Tom Brady, the 45-year-old Tampa Bay quarterback who is commonly stated to be ageless, has smashed practically each NFL document 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 workforce lower him.
George Frederick Blanda was of Slovak heritage, and his dad was a Pittsburgh coal miner. He performed his closing NFL recreation on 4 January 1976, on the age of 48 years, 109 days, a document that also stands. Blanda meant to maintain taking part in, however he was not within the Oakland Raiders’ plans.
“After 26 years on this enterprise, I suppose I can come to grips with the information of life. I simply want they’d stated one thing,” Blanda grumbled to reporters after the Raiders let him go.
Brady has been in contrast with Blanda recently 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 document – one thing wherein Blanda, who died at 83 in 2010, apparently took loads of satisfaction.
“He wasn’t a nasty man. He simply didn’t undergo 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 lower. There have been situations: the reporters had to assist him load his automobile first. There could be no information convention, no farewell tour. Most of Blanda’s solutions have 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 have been 25 years and a worldview aside, however I had loads 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 troublesome 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The Chicago Bears, his first NFL workforce, had instructed him he was too outdated in 1958, when he was nonetheless in his early 30s.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 outdated, once more.
The Raiders signed him, and he performed via the 1969 season – however was launched once more in the course of the 1970 exhibition season. Too outdated, 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 ought to be sitting within the stands with a thermos of sizzling rooster soup, he's sparking the Oakland Raiders to some unbelievable victories,” the late humor columnist Erma Bombeck wrote.
Brady has prolonged his profession via meticulous food regimen and train, so he appears to be like 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 apply along with his square-toed shoe.
Welp, I suppose it is time to strive that avocado ice cream. pic.twitter.com/9KuMfAfb02
“He was 48, however in my thoughts’s eye, he was 70,” Cooney says.
However he lower a romantic determine. Blanda would change into a great nationwide spokesman for Grecian System, the lads’s hair-coloring product. “Somebody you already know could also be utilizing Grecian System, and also you may not 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 gained the primary of his seven Tremendous Bowls a number of months later. Blanda, then again, 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 workforce 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 discipline objectives.
Then it bought loopy. Lamonica returned at quarterback every week later, however Blanda kicked two additional factors, including a 48-yard discipline objective that hardly cleared the outstretched hand of 6ft 10in Kansas Metropolis tight finish Morris Stroud within the closing seconds to tie the rival Chiefs, 17-17.
Lamonica jammed his shoulder within the fourth quarter every 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 discipline 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 successful 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 discipline objectives earlier, kicked a objective with eight seconds left to win the sport. “Blanda for Mayor” buttons have 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 gained the Bert Bell Award, chosen by the Maxwell Soccer Membership, because the NFL’s most respected participant, and was named because the Related Press Male Athlete of the Yr.
“Why, this George Blanda is nearly as good as his father, who used to play for Houston,” Chiefs proprietor Lamar Hunt stated, tongue in cheek, playfully evaluating the identical quarterback at two phases of his profession.
Blanda would final 5 extra seasons, nearly solely as a kicker, although he did full a cross in opposition to the Chiefs within the closing regular-season recreation in 1975. He kicked an additional level and a discipline objective within the AFC title recreation, however the Raiders misplaced to Pittsburgh, 16-10.
That might be his final recreation, although he was definitely not planning it that means. The Raiders chosen a kicker, Fred Steinfort of Boston Faculty, within the 1976 draft, and Blanda figured he was as an insurance coverage coverage, in case the rookie bombed.
When he was lower, Blanda instructed reporters, “This makes the third time a workforce has declared me too outdated 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 could be on to maintain him. He’d confirmed himself within the clutch an unimaginable quantity of occasions within the 9 years he was with the Raiders. Who was this child taking his job?”
The Raiders gained the Tremendous Bowl that season, however Steinfort was harm 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 wished to be along with his household.
Blanda set seven profession NFL information, together with most factors, 2,002. (Adam Vinatieri now holds the document 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 best factor and determine to bow out earlier than the 109th day of his forty ninth 12 months – simply so one other ironman’s commonplace can endure.
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