Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Philadelphia Eagles Fans for Booing the Drafting of Donovan McNabb -- Or the Eagles for Drafting Him

Note: You might be wondering why I didn't do this last year, on the 20th Anniversary of the event. The answer is, I just didn't think of it then.

In spite of the coronavirus, the NFL is still going to hold its annual Draft as scheduled, starting today and running for 3 days, at Caesars Palace outside Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada. There will be no public events, and all team selections will be done virtually, via phone and the Internet.

The NFL Draft is frequently held in New York. In the last few years, Radio City Music Hall has often been the venue. A few times before that, it was at Madison Square Garden, in the room formerly known as the Felt Forum (1968-91), the Paramount Theater (1991-97), The Theater at Madison Square Garden (1997-2007 and again 2009-18), the WaMu Theater (2007-09), and now the Hulu Theater.

The Draft has had some sour moments. Jet fans, especially when it's in New York, tend to go, and their reactions to their team's 1st round pick is usually vociferous. Like the nursery rhyme about the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead, when it's good, it's very, very good; but when it's bad, it's horrid.

But Jet fans have nothing on fans of the Philadelphia Eagles. As NFL Films co-founder, producer and writer Steve Sabol (a Philadelphia area native) put it, to be read by John Facenda, the local news anchor who was the voice of NFL Films from 1967 until his death in 1984, put it, "In Philadelphia, a fan learns to boo before he can walk."

In 1998, the Heisman Trophy was won by Ricky Williams of the University of Texas, who had broken the NCAA's career record for rushing yardage. That record lasted for just 1 year, broken by Ron Dayne of Wisconsin, who would play for the Giants.

Williams seemed to push all the right buttons. He was big. He was strong. He was very fast. He was from one of college football's marquee schools. He had excelled in one of college football's toughest leagues, the Big 12 Conference. He had come through in high-profile games. He seemed nice. He seemed smart. He was respectful of the game's history: When Doak Walker, often regarded as the greatest Texas-born player, was dying, Ricky visited him in the hospital, and, for one game, switched from his usual Number 34 to Walker's legendary 37. And, at the time, there were no red flags.

He should have been the top pick in the NFL Draft. Except that 1999 was the year the restored Cleveland Browns were beginning play, and they had the top pick. They made it known that they would be picking a quarterback. That turned out to be Tim Couch of the University of Kentucky. He turned out to be a bust, partly because he wasn't that good, partly because the Browns handled him badly. But that's a story for another time.

The 2nd pick belonged to the Philadelphia Eagles, 3-13 the season before. Their quarterbacks were Rodney Peete (decent but injury-prone), Bobby Hoying (a reasonable backup, but shouldn't have been a starter) and Koy Detmer (not even the best quarterback in his own family, and his brother Ty wasn't so hot as a pro, either).

Drafting a seemingly good quarterback is not a cure-all, especially for his rookie year. In the previous year's Draft, the Indianapolis Colts had the 1st pick, the San Diego Chargers the 2nd. The top 2 picks were going to be Peyton Manning of Tennessee and Ryan Leaf of Washington State, and pretty much everybody was thinking that you couldn't go wrong with either one. The Colts picked Manning, and he had a rough rookie year, but became a Hall-of-Famer. The Chargers picked Leaf, and it was a disaster even beyond his rookie year.

But the Eagles also needed to boost their running game. Their 2 best running backs were Duce Staley (good, but not great) and Charlie Garner (occasionally good, at best). Furthermore, given that they were 3-13, the Eagles could have gone with the cliche of drafting "the best available athlete." At the time, it wasn't hard to believe that this was Ricky Williams.

Angelo Cataldi, then as now the morning show host for all-sports radio station WIP (then 610 AM, now 94.1 FM), knowing that the Browns were likely drafting Couch, promoted the idea of the Eagles drafting Williams. He arranged for a group of Eagles fans to attend the Draft at The Garden. Some of them even wore Eagle jerseys with Williams' name and Number 34 on them, presumably paid for out of their own pockets, not out of WIP's bank account. (UPDATE: Cataldi retired in 2023.)

At the Draft, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced, "With the 2nd pick, the Philadelphia Eagles select... Donovan McNabb... " The rest of his words could not be heard, as the Eagle fans in attendance overwhelmed it with boos.

They had been betrayed by team management, and not for the 1st time. Or so they believed. And they booed their lungs out.

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Philadelphia Eagles Fans for Booing the Drafting of Donovan McNabb

5. Eagles Management. From previous bad drafts and bad free agent signings to the financial difficulties of former owner Leonard Tose and the cheapness of former owner Norman Braman, Eagle fans were used to the organization not doing right by them.

New owner Jeffrey Lurie had promised better. So far, he hadn't delivered. Drafting McNabb instead of Williams seemed like another crack in the promise.

4. The Running Game. The team that can run the ball the best controls the clock. The team that controls the clock usually wins the game. And, as former Eagle cornerback Herman Edwards, then an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, would later say as head coach of the New York Jets, "You play to win the game!"

And, as I said, the Eagles needed to boost their running game, possibly more than they needed a good quarterback. This was largely due to the fact that, from 1995 to 1997, they had put their faith in a different Ricky W: Ricky Watters had helped the San Francisco 49ers win a Super Bowl, and the Eagles signed him as a free agent, but he didn't work out for them, appearing to take a nonchalant attitude, which is anathema to Philadelphia fans.

And, as I also said, Williams seemed like "the best available athlete."

3. Donovan McNabb -- as he was at the time. He came out of Syracuse University. In 1997, he got them to 9-4. Their wins included these over opponents that were then nationally ranked in the Top 25: The Kickoff Classic at the Meadowlands against Number 24 Wisconsin, and home to Number 17 West Virginia. But he also lost at home to North Carolina State, and away to Oklahoma and Number 22 Virginia Tech.

In 1998, he got them to 8-4. They won away to Number 13 Michigan, and home to Number 16 Virginia Tech (with Michael Vick as a senior). However, they again lost to North Carolina State and West Virginia, this time away in both cases; and lost at home to Number 10 Tennessee.

In both seasons, he led the Orangemen to the Championship of the Big East Conference. But the Big East was never seen as an elite football league. In basketball, yes; in football, no. In both seasons, he got them to a major bowl game: The 1997 Fiesta Bowl against Number 10 Kansas State (actually played on New Year's Eve that season) and the 1999 Orange Bowl against Number 7 Florida (played on New Year's Day). However, they lost both games. In both seasons, he got them to a Top 25 ranking: 20th in 1997 and 24th in 1998.

In other words, he looked like a good college quarterback. But was he the best college quarterback? These results suggest that he wasn't.

And, let's face it: His pro career could have been better. He was 10-8 in Playoff games, 1-4 in NFC Championship Games including 2 losses at home, and 0-1 in Super Bowls. And, so far, voters for the Pro Football Hall of Fame have not seen fit to elect him.

And there were other choices:

2. Other Quarterbacks. Couch, who had led Kentucky to a 7-5 season, including a bid to the Outback Bowl (which they lost), had already been drafted by the Browns. But McNabb wasn't the only other good college quarterback remaining.

With the 3rd pick, the Cincinnati Bengals drafted Akili Smith, who had led Oregon to an 8-4 season. With the 11th pick, the Minnesota Vikings drafted Daunte Culpeper, who had led Central Florida to 9-2. With the 12th pick, the Chicago Bears drafted Cade McNown, who had led UCLA to 10-2, the Pac-10 title, and victory in the Rose Bowl.

In the 2nd round, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted Shaun King, who had led Tulane to an undefeated 12-0 season and the Number 7 ranking in the country (albeit against, at best, what college basketball fans would call a mid-major schedule).

In other words, McNabb had a good college football career, but was he clearly the best quarterback in that Draft? The best, maybe. Clearly the best, no.

1. Ricky Williams -- as he was at the time. As I said, he seemed to have all the prerequisites: Good guy, great player, came from a great football school, came through in big situations, filled a need for the Eagles. And he was available. But they didn't take him. And their fans booed.

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Eagle fans hated the selection of McNabb. They shouldn't have:

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame the Philadelphia Eagles for Drafting Donovan McNabb Instead of Ricky Williams

5. They Needed a Quarterback. When the Detroit Lions chose him in the 6th round out of USC in 1989, there was nothing wrong with wanting a healthy Rodney Peete on your team. But he got hurt in his 1st preseason, and this began a string of injuries. By the time the Eagles got him in 1995, having a healthy Rodney Peete was pretty much a lost cause. And, as I said, neither Bobby Hoying nor Koy Detmer was going to be the answer.

4. Running Backs. The best college running backs often turn out to be pro busts -- figuratively or, through injury, literally. Eagles fans found that out when they won 2 games late in the 1968 season, costing them the chance to draft the eventually felonious O.J. Simpson, and instead got Leroy Keyes, who fell well short of expectations.

The Eagles had won their last NFL Championship in 1960. Just between then and 1998, and just among Heisman Trophy winners: Ernie Davis never played a pro down due to a fatal illness, Steve Owens lasted just 5 seasons and rushed for less than 2,500 yards, John Cappelletti lasted 10 years and rushed for less than 3,000, Archie Griffin lasted 7 years and rushed for less than 3,000, Charles White lasted 9 years and rushed for just over 3,000, and Rashaan Salaam lasted 4 years and rushed for less than 1,800. Since then, the aforementioned Ron Dayne lasted for 8 years and rushed for less than 4,000.

In addition to those, Billy Sims and Bo Jackson, both Heisman winners, looked like they were headed for the Hall of Fame. But Sims wrecked his knee in his 5th season, and Jackson hurt his hip in his 4th, and neither ever played again. Ki-Jana Carter was the 1st pick in the 1995 NFL Draft, but wrecked his knee in a preseason game in his rookie year. played in just 59 games over a span of 10 seasons, and rushed for just 1,144 yards.

So drafting a running back in the 1st round, even a great college running back like Ricky Williams, wasn't necessarily a great idea.

3. Other Teams. The Browns didn't draft Williams, either. Once they drafted Couch, and the Eagles drafted McNabb, the Bengals could have drafted Williams. The New Orleans Saints offered the Bengals 9 draft picks for their pick, so they could draft Williams. The Bengals turned them down, and drafted Akili Smith.

The 4th pick belonged to the Indianapolis Colts. The Saints tried to make a deal with them, too, but they wouldn't budge. But they also didn't pick Williams. They drafted a different running back, Edgerrin James of the University of Miami. And while Couch and Smith were both busts, James was not: He went to the Hall of Fame.

Finally, the Saints got the Washington Redskins to agree to a deal: The 5th pick in that Draft, in exchange for the Saints' entire 1999 Draft except for the 2nd round, and their 1st and 3rd round picks for 2000. The Saints drafted Williams. The Redskins did some more maneuvering, and packaged 3 of the picks they got from the Saints to send to the Bears for a pick they ended up using on University of Georgia cornerback Champ Bailey, who made the Hall of Fame.

Incidentally, the Saints' general manager at the time was Bill Kuharich, son of Joe Kuharich, who, as Eagles head coach and general manager in 1964, made what is generally regarded as the worst trade in Eagles history: Sending Sonny Jurgensen to the Washington Redskins for Norm Snead.

Jurgensen was a carouser, and the moralistic Joe Kuharich hated that. Snead was a straight arrow. With the Redskins, Jurgensen continued his Hall of Fame career, throwing the most touchdown passes of any quarterback in the 1960s. The quarterback with the most interceptions in that decade? You may have guessed: Snead.

Anyway, what all this means is that 5 teams passed on drafting Ricky Williams: First the Browns, then the Eagles, then the Bengals, then the Colts, and lastly the Redskins. As we will soon see, the Browns and Bengals might have been better off if they'd taken him. Between what we will soon see, and what we have already seen, the Eagles and Colts might not have been.

2. Ricky Williams: A Bad Fit for Philly. His pro career turned out to be mixed. Bears legend Mike Ditka was the Saints' head coach at the time, and they went just 3-13 in 1999. Williams rushed for 884 yards. Ditka was fired, and replaced with Jim Haslett. It was a huge improvement, as they went 10-6, and, each for the 1st time in franchise history, won their Division (the NFC West) and won a Playoff game. Williams rushed for 1,000 yards even, despite missing half the season due to injury.

And then they slid back down to 7-9 in 2001, despite Williams rushing for 1,245 yards. He was getting personal success, but not much team success.

He didn't fit in. His Saints teammate Joe Horn said, "Ricky's just a different guy. People he wanted to deal with, he did. And people he wanted to have nothing to do with, he didn't. No one could understand that. I don't think guys in the locker room could grasp that he wanted to be himself. You know, quiet."

He was traded to the Miami Dolphins for 4 draft picks, and 2002 turned out to be his best NFL season. He rushed for a League-leading 1,853 yards. He rushed for another 1,372 yards in 2003. In those seasons, they went 9-7 and 10-6, but didn't make the Playoffs either time. Still, it looked like the Saints had blown it, both in getting him and in getting rid of him.

And then, in the run-up to the 2004 season, he was suspended for testing positive for marijuana. On August 2, he announced his retirement.

It's become a meme in the years since: ESPN's Stephen A. Smith telling NFL players to "Stay off the weed!" Or, as he pronounces it, "the weeeeeeee-duh!" Physically speaking, Ricky Williams was as gifted as any running back in NFL history. Emotionally speaking, he was at the other extreme, eventually being diagnosed with clinical depression and social anxiety disorder. He chose smoking pot over playing football.

The Dolphins seemed to prove his point, that they needed him more than he needed them, going 4-12 in 2004. Williams patched things up with them, served his mandatory 4-game drug-test suspension, and rushed for 743 yards in 12 games. The Dolphins went 9-7 in 2005, and just missed the Playoffs again. And then, in early 2006, Williams was suspended for the entire upcoming season, for violating the NFL's drug policy for a 2nd time.

The Canadian Football League had a less stringent drug policy, and Williams signed with the Toronto Argonauts. But his season with the Argos was stricken with injuries: A broken bone in his arm and a damaged Achilles tendon limited him to 11 games and 526 yards. The CFL instituted what's become known as "The Ricky Williams Rule": No longer would a player under suspension by the NFL be eligible to be signed by a CFL team, although a "grandfather clause" meant that Williams himself could stay.

He didn't: After claiming that yoga had helped him to stop using marijuana, he entered into negotiations with Commissioner Tagliabue, and was granted reinstatement. He returned on November 26, 2007, playing for the Dolphins against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football. But it would be the only game he played that season, as he suffered a shoulder injury.

He played all 16 games of the 2008 season, rushing for 659 yards, and helping the Dolphins win the AFC East. He played all 16 games of the 2009 season, rushing for 1,121 yards, making him only the 7th player in NFL history to rush for at least 1,000 at age 32 or later, but the Dolphins only went 7-9. In 2010, he rushed for 673 yards, and the Dolphins went 10-6, but missed the Playoffs.

His contract with the Dolphins had run out, and he signed with the Baltimore Ravens for 2011. He played in every game, rushed for 444 yards, and on January 1, 2012, he joined the 10,000 Yards Club. The Ravens went 12-4, won the AFC North, and advanced to the AFC Championship Game.

But, a month later, Williams announced his retirement, for good this time. He was not quite 35, with 10,009 rushing yards, 342 receptions for 2,606 yards, and 74 touchdowns.

He has since become a certified yoga instructor, and an advocate for medical marijuana. Apparently, the former hasn't actually turned him off from the latter; but, together, they have helped him deal with his mental health difficulties.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame, but not the Pro Football Hall of Fame, for which he has been eligible since 2017. There are 31 players with at least 10,000 rushing yards. Adrian Peterson, Frank Gore, LeShawn McCoy and Marshawn Lynch are still active. Steven Jackson becomes eligible next year. The only ones eligible but not yet in are Fred Taylor, Corey Dillon, Warrick Dunn, Ricky Watters, Jamal Lewis, Thomas Jones, Tiki Barber, Eddie George, Ottis Anderson... and Ricky Williams.

Two of those players, Williams and Lewis, have had drug issues. The rest haven't. Based on statistics, it appears that 12,000 yards -- or, more precisely, 12,074 -- is the actual threshold: Every player with at least that many is in, except for the still-active Peterson (14,216) and Gore (15,347, 3rd all-time behind Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton). So maybe it's not the drug issue that's holding Williams back, since there are never-suspended players with more rushing yards who aren't in Canton.

Nevertheless, Williams was a headache for 2 different NFL franchises, New Orleans and Miami. Neither team has elected him to their team hall of fame. If you ask the average Dolphin fan to name his all-time team, his running backs are going to be those on the 1972-73 Super Bowl teams, Larry Csonka and either Jim Kiick or Mercury Morris. (A little ironic, since Morris had to overcome a more severe drug problem than Williams, and did.)

Even in the 21 years since Williams arrived in the NFL, or in the 16 years since he was first suspended, America's understanding of mental health issues has improved. It is entirely possible that the same issues would have reared their heads had he been drafted by the Eagles instead of the Saints.

And that would have been very bad for his mental health. Can you imagine Eagle fans reacting to Ricky Williams' drug and psych issues? They would have tried to destroy him. And, away from the more laid-back atmospheres in Louisiana and South Florida, it would have been much worse for him. Instead of accepting him, Eagle fans would have compounded the problem.

Now, imagine that the Eagles drafted the top quarterback available the next year. Because they still would have needed one. Who would that have been? There were 12 quarterbacks drafted. The 1st was Chad Pennington, who had a decent career with Miami and the New York Jets. Of the 11 after him, the best was... Tom Brady, taken in the 6th round by the New England Patriots. And we'll never know for sure if he would have won even one single solitary NFL game without being the perpetrator, or at least the beneficiary, of cheating.

And, given how close the Eagles were to winning the Super Bowl with McNabb but without Williams, would they have been any better the other way around? With Pennington as quarterback and Williams in the backfield? It's unlikely.

Because the quarterback they did draft turned out to be pretty good:

1. Donovan McNabb. Suppose you rooted for a struggling NFL team. And suppose I told you that they were going to draft a quarterback who gave his college back-to-back seasons of a Conference Championship and a bid to a New Year's Day bowl game. And that he would lead your team to the Playoffs in only his 2nd season, and that this would be the 1st of 8 trips to the Playoffs -- without any guarantee as to how any of those berths would turn out.

Would you like your chances? Would you take this? I think most fans would.

Donovan McNabb turned out to be, if not the greatest, then the most statistically successful quarterback in Eagles history. He joined Fran Tarkenton, John Elway and Steve Young as only the 4th quarterback in NFL history to have 30,000 passing yards, 200 touchdown passes, 3,000 rushing yards and 20 touchdown runs. He made 6 Pro Bowls. He won 5 NFC East titles.

In 2004, he set a record (since broken) with 24 consecutive pass attempts completed. That same year, he became the 1st quarterback ever to finish a season with at least 30 touchdown passes and fewer than 10 interceptions.

As I said, he went 10-8 in Playoff games with the Eagles. But look at it another way: In 11 seasons with Donovan McNabb as their starting quarterback, the Eagles won 10 postseason games; in 76 seasons with all other starting quarterbacks, they have won just 13. In fact, until Nick Foles came along, it was 9 postseason wins in 73 years without McNabb.

The Eagles reached 5 NFC Championship Games with him. They only reached 1 Super Bowl, and lost it -- but that was to the Patriots, so how do we know it was on the up-and-up? We don't. With the Pats, we presume they're guilty until they're proven innocent.

You can say that other Eagles quarterbacks -- Norm Van Brocklin, Sonny Jurgensen, Ron Jaworski, Randall Cunningham, Nick Foles and Carson Wentz -- were better than Donovan McNabb. Certainly, some of those were more talented. But results matter. Van Brocklin was only in Philadelphia for 3 seasons; Foles, 2. Long-term, McNabb is the Eagles' best quarterback ever.

So the people booing his selection at the 1999 NFL Draft owe him an apology. Yes, Ricky Williams looked like the better pick at the time. But he wasn't. McNabb was.

VERDICT: Not Guilty.

Norman Hunter, 1943-2020

The ranks of the World Cup heroes of 1966 continue to shrink. The heavy balls of the time didn't help. The Coronavirus doesn't, either.

Norman Hunter (no middle name) was born on November 29, 1943 in Gateshead, across the River Tyne from Newcastle, in the North-East of England. He was being trained as an electrical fitter when Yorkshire soccer team Leeds United signed him at the age of 15.

Manager Don Revie gave him his first team debut in 1962, pairing him at centreback with Jack Charlton. Together with goalkeeper Gary Sprake, fellow defender Paul Reaney, midfielders Bobby Collins, Billy Bremner and Albert Johanneson. Leeds won promotion to the Football League Division One in 1964, and the following year, finished 2nd, and reached the FA Cup Final.

This was the start of a stretch that would see Leeds nicknamed the "Nearly Men," as they nearly won so much. While they did win the League title in 1969 and 1974, the FA Cup in 1972, the League Cup in 1968, and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League) in 1968 and 1971, they had several near-misses.

They finished 2nd in the League in 1965, '66, '70, '71 and '72. They lost the FA Cup Final in 1965, '70 and '73. They lost the Fairs Cup Final in 1967, the European Cup Winners' Cup Final in 1973, and the European Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Champions League) in 1975. So their record in cup finals was 4-6.

What's more, Revie let his players break the rules, to the point where they became universally known as "Dirty Leeds," a name which persisted long after all the players involved had retired. Essentially, Leeds then were like Manchester United became in the 1990s: Anybody who didn't love them hated their guts.

Bremner was known for being among the earliest players in the English league to "dive" in the penalty area, in the hope of fooling the referee into thinking he had been knocked down, to award Leeds a penalty kick.

Bremner, Giles, Charlton and Paul Madeley were known for rough play. And Hunter was a beast. Legend has it that he once broke his leg in training, and when a teammate told the trainer, "Norman's broken a leg," the trainer said, "Whose?"

Before the 1972 FA Cup Final against North London team Arsenal, at the original Wembley Stadium in London, a Leeds fan unfurled a banner that read NORMAN BITES YER LEGS. He was known as "Norman Bites Yer Legs Hunter" from then onward.

But he wasn't totally without class. Leeds won that Final, 1-0, on a diving header (unlike Bremner's dives, a legal play) by Allan Clarke. Mick Jones (no relation to either the Foreigner guitarist or the Clash guitarist with that name) had injured his elbow, and was getting treatment when his teammates walked up the famed 39 steps to the royal box at the old Wembley to receive their winner's medals. So Hunter went back down, and helped Jones walk up the steps to receive his medal.

Revie was English, but he wasn't myopic. He had no qualms about looking across borders and seas for talent. Sprake and Terry Yorath were Welsh. Collins, Bremner, Peter Lorimer, Jim Storrie, Willie Bell, Joe Jordan, Gordon McQueen, brothers Eddie and Frank Gray, and David Harvey, Sprake's replacement in goal, were Scottish. Giles was Irish. and Johanneson was from South Africa, one of the earliest black players to make a mark in England's Football League.

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But Hunter was English. Alf Ramsey, manager of the England national team, gave him his debut in 1965, as a substitute for Joe Baker against Spain in Madrid, and he helped England win 2-0. But with his usual Leeds defense partner Jack Charlton usually paired up with West Ham United captain Bobby Moore, Hunter rarely saw action for the Three Lions.

He was named to the squad for the 1966 World Cup, on home soil, but didn't get to play, as Moore and Charlton played every minute of every game, including the Final, which went to extra time as England beat West Germany. Bobby Charlton, Jack's brother, who played his club football for Manchester United, was the team's leading scorer.

Originally, only the players who played in the Final got winner's medals. It took until a 2009 ceremony, at the Prime Minister's official residence at 10 Downing Street in London, for the reserves, including Hunter, to get medals. FIFA, the governing body for world soccer, later changed the rules, so that every player got one, and retroactively awarded medals to surviving reserves, and to the families of those who had died.

Hunter would eventually play for the England senior team 28 times. In 1968, he scored the winning goal against Spain to qualify England for the European Championship tournament, and started in the Semifinal, which England lost 1-0 to Yugoslavia.

Ramsey named him to the squad for the 1970 World Cup, but his only appearance was as a late substitute in the Quarterfinal loss to West Germany. And it was his mistake that led to Poland's goal to forge a 1-1 draw, and prevent England from qualifying for the 1974 World Cup, leading to Ramsey's firing.

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In Leeds' 1973-74 League title-winning season, they began with a 29-match unbeaten run, a mark that stood until the Arsenal "Invincibles" 30 years later. Hunter was named the Professional Footballers' Association's Player of the Year.

This title qualified Leeds for the 1974-75 European Cup. This turned out to be the only thing they could contend for, since Don Revie had been hired to replace Ramsey as the England manager. Leeds hired Brian Clough, who had managed Derby County to the title in 1972, but had long held a grudge against Revie for a perceived slight and for Leeds' dirty play. But he was determined that, together, they could win the European Cup, something that each had gotten to the Semifinal of without the other, but no further.

The opening match of the season was the Charity Shield, now known as the Community Shield. Every year, at Wembley, the holders of the League title and the FA Cup play each other. The 1974 edition was brutal, and Leeds' Bremner and Liverpool's Kevin Keegan got into a fight, and both got sent off. Both took their shirts off and threw them into the crowd, earning each of them fines and 11-game suspensions, among the longest in the League's history. The game ended 1-1, and Liverpool won it on penalties.

Without Bremner, by then the Captain, Leeds were in deep trouble. Clough reminded Bremner of this, telling him he was the 1st Englishman ever sent off in the Charity Shield. Bremner, who had just captained Scotland in the World Cup (which England didn't even qualify for), reminded Clough, "I'm not fookin' English!"

As we would say today, Clough lost the dressing room early. With Bremner still suspended, and Leeds languishing in the middle of the League table, Clough was fired after just 44 days in charge. Jimmy Armfield, a former star at Lancashire team Blackpool, and 1966 World Cup teammate of Hunter's, now managing Manchester-area team Bolton Wanderers, was hired, and got them off the deck. They finished 9th, but only 8 points off the lead (at a time when a win was 2 points, instead of the current 3), and just 5 points out of qualifying for the next season's UEFA Cup (Europa League).

They got to the Quarterfinal of the FA Cup before losing to Ipswich Town. In the European Cup, they beat FC Zürich of Switzerland, Újpest of Hungary, Anderlecht of Belgium and Barcelona of Spain, to reach the Final, at the Parc des Princes in Paris, against Bayern Munich. Leeds fans brought a banner to the stadium, with "Norman Bites Yer Legs" in English for themselves, German for the opposition, and French for the hosts.

The banner, translated

Bayern were defending champions, so this was no easy task. Twice, Leeds thought they had earned penalties, but were denied by the referee. The game remained scoreless into the 62nd minute, when Lorimer put the ball in the net for Leeds. But the goal was waved off, as Bremner was offside. Leeds fans were outraged, and, despite their team having already knocked 2 Bayern players out of the game with injuries, Bayern went on to win 2-0.

To this day, Leeds fans insist that they were the cheated, not the cheaters. They have some sympathy, as, in spite of their "dirty" image and the fact that half the team wasn't English, they were representing England abroad, and Bayern, too, had a reputation for cheating (and still do). In addition to their more familiar theme song, "Marching On Together," Leeds fans sing, "We are champions, champions of Europe!"

They're not. Their players did purposely injure 2 of Bayern's. Neither penalty shout was justified. And Bremner was offside. And both Bayern goals were legitimate. Bayern won fair and square, which doesn't happen as often as it should. (In Germany, they speak of Der Bayern Dusel: "The Bavarian Luck.")

That Final was the last gasp for the team that Don Revie built. Leeds went into a long decline. In 1976, Hunter signed for Bristol City of Gloucestershire, and ended his career as player-manager at Barnsley in Yorkshire from 1980 to 1982.

He continued managing at Barnsley until 1984, and got them promoted from the 3rd to the 2nd division. He later managed at Yorkshire team Rotherham United, and assisted his former Leeds teammates Yorath at another Yorkshire team, Bradford City, and Giles at Birmingham-area team West Bromwich Albion.

Starting in 1993, he worked at BBC Radio Leeds and Yorkshire Radio, as a studio pundit for Leeds matches. Leeds honored him with "The Norman Hunter Suite," a luxury box in the West Stand at their stadium Elland Road.

In 1998, the Football League included Hunter on its list of 100 Football League legends. Also included were Bremner and Giles; John Charles, who played for Leeds before they got there; and Eric Cantona, who played for Leeds after they left. In 2004, Hunter published a memoir, titled Biting Talk. He had been married since 1968 to Susan Harper, and they had a son Michael, and a daughter Claire.

A few days ago, he was stricken with COVID-19. Norman Hunter died yesterday, April 17, 2020, at the age of 76.

Leeds United have announced that the South Stand at Elland Road will be renamed the Norman Hunter Stand. The North Stand is named for Revie, the West Stand is named for Charles, and the East Stand is still available for naming. It could be named for Bremner, who died in 1997, and has a statue outside, but, as yet, is unnamed.

With Hunter's death, there are 8 living players from Leeds' 1969 Football League Champions: Paul Reaney, Terry Cooper, Jack Charlton, Allan Clarke, Mick Jones, Johnny Giles, Eddie Gray and Peter Lorimer. (UPDATE: Charlton died on July 10, 2020, dropping the number to 7.)

There are 9 living players from Leeds' 1972 FA Cup win: Reaney, Charlton, Lorimer, Clarke, Jones, Giles, Gray, David Harvey and Mick Bates. (UPDATE: Charlton's death leaves 8.)

There are 12 living players from Leeds' 1974 Football League Champions: Harvey, Reaney, Lorimer, Clarke, Giles, Gray, Jones, Bates, Trevor Cherry, Gordon McQueen, Joe Jordan and Duncan McKenzie.

(UPDATE: Cherry died on April 29, 2020, just 12 days after Hunter, at age 72. No cause was listed, but since there was no mention of COVID-19, we can't say that it was the cause. His death drops the number of surviving 1974 Leeds Champions to 11.)

And from England's 1966 World Cup winners, there are 11 players still alive. George Cohen, Nobby Stiles, Geoff Hurst, Roger Hunt, and Bobby and Jack Charlton played in the Final. Jimmy Greaves, Ron Flowers, Terry Paine, Ian Callaghan and George Eastham are still alive, but did not play in the Final. (UPDATE: Jack Charlton's death leaves 10.)

Willie Davis, 1934-2020

As I said yesterday, in a post mentioning some sports legends we've recently lost, we can hide ourselves away to avoid the coronavirus, but there is no escape from the progress of life, which always, for each of us, though we may not know when, where, or how, ends in death.

So it is for another of the stars of the team that dominated the NFL in the 1960s. Many of them lived to see the 50th Anniversary of their wins in Super Bowl I and the Ice Bowl, but in the 3 and 2 years, respectively, since, have passed away.

William Delford Davis was born on July 24, 1934 in Lisbon, Louisiana, in the northern part of the State, near the Arkansas line. He grew up in nearby Texarkana, Arkansas (there is an adjoining city of the same name across the State Line in Texas), and became a 2-way lineman at nearby Grambling State University.

In many places in the South, there were colleges and universities set up to be black people's equivalent to nearby white ones. Florida A&M was established in Tallahassee, near Florida State; Tennessee State in Nashville, near Vanderbilt; and, in Louisiana, Southern University in Baton Rouge near LSU, and Grambling State in Grambling, near Louisiana Tech in Ruston.

Along with running back Paul "Tank" Younger and lineman Buck Buchanan, Davis was among the early stars produced by Grambling head coach Eddie Robinson, who went on to win more games than any college football coach, regardless of race or level, before him, and raised the profile of black colleges' football programs in general.

Cleveland Browns head coach and general manager Paul Brown had been a pioneer in re-integrating pro football, so he knew what the top black-college football players were capable of. He selected Davis in the 1956 NFL Draft. But another draft claimed Davis, that of the U.S. Army, and he missed the 1956 and 1957 seasons. In 1958 and 1959, Brown played Davis all over the offensive and defensive lines, to see where he would most help the team.

Davis may not have convinced Brown that he was particularly well-suited for any position. Or, he may have done a better job of convincing Vince Lombardi, head coach and GM of the Green Bay Packers. He traded for Davis, and put him at defensive end, and he became one of the greatest players that position has ever known.

The Packers won the NFL Western Division in 1960, their 1st such title in 16 years. They lost the NFL Championship Game to the Philadelphia Eagles. With a little more tinkering, Lombardi got them to the 1961 Championship Game, and a defense led by Davis and linebacker Ray Nitschke wrecked the high-powered offense of the New York Giants. The offense, quarterbacked by Bart Starr, protected by an offensive line with Jerry Kramer and Forrest Gregg, and with star runners Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor, ran riot through the snow of what would become Lambeau Field on New Year's Eve, and the Packers won 37-0.

The sack was not an official NFL statistic during Davis' time. David "Deacon" Jones of the Los Angeles Rams, Davis' chief competitor for the title of the NFL's best defensive end, created the term for tackling the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. Football historian John Turney determined that Davis had "possibly more than 120." Davis believed he was the franchise's all-time leader, and when you consider that he was a teammate of Nitschke, and that they later had Reggie White at defensive end (albeit having spent the 1st half of his career with the Eagles), that says something.

Definitely still a team career record is the 21 fumbles that Davis recovered. He would make 5 Pro Bowls, all in a row from 1963 to 1967. He would help the Packers make it back-to-back NFL Championships in 1962, with a 13-1 record, their only loss a nationally-televised Thanksgiving Day shocker to the Detroit Lions.

And he helped them win 3 straight NFL Championships from 1965 to 1967, the last 2 setting up wins in Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II. The last of these NFL Championship Games was the game known as the Ice Bowl. On another New Year's Eve, the game-time temperature was 13 degrees... below zero. That's without the wind-chill factor.

NFL Films footage of the day shows Davis walking into Lambeau Field, in a heavy coat and a fur-lined hat, with a big smile on his face, as if he's sure that his team, used to cold Wisconsin weather (if not quite this cold), would be far more ready to play than their opponents, the Dallas Cowboys, used to the warm South. The Cowboys put up one hell of a fight, but the Packers won, 21-17.

Earlier in the year, on June 4, 1967, what was then called the Cleveland Summit was called by Davis' former Browns teammate Jim Brown, to bring prominent black athletes together in support of Muhammad Ali, who had been stripped of the Heavyweight Championship of the World by the governing bodies for boxing, following his April 28 refusal to be drafted into the Army, and his subsequent indictment for draft evasion.

Davis attended what's now usually called "The Ali Summit," and supported Ali, even though he himself had been drafted and served his 2-year hitch. Also attending was Washington Redskins flanker Bobby Mitchell, who died earlier this month.

Here's who's in the picture. Back row:

* Carl Stokes, Ohio State Representative, running for Mayor of Cleveland. He would be elected, becoming the 1st black Mayor of a major American city.

* Walter Beach, recently retired Browns player, previously an original member of the Boston (later New England) Patriots in 1960.

* Bobby Mitchell, the 1st black player for the Washington Redskins, flanker, later elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

* Sid Williams, Browns linebacker, later U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, husband of Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California.

* Curtis McClinton, running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, who had lost to Davis and the Packers in Super Bowl I, 5 months earlier. He would help the Chiefs win Super Bowl IV.

* Willie Davis.

* Jim Shorter, defensive back for the Redskins, formerly for the Browns.

* John Wooten, guard for the Browns. Front row: Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Front row: 

* Bill Russell, who had just completed his 1st season as head coach of the Boston Celtics, while still playing for them. This made him the 1st black head coach in modern major league sports. He would lead the Celtics to 11 NBA Championships as a player, the last 2 as player-coach.

* Muhammad Ali. He would be permitted to return to boxing in 1970, having his conviction for draft evasion overturned in a unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971, and regain the title in 1974.

* Jim Brown, who retired in 1966 as the NFL's all-time leading rusher, and is still often considered the greatest player in NFL history.

* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then still using his birth name of Lew Alcindor, and finishing his sophomore year at UCLA, which he had just led to a 30-0 record and the National Championship.

Beach Williams, Wooten, and of course Jim Brown had all played for the Browns on their 1964 NFL Championship team, which got back to the NFL Championship Game in 1965, but lost to Davis and the Packers.

*

Willie Davis retired from football after the 1969 season, having gotten an MBA from the University of Chicago. He ran a distributorship for Schlitz Beer, making a fortune. He later served on its board of directors, and also did so for Dow Chemical, Johnson Controls, K-Mart, MGM Studios, Sara Lee, and other companies. He was hired by NBC as a color commentator on NFL telecasts, one of the earliest black men so hired, and this inspired him to establish All-Pro Broadcasting which operated several radio stations.

He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981, and later to the NFL's 1960s All-Decade Team, the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. In 1999, The Sporting News listed its 100 Greatest Football Players, and he was ranked 69th. In 2010, the NFL Network ranked its 100 Greatest Players, and he came in 86th.

According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Willie Davis had the 4th-highest "Approximate Value" of any NFL player in the 1960s. The 3 ahead of him? Johnny Unitas, Jim Brown and Fran Tarkenton.

He and his wife Ann had a son, Duane, and a daughter, Lori. Duane Davis played football at the University of Missouri, but hurt his knee, and turned to acting. He played college football players in the films Necessary Roughness (in which his character "catches" a ball with his face mask) and The Program, but was injured filming both.

He played basketball player Bo Kimble in Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story, Joe Louis in the TV-movie Rocky Marciano, James "Buster" Douglas in the HBO film Tyson, a fictional right fielder in Little Big League, and a fictional boxer in Diggstown.

His own son, Wyatt Davis, is finishing up his sophomore year at Ohio State, and was named an All-American and All-Conference guard last season.

Wyatt Davis of Ohio State, exercising a Big Ten tradition:

When your team clinches a berth in the Rose Bowl,

clench a rose in your teeth.

Willie Davis lived out his life in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, California, and died there today, April 15, 2020, after being hospitalized with kidney failure about a month ago. He was 85.

In a weird coincidence, he died on what would have been the 80th birthday of another Willie Davis, the Gold Glove center fielder who helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win the 1963 and 1965 World Series.

Jerry Kramer, Hall of Fame guard on the 1960s Packers: “A principled human being. A beautiful guy. A consistent guy, the same guy at 70 that he was at 42, 35 or whatever. A very special human being.”

Dave Robinson, who was the other defensive end on the 1st 2 Super Bowl winners, and also in the Hall of Fame: "There's only one Willie Davis. I just feel sorry for the people who never got a chance to really meet, sit down & talk to the man... he would've changed your life."

David Maraniss, who interviewed Davis for his biography When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi: We've lost another legend. Willie Davis, great player out of Eddie Robinson's Grambling, defensive captain, better person, Hall of Fame in every respect, one of many Lombardi era Packers as successful off the field as on it, Dr. Feelgood could light up the field, & any room.

Donald Driver, receiver on the Packers' Super Bowl XXXI winners: ’ve had the pleasure of spending time over my 20yrs with some phenomenal icon and legends. Today, we loss one of them. My friend Willie Davis. Our prayers go out to Willie family and friends. #RIPWillieDavis #REST87

Just since October 13, 2018, of last year, the Packers have lost 5 Hall-of-Famers: Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, Forrest Gregg, Willie Wood and Willie Davis. With Davis' death:

* There are 10 surviving players from the 1961 NFL Champion Green Bay Packers: Paul Hornung, Herb Adderley, Jerry Kramer, John Roach, Tom Moore, Dale Hackbart, Nelson Toburen, Lee Folkins, Gary Knafelc and Boyd Dowler.

* There are 12 surviving players from the 1962 NFL Champion Packers: Hornung, Adderley, Kramer, Roach, Moore, Toburen, Knafelc, Dowler, Howie Williams, Ed Blaine, Ron Gassert and Gary Barnes.

* There are 14 surviving players from the 1965 NFL Champion Packers: Hornung, Adderley, Kramer, Moore, Dowler, Tom Brown, Junior Coffey, Bill Curry, Ken Bowman, Steve Wright, Bob Long, Marv Fleming, Carroll Dale and Dave Robinson.

* There 18 surviving players from the Packer team that won Super Bowl I: Hornung, Adderley, Kramer, Dowler, Tom Brown, Curry, Bowman, Wright, Long, Fleming, Dale, Robinson, Red Mack, Jim Grabowski, Phil Vandersea, Donny Anderson, Dave Hathcock and Jim Weatherwax.

* There are 20 surviving players from the Packer team that won Super Bowl II: Adderley, Kramer, Dowler, Tom Brown, Bowman, Wright, Long, Fleming, Dale, Robinson, Grabowski, Anderson, Weatherwax, Don Horn, Chuck Mercein, Ben Wilson, John Rowser, Bob Hyland, Jim Flanigan and Dick Capp.

* And there are 7 living participants in the 1967 Cleveland (Ali) Summit: Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Curtis McClinton, Jim Shorter, John Wooten and Walter Beach.

There Is No Escape

Sports is supposed to be one of our potential escapes from the bad things that happen in real life. But what happens when real life intrudes on sports?

Tomorrow is April 15, the anniversary of Jackie Robinson's major league debut, and Major League Baseball announced it's going to have a "virtual" celebration, in lieu of being able to do so in regularly-scheduled games, postponed indefinitely by the coronavirus pandemic.

The NFL is still planning on holding its Draft next week, in a "virtual" way, from Las Vegas, and ESPN has been trying to focus on it. The fact that Tom Brady left the New England Patriots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Philip Rivers left the Los Angeles Chargers for the Indianapolis Colts, who have now signed him as a short-term replacement for the recently retired Andrew Luck, has made the Draft a little more interesting -- for people who found it interesting in the first place.

With the pandemic finally beginning to recede in Europe, professional soccer leagues there have discussed restarting their games on June 1, although it will likely be in empty stadiums, to reduce the risk to fans. The hope is that the 10 or so remaining games can be completed by July 1, with the 2020-21 season starting in September instead of the usual August.

MLB is also considering a June 1 start, with a condensed season, but the plan to condense it geographically -- keep every team in their Spring Training complexes, thus having a Grapefruit League (Florida) and a Cactus League (Arizona), instead of an American League and a National League -- doesn't make much sense. Either let every team play their home games at home, or don't. And by that, I mean, let every team play at home.

The NBA, the NHL and MLS are still keeping their options open.

*

But we can't really escape. Not even through our traditional escapes. Death, whether from the coronavirus or otherwise, has intersected, intervened, and interfered.

Just in the 1st half of this month, we've lost:

* Ed Farmer, 70, former Chicago White Sox relief pitcher and broadcaster, a 1980 All-Star, from kidney disease, on April 1.

* Goyo Benito, 73, a centreback for Real Madrid, who from 1970 to 1980 won 6 La Liga titles and 5 Copas del Rey, on April 2. He had Alzheimer's disease, and was in a nursing home that was hit hard by the coronavirus, and it killed him.

* Timothy Brown, 82, usually known as Timmy Brown when he played football. The running back won an NFL Championship in his 1st season, with the 1960 Philadelphia Eagles, and another in his last season, with the 1968 Baltimore Colts, although they famously lost Super Bowl III to the Jets. He had already begun a singing career, and moved into acting, appearing in both the film and TV versions of M*A*S*H, although playing different characters. He died of complications of dementia on April 4.

* Tom Dempsey, 73, New Orleans Saints kicker who became the 1st man to kick a field goal longer than 56 yards, kicking one 63 yards in a 1970 game. Like Brown, he was dealing with dementia, and died on April 4. Unlike Brown, he definitively died as a result of the coronavirus, Obituary post here.

* Bobby Mitchell, 84, Hall of Fame running back for the Washington Redskins, on April 5, cause of death not released. Obituary post here.

* Ed Biles, 88, head coach of the Houston Oilers 1981 to 1983, and a member of Bum Phillips' staff on the Oilers from 1974 to 1980, of leukemia, on April 5.

* Bob Hermann, 97, a businessman who co-founded the original North American Soccer League, founded one of its teams, the St. Louis Stars, and founded the Hermann Trophy, the soccer equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, given to the year's best U.S. college soccer player. He is a member of the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame, and died on April 5, apparently not due to the coronavirus.

* Al Kaline, 85, Hall of Fame right fielder for the Detroit Tigers, on April 6, cause of death not reported. Obituary post here.

* Radomir Antić, 71, a star centreback for Partizan Belgrade, leading them to the 1976 Yugoslav First League title. He became better known as a manager, and went to Spain, becoming 1 of only 2 men ever to have managed both Real Madrid and Barcelona. But it was at Atlético Madrid that he achieved his greatest success, leading them to a Liga and Copa "Double" in 1996. He died on April 6, with the cause of death not reported.

* Pat Stapleton, 79, defenseman for the Chicago Blackhawks, helped them reach the 1971 and 1973 Stanley Cup Finals, and a member of the Team Canada that won the 1972 Summit Series with the Soviet Union, dying this past Wednesday, from a stroke.

* Junzo Sekine, 93, a pitcher and outfielder who was a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, making 5 All-Star Teams with the team now known as the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, dying this past Thursday, cause of death not reported.

* Pete Retzlaff, 88, a teammate of Timmy Brown's on the 1960 NFL Champion Philadelphia Eagles, one of the earliest great tight ends, and a pioneer with the NFL Players' Association, dying this past Friday, cause of death not reported.

* Tom Webster, 71, a right wing who played 2 games for the Boston Bruins in their 1969-70 Stanley Cup season, but not in the Playoffs, and did not get a championship ring, but did win the WHA Championship with the New England Whalers in 1973, and reached the Finals with them again in 1977. He was later the head coach of the New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings, leading the Kings to what remains their only regular-season Division title, in 1991. He died this past Friday, of cancer.

* Colby Cave, 25, center for the Edmonton Oilers, this past Saturday, of a brain hemorrhage.

* Peter Bonetti, 78, goalkeeper for Chelsea FC, a member of England's team that won the 1966 World Cup, but considered a letdown in the 1970 World Cup, also helped the St. Louis Stars win the NASL Central Division in 1975. Died on Sunday, from what was identified only as "a long illness." Obituary post here.

* Glenn Beckert, 79, a 4-time All-Star 2nd baseman for the Chicago Cubs, a 1968 Gold Glove winner, and a member of their ill-fated 1969 team that romanticized the franchise forever, on Sunday, cause of death not reported.

* Jim Frey, 88, a high school baseball teammate of Don Zimmer, never reached the major leagues as a player, was on Earl Weaver's coaching staff with the Baltimore Orioles, winning the World Series in 1970 and Pennants in 1971 and 1979. He was then hired to manage the Kansas City Royals, and in 1980, he did what Whitey Herzog failed to do 3 times: Beat the Yankees in the ALCS and win the Pennant. He was next a coach for the Mets, then managed the Cubs to the 1984 National League Eastern Division title, their 1st postseason berth in 39 years. He became the team's general manager, hired Zimmer to manage, and together they won the 1989 NL East title. He died on Sunday, cause of death not reported.

* Tarvaris Jackson, 36, a 10-year backup quarterback with the Minnesota Vikings and the Seattle Seahawks. He backed up Russell Wilson in Super Bowl XLVIII, and remains the last backup quarterback to play in a Super Bowl, although his only pass attempt was incomplete. He had become the quarterbacks coach at Tennessee State University, but was killed in a car crash in Pike Road, Alabama on Sunday.

* Sir Stirling Moss, 90. I don't consider auto racing a sport, but he was one of the very best at it, ever. In a career lasting from 1948 to 1962, he won 212 races, including the 1950, 1956, 1960 and 1961 Grand Prix de Monaco; the 1954, 1955, 1959, 1960 and 1961 International Gold Cup; the 1955, 1957 and 1959 British Grand Prix; and the 1960 United States Grand Prix. He later became one of the sport's foremost broadcasters. He died this past Sunday, of what's been identified only as "a long illness."

* And, today, it was announced that Henry George Steinbrenner III, a.k.a. Hank Steinbrenner, son of George, and operational co-owner of the Yankees with his brother Hal since 2008, passed away today, in Clearwater, Florida, at age 63, after a long battle with a liver ailment.

Prior to the 2009 season, Hank, much more unhappy about the Boston Red Sox' recent success, and the Yankees' lack of it, said not that the Yankees were going to restore order to the universe, but "We're going to put the Yankees back on top, and restore the universe to order." They did, at least temporarily, winning the World Series. How much he, as opposed to Hal, general manager Brian Cashman, and field manager Joe Girardi, had to do with it isn't clear. But we loved that he was showing his father's kind of ambition.

Hank was married, but divorced. He leaves 4 children, including George Michael Steinbrenner IV, who runs Steinbrenner Racing, an IndyCare team.

Old-Time Hitters: 5 Who Would Be Great In the Modern Era (And 5 Who Would Have Trouble)

April 14, 1920, 100 years ago today: Babe Ruth makes his debut for the New York Yankees. It doesn't go so well for them: They lose 3-1 to the Philadelphia Athletics, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

In the 1st inning, Wally Pipp hit a home run, followed immediately by Ruth's 1st Yankee at-bat, a single to right field. He then struck out in the 4th, beat out a grounder to 2nd base in the 6th, and popped up to 3rd base in the 8th. So he went 2-for-4.

But, for the A's, Cy Perkins hit a game-tying home run in the 5th, and the Yankees' center fielder misplayed a fly ball in the 8th, leading to the winning runs, as Philadelphia's Scott Perry outpitched Yankee ace Bob Shawkey. The Yankees' center fielder that day? Babe Ruth. Yes, "the GOAT" (Greatest Of All Time) was "the goat" (scapegoat).

The 1920 season was a watershed for baseball. It wasn't just that Ruth hit home runs farther and more frequently than anyone had before. Pitching changed as well. Doctoring the baseball -- scuffing it, and putting various substances on it, including human saliva, all of which got put under the category of "spitball" -- was banned. Also, new balls were put into play as soon as possible, to keep them whiter and easier to see, thus less dangerous.

As a result, a new era of big hitting began, the Lively Ball Era. And pitching feats like winning 30 games in a season fell by the wayside.

There have been other major changes since. After "The Year of the Pitcher" in 1968, the pitcher's mound was lowered from 15 inches high at its crest to 10 inches. The strike zone, allegedly, has also been changed. We still saw lots of "high strikes" in the 1970s, but in the 1980s, they became fewer and farther between.

I wonder: Which old-time players would have excelled in today's game? And which would have had trouble? These men are listed in chronological order.

10. Would Be Great: Ty Cobb

I can tell what you're thinking: With his prejudices, his braggodocio, and the media coverage of today, "the Georgia Peach" would never be permitted to last. His big mouth would constantly get him into trouble. Well, you never know. He was pretty savvy by the standards of his time. He might have adjusted to the social media era.

But as for playing: He would have understood that the fences would be a lot closer than the faraway ones he faced from 1905 to 1928. He would have been smart enough to use the ballparks he was in. Oddly, the new home of the Detroit Tigers, Comerica Park, would have been far better suited to his contact-hitting, double-and-triple-seeking ways than was the 1938 to 1999 version of Tiger Stadium, with its overhanging upper deck in right field. He would have liked Comerica.

In the Divisional Play Era, 1969 to the present, Cobb might have been a player like George Brett. Brett's 3,154 hits included 665 doubles, 137 triples and 317 home runs. Granted, those 3,154 hits were over 1,000 fewer than Cobb had, but Cobb might have had more than that. He wouldn't have batted .366, but he would have batted higher than Brett's career .305, and he certainly would have stolen more bases than Brett's 201, if not quite as many as his own 892.

9. Would Have Had Trouble: Honus Wagner

"The Flying Dutchman" was considered the game's greatest player, possibly its greatest ever, until Cobb took that crown while Wagner was still playing. His lifetime batting average was .329, his OPS+ 151, his career RBIs 1,732 (a record at the time), and he collected 3,430 hits (also a record until surpassed by Cobb). It's now been over 100 years after his last game, and he is still regarded as the greatest shortstop who ever lived.

He was a great defensive player, too, appearing in 1,887 games at shortstop, 374 in the outfield, 248 at 1st base, 210 at 3rd base, 57 at 2nd base, and even twice on the mound, pitching 8 1/3rd innings, all scoreless.

But would any scout even look at him today? With that nose, those ears, that physique, and those bowed legs, he probably looked less like a great athlete than any MLB player in recent times, even Yogi Berra.

I can't imagine any team today putting him at shortstop. And on the properly manicured fields of today, instead of the pebble-strewn dirt patches of the early 20th Century, he would have really had to adjust. And can you imagine Honus adjusting to things like the split-fingered fastball and cut fastballs? Cobb, maybe; Wagner, I doubt it.

8. Would Have Been Great: Babe Ruth

As I alluded to in the entry about Cobb, most of today's ballparks don't have 450-foot expanses in center field and the power alleys. Today, the longest distances in any big-league park are Fenway Park in Boston, the only surviving AL park from that era, and Comerica Park in Detroit, each of which has a 420-foot marker.

In the Great Bambino's day, while there were several parks with very short right-field fences, including the then-new original Yankee Stadium, there were also a lot whose fences went way out, including said Yankee Stadium, whose center field was 490 feet when the Babe arrived and 461 feet when he retired. "The House That Ruth Built" wasn't entirely built for Ruth.

This is why baseball historian Bill Jenkinson titled his 2007 book The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs: He took the 8 ballparks the American League teams played in during the Babe's seasons, and compared their dimensions with the parks those same franchises play in today (including adjusting for Fenway's dimensions, which have been shortened), found records of the Babe's homers (which direction, and at what point they seemed to have landed), and decided that the Babe's 59 home runs in 1921, in those same 8 teams' parks of today, would have been 104 home runs.

If you don't believe me, or Jenkinson, think of the current Yankee Stadium, Comerica Park, Cleveland's Jacobs Field, Chicago's U.S. Cellular Field, Baltimore's Camden Yards, the Oakland Coliseum, and Minnesota's Target Field; and compare those to the old Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds where the Yanks played until The Stadium opened in 1923 (short poles but faraway alleys and center), Tiger Stadium (then known as Navin Field), Cleveland Municipal Stadium (the fence would later be brought in from 470 to center to 410), Chicago's Comiskey Park, the Orioles then playing as the St. Louis Browns in Sportsman's Park (a short right field but 426 to center), the A's then playing in Philadelphia's Shibe Park which was 447 to center, and the Twins, then the Washington Senators, playing at Griffith Stadium were every fence except the right-field corner was ridiculously far away. Even Fenway brought center field in quite a bit, 505 to 420.

Those are the parks in which the Sultan of Swat hit 708 home runs (with the last 6 coming in the NL in '35). How many would he have hit in today's parks? If we use the same ratio, 104/59 = 1.763, we're talking about 1,253 home runs. Ain't no way Bryce Harper and Mike Trout gonna match that. They're not even going to approach 714, to say nothing of Hank Aaron's 755 and Barry Bonds' 762.

7. Would Have Had Trouble: Hack Wilson

Lewis Robert Wilson certainly took some "hacks": He was one of the scariest hitters of the early Lively Ball Era. In 1929, he helped the Chicago Cubs win the National League Pennant with 39 home runs and a whopping 159 RBIs. He was just getting warmed up: In 1930, he hit 56 homers, an NL record that stood until 1998; and had 191 RBIs, a major league record that still stands.

But he played his last major league game just 4 years later, at age 34. Why? Two reasons. His heavy drinking affected his health, and not just by jacking his weight up. At 5-foot-6 and 190 pounds, someone said, "He was shaped like a beer barrel, and not unfamiliar with its contents."

Maybe his drinking could have been properly treated today. And maybe he would have been a designated hitter, instead of being perhaps the most ill-suited center fielder ever. And maybe he would have been put in the gym, to get himself into shape.

But maybe that wouldn't have worked. Because the other reason he was out of MLB just 4 years after his amazing season was that he couldn't get along with his managers. That's plural: It wasn't just a personality conflict with one guy. Managers, and their superiors in the front office, wouldn't have put up with a Hack Wilson. A Ruth, or a Cobb, because they produced and didn't embarrass the ballclub, sure; a Wilson, no.

6. Would Have Been Great: Josh Gibson

Gibson, perhaps more than any other player in baseball history, is a figure of legend. The fact that he was called "the Black Babe Ruth," when Ruth is such a figure of legend, shows that. So does the fact that Negro League fans preferred to call Ruth "the White Josh Gibson."

A brain tumor killed Gibson at age 35, just 3 months before Jackie Robinson reintegrated the major leagues. He never got to play at the highest level. Negro League record-keeping was woefully inadequate, so stories of him hitting over 800 career home runs, including an alleged 84 of them in a season, are mere speculation, and have to take the quality of the pitchers he faced into account -- and, perhaps, barnstorming tours that meant that he played more than 162 games in a season.

We don't even have film of him, so we can't look at his swing and "break down his mechanics," to see what kind of hitter he really was. We can look at Barry Bonds' forearms, say that Hank Aaron was a great hitter because he had quick wrists, marvel at the biceps on Mickey Mantle, or marvel at how Ted Williams shifted his hips, and say, "That's the big reason he was such a great hitter." With Josh Gibson, we can't be sure.

But we do know some things about him. At his peak, he was 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds. He never fell out of shape until his fatal illness overtook him. He could hit the ball anywhere. Well, almost anywhere: Someone looked in the black newspapers of the 1930s and '40s, and found accounts of every game he ever played at Yankee Stadium. While it was recorded that he hit some long home runs there, the papers didn't say that he hit a fair ball all the way out, something no player did in a major league game. If he had done it, those papers would have been the likeliest to say so at the time.

But Gibson would have feasted on the ballparks built in the 1990s and 2000s. Most likely, about midway through his career, he would have been moved from catcher to another position, as happened to Yogi Berra (left field) and Johnny Bench (1st base, then 3rd base), or been made a designated hitter (if he were in the American League), and that probably would have extended his career. With the major leagues open to him, and racial prejudice severely reduced (though not entirely eliminated), he could have concentrated on baseball, and that would have been bad news for pitchers in my lifetime.

It's worth asking: What kind of player would Jackie Robinson have been today? I think he would have been one of the top running backs. You see, baseball was not his best sport. He was all-conference at UCLA in 1939 and '40. If baseball had already been integrated -- if it didn't need a "Jackie Robinson" -- he might not have been interested.

Likewise, Willie Mays has said that he was a great high school quarterback. Roger Maris also excelled at football. And Bob Gibson's best sport was basketball. Sandy Koufax has said that basketball was his best sport as well. It's possible that neither Jackie, nor Willie, nor Roger, nor Gibby nor Sandy would even have played professional baseball, given today's choices.

5. Would Have Had Trouble: Mel Ott

From 1926 to 1947, this guy hit 511 home runs, the 1st National League player to break the 500 barrier. But he hit 323 of them at home. That's 63 percent. It was mostly because he was a lefthanded hitter pulling the ball down the right field line at the Polo Grounds, where the foul pole was just 257 feet from home plate.

Who's kidding who? He would have hit 300 home runs in the modern era, maybe 400. But 500? Not a chance. He would have been less a Jim Thome, more an Adam Dunn.

Chuck Klein, who benefited from the short right field fence at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, falls into the same category.

4. Would Have Been Great: Joe DiMaggio

When people asked "the Yankee Clipper" what the highlight of his career was, he usually said, "Just putting on the Yankee uniform." When they asked him if there was anything he didn't like about playing for the Yankees, he cited being a righthanded hitter having to hit into the "Death Valley" of left and center field of the pre-renovation original Yankee Stadium.

Instead of center field being 461 feet away, as it was until 1973, it became 417 in 1976, and 410 in 1988, and it remains that with the opening of the current Stadium in 2009. Left-center was 457 until 1973, became 430 in 1976, and has been 399 since 1988. Straightaway left went from 402 to 387 to 379.

And that's not the only change. Pretty much every American League team that was in existence from 1936 to 1951, except for Detroit, now has a ballpark that is easier to hit in. And he wouldn't have had to serve in World War II. And his heel injury would have been better-treated as well, so he wouldn't have missed half a season at age 33, and wouldn't have had to retire at 37.

With the closer fences, and having maybe 6 more years to play, Joltin' Joe's 361 career home runs would probably have had at least 100 more had he played the bulk of his career in the 2010s instead of the 1940s. It's not hard to imagine him reaching the 500 Home Run Club.

3. Would Have Had Trouble: Ted Williams

So, if Joe D would have had shorter fences, no war to fight in, better attention to his injury, and 6 more years to play in, surely, all that would also have benefited "the Splendid Splinter" as well, right?

He played until he was 42, so he wasn't shortchanged by injuries. Certainly, he wouldn't have missed 3 years due to World War II, and, for all intents and purposes, 2 years due to the Korean War. Having 5 more years, and the shorter fences, would have turned his 521 home runs into, if not quite a threat to have more home runs than Ruth's 714, Aaron's 755 or even Bonds' 762, then maybe around Willie Mays' 660.

But there's something else to consider. Nobody knew more about hitting than Ted Williams. But he didn't know about pitching. His stint as manager of the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers franchise from 1969 to 1972 showed that he didn't help the pitchers under his employ nearly as much as the hitters.

In addition, he would have faced pitches he never saw before, and also specialized relief pitching. Granted, that would have hurt most of these guys, possibly taking the shorter-fence advantage away. But the very scientific approach he had to hitting, and his oft-stated (publicly, mind you) hatred of pitchers would have made them more motivated.

Think about this: Suppose Ted Williams had played in the 1990s and 2000s, but not on the same team as Pedro Martinez. Ted is not known to have been targeted by a headhunting pitcher, ever. Nor is Ted known to have ever threatened a pitcher who brushed him back. But the dueling egos of Ted and Pedro the Punk could have produced a confrontation. Given Ted's size -- he was a skinny kid when he batted .406 in 1941, but his wartime service filled him out and made him a solid mass of muscle -- he could easily have kicked Pedro's scrawny ass.

But Ted's temper might have gotten the better of him, perhaps more than any of these guys except maybe for Cobb. Can you imagine Ted on social media? No, he's one great player who was far better off in his own era than in ours. Maybe he could have adjusted, and still won batting titles. But .406? No.

2. Would Have Been Great: Mickey Mantle

Mantle benefited from being the 1st superstar of the television era. No, Willie Mays wasn't. He appeared in just 2 World Series from 1951 to 1961, while Mantle was in it almost every year. But if any 1950s and/or '60s player would have benefited from being out of that era of toxic masculinity, and into the era of the Betty Ford Center and modern sports medicine, it's "the Mick."

Most likely, his father and the other men in his family wouldn't have been working in the mines until all that ore dust wrecked their lungs and killed them early, so he wouldn't have had that fear of early death hanging over his head.

So he could have just let 'er rip on the field. And that drain wouldn't have been left open, leading to his first and worst knee injury. And, with the doctors being able to take better care of his legs, and the modern mindset of baserunning, Mickey would have been a more dynamic player, and that's before you consider the shorter fences.

Sure, Mays might still have been a better player. The thought of "the Say Hey Kid" on the artificial basepaths of the 1970s and '80s NL is scary. But Mickey, in the modern game? Actually, he might have been even better in the run-happy 1980s than in the homer-happy 2010s: He still would have hit a lot of home runs, but he would have stolen more bases, too, and thus helped his team (whether it was the Yankees or someone else) win more games.

And what about Hank Aaron? He might have had even more than 755 home runs in modern ballparks. Dick Allen, with racial tensions reduced, ballparks more suited to his swing, and greater sensitivity among fans, might have cracked the 500-homer barrier, instead of finishing with 351.

1. Would Have Had Trouble: Tony Conigliaro

I'm going to catch hell if this post reaches the eyes of New Englanders, probably more for this entry than the one I did on Ted Williams. At first glance, it doesn't make sense to suggest that Tony C would have been a lesser player in the modern game. Had he been wearing a modern batting helmet in 1967, the pitch that nearly destroyed his eye would have hit an earflap instead. He would still have been hurt, but he would have come back sooner, with, perhaps, no permanent damage.

But there were things the public didn't know about about Tony in 1967, when he became a martyr to the Red Sox cause. He was more of a carouser than was known, and seemed to care about being a star as much as he did about being a ballplayer. He had a daughter that no one knew about until after his death. Indeed, he was closer to being Boston's Joe Pepitone than its Mantle.

In her book Confessions of a She-Fan, Yankee Fan Jane Heller told of how she and a friend of hers met Conigliaro after hours, and said friend suggested that she was the only fan who ever dated both Conigliaro and the pitcher who beaned him, Jack Hamilton.

In his book Tales from the Impossible Dream Red Sox, shortstop Rico Petrocelli, said, "While he dated actresses and Playboy bunnies, he wasn't a playboy like Bo Belinsky." (Belinsky was a Los Angeles Angels pitcher of the early 1960s who was wild in more ways than one. He pitched a no-hitter in 1962, and the increased attention that brought him was the worst thing that could have happened to him.) But Petro also cites the recording contract Tony had, which could have become a distraction for him as much as it was for his contemporary, Tiger pitcher and Las Vegas lounge organist Denny McLain.

With his good looks, his local-boy-makes-good story, and his hitting power, Tony C would have been irresistible to baseball's marketing boys. Had he come along 30 years later, in 1994, he, rather than Nomar Garciaparra, would have been the Red Sox public-eye counterweight to the Yankees' Derek Jeter. The distractions might have been too much, and reduced his effectiveness, the way it sometimes did for Alex Rodriguez.

In addition, he had already had the 1964 season cut short by injury. Maybe he would have remained injury-free after 1967, but maybe not. As Petrocelli said in his book, "Tony was not only a chick magnet, he was a magnet for stray pitches. Five times he had bones broken by pitches, including the one that broke his shoulder blade five months earlier in spring training." That does not bode well for a long, stat-heavy career.