Your nomination for Worst Play Ever?

[oldecapecod11]

by ChrisBabcock » Thu Oct 29, 2015 10:39 am
"Tie between Joe Pisarcik and Garo in SB VII."

Nice reminder...
How anyone could forget Garo's faux pas is amazing... but it happened while thinking of that list.
The best part of it was the visual. The only comparable scene might be Artie Donovan and John Madden testing their vertical leap.

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by conace21 » Thu Oct 29, 2015 5:58 pm
"... I assume that by Abner Haynes, you mean the botched coin toss. That would go down on the all time list of football blunders, but it wouldn't really fit in this particular category. Haynes' goof didn't really come on a 'play.'"

One can sniff through the pepper all they wish searching for gnat poop but the ensuing act - i.e. Kick-off -
can certainly be considered a play.
The category is not very specifically defined which leaves "play" subject to a number of interpretations.
The Hayes swing was not a play either but it certainly falls among the most assinine and stupid acts of all time.
It would be interesting if one could review practice calendars and see how many teams increased focus on botched FG
and EP snaps following Garo's "attempt."

[BD Sullivan]

Years ago, I read a quote from an anonymous NFL personnel man who said it was very unusual for a team to trade their starting QB to you.

There have been two straight up starting QB for starting QB trades in my lifetime, the Stabler for Pastorini deal and the Orton for Cutler deal. Starting QB's are like the heart and soul of a team and are rarely traded unless they've become too expensive or new ownership or management does not get along with them and has deemed them expendable.

I assume that means you weren't around in 1962 when Milt Plum was traded from Cleveland to Detroit for Jim Ninowski or in '64 when Norm Snead was traded from Washington to Philly for Sonny Jurgensen.

[Gary Najman]

In the CFL Hamilton and Winnipeg traded Dieter Brock for Tom Clements (both future Canadian Hall of Famers) in the middle of the 1983 season.

[SixtiesFan]

Years ago, I read a quote from an anonymous NFL personnel man who said it was very unusual for a team to trade their starting QB to you.

There have been two straight up starting QB for starting QB trades in my lifetime, the Stabler for Pastorini deal and the Orton for Cutler deal. Starting QB's are like the heart and soul of a team and are rarely traded unless they've become too expensive or new ownership or management does not get along with them and has deemed them expendable.

I assume that means you weren't around in 1962 when Milt Plum was traded from Cleveland to Detroit for Jim Ninowski or in '64 when Norm Snead was traded from Washington to Philly for Sonny Jurgensen.

I was around then. Milt Plum and Paul Brown wanted to be rid of each other. The Jurgensen-Snead trade was considered, in the words of sportswriter Gary Cartwright, "best for all concerned."

[Jay Z]

Watched the Wyche game. Niners had the ball on offense with less than two minutes left. Montana throws two incomplete passes. Then, with 1:36 on the clock, he gets sacked on third down. 49ers have two timeouts left, but they don't take one after the sack. They decide to punt, and don't really rush the play too much. By the time the punt is downed on the Cincinnati 45, 54 seconds remain.

In 2015 I think you'd see the 49ers go for it on 4th down. So that would not happen. Not taking the timeout after the sack was weird. Another thing you wouldn't see happen today.

So the Bengals have the ball, Esiason runs two kneeldowns, tries to take his time doing them. 49ers take their two timeouts. On third down, they set up in a regular formation, do a play fake into the line, Esiason tries to run around a bit and take a loss. This runs it down to 6 seconds.

At this point Joe Theismann, who's announcing the game, points out that the correct strategy is to snap the ball to Esiason or the punter and have them run through the end zone, using up the remaining time. If you remember, the Redskins won a Monday Night Game against the Cowboys in 1978 by a 9-5 score, with Theismann taking a safety on the last play. The Bengals try their sweep to Brooks, which doesn't use up the time because the play is completely blown up; Brooks doesn't make it outside the tackles. Then Montana to Rice for the win, with some of the worst coverage I have ever seen in any pro football game.

Props to Theismann for pointing out the correct strategy. It had been done before.

[BD Sullivan]

I assume that means you weren't around in 1962 when Milt Plum was traded from Cleveland to Detroit for Jim Ninowski or in '64 when Norm Snead was traded from Washington to Philly for Sonny Jurgensen.

I was around then. Milt Plum and Paul Brown wanted to be rid of each other. The Jurgensen-Snead trade was considered, in the words of sportswriter Gary Cartwright, "best for all concerned."

Plum signed his ticket out of town when he ripped Brown's play-calling in the local papers.

[Rupert Patrick]

Years ago, I read a quote from an anonymous NFL personnel man who said it was very unusual for a team to trade their starting QB to you.

There have been two straight up starting QB for starting QB trades in my lifetime, the Stabler for Pastorini deal and the Orton for Cutler deal. Starting QB's are like the heart and soul of a team and are rarely traded unless they've become too expensive or new ownership or management does not get along with them and has deemed them expendable.

I assume that means you weren't around in 1962 when Milt Plum was traded from Cleveland to Detroit for Jim Ninowski or in '64 when Norm Snead was traded from Washington to Philly for Sonny Jurgensen.

I was still in diapers in 1964, but before I was three years old I was already reading the newspaper and understanding and recollecting a good deal of what I read, so I must have missed the Snead for Jurgensen deal back then.

I do often wonder about the Stabler-Pastorini deal, if the Raiders would have won Super Bowl XV if they had not made that trade. I think Stabler was about finished by 1979 and the Raiders were lucky to get Pastorini for him. The Raiders were also fortunate that when Pastorini broke his leg, they had Jim Plunkett sitting on the sidelines, and he was finally ready to deliver on the expectations (albeit nine years late) of a Heisman Trophy winner and first pick in the NFL draft. The Raiders of the 70's and 80's were the place that you could go if nobody else would take a chance on you, and Plunkett was quite possibly the poster boy for this. I know that Stabler was a fan favorite in Oakland, and I don't know that Tom Flores would have been able to replace Stabler with Plunkett (barring an injury to Stabler) without the team turning on him.

[7DnBrnc53]

I know that Stabler was a fan favorite in Oakland, and I don't know that Tom Flores would have been able to replace Stabler with Plunkett (barring an injury to Stabler) without the team turning on him.

I thought I heard something once how the Raiders were starting to get sick of Stabler. He started to throw more and more INT's in the 80's. The Oilers made a mistake in trading for him, although they may have had no choice because according to the book The Super 70's (by Tom Danyluk), Pastorini wanted out.

[conace21]

Stabler had a decent bounce-back year in 1979, though some of that could be expected due to the rules changes. He still threw 22 interceptions, but he was throwing a lot of passes; his interception percentage was his lowest since 1974. I don't know a lot about the 1979 Raiders, but the stats say they were in the top third in the league in throwing the ball, and in the bottom third for running the ball, and defense (except for takeaways.)

[BD Sullivan]

Stabler had a decent bounce-back year in 1979, though some of that could be expected due to the rules changes. He still threw 22 interceptions, but he was throwing a lot of passes; his interception percentage was his lowest since 1974. I don't know a lot about the 1979 Raiders, but the stats say they were in the top third in the league in throwing the ball, and in the bottom third for running the ball, and defense (except for takeaways.)

That year, when Stabler had one or fewer picks in a game, the Raiders were 8-0. Once he threw his second, they were done, managing a 1-7 record in those contests. The lone win came in the monster MNF comeback in NO. His worst game in this area was the 10/21 loss at Shea against the Jets, where he threw five picks in a 28-19 loss. If I'm not mistaken, that was the game that Dr. Z (and others) pointed to as proof of Stabler's alleged gambling excesses.