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Ten Drafts That Changed NFL History
Dynasties Were Built and Legends Were Born on Draft Day
By SAL MAIORANA, AOL Exclusive
AP
When the Steelers selected Terry Bradshaw, right, in 1970 it changed NFL history.
Outside of game days, there is no more important day on the calendar for NFL teams than the draft.
It is on these two days every April when franchises become playoff contenders or playoff pretenders, depending on how well they do in the annual selection meeting.
Throughout the 70-year history of the draft, a total of 21,575 players have been chosen by NFL teams. Some have gone on to become Hall of Famers. Others have gone the way of Ryan Leaf and Tony Mandarich.
Here are 10 draft moments that changed the NFL:
1. The First Draft - Prior to 1936, teams in the NFL engaged in a free-for-all to sign players out of the college ranks to fill their rosters. But on the suggestion of Philadelphia Eagles' owner Bert Bell - who later became commissioner of the NFL - the draft was created as a way to quell the bidding wars and to provide equitable distribution of the best players by giving the teams with the worst records the higher draft positions.
The first draft was conducted on Feb. 8, 1936, at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia and men like Bell, George Halas of the Chicago Bears, Preston Marshall of the Boston Redskins and Curly Lambeau of the Green Bay Packers made selections for their teams from a list of about 90 players that was posted on a wall.
Each of the nine teams made nine choices, and during some of the dead time Marshall sang popular songs to the piano accompaniment of Chicago Cardinals coach Jimmy Conzelman.
The first player drafted - by Bell and the Eagles - was Heisman Trophy-winning back Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago. Berwanger never signed with the Eagles, who traded his rights to Halas and the Bears. As it turned out, Berwanger spurned the Bears and never played pro football.
2. Worth the Wait - Nine rounds of the 1964 Draft passed without anyone selecting 1963 Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach, and for good reason. Any team drafting Staubach knew he couldn't play until his five-year military hitch was up, but the Cowboys couldn't resist the talent of the scrambling quarterback and picked him in the 10th round.
Of the 28 Heisman winners before Staubach, only Clint Frank of Yale (12th round, 1938 draft), Bruce Smith of Minnesota (13th round, 1942), Dick Kazmaier of Princeton (15th round, 1952) and Joe Bellino of Navy (17th round, 1960) waited longer to hear his name called.
Staubach didn't make his Dallas debut until 1969 and didn't become a starter until 1971, but that year he helped lead the Cowboys to their first Super Bowl championship. Over the next eight years with Staubach under center Dallas won three more NFC championships and Super Bowl XII and Staubach forged a Hall of Fame resume.
3. The $400,000 Man - In 1965 the New York Jets were a team trying to make their mark in the American Football League as well as New York City. In their first five years of existence they had posted an uninspiring record of 29-39-2 and never made it to the playoffs. But the fortunes of Harry Wismer's team began to change in 1965.
Through a trade, the Jets owned Denver's first-round pick and it turned out to be No. 1 overall in the AFL Draft because the Broncos finished with the worst record in the league. New York used it to select Alabama quarterback Joe Namath. The St. Louis Cardinals chose Namath in the NFL Draft, but the Cardinals couldn't come close to matching the $400,000 contract offer put forth by the Jets and Namath became the AFL's beacon of light, the most important player in league history.
Four years later, Namath led the Jets to a 16-7 Super Bowl III victory over the Baltimore Colts, forever stamping the AFL's legitimacy.
4. Meanwhile, in Chicago - While the Jets were making their splash by picking Namath, the Chicago Bears enjoyed a fairly productive day as well at the top of the 1965 draft. With back-to-back picks - Nos. 3 and 4 overall - George Halas selected Kansas running back Gale Sayers and Illinois linebacker Dick Butkus.
The Bears never made the playoffs during the injury-marred career of Sayers and the nine-year career of Butkus, but they became two of the greatest players in league history, both eventually earning induction into the Hall of Fame.
5. The Merger - In 1966 when it was announced that the rival NFL and AFL were going to become one big league starting with the 1970 season, it was decided that expensive bidding wars over players - such as the one for Namath - had to cease. Thus, the leagues held the first common draft in 1967.
The draft order was determined by worst record, as it is today. New Orleans, an NFL expansion team, was awarded the first overall pick and traded it to the Baltimore Colts who in turn selected Michigan State defensive tackle Bubba Smith.
Other players picked in the first round of that historic draft were Syracuse running back Floyd Little by Denver, UCLA running back Mel Farr by Detroit, Purdue quarterback Bob Griese by Miami, Texas A&I offensive guard Gene Upshaw by Oakland, and Florida quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier by San Francisco.
6. A Dynasty is Built - For nearly four decades the Pittsburgh Steelers were annually one of the worst teams in the NFL, but once Chuck Noll was hired as coach in 1969, never again were the Steelers laughingstocks.
Expertly using the draft to re-tool the terrible roster he inherited, Noll struck gold in a four-year period between 1969 and 1972 more often than the prospectors in the California gold rush. Noll selected Joe Greene (No. 1 overall), Jon Kolb and L.C. Greenwood in 1969, Terry Bradshaw (No. 1 overall) and Mel Blount in 1970, Frank Lewis, Jack Ham, Gerry Mullins, Dwight White, Larry Brown, Ernie Holmes and Mike Wagner in 1971, and Franco Harris and Steve Furness in 1972.
All but Holmes and Lewis played on all four of Pittsburgh's Super Bowl-winning teams in the 1970s.
7. Secondary Concerns - Since the creation of the 16-game schedule in 1978, the San Francisco 49ers had compiled an NFL-worst record of 10-38 which included back-to-back 2-14 seasons in 1978 and '79, as they headed into the 1981 draft.
When the team's braintrust convened, it knew it had its quarterback of the future in place with Joe Montana, but there were glaring needs on defense, particularly in the secondary.
Bill Walsh used his first five picks on defenders, and three of them were USC safety Ronnie Lott (first round, No. 8 overall), Missouri cornerback Eric Wright (second round) and Pittsburgh safety Carlton Williamson (third round).
Those three players became starters as rookies and along with Lions castoff Dwight Hicks, a cornerback drafted in the sixth round in 1978 who came to the 49ers in 1979, became one of the best defensive backfields in NFL history.
In 1981 the foursome combined for 23 interceptions and four interception returns for TDs, and they started in San Francisco's 26-21 victory over Cincinnati in Super Bowl XVI. They remained together through 1985, when they became the first and only entire secondary to be selected to the Pro Bowl, and helped the 49ers win Super Bowl XIX, 38-16, over Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins.
8. The Class of '83 - If you were looking for a quarterback in 1983, that year's draft was the place to look as six were chosen in the first round alone.
John Elway was considered the prize and the Stanford grad went No. 1 to the Baltimore Colts, though the Colts were forced to trade him to Denver when Elway refused to sign a contract and threatened to quit football to play baseball in the New York Yankees' farm system.
Jim Kelly went No. 14 overall to the Buffalo Bills, though he didn't arrive in Buffalo until 1986 after spurning the Bills to play two years in the USFL.
Dan Marino, coming off a sub-par senior season at the University of Pittsburgh, slid all the way to the bottom of the round, going No. 27 to Miami.
Elway, Kelly and Marino all wound up enshrined in the Hall of Fame and helped define the offensive explosion of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The other first-round quarterbacks didn't fare quite as well. Penn State's Todd Blackledge went No. 7 overall to Kansas City and was largely unproductive. New England chose Illinois' Tony Eason No. 15 and while he led the Patriots to Super Bowl XX, his career never took hold. And Ken O'Brien of Cal-Davis went No. 24 to the New York Jets and he threw for more than 25,000 yards during his 10 years in the league.
9. On the Receiving End in 1996 - The draft that is often compared to the '83 QB draft for sheer yield of talent at one position is the 1996 meet when five wide receivers were picked in the first 24 slots.
USC's Keyshawn Johnson went No. 1 overall to the New York Jets, New England took Ohio State's Terry Glenn No. 7, St. Louis selected LSU's Eddie Kennison No. 18, Indianapolis grabbed Syracuse's Marvin Harrison No. 19, and Buffalo chose Mississippi State's Eric Moulds No. 24.
Harrison has been by far the best of the bunch with 845 catches and 98 touchdowns, followed by Johnson (673 and 54), Moulds (594 and 44), Glenn (461 and 31) and Kennison (414 and 32).
10. The Franchise, and the Bust - It was one of the hottest draft debates ever: Who should the Colts use the No. 1 overall pick on, Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning or Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf?
Both were considered franchise players whom you could rebuild a team around, and no matter who the Colts chose, the Chargers were going to take the other guy No. 2. Allegiances were split almost 50-50 as to who was the better of the two, and Colts general manager Bill Polian took it right down to the wire before selecting Manning. It was the best decision he ever made.
In his first seven years in the league Manning has thrown for 29,442 yards and 216 TDs, has won two NFL MVP awards, and in 2004 he set the NFL single-season record for touchdown passes with 49. He is already 19th all-time on the NFL passing TD list and appears on the fast track to the Hall of Fame.
The Chargers took Leaf and he proved to be one of the all-time busts in NFL history. He played in parts of just three seasons with San Diego and Dallas, a total of 26 games, and he threw 14 TD passes compared to 36 interceptions.
The Colts' record in Manning's seven seasons at the helm: 66-46 with five playoff appearances including advancement to the 2003 AFC Championship Game. During the same time period between 1998 and 2004, San Diego's record is 43-69 with just one playoff appearance.
Sal Maiorana covers the NFL and Buffalo Bills for the Rochester Democrate & Chronicle and his a noted sports historian whose works are published by The Sports Xchange Copyright (C) 2005 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.
04-18-05 20:57 EDT
Dynasties Were Built and Legends Were Born on Draft Day
By SAL MAIORANA, AOL Exclusive
AP
When the Steelers selected Terry Bradshaw, right, in 1970 it changed NFL history.
Outside of game days, there is no more important day on the calendar for NFL teams than the draft.
It is on these two days every April when franchises become playoff contenders or playoff pretenders, depending on how well they do in the annual selection meeting.
Throughout the 70-year history of the draft, a total of 21,575 players have been chosen by NFL teams. Some have gone on to become Hall of Famers. Others have gone the way of Ryan Leaf and Tony Mandarich.
Here are 10 draft moments that changed the NFL:
1. The First Draft - Prior to 1936, teams in the NFL engaged in a free-for-all to sign players out of the college ranks to fill their rosters. But on the suggestion of Philadelphia Eagles' owner Bert Bell - who later became commissioner of the NFL - the draft was created as a way to quell the bidding wars and to provide equitable distribution of the best players by giving the teams with the worst records the higher draft positions.
The first draft was conducted on Feb. 8, 1936, at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia and men like Bell, George Halas of the Chicago Bears, Preston Marshall of the Boston Redskins and Curly Lambeau of the Green Bay Packers made selections for their teams from a list of about 90 players that was posted on a wall.
Each of the nine teams made nine choices, and during some of the dead time Marshall sang popular songs to the piano accompaniment of Chicago Cardinals coach Jimmy Conzelman.
The first player drafted - by Bell and the Eagles - was Heisman Trophy-winning back Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago. Berwanger never signed with the Eagles, who traded his rights to Halas and the Bears. As it turned out, Berwanger spurned the Bears and never played pro football.
2. Worth the Wait - Nine rounds of the 1964 Draft passed without anyone selecting 1963 Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach, and for good reason. Any team drafting Staubach knew he couldn't play until his five-year military hitch was up, but the Cowboys couldn't resist the talent of the scrambling quarterback and picked him in the 10th round.
Of the 28 Heisman winners before Staubach, only Clint Frank of Yale (12th round, 1938 draft), Bruce Smith of Minnesota (13th round, 1942), Dick Kazmaier of Princeton (15th round, 1952) and Joe Bellino of Navy (17th round, 1960) waited longer to hear his name called.
Staubach didn't make his Dallas debut until 1969 and didn't become a starter until 1971, but that year he helped lead the Cowboys to their first Super Bowl championship. Over the next eight years with Staubach under center Dallas won three more NFC championships and Super Bowl XII and Staubach forged a Hall of Fame resume.
3. The $400,000 Man - In 1965 the New York Jets were a team trying to make their mark in the American Football League as well as New York City. In their first five years of existence they had posted an uninspiring record of 29-39-2 and never made it to the playoffs. But the fortunes of Harry Wismer's team began to change in 1965.
Through a trade, the Jets owned Denver's first-round pick and it turned out to be No. 1 overall in the AFL Draft because the Broncos finished with the worst record in the league. New York used it to select Alabama quarterback Joe Namath. The St. Louis Cardinals chose Namath in the NFL Draft, but the Cardinals couldn't come close to matching the $400,000 contract offer put forth by the Jets and Namath became the AFL's beacon of light, the most important player in league history.
Four years later, Namath led the Jets to a 16-7 Super Bowl III victory over the Baltimore Colts, forever stamping the AFL's legitimacy.
4. Meanwhile, in Chicago - While the Jets were making their splash by picking Namath, the Chicago Bears enjoyed a fairly productive day as well at the top of the 1965 draft. With back-to-back picks - Nos. 3 and 4 overall - George Halas selected Kansas running back Gale Sayers and Illinois linebacker Dick Butkus.
The Bears never made the playoffs during the injury-marred career of Sayers and the nine-year career of Butkus, but they became two of the greatest players in league history, both eventually earning induction into the Hall of Fame.
5. The Merger - In 1966 when it was announced that the rival NFL and AFL were going to become one big league starting with the 1970 season, it was decided that expensive bidding wars over players - such as the one for Namath - had to cease. Thus, the leagues held the first common draft in 1967.
The draft order was determined by worst record, as it is today. New Orleans, an NFL expansion team, was awarded the first overall pick and traded it to the Baltimore Colts who in turn selected Michigan State defensive tackle Bubba Smith.
Other players picked in the first round of that historic draft were Syracuse running back Floyd Little by Denver, UCLA running back Mel Farr by Detroit, Purdue quarterback Bob Griese by Miami, Texas A&I offensive guard Gene Upshaw by Oakland, and Florida quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier by San Francisco.
6. A Dynasty is Built - For nearly four decades the Pittsburgh Steelers were annually one of the worst teams in the NFL, but once Chuck Noll was hired as coach in 1969, never again were the Steelers laughingstocks.
Expertly using the draft to re-tool the terrible roster he inherited, Noll struck gold in a four-year period between 1969 and 1972 more often than the prospectors in the California gold rush. Noll selected Joe Greene (No. 1 overall), Jon Kolb and L.C. Greenwood in 1969, Terry Bradshaw (No. 1 overall) and Mel Blount in 1970, Frank Lewis, Jack Ham, Gerry Mullins, Dwight White, Larry Brown, Ernie Holmes and Mike Wagner in 1971, and Franco Harris and Steve Furness in 1972.
All but Holmes and Lewis played on all four of Pittsburgh's Super Bowl-winning teams in the 1970s.
7. Secondary Concerns - Since the creation of the 16-game schedule in 1978, the San Francisco 49ers had compiled an NFL-worst record of 10-38 which included back-to-back 2-14 seasons in 1978 and '79, as they headed into the 1981 draft.
When the team's braintrust convened, it knew it had its quarterback of the future in place with Joe Montana, but there were glaring needs on defense, particularly in the secondary.
Bill Walsh used his first five picks on defenders, and three of them were USC safety Ronnie Lott (first round, No. 8 overall), Missouri cornerback Eric Wright (second round) and Pittsburgh safety Carlton Williamson (third round).
Those three players became starters as rookies and along with Lions castoff Dwight Hicks, a cornerback drafted in the sixth round in 1978 who came to the 49ers in 1979, became one of the best defensive backfields in NFL history.
In 1981 the foursome combined for 23 interceptions and four interception returns for TDs, and they started in San Francisco's 26-21 victory over Cincinnati in Super Bowl XVI. They remained together through 1985, when they became the first and only entire secondary to be selected to the Pro Bowl, and helped the 49ers win Super Bowl XIX, 38-16, over Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins.
8. The Class of '83 - If you were looking for a quarterback in 1983, that year's draft was the place to look as six were chosen in the first round alone.
John Elway was considered the prize and the Stanford grad went No. 1 to the Baltimore Colts, though the Colts were forced to trade him to Denver when Elway refused to sign a contract and threatened to quit football to play baseball in the New York Yankees' farm system.
Jim Kelly went No. 14 overall to the Buffalo Bills, though he didn't arrive in Buffalo until 1986 after spurning the Bills to play two years in the USFL.
Dan Marino, coming off a sub-par senior season at the University of Pittsburgh, slid all the way to the bottom of the round, going No. 27 to Miami.
Elway, Kelly and Marino all wound up enshrined in the Hall of Fame and helped define the offensive explosion of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The other first-round quarterbacks didn't fare quite as well. Penn State's Todd Blackledge went No. 7 overall to Kansas City and was largely unproductive. New England chose Illinois' Tony Eason No. 15 and while he led the Patriots to Super Bowl XX, his career never took hold. And Ken O'Brien of Cal-Davis went No. 24 to the New York Jets and he threw for more than 25,000 yards during his 10 years in the league.
9. On the Receiving End in 1996 - The draft that is often compared to the '83 QB draft for sheer yield of talent at one position is the 1996 meet when five wide receivers were picked in the first 24 slots.
USC's Keyshawn Johnson went No. 1 overall to the New York Jets, New England took Ohio State's Terry Glenn No. 7, St. Louis selected LSU's Eddie Kennison No. 18, Indianapolis grabbed Syracuse's Marvin Harrison No. 19, and Buffalo chose Mississippi State's Eric Moulds No. 24.
Harrison has been by far the best of the bunch with 845 catches and 98 touchdowns, followed by Johnson (673 and 54), Moulds (594 and 44), Glenn (461 and 31) and Kennison (414 and 32).
10. The Franchise, and the Bust - It was one of the hottest draft debates ever: Who should the Colts use the No. 1 overall pick on, Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning or Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf?
Both were considered franchise players whom you could rebuild a team around, and no matter who the Colts chose, the Chargers were going to take the other guy No. 2. Allegiances were split almost 50-50 as to who was the better of the two, and Colts general manager Bill Polian took it right down to the wire before selecting Manning. It was the best decision he ever made.
In his first seven years in the league Manning has thrown for 29,442 yards and 216 TDs, has won two NFL MVP awards, and in 2004 he set the NFL single-season record for touchdown passes with 49. He is already 19th all-time on the NFL passing TD list and appears on the fast track to the Hall of Fame.
The Chargers took Leaf and he proved to be one of the all-time busts in NFL history. He played in parts of just three seasons with San Diego and Dallas, a total of 26 games, and he threw 14 TD passes compared to 36 interceptions.
The Colts' record in Manning's seven seasons at the helm: 66-46 with five playoff appearances including advancement to the 2003 AFC Championship Game. During the same time period between 1998 and 2004, San Diego's record is 43-69 with just one playoff appearance.
Sal Maiorana covers the NFL and Buffalo Bills for the Rochester Democrate & Chronicle and his a noted sports historian whose works are published by The Sports Xchange Copyright (C) 2005 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.
04-18-05 20:57 EDT
