Jack Gregory—A Worthy NFL Career

LOOKING BACK
By John Turney

Jack Gregory, former Browns and Giants defensive end passed away March 2, 2019, in Monroe Country, Mississippi. He was 74.

Gregory, (6-5, 255), was a consensus First-team All-Pro in 1972 and was a Pro Bowler that season and in 1969 as well. Additionally, he was a Second-team All-AFC selection in 1970. He is unofficially credited with 103 quarterback sacks for his career (38 with the Browns and 65 with the Giants) and was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2000.

Gregory was a tight end in college but was converted to defensive end after being drafted by the Browns in the 9th round in 1966. He entered the NFL a year later after playing one more college season with Delta State. (He began his collegiate career with Tenn-Chattanooga).

In 1967 he backed up Paul Wiggin and Bill Glass, starting three grames for an injured Wiggin. In 1968 he started six games, five for Glass. The following season he was the starter at right end after Glass retired and as mentioned made the Pro Bowl after recording ten sacks.

In 1970 he recorded 15½ sacks, among the tops in the NFL that season but he didn't garner many post-season honors—the lone team he made was Second-team All-AFC.

In 1972 the Giants gave the Browns a First-round pick (Steve Holden) and a Second-rounder (Greg Pruitt) for Gregory and Freddie Summers. Gregory was the right end for the Giants from 1972-78, although in 1972 and 1973 he moved all along the line as a de facto rover. His defensive coordinator, Jim Garrett, used Dan Birdwell in similar ways when he was with the Raiders.

Gregory's role, especially in 1972 was effective as he was All-Pro and had 18½ sacks (Sometimes reported as 21 but he had 16 solo sacks and 5 half-sacks) which led the NFL.

In 1973 and 1974 he recorded 9 and then 9½ sacks and followed that up with 14 in 1975, again among the NFL leaders and he was an honorable mention All-NFC selection. He was off some in 1976 (4½ sacks) but had a nice comeback season in 1977 but dropped off in 1978, finishing with just 2½ sacks.

In the Summer of 1979 Gregory, in a battle for his right end position with Gary Jeter, walked out of Giants camp and a day later demanded a trade, which he was granted—to the Browns, his original team. 

He played right end most of the season, taking over when Lyle Alzado had to love to left end and then to defensive tackle when other Browns were felled by injuries. Prior to that, he was usually rushing in nickel situations. 

Mike Giddings stated about Gregory, “Underrated pro. Who won by both ability and smarts. The type whose ‘numbers’ add up when you finished evaluating him."

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK 1952: Newcomers Take Their Place Among the Elite.

LOOKING BACK
By TJ Troup

Today is my listing of the defensive players of the week for 1952: Chose today since it is Randy Gradishar's birthday, and am of the firm belief he should be enshrined in Canton.

That said, let's take a look at the 1952 Defensive Players of the Week—

WEEK ONE

Tommy James

September 28th: The Browns seeking revenge for the title game loss to the Rams opens the season against Los Angeles with a 37-7 win. Right corner Tommy James intercepts both Van Brocklin & Waterfield in the first half(these two passers ranked #1 & #2 in the passer rating in '51). Cleveland builds an insurmountable lead as both Ram quarterbacks finish with a passer rating of 0.0!

WEEK TWO

October 5th: The starting right corner for the Cardinals is rookie Ollie Matson. The Cardinals trail 10-7 when the former Olympic medalist returns a Bear kick-off for a touchdown. He shows strong ability in defending the run as the film shows him tackling both Dottley and Hunsinger with physical tackles. The Bears attempt at a comeback win is foiled when Ollie rips the ball away from a Bear and dashes into the end zone with his fumble return touchdown in the 21-10 victory.

WEEK THREE

October 12th: San Francisco was the hottest team down the stretch in 1951, and in their late-season victories they beat Detroit twice. The opening day win over the Lions at Kezar is impressive, yet today we are at Briggs Stadium, and you just don't beat a Buddy Parker team four times in a row. Do you? Oh, a 28-0 shellacking on the road serves notice to the league that the 49ers are for real. When a team pitches a shut-out many men contribute, yet two 49ers stand-out today. Rawboned rangy left defensive end Ed Henke plays the outside run well, hustles on special teams (impressive open field tackle), and helps pillage the Lion pass pocket for 5 sacks. Ed also forces Layne to throw early as he rockets in from his stand-up stance.

Hardy Brown

The other co-Player of the Week is undersized linebacker Hardy Brown. San Francisco aligns in an over shifted 5-2, and when the ball is on the hash linebacker Don Burke plays the wide side of the field, while Hardy is aligned near the middle of the offensive formation. Hardy makes numerous tackles and hits with his technique known as the "the Humper". Brown drives his should into ball carriers and receivers, and almost always drops them in their tracks. His open field "Humper" on Bobby Layne late in the game is a classic. Detroit gains just 40 yards rushing the entire game.

WEEK FOUR

Len Ford

October 19th: Len Ford can never match his season of 1951, yet his game against Philadelphia is a true testament that he is the premier defensive lineman in the game. The Eagles gain just 45 yards rushing, and since one of the running plays is a 36 yard gain by Don Stevens—Philly gains just 9 yards on their other 20 running plays. Len leads a pass rush that garners 6 sacks, and he recovers two Eagle fumbles in the 49-7 win.

WEEK FIVE

October 26th: No one knows who holds the record for most sacks in a game. Paul Lionel Zimmerman (Dr. Z) shared his thoughts with me and many others about this game and his personal notes record that Norm Willey had 8 sacks and Pete Pihos had 4 and two other players had the other two as the Eagles had 14 sacks for 127 yards in losses in the 14-10 victory over the Giants.

Pete Pihos

As such we again have co-Defensive Players of the week. Left end Pete Pihos & right end Norm Willey

WEEK SIX

November 2nd: Detroit has rebounded from their early-season struggles and today beat the Browns 17-6. Underrated defensive end Jim Doran records 4 sacks and pressures Otto Graham the entire game.

WEEK SEVEN

Andy Robustelli

November 9th: Right defensive end Andy Robustelli returns an errant Dallas Texan pass 14 yards for a touchdown, and leads a pass rush that garners 6 sacks in the 27-6 victory. Los Angeles is coming on strong, yet needs to win out to have any chance of winning the division.

WEEK EIGHT

November 16th: Lean rookie right defensive end Blaine Earon is not a household name, not even in Detroit, yet the youngster helps his teammates limit the Dallas Texans to just 68 yards rushing in the 43-13 demolition of Dallas. Earon also recovers a fumble, the first of 5 he will recover down the stretch as the Lions take aim at a division title.

WEEK NINE

Ace Loomis

November 23rd: Who do the Texans play today? Why the up and coming Green Bay Packers. Ace Loomis pilfers two Texan tosses (he returns them 78 yards, including one for a touchdown). The Packers are now 6-3 and have designs on being a factor in the division race late in the season.

WEEK TEN

November 30th: The Steelers score 63 points! Ok, the black & gold never score like this, but someone had to play strong defense since New York scored just 7. Safety Claude Hipps intercepts 3 times (he returns them 31 yards) to keep getting the ball for Jim Finks and the offense.

WEEK ELEVEN

Jack Butler

December 7th: While a case can be made for Richard Lane as defensive player of the week (more on him soon), the defensive player of the week is second-year right corner Jack Butler of the Steelers. San Francisco has fallen from contention and gets soundly thrashed at home in Kezar 24-7. The strong Niner ground game gains just 70 (Butler's strong run support is always a factor), but his 2 interceptions are key to the win (he returns them 29 yards). Two wins in a row for Pittsburgh and now they travel south to Los Angeles in their quest for three in a row to end the season and deny Los Angeles a tie for the conference crown.

WEEK TWELVE

Nigh Train Lane

December 14th: Unheralded rookie right corner Night Train Lane has now intercepted 11 passes in his last eight games of the year. His three thefts helped beat Green Bay on December 7th. No one ever intercepts three passes in back to back games, right? Oh, this cool cat from Austin Texas, who played junior college ball at that football powerhouse Scottsbluff in Nebraska is not just anyone?

First quarter and Pittsburgh faces 3rd and 20; as Finks passes and Richard Lane intercepts and returns 12 yards. Rams drive deep but are denied at the goal line. Second quarter, and on 2nd and 10 Finks throws to his left, and Lane knifes in front of the receiver and speeds 42 yards to score for the Rams. Third quarter and Pittsburgh is on the Los Angeles twenty-one yard line as Finks fires again, and Lane intercepts again. This time on his own eight-yard line. He returns 12 yards.

The Rams offense drives eighty, and scores to put the game out of reach. Buddy Morrow sings about the "Night Train", and that is his nickname now and forever for the defensive player of the year. Lane has now recorded 14 interceptions in the last nine games to set a league record that still stands, and the Rams have won eight in a row to tie Detroit for the division title. In closing this saga; sure appreciate the comments at the end of my last story, and hope there is more of the same.

All-Decade Career Years

LOOKING BACK
By John Turney

We define a "Career year" as a top performance by a player that is above and beyond an All-Pro year, the best of his career, or at least near it.

We've done this with TEAMS and now are extending it to decades, beginning with the 1950s through the 2010s. Of course, after the 2019 season, we will make changes as needed.

Some are obvious, MVP, Player of the Year Awards, big stat seasons, others less so. We may pick a player who was not even All-Pro for that season, but we make those choices from an informed point of view. So, we welcome criticism and challenges, but be aware we know who was All-Pro in any given year, we know who had the big stat seasons for major stats, but we also know many years of grades from Pro Preview and also crib from the writings of Joel Buchsbaum and others.

So, fire away.

1990s NFL All-Decade Team Critique

LOOKING BACK
By John Turney

Like the 1980s, the 1990s team is solid all-around and this time there are no three- or four-year types. All played five or more seasons which we think is the minimum to be considered All-Decade.

So, no one gets thrown out for lack of decadienal longevity.

Here is the official team:

We do have some small quibbles. We'd not have Ronnie Lott as a safety. He was 1980s All-Decade and on our 1985-95 Mid-Decade team, but with so many good safeties in the 1990s and his play in 1993 and 1994 not was it was just a few years earlier we'd go with Eugene Robinson as the top free safety. Robinson was more complete than the others and comes with Proscout, Inc.'s  (PSI) seal of approval for the highest grades of any free safety in the 1990s.

Darren Woodson could make a case to be the Second-team strong safety, though we think Butler and Lake were more versatile in terms of blitzing, Woodson was stellar as a strong-side safety in the 1990s as well.

Junior Seau was always listed as an ILBer for the Chargers, but he wasn't that. He was a weak-side stack backer. But, it's close enough for rock and roll we guess. The Second-team has an inside linebacker and an outside linebacker. There were several good linebackers who would look good on the Second-team, guys who could cover and rush—a Seth Joyner, a William Thomas, or even a Mo Lewis. We'd have arranged them differently, but really, there are no real snubs here.

Sapp played five years and made the Second-team, and was effective for just four of those years. For the 1990s his credentials are a bit light. Henry Thomas would be a good fit next to Randle—a top shade tackle and, like Robinson, comes with scouts endorsement. Chester McGlockton would deserve a good look, too. His 1993-97 work was likely better than Cortez Kennedy's but he tailed off quickly. We also liked Michael Dean Perry because he was so often making tackles for loss. 

The coaches are fine, but you do have to ask why two-time Super Bowl winners Jimmy Johnson and Mike Shanahan were overlooked. We would love to see the voting of the panel like we got to see on the 1970s and 1980s teams but the Hall never released the vote count for the 1990s or 2000s.

John Carney may have had a better decade than Morten Andersen, but Andersen's leg so mesmerized people that he wasn't always looked at that closely. But, we'd have likely made him Second-team, so again, it's a quibble.

Punter is hard for the 1990s. The top net punter for the decade was Matt Turk and was All-Pro twice and Second-team All-Pro once in five seasons. Darren Bennett was second and he also played just five seasons in the decade. Rich Camarillo played seven seasons and his net was slightly behind Bennett's and he had the second-best inside-the-twenty to touchback ratio of anyone in the 1990s (behind Bennett).  Landeta was two yards behind the best, had more blocked and allowed about lots of return yards  (also like Bennett) and nine touchdowns so we'd replace him with someone—Camarillo or Turk. Landeta just wasn't worthy of even Second-team 1990s All-Decade.

We'd add a special teamer and it would be Steve Tasker and behind him Bennie Thompson or Elbert Shelley. We'd also add a fullback—Moose Johnston followed by Sam Gash or Howard Griffith.

We'd also find a place for Dave Szott a third Proscout, Inc. "blue player" who always got overlooked. Tim Grunhard also scored high. We might shuffle a couple of other linemen, but this is a good group. At his peak, Larry Allen was the most dominant and it's hard to see him on the Second-team but the others played at a high level longer.

The backs and receivers look good, though some might have a small beef here or there.

Testimonials and the Hall of Fame—Marvin Harrison

PERSPECTIVE

By John Turney

Art by Ron Adair

A few years ago when there was a big brew haha over Terrell Owens regarding the Hall of Fame and to a lesser degree Randy Moss and whether they were First-ballot Hall of Famers or not, Marvin Harrison's name was not brought up much. We remember it as being used a bit, but it was always a name held in lower esteem by the highlight worshiping crowd, at least that's our view.

However, in so many ways Harrison was more productive than the bigger, strong, even faster and taller pair. He was All-Pro more often, went to more Pro Bowls, was able to secure a ring, averaged more catches and yards and the same number of touchdowns per 16 games that the highlight duo.

Here is a chart showing those stats and honors.

(Click to enlarge)

Now we think Owens and Moss are Hall of Famers, but we questioned if they deserved the same honor that Jerry Rice did, that of first-ballot inclusion. But Hall of Famers they are and they earned it.

However, we found it interesting that when asked, at least three great cornerbacks named Harrison as their top guy, not Ownes and Moss. The following is what we call "testimonials" or "what they said about . . . ". They are comments from opponents and teammates and even coaches that assess the skills of NFl players. 

This type of reporting was more common in the literature of the 1950s-1990s than it is now. We don't see (at least we don't see them) as many articles that require a reporter to take some time and ask players questions like, "Who is the best you faced?" or "Who gave you the most trouble?" or "Who is the toughest player you had to blocked?"

However, we do find some and here, Charles Tillman, Charles Woodson, and Champ Bailey all comment on Harrison and we found it quite telling.

Tillman:

Woodson:

Bailey:

We would love to see some of these that are as clear and definitive for Owens and Moss as they are with Harrison or Jerry Rice. Maybe Harrison should be complaining about not being a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

1980s NFL All-Decade Team Critique

LOOKING BACK
By John Turney

The 1980s Hall of Fame NFL All-Decade Team was full of dominant players, all worthy of selections. In our view, all but five were qualified in terms of a minimum (our opinion of the number of years needed to be considered for any 'all-decade' team). But, in this case, four of the five played four seasons in the 1980s (Gary Zimmerman, Ted Hendricks, Mel Blount, Rick Upchurch). John Taylor played three so it's more of a quibble compared to a Larry Wilson (three seasons in the seventies) or Earl Campbell (two seasons in the seventies).

So, here is the 1980s team:

In this post we won't pick a 1980s team, though we may someday, we will just post some critiques and suggestions of ommissions that may fit. As we said, the HOF selection committee really did well this decade.

Montana dominated, but if we were to pick a Second-team it would be Dan Marino. We might have gone with Marcus Allen (ROY, MVP) over Riggins.

At tackle, Jackie Slater and Mike Kenn would look good here in place of Zimmerman. 

Reggie White, Lee Roy Selmon and Bruce Smith all played the minimum (in our view) of five years but it does leave out a Mark Gastineau or a Jacob Green or others who had a lower peak that that trio but played closer to the entire decade. The same goes for Keith Millard. A nose tackle (the predominant scheme in the 1980s was a 3-4 and all four of the tackles were 4-3 guys) like Fred Smerlas.

We would replace Jack Lambert (he played the five years but 1984 was barely a season) with Harry Carson and we would also love to know who gave John Anderson (good player but All-Decade?) a vote. We'd move Andre Tippett to the First-team and put Clay Matthews (who you'd think deserved the slot here anyway) on the Second-team. 

Mel Blount should be replaced by a Darrell Green or a Hanford Dixon and Hayes moves up. Donnie Shell would likely be a better pick for Second-team strong safety than Joey Browner. Shell was better in coverage, smarter, more instinctive than Browner, who was very good, but Shell better overall.

Nick Lowery was the decade's most accurate kicker, he kicked outdoors on a field with a large rise in the middle, and had good leg on kickoffs. He should be the First-team kicker.

We prefer Roby over Landeta in terms of net punting and in-the-20 to touchback ratio and so on. Ray Guy would be eligible for this team, but Landeta is okay, but he didn't stand out any more than Rich Camarillo. Landeta played only five seasons in the NFL so he was light on longevity.

As for punt and kickoff returners. Lots of picks would work to replace Upchurch and Taylor on the Second-team. Here are the top 20  punt returners in terms of yardage in the1980s.

We like to look at touchdowns first, then yards and averages. The highest combination of the key stats is Henry Ellard so we'd go with him, but there are maybe a half-dozen choices that all would work.

For kickoffs here are the top yardage guys with touchdowns highlighted:

Is another Ram the top guy? Ron Brown had four scores, three in one season but Stump Mitchell or Mike Nelms would work, too. 

The official team didn't pick a core special teams player. We would go with Bill Bates and Mosi Tatupu. Ivory Sully would be a solid pick, too. 

Finally, we'd have gone with Joe Gibbs on the Second-team over Chuck Noll.

So, there are our critiques. Love 'em? Hate 'em? Let us know.

1970s NFL All-Decade Team Critique

LOOKING BACK
By John Turney

The 1970s All-Decade Team was the first to have First- and Second-teams rather than varying numbers at different positions (for example there were three All-Decade quarterbacks in the 1950s and 1960s iterations of the All-Decade teams). In the 1970s there was one First-team quarterback and then a tie for the Second-team. So, to us, it made more sense.

That said, there were a few issues, not with the selections but by putting some people on the team that really didn't qualify in terms of years of service. In our view, Earl Campbell, who played just two seasons in the 1970s, shouldn't have been on any 1970s All-Decade Team.

The same goes for Dick Butkus (4 seasons), Larry Wilson (3 seasons). Wilson is a "chalk" choice for any 1960s All-Decade team and Butkus fits more in the 1960s and for a mythical 1965-75 All-Decade team but the 1970s? Really?

Here is the official team with the votes:

Now, for our picks. Some of them are quibbles, meaning our picks are not 'better' just more fitting in terms of service. Robert Brazile and Bobby Bell were dominant, but both played five seasons in the decade meeting what we think is a fair threshold in terms on years played, but can we say Brazile and Bell's five seasons were better than nine or so seasons from Isiah Robertson and Chris Hanburger?

We post the question more for discussion than anything else. Brazile fits in a 1975-85 All-Decade team and Bell is perfect for both the 1960s and 1965-75 and Robertson, the de facto 1973 NFC Defensive Player of the Year and Hanburger was the 1972 NFC Defensive Player of the Year and both were multi-time First-team All-Pros and had a slew of Pro Bowls. Neither picks are wrong it's just a question of peak value and longevity value within a decade.

Likewise, we think Mel Blount's 1970s decade was slightly ahead of Wille Brown and Jimmy Johnson and though we like Louis Wright, we think he fits better on a 1975-85 team. Again, the official All-Decade Team selections were good, and justifiable but maybe could use just a bit of scrutiny.

We think Alan Page deserved to be First-team in the 1970s and that Bob Lilly and Merlin Olsen were both ideal on the 1960s team and a 1965-75 team. But the 1970s? Lilly was lifted on passing downs in 1973 and 1974 and played just five years of the 1970s. Olsen is a solid pick, playing seven seasons in the seventies, and was a Pro Bowler in six of them. But in an appeal to fairness, we'd have gone with Wally Chambers and Jerry Sherk (or even a Curley Culp).

Chambers tenure was a bit short but from 1973-77 (until knee injury) he was a beast. Sherk was more steady but both were their conference's Defensive Player of the Year in 1976. However, if someone were to insist on Lilly and Olsen as the Second-teamers, fine, but Page and Greene are clear First-teamers.

On the Second-team we replaced Campbell with Chuck Foreman and Larry Wilson with Jake Scott. We put Lemar Parrish in the place of Wright. We also put Claude Humphrey in over Harvey Martin.

Also, we put Cliff Branch and Harold Jackson on the Second-team because we felt they were more productive over the long term than Paul Warfield and Carmichael. Warfield's peak of 1970-74 certainly worthy, but he's another one for the 1965-75 team. Jackson led the NFL in the 1970s in catches, yards, touchdown receptions and was fifth in yards per catch and played well in playoffs. Perhaps playing for three franchises in the decade was some cause to be overlooked when the official team was chosen in 1980.

As for the offensive line, all were fine choices we differ a bit (we put John Hannah on First-team) but the right choices were made. Dan Dierdorf may deserve to be on First-team over Art Shell (the voting was very close) and there is a fifth tackle, George Kunz who is what we would call "All-Decade quality) who gets little notice. In fact, Russ Washington is of that ilk, too. But we, in the end, left the tackles alone. At their peak we might tanke them (1) Dierdorf (2) Wright (3) Yary (4) Shell (5) Kunz and (6) Washington. But again, any order would be defensible.

We moved Butkus out and Jack Lambert up a slot and filled in the Second-team with Willie Lanier. However, Randy Gradishar may be someone we are shorting. Lanier's play dropped off in 1976 and 1977 and then couldn't make the 1978 Colts. Gradishar was not a full-time starter in 1974 (as Lambert was) but was a Pro Bowler in 1975, Second-team All-AFC in 1976, All-Pro in 1977, the 1978 Defensive Player of the Year, and in 1979 was All-Pro again. We reserve the right to rethink this because his peak was likely higher than Lanier. And we did put Lanier on our 1965-75 and Gradishar on the 1975-85 team (along with Lambert) but maybe we are shorting Gradishar because we feel so strongly that he should be in the Hall of Fame we didn't want to appear biased.

Jerrel Wilson had too many punts blocked, so we went with John James was the decade's second-best punter.

We also put Chuck Noll as the first team and Don Shula as the Second-team though Tom Landry should likely be tied with Shula on the Second-team. We put Roger Staubach as First-team and Terry Bradshaw Second-team because of consistency. Yes, Bradshaw won four rings, but Staubach won two and it's a multifactorial process with rings, stats, testimonials, etc. to make these picks.

Here is the complete team:

There you have it, food good or ill, our critique of the 1970s NFL All-Decade Team.