Tom Brady, the 45-year-old Tampa Bay quarterback who is commonly mentioned to be ageless, has smashed practically each NFL report that he can – one notable exception is held by an ageless predecessor, a grizzled quarterback and kicker who lastly stopped taking part in as a result of his crew reduce him.
George Frederick Blanda was of Slovak heritage, and his dad was a Pittsburgh coal miner. He performed his ultimate NFL recreation on 4 January 1976, on the age of 48 years, 109 days, a report that also stands. Blanda supposed to maintain taking part in, however he was not within the Oakland Raiders’ plans.
“After 26 years on this enterprise, I assume I can come to grips with the info of life. I simply want they’d mentioned one thing,” Blanda grumbled to reporters after the Raiders let him go.
Brady has been in contrast with Blanda these days as a result of the seven-time Tremendous Bowl champion has all however run out of issues to perform. The exception is the NFL’s longevity report – one thing during which Blanda, who died at 83 in 2010, apparently took lots of pleasure.
“He wasn’t a foul man. He simply didn’t endure fools,” says Frank Cooney, a veteran sports activities author who lined Blanda and the Raiders for the San Francisco Examiner.
Cooney was one of many reporters to whom Blanda gave an interview after he was reduce. There have been circumstances: the reporters had to assist him load his automobile first. There can be no information convention, no farewell tour. Most of Blanda’s solutions had been solely two or three phrases, anyway.
“He had his extra endearing moments – however not usually,” Cooney says.
Ron Borges, then a 23-year-old in his first season on the Raiders beat for the Sacramento Union, now says, “We had been 25 years and a worldview aside, however I had lots of respect for his toughness and the truth that there was no scenario in a soccer recreation that flustered him. If he knew what stress was, he by no means let on. He was a tricky man who could possibly be irascible at occasions, however he was additionally clutch, trustworthy and easy.”
Brady introduced in February that he was retiring, solely to take it again 40 days later. That was nothing in contrast with Blanda, who retired from soccer for the primary time 17 years earlier than the Raiders pushed him out of the NFL for good.
The Chicago Bears, his first NFL crew, had instructed him he was too previous in 1958, when he was nonetheless in his early 30s. So the Houston Oilers of the fledgling AFL signed Blanda in 1960 after a one-year retirement, and he led them to 2 AFL titles. However they launched him in 1967. Too previous, once more.
The Raiders signed him, and he performed by the 1969 season – however was launched once more in the course of the 1970 exhibition season. Too previous, once more! The Raiders later re-signed him for the 1970 common season primarily to be their kicker, however Blanda then turned an American legend.
“At a time of his life when he must be sitting within the stands with a thermos of scorching rooster soup, he’s sparking the Oakland Raiders to some unbelievable victories,” the late humor columnist Erma Bombeck wrote.
Brady has prolonged his profession by meticulous weight loss program and train, so he seems darn good for 45. With matted, graying hair and thick sideburns, Blanda checked out that age as if he’d used his face for place-kicking follow together with his square-toed shoe.
“He was 48, however in my thoughts’s eye, he was 70,” Cooney says.
However he reduce a romantic determine. Blanda would change into a perfect nationwide spokesman for Grecian Method, the lads’s hair-coloring product. “Somebody could also be utilizing Grecian Method, and also you won’t even comprehend it,” he’d say within the TV commercials.
Brady has been within the nationwide highlight since he stepped in for the injured Drew Bledsoe early in his second professional season and received the primary of his seven Tremendous Bowls a number of months later. Blanda, alternatively, didn’t emerge as an American pop-culture determine till he was 43.
He’d had an excellent 17 years for the Bears and Oilers – he was the 1961 AFL MVP – however he emerged as a “man for the center ages,” as Dave Distel of the Los Angeles Occasions put it, a month into the 1970 season, after starter Daryle Lamonica was sidelined with again spasms in a recreation in opposition to Pittsburgh.
Coach John Madden had Blanda on the crew principally to kick, so he’d thrown simply 11 landing passes in his first three seasons in Oakland. However within the Raiders’ 31-14 victory on 25 October, he threw three landing passes, including two additional factors and three subject targets.
Then it received loopy. Lamonica returned at quarterback per week later, however Blanda kicked two additional factors, including a 48-yard subject objective that hardly cleared the outstretched hand of 6ft 10in Kansas Metropolis tight finish Morris Stroud within the ultimate seconds to tie the rival Chiefs, 17-17.
Lamonica jammed his shoulder within the fourth quarter per week later in opposition to the Cleveland Browns, so Blanda drove the Raiders 69 yards to tie the sport with 1 minutes 34 seconds left, then kicked a 52-yard subject objective with three seconds left for a 23-20 victory.
“Let George do it! That’s what our guys now suppose,” proclaimed Ben Davidson, the Raiders’ mammoth defensive finish.
The following week at Denver, Blanda changed Lamonica late within the recreation and drove the Raiders 80 yards for a profitable landing. Lamonica returned once more and led the Raiders to a 20-17 victory over the San Diego Chargers, however Blanda, who’d missed two subject targets earlier, kicked a objective with eight seconds left to win the sport. “Blanda for Mayor” buttons had been handed to followers after the sport.
Blanda threw solely 55 passes that season, and he and the Raiders misplaced the AFC title recreation to Baltimore, however he received the Bert Bell Award, chosen by the Maxwell Soccer Membership, because the NFL’s most precious participant, and was named because the Related Press Male Athlete of the Yr.
“Why, this George Blanda is pretty much as good as his father, who used to play for Houston,” Chiefs proprietor Lamar Hunt mentioned, tongue in cheek, playfully evaluating the identical quarterback at two levels of his profession.
Blanda would final 5 extra seasons, virtually completely as a kicker, although he did full a go in opposition to the Chiefs within the ultimate regular-season recreation in 1975. He kicked an additional level and a subject objective within the AFC title recreation, however the Raiders misplaced to Pittsburgh, 16-10.
That may be his final recreation, although he was actually not planning it that approach. The Raiders chosen a kicker, Fred Steinfort of Boston School, within the 1976 draft, and Blanda figured he was as an insurance coverage coverage, in case the rookie bombed.
When he was reduce, Blanda instructed reporters, “This makes the third time a crew has declared me too previous to play, solely this time, they could be proper.”
Blanda mused: Who else would desire a 48-year-old kicker with a $90,000 contract? Nobody, it turned out.
Borges says, “Madden knew the gamers had full confidence in Blanda’s skill to ship, so if he outshined the Raiders’ new younger kicker the stress can be on to maintain him. He’d confirmed himself within the clutch an unbelievable quantity of occasions within the 9 years he was with the Raiders. Who was this child taking his job?”
The Raiders received the Tremendous Bowl that season, however Steinfort was damage in mid-season and was changed by Errol Mann. Steinfort performed just one season in Oakland. The Raiders invited Blanda to the AFC title recreation, however it was Christmastime, and he needed to be together with his household.
Blanda set seven profession NFL information, together with most factors, 2,002. (Adam Vinatieri now holds the report with 2,673 factors.) Blanda was inducted into the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame in 1981, in his first 12 months of eligibility.
Brady nonetheless has three years to go earlier than he catches Blanda. Brady makes it sound as if he’s taking issues one 12 months at a time, however perhaps he’ll do the proper factor and resolve to bow out earlier than the 109th day of his forty ninth 12 months – simply so one other ironman’s customary can endure.
