Post by TheShadow on Feb 19, 2006 10:49:03 GMT -5
nl.newsbank.com
Published on October 22, 1995
© 1995- The Press Democrat
BYLINE: ROBERT RUBINO
Staff Writer
COLUMN: Robert Rubino
It seems like yesterday, to coin a phrase. But it has been 25 years worth of yesterdays since a middle-aged man with the ordinary name of George Blanda captured the collective imagination of football fans and produced an extraordinary string of heroics for the Oakland Raiders, when the team's mystique was real, before it became hyperbole.
In the first month of the 1970 season, Blanda turned 43 years old. In pro football terms, he was ancient. In real-life terms, he was nine years older than his head coach, John Madden.
He had begun his pro career in 1949, when players just played, both offense and defense. In '49, Blanda was a quarterback, linebacker and place-kicker. By 1970, he was a living relic.
Blanda was a good place-kicker, with the old-fashioned, straight-ahead style, less efficient than the modern soccer-style technique that sends field goals on boomerang-esque parabolas that seem like optical illusions. But Blanda's kicks were plain and straight and true, representing a whole generation's work ethic, whether on a football field or in the mines of western Pennsylvania, where Blanda was born and raised.
Blanda was also the second-string quarterback in 1970, behind Daryle Lamonica (a guy named Kenny Stabler was third string), and he never wavered in his attitude that he was good enough to be the starter, age be damned.
By 1970, Blanda was known only to the most astute NFL fans, and the memory was one of a Chicago Bears part-time quarterback-kicker who was forever in George Halas' doghouse in the 1950s.
By 1970, the first year of the AFL-NFL merger, fans of the AFL knew Blanda from his championship years in the early '60s with the Houston Oilers, when he was famous for prolific touchdowns (36 in 1961) as well as interceptions (42 in 1962).
But he hadn't been the best quarterback in the 10-year history of the American Football League (Len Dawson was) or the most exciting (Joe Namath was). By 1970, he hadn't played much quarterback in three years and even Raiders fans looked upon Blanda more like a favorite uncle than a favorite player.
The Raiders were coming off three seasons in which they lost a total of four regular-season games, but by the sixth game of the 1970 season they were alarmingly mediocre at 2-2-1. By the time the 1970 season ended, though, Blanda's reputation as a legend was forever established.
On Oct.25 at the Oakland Coliseum, Blanda came in for an injured Lamonica and rallied the Raiders past the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-14, by throwing three touchdowns and kicking a field goal.
On Nov.1 at Kansas City, Blanda kicked a 48-yard field goal with three seconds left to tie the Chiefs, 17-17.
On Nov.8 at the Coliseum, he took over for an injured Lamonica in the fourth quarter with 10:05 left and the Raiders trailing the Cleveland Browns, 17-13. But an interception led to a Browns' field goal and the Raiders trailed, 20-13, with 4:11 to go. Blanda's passes marched the Raiders 69 yards, culminating in a 14-yard touchdown to Warren Wells with 1:32 left. Blanda's extra-point kick tied the Browns at 20-20. Kent McCloughan's interception gave the Raiders another life, and Blanda kicked a 52-yard field goal (with Stabler subbing for Lamonica as the holder) to beat the Browns, 23-20, as time expired.
On Nov.15 at Denver, the Raiders trailed the Broncos, 19-17, with 4:01 to go when Madden replaced Lamonica with Blanda. He directed the Raiders 80 yards and finished with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Fred Biletnikoff as the Raiders won, 26-19.
It's hardly worth mentioning with the previous feats, but on Nov.22 at the Coliseum, Blanda kicked a mere 16-yard field goal with seven seconds left as the Raiders beat the San Diego Chargers, 20-17.
In the AFC Championship against the Colts in Baltimore, Lamonica was injured early in the second quarter with the Raiders trailing, 10-0. The season of Raiders' miracles didn't have any left, but not because of any lack of effort by Blanda. He completed 17 of 32 passes for 271 yards, including touchdowns of 38 yards to Biletnikoff and 15 yards to Wells. He also kicked a 48-yard field goal. But he was intercepted twice in the end zone, and the Colts won, 27-17, and went on to win the Super Bowl.
Blanda played five more seasons and threw his final touchdown pass in 1974 at the age of 47.
For many of us to whom those 1970 miracles are so vivid and inspiring, it's humbling to realize that the old man who performed them was younger than we are now.