Sixteen players from historically black colleges entered pro football in the 1960s and are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Ten of them joined the AFL: Willie Brown, Charlie Joiner, Ken Houston, Larry Little, Buck Buchanan, Art Shell, Willie Lanier, Winston Hill, Elvin Bethea, and Emmitt Thomas.  By comparison, only six future Hall of Famers entered the NFL from HBCUs despite the senior league having more teams: Deacon Jones, Lem Barney, Rayfield Wright, Leroy Kelly, Bob Hayes, and Claude Humphrey. ^[1]However, most of the best players in the next tier from HBCUs were in the NFL. Harold Jackson, L.C. Greenwood, Jethro Pugh, Roger Brown, Rosey Taylor, John Gilliam, Coy Bacon, and Homer Jones all … Continue reading  And the lasting image of the AFL-NFL wars was Super Bowl IV, a game that saw the 12-point underdog Chiefs, with 8 starters from historically black colleges, upset a Vikings team with zero such players.  Those are two of the big reasons, along with actual words from those in pro football at the time, that the AFL was considered ahead of the curve when it came to bringing in players from these tiny schools.

On the other hand, as we’ll soon see, the narrative doesn’t quite match up with the facts.  Three of the ten AFL players — Thomas, Brown, and Hill — were not selected in the AFL Draft; Hill was chosen by the Colts in the NFL Draft, ^[2]He was soon cut and then signed by the Jets; it probably didn’t help that the Colts spent the 5th pick in the same draft on a future 5-time Pro Bowler at the same position. while the other two went undrafted in both leagues. More importantly, six of those 10 AFL Hall of Famers entered the AFL in 1967 or later, which came after the creation of a common draft. ^[3]Joiner never started a game in the AFL. Shell started one game. Little and Bethea made the AFL Pro Bowl in ’69, but had the overwhelming majority of their success in the NFL. Lanier and Houston … Continue reading These players made most of their marks in the ’70s, and are remembered as NFL stars, now AFL ones. By the time they entered pro football, the AFL had already won: a merger had been agreed upon by the teams, and the credibility of the league had been established.  Sure, it was still the inferior league, and it wasn’t until the Jets and Chiefs both won Super Bowls that the league was truly viewed as comparable to the NFL, but the 1967 AFL was very different than the 1961 AFL.  When we talk about the AFL as an upstart league that challenged the NFL and won, we are mostly talking about the AFL prior to the 1967 season.

And if we look at the most dominant players who entered pro football from HBCUs between 1960 and 1966, you get a different story.  Sure, Buchanan was a big star, but arguably five of the six biggest stars from HBCUs in the ’60s were actually in the NFL: Deacon Jones, Roger Brown, Rosey Taylor, Leroy Kelly, and Bob Hayes.

So let’s take a deeper dive and analyze how the two leagues really approached players from HBCUs prior to 1967.  From 1960 to 1966, the two leagues battled over talent, and the AFL’s surprising ability to keep pace is what led to the AFL-NFL merger, announced in June of 1966. Because I am focusing on the talent battle, I am really focused on the two drafts, but will note key undrafted players (and there were several). [continue reading…]

This is the tenth installment in my roughly one million part series The Grand List, or: the top 1000 pro football players ever, or something like that. Keep in mind I have forced myself to order these players, and that ordinal rankings naturally imply a bigger (or, sometimes, smaller) difference than really exists. While you’d be crazy to swap one of these guys with Tom Brady or Lawrence Taylor, at this point in the list, most players are interchangeable with one another and are often determined by preference. This isn’t the definitive list. It’s just a big list, ^[1]Based on a wealth of information and mine’s no better than yours.

Previous articles in the series

The Grand List, part 1: Includes honorable/special mentions and players 1000-990.
The Grand List, part 2: Includes players 989-965.
The Grand List, part 3: Includes players 964-940.
The Grand List, part 4: Includes players 939-901.
The Grand List, part 5: Includes players 900-876.
The Grand List, part 6: Includes players 875-851.
The Grand List, part 7: Includes players 850-810.
The Grand List, part 8: Includes players 809-780.
The Grand List, part 9: Includes players 779-750.

Let’s do this. [continue reading…]

Yesterday, I looked at how both the NFL and the upstart AFL dealt with the issue of integration in pro football. The common reframe is that the young, nontraditional AFL was more innovative and enlightened than the NFL, particularly on the issue of black players in pro football and the scouting of talent from small historically black colleges. The numbers don’t bear that out with black players generally, but today I want to focus on the game that is most responsible for creating that narrative: Super Bowl IV. [continue reading…]

The AFL was the rare upstart league that challenged the NFL … and won. Part of the narrative in that victory is that the AFL was much more welcoming to black players, especially those from a traditionally overlooked source: small, historically blacked colleges. There are elements of truth in that version of history: there was still a hostile attitude from some teams (notably Washington) towards black players at the end of the 1950s,  and the NFL did a poor job scouting at historically black colleges during that decade. The NFL, as hard as this may be for you to imagine, also had a degree of hubris that may have turned off some prospects. Over the next two days, I want to dive into the AFL and NFL wars over signing talent.  Today, an examination of black players by the leagues; tomorrow, a focus on players from historically black colleges.

Black Players In the 1950s

At the start of the 1950s, most NFL teams did not have a single black player on their roster.  During the 1954 season, there were only 31 black players in the NFL, or about 3.4 per team.  Notably, 8 of those players went on to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame; the success of black players in the ’50s helped usher in the next generation in the ’60s. By 1955, all NFL teams had a black player other than Washington, who would not until 1962.   But at least one sometimes meant just that: when the Detroit Lions won the NFL championship in 1957, the team had just one black player: future Hall of Fame back John Henry Johnson. ^[1]The ’53 Lions were also the last all-white team to win an NFL championship.  Their opponents, the Cleveland Browns, had five black players, led by rookie and league MVP Jim Brown. [continue reading…]

It’s time for part nine of The Grand List, or: the top 1000 players ever, or something. Today’s post has a little something for everyone: active players, champions, Super Bowl MVPs, should-be Super Bowl MVPs, huge receivers, diminutive running backs, cool nicknames, and probably some other nonsense. Part nine covers players 779-750.

Previous articles in the series

The Grand List, part 1: Includes honorable/special mentions and players 1000-990.
The Grand List, part 2: Includes players 989-965.
The Grand List, part 3: Includes players 964-940.
The Grand List, part 4: Includes players 939-901.
The Grand List, part 5: Includes players 900-876.
The Grand List, part 6: Includes players 875-851.
The Grand List, part 7: Includes players 850-810.
The Grand List, part 8: Includes players 809-780.

Let’s roll…

The List, Continued

779. Darnell Dockett (2004-2014)
Defensive Tackle
Arizona Cardinals

Dockett didn’t play the run. Maybe he couldn’t play the run. However, he was an excellent interior pass rusher who had the ability to change games. Given the difference in relative importance of stopping the run versus stopping the pass, Dockett’s pros more than cancelled out his cons. He wasn’t a liability – he was a visionary. A rollercoaster ride of a player, it is fair to label him inconsistent. But when he turned it on, he looked like he was bound for Canton (the one in Ohio). He didn’t produce one incredible game after another, like some of the defenders near the top of this list, but he was usually effective and good for a few performances per season that really blew your hair back. His most notable game came in defeat in Super Bowl XLIII when he sacked Ben Roethlisberger three times, tying Willie Davis and Reggie White for second most sacks in the game’s history. ^[1]Kony Ealy and Grady Jarrett since matched the feat. The record still belongs to L.C. Greenwood, who sacked Roger Staubach four times in Super Bowl X.

778. Manny Fernandez (1968-1975)
Defensive Line
Miami Dolphins [continue reading…]

There are over 100 academic institutions that are identified by the US Department of Education as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). But when it comes to football, three stand out:

• Grambling State University is located in northern Louisiana in the city of Grambling. Prominent alumni include four Hall of Famers — Willie Davis, Willie Brown, Buck Buchanan, and Charlie Joiner, along with great players like Everson Walls, Albert Lewis, Gary Johnson, Ernie Ladd, Tank Younger, and Doug Williams.  There have been a record 121 Tigers from Grambling State drafted.

• Tennessee State University is located in Nashville, Tennessee. More draft value has been spent on TSU Tigers than on any other HBCU. Prominent alumni include Hall of Famers Richard Dent and Claude Humphrey.  In the pros, these players have not had the success of the Grambling players, but in terms of draft value, they can’t be topped: Too Tall Jones was selected first overall, Humphrey and Waymond Bryant were top-5 picks, and Dan Williams, Vern Holland, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Jim Marsalis, and Eldridge Dickey were all top-25 picks.  A whopping 117 players from TSU were drafted.

• Jackson State is located in Jackson, Mississippi, about halfway in between New Orleans and Memphis. The JSU Tigers have four Hall of Famers in Walter Payton, Jackie Slater, Lem Barney, and Robert Brazile.  Jackson State is also home to two of the best receivers not in the Hall of Fame: Jaguars great Jimmy Smith and Harold Jackson, who comfortably led all players in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns in the 1970s.  Coy Bacon, Wilbert Montgomery, and Leon Gray all went to Jackson State, among other stars, helping the school provide more AV in the pros than any other HBCU. There have been 101 players from JSU drafted by the NFL.

A fourth school, Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, is in its own tier as the 4th most prominent HBCU when it comes to NFL success.  There have been 78 Jaguars drafted and only one — Isiah Robertson — was selected in the first round.  So it hasn’t had quite the success as Grambling, Tennessee State, or Jackson State at putting players into the pros. But the Jaguars sure have been successful once they got there (including Robertson, a fringe HOF candidate). Two Hall of Fame cornerbacks, Mel Blount and Aeneas Williams, were drafted in the third round, while WR Harold Carmichael was a 7th round pick.  And one of the best defensive ends during his prime was Broncos legend Rich “Tomstone” Jackson, was also a Jaguar. [continue reading…]

For purposes of today’s post, I am defining major college football programs in the South and Texas as the schools in three major conferences. These 30 schools represent most of the major college football programs in the South, Southeast, and Texas. However, I am going to exclude the “northern” schools from these conferences, for reasons that will soon become clear.

The three conferences are the SEC, the ACC, and the former Southwestern Conference (the SWC). The 30 schools are:

• 13 of the 14 current SEC schools, excluding Missouri. ^[1]These include all 10 schools in the SEC as of the late 1960s, plus three schools that would otherwise qualify anyway: South Carolina (then in ACC), Texas A&M (then in the SWC), and Arkansas (then … Continue reading

• 11 of the 14 current ACC schools, excluding Syracuse, Boston College, and Pittsburgh. ^[2]These include all 8 ACC schools at the time other than Maryland (now in the Big 10 and a “northern” school) and South Carolina (included in this analysis by virtue of being in the SEC … Continue reading

• The Texas schools that were in the SWC at the time: that includes these 6 schools: ^[3]In addition to Texas A&M and Arkansas, which are of course now in the SEC. Texas, TCU, Texas Tech, Baylor, Rice, and SMU.

So why am I excluding the northern schools? They integrated much earlier than the southern schools. Most of the schools in this group of 30 didn’t really integrate until the very late ’60s or early ’70s. Meanwhile, Jim Brown was playing at Syracuse in 1954 and Bobby Grier was famously playing at Pittsburgh at the same time. I also chose to use the old SWC rather than the current Big 12, because that is more reflective of those times. Schools like Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri were in the old Big 8, but those schools were much better at integration than the old SWC. Also, other schools in Texas, like Houston, were a few years ahead of the Texas schools in the SWC. We will deal with the non-SWC Texas schools at the end.

So now we have our group of 30 schools that were the major college programs in the south or Texas over the last 60 years. And, thanks to yesterday’s work, we have a history of players drafted from HBCUs. So let’s compare: the graph below shows the draft value used on players from these 30 southern schools in red compared to the draft value spent on players from HBCUs in blue. You can see a clear dip in talent in the southern/Texas schools in the late ’60s, and it’s directly related to segregation: [continue reading…]

The first NFL Draft took place in 1936. But for players attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), it wasn’t until 1950 that the draft would hold any significance. Later, for a short window in the late ’60s and early ’70s, players from these tiny HBCUs dominated the draft. And finally, with a few notable exceptions, the prominence of HBCU players in the NFL Draft all but disappeared. Today, a look at NFL draft results and how players from HBCUs were valued in each draft. However, to start the story in the 1950s would be woefully inadequate. [continue reading…]

Every year, I publish a color-coded version of the NFL schedule the night it is released. Tonight is that night. [continue reading…]

From 1961 to 1966, the upstart American Football League and NFL competed off the field in a battle for the top players from college football. The rival leagues would hold two separate drafts — in later years, on the same day — and then compete to sign these players. Sometimes, the two leagues would battle over stars: North Carolina State’s Roman Gabriel was drafted second overall by the NFL’s Rams and first overall by the AFL’s Raiders in 1962. A year before, Tulane’s Tommy Mason was the 1st pick in the NFL Draft (Vikings) and the 2nd pick in the AFL Draft (Patriots). There were a number of future Hall of Famers like Mike Ditka, Merlin Olsen, and Gale Sayers who were highly coveted by both leagues. In other cases, though, prospect evaluation 50 years later is a bit more complicated.

Both leagues placed heavy emphasis placed on both signability, which could lead to drastically different draft outcomes for players. While Oregon State QB Terry Baker was drafted first overall by the NFL’s Rams, the AFL didn’t even feign interest in the Heisman Trophy winner, letting him fall to the 12th round of the ’63 AFL Draft. And top-5 NFL picks like Tucker Frederickson, Bob Brown, Ken Willard, and Randy Beisler weren’t even drafted in the AFL! This went the other way, too: Memphis lineman Harry Schuh was the 3rd overall pick in the AFL Draft, but no team in the NFL Draft wasted a pick on him. Buck Buchanan was the first pick in the AFL Draft in ’63, but was only a very late pick in the NFL Draft (more on him in a minute). The gamesmanship increased prior to the 1964 draft season, as the NFL instituted Operation Babysitter, designed to babysit (or kidnap) draft prospects during critical windows so AFL teams couldn’t contact them! Oh, and every once in awhile, neither league would win in a fight over a top player. ^[1]I bring you the story of famed guard/defensive lineman Tom Brown from Minnesota — who led the Gophers to a national championship in 1960, finished as the runner up in the Heisman Trophy, and … Continue reading [continue reading…]

Time for part seven of The Grand List, or: the top one thousand players ever, or whatever. We are slowly traveling down this road, and today we break into the 700s. Specifically, we’ll look at players 809-780. It should be the most quarterback-heavy entry into the series to date, including a trio of would-be saviors who bore the weight both of their teams and of unrealistic expectations. I hope you enjoy. If not, as always, send complaints to DeleteSansReading@gmail.com.

Previous articles in the series

The Grand List, part 1: Includes honorable/special mentions and players 1000-990.
The Grand List, part 2: Includes players 989-965.
The Grand List, part 3: Includes players 964-940.
The Grand List, part 4: Includes players 939-901.
The Grand List, part 5: Includes players 900-876.
The Grand List, part 6: Includes players 875-851.
The Grand List, part 7: Includes players 850-810.

Let’s get down to business.

The List, Continued

809. Joe Horn (1995-2007)
Wide Receiver
New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, Atlanta Falcons, Memphis Mad Dogs

Before he drew the ire of pearl-clutching ninnies around the nation for pretending to make a phone call, Horn was a struggling underemployed former community college player looking for a break. He did drills based on a Jerry Rice VHS tutorial and worked himself into a gig in the CFL. With an excellent debut season as a pro, the NFL took notice. Horn saw limited action on offense continued to put in work on special teams to maintain his roster spot. A move to the Big Easy saw his efforts pay off as he began a half decade run in which he averaged 1290 yards and 9 touchdowns per 16 games, including three seasons over 1300 yards. He got a late start and didn’t earn a starting role until he was 28, but once he got the opportunity, he turned it into stardom. [continue reading…]

Drafts in the early 1970s were long by modern standards, with 442 players selected. If the 1971 NFL Draft is remembered for anything, it’s for having three quarterbacks go with the first three picks in the draft: Stanford’s Jim Plunkett, Mississippi’s Archie Manning, and Santa Clara’s Dan Pastorini. But more than any other draft in NFL history, the 1971 NFL Draft represented the changing landscape of college football — and the country.

Fifty years ago, many Division 1 schools still operated independent from any conference affiliation. There were 56 players selected from such schools in the ’71 Draft, including 10 from Houston, 6 from Pittsburgh, 5 from Notre Dame, and 4 each from Penn State, Tulane, and Boston College.

The Big 10 led all conferences with 52 players drafted. That number just to 60 players drafted from schools in the 2020 version of the Big 10, which you reach by including the players drafted from Nebraska and Penn State.

The SEC had 31 players drafted in 1971, and 46 players if you include existing SEC schools not in the conference fifty years ago. ^[1]Those schools: South Carolina, Missouri, Texas A&M, and Arkansas.

The Pac-8 (the predecessor to the current Pac-12) had 29 players drafted, and 44 players chosen from schools now in the Pac-12. ^[2]Adding Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State, and Utah.

The Big 8 conference (the predecessor to the current Big 12) had 34 players drafted; the Southwest Conference (another predecessor to the Big 12) had 23 draftees that year, with players from Texas and Arkansas making up the majority of that group. There were 35 players drafted in 1971 among modern Big 12 schools.

The ACC had only 11 players drafted, although there were 26 players drafted from schools currently in the ACC. [continue reading…]