Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Yeah, like a few others mentioned here.

Timmy Smith. 204 yards in SB
Jonas Gray. 37 carries, 201 yards, 4 TD. He had 412 yards that season, his best season of his career and only 588 career rushing yards
Jerome Harrison. had 1681 career rushing yards and 7 TDs including 862 yards in one season and 286 yards and 3 TDs of those came in one game.


Gray:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... elog/2014/

Harrison:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... elog/2009/

Smith:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... elog/post/

A couple weeks back I mentioned the worst NFL Top 10 List in my opinion (the one in Team on Team Rivalries).

Well my personal favorite episode of that show is NFL Top 10 One Shot Wonders.

Their selections at the time it was made (2007; it was only the sixth episode they ever did) were the following:

10. Mike Jones
9. Jim O’Brien
8. Rob Johnson
7. Ickey Woods
6. Percy Howard
5. Tommy Maddox
4. Clint Longley
3. Larry Brown
2. Timmy Smith
1. Greg Cook

Some of them are different interpretations of the term.

Jones and Brown had substantial careers and are just remembered for one game in the case of Brown (Super Bowl 30) or play in the case of Jones (tackling Kevin Dyson on the one).

O’Brien and Smith had moments in the Super Bowl but otherwise didn’t do much else (first ever game winning kick in the Super Bowl in O’Brien’s case and a rushing record that may never be broken in Smith’s case).

Ickey Woods was simply one really good year before getting hurt, as can happen with a lot of running and fullbacks.

Similarly Greg Cook had a great rookie season in spite of getting an arm injury in I believe his fourth career game, and not really doing much more after 1969. In that segment, Bill Walsh said Greg Cook had the best arm of any quarterback he ever coached.

Rob Johnson of course was a guy who had one really good game as a backup in Jacksonville, and who got a large contract he wasn’t worth that Buffalo kept trying to justify. Rob Johnson-Doug Flutie situation is kind of the late 90’s version of Matt Flynn-Russell Wilson only the organization was probably more stubborn and wouldn’t commit to the guy who played better.

Clint Longley of course had a great Thanksgiving game then apparently let it get to his head and didn’t do much else.

Percy Howard of course was a backup receiver who beat Mel Blount for a touchdown in Super Bowl X, and that was his only career reception. Probably one of the more obscure players that NFL Films has ever done a segment on; at least to my knowledge.

And my personal favorite segment of the entire series (and the first person who came to mind for me) is Tommy Maddox who of course came out of school younger and was a bust in Denver before having a solid comeback season in 2002.

Ray Didinger (who is probably my favorite of the people they interviewed to hear from on that show) ended that segment with one of my favorite statements in the show that really summarizes it well:

“Even though in the grand scheme of things, it just amounts to one year. It was one year that Tommy Maddox really needed. I’m sure it would’ve haunted him his whole life to say ‘If I had another opportunity, I wonder if I could’ve played?’ Well now he knows.”

1934 Beattie Feathers Bears 1004 rushing yards 976 the rest of his career

1946 Ken Casanega 49ers 2nd in the league in interceptions with 8. 1st in punt return average 13.8. After that played 1 game in 1948
For 40 days he was the oldest living NFL player until he passed October 10th, 2001 at age 100

I'll throw out one that I came across a while back that I never hear anybody bring up. Chicago Bears WR Marcus Robinson in his 2nd season in 1999 caught 84 passes for 1,400 receiving yards(9 TD catches). He never even came close to that for the rest of his 7 year career(he played for Baltimore and Minnesota after leaving Chicago in 03). That was 4th in the NFL in 1999 and I'm not for sure but has to be a high mark for any Bears receiver in any season?

Edit: That's still 3rd all time in Bears history for single season receiving yards, a team over 100 years old.

I got to say the ultimate one hit wonder of NFL history for me is Don Majkowski 1989, 6 fourth quarter comebacks, 7 game winning drives, over 4,300 passing yards, took down Montana and the 89 49ers in Candlestick in a great game. Led the Packers to 10-6 record but only 5 NFC playoff spots in 1989 so they miss the playoffs. Seemed like a huge star and maybe a case could be made for him to be MVP in 1989, then just one injury after another until he gets replaced by Favre in Green Bay in 92.

There is a 26 year old young man I work with that is a huge Packers fan telling me about how great of a lineage they have at QB from Favre to Rodgers to Love. I said you could keep going back and asked if he knew who Don Majkowski was and he had never heard of him.

Packers FS Tom Flynn
Picked off 9 passes in 1984
He played 4 more years, 53 games, started 21 and intercepted 2 passes

tied with Ed Reed with 3 blocked punts returned for a TD, career

Don Woods.

Sixth round pick cut by the Packers in training camp, signed by the Chargers …. AP Offensive RoY, SN and UPI RoY after rushing for a then-NFL rookie record 1162 yards in twelve games in 1974.

A knee injury in early ‘75. He played with the Chargers into ‘80 for two games and finished the season with the Niners.

ShinobiMusashi wrote: ↑Thu Oct 08, 2026 11:29 pm There is a 26 year old young man I work with that is a huge Packers fan telling me about how great of a lineage they have at QB from Favre to Rodgers to Love. I said you could keep going back and asked if he knew who Don Majkowski was and he had never heard of him.

That's sad.
Have you tried Cecil Isbell or Arnie Herber on him?
Just to see if he could pronounce the names...

Reminds me of a co-worker who claimed to be interested in military history.
He was mangling some factoid or another and I finally asked him "Tim, from where are you getting your information about World War II?"
He said "Well, I've seen Hogans Heroes..."

JuggernautJ wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2026 9:55 pm

ShinobiMusashi wrote: ↑Thu Oct 08, 2026 11:29 pm There is a 26 year old young man I work with that is a huge Packers fan telling me about how great of a lineage they have at QB from Favre to Rodgers to Love. I said you could keep going back and asked if he knew who Don Majkowski was and he had never heard of him.

That's sad.
Have you tried Cecil Isbell or Arnie Herber on him?
Just to see if he could pronounce the names...

Reminds me of a co-worker who claimed to be interested in military history.
He was mangling some factoid or another and I finally asked him "Tim, from where are you getting your information about World War II?"
He said "Well, I've seen Hogans Heroes..."

Ah yes, Hogan’s Heroes.

I wouldn’t cite a sitcom like that as where I get my information on real-life wars from.

Ok, not football related but there’s a brief tangent I can’t help but go on given that you brought up Hogan’s Heroes:

In my free time a couple years back I did an analysis of TV in the 1970-71 season. (well before my time, but a time in TV history that I’ll probably always find the most fascinating)

Hogan’s Heroes was one of by my count 12 Primetime TV shows on the networks that season that were canceled or otherwise ended after a run of at least five seasons in what has been colloquially dubbed the “Rural Purge”.

Not all rural by any stretch, but for the record the other eleven shows were:

That Girl
Family Affair
Green Acres
The Andy Williams Show
Kraft Music Hall
The Virginian
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Lawrence Welk Show
Lassie
The Red Skelton Show
and The Ed Sullivan Show

And fun football related fact: Among the TV shows that debuted in the 1970-71 season was Monday Night Football.

Apparently the college announcer Keith Jackson was one of the announcers for that first season.

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2026 4:05 am

JuggernautJ wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2026 9:55 pm

ShinobiMusashi wrote: ↑Thu Oct 08, 2026 11:29 pm There is a 26 year old young man I work with that is a huge Packers fan telling me about how great of a lineage they have at QB from Favre to Rodgers to Love. I said you could keep going back and asked if he knew who Don Majkowski was and he had never heard of him.

That's sad.
Have you tried Cecil Isbell or Arnie Herber on him?
Just to see if he could pronounce the names...

Reminds me of a co-worker who claimed to be interested in military history.
He was mangling some factoid or another and I finally asked him "Tim, from where are you getting your information about World War II?"
He said "Well, I've seen Hogans Heroes..."

I had a supervisor at another job that was big Cowboys fan. He seen my Texans keychain and gave me a hard time about it. I told him I didn't hate the Cowboys and appreciated their place in NFL lore and told him about how much I loved reading about Bob Lilly and Don Meredith when we were texting about it. He replied with a Snoop Dogg meme something like "Who the hell is that lol". Imagine being a Cowboys fan and not knowing who Bob Lilly is. Pure madness.