Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I watched a lot of football in late-70s, read a lot of preview magazines, still
watch old telecasts from the late 70s, early 80s and have collections
of magazines from that era and do not recall the phrase "Mel Blount rule"
being used at the time.

Does anyone?

I only remember it being used around the time Blount went into the Hall
of Fame.

I don't doubt the validity of the story, his style (and perhaps others)
was probably was used as reasoning behind the institution of
the 5-yard bump zone in 1978. His name very well was used
as an example-the Steelers were a dominant defense, he
was an All-Pro who played aggressively - though Steelers
were a Cover-2 team, not a press-man team like Raiders
but like in 1973, Isaac Curtis' name was mentioned in papers
about the rule change. Paul Brown talked about how
Curtis was being played and there was an alteration in
a rule and the reasoning made its way to the media

With Blount it could have happened but I missed it. But
in going back I cannot find references to the Blount rule
in real time, only later.

When it came up at the time I scratched my head wondering
about it. I knew of the rule changes and read all about it
but just don't recall Blount being specifically mentioned

Anyone?

Youre right John but I could have sworn I read either from a magazine or a newspaper article from the mid-eighties, that Don Shula specifically mentioned Mel Blount, when he was on the competition committee that 1977 year, especially after Blount threw Cliff Branch on his head the year before, not that a tackle would influence the five yard contact rule. Like you said, the press probably didnt use that term but Shula was shrewd enough to try to help his and every team, get out of the dead-ball era, with the rule change. The next year of course was also the introduction of the flak jacket, which also helped QBs play longer and hold the ball longer going downfield. Thats why I feel QBs should be judged differently after the popularity of the flak jacket. QBs before, simply took much more of a beating, as did all skill positions ...

Brian wolf wrote:Youre right John but I could have sworn I read either from a magazine or a newspaper article from the mid-eighties, that Don Shula specifically mentioned Mel Blount, when he was on the competition committee that 1977 year, especially after Blount threw Cliff Branch on his head the year before, not that a tackle would influence the five yard contact rule. Like you said, the press probably didnt use that term but Shula was shrewd enough to try to help his and every team, get out of the dead-ball era, with the rule change. The next year of course was also the introduction of the flak jacket, which also helped QBs play longer and hold the ball longer going downfield. Thats why I feel QBs should be judged differently after the popularity of the flak jacket. QBs before, simply took much more of a beating, as did all skill positions ...

Someone sent me (not using name since they didn't post it here so guessing they had a reason) an article from the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1978 which I had never seen before---and after the rule change, Chuck Noll said it might actually, "help" defenders and they used the term "Mel Blount & associates"— I will try to find more on Newspapers.com to see if there is documentation. Again, am sure "Blount & Company" had to be part of the equation in league circles. I just don't think it was part of the NFL fan consciousness until later, at least it was not part of mine

Thanks, John ... yeah, Isaac Curtis got the ball rolling with Paul Brown looking for a competitive advantage, while probably influencing Shula as well, who had his own talent with Nat Moore and Freddie Soloman, who he traded in 1978 ...

That last quote from Noll in the article is interesting. I have always wondered which players around the league he thought were great other than his own ? I know he thought highly of his LT Kolb, while thinking Harvey Martin of the Cowboys was overrated ...