This is the way to
catch beaver,’ he exulted.
“On the third morning he left again, followed by two Shawnee
deer hunters. The main party shortly took the trail. Soon they
overtook the two hunters, ‘pierced with arrows, lances and
bullets and lying near each other.’ Beyond some 150 yards they
found Drouillard and his horse, Drouillard (according to one who
was there) ‘mangled in a horrible manner; his head was cut off,
his entrails torn out and his body hacked to pieces.’ From the
position of his body and the marks on the ground, he had
skillfully maneuvered his horse to serve as a shield, riding in a
circle and defending himself with rifle, pistol, knife, and
tomahawk.
“The Blackfeet had slain Drouillard as they had almost slain
Colter, and as they would slay scores of trappers in the next
thirty years. As the fur trade declined in the late 1830s, done in
by silk hats and stubborn economic forces, so too did the
Blackfeet, done in by smallpox.”
[A pox on you, damn Blackfeet, muses your editor.]
While neither lived to see the fruits of their labor, the map that
Colter and Drouillard helped perfect was part of the Lewis and
Clark report in 1814 and was later widely disseminated. So this
Christmas season, toast their story with some hearty grog, but
beware the Blackfeet. Never open your door to one of them.
Stuff
–Oops…forgot to congratulate Maryland last time for winning
the NCAA men’s soccer championship, a big achievement, with
its 1-0 win over New Mexico.
–AP Men’s Basketball Poll
1. Duke
2. UConn
3. Villanova
4. Louisville
5. Memphis
6. Texas
7. Florida
8. Oklahoma
9. Illinois
10. Gonzaga
15. George Washington…7-0…best start ever
16. Wake…until Tues. night and a horrible loss to DePaul at
home…what the heck was Coach Prosser doing scheduling a
decent opponent after a 10-day layoff for exams? You never do
that. Dumb dumb dumb.
25. Houston…kind of cool to have these guys back
*And our sleeper note of the week…Buffalo…which despite
having consistently the worst football program in America, has
suddenly put together a competitive basketball squad. This week
they garnered four votes in the AP poll. They say Buffalo is a
lovely place to visit this time of year.
–Poor Curtis Martin. The Jets running back finishes the season
265 yards short of a record-tying 11th straight 1,000-yard season;
Martin going down to a knee injury after 119 consecutive games.
Emmitt Smith is the only back to have 11 years in a row. [Barry
Sanders is the only other with 10.]
–You know who’s one of the least likeable people on the planet?
NBA Commissioner David Stern. [Just saw him on TV……not
on my dream dinner list, if you catch my drift.]
–According to the London Times, Mutware, a 37-year-old bull
elephant in a national park in Rwanda, has been at it again.
Adding to his “fearsome reputation,” Mutware recently
destroyed three cars. Back in April the U.S. Embassy issued a
warning for its citizens, stay away from “the Chief.”
“Recently this elephant has displayed more aggressive behavior
towards visitors to the point that actual charging and physical
contact with vehicles has occurred,” the U.S. State Department
advised back then.
Passengers in all three vehicles in these latest incidents were
hurt, though none seriously it would appear. Said a park ranger
in defense of Mutware, “It’s only in the mating season that he
gets aggressive, and that’s because he is solitary and has no
female.” [Heck, there’s got to be a wildebeest around, know
what I’m sayin’?]
According to this same ranger, if Mutware blows dust into the air
and stamps a foot, “you’d better get out of the area.” Or maybe
Mutware is just asking for a lager and when he doesn’t receive
one in a timely manner, he goes nuts….kind of like yours truly in
a restaurant when the waiter is slow with the drink order.
–Over the years I’ve had a number of stories on the plight of
America’s jockeys, mismanagement at the Jockeys’ Guild, and
the ability to obtain long-term disability insurance.
Various issues have now come to a head as the jockeys have
fired the president of the guild, L. Wayne Gertmenian and his top
deputy. It’s alleged the two wrote checks totaling $217,000 from
the guild’s bank account.
At a meeting between the parties and the auditors, it almost came
to blows. “It was ugly. Anything could have happened,” said
Darrell Haire, a longtime jockey who is now the guild’s interim
national manager.
The organization was founded in 1940 by Eddie Arcaro and
Johnny Longden to “promote, protect and serve the welfare and
prestige of the professional American jockey.”
But over the past 18 months, an initial financial report alleges
Gertmenian “inappropriately” used $2.1 million in funds to pay
operating costs.
A House subcommittee is examining the charges and the guild’s
records, and the FBI is investigating as well.
You’ll recall that under Gertmenian’s leadership, he allowed the
catastrophic accident insurance to lapse. Now Pepperdine, where
Gertmenian is an economic professor, is investigating questions
about his resume. For example, he claims to have worked on the
National Security Council during the Nixon and Ford
administrations and there is zero evidence to back that up.
Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron is responsible for bringing
Gertmenian to the Guild in 2001, an act McCarron now admits
was the biggest mistake of his life. Gertmenian’s last
employment contract was to pay him $175,000 for 2006, but he
supposedly paid himself $509,000 in 2004.
Last month 16-year-old jockey Josh Radosevich died after an
accident in Columbus, Ohio; the 148th victim since 1940. About
6,500 jockeys were injured between 1993 and 1996 alone,
according to a study published by the Journal of the American
Medical Association, with nearly a quarter involving the head or
neck.
Jockeys aren’t required to belong to the guild, but membership
rose from 400 to 1,200 mostly because of the trust McCarron
engenders. But it was about two years ago that Gertmenian
allowed the $1 million catastrophic accident policy to lapse. So
you have cases like that of jockey Gary Birzer, paralyzed by a
2004 accident at West Virginia’s Mountaineer Race Track,
whose expenses now total over $500,000 and with no way of
paying them.
[Most tracks have a $100,000 policy to cover initial medical
expenses.]
[Source: Greg Johnson / Los Angeles Times]
–Kevin Federline, “K-Fed,” on life with his estranged wife,
Britney Spears.
“(Ask) me about life apart from Britney and all I can say is: ‘Can
it be any worse than living with her?’ I am doing what she
wanted, getting out of the house and trying to find work, but I do
that and she trashes my efforts. She just wants me at her beck
and call as a little house husband.”
But according to In Touch magazine, Britney has paid K-Fed $2
million for his recording equipment, as well as hair stylists and
such. Federline is seeking $125 million and is particularly upset
that the whole episode is ruining his Christmas.
Well I have just one thing to say. Hey, K-Fed, even at this late
date you have just become a candidate for Bar Chat “Jerk of the
Year”!! [Reminder…awards will be announced Dec. 29]
–And Britney? You’re a candidate, too! Congratulations.
–Sprinter Tim Montgomery has been suspended for two years
for using THG, a banned steroid referred to as “the clear.”
Montgomery is part of the BALCO investigation, though it was
fellow American sprinter Kelli White who turned him in. [White
is currently serving her own two-year suspension.]
But here’s the big deal with Montgomery. He held the world
record for the 100-meter dash (9.78) from Sept. 2002 to last
June, when Asafa Powell of Jamaica lowered it to 9.77.
Montgomery is now stripped of his American record, however,
which reverts back to Maurice Greene for his 9.79 in 1999.
–More on Tiger turning 30. Since he won the Masters in 1997 at
age 21, the first of his ten majors, the average age of the other 20
major winners at the time of their victories has been 33.8…just
to give you a sense of what’s probably coming.
On a different topic, thanks to high-tech equipment and the
desire on the part of those getting ready for the Champions Tour
to stay in shape, in the last 144 official events on the PGA Tour,
42 have been won by players 40 or older, compared to 33 by
players in their 20s. Mark Calcavecchia told Golf Digest, “Week
in and week out, the kids have more game, but on my week, I’ve
still got a high skill level, and that extra bit of experience can
make the difference.”
Having said that, though, and back to the majors’ winners since
1997, only three over age 40 have won one…Vijay Singh, the
2004 PGA at 41; Mark O’Meara, the 1998 Masters and British
Open at 41; and Payne Stewart, the 1999 U.S. Open at 42. So
you could also say that after age 40, the nerves are frayed when it
comes to that special pressure required to prevail on Sunday.
–Bob Dylan is going to be doing his own show on XM Satellite
Radio. How the hell are listeners supposed to understand him?
Then again, maybe XM is going to have a translator; kind of like
when Vladimir Putin is speaking Russian at a press conference
and you hear him faintly in the background as a translator’s voice
is run over his.
Top 3 songs for the week of 12/13/75: #1 “Fly, Robin, Fly”
(Silver Convention….da daaa daaa da da da da…[repeat]….
FLY, ROBIN, FLY!!!!…….fly, robin, fly….] #2 “Let’s Do It
Again” (The Staple Singers) #3 “Sky High” (Jigsaw) …and…
#4 “That’s The Way (I Like It)” (K.C. & The Sunshine Band) #5
“Saturday Night” (Bay City Rollers…introduced to America by
Hawad Co-sell….speaking of sports…) #6 “Love Rollercoaster”
(Ohio Players…roller-coaster…of love…watch out!)……
Biggest Mover…#82 to #29… “Convoy” (C.W. McCall)
Pittsburgh Steelers Quiz Answers: 1) If you said John Stallworth
…you lost. It’s now Hines Ward, who has 564 receptions thru
12/11, surpassing Stallworth who had 537. Stallworth still has
more yards, 8,723, vs. Ward’s 6,874. 2) Mel Blount had 57
interceptions in his career (and was part of the ’76 above-
mentioned squad, but I couldn’t mention him in that piece, you
now understand). 3) John “Frenchy” Fuqua still holds the single
game rushing record with 218 back in 1970. Jeff B. always
reminds me not to forget the flashy Fuqua’s platform shoes,
which had goldfish in them. Actually, how did they breathe? 4)
Tommy Maddox has the single game passing record, 473 yards
in 2002. 5) And the only two to score four TDs in a game…Ray
Mathews, 1954, and Roy Jefferson, 1968. Mathews was a
combination flanker / tailback for the Steelers, 1951-59, who had
only 8 TDs for the entire ’54 season. Jefferson was a solid
receiver who caught 451 passes in his career, including his two
best seasons with Pittsburgh, 1968-69, when he had over 1,000
yards each year.
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday.
