Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

ChrisBabcock wrote:

lastcat3 wrote:One thing I have wondered is what the NFL's plan if a teams entire roster gets wiped out due to a plane crash (which has happened on rare occasions in other leagues)? What would the league do to keep that franchise going and at least somewhat competitive?

There is an actual plan in writing for this that I read somewhere once. Similar to what was mentioned a replenishment draft from the other teams. I remember seeing another or a few other plans depending on the severity of the roster wipeout. As in if half of the roster was lost. This discussion is a bit morbid.

In the early 70s there was a magazine article on how the NFL had a plan in place if a team was wiped out in a plane crash. This was soon after this happened in 1970 to the Marshall University football team.

I think it likely if more than a few players are impacted by an incident that the team's current season would be cancelled.

Then the team would get first pick in the draft and a replenishment draft would be done.

There have been only two active pro football players to have died in plane crashes, both on commercial flights. No Roberto Clemente or Thurman Munson incidents.

Outside of Marshall the Manchester United ehhm "football" team lost a number of key players in an air crash, a few more never played again and some survived. Off memory they kept playing but the season went downhill and it took a couple years to replenish the roster. This year there was an incident where opponents teased the team changing about the incident, and people think the fans here in Philly are rough!

NWebster wrote:Outside of Marshall the Manchester United ehhm "football" team lost a number of key players in an air crash, a few more never played again and some survived. Off memory they kept playing but the season went downhill and it took a couple years to replenish the roster. This year there was an incident where opponents teased the team changing about the incident, and people think the fans here in Philly are rough!

Also some people forget about it because Wichita State dropped their football program in the '80's but the WSU plane crash happened just a month prior to the Marshall incident. They flew two planes to a game against Utah State in October 1970 and one of the planes decided to take a scenic tour on the way there and crashed killing thirty one and the majority of the varsity players.

The most recent incident happened in 2001 when the Oklahoma State basketball team plane crashed killing two players and eight other members of the program.

I'm actually kind of surprised there hasn't been a major air catastrophe (i.e., team wiped out) involving the four major pro sports leagues, given how long they've been around and how frequently they fly.

Due to the Damar Hamlin injury and near death, with cancellation of the Bills-Bengals game, not real confident in NFL/Owners "contingency" plans for future emergencies ...

lastcat3 wrote:One thing I have wondered is what the NFL's plan if a teams entire roster gets wiped out due to a plane crash (which has happened on rare occasions in other leagues)? What would the league do to keep that franchise going and at least somewhat competitive?

Watching the Packers “Legacy” documentary, in the episode about the 1940s it is stated (by Packers’ team historian Cliff Christl) that when the Packers became the first team in the league to fly to a road game (to play the Giants in New York, November 1940) the league required them to use two planes in the event of a crash.

Ronfitch wrote:

lastcat3 wrote:One thing I have wondered is what the NFL's plan if a teams entire roster gets wiped out due to a plane crash (which has happened on rare occasions in other leagues)? What would the league do to keep that franchise going and at least somewhat competitive?

Watching the Packers “Legacy” documentary, in the episode about the 1940s it is stated (by Packers’ team historian Cliff Christl) that when the Packers became the first team in the league to fly to a road game (to play the Giants in New York, November 1940) the league required them to use two planes in the event of a crash.

Kind of like parents with young kids at home taking separate flights. Makes sense in a ghoulish way.

In an old MNF broadcast Howard Cosell reminded Gifford about the time the Giants tried him at QB. Years later I found a newsreel of a 1959 exhibition game vs the Eagles that supported that story.

a handful of things . . .

Elroy Hirsch was not the NFL's first flanker, it would even be hard to argue that he was a flanker.
Big Daddy started his first NFL game. At left defensive end
Deacon Jones started his first NFL game at left offensive tackle
Winston Hill was Jets' backup center and played almost a full game there in 1965, didn't start.
Bob St. Clair played some DE as a rookie.
Kenny Washington was the first- African-American to play QB in the modern T.