Decline of the 'Iron Man' Era

[oldecapecod11]

by coachtj » Mon Mar 16, 2015 2:11 pm
"...in the 60's there are players that went both ways, just not an entire game..."

One might say there were a lot of two-way "specialists" - guys that would cross over in certain situations.
I have mentioned them in other threads but two good examples are Roosevelt Brown and Jack Stroud who went into the D-line in Goal-Line defenses. Gifford played a little D-back in his first year or two. Tom Landry was a 3rd- or 4th-string QB. Joe Morrison knew every position except Tackle-to-Tackle on Offense, knew at least 2 of the D-back assignments and wanted to learn the RLB post - just in case. Patton and Lynch came over on Offense in Hail Mary situations. In fact didn't Pete Previte design a play with them on O that worked for a TD? I know he did. Check Barry's book "The Giants of New York" and you might even see the diagram although it was really nothing more than everybody "go long."
Who was the guy at Kansas City - the real-life cowboy that had all the knee operations? When he retired, he had to have a platform built especially to mount his horse. Like "Concrete," he was a C and LB. I just can't think of his name. Texas boy, though - and tough.
I am sure every fan can run through a list of guys from his team - every fan over 50, that is. Unless you saw today's players in high school, you would have no clue and think they were all one-dimesional.
Whoops! Wait a sec... there was Neon

[Bryan]

Who was the guy at Kansas City - the real-life cowboy that had all the knee operations? When he retired, he had to have a platform built especially to mount his horse. Like "Concrete," he was a C and LB. I just can't think of his name. Texas boy, though - and tough.

EJ Holub, but he never played C and LB at the same time. He moved from full-time LB to full-time C...while impressive, not exactly an Iron Man thing.

In 1961, Billy Stacy started at CB and had significant playing time at WR for the Cards.

[SixtiesFan]

How and why did it all go away? How did this apply to the AAFC or, later on, the AFL if it applied at all? And how about the salaries? Did those who could start both (or 3) ways get significantly paid more than those who just started ONE-way?

I've read that Hugh McElhenney brought about the demise of the 60-minute player...coaches saw how effective a 'specialist' like McElhenney could be and went out and got their own specialists. I don't know how true that is...it seems that by even 1952 the NFL had become a two-platoon system. I think as the level of play increased in the NFL in general, the "Iron Man" concept would inevitably disappear. Just look at kickers and punters now...its so specialized that you need one person to kick and a different person to punt. I think the last guy to regularly do both jobs was Frank Corral.

As for the salaries, I would assume that the one-way guys probably made more than the two-way guys, because many of the one-way guys were QBs and RBs.

I believe that was in reference to Hugh McElhenny when he was playing college ball at Washington in 1949-51.

[oldecapecod11]

Didn't McElhenney claim that he took a pay cut when he signed to play in the NFL?
Not a good way to treat a "specialist."

[oldecapecod11]

by Bryan » Mon Mar 16, 2015 3:06 pm
"EJ Holub, but he never played C and LB at the same time. He moved from full-time LB to full-time C...while impressive, not exactly an Iron Man thing..."

That's the guy. I am sure you are right. Anything the other side of the Mississippi is like West America to me.

[ChrisBabcock]

Didn't McElhenney claim that he took a pay cut when he signed to play in the NFL?

I did read something to this effect in the book The Million Dollar Backfield. I guess college players getting "compensated for their services" isn't a new concept!

[conace21]

Regarding the NCAA, I recall that the 1946 Fighting Irish, blessed with an abundance of talent returning from WWII, played their first unit in the 1st and 3rd quarters, and their second unit,in the 2nd and 4th quarters. The second team, which had George Ratterman at QB, actually scored twice as many TDs as the first unit.

[oldecapecod11]

The 1958 LSU National Champions had a couple of players of note.
In addition to the "Chinese Bandits," the "White" team had Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon at Left Halfback and Defensive Back while the "Go" team had as its Fullback and Kicker a guy named Tommy Davis who, if memory serves, had an NFL pro career vs an AFL career for Cannon.

[rhickok1109]

Of course, both Troy Brown and Julian Edelman have played two ways for the Patriots ... sort of

[luckyshow]

yesterday it seemed never to go in, no matter how many times I rebooted and such and came back it never showed as being submitted. Now there are 15!!! at least. HOW DO I DELETE THE EXTRAS??? Do tell...

I meant there to be one such message, not 14 duplicates and the "test" None of which showed yesterday. It kept saying it couldn't be redirected...