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One of the things that makes the DFL different from other leagues is this thread, which is open to all who would like to post about the history and stories of interest about the NFL. The league was initially set up to try to be a "throwback" to the early NFL game in the 20s through 50s, with 2 way players, smaller rosters, more running than passing, no specialists like kicker/punter, and several other factors. The idea of a throwback league is on the list of future adds for MFN.

One of my fav NFL stories is WR Max McGee of the Packers and the first Super Bowl game. The following is a copy from an article about it.

This story is decidedly not untold. Not the crux of it, anyway. It is, in fact, one of the most told stories in the half-century history of the Super Bowl—spun and re-spun, embellished and then embellished some more, until one day even the man at its center jokingly confided to his wife that he could no longer remember which parts were real and which parts had been added over the years. It is the story of how, on the eve of the first Super Bowl, in January of 1967, 34-year-old Packers wide receiver Max McGee, an 11-year veteran who had caught only four passes in the regular season and was fast bearing down on retirement, decided to break curfew and spend the night with two flight attendants that he had met in the team’s hotel bar (in the language of the time they are "stewardesses," a measure of the cultural distance between then and now). After all, he wasn’t planning to get off the bench in the game the next afternoon against the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs.


It is the story of how McGee shuffled back into the hotel at 6:30 in the morning on game day, passed early-rising quarterback Bart Starr in the lobby, and went up to his room to snag a little sleep. And how Packers starting wideout Boyd Dowler re-injured his dodgy right shoulder on the third snap of the game and McGee was summoned to action by legendary coach Vince Lombardi. And how, improbably, McGee scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history on a 37-yard pass from Starr and went on to catch six more passes for a total of 138 yards (just barely missing the list of the top-10 receiving performances in the history of the big game, even after 49 years and the transformation of football from land to air) and another touchdown in the Packers’ 35–10 victory. How he probably should have the won the Corvette given to the game’s Most Valuable Player, which instead went to Starr.

It is a story that irresistibly finds its way into the snickering, puerile hearts of male football fans of all ages, the tale of a Packer playboy who not only ignored The Man (and no coach has ever been more The Man than Lombardi), but got the girl(s!) and then dominated the Super Bowl with a hangover, winning a chest full of macho merit badges in a single night (and in the day that followed). As long as there are Super Bowls, there will be Max McGee, the guy with an alliterative name straight from a cheap crime novel who stayed out in the darkness of a winter night in California and groggily emerged a hero in the sunlight of the biggest football game in America.

IMHO, one of the greatest to ever play the game of football was Sammy Baugh. He put up a record that will never be broken, as it was done in the age of 2 way players. He led the league in passing (was the first to really advance the art of the pass), interceptions, and punting, all in one season!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xBSUj1gKZA




famous quote, about his defensive play.... “He knocks the **** out of people, but in a. “He knocks the **** out of people, but in a Christian way.”.

The man/player who put the NFL on the map, Red Grange, "The Galloping Ghost" and the "Iceman". I remember reading a book about him when I was first really getting into the game of football, when I was in 7th grade.

He drew national attention for his performance in the October 18, 1924 game against Michigan, in the grand opening game of the new Memorial Stadium, built as a memorial to Illini students and alumni who had served in World War I.[6] The Michigan Wolverines entered the game as favorites, having won a national title the previous year. Grange returned the opening kickoff for a 95-yard touchdown and scored three more touchdowns on runs of 67, 56, and 44 yards in the first 12 minutes, the last three in less than seven minutes.[11] On his next carry, he ran 56 yards for yet another touchdown. In the second half, Grange scored a fifth touchdown on an 11-yard run and also threw a touchdown pass. On defense, he intercepted two passes. Michigan coach Fielding Yost said, "All Grange can do is run," to which Zuppke, referring to a famed opera star of the age, responded, "And all Galli-Curci can do is sing."[13]

The game inspired Grantland Rice to write this poetic description:

A streak of fire, a breath of flame
Eluding all who reach and clutch;
A gray ghost thrown into the game
That rival hands may never touch;
A rubber bounding, blasting soul
Whose destination is the goal — Red Grange of Illinois!

I love these stories, being something of an NFL history fan myself.

Couple of things on (the legend that is) Max McGee - he described scoring the first TD in SuperBowl history like this: "The ball was thrown almost behind me so I put out my hand to smack it away so it didn't get intercepted, but I'll be damned if it didn't stick in my hand. Then I just took off."

Another time an irate Vince Lombardi addressed his team after a particularly poor performance, and he held up a ball before them. "Gentlemen, we are going to have to go back to basics. This...is a football."
"Whoa coach," interrupted McGee. "Slow down, you're going too fast."

And as for Red Grange, his barnstorming tour of the NFL with the Bears in 1925 included a game at the old Polo Grounds in New York. Pro football was far from popular in that time but on December 6, an estimated 73,000 fans (a figure unheard of outside of college games) packed into the ground to watch the Galloping Ghost play (he scored on a fumble return) in a 19-7 Bears win. The Giants, who were facing financial ruin, were saved and pro football as we know it today was born.

Great add almaric, appreciate the posts on this thread. McGee was one of kind, Paul Hornung said he lost his best friend when Max died, and how did he die? falling off a roof!

So many great stories to look at, will be getting more on this thread, cheers!

I remember when I was in Jr high school and first really getting into football, reading books on the history, teams, and players. One that always stood out to me was QB/DB/P Sammy Baugh on the Washington Redskins and the year he led the league in Passing, Punting, and Interceptions! That will never be matched, as the day of the two way player is long gone. "Slingin" Sammy was also the first passer to change the game from a run dominant gameplan. Forget that I posted about him earlier, but he's worth a second shot, lol.

Note: one of the "rules" when the DFL was first started, was that you could not have a specialty punter or kicker, you had to use one of the other positions to handle it. But it didnt last long, as one too many owners did not stick to the rule and there were just not many alternative kickers who could at least get half as good results.

In the MFN game, Kurt Warner would be akin to finding a 50 or 60 Ai default rated QB in the FA pool, that no one had wanted but your weights have him in the low 70s, and there's a couple of key attributes that you notice along with a 90+ QBR pre-season stat before he was cut, so you decide to give him a try and he rewards you with a 100 QBR season and the LC.



Its a great story! https://www.biography.com/athlete/kurt-warner

You know someone who was a monster? Sonny Jurgensen. He started in football in '57, didn't retire until '74. And he threw A LOT for players in that period. Dude was 5'11", 203 but could sling it. He led the league in completions four times, and that's with a lot of throws going DEEP. His YPA in Philly was like 11 or something, and he had like 8.7 YPA in Washington. He was a gunslinger, and man, if you can see any of his games on NFL Network, they were fun.

Sonny J is also one of my favs from a great era, I met Tom Fears and Jack Youngblood at a Old Rams Golf Tournament, great story, Fears was super impressive, in his 70s, and he picked up a 280 pounder off the bar floor, put him over his shoulder, and carried him out to the guys pickup truck and put him in the bed, one of the most incredible things Ive witnessed personally.

Here is link to Sonny J's video https://www.redskins.com/video/nfl-sonny-jurgensen-
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