by Dan Trammel

Created on: July 09, 2009

Although trade deadline deals are less prevalent in football than in the other major sports, they do occur. And as long as there are trades, there are bonehead decisions to criticize.

The New York Giants started the 1974 season 1-5. Believing they needed a veteran quarterback, they traded their 1975 1st round pick for Dallas Cowboys quarterback Craig Morton. After platooning for several seasons with Roger Staubach, Morton became expendable when Staubach was named the full-time starter. After the Giants lost Morton's first game, ironically to the Cowboys, Morton led New York to a 33-27 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. That was the Giants final win of the season as they dropped their final six ball games, finishing 2-12 and earning the number 2 overall pick in the upcoming draft. The Cowboys used that pick to select future Hall of Famer Randy White. The 9-time Pro Bowler anchored the Dallas defense and led them to 6 NFC Championship Games and 3 Super Bowl appearances. Morton spent two more seasons in New York, leading them to a 5-9 record in 1975 and 3-11 in 1976. Following the 1976 season, the Giants traded Morton to the Denver Broncos for quarterback Steve Ramsey and a fifth round pick in 1978. Ramsey never played for the Giants and the fifth round pick was used on wide receiver Brian Deroo, who also never appeared in a game for New York. Morton, on the other hand, led the Broncos to their first ever Super Bowl in 1977.

At the same time the Giants were acquiring Morton, the Los Angeles Rams traded quarterback John Hadl to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for 5 draft picks: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round picks in 1975 and 1st and 2nd round picks in 1976. The Packers started the 1974 season 3-3 when they made the deal for Hadl. They struggled the rest of the way, finishing 6-8. Hadl spent only one more season in Green Bay, leading them to a 4-10 record, while throwing 6 touchdowns and 21 interceptions. They then traded Hadl, 2-time Pro Bowler Ken Ellis, a 4th round pick in 1976, and a 3rd round pick in 1977 to the Houston Oilers in exchange for quarterback Lynn Dickey. Although Dickey was a nice player, leading the NFL in 1983 with 4458 passing yards and 32 touchdowns, he led the Packers to only 1 playoff appearance, during the strike-shortened 1982 season. He certainly was not worth the amount they gave up to acquire him. To make matters worse, one of the picks they traded to the Oilers was used to draft future Hall of Fame wide receiver

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