Trip to Rock Island, IL brings about questions...

[Bryan]

I spent yesterday afternoon in Rock Island, Illinois, which brought about the following questions:

1) Ed Healy...inducted in the 2nd class to the HOF. Was he a strong candidate? Anyone have any stories/analysis on Healy? He is one of the more anonymous HOFers.

2) What is the NFL record for most regular season games played by a player in one season? I would assume it would have to be one of the players from the 1920s, for instance, Ed Healy played 17 games in 1925, but I haven't found a definitive answer.

3) What do you consider to be the first NFL game ever played?

[ChrisBabcock]

2) What is the NFL record for most regular season games played by a player in one season? I would assume it would have to be one of the players from the 1920s, for instance, Ed Healy played 17 games in 1925, but I haven't found a definitive answer.

Jerry Rice played in 17 games in his final season in 2004 split between the Raiders and Seahawks. There may be some other modern players who "avoided" a bye week playing for 2 different teams in a season. I would guess the record holder played in one of those marathon Yellowjackets seasons of the late 20s.

[Jeremy Crowhurst]

Pro Football Reference lists three guys as having played 19 games for Frankfort in 1925, and one in 1929. Eleven played 18 games in various seasons in the late 20's. A bunch of guys have played 17 games in the modern era.

It's a bit of a monstrosity of a link, but...

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/p ... raft_pos=p

[Todd Pence]

3) What do you consider to be the first NFL game ever played?

Rock Island's 48-0 win over the St. Paul Ideals on the last weekend of September 1920.

[ChrisBabcock]

1) Ed Healy...inducted in the 2nd class to the HOF. Was he a strong candidate? Anyone have any stories/analysis on Healy? He is one of the more anonymous HOFers.

Any feedback from anyone on this question? He's always been someone I wondered about too.

[Gary Najman]

1) Ed Healy...inducted in the 2nd class to the HOF. Was he a strong candidate? Anyone have any stories/analysis on Healy? He is one of the more anonymous HOFers.

Any feedback from anyone on this question? He's always been someone I wondered about too.

The only thing I know about him is that he was a 4-time All-Pro tackle with the Bears after his time in Rock Island and was selected to the 1920s All-Decade team. You have to consider that he is also in the College Football Hall of Fame (he played with Dartmouth) and that when he was inducted in 1964 it had been 37 years since his retirement as a player, so there were voters who certainly watched him play at the time.