Category Archives: Historic Writings

Articles on various games, players, and coaches from the past that had an impact on how the game is played today. Will highlight known and faded legends of the past to shed light on these forgotten contributors to the game.

On This Date 1971: The Longest Game Ever Played – Kansas City Chiefs v Miami Dolphins

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The Miami Dolphins outlasted the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 in the longest game in NFL history. Christmas Day 1971 they played well into 6 quarters or more than 82 minutes of playing time.

Here at Taylor Blitz Times, we for one don’t like the fact the NFL buckled and gave in to juvenile thinking when it came to the NFL’s overtime rule. Everyone must touch the ball once?? What is this, second grade girl’s soccer??

Our CEO loved the thought of sudden death overtime. You had four full quarters to win a football game. The two point conversion was introduced in 1994 so that a team can win it in regulation yet NFL coaches are too soft and won’t roll the dice and win it in one play. If you don’t, you’re involved in a winner take all overtime where the game can be won on offense, defense, or special teams. Play was heightened with players realizing one mistake, a blown coverage, fumble, interception, or penalty could cost your team its season. It made for great theater.

One such game happened shortly after the AFL/NFL merger in 1970. The upstart Miami Dolphins were facing a perennial heavyweight in the Kansas City Chiefs in an AFC Divisional playoff.

Why do we mention the AFL??

For one, both teams were rooted in the rival league. Second, it was the Baltimore Colts with Head Coach Don Shula that lost Super Bowl III that legitimized the merger. In the aftermath of the Baltimore Colts’ embarrassment losing that game, Don Shula amid tense corporate pressure, decided to move on and take the head coaching job in Miami.  He quickly whipped the Dolphins into shape and they made the playoffs in each of his first two seasons there. In 1970 they were bested by a veteran Raider team in an AFC Divisional Playoff in Oakland and many felt the same way about them traveling to Kansas City for the ’71 playoff.

Another reason we mention the AFL was this was the last game ever to be played in Municipal Stadium. One of the AFL’s great stadiums through the 1960’s as the Kansas City Chiefs had been perennial winners there. It would be left behind as the Chiefs moved on to Arrowhead Stadium as the NFL moved on to future years of prosperity with new antiseptic ballparks.

The newer stadiums lacked individual culture as the 70’s dawned and it was as though teams were leaving a piece of their soul when they left old places behind. This was where Lamar Hunt had moved his team in 1963, to keep the fight along with league brothers against the NFL and won. Sure they were going to live on in the American Football Conference of the NFL, but it wasn’t going to be the same.

The Kansas City Chiefs were an older team and 1972 would be their last hurrah. They had finished as the AFL’s winningest team going 87-48-3, appearing in the first Super Bowl, then winning the fourth edition over Minnesota down in New Orleans. The team had just parted ways with All-time All AFL DE Jerry Mays and team leader C/LB E.J. Holub to retirement  in 1970. Even RB Mike Garrett was gone to the San Diego Chargers by this time, replaced by Ed Podolak.

These men along with holdovers QB Len Dawson, WR Otis Taylor, LBs Bobby Bell, and Willie Lanier had led the Chiefs for much of the 1960s as they worked to get owner and AFL Founder Lamar Hunt that elusive Super Bowl trophy. They were an older team lead by Dawson 36 yrs of age, Taylor turning 30 within a year, Bobby Bell was 31 and FS Johnny Robinson was 33. Various retirements were coming but they had finished 1971 with a 10-3-1 record and if they could get through this postseason, win it all, then they could go their separate ways. All they had to do was get through Miami and…

Fleming scores the tying TD that forced the game to overtime.

After this game the Dolphins went on to defeat the Baltimore Colts 21-0 in the AFC Championship Game which put them in Super Bowl VI. It was further satisfying for Shula for he defeated Carroll Rosenbloom and the Colts for whom he once coached. In the same stadium as Super Bowl III no less. Within a year, Rosenbloom was so disenchanted with owning the Colts who would have to rebuild, he swapped franchises with Robert Irsay who owned the Los Angeles Rams. Within 6 years he would marry Georgia, drown and that is how Georgia Rosenbloom-Frontiere became owner of the Rams. All aftermath of Super Bowl III.

Don Shula’s Dolphins would lose Super Bowl VI but would return and win VII & VIII becoming one of the great teams in NFL history. He went on to coach Miami through the 1995 season where he went on to win more games than any other coach with 347 wins. This was his first postseason win with the Dolphins that launched them as an NFL elite member for many years to come.

The AFL Logo of the Kansas City Chiefs

The AFL Logo of the Kansas City Chiefs

As for the Chiefs, the mystique of who they were as an AFL power was gone as they would not return to the playoffs for 15 years. Len Dawson, Bobby Bell, and Head Coach Hank Stram went on to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. However Johnny Robinson and Jerry Mays have been glaring omissions.

Each of which played most of their careers over in the “other league” and have been treated like such by the writers who make up the voting panel for the Hall of Fame. The late Jerry Mays should have had that honor bestowed upon him before his death in 1994. Although he didn’t play in this game, the legacy /era of the old AFL Kansas City Chiefs closed Christmas of 1971.

The Miami Dolphins outlasted the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 in the longest game in NFL history. Christmas Day 1971 they played well into 6 quarters or more than 82 minutes of playing time.

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The NFL’s Shameful Impatience w/ Black Quarterbacks: Shedeur Sanders Take 3! Killing The Noise!

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One thing has jumped out with Shedeur Sanders play with the Cleveland Browns over the last few weeks, he has been their best quarterback all year. In yesterday’s 31-29 loss to Tennessee, Sanders’ threw for 364 yards 3TDs while rushing 3 times for 29 yards and another score. In doing so became the 2nd rookie QB in the Super Bowl era to throw for more than 350 yards 3TDs while galloping for another score since Joe Burrow in 2020. Thats it, just those two and ironically Burrow’s game came against the Cleveland Browns in a 37-34 shootout with Baker Mayfield.

He has passed the eyeball test and in his 3rd start has shown more than Bo Nix, Drake Maye and Jaxson Dart did in any of their games during their rookie campaigns. Analyzing the Browns, in their last 3 games with Dillon Gabriel the Browns averaged a paltry 148 yards passing. Its risen to 224 yards per game in Sanders 3… and remember Sanders has had 3 weeks of 1st team reps in practice where Gabriel had them in QB Camp, mini camp, preseason and 11 NFL regular season weeks.

We’re also fresh from the Tik Tok controversy of Gabriel’s fiance Zo Caswell claiming “Everyone in the building wants (Dillon) to play.” Oh really? When he had the lowest yards per attempt of every NFL quarterback by a full yard and worst since 1968 in the NFL! That Dillon Gabriel?

Pssst… Sanders has 769 yards on 103 throws for an average of 7.46 yards per attempt. As a measure… every Super Bowl winner has averaged 7-9 yards per attempt or he’d be 10th just behind Matthew Stafford & Dak Prescott with 7.5. Just last week several had Dak in the MVP race…right??Stafford??

This is what this has become as Black America sees Shedeur, one of our own, being dragged, nistreated and to see all the comments stifling black advancement from MAGA types who have made Dillon Gabriel the Anti-Shedeur. Yet have done so with total disregard to the x’s and o’s or onfield performance. Filling post after post about why he should be behind on the bench as the 144th selection completely remiss of football nuance and has been very racist in tone and spirit.

This has been the root of the problem when observing Head Coach Kevin Stefanski as well. Delivering racist tropes “Dillon is like a super computer processing information” which in turn suggests Shedeur doesn’t. It’s all smokescreen b.s. as Gabriel was overthrowing bubble screens and couldn’t produce 1 pass play of 30 yards or greater in all of his games. Neither did Flacco before being traded:

Yet Shedeur had 4 pass plays greater than 30 yards yesterday alone!! Pass plays of 58 to Judkins, 31 to Sampson, 35 to Fannin & the 60 yard TD strike to Jerry Jeudy. So that gives Sanders 8 pass plays over 30 yards and none for the other 2 QBS the Browns have started this entire season?? Then what are they evaluating and if this is what they observed Head Coach Kevin Stefanski should be fired due to incompetence evaluating and inability to coach improvement from any of his quarterbacks. Here is the gamelog of all plays

In Black circles we’ve observed Stefanski’s reluctance from saying Sanders name at earlier press conferences and his paltry post game locker room acknowledgment in Sanders’ first start against the Raiders when it was only their 2nd win in 7 weeks. Did you hear former Browns legend Hanford Dixon’s angry outburst on radio covering the team after that game??

His disregard has become apparent and he is having a hard time hiding behind a facade where many believe he has been sabotaging Sheduer Sanders. We know prejudice when we see it as we’ve all experienced it within our own personal working circles. We know exactly how it feels when dealing with a non-relatable boss at work. Especially from a cultural standpoint. When the one who reminds them of themselves are given favor or benefit of the doubt vs black contemporaries. All of us have lived it

So in reward for completing 23 of 42 for a career best 364 yds and throwing his 3rd TD with 1:03 to go what did Sanders get?? Replaced on a failed 2 point conversion that would have tied the game. Completely deflating everyone in the stadium. Diluting the excitement of the end of the game when their rookie showed he could play full dimention NFL quarterback.

By the way Sanders did this missing 40% of his starting offensive linemen as well. Were you aware of that?? Mmmhmm… No more moving the goal post as this is your quarterback going forward and just needs the reps. Playing in the NFL at quarterback is the ability to get the job done on the field and infuse belief in your team. He’s done this at Jackson State then proved it at Colorado and yesterday made a league full of believers. If you don’t think so ask other teams if they would trade for him this offseason…

By the way…where was Dillon Gabriel & his “super computer processing” after his sixth college football season when Shedeur was accepting the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award??

Exactly…. GTFOH Time to draft some receivers… and fire that idiot coach Kevin Stefanski

 

The NFL’s Shameful Impatience w Black Quarterbacks Vol 1 -Lamar Jackson 2018 NFL Draft

2020 NFL Draft: Wither Jalen Hurts – Shameful Impatience w Black QBs Take Two!

The NFL’s Shameful Impatience w Black Quarterbacks: The Odyssey of Shedeur Sanders

The NFL’s Shameful Impatience w/ Black Quarterbacks: Shedeur Sanders Named Starter v 49ers – Browns Should Fire Stefanski

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The Soul of The Game: Kenny Easley Remembered

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Originally Published 23, February 2013 w/ Postscript 16, November 2025

Some of the best players in NFL history are those who had their careers cut short due to injury. Yet they had great seasons that had them on the path to Canton. Such was the case with former Seattle Seahawk Kenny Easley. At 6’3 and 205 lbs, he was tall, fast, had range and could hit.

He was the team’s first true superstar, one that teammates looked up to for big hits, big plays, and leadership. Until the Seahawks drafted RB Curt Warner to be his offensive equal on the other side of the ball, never had a team followed the lead of a safety before. At his peak he may have been the best safety in the last 25 years of pro football.

In 1981 Seattle drafted Easley in the first round out of UCLA. He was one of the new breed of safety coming into the NFL. Everyone points to the new breed of linebacker that hit at the same time, but along with Easley came the Dennis Smiths, the Joey Browners, and the Todd Bells who were taller and more physical than the prior generation of NFL safeties. The game was evolving after the 1978 rule changes favoring the passing game. Teams were going to more multiple receiver sets and safeties were being asked to do more. Especially in the hey-day of the AFC West.

Kenny Easley was a ball hawk and a big hitter. A rarity among safeties.

Kenny Easley was a ball hawk and a big hitter. A rarity among safeties.

This was the time of “Air Coryell” with Dan Fouts, the defending NFL champion Raiders with they’re deep passing game, and the Denver Broncos would soon draft John Elway to add to the prowess throwing the football within the division. It was Easley that brought the team superior confidence with his strong hits and leadership that changed the culture of the organization. He started gaining notoriety when he picked off 4 passes and was named AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year. The following season saw him intercept 7 passes and 3 sacks as he made the Pro Bowl for the first time as well as making the All Pro team for the first of three times.

Before his arrival, the Seahawks hadn’t made the playoffs or even been competitive within the AFC West going back to their 1976 inception. Easley led Seattle to their first playoffs in his third year. Once there they topped rookie John Elway and the Broncos 31-7 at home in the wild card round. The following week Easley and the defense led the way in a 27-20 victory over rookie Dan Marino and the Dolphins in Miami. They fell to the eventual champion LA Raiders, whom they swept during the season, in the AFC Championship Game 31-14. Many experts believed Easley’s Seahawks were primed for a Super Bowl run with a healthy Curt Warner coming back.

Easley had his greatest season in 1984, picking off 10 passes returning those for 126 yards and 2 touchdowns on his way to NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors. Yet it was his thunderous hits and reckless play that set him apart. In most instances you have ball-hawks that are tacklers but not great hitters. Easley was both. Yet the 12-4 Seahawks lost the rematch to Miami in the AFC Divisional round 31-10, and wouldn’t get any closer for the rest of his career.

This video in microcosm showcases his great 1984 season.

As you look at the first 20 years of the Seattle Seahawks history (1976-1995) they didn’t make the NFL playoffs until Easley led them there in 1983. They were among the league’s elite for the next five years but couldn’t capitalize on the momentum of that first AFC Championship appearance. The Seahawks did make the playoffs in 1988, but would return to the playoffs only once in the next 18 years following his retirement.

Easley’s career was cut short due to kidney failure before the 1988 season. However he had left thunderous hits and many broken tackles and spirits along with 32 interceptions, returning 3 for scores.  He was a five time Pro Bowler and voted All Pro 3 times, yet is  he a Hall of Famer?? That’s a debate for another day and another article, for Kenny Easley was the prototype safety of the modern era. The skill-set and intensity that he brought to the secondary was equal to what Lawrence Taylor brought to the fore for outside linebackers.

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Epilogue – November 16, 2025: With Kenny’s passing yesterday we lost a true warrior who took years to get his due in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I wanted to write an article to advocate for him but time just didn’t permit. Thank God Ronnie Lott stepped up and advocated for the player he was compared to the most coming out of their 1981 NFL draft. However I wrote this article in 2013 as I was a huge fan and wanted something to showcase how great a player he was.

I was able to catch him in a game once in Ohio Stadium when his UCLA Bruins came in & faced the Ohio St Buckeyes while he was in college back in 1980. Was able to see Easley, Todd Bell, and Ray Ellis deliver big hits one glorious fall afternoon. I remember recalling the game with Easley’s late UCLA teammate Luis Sharpe who passed earlier this year. Undoubtedly Sharpe was there to greet him at the pearly gates. Ironically Ohio St hosted UCLA yesterday on the day he passed.

RIP Kenny Easley – Pro Football Hall of Famer. Thanks for the memories

New England Patriots Tony Collins (33) struggles for that extra yard despite the efforts of Seattle Seahawks Kenny Easley (45) and Keith Butler (53) during first quarter action at Sullivan Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., Sept. 21, 1986. (AP Photo/Mike Kullen)

 

Has Buffalo’s Super Bowl Window Closed?

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Its time to really take a look at the Buffalo Bills and the closing of their Super Bowl window with Josh Allen. There are those that will argue but the front office did the same thing back in the 90s when they were going to the big game. They stopped trying to get blue chip talent and just leaned on those in tow. However if we go back to that time they had 5 Hall of Fame players where this incarnation has one…. Josh Allen and let others slip away.

Yes he is the reigning MVP but the way he played these last 8 years, yeah 8 years… he has taken 2 to 3 times the hits other quarterbacks have. The willingness to take on tacklers with his big body on planned running plays but his accuracy may get beat out of his body. Think back to Cam Newton and it was his 8th season (2018 / 6-8 record playing just 14 games) when the losses and injuries started to mount. The next year (for those who didn’t hit the link) he was 0-2 in the games he played and the bottom fell out for a (5-11) team who just 4 years before was 15-1, had an MVP Newton and playing in Super Bowl 50.

Well it was 4 years ago when Allen had his signature game in the 42-36 divisional loss to Kansas City. It was one of the NFL’s greatest games and we’re still clinging to that promise. The Bills fell in love with Allen as a cheat code where the passing windows aren’t open, Josh will take off and run or buy time to get them open.  Then there are the QB sweeps where we get to play 11 on 11 football. This gave the Bills a dimension to lean into other teams didn’t have the luxury of… but at what expense?

Stephon Diggs for one as he came back and lit up the Bills for 10 receptions 146 yards in spearheading a 23-20 win in Buffalo. It looked like an upset at the time but the 8-2 Patriots have Diggs leading the charge with 50 rec. 554yds/3Tds but most importantly he can get open with his quickness in a phone booth Drake Maye has grown to depend on. Allen used to have this as a part of his arsenal and has been scrambling for his life to get a “D” rate receiving corps time to get open. He looked like a beaten fighter at the end of the loss in Miami.

Where is the blue chip receiver the Bills should have acquired once Diggs departed?? Where are the blue chip defenders to make plays (forced fumbles / 3rd down sacks in key moments)?? My Bills just rely on schematically correct defense without any playmakers to change the momentum in a game. Same iwth the offense and I know they acquired Amari Cooper last year however, that is in his 14th year on his 4th team and his forte was never quickness to get open and provide a quick target.

Forgive me as we look at the graphic above but wasn’t Tyler Lockett available a few weeks ago?? Why not sign Lockett?? Trade for Rasheed Shaheed with New Orleans? There was so much more the Bills could have done but they kept relying on Josh to be Superman when he needs some Super Friends.

As he keeps taking all these hits the additional padding he will put on can change his throwing motion moving forward. This will be something to watch. This game has been played well over 100 years and the one thing we do know is a young QB will  use his legs and run when a play isn’t there. By their 5th year starting they have to evolve into almost strictly a passer and rely on guile reading defenses and audibling into the right play.

As a Bills fan The Chancellor doesn’t want to see this happen to Josh Allen but the writing is on the wall. The Bills are 6-3 and aside from the 28-21 win over the 5-4 Chiefs there isn’t another big win. Well you can count the 41-40 come from behind epic to start the season but the Bills had been manhandled much of the game and had some lucky bounces to come from 16 down to win it. That won’t happen a 2nd time and if we don’t catch the Patriots and win the division we’re going to be on the road in the playoffs. We’re 2-2 this year on the road with losses to Atlanta and Miami. Not against elite teams.

What no one is talking about is the punishment accumulation Josh Allen is taking along with the pressure to be Superman every game. We watched this ruin Cam Newton by year 8 a decade before and watched it happen in the 70s with Bert Jones for my old timers. It happened with Steve Young and so many others. Sure the loss to Miami was a division opponent and anything can happen but if you look at the tell tale signs something else was signaled with that loss in South Florida.

The Super Bowl window with this incarnation of the Bills has closed and a retooling has to happen.

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Prime Pass Rushers Tilt The Field

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I forgot where we were having the conversation but I remember explaining to a football fan that nothing changes a team’s fortunes faster than a prime pass rusher. Not only does it improve your defense against the pass but it masks defensive deficiencies in the secondary. Its one of the reasons Taylor Blitz has Green Bay on its way to at least the NFC Championship Game this year with the acquisition of Micah Parsons.

This has been a lesson passed down from days gone by from two defensive terrorists The Chancellor has met that rushed the passer. Fred Dean & Cedrick Hardman. This especially holds true when a pass rusher in his prime is all of a sudden dropped on to a new team in a new division and I needed to elaborate further.

In 5th grade (1980) i remember the Raiders signing veteran Cedrick Hardman to rush the passer #86. He got 9.5 sacks as a designated pass rusher that helped Lester Hayes lead the NFL with 13 interceptions & they won Super Bowl XV.

The next year the idiotic move was San Diego sending a prime Fred Dean to San Francisco and they came out of nowhere to win Super Bowl XVI. It was Hardman, Dean and Lawrence Taylor that taught me the effects of great pass rushers.
To further the notion, the 1980 Chargers with Fred Dean was 6th in total defense & led the league with 60 sacks. Without Dean they gave up 1,500 more yards (4,691 to 6,136 yards allowed) and fell to a ranking of 27th and history misremembers them as Air Coryell & a terrible defense. They had finished 5th in ’79 & 6th in ’80 with Dean on the roster.
Other notables:
  • DE Charles Haley in ’92 – Cowboys were 16th in defense and rose to #1 and won Super Bowl XXVII
  • DE Jevon Kearse in ’99 – Titans had 30 sacks in ’98, they had 54 as Kearse’s Titans made Super Bowl XXXIV
  • OLB Von Miller in ’21 – Added to the #1 defense from ’20 & had 2 sacks in Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles.
  • OLB Haason Reddick in ’22 – Improved from 10th to 3rd in defense & 39 sacks to 770 sacks. Went to Super Bowl LVII.

In Kearse’s case he set the NFL Rookie Record with 13.5 sacks and the Titans became one of the league’s most physical defenses. Reddick was Taylor Blitz Times Defensive Player of the Year with 16.5 sacks and spearheaded one of the NFL’s historic sack totals. We hadn’t seen a sack total like that since the ’89 Vikings with 71 sacks, just 1 off the league record of 72 by Chicago. Both the Bears & Vikings were #1 defensively and the Eagles would have been had they not been in so many blowout victories.

Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick forces a first quarter fumble on San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, January 29, 2023 in Philadelphia.

The NFL world is still buzzing with the idiotic trade of Dallas prime pass rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers. Moves like this completely tilt the field when a defense receives a weapon to bolster its lineup. Especially in this division. We all know of the seismic shift that took place when Green Bay signed the late Reggie White back in 1993, but remember the Bears bringing in PFHOF Julius Peppers to the division in 2010?

Chicago went from 17th in defense in 2009 to 4th and made it to the NFC Championship Game where they hosted Green Bay. Peppers was an All Pro for the 6th time in his career & 4th in NFL DPOY voting.

They did it again trading for future PFHoF Khalil Mack in 2018 leaping from 10th in defense to 3rd. They had been #1 for most of the season and Mack made his 5th straight Pro Bowl, 3rd All Pro selection, came in 2nd in voting for NFL DPOY (he won it in 2015) and led the Bears to a 12-4 record and first round bye. Mack was Taylor Blitz Defensive Player of the Year a 2nd time and The Chancellor predicted the carnage he would lay in Green Bay that first game on Monday Night. Why??

Well it was the 2nd coming of what happened when the San Francisco 49ers made the surprise move to pick up PFHoF DE Fred Dean at the start of 1981. Rivals within the division were unable to prepare for this terrorist to be dropped in their lap. They were unable to prepare via the draft or free agent personnel and here comes 4 time All Pro Micah Parsons. They were already the NFL’s 5th best defense in 2024. Yikes!

You could even bring up  PFHoF DeMarcus Ware when he joined Von Miller in Denver to win Super Bowl 50. Yet that was in his 2nd season in Denver and not the surprise element of tilting the field in the 1st.  Same can be said of fellow PFHoF DE Jared Allen. In his 2nd season in Minnesota (2009) he was among the league leaders in sacks (14.5) and led his Vikings to the NFC Championship Game featured here in a “Missing Rings” article.

Same can be said of the late Kevin Greene who tilted the field 3 times aiding 3 teams to either the conference championship or Super Bowl in 4 straight seasons. He led the league in sacks (14) in ’94 leading the Steelers to the AFC Championship then Super Bowl XXX the following season. He then joins the Carolina Panthers in ’96 leading the NFL in sacks again (14.5) and was the impetus in making the NFC Championship Game in their 2nd season of existence. He follows that up going to San Francisco as a designated pass rusher and accumulates another 10.5 sacks as they make the ’97 NFC Championship Game.
Fred Dean, Kevin Greene, Charles Haley, Julius Peppers, Jared Allen, and DeMarcus Ware are all enshrined in Canton. Von Miller will be there one day and with a few more All Pro selections Micah will be there as well. Just understand more than any other position, a prime pass rusher whether from a Defensive End or Outside Linebacker dramatically increases a team’s success more than any other position.
Starting in that 1981 season when I learned the lesson of the importance of the weak side pass rusher. All of a sudden drafting the Left Tackle became a focal point of the offense and many teams lead rebuilds around selecting one in the 1st round. It’s also when you started to see Left Tackle salaries soar. Do you realize in 2025, 23 of the NFL’s 32 teams have their LT in their top 5 highest paid players? If stopping prime pass rushers carries this type of weight what value do the pass rushers have themselves?
Nothing tilts the field for a team’s immediate fortunes like landing a prime pass rusher. Nothing… franchise QBs or all time great running backs don’t get dealt at their zenith.
Again the lessons learned have brought me as a defensive afecionado to writing about these exploits and spreading this with fellow fans. For me it started with Cedrick Hardman & Fred Dean, both of whom I had the chance to meet.
With Cedrick I used to run into him at The White House in Laguna Beach California early 2000s Talked football over many drinks. Same with Fred at the PFHoF hotel in Canton. We’re having a drink at the bar in Canton and I explained the both of them teaching me the lesson of pass rush terrorists and Dean said “Your ass is too young to remember all this zhit” I hit him back… “You know that’s the same muthaphukkin’ thing Cedrick’s ass said.” Great times ….great laughs. I had waited 37 years to shake Dean’s hand and thank him for that lesson.
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The Arizona Cardinal Should Have a Commemorative Patch for Fallen Cardinal Luis Sharpe

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On July 11th of this year the Cardinals family lost one of their own in Offensive Tackle Luis Sharpe. Although I saw items locally and an official statement from the team I haven’t seen any commemorative patches or decals on their uniform. Keep in mind this was one of the stalwarts who came to the desert when the team relocated from St Louis in 1988.

He is listed 6th in Cardinals history in games played with 189 while making 3 Pro Bowls. Twice being voted All Pro by Sportswriters.  Keep in mind this is the oldest franchise in the NFL and preceded the league itself starting in Chicago in 1898. Yes, the Cardinals franchise precedes the NFL as a league by almost a quarter of a century with the league establishing itself in 1920 on a Hupmobile showroom floor in Canton, Ohio.

Think back to the 1998 Cardinals when they upset Dallas in the NFC Wildcard and you’ll see the 100th season commemorative patch. This was on their uniform the entire season here on the late Pat Tillman for reference.

Even the likeness used to immortalize Tillman in bronze has that season’s jersey with patch on outside the stadium.

I haven’t seen any information if the Cardinals will put a patch on the jersey or a decal of Sharpe’s “67” but they need to. As one of the league’s best Left Tackles in the NFC he faced the like of Dexter Manley, Lawrence Taylor, Leonard Marshall, Pat Swilling & Richard Dent in the heydey of the NFC during their 13 year championship run. These were the primary pass rushers on some of history’s best ever NFL defenses. He protected the blind side for Neil Lomax and Tim Rosenbach.

He overcame addiction in his post playing career, turned his life over to Christ and spoke at many Hall of Fame events. Luis  had a great sense of humor and always had an encouraging word with all the fans he came across. In real life & social media. During Super Bowl LVII here in Phoenix we kept missing each other and were supposed to meet but between interviews on Radio Row and all the events it didn’t happen. In one of my pics elsewhere at Ditka Jaws Cigar Party I put up a pic with Seth Joyner and Luis let me know it was Seth who invited him to church which fueled his relationship with the Lord. He learned #59 did the same for me back in 2015 and Luis & I had an even greater connection.

One of the last times he came to visit Pheonix, I was out in Southern Cal getting married. Those missed connections felt like minor setbacks as we would sit and break bread in the future and we didn’t get the chance.

 

It was fun to recall the NFL wars and games with his UCLA Bruins and learned I attended one of his games in Ohio Stadium in 1980. Even recalling a brawl in the ’86 preseason between the Super Bowl champion Bears & his St Louis Cardinals. He and the great Wilber Marshall were locked in combat that went beyond the whistle. I would tease him with Marshall pics on Facebook. All in good fun…

His response in this one:

One of God’s fiercest warriors who battled in NFL trenches for 13 years and yet maintained a sense of humor, pride and honor with the men he played with and against. I was taken aback when i didn’t see a #67 decal or a commemorative patch on the Cardinals uniform.

Commemorative patch worn by the 1992 Philadelphia Eagles in Jerome Brown’s memory.

One like the 1992 Philadelphia Eagles wore in memory of Jerome Brown who passed a few months before the season. Or the “Spider 43” patch adorned on the ’86 NY Giants jersey they carried to the Super Bowl XXI championship. It was for fallen Giant Cornerback “Spider” Lockhart who played back in the 60s & 70s in forgettable years for the Giants who had just passed. Its not just your Hall of Fame players you do this for but those rank and file players who gave blood and guts for their team. Even in games when you were up against a superior opponent facing long odds.

I hope the Cardinals do that here. A former player whose spirit to fight back and never give up had everything to do with how Luis Sharpe faced life, faith and adversity on the field of battle.Your team should know one of the fiercest Cardinals and draw inspiration from his storied journey. Especially your offensive linemen. Keep in mind this is the 1st season the NFL will give “The Protector of The Year Award to the best OLineman out there.

If you need an idea for a patch here is an image to craft it from when Luis was blocking Eagles DE Clyde Simmons.

Arizona Cardinals let’s go with a tribute for Luis with a decal or patch for the 2025 season.

RIP Luis, miss joking about football with you already.