National Football League
The National Football League is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided between the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The NFL is one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, the highest professional level of American football in the world; the NFL's 17-week regular season runs from early September to late December, with each team playing 16 games and having one bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, six teams from each conference advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl, held in the first Sunday in February, is played between the champions of the NFC and AFC; the NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1922 season. The NFL agreed to merge with the American Football League in 1966, the first Super Bowl was held at the end of that season. Today, the NFL has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States.
The Super Bowl is among the biggest club sporting events in the world and individual Super Bowl games account for many of the most watched television programs in American history, all occupying the Nielsen's Top 5 tally of the all-time most watched U. S. television broadcasts by 2015. The NFL's executive officer is the commissioner; the players in the league belong to the National Football League Players Association. The team with the most NFL championships is the Green Bay Packers with thirteen; the current NFL champions are the New England Patriots, who defeated the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII for their sixth Super Bowl championship. On August 20, 1920, a meeting was held by representatives of the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, Dayton Triangles at the Jordan and Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio; this meeting resulted in the formation of the American Professional Football Conference, a group who, according to the Canton Evening Repository, intended to "raise the standard of professional football in every way possible, to eliminate bidding for players between rival clubs and to secure cooperation in the formation of schedules".
Another meeting was held on September 17, 1920 with representatives from teams from four states-Akron, Canton and Dayton from Ohio. The league was renamed to the American Professional Football Association; the league elected Jim Thorpe as its first president, consisted of 14 teams. The Massillon Tigers from Massillon, Ohio was at the September 17 meeting, but did not field a team in 1920. Only two of these teams, the Decatur Staleys and the Chicago Cardinals, remain. Although the league did not maintain official standings for its 1920 inaugural season and teams played schedules that included non-league opponents, the APFA awarded the Akron Pros the championship by virtue of their 8–0–3 record; the first event occurred on September 26, 1920 when the Rock Island Independents defeated the non-league St. Paul Ideals 48–0 at Douglas Park. On October 3, 1920, the first full week of league play occurred; the following season resulted in the Chicago Staleys controversially winning the title over the Buffalo All-Americans.
On June 24, 1922, the APFA changed its name to the National Football League. In 1932, the season ended with the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans tied for first in the league standings. At the time, teams were ranked on a single table and the team with the highest winning percentage at the end of the season was declared the champion; this method had been used since the league's creation in 1920, but no situation had been encountered where two teams were tied for first. The league determined that a playoff game between Chicago and Portsmouth was needed to decide the league's champion; the teams were scheduled to play the playoff game a regular season game that would count towards the regular season standings, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, but a combination of heavy snow and extreme cold forced the game to be moved indoors to Chicago Stadium, which did not have a regulation-size football field. Playing with altered rules to accommodate the smaller playing field, the Bears won the game 9–0 and thus won the championship.
Fan interest in the de facto championship game led the NFL, beginning in 1933, to split into two divisions with a championship game to be played between the division champions. The 1934 season marked the first of 12 seasons in which African Americans were absent from the league; the de facto ban was rescinded in 1946, following public pressure and coinciding with the removal of a similar ban in Major League Baseball. The NFL was always the foremost pro
Nashville Banner
The Nashville Banner is a defunct daily newspaper of Nashville, United States, which published from April 10, 1876 until February 20, 1998. The Banner was published each Monday through Friday afternoon, at one time carried as many as five editions, it was long a voice of conservative viewpoints in contrast to its liberal morning counterpart, The Tennessean, although these views were moderated in the paper's twilight years. The first edition of the Nashville Banner was published on April 10, 1876 as The Nashville Republican Banner, though it would drop the "Republican" early in its existence, its editorial agenda would resemble that of the political party for which it was named, it was begun as a voice for the railroads and other interests in comparison with other area papers of the time which tended to take the viewpoint of workers and unions. It was long controlled by the Stahlman family; the Banner was an evening paper, which at one time published as many as five editions, although these were consolidated into three editions, two.
For many years it was in a superior financial condition to its competitors, in fact, when the rival Tennessean went bankrupt and had to cease publication, the Banner assisted in its purchase by the Evans family, who saved it. The Tennessean and the Banner entered into what was one of the first joint operating agreements in the U. S. in 1937. Under this agreement, which became a common model for many other cities over the next half-century, the papers maintained editorial independence and remained separate as news-gathering organizations. However, they were printed on the same presses, distributed by a common agent, had a consolidated classified advertising department, they were fierce competitors in the realm of news and ideas, but no longer business competitors in the truest sense. This arrangement stood both papers in good stead for many years. However, the Banner began to suffer in the post-World War II era from the slow loss of readership that became common to most U. S. evening papers, attributed to the rise of television.
Though the two papers shared many vital resources, they were vastly different in their editorial agendas. One memorable instance of such differences occurred during the mid-1960s as the merits of Daylight Saving Time were being debated; the Tennessean/Banner offices, at the time, featured a dual-sided clock on the roof. One side had the Tennessean logo, the other had the Banner's. Silliman Evans, Jr. owner of the Tennessean, supported DST and set its clock accordingly during the summer hours, but the Stahlman family, who controlled the Banner, opted to keep their side of the clock on standard time, causing confusion for the many drivers and pedestrians on busy Broadway. In the early 1970s the Stahlmans sold the Banner to the Gannett Co. Gannett published it for several years, but in 1979 announced that it was assuming publication of the Tennessean while selling the Banner back to local owners Irby C. Simpkins, Jr. Brownlee O. Currey, John Jay Hooker. Although it took twenty years, this was the death knell for the Banner.
It was now inferior in resources to its morning counterpart, its circulation continued to shrink. In the 1980s Gannett insisted on renegotiation of the joint operating agreement to its benefit, the Banner had little choice but to comply. Another reason for the weakness of the Banner was its lack of a Sunday edition comparable to the Tennessean's, which it had given up in the formation of the joint operating agreement, it had since always published on a six-day schedule, as weekday papers evening weekday papers, continued to decline, it did not have this profit center to draw upon. The Banner switched its Saturday edition for a while to a single, morning edition in direct competition with the Tennessean announced that it was terminating its Saturday edition entirely. During this time, the Banner began to take far more moderate positions on issues on its editorial pages, although it remained more conservative than the Tennessean in most areas, it was in the contradictory situation of becoming more respected by people those in the journalism community, at the same time that it was becoming less read.
The Banner adopted several new technologies soon before its demise, including early online efforts such as the launch of a daily e-mail newsletter in 1996, as usage of e-mail and the World Wide Web was becoming more common. It built and maintained a website nearly a year before The Tennessean, although only five months before the Banner went out of business; the Banner newsroom became one of the nation's first to convert to the exclusive use of digital photography, completing the conversion just a few months before it ceased publication. The end occurred when the Gannett Co. made the publishers of the Banner a large offer to terminate the joint operating agreement. The offer was $65 million more than any profit that could have been made by the continued publication of the Banner, so it ceased to exist; the Banner's final edition was published on Friday, February 20, 1998. The announcement to close was made public the previous Monday, February 16. S
Freezer Bowl
In National Football League lore, the Freezer Bowl was the 1981 American Football Conference Championship Game between the San Diego Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals. The game, won by the Bengals, 27–7, was played in the coldest temperature in NFL history in terms of wind chill. Air temperature was −9 °F, but the wind chill, factoring in a sustained wind of 27 miles per hour, was −37 °F or −38.3 °C. The game was played on January 10, 1982 at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium, televised by NBC, with announcers Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen. Despite the Bengals’ dominating 40–17 win over the Chargers during the season, their meeting in the championship was expected to be a thrilling and hard-fought game; the Chargers' offense featured three future members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame: quarterback Dan Fouts, receiver Charlie Joiner and tight end Kellen Winslow. San Diego had two superb running backs, Chuck Muncie, who led the NFL with 19 touchdowns, multi-talented rookie James Brooks, who finished the season with 2,093 all-purpose yards.
Cincinnati had several stars on offense. Quarterback Ken Anderson was the top rated passer in the NFL, had won both the NFL Most Valuable Player Award and the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award. Tight end Dan Ross, running back Pete Johnson, rookie receiver Cris Collinsworth were considered to be among the best players in the NFL at their positions; the Bengals offensive line featured future Hall of Fame left tackle Anthony Muñoz, selected by NFL coaches as the NFL Lineman of the Year Award winner during the season. Both teams were coming off narrow wins in the divisional playoffs. A week earlier, the Bengals won their first playoff game by defeating the Buffalo Bills 28–21 after forcing Buffalo to turn the ball over on downs during their final drive. Meanwhile, the Chargers narrowly defeated the Miami Dolphins in overtime 41–38, in a game that set playoff records for most points scored in a playoff game, the most total yards by both teams, most passing yards by both teams; that game, which became known as “The Epic In Miami”, was played in the heat and humidity of Miami, the Chargers found themselves dealing with nearly the exact opposite conditions in the AFC title game.
Before the Chargers took the field, Running back/Special teamer Hank Bauer tested the field conditions. Bauer recalled: When he returned to the locker room, he told his teammates: The Bengals offensive line played the entire game with bare arms. A number of them played with bare hands as well, they placed hot water bottles inside their cups and between plays they walked around with their hands in their pants which many people found amusing. It was so cold icicles started to form on Fouts’ beard early in the game. Within one week, the Chargers went from playing an overtime game in Miami in 88 °F or 31.1 °C, high humidity weather to playing in the −37 °F or −38.3 °C wind chill in Cincinnati, an effective difference of 125 °F or 69.4 °C. The game was one of the few in NFL history. Cincinnati won the toss and instead of receiving, elected to have the brutally cold wind at their backs to start the game, believing it would neutralize San Diego’s passing game and help the Bengals to build an early lead.
The strategy paid off. San Diego would score their only touchdown in the second, but gave up another score to the Bengals and trailed 17–7 at halftime. Accordingly, San Diego used its option at the beginning of the second half to receive the kickoff, resulting in Cincinnati kicking off to begin both halves—and in the same direction both times, using their second half option to again begin the half with the wind at their backs. Aided by an 18-yard completion from Anderson to tight end Dan Ross, Cincinnati scored first with a 31-yard field goal from kicker Jim Breech. Linebacker Rick Razzano forced a fumble from Chargers’ rookie kick returner James Brooks, Don Bass recovered for the Bengals on the San Diego 12-yard line. Following a 4-yard run by Charles Alexander, the Bengals scored a touchdown on an 8-yard pass from Anderson to tight end M. L. Harris, increasing their lead to 10–0. Brooks returned the ensuing kickoff 35 yards to the 43-yard line. On 3rd down and 9, Fouts’ 21-yard completion to Wes Chandler moved the ball to the Bengals’ 33.
However, Cincinnati’s defense halted the drive at the 18-yard line and it ended with no points when Rolf Benirschke, kicking into the fierce wind, missed a 37-yard field goal attempt. After a Bengals punt, Chandler gave the Chargers good field position with a 7-yard return to the 45-yard line. San Diego drove 55 yards and cut their deficit to 10–7 when Fouts trying to avoid a hit from lineman Eddie Edwards, managed to fire a pass to Kellen Winslow, who subsequently raced from the line of scrimmage 33 yards down the right sideline for a score; the Bengals stormed right back on a drive set up by David Verser’s 40-yard kickoff to the 46-yard line. Faced with 3rd down and 7 inside the red zone in the drive, Anderson kept the drive going with a 16-yard completion to Isaac Curtis on the Chargers’ 1-yard line, fullback Pete Johnson scored a touchdown run on the next play, giving them a 17–7 lead; the Bengals took over the game from that point on. The Chargers would move the ball inside the Bengals 40-yard line five times during the rest of the game, but failed to score on each possession.
San Diego responded with a drive to the Bengals
Terry Robiskie
Terrance Joseph "Terry" Robiskie is an American football coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League and former player, the wide receivers coach of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. He has served as an assistant coach for the Tennessee Titans, Atlanta Falcons, Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns, Washington Redskins, Los Angeles Raiders. Robiskie was born in New Orleans and was raised in Lucy, Louisiana, a city 25 miles west of New Orleans, he attended Second Ward High School in Edgard, where he was a star quarterback. After high school, he went to Louisiana State University, where he was converted to a running back for LSU's football team. During his senior year, in 1976, he was a first-team All-SEC running back, he was the first LSU running back to run for over 200 yards in a single game, gaining 214 yards in 30 attempts against Rice University in 1976. He was the first LSU running back to run for over 1,000 yards in a season, the first LSU running back to run for over 2,500 yards in a career.
Robiskie was drafted in the eighth round by the Oakland Raiders. He spent five years in the NFL as a running back with the Raiders and the Miami Dolphins, while playing for acclaimed coaches John Madden, Tom Flores, Don Shula, he was a role player, gaining only 553 yards for 5 touchdowns in five seasons before injury forced his retirement. Robiskie entered the coaching profession with the Los Angeles Raiders in 1982 as the assistant running backs coach where he tutored Marcus Allen to two Pro Bowls and two 1,000-yard seasons. Robiskie was the assistant special teams coach for the Raiders from 1985–87, he tutored tight ends in 1988. Robiskie was the offensive coordinator for the Raiders from 1989-93. In 1990, the Raiders ranked 9th in the NFL with 126.8 yards rushing per game and quarterback Jay Schroeder ranked 6th in the NFL with a 90.8 QB rating. In 1992, the Raiders ranked 11th in the NFL with 112.1 yards rushing. In 1993, Oakland ranked 5th in the NFL in passing and 13th in total offense as Robiskie helped quarterback Jeff Hostetler pass for 3,242 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Robiskie’s 12 years with the Raiders included seven playoff stints, four division titles, a 38-9 victory over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII. Robiskie spent the next seven years with the Washington Redskins as an offensive assistant coaching receivers, he began the 2000 season as passing game coordinator in Washington and helped the Redskins rank fifth in the NFC in total offense and passing. He helped running back Stephen Davis total 1,318 yards and 11 touchdowns on 332 attempts, including five 100-yard outings, he concluded the 2000 season as the Redskins head coach for the final three games of the regular season following the departure of Norv Turner. Robiskie’s record as head coach was 1-2, including a 20-3 win over Arizona on December 24. Robiskie joined the Browns in 2001 as wide receivers coach and held that role through 2003. In 2004, he was named offensive coordinator, but late in the season was named interim head coach replacing Butch Davis, who resigned under fire for producing the lowest offensive yards, lowest points scored, most turnovers in the league.
His record was 1-4 in the interim role. Robiskie interviewed as permanent head coach. Robiskie openly campaigned to remain as an assistant due to the fact that he garnered no attention from any teams and was named wide receivers coach in February 2005. Robiskie was fired in January 2007. Shortly after being fired by the Browns, Robiskie was hired as an assistant coach for the Miami Dolphins, his new assignment with the Dolphins was wide receivers coach. Robiskie was on the same Washington Redskins staff as former Dolphins head coach Cam Cameron from 1994 to 1996. On January 26, 2008, Robiskie was hired by the Atlanta Falcons to be their wide receivers coach, he served in that capacity for eight seasons and was considered influential in the development of homegrown stars Julio Jones and Roddy White into legitimate offensive targets for Matt Ryan. Robiskie's contract with the Falcons was not renewed after the 2015 season. On January 18, 2016, Robiskie was hired by the Tennessee Titans as the team's offensive coordinator.
His contract with the Titans wasn't renewed following the 2017 season. On February 14, 2018, Robiskie was hired by the Buffalo Bills as the team's wide receivers coach, he was fired after one season on January 2, 2019. * – Interim head coach Robiskie and his wife, have 3 sons, Brian and Kyle. Brian was a wide receiver and Andrew was a center. Pro-football-reference.com profile
1975 LSU Tigers football team
The 1975 LSU Tigers football team represented Louisiana State University during the 1975 NCAA Division I football season. Under head coach Charles McClendon, the Tigers had a record of 5–6 with a Southeastern Conference record of 2–4, it was McClendon's fourteenth season as head coach at LSU. RB #4Charles Alexander, Fr
1985 NFL season
The 1985 NFL season was the 66th regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl XX when the Chicago Bears defeated the New England Patriots 46–10 at the Louisiana Superdome; the Bears became the second team in NFL history to win 15 games in the regular season and 18 including the playoffs. Whenever a team time out is called after the two-minute warning of each half or overtime, it should only last a minute instead of 90 seconds. A play is dead anytime the quarterback performs a kneel-down after the two-minute warning of each half, or whenever the player declares himself down by sliding feet first on the ground; the ball is spotted at the point where the player touches the ground first. Pass interference is not to be called when a pass is uncatchable. Both "Roughing the kicker" and "Running into the kicker" fouls are not to be called if the defensive player was blocked into the kicker; the definition of a valid fair catch signal is defined as one arm, extended above the head and waved from side to side.
Goaltending is illegal. The officials' uniform changed slightly. Instead of wearing black stirrups with two white stripes over white sanitary hose, the officials began wearing a one-piece sock similar to those worn by players, black with two white stripes on top and solid white on the bottom; these were first worn the previous season in Super Bowl XIX. Defensive backs were ruled to have an "equal right to the ball", meaning that pass interference would not be called if the defensive player was looking back attempting to intercept the ball, that any contact with the receiver did not materially affect the receiver's ability to catch the ball. W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT = Winning Percentage, PF= Points For, PA = Points Against Los Angeles Raiders were the first AFC seed ahead of Miami based on better record against common opponents. N. Y. Jets were the first AFC Wild Card based on better conference record than New Denver. New England was the second AFC Wild Card ahead of Denver based on better record against common opponents.
Cincinnati finished ahead of Pittsburgh in the AFC Central based on head-to-head sweep. Seattle finished ahead of San Diego in the AFC West based on head-to-head sweep. Dallas finished ahead of N. Y. Giants and Washington in the NFC East based on better head-to-head record. N. Y. Giants were the first NFC Wild Card based on better conference record than San Francisco and Washington. San Francisco was the second NFC Wild Card based on head-to-head victory over Washington. Minnesota finished ahead of Detroit in the NFC Central based on better division record; the following players set all-time records during the season: The 1985 NFL Draft was held from April 30 to May 1, 1985 at New York City's Omni Park Central Hotel. With the first pick, the Buffalo Bills selected defensive end Bruce Smith from Virginia Tech. Cleveland Browns: Marty Schottenheimer began his first full season as head coach of the Browns, he replaced Sam Rutigliano, fired after starting the 1984 season 1–7. Detroit Lions: Monte Clark was fired and replaced by Darryl Rogers.
Indianapolis Colts: Rod Dowhower was named as head coach. Frank Kush resigned. Offensive line coach Hal Hunter served as interim for the team's final 1984 game. Minnesota Vikings: Les Steckel was fired. Bud Grant came out of retirement for a second stint with the Vikings. New England Patriots: Raymond Berry began his first full season as head coach, he replaced Ron Meyer, fired after eight games into the 1984 season. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: John McKay retired and was replaced by Leeman Bennett. Buffalo Bills: Kay Stephenson was fired after going 0–4 to start the season. Defensive coordinator Hank Bullough was named as interim. Houston Oilers: Hugh Campbell was fired after 14 games. Defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville took over for the final two games. New Orleans Saints: Bum Phillips resigned after 12 games. Wade Phillips, his son and the team's assistant coach, served as interim for the last four games. Philadelphia Eagles: Marion Campbell was fired before the final game of the season. Fred Bruney as interim for that last game.
NFL Record and Fact Book NFL History 1981–1990 Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League
United Press International
United Press International is an international news agency whose newswires, news film, audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and television stations for most of the 20th century. At its peak, it had more than 6,000 media subscribers. Since the first of several sales and staff cutbacks in 1982, the 1999 sale of its broadcast client list to its rival, the Associated Press, UPI has concentrated on smaller information-market niches. Formally named "United Press Associations" for incorporation and legal purposes, but publicly known and identified as United Press or UP, the news agency was created by the 1907 uniting of three smaller news syndicates by the Midwest newspaper publisher E. W. Scripps, it was headed by Hugh Baillie from 1935 to 1955. At the time of his retirement, UP had 2,900 clients in the United States, 1,500 abroad. In 1958, it became United Press International after absorbing the International News Service in May; as either UP or UPI, the agency was among the largest newswire services in the world, competing domestically for about 90 years with the Associated Press and internationally with AP, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
At its peak, UPI had more than 2,000 full-time employees. With the rising popularity of television news, the business of UPI began to decline as the circulation of afternoon newspapers, its chief client category, began to fall, its decline accelerated after the 1982 sale of UPI by the Scripps company. The E. W. Scripps Company controlled United Press until its absorption of William Randolph Hearst's smaller competing agency, INS, in 1958 to form UPI. With the Hearst Corporation as a minority partner, UPI continued under Scripps management until 1982. Since its sale in 1982, UPI has changed ownership several times and was twice in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. With each change in ownership came deeper service and staff cutbacks and changes of focus and a corresponding shrinkage of its traditional media customer base. Since the 1999 sale of its broadcast client list to its one-time major rival, the AP, UPI has concentrated on smaller information market niches, it no longer services media organizations in a major way.
In 2000, UPI was purchased by News World Communications, an international news media company founded in 1976 by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon. It now maintains a news website and photo service and electronically publishes several information product packages. Based on aggregation from other sources on the Web and gathered by a small editorial staff and stringers, UPI's daily content consists of a newsbrief summary service called "NewsTrack," which includes general, sports, science and entertainment reports, "Quirks in the News." It sells a premium service, which has deeper coverage and analysis of emerging threats, the security industry, energy resources. UPI's content is presented in text and photo formats, in English and Arabic. UPI's main office is in the Miami metropolitan area and it maintains office locations in five other countries and uses freelance journalists in other major cities. Beginning with the Cleveland Press, publisher E. W. Scripps created the first chain of newspapers in the United States.
Because the recently reorganized Associated Press refused to sell its services to several of his papers, most of them evening dailies in competition with existing AP franchise holders, in 1907 Scripps merged three smaller syndicates under his ownership or control, the Publishers Press Association, the Scripps-McRae Press Association, the Scripps News Association, to form United Press Associations, with headquarters in New York City. Scripps had been a subscriber to an earlier news agency named United Press, that existed in the late 1800s in cooperation with management of the original New York-based AP and in existential competition with two Chicago-based organizations using the AP name. Drawing lessons from the battles between the earlier United Press and the various AP's, Scripps required that there be no restrictions on who could buy news from his news service, he made the new UP service available to anyone, including his competitors. Scripps hoped to make a profit from selling that news to papers owned by others.
At that time and until World War II, most newspapers relied on news agencies for stories outside their immediate geographic areas. Despite strong newspaper industry opposition, UP started to sell news to the new and competitive radio medium in 1935, years before competitor AP, controlled by the newspaper industry, did likewise. Scripps' United Press was considered "a scrappy alternative" news source to the AP. UP reporters were called "Unipressers" and were noted for their fiercely aggressive and competitive streak. Another hallmark of the company's culture was little formal training of reporters, they were weaned on UP's famous and well-documented slogan of "Get it first, but FIRST, get it RIGHT." Despite controversy, UP became a common training ground for generations of journalists. Walter Cronkite, who started with United Press in Kansas City, gained fame for his coverage of World War II in Europe and turned down Edward R. Murrow's first offer of a CBS job to stay with UP, but who went on to anchor the CBS Evening News, once said, "I felt every Unipresser got up in the morning saying,'This is the day I'm going to be
