In NFL, April means Ozzie's Time

[RavenMad]

The Brady rule doesn't apply to Joe, I've seen him take plenty of illegal shots, if Joes jersey number would have been 12 or 18 there would have laundry all over the field. The Detroit game 2 years ago where the defender lunged at Joe's knee sticks out the most.

 

^This. You can't look at Brady the wrong way without a flag being thrown. A lot of the other QBs in the league need to be mugged before a flag will even be considered.

[vmax]

 

^This. You can't look at Brady the wrong way without a flag being thrown. A lot of the other QBs in the league need to be mugged before a flag will even be considered.

 

Exactly. Watch little known QB's in small markets get killed and no flag is thrown. It's amazing.

[oldno82]

But then March got Bert killed with the plays he ran and

bringing him back too soon. I saw Bert warming up on the side line and

could see the pain in his face as he threw from where I was sitting. Bert

was balls, pure balls. Also, Flacco has the Brady rule where no one can

touch a QB while Bert was injured on a dirty play and thrown into the

ground. Today, they can't even thug the receivers going down field while

Bert's guys got killed.

 

Even the players were upset with those plays. The defenses called the plays

out before the snap which upset the offense and even the fans were calling

the plays out and saying hey fiddle diddle, Mitchell up the middle. ILMAO

 

As for the OT game, all the play calling was horrible on both sides. The

first OT ended the same as regulation in a tie. Then OAK won it on the

ghost to post play. It's currently the 5th longest game in history.

 

Right on all that! I remember Bert being wrapped up in a bearhug by a pass rusher who then threw him into the ground on his right shoulder. This happened twice in his career. And I do remember him throwing on the sidelines in a lot of pain. That wouldn't happen today.Crap, if it happened to Brady they'd probably suspend the pass rusher for a year.

[TBird]

Good point about Brady rule not applying to Joe. Hell, Gino got

Joe killed up the middle in DET and he had to wear

a brace the rest of the year. He was knocked down in the end zone

in the final Cinci game and grabbed his knee in pain. JOe played

hurt just like Bert and that was a late and cheap hit on Joe.

 

However, McPhee did step on Brady's arm when he was down

and on all fours trying to get up. He was whining to the Refs the

entire game and they walked away from him.

 

All that said, today's QBs don't get hit nearly as much as they

did before the Brady Rule with not nearly as many late hits after

the ball is thrown.

 

There was a play in Chicago in 1960 where Unitas was held by a

Bear by his arms and Atkins yells, hold him til I get there which he

did and Atkins leveled Unitas. Lenny Moore thought John was dead

but was shocked when he stayed in. They put mudd up his nostrils

to stop the blood out of his nose but his cut eyes bled like crazy.

 

Then from his own 35 he drops back with blood streaming down his

face and arms and he throws a bomb to Lenny who dived over two

DBs for the winning score. Halas called it the greatest play he

ever saw.

 

Halas put a bounty on Unitas to stop his TD record and offered to

pay $500 to any Bear to knock him out of the game. He didn't want

the record broken in Chicago.

 

Nobody got to collect the bounty.

[cravnravn]

Maybe in today's game, and I say maybe Ben and Joe could have played back in the Unitas era.Those two have taken more illegal shots then any qb in the league yet still jump up and on to the next play.

[vmax]

This is a nice conversation. I've been enjoying the read.
Football back then was certainly different than today...so was society.
Back then it was ok to fight. If somebody said 'Fuck You", you broke their jaw.
Today if that happens, you get thrown in jail and sued.
On the football field just about anything went. It's amaszing how Berry could set those records while being mugged, punched and held from when he released from the LOS.

I was at the "Ghost to the Post" game. 1st row, upper deck on the 40 yard line. Loved those seats.....and peeing in the trough.... We'd park near Greenmount Ave and walk down 33rd street.

Between the O's and the Colts I spent a lot of time at Memorial Stadium.

There was a lot of pride about living in Baltimore...a lot of tradition... and there still is.

[TBird]

LOL - Today people take their frustrations out on the internet insulting

people from the comfort of their own homes. Tony's RSR has the biggest

collection of pussies on the internet that never threw a punch.

 

As for JOe, Wilfork is his biggest admirer. He said I flattened Flacco

with the hardest hit I could and he jumped up fast, then he helped me

up and then went to the hurry up offense and threw a 40 yard TD. LOL

 

Bert was a better runner. Man could he run and jump over people and then

land on his arm. No wonder he got banged up so much. He was so cool

coming out of the tunnel flicking the football around on his finger. ILMAO

[vmax]

Watching Bert Jones bombs to Rodger Carr was a thing of beauty. His pass would arch so high...upper deck high, and then come right down to a racing Carr.

[oldno82]

Jones to Carr rates as some of the most satisfying football moments in my life. Had tickets in 'Orrsville', and was always amazed at how freaking high Bert would arch those passes. When the damned things went near you could hear them too!

[cravnravn]

Jones to Carr was a thing of beauty.

 

I was a spoiled young one, I had my own season ticket with my dad since 1969, we sat with the end zone idiots, section 2, row 29, seats 7 & 8. I also was at the ghost to the post game, worst Christmas I can remember, and to this day I can not watch the replay on ESPN or the NFL Network. It was a great game til the overtime hit.

 

Grew up in Hamilton in northeast Baltimore and we lived right next to a park, my best buddy and I used to throw the football around and punt it, into the winter and spring we would go over the park and there was a guy just punting away,to no one, we would shag his punts and toss then

throw the balls back to him, we did this for a few years not knowing it was David Lee.

 

Good times.

[oldno82]

That's cool!

[cravnravn]

That's cool![/quot

 

You ain't heard cool yet

[TBird]

Bruce Laird said he heard Bert's ball go zinging by his ears

in practice. He practiced vs him every day.

[thundercleetz]

I'm reading about Bert Jones. This is from his wiki page:

 

"The widely respected scout Ernie Accorsi is quoted as saying that if Bert Jones had played under different circumstances, he probably would have been the greatest player ever. John Riggins has been quoted as saying Bert was the toughest competitor he has ever witnessed. On the eve of Super Bowl XLII New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, in discussing his choices for the greatest quarterbacks of all time, described Jones as the best "pure passer" he ever saw."

 

An NFL MVP at 25 years old. The guy seemed like a stud. For the old timers here: how good were those Colts teams from 1975-1977? I saw they got demolished by the Steelers twice in the playoffs, and lost a heart breaker to the Raiders. Were those teams serious Super Bowl contenders?

 

Seems like a real shame how injuries got to him in 1978 and 1979. Was he just not the same when he came back in 1980?

[TBird]

Had Colts won that ghost to post game, they would have won

the SB. That was their SB but they had lousy defenses those

3 years, the only years Irsay made the POs in Baltimore.

 

As I posted above Bert's defense gave up 77 points in 2 of 3

of those PO games so no one would have won those game yet

the ghost game was close and went to 2OT. It was the longest

PO game ever for a long time and still ranks as the 5th longest

game in NFL history.

 

The defense just let OAK come back and Bert didn't score too

many points. Colts got a TD on a Bruce Laird 90 yard run after

an interception and another TD on a return.

 

Madden said on MNF that game had everything, offense, defense,

special teams. It was one of his best wins ever.

 

They scored on the post play because they noticed Colts CBs playing

up tight and knew the could get their TE past Stan White, our

LB on a mismatch and that's exactly what happened. Madden said we

still had one more down afterward to kick the winning FG but wanted

the TD.

 

Scott Garceau kidded Laird at the Nest 1 scholarship banquet where he

was the MC and brought Laird along with him. Scott said I just saw that

game and the last thing you see is Bruce Laird trailing the ghost into

the end zone.

 

Laird said wait a minute. I had my man covered. I went over to help out

and cover up when our linebacker forgot to pick Casper up.

 

Afterwards, I asked him if Stan White was the LB who forgot and Laird

laughed and said yea. I saw it recently and no where to you see White

anywhere in the pic. It was a perfect over the shoulder throw by

Stabler and catch by Casper who went into the HOF.

 

His nickname was the ghost after Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon

series of the era. Most teams call it a post play as the Ravens do but

when Madden put the play in he called it the ghost to post play.

 

The Colts had some good guys on defense those years like the Sack Pack

with Joe Ehrman, Cook and Dutton that put a lot of pressure on QBs

but their linebackers and CBs weren't so hot. Laird was the best of them.

Speaking of linebacker Joe Thomas the Colts GM those years traded

one of the best LBs, SB hero Ted Hendricks away for nothing.

He ended up in OAK and went into the HOF as a Raider, not a Colt.

 

He also gave Dutton away to Dallas for nothing in return. Dutton was so

thankful to be in Dallas he said I do anything for the owner and coach

short of murdering someone but Marchibroda was so pissed at losing

good players for nothing he demanded more say in personal matters.

There was a big fight between them and the players revolted in favor

of the coach.

 

Bert called Pete Rozelle the comish and said you better get down here.

There's a lot of trouble and the team is ready to walk out. The opening

season game was less than a week ago.

 

Pete said you're joking and BErt said Im not. The team will not play

under these circumstances.

 

Irsay had both Thomas and March on his famous boat in Lake Michigan

called the Mighty I, ILMAO, that was the name of the boat. Irsay said

both men nearly threw each other off the boat.

 

He finally realized he might not have a game so he fired Joe Thomas and

gave March what he wanted.

 

NObody knows for sure how much influence the comish used in that but

for most of the week the fans of Baltimore expected the opening game to

be forfeited.

 

Just a typical day in Baltimore sports history back in the 70s.

[cravnravn]

Silverbullet Bob soured with me the day he gave away unitas, you don't treat a legend like that.

[thundercleetz]

Awesome post TBird. I watched some highlights of Jones and the guy had a rope for a right arm. Sounds like the type of player that could have played and been a star in any era.

 

Were the expectations high for the Colts going into the 1978 season? I'd imagine after solid 76 and 77 seasons having a 27 year old MVP at QB, Jones was expected to take that next step and be on his way to an all time great.

[oldno82]

Expectations were fairly high until Bert got that shoulder injury. Our two backup QB's were Bill Troup and Mike Kirkland and they, frankly, were horrible. It was really a terrible season.

[TBird]

It was a shame that Bert didn't play with a better team and system.

He was the first qB drafted but his durability would have always

been in question.

 

He survived the 70s, but just barely. In the 80s he was in St Louis

and got concussions and had to leave the game for good. He

went home to Louisiana and started a lumber business that did

well and today about 70 families have a nice life because of their

work for Bert. He has great pride in buying and starting it.

[oldno82]

It was a shame that Bert didn't play with a better team and system.

He was the first qB drafted but his durability would have always

been in question.

 

He survived the 70s, but just barely. In the 80s he was in St Louis

and got concussions and had to leave the game for good. He

went home to Louisiana and started a lumber business that did

well and today about 70 families have a nice life because of their

work for Bert. He has great pride in buying and starting it.

 

TBird you're right that he played for the Rams but they were still in LA at the time. Georgia Frontierre owned the team. Coincidentally, she was Carrol Rosebloom's (Baltimore Colts owner from 53-72) widow.

[cravnravn]

Yes, the bitch has our super bowl V trophy

[oldno82]

Yes, the bitch has our super bowl V trophy

Damn! I didn't know that. I suppose she has the 58-59 ones as well?

[cravnravn]

Damn! I didn't know that. I suppose she has the 58-59 ones as well?

According to this the Babe Ruth museum has Super Bowl V trophy with no mention of the championship games trophy, I know frontierre passed away a few years ago so I don't know if we got it from her estate. But for years I've always been led to believe that frontierre had it.

 

http://baberuthmuseum.org/exhibit/almost-religion-baltimores-colts/

[TBird]

Yea, I forgot, Rams were still in LA. It's been so long I associsate

it them with St Louis. They were coming here til Tags steered them

away just like with NE and Cardinals. Kraft really wanted to come here

but Cooke blocked him out. Kraft could do it today but he wasn't that

powerful in the 80s not winning any SBs yet.

 

Anyway, the original SB 5 trophy was last seen in Georgia's Sun Room

according to Steadman's book FROM COLTS TO RAVENS. He said

Rosey stole it and took it to LA with him.

 

Irsay was furious about it and demanded that Rozelle get it back but

Pete was afraid of Rosey so he ordered a replica to be made of the

original - the only replica ever made of the SB trophy.

 

It was returned to Baltimore as part of the civil suit the city filed vs

Irsay. Irsay returned a lot of the old memorabilia like old trophies and

stuff for bmore to drop the suit. He also promised to vote for the team

if the league expanded but there was an 8-yr time frame on it that

eventually lapsed. It wasn't in effect when the league voted on

Charlotte and Jax as the new franchise cities.

 

The replica of the trophy is in the Baltimore sports legend museum

downtown. Georgia died and her daughter sold the team for $1B

and the original SB 5 trophy is somewhere with her.

[TBird]

Georgia was a facinating women. I met her once. She was

gorgeous, a former stripper Rosey met way back when.

Rosey's kids didn't like her because of her shady reputation so

when he died and left the team to her, she fired his son Steve

as the GM. She was like the song says - CRAZY BITCH.

 

The good old boys club took care of Steve as he bounced around

a couple of teams front offices.

 

When Rosey died Arty Donovan called Unitas and said mafia frog

men just got Rosey. Even at 70 he was a strong swimmier and in

good condition but drowned while swimming off his beach front

estate.

 

Georgia was even questioned by the cops as a possible suspect but

was clean. Rosey owed a lot of money to vegas clubs in gambling

debts.

 

He betted on all his championship games. During the 58 sudden

death game he was pushing Weeb NOT to go for the FG in OT.

It wouldn't have

been enough to beat the point spread. He was down there forcing

Weeb to go for the TD and he won.

 

All the players got envelopes under their doors as part of the bet

according to Steadman's book.

 

He only had to pay a small amount to get the Colts. Bert Bell the

comish ordered that the fans of Bmore had to buy 50,000 season

tickets in advance to prove they deserved a team. The Colts

had left Bmore to Dallas and the city was trying to bring them back.

 

The fans bought 50,000 tickets in less than two week and the rest

is history. Rosey put $1M aside for expenses and if that ran out he

would sell the team but it never ran out. He always said he made

more money in football than any other business.

 

He did the same as Irsay and swindled the family business away from

his siblings and became a millionaire. They owned a family denim shirt factory

in Philly.