Sports Central all-time draft (Part 2)

By Eric Poole Sports Central Columnist

Football talent, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

It's not like baseball, where you can look at Babe Ruth's numbers and say, "He's the best ever," then look at Barry Bonds' and say, "He's closing the gap. Fast."

In professional football, you can have Neil Lomax -- Neil Lomax, for heaven's sake -- finish among the statistical passing leaders and still have it accepted almost universally that he was a mediocre quarterback.

Statistics in football are primarily the function of the efforts of more than one person. And some of the most important people on the field -- offensive linemen -- don't have stats at all.

That's what makes an exercise like picking an all-time -- or even a single-season All-Pro -- team so much fun. Who gets included on that team says more about the person doing the picking than it does about the players picked.

The teams selected by the other three participants say, among other things, that they are very astute observers of the game -- all of them made a lot of excellent choices, like Brad's pick of Jim Brown, Dave's choice of Walter Payton, and Kevin tapping Joe Montana. That's not all of their really good picks, just their first-rounders.

To an extent, one of the things my team says is that I hold old-time players in high-regard. The players I didn't pick, but had listed second or third on my chart, say that even louder.

At every position in the draft (QB, RB, WR, TE, OT, OG, C, DT, DE, inside LB, outside LB, CB, S, and kicker), I had four players listed, knowing I could get no worse than the guy I believed to be the fourth-best player all-time at each position. In the 14 rounds. I ended up getting 10 of my top choices, one second choice, two third choices, and one fourth choice.

Players from the 1930s, '40s, and '50s are very well-represented on my draft board, which flies in the face of the fact that today's players are much bigger and faster than those of the past.

However, the physical differences between modern players and their predecessors aren't inherent -- evolution doesn't work that quickly.

Today's players are bigger and faster because of environmental factors -- nurture rather than nature -- like better diet, better training techniques and performance enhancing supplements (both legal and illegal). So, when evaluating older players, the question becomes: could this guy from the 1930s hang with today's best if he had had the advantages of a better diet, modern weight training, and steroids?

In a lot of those cases, the answer is yes.

My entire draft board is listed below, along with one guy who didn't quite make my top-four, but is a real good underrated player.

Round 1: Wide Receiver

1. Jerry Rice (my pick) 2. Don Hutson 3. Lynn Swann 4. Bob Hayes

Don Hutson is one of those guys I'm talking about when I say that a lot of old-time players who could have played today. With only a handful of exceptions, everyone who has caught more passes than Hutson, including Rice, played all or most of his career in the post bump-and-run era, when it has been a lot easier to get away from defensive backs.

In all of NFL history, only Rice and Hutson are in the same class. I had Rice as marginally better than Hutson. After those two, there's everybody else.

I like Rice because he was among the best at getting deep and he might have been the best ever at turning a five-yard slant into a 75-yard touchdown. The statistic yards after the catch was invented for him.

Unsung Hero: Hayes made my top-four because he revolutionized the game with his speed, but he could just as easily been on this list.

Mac Speedie, the former St. Louis Cardinals great from the '40s and '50s, probably should be in the Hall of Fame, too. He put up good pass catching numbers in spite of never having played with a great quarterback. And he is second only to 1970s vintage Cleveland Brown Fair Hooker on the list of great football names.

My other unsung hero at WR is considered for his writing ability. Even though Peter Gent was a decent receiver for the Dallas Cowboys during Hayes' glory days, he made his name as an author. "North Dallas Forty," "North Dallas After Forty," and "The Franchise" are probably the best football novels ever written. If you read them, you might still think football players are overpaid, but you won't be as certain of it as you were before.

Round 2: Offensive Guard

1. John Hannah (my pick) 2. Gene Upshaw 3. Joe DeLamielleure 4. Billy Shaw

This is the one guy I had to have on my all-time team. John Hannah is unique in pro football in that he is regarded by almost every expert as the greatest guard ever. There is no other position where one player can be said to have been unquestionably the greatest. That's why I grabbed him on the second-round. I knew he'd still be there, but I also knew he'd be the first guard picked. So I had to be the first to pick a guard.

Unsung Hero: I'm not mentioning Russ Grimm here just because he went to the same high-school as I did -- Southmoreland (Pa.), where he played quarterback -- or that he went to the same college as I did -- Pitt, where he was recruited as a linebacker -- but because he was probably the best guard of the 1980s, when he was one of the mainstays of the Washington Redskins' Hogs offensive line.

Round 3: Tight End

1. Kellen Winslow (my pick) 2. Ozzie Newsome 3. John Mackey 4. Mike Ditka

This pick reflects my belief in the concept of the warrior athlete. If you're unfamiliar with the term, get a video of the 1982 AFC divisional playoff game between Miami and San Diego. Battling dehydration all day -- he was given intravenous fluids on the sidelines between series -- Kellen Winslow set a single-game playoff record for receptions, played on all the special teams, and blocked what would have been a game-winning field goal in overtime as the Chargers won.

When it came to being a gladiator, Russell Crowe's character had nothing on Winslow.

And he might have been the best pass-catching tight end ever.

Unsung Hero: Jackie Smith -- an excellent all-around tight end who is unfortunately known for one unfortunate moment. He's the guy who dropped a lob pass in the endzone from Roger Staubach in Super Bowl XIII. Instead of tying the Steelers 21-21 early in the third quarter, Dallas had to settle for a field goal to pull to within four points. Pittsburgh scored the next 14 points to put the game away, even though the Cowboys made the game look closer than it really was with two late scores.

Round 4: Safety

1. Ronnie Lott (my pick) 2. Paul Krause 3. Emlen Tunnell 4. Rod Woodson

Ronnie Lott was another warrior. The story of how he opted to have part of his finger cut off rather than miss the playoffs with an injury is legendary. But that story, even though it establishes his courage, overshadowed the fact that there are two aspects to playing safety -- hitting and playing the ball in the air -- and Lott was the best at both of them.

Paul Krause and Emlen Tunnell were among the all-time leaders in interceptions, respectively, for the Vikings in the 1970s and the Giants in the '50s and '60s, so they must have been doing something right.

A note about Rod Woodson: A lot of players who started out at cornerback made the move to safety after they lost a step, but Woodson might be the only one to have had a Hall of Fame career at both positions (even though he was a better cornerback).

Unsung Hero: Jake Scott might be the Bill Mazeroski of football. Scott saved the best performance of his career for the biggest game of his career, picking off two passes in Super Bowl VII to cap the Dolphins' undefeated 1972 season.

Round 5: Defensive Tackle

1. Joe Greene (my pick) 2. Alan Page 3. Randy White 4. Arnie Weinmeister

Mean Joe is regarded as one of the best defensive linemen ever, and not just because of that Coke commercial. But too many people don't realize how good he was at his best, before knee injuries forced him to play largely on one leg after 1975. The amazing thing is that he was past his peak when he anchored the defensive line on the 1976 Steelers' team, which might have been the best defense ever. Even with his diminished effectiveness, he still commanded double- and triple-teams, which gave guys like Jack Lambert and Jack Ham space to be effective.

Could Lambert, an undersized 215 pounds for a middle linebacker, been a Hall of Famer if Greene hadn't been eating up blockers in front of him? We'll never know, because even at 75-percent effectiveness, Greene was that good.

And before his knee problems, Mean Joe was unstoppable. Literally.

In one series in a game against Houston in 1972, he sacked Dan Pastorini four times. At least they called them sacks, but in reality, Pastorini probably intended to hand the ball off at least once. Greene was on him before he could get the ball to a running back!

Judge Alan Page (really!) was the best player on possibly the best defensive front-four ever. Randy White was a defensive lineman who earned a cool nickname -- Manster -- and was one of the few defensive players to be Super Bowl MVP.

According to the book "The Hidden Game of Football," which was an invaluable asset in helping me compile my choices, Arnie Weinmeister was the strongest and fastest player of his day -- which spanned six years in the late-'40s and early-'50s -- and might have made more tackles for losses than any other player. "The Hidden Game," by the way, was written by Bob Carroll, Pete Palmer, and John Thorn, who collectively are the Bill James of football. If you want to learn something about the game, buy any of their books, which include "Total Football."

Unsung Hero: With a resume that includes "Blazing Saddles," "Porky's," "M*A*S*H," and "Webster," Alex Karras, who was a fine defensive tackle, might have edged out fellow defensive linemen Merlin Olsen (another DT unsung hero) and defensive end Fred Dryer on the list of best football-players-turned-actors. Topping that list would likely be Jim Brown, running back Woody Strode, a star of numerous John Ford westerns and defensive back/blaxploitation superstar Fred "The Hammer" Williamson. Of course, if Rutgers star end Paul Robeson had played pro ball -- and he was certainly good enough to -- he would have won the acting category going away.

Also, Gene "Big Daddy" Lipscomb, who was a 6-foot-9 force of nature at defensive tackle for the Colts and Steelers. I mean 6-foot-9 is big today. Just imagine what it would have been back in the '50s and '60s when Lipscomb played and 6-foot-2 was considered big.

Lipscomb was larger than life off the field. as well. He was well known for his, uh, appetites. Had he not died in 1963 of a heroin overdose while still in his prime, he would have been a shoo-in Hall of Famer.

Round 6: Offensive Tackle

1. Anthony Munoz (my pick) 2. Jackie Slater 3. Art Shell 4. Forrest Gregg

It's easy to forget these days, but the Bengals used to have a good team. It wasn't all that long ago -- only back in the '80s. Of course, these days Cincinnati's football hopes are as dead as Reaganomics and Wang Chung's popularity.

I was about to make Jackie Slater my top-pick on the basis of consistent excellence over a nearly 20-year career until I looked at "The Hidden Game" and discovered that Anthony Munoz was a consensus All-Pro nine of his 13 years in the league -- exactly the same as Hannah at guard. I shouldn't have been surprised by that, because I saw Munoz play.

It should be mentioned that Forrest Gregg might have been the personification of my theory on older players. He might not have been as big or as quick as today's tackles, but with a better diet, more weightlifting, and anabolic steroids, he would have been more than the equal of any defensive lineman today.

Unsung Hero: Ron Yary had one of those careers that kind of snuck up on people. He showed up every week, did his job, and when you turned around 20 years later, he was one of the two or three best tackles in the league for a 15-year career.

Round 7: Cornerback

1. Mel Blount (my pick) 2. Richard "Night Train" Lane 3. Rod Woodson 4. Bill Dudley

The modern era of pro football began in 1978, when the league outlawed the bump-and-run defense. Before then, defensive backs could treat wide receivers like muggers treat their victims. DBs could begin hitting the offensive players at the snap of the ball and not stop until the pass was thrown -- assuming the receiver could ever get away from his tormentor long enough. Mel Blount is the reason the rule was changed.

He was as fast as the wide receivers he lined up against, and a lot more physical. In 1975, he led the NFL with 11 interceptions, which is remarkable in itself. But usually, when a cornerback runs up a high number of interceptions, that means he's the weak link of the secondary because the other teams were picking on him.

Blount was unique among cornerbacks in that he was good and he made lots of interceptions.

"Night Train" was a Blount clone -- or, more accurately, since Lane's career began about 20 years before Blount's, Blount was a "Night Train" clone.

We've already discussed Woodson at safety.

Dudley, a 1940s-era superstar, was known primarily as a running back, but he also was regarded as such a great defensive back that players who threw the ball into Dudley's zone were routinely fined by their coaches.

By the way, there are three ex-Steelers on this list -- Blount, Woodson, and Dudley.

Unsung Hero: Roger Wehrli, a standout for the then-St. Louis Cardinals in the 1970s, was one of the better defensive backs of his day. His place in history was probably diminished because he played on a weak defense, leading to the question, "Hey, if he was so good, how come he was on a defense that gave up 30 points a game?"

Round 8: Center

1. Mel Hein (my pick) 2. Jim Otto 3. Mike Webster 4. Dwight Stephenson

This pick was a tip of the cap to the old-timers. Mel Hein, who played in the 1930s and '40s, holds the unique distinction of having been a center who won the Most Valuable Player award (1938). The only other interior lineman that I've ever heard of winning the MVP was Carlton Haselrig -- and that was for the Pittsburgh Colts of the National Minor Pro Football League in 1998 after his personal problems brought an end to his Pro Bowl NFL career.

Overall, this might be one of the strongest positions ever. Jim Otto had a long career of sustained excellence, including his selection for some All-AFL teams in the early-1960s while playing for some really bad Raiders teams.

Mike Webster might have been the strongest and toughest player ever (sorry, Chuck Bednarik). His willingness to continue knocking heads in spite of having concussions that would have put tough guys in the hospital for a week might have contributed to his premature death. As for Dwight Stephenson, he was so good that he went into the Hall of Fame in spite of an injury-shortened career and having to split All-Pro and Pro Bowl consideration with fellow AFC rival Webster his entire time in the NFL.

Unsung Hero: Dermontti Dawson was as strong as any center in the league, but he was quick enough to pull out as a lead-blocker on sweeps and screens. Frank Gatski also deserves consideration as the anchor of the Cleveland Browns' championship teams of the 1940s and '50s.

Round 9: Outside Linebacker

1. Lawrence Taylor 2. Jack Ham (my pick) 3. Chuck Howley 4. Ted Hendricks

L.T. might have been the greatest pass rush linebacker ever and Ted Hendricks is the guy who blazed a path for him.

This was the first position in our draft that I didn't get my first choice, but taking Jack Ham is hardly settling. As a pass-rusher, the ex-Steeler was no worse than the third-best outside linebacker ever, behind Taylor and Hendricks. As a cover-linebacker, which OLBs were expected to do back in the pre-nickel and dime defense days of the 1970s, Ham was probably the best.

Given a choice, I'd rather have the best pass-rusher (Taylor) than the best pass-defender (Ham). But not by much.

As for Chuck Howley, he was the Ham prototype. He also was the first defensive player to win the Super Bowl MVP (SB V) and the first player to win the Super Bowl MVP for the losing team.

Unsung Hero: Andy Russell was too small, too slow, too old, and too overshadowed by his teammates on the Pittsburgh Steelers' Steel Curtain defense. But during his 12-year NFL career (including two years after his rookie season he spent in the Army stationed in Germany), he was a four-time first-team All-Pro.

Round 10: Inside/Middle Linebacker

1. Chuck Bednarik (my pick) 2. Dick Butkus 3. Joe Schmidt 4. Jack Lambert

Concrete Charlie might have been the toughest guy ever to play pro football. If you have any doubt about that, just ask him. Known primarily as the game's last 60-minute man (he played center on offense), he was at his best as a middle linebacker. In an era of hard-hitters like Hardy Brown, Bednarik might have been the hardest.

He made the game-saving tackle in the 1960 NFL Championship game (the last time the Eagles won a title).

Earlier that year, he literally almost killed Frank Gifford on a vicious hit over the middle. Because of that shot, Gifford missed the entire 1961 season -- remember, this was before anyone ever heard of post-concussion syndrome. Not only that, but Gifford went on to marry Kathy Lee, an act that can only be explained by blunt force trauma.

Dick Butkus' record, in an injury-shortened career, speaks for itself. Before his knees were damaged, he was a man-made disaster to offenses from sideline to sideline. Butkus might be the prototype for the modern linebacker.

Joe Schmidt, like his counterparts in the 1950s and '60s, was another big-hitter. He was the defensive anchor for the Detroit Lions' Bobby Layne-era championship-winning teams.

An interesting story about Schmidt. When it came time for the Lions to make their first-round pick in the 1953 draft, they chose a player who still had a year of college eligibility left. An official from the Pittsburgh Steelers -- who were picking next and had their eye on Schmidt, a University of Pittsburgh product -- pointed out Detroit's mistake.

To thank the Steelers, Detroit took Schmidt, who went on to a Hall of Fame career.

As for Jack Lambert, he certainly benefitted from playing behind a defensive line that ranked no lower than third-best all time (after the Vikings' Purple People Eaters and the Rams' Fearsome Foursome). But he also had the requisite amount of toughness for the position, and he might have been the best coverage middle linebacker ever.

Round 11: Defensive End

1. Reggie White 2. Deacon Jones 3. Jack Youngblood (my pick) 4. Gino Marchetti

Reggie White was the Joe Greene of the defensive end position. He could beat the blocker -- or, more often, blockers -- however he wanted to: with speed, with power, or with elusiveness.

Deacon Jones, before he was hampered by injuries, was just as good, but falls short of White in terms of longevity and in recognition because he played his entire career before sacks were counted as statistics.

An eight-time All-Pro, out of 14 years in the league, Jack Youngblood ranks among the all-time elite when measured against his peers. But what pushed him past Marchetti was toughness -- in 1979, Youngblood played three playoff games with a broken leg.

And, even with the busted wheel, he was good enough to lead his team to within a quarter of a Super Bowl title.

As for Marchetti, here's what you need to know. On a defensive line that included another Hall of Famer (Art Donovan) and a guy who should be in Canton ("Big Daddy" Lipscomb), Marchetti was the best player.

Unsung Hero: Lyle Alzado was a perennial Pro Bowler in spite of playing in the 3-4 defense, which requires the linemen to occupy the other team's offensive linemen and free up the linebackers to make plays. That's impressive.

Jim Marshall and Carl Eller, two stalwarts from the Purple People Eaters, certainly haven't gotten the recognition they've deserved. Marshall is known for two things, one good and one bad: he played 282 consecutive games (very, very good) and he once recovered a fumble and ran it into the wrong endzone for a safety (bad).

Round 12: Placekicker

1. Gary Anderson (my pick) 2. Morten Andersen 3. Jan Stenerud 4. George Blanda

In spite of the fact that Jan Stenerud was the first, and so far, only, placekicker in the Hall of Fame -- a significant feat, considering the opinion of those in the media that kickers aren't real football players -- the debate over greatest kicker of all time ultimately comes down to Anderson vs. Andersen.

I don't give Anderson the edge because he's another ex-Steeler (he's the fourth and last on my team), or because he, like me, used to play rugby. His resume is more than enough.

Anderson is the league's all-time leading scorer, having broken the record held for many years by George Blanda. While Andersen was inflating his statistics kicking indoors eight games every year, Anderson was playing his home games outdoors in often inhospitable climates.

During many seasons, Morten Andersen was his team's biggest offensive weapon, so the Saints' coaches allowed him to kick from anywhere, anytime. That allowed him to build up an impressive list of 50-plus-yard field goals. Meanwhile, Gary Anderson played the bulk of his career for two conservative coaches -- Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher -- who usually opted to punt rather than kick from beyond 50 yards.

(Ironically, Cowher has become more free-wheeling in recent years, attempting to convert more fourth-downs in the opposition's end of the field. Maybe that's the influence of offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey).

When Anderson finally went to a dome team in Minnesota, he showed what he could do by going an entire regular season without missing a single field goal attempt or extra point.

The Hall of Fame selectors should swallow their pride and allow another kicker in the Hall of Fame. And it should be Anderson.

Unsung Hero: Jim Thorpe and Ernie Nevers. Both could dropkick and this is a good time to remind people of two of the guys who built the NFL. Nevers still holds the single-game scoring record (40 points), scoring all of the Chicago Cardinals' points in a 1929 game against the Chicago Bears.

Thorpe is, quite simply, the greatest athlete ever -- no apologies to Messrs. Jordan and Ruth. Thorpe was a star in baseball, a superstar in football, and his gold-medal decathlon performance in 1912 would have won a silver medal 48 years later.

Go ahead. Look at the Olympic records and try and find another mark from 1912 that would have been a world-class performance in 1960.

Round 13: Quarterback

1. Sammy Baugh (my pick) 2. John Unitas 3. Joe Montana 4. John Elway

Well, we're heading into the last two rounds and I have yet to take my picks at the two most high-profile positions.

I didn't take a QB earlier because I knew my guy would be here when the next-to-last round came up. Playing his career for the Washington Redskins from 1937 to 1952, an era in which passing was discouraged -- teams threw the ball only in desperation when in their half of the field when Baugh came into the league -- Baugh tore up the NFL and ran up stats that most modern quarterbacks would kill to have.

In 1945, he completed 70.3 percent of his passes, setting a record that stood for more than 35 years until it was broken by Ken Anderson. That same year, he averaged more than 9 yards per pass attempt, still one of the best marks ever.

That season, Baugh had a passer rating of 109.9. Two years later, he had a mark of 92.0.

But his statistics -- and many of them, like his lifetime touchdown-to-interception ratio of 188 to 203, weren't impressive -- tell only part of the story.

Baugh revolutionized pro football by breaking all the tactical rules of passing -- and being great in doing so. And he wasn't a bad safety or punter -- he still holds the single-season average punt mark at better than 50 yards a kick (even though he inflated those statistics with a lot of third-down quick kicks.

He was regarded as the NFL's best quarterback until Johnny Unitas came along. Unitas, who was literally called out of a sandlot league into a 20-plus NFL career, holds football's answer to Joe DiMaggio's hitting-streak. Unitas threw touchdown passes in 47 consecutive games.

But it was Unitas' status as a revolutionary in his own way that helped assure his greatness. Just as Baugh and Otto Graham paved the way for Unitas, he set the stage for Dan Marino and John Elway.

Unitas also was regarded as the guy most likely to turn defeat into victory in the closing minutes.

That crown has since passed to Elway, who had more fourth-quarter comebacks than any other QB ever. Elway might have had the strongest arm of any quarterback who's ever played, he might have moved better than anyone.

On top of that, he got even better at nut-cutting time.

Montana was another guy who got better in big games and in big moments. Even though he made the West Coast offense look easy, we have since discovered that the 49ers'success wasn't simply a matter of the system -- it was the guy running the system.

Unsung Hero: There are those who would say that no one not now in the Hall of Fame deserves to be there more than Benny Friedman -- and Friedman was one of them. It's generally believed that Friedman, who has been dead for more than a quarter century, hurt his own cause by promoting himself for induction so aggressively.

Friedman, whose heyday was from 1928 to 1932, a time when the league didn't keep such elemental passing statistics as attempts, completions, and yards gained, was the league's first great passer. That much is generally accepted.

Round 14: Running Back

1. Walter Payton 2. Jim Brown 3. O.J. Simpson 4. Marion Motley (my pick)

My personal opinion is that running back is the most overrated position on the field. During their Super Bowl years, the Denver Broncos had three different players rush for 1,000 yards in three different seasons.

When do you look at that run and say, "who cares who the running back is, it's the offensive line that's important." There are guys who make their living unloading beer trucks who can get you 1,200 yards in the NFL behind a good offensive line.

That said, I would have taken a running back in the second-round had either Payton or Brown been available. Brown was the first pick in our draft and Payton was the third (I took Jerry Rice with the second-pick overall).

Once those two were gone, I knew I might as well wait until the final pick, because there would be a great runner still available.

Brown and Payton. Payton and Brown. Really, I ranked Payton higher by the barest of margins because he was a better blocker and receiver than Brown. Of course, Payton was a better blocker than many offensive linemen and a better pass-catcher than many receivers.

Brown's consolation prize is that he might have been the best lacrosse player ever (sorry, Gary Gait).

While I respect Barry Sanders' ability to outrun tacklers and make them miss (he would have been fifth on my list), Payton, Brown, and O.J. Simpson were almost as elusive and quick, and a lot more powerful.

Off-the-field considerations admittedly influenced me when I bypassed my own third choice -- I mean, have you seen Simpson's acting? Whew!

Seriously, though, I reserve the right to change my running back selection should O.J. find the "real" killer.

After Payton, Brown, Simpson, and Sanders, there are about 20 guys who could legitimately lay claim to that next spot.

So I went with Motley, who could be considered the NFL's answer to Jackie Robinson. Motley wasn't the first black man to play pro football -- there were a few in the 1920s, when Jim Thorpe basically prevented the establishment of a color line, which finally happened after Thorpe's retirement.

Motley wasn't the first to break the color line, either. But he was the first great black football player after the color line fell.

There is a story, possibly apocryphal, that holds that Motley was abused -- punched, kicked, and beaten -- for racial reasons every time he was tackled. For the longest time, the officials stood by and let it happen.

Then, one day, Motley was tackled and it began again, with the punching and the gouging. Only this time, the referee looked at the incident, hesitated ...

And threw his flag.

He would later say, "It never happened again."

Motley's best season rushing was 1948, when he ran for 964 yards for the Browns in the All-America Football Conference. His best NFL season was 1950, with 810. But it should be mentioned that Motley shared the ball-carrying chores with two or three other runners and that the Browns, with Otto Graham, threw the ball more often and more effectively than most of the league's other teams.

Unsung Hero: Since every running back who deserves recognition -- and some who don't -- have gotten it, we're going to define hero a little differently for this section.

Call it REAL HEROES: like a lot of other guys his age, Rocky Bleier didn't willingly go to Vietnam -- according to his autobiography, "Fighting Back," the Steelers made a mistake in failing to place him into an Army Reserve unit, which would have allowed him to avoid combat.

But once in combat, he distinguished himself, earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. And this was in the days when you actually had to do more than get into a car accident to get a Bronze Star (sorry, Jessica Lynch, I'm sure you're a nice person and you were very brave, but the awards for valor -- Bronze and Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross, Medal of Honor -- should be reserved for significant battlefield heroism).

And while I'm bursting Jessica Lynch's bubble, it should be mentioned that, by World War II standards, she wouldn't even have been entitled to her Purple Heart. In the book "Band of Brothers," author Stephen Ambrose mentioned that an American paratrooper fell into another U.S. soldier's foxhole and was stabbed by that soldier, who thought the guy in his foxhole was a German.

The paratrooper was told that, to receive a Purple Heart, he would have to be injured while in combat with the enemy.

Anyway, back to heroes. Bleier sustained injuries so severe that doctors told him that someday, with rehabilitation and surgery, he might someday walk without a limp.

But he came all the way back and became a 1,000-yard rusher in the NFL.

Since we're mentioning Bleier, one of a handful of professional athletes to have served in Vietnam, it's only fair to cite Bob Kalsu, even though he wasn't a running back.

Kalsu, who took ROTC classes during his All-American career at Oklahoma University, could have taken a spot in a reserve unit and stayed out of the shooting match.

But instead, after a rookie season in which he earned a starting role at guard for Buffalo, Kalsu took a commission as an artillery officer and was shipped to Vietnam.

Twenty-three years ago last month, July 21, 1970, Kalsu was killed by a North Vietnamese mortar round. He was the only professional athlete to die during the war.

Former Chiefs running back Joe Delaney rounds out this list. Delaney, when on the verge of NFL superstardom, attempted to save three drowning children on June 29, 1983. Even though he never learned to swim very well, he managed to pull one to safety.

However, he drowned, along with the other two children, in an unsuccessful attempt to save them.

Three years ago, the Chiefs started the "37 Forever" foundation, which raises money to provide swimming lessons for inner-city youth in the Kansas City area.

* * * *

As I said, this team probably says more about me than it does about football history, but here it is, one more time:

QB Sammy Baugh, RB Marion Motley, WR Jerry Rice, OT Anthony Munoz, OG John Hannah, and C Mel Hein on offense.

DT Joe Greene, DE Jack Youngblood, ILB Chuck Bednarik, OLB Jack Ham, CB Mel Blount, and S Ronnie Lott on defense, and K Gary Anderson.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.