Oh Snap! Oral history of Theismann's broken leg

Well, he did have that plane crash in '75. If I remember right, he broke his back.

 

Yeah I knew that, I was thinking of in-ring stuff.

 

The video doesn't seem to be on the Internet anywhere, but Letterman did a bit in December 1985 on "Least Popular Holiday Gifts," one of which was the Joe Theismann Pencil Sharpener.

You put a pencil in a hole on top of the helmet and pressed down, and the leg shot out at an odd angle. You then cranked the leg to sharpen your pencil.

 

Didn't a Washington newscaster snap a pencil in half to demonstrate to viewers what had happened?

I had never heard the story in the Theismann article about the blood squirting up and hitting the ref (and was happier not having heard it, frankly). Also, a bit of context about Cathy Lee Crosby's wisecrack about his punting career being over: the week before Joe had volunteered to punt when the regular punter was hurt, and shanked a one-yard punt.

The NFL Films library must include some incredibly horrific stuff, when you think of the number of cameras they have on every game.

 

This is one that immediately came to mind. It was one of the few ones where I saw how bad of a snap it was in real time. Didn't even need a slow-mo replay to see how ugly it was.

 

Theismann also returned punts his first year in the NFL, which means he was a pretty good athlete.

 

The punt wasn't the week before, it was in '85 against the Bears.

In McMahon's book, he wrote about how Theismann was criticizing him for how he carried himself, with the sunglasses, etc. When reporters asked McMahon to respond, he said he didn't respond to anyone who couldn't punt a football longer than one yard.

Other fun stuff about Theismann, the pronunciation of his name was changed at Notre Dame to rhyme with Heisman.

 

The broken leg was also in '85; they played the Bears in late September, not the week before as I had believed. I should have checked that first.

 

The way his career ended, his long years of bad broadcasting, and his general reputation for being a self-absorbed, self-promoting jerk have resulted in how good a player Joe was being somewhat forgotten. Other than Montana he was the best quarterback in the NFC from 80 through 84.

 

Any old-timers out there who remember Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes collapsing on the field and dying of a heart attack in the final minute of a game against the Bears at Tiger Stadium? This was in the days before saturation coverage of the NFL, so it wasn't shown repeatedly in the days after it happened and I'm not sure any old clips exist. As a young Bears fan who was watching the broadcast, I'll never forget seeing the doctors on the field attempting to perform CPR.

 

Worst.

Dave Dravecky's Last Pitch

 

Yeah, Dravecky's was awful. Tony Saunders on the (Devil) Rays, too.