2016 November RSS
Hall Of Fame Hopeful: Ken Riley
At Florida A&M, Ken Riley was a quarterback who was not just a gifted athlete, but an exceptional student, earning his team’s scholastic award and a Rhodes Scholar Candidacy. After being drafted in 1969 by the one-year old Cincinnati Bengals, coach Paul Brown had Riley switch to cornerback during his first training camp. Riley became a fixture as the starting cornerback for the next 15 years. He had a busy rookie year starting at right cornerback, returning kickoffs and even caught two passes on offense. Nicknamed “the rattler,” Riley quickly became one of the best corners in the NFL but...
The Playoff Bowl: A Post Season Exhibition
If coming in second place makes you the first place loser, what moniker would be given to the team that finishes in third? Well, for ten seasons of NFL football from 1960 to 1969, that moniker was called “the winner of the Playoff Bowl.” Officially named the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl after a league commissioner who suffered a fatal heart attack in 1959, the Playoff Bowl was played the week after the NFL Championship game (except for the 1969 game, which took place the day before) at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The participants were the second-place teams of the NFL’s Eastern...
1968 Packers: Lombardi's Last Hurrah
The Super Bowl victory agains the Raiders in January 1968 marked Vince Lombardi's final game coaching the Packers. Though he maintain his General Manager role in 1968, he wouldn't coach again until the 1969 season with the Redskins when he took the head coach and GM role. But that only lasted one season as anaplastic carcinoma became terminal and he died a year later. Packer fans hold that final Lombardi year close to their hearts. The 1968 Topps design gave the 1967 Super Bowl participants their own horizontal design with illustrated artwork as the background. 1968 was the first year that the...
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