Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Who cares?

''86 Browns vs. Giants, 87 Browns vs. Redskins in the Super Bowl. Would have held up much better than the Bronco teams that got their asses kicked.

When Dick Nolan took over as the 49ers' head coach in 1968, he inherited a solid core of veterans like Jim Johnson, John Brodie, Ken Willard, Roland Lakes, Charlie Krueger, Dave Wilcox and Roland Lakes. Each of the drafts in his early years were productive and yielded solid starters, including 1968 ...

In 1970, Waller served as offensive coordinator for the Pottstown Firebirds, the minor league team immortalized in the NFL Films documentary that ran before Super Bowl V. When he replaced Svare as head coach, he brought in former Firebird WR Ron Holliday to play for the Chargers. Famous/infamous Fir...

Naming Ron Waller as replacement coach didn't help things. I know someone who worked for him when Waller was head coach of the Philadelphia Bell in the WFL, and said he drank vodka and Fresca throughout the day. The chapter in the book Johnny U about his brief stint as a Charger was sad but interest...

Morbidly fascinating team on many levels. The Hadl Era of Charger quarterbacking ended. The team traded for a legend, Johnny Unitas, to come play for the 1973 Chargers. Svare’s “rebuilding” program comes to a horrible end as a drug scandal during a 2-11-1 season bottoms out the team. Interested to h...

I seem to recall hearing vague references to rumors of some unspecified unsavory incident that happened when he was their coach. Anyone else recall that?

It became known as the Lawrence Welk trade..."A one and a two and a three," which was of course Lawrence Welk's signature line on his cheesey 60s/70s musical variety show when he would get the band started on a song. The Joe Thomas era as the 49ers' GM began with him burning all of the tea...

It's a great book, well worth purchasing. Interesting how it reflects the haves and have-nots in the league during those years. The marquee teams like the Colts, Giants and Browns are all over the place, but the Siberia teams like the Cardinals, Steelers, Eagles and Packers hardly appear at all.