by D Server

Created on: January 10, 2010

George Blanda's career was so long and included so many different eras of professional football that it is hard to believe it could have been accomplished by just one person. He started in the era when almost no players wore facemasks and no games were televised (televsion itself was in its infancy.) In the early fifites, struggling franchises in the NFL were still moving around trying to survive. A franchise failed in Boston, moved to New York, failed there, then moved to Dallas where it went bankrupt, eventually settling in Baltimore.  Other franchises, including the Rams and the Browns, moved around trying to find other homes. Players weren't always paid on time, even though their salaries were small and all needed offseason jobs. Most every team was a poor cousin in their home field, either sharing the facility with a baseball team or a more popular college team.

By the time Blanda finally retired, reluctantly at that, after the 1975 season, the game had evolved to a time when every team played in large stadiums and brought in many millions from television. No players needed offseason jobs. The Super Bowl was the most watched television event of the year, and players had become household names. The NFL had gone from 12 teams to 26 (eventually going to its current 32.)

About the only connection between these two eras, incredibly, was that George Blanda played through both of them. He started as a quarterback with the Bears, and he was also was their punter and place kicker. He played through the fifties in Chicago and was the co-quarterback, along with Ed Brown, on their 1956 Western Division Championship team-which lost to the Gianbts in the championship game. A couple of years later, Blanda was released by the Bears. His career seemed to be over, after nearly a decade. This was not a particularly short career by football standards, but Blanda felt he had more to offer. There just wasn't anywhere for him to play. That is, until the American Football League started up in 1960. He became the quarterback of the new Houston Oilers in the new league, and set passing marks which lasted well past his retirement. After many successful years in Houston, he ended up in Oakland, where he was primarily the place kicker but he also played a good deal of quarterback.

In 1970, the merger of the American and National Football Leagues was complete, and it amused Blanda that he was back playing in the league that had declared him washed up more than a decade before. He had a tremendous year in 1970, not only kicking several clutch field goals to win games for Oakland but also played a good deal of quarterback, pulling out key games with late touchdown passes.  This included a game in Denver where the Broncos and their fans had already congratulated themselves on their win when Blanda threw the game winning touchdown pass to another hall of famer, Fred Biletnikoff, in the last seconds.

Blanda continued on for several more years, mostly as the place kicker for the Raiders. His last game came in the 1975 AFC Championship game on a frozen field in Pittsburgh. Blanda kicked a 46 yard field goal with less than a minute to play which brought the Raiders within a touchdown, and even though the Raiders recovered the onside kick, they were unable to score. The Steelers won, the Raiders season ended and Blanda's unprecendented career was over.

George Blanda was elected to the hall of fame as soon as he was eligible in 1981. At the time, he had league scoring records which have since been broken, but his records for longevity are not likely to be broken and certainly not by anyone who played so many games at quarterback as George did.

Learn more about this author, D Server.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.