Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

There is always some things you can learn about the history of the game from watching taped live broadcasts. Very few of them are all that significant but they are interesting and in many occasions something you might not have learned without viewing the live broadcast of said game.

For instance I was just recently watching a bit of the Miami/San Diego playoff game again and I noticed they said that the Dolphins were wearing the number 51 on their helmets during that season in honor of a former teammate named Rusty Chambers who died in an auto accident during the previous offseason. So I looked up Rusty Chambers on pro football reference and it looked like he was a regular starter for the Dolphins from '78-80. Obviously it's a player that is now just a footnote in nfl history and would never get spoken of in any highlights or conversations about the Miami Dolphins of the late '70's or early '80's.

The Dolphins had a trio of offseason tragedies during this period. Linebacker Larry Gordon died in '83, and the next season running back David Overstreet was killed, like Chambers in an auto accident. I remember the Dolphins wearing a black 20 on their helmets during the '84 season.

Todd Pence wrote:The Dolphins had a trio of offseason tragedies during this period. Linebacker Larry Gordon died in '83, and the next season running back David Overstreet was killed, like Chambers in an auto accident. I remember the Dolphins wearing a black 20 on their helmets during the '84 season.

The Falcons had a similar cluster of three active players who died in the late 1980s.

Wikipedia lists 71 active NFL players who died. There is a lot of variance. The Packers have never had an active player who died in their long history.

Jay Z wrote: The Packers have never had an active player who died in their long history.

Probably has something to do with it being a smaller location with not as much night life. Though it's probably not relevant for the past twenty to thirty years as a lot of players during that time probably don't even live in the city of the team they play for during the offseason.

Smiley Johnson joined the military from the Packers and died on Iwo Jima in WWII. Don't know if that meets your criteria on active players.

John Maxymuk wrote:Smiley Johnson joined the military from the Packers and died on Iwo Jima in WWII. Don't know if that meets your criteria on active players.

The wartime deaths are on a separate list. Though Jim Duncan was on the other list, he had been on a preseason roster in 1972 but was not with a team when he died.

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?

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?

IIRC there would be a draft of players from the other 31 teams to replenish the affected team's roster. I think it would work like, for instance, the draft used to help stock the 1960 Cowboys--each team submits a list of protected players and the rest are subject to being selected. But I'm working solely off memory here. I'm positive the NFL, like the Pentagon, has a plan in place for this and just about every other contingency.

Jay Z wrote:

John Maxymuk wrote:Smiley Johnson joined the military from the Packers and died on Iwo Jima in WWII. Don't know if that meets your criteria on active players.

The wartime deaths are on a separate list. Though Jim Duncan was on the other list, he had been on a preseason roster in 1972 but was not with a team when he died.

Also, Johnson had not been on a Green Bay roster for three years by the time he was killed.

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.