_______________________________________________________________
                                                                                             
           Football           Hockey        Basketball      Soccer         Baseball         Racing               News           Recipes        Forum          Tailgating   
      _______________________________________________________________
                                                       SportsCook Basketball

Pic of the Day
Top Football Story
All good things must come to an end, and so it is with the A's 20-game win streak. Brad Radke pitched a six-hitter for his 100th career win, leading the Twins to a 6-0 victory Friday. The A's, who began the streak five games out of first, are now looking back at the surging Angels, two games behind after their eighth straight win.



Top Football Commentary
Do the names Dutch Clark, Paddy Driscoll or Arnie Herber mean anything to you? How about Clarence Parker or Bob Waterfield?
Okay, how about Warren Moon, the subject of Fox Sports Net's most recent episode of Beyond the Glory? If you answered 'yes' to the last question and 'no' to the previous two -- then the argument is already over. Thus, Moon will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on his first year of eligibility in 2006 because, believe it or not, the 'other' aforementioned names are all quarterbacks currently residing through the halls of Canton, Ohio. For years, Moon's case for immediate selection has been thrown around more than the 9,655 balls Pro Football's all-time leading passer amassed during his stellar 23 pro seasons, 17 of which were played in the NFL.
In his favor are the statistics as Moon is in the NFL's all-time top five in pass attempts (6,823), completions (3,988), touchdown passes (291) and yardage (49,325). And if you combine the numbers he collected in the Canadian Football League, Moon would easily be tops in all categories.
However, not in his favor (and I've always felt this to be a somewhat weak counterpoint) is the fact the Los Angeles native never won a Super Bowl.
Here's a news flash for you: not every player in the Hall of Fame, and not even every player elected their first year of eligibility, won a championship.
Moon's postseason misfortunes were mainly due to his being a victim of circumstance. The truth was that Moon was a pretty capable postseason performer. In fact, his 84.9 career playoff passer rating is eighth all-time. Who could blame him for Denver's acclaimed "Drive II" in 1992 sparked by John Elway, the league's all-time comeback king? Furthermore, Moon could hardly be considered the culprit in allowing Buffalo to rally from a 35-3 deficit to win a 1993 wild-card game?
During the 1994 playoffs against Kansas City, Moon and the Oilers were controlling the clock for a 10-0 halftime lead before the Houston defense and another legendary come-from-behind magician named Joe Montana helped spell doom in a 28-20 defeat. Moon's misfortune's continued in Minnesota as Chicago came out of nowhere to score a 25-18 postseason upset in 1995.
However, Dan Marino (1999 retiree), never won a championship, and he's a lock for 2005; Dan Fouts never won a title, and actually had a less stellar postseason career than the often snake-bit Moon despite playing in back-to-back conference championship games (two more than Moon) following the1980 and 1981 seasons. Fouts would lead the Chargers to the playoffs in just two other of his 15 seasons -- while Moon would enjoy nine playoff campaigns -- but was still inducted during his first year of eligibility.
And as far as career numbers, Moon is also ahead of Fouts in attempts, completions, touchdowns and yards, but did play in more games than did his San Diego counterpart. However, the two's per-game averages are almost identical as Fouts has a slight edge in passing yards per game (237.8 to 237.1), while Moon attempted slightly more passes (32.8 to 31.0) with a little more completions (19.2 to 18.2) per outing. Moon's interception rate was also lower than that of Fouts; Moon averaged a pick once every 29.3 pass attempts, while Fouts averaged one every 23.2 attempts.
As far as the other five Canton signal-callers mentioned earlier, it's quite shocking to learn that four of those (Clark, Herber, Parker and Waterfield) had an average passer rating of 49.7. With those credentials, Ryan Leaf still has a shot at induction.
Clark actually rushed for more than he passed (2,772 yards on the ground to 1,507 through the air) during his eight-year career (1931-1938). Herber threw for a modest 8,041 yards and only 81 touchdowns over a career that spanned 16 seasons (1930-1945). Parker had a meager 22 career touchdown tosses, while Waterfield had a career completion percentage of just 50.3 and averaged 16 interceptions per season over eight years (1945-52).
In fact, if you add up the total offensive numbers (passing, rushing and receiving) of those four players combined, they would still be more than 21,000 yards shy of Moon's career passing yardage alone with 90 fewer touchdown passes.





NFL Scoreboard
SportsCook Fantasy Football by Yahoo Sports
Football Forum
 














Links
Other Stuff
NFC NORTH
NFC EAST
NFC SOUTH
NFC WEST

NFL:
A weekly look at
the NFL ...
From the SportsCook GM
&
Friends


Join At the BBQ Newsletter
Enter your name and email address:
Name:
Email:  
Subscribe      Unsubscribe









                                                                          © 2001SportsCook.com
                                                                                                    Created by Bob Ya cuzz o