Sammy Baugh - RIP

[Michael_ Gee]

FWIW, my father, who's in his 90s, grew up in DC and has maintained my whole life long that Baugh was the greatest NFL quarterback who ever lived.
It'll be awhile before another player leads the league in passing, passes he intercepted, and punting all in the same season.

 

[Angola!]

FWIW, my father, who's in his 90s, grew up in DC and has maintained my whole life long that Baugh was the greatest NFL quarterback who ever lived.
It'll be awhile before another player leads the league in passing, passes he intercepted, and punting all in the same season.

This line in his obit fascinated me the most:

He still owns the league mark for single-season punting average (51.4).

 

[Sam Mills 51]

RIP Sammy. One of the NFL's giants (no capital "G", either).

And too few people mention him when compiling lists of the all-time greats - at QB or overall. Never mind that he would have been a good safety and was also an all-pro punter.

 

[pallister]

Just a little sense of history in the chosen field. All's I'm sayin'. Not trying to bust your balls, ’Gola. Just a little amazed. Of course, I've been obsessed with the NFL since I was 7. Back to the man at hand, every "offensive genius" in the last few decades owes a debt of gratitude to players like Sammy Baugh.

 

[forever_town]

Oh my God. One of the pioneers of today's NFL.

RIP to a legend.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Just a little sense of history in the chosen field. All's I'm sayin'. Not trying to bust your balls, ’Gola. Just a little amazed. Of course, I've been obsessed with the NFL since I was 7. Back to the man at hand, every "offensive genius" in the last few decades owes a debt of gratitude to players like Sammy Baugh.

Piggybacking this one ...

'Gola, one need not be old to understand what Baugh meant to the NFL, to the Washington Redskins, to sports as a whole. Any football history book that is worth its salt should have more than a passing mention of Sammy Baugh.

If the Redskins can point to a single player that made them relevant in D.C., it was Baugh. Without question.

 

[jps]

In the middle of tearing up my front. One the NFL's giants.

Jesus, Angola. The world wasn't created in 1985.

My mistake for not knowing my old-time football players.

Oh, and TBF, this was on the wire:

Baugh, who was 94 and had numerous health issues, died at Fisher County Hospital, David Baugh said.

With respect, Angola, Sammy Baugh isn't just a run-of-the-mill old-time football player. All of that said, one of our own news copy editors didn't know who he was either.

It can be argued he's the greatest football player of all-time, certainly one of the most revolutionary as far as the passing game is concerned.

Plus, he was hilarious in a totally cantankerous way in some NFL Films' shows.

RIP.

Well, I just read his obit and he sounded like a hell of a dude.

In my defense:

A. I've only lived in Texas 2 years
B. I only started watching the NFL and caring about it 3 years ago

To further 'gola's defense, he's also in a part of Texas where HAH SKEUL FOOTBAWL has always been bigger than college or pro. There really isn't much of a developed sensibility about SWC or NFL history in 'gola's neck of the woods, even among football fanatics.

no defense ... baugh played at sweetwater hah, if I recall correctly.

 

[forever_town]

Obviously, I wasn't old enough to have been around to watch him play, but I remember owning Redskins media guides from 1974 and 1988 and seeing Baugh's name littered all over the team's passing records. He made an indelible mark on the Redskins, as several people on this thread noted.

Until Darrell Green had his No. 28 officially retired, the only Redskin to have had his number retired was Baugh. There's a damn good reason no Redskin will ever wear No. 33 again. Nor should one.

 

[playthrough]

I will confess to not knowing he was still alive.

What a legend. Hope the last game he watched wasn't Redskins-Bengals.

 

[kleeda]

Met him on numerous occasions and drank with him (and about a dozen others) once. As much fun in real life as he was in NFL Films lore.

 

[writing irish]

Ok, y'all are right, 'gola's a dumbass.

It's weird to see "Rotan" in print. I once had a very nice lady friend from there and had never heard any mention of the town before or since.

 

[pallister]

From the AP story:

Baugh was known to make blunt, witty remarks.
After the Redskins’ 73-0 loss to the Chicago Bears in the 1940 championship, a writer asked if the outcome would have been different had an end not dropped an early touchdown pass.
“Yeah,” drawled Baugh. “It would have been 73-7.”

 

[Angola!]

In work-related news, why is there not a photo of him throwing the ball on the wire?

 

[forever_town]

In work-related news, why is there not a photo of him throwing the ball on the wire?

They didn't invent photography when he played?

JUST KIDDING!

I think there's one with the story on The Washington Post's Web site.

 

[Dude]

This is an AP photo off the Washington Post's site.

 

[pallister]

There's a wider version of that photo on the AP site. It's the first one they sent.

 

[Angola!]

He's not exactly passing, though.

We're going with the one where he is showing off his side-stepping moves.

 

[Dude]

Here's a trailer for some anti-Nazi propaganda movie Baugh was the star of back in 1941:

 

[txsportsscribe]

With apologies to Jim Thorpe or Red Grange, Baugh might've been the NFL's first true superstar.

who are jim grange and red thorpe?

 

[pallister]

He's not exactly passing, though.

In the full picture, he's dropping back with the whole line blocking for him. It's obvious he's getting ready to pass. Are you looking for his arm going forward and the ball in the air 6 feet away? Those pictures don't exist.