1.
Sandusky, Ohio
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Sandusky is a city in the U. S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Erie County. Situated in northern Ohio on the shores of Lake Erie, Sandusky is midway between Toledo to the west and Cleveland to the east. According to 2010 census, the city had a population of 25,793, in 2011, Sandusky was ranked No.1 by Forbes. com as the Best Place to Live Cheaply in the United States. The city has a family income of $64,000. Sandusky is home to the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company and its flagship amusement park, Cedar Point has one of the largest collections of roller coasters in the world. The National Arbor Day Foundation has designated Sandusky a Tree City USA, the accepted etymology is that the name Sandusky is derived from the Wyandot word saundustee, meaning water or andusti, cold water. In his 1734 history of New France, Charlevoix transliterated the phrase as Chinouski, the name L. Sandoski appears on a 1733 map. Sandusky Bay is identified as Lac Sandouské on a 1718 map by Guillaume DeLisle, the city of Sandusky was established in 1818. Some of the city was built on land occupied by a Native-American man named Ogontz. Prior to the abolition of slavery in the United States, Sandusky was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Downtown Sandusky was designed according to a grid plan, known as the Kilbourne Plat after its designer. The original street pattern featured a grid overlaid with streets resembling the symbols of Freemasonry, hector Kilbourne was a surveyor who laid out this grid in downtown Sandusky. He was the first Worshipful Master of the first Sandusky Masonic Lodge known as Science Lodge #50 and it is still in operation on Wayne Street. Sandusky was the site of groundbreaking for the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad on September 17,1835, currently, Battery Park Marina is located on the original site of the MR&LE Railroad. The tracks that ran through downtown Sandusky have since been removed, most of the downtown industrial area is being re-used for other purposes, including mainly marina dockage. The coal docks located west of downtown still use a portion of the original MR&LE right-of-way, the English author Charles Dickens visited the city in 1842, and briefly wrote of it in his subsequent travelogue, American Notes. We put up at a little hotel on the brink of Lake Erie, lay there that night. The town, which was sluggish and uninteresting enough, was something like the back of an English watering-place out of the season, the city was a center of paper-making
2.
Ohio State Buckeyes football
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Ohio State has played their home games at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio since 1922. Football was introduced to the university by George Cole and Alexander S. Lilley in 1890, Ohio State was a football independent from 1890 to 1901 before joining the Ohio Athletic Conference as a charter member in 1902. The Buckeyes won two conference championships while members of the OAC and in 1912 became members of the Big Ten Conference, Ohio State won their first national championship in 1942 under head coach Paul Brown. Following World War II, Ohio State saw sparse success on the field with three separate coaches and in 1951 hired Woody Hayes to coach the team. Under Hayes, Ohio State won over 200 total games,13 Big Ten championships and five national championships, following Hayes dismissal in 1978, Earle Bruce and later John Cooper coached the team to a combined seven conference championships between them. Jim Tressel was hired as coach in 2001 and led Ohio State to its seventh national championship in 2002 with a win in the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State won seven Big Ten championships under Tressel and appeared in eight Bowl Championship Series games, on November 28,2011, two-time National Championship winning coach and Ohio native Urban Meyer became head coach. Meyer led his team to five championships in his first five seasons as well as a school record 24 straight victories. He led OSU to both the Big Ten and the first College Football Playoff National Championship of its kind in the 2014 season, giving Meyer his third title overall. In the spring of 1890, George Cole, an undergraduate, the Buckeyes first game, played on May 3,1890, at Delaware, Ohio, against Ohio Wesleyan University, was a victory. OSUs first home game took place at 2,30 p. m. on November 1,1890, the Ohio State University played the University of Wooster on this site, which was then called Recreation Park. Just east of historic German Village, the park occupied the side of Schiller between Ebner and Jaeger in what is now Schumacher Place. The weather was perfect, and the crowd cheered loudly, nonetheless, OSU lost to Wooster, 64–0. Wooster, physically fit for the game, showed OSU that training is critical to winning, thus, the tradition of training continues. Over the next eight years, under a number of coaches, the played to a cumulative record of 31 wins,39 losses. The first game against the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, was a 34–0 loss in 1897, a year that saw the low point in Buckeye football history with a 1–7–1 record. Jack Ryder was Ohio States first paid coach, earning $150 per season, in 1899 the university hired John Eckstorm to bring professional coaching skills to the program and immediately went undefeated. In 1901, however, center John Segrist was fatally injured in a game against Western Reserve University, although the schools athletic board let the team decide its future, Eckstorm resigned
3.
History of the St. Louis Rams
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The professional American football franchise now known as the Los Angeles Rams played in St. Louis, Missouri, as the St. Louis Rams from the 1995 through the 2015 seasons. The Rams franchise relocated from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1995 and their last game played at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis was against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on December 17,2015, which they won, 31–23. The Rams last game as a St. Louis-based club was on January 3,2016, against the San Francisco 49ers at Levis Stadium, but the overall mediocrity of the Cardinals, combined with stadium issues, caused game attendance to dwindle. And once again the Bidwills, the family owned the Cardinals. The cities they looked at included Baltimore, Phoenix, New York City, nonetheless, Cardinals fans were unhappy at losing their team, and Bill Bidipll, fearing for his safety, stayed away from several of the 1987 home games. Their last home game was on December 13,1987, in which the Cardinals won 27–24 over the New York Giants in front of 29,623 fans on a late Sunday afternoon. Not long after the 1987 season, Bidipll agreed to move to the Phoenix area on a deal with state and local officials. They planned to play at Arizona State Universitys Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe on a basis while a new stadium was being built. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the savings and loan crisis derailed financing for the stadium, prior to the Rams 1979 Super Bowl season, owner Carroll Rosenbloom drowned in an accident. His widow, Georgia Frontiere, inherited 70% ownership of the team, Frontiere fired her step-son, Steve Rosenbloom, and assumed total control of the franchise. As had been planned prior to Carroll Rosenblooms death, the Rams moved from their home at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to Anaheim Stadium in nearby Orange County in 1980. Also, Southern Californias population patterns were changing, there was growth in L. A. s affluent suburbs. Anaheim Stadium was originally built in 1966 as the home of the California Angels Major League Baseball franchise, to accommodate the Rams move, the ballpark was reconfigured with luxury suites and enclosed to accommodate crowds of about 65,000 for football. In 1982 the Coliseum was occupied by the Los Angeles Raiders, the combined effect of these two factors was to force the Rams traditional fan base to be split between two teams. Making matters even worse, at time the Rams were unsuccessful on the field. Although it was not apparent at the time, the Rams loss in the 1989 NFC Championship Game marked the end of an era, the Rams would not have another winning season in Los Angeles for the remainder of the century, and beyond. The first half of the 1990s featured four straight 10-loss seasons, no playoff appearances, the return of Chuck Knox as head coach would not boost the Rams fortunes. Knoxs run-oriented offense brought about the end of offensive coordinator Ernie Zampeses tenure in 1993, general manager John Shaw was perceived by some to continually squander NFL Draft picks on sub-standard talent
4.
2008 NFL season
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The 2008 NFL season was the 89th regular season of the National Football League, themed with the slogan Believe in Now. Conversely, the Detroit Lions became the first NFL team with a season since the strike-shortened 1982 NFL season. For the first time since the NFL expanded to the sixteen game season in 1978, previously two teams won two or fewer games in 1979,1981,1985,1992 and 2001. In preseason games, the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game was played August 3 between the Indianapolis Colts and Washington Redskins, which aired on NBC. Other preseason highlights included the first game of the Toronto Series, the Bills won that game, 24–21. The games kickoff was ninety minutes earlier than years, at 7 p. m. EDT. Other featured games during the week included the NBC Sunday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts, in which the Kyle Orton-led Bears upset the Colts 29–13. Also, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady suffered a season ending injury against the Kansas City Chiefs, the 2008 season also was the third season of the use of the flexible scheduling for Sunday games starting with Week 11. This was the second season that the league played at least one regular season game outside the United States as part of its International Series. The contest between the San Diego Chargers and the New Orleans Saints was played at Wembley Stadium in London on October 26, the Chargers played at Buffalo the week beforehand on October 19 so they could immediately travel to London afterward in order to get used to the time difference. The league has also approved the Bills’ request to play at least one regular season game at Torontos Rogers Centre over each of the next five seasons. Team owner Ralph Wilson petitioned the league to play at least one game in Canada to strengthen his clubs fan base in Ontario, the game in Toronto was on December 7, after the end of the 2008 CFL season, against the Miami Dolphins, Miami won 16–3. CBS televised both games regionally, the Toronto game was carried across Canada on Rogers Sportsnet and City TV, a third game on NFL Network, featuring the Arizona Cardinals and the Philadelphia Eagles followed at 8,15 PM EST. The NFLs Pro Bowl all-star game at the end of the season was played at Aloha Stadium in the Honolulu, the league had the option under their current contract to hold the game elsewhere, including the possibility of moving it to the host site of the Super Bowl. W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT = Winning Percentage, PF= Points For, PA = Points Against Playoff seeds are marked in parentheses, Giants clinched the NFC #1 seed over Carolina based on a head-to-head victory. B Miami finished ahead of New England in the AFC East based on conference record. C San Diego finished ahead of Denver in the AFC West based on a division record. D Baltimore clinched the AFC #6 seed over New England based on a conference record
5.
Chicago Bears
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The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. The Bears compete in the National Football League as a club of the leagues National Football Conference North division. The Bears have won nine NFL Championships and one Super Bowl and hold the NFL record for the most enshrinees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Bears have also recorded more victories than any other NFL franchise. The franchise was founded in Decatur, Illinois, in 1919 and it is one of only two remaining franchises from the NFLs founding. The team played games at Wrigley Field on Chicagos North Side through the 1970 season, they now play at Soldier Field on the Near South Side. The Bears have a rivalry with the Green Bay Packers. The team headquarters, Halas Hall, is in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, the Bears practice at adjoining facilities there during the season. They hold their training camp from late July to mid-August at Ward Field on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois. Originally named the Decatur Staleys, the club was established by the A. E. Staley food starch company of Decatur and this was the typical start for several early professional football franchises. The company hired George Halas and Edward Dutch Sternaman in 1920 to run the team, the 1920 Decatur Staleys season was their inaugural regular season completed in the newly formed American Professional Football Association. Full control of the team was turned over to Halas and Sternaman in 1921, official team and league records cite Halas as the founder as he took over the team in 1920 when it became a charter member of the NFL. The team relocated to Chicago in 1921, where the club was renamed the Chicago Staleys, under an agreement reached by Halas and Sternaman with Staley, Halas purchased the rights to the club from Staley for US$100. In 1922, Halas changed the name from the Staleys to the Bears. The team moved into Wrigley Field, which was home to the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise, as with several early NFL franchises, the Bears derived their nickname from their citys baseball team. Halas liked the bright colors of his alma mater, the University of Illinois. The Staleys/Bears dominated the league in the early years and their rivalry with the Chicago Cardinals, the oldest in the NFL, was key in four out of the first six league titles. During that span, the Bears posted 34 shutouts, the Bears rivalry with the Green Bay Packers is one of the oldest and most storied in American professional sports, dating back to 1921. The franchise was a success under Halas, capturing the NFL Championship in 1921
6.
Super Bowl
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The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League. The game is the culmination to a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. Normally, Roman numerals are used to each game, rather than the year in which it is held. For example, Super Bowl I was played on January 15,1967, the single exception to this rule is Super Bowl 50, which was played on February 7,2016, following the 2015 regular season. The next game, Super Bowl LII, scheduled for February 4,2018, the game was created as part of a merger agreement between the NFL and its then-rival league, the American Football League. It was agreed that the two champion teams would play in the AFL–NFL World Championship Game until the merger was to officially begin in 1970. After the merger, each league was redesignated as a conference, currently, the National Football Conference leads the league with 26 wins to 25 wins for the American Football Conference. The Pittsburgh Steelers have the most Super Bowl championship titles, with six, the New England Patriots have the most Super Bowl appearances, with nine. The day on which the Super Bowl is played, now considered by some as an unofficial American national holiday, is called Super Bowl Sunday and it is the second-largest day for U. S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day. In addition, the Super Bowl has frequently been the most-watched American television broadcast of the year, in 2015, Super Bowl XLIX became the most-watched American television program in history with an average audience of 114. The NFL restricts the use of its Super Bowl trademark, it is called the Big Game or other generic terms by non-sponsoring corporations. As a result, watching and discussing the broadcasts commercials has become a significant aspect of the event, for four decades after its 1920 inception, the NFL successfully fended off several rival leagues. However, in 1960, it encountered its most serious competitor when the American Football League was formed. The AFL vied heavily with the NFL for both players and fans, but by the middle of the decade the strain of competition led to merger talks between the two leagues. Prior to the 1966 season, the NFL and AFL reached an agreement that was to take effect for the 1970 season. As part of the merger, the champions of the two agreed to meet in a world championship game for professional American football until the merger was effected. A bowl game is a college football game. Exploiting the Rose Bowl Games popularity, post-season college football contests were created for Miami, New Orleans, and El Paso, Texas in 1935, by the time the first Super Bowl was played, the term bowl for any major American football game was well established
7.
Pro Bowl
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The Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League. Between 2014 and 2016, the NFL experimented with an unconferenced format, the players were picked in a televised schoolyard pick prior to the game. Unlike most major leagues, which hold their all-star games roughly midway through their respective regular seasons. Between 1970 and 2009, it was held the weekend after the Super Bowl. Since 2010, the Pro Bowl has been played the weekend before the Super Bowl, Players from the two teams competing in the Super Bowl do not participate. Observers and commentators expressed their disfavor with the Pro Bowl in its current state and it draws lower TV ratings than its regular-season games, although the game draws similar ratings to other major all-star games, such as the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. However, the biggest concern of teams is to avoid injuries to the star players, the Associated Press wrote that players in the 2012 game were hitting each other as though they were having a pillow fight. Between 1980 and 2016, the game was played at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii, on June 1,2016, the NFL announced that they reached a multi-year deal to move the game to Orlando, Florida as part of the leagues ongoing efforts to make the game more relevant. For years, the game has suffered from lack of interest due to perceived low quality, the 2017 Pro Bowl will also mark a return to the AFC–NFC format. The first Pro All-Star Game, featuring the all-stars of the 1938 season, was played on January 15,1939 at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. The NFL All-Star Game was played again in Los Angeles in 1940 and then in New York, although originally planned as an annual contest, the all-star game was discontinued after 1942 because of travel restrictions put in place during World War II. During the first five games, an all-star team would face that years league champion. The league champion won the first four games before the all-stars were victorious in the game of this early series. The concept of a game was not revived until June 1950. The game was sponsored by the Los Angeles Publishers Association and it was decided that the game would feature all-star teams from each of the leagues two conferences rather than the league champion versus all-star format which had been used previously. This was done to avoid confusion with the Chicago College All-Star Game, the teams would be led by the coach of each of the conference champions. The first 21 games of the series were played in Los Angeles, the site of the game was changed annually for each of the next seven years before the game was moved to Aloha Stadium in Halawa, Hawaii for 30 straight seasons from 1980 through 2009. With the new rule being that the teams do not include players from the teams that will be playing in the Super Bowl
8.
USA Today
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USA Today is an internationally distributed American daily middle-market newspaper that serves as the flagship publication of its owner, the Gannett Company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15,1982, it operates from Gannetts corporate headquarters on Jones Branch Drive in McLean, Virginia and it is printed at 37 sites across the United States and at five additional sites internationally. USA Today is distributed in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, with an international edition distributed in Canada, Asia and the Pacific Islands, Gannett formally announced the launch of the paper on April 20,1982. USA Today began publishing on September 15,1982, initially launching in the Baltimore and Washington, on July 2,1984, the newspaper switched from a largely black-and-white to a color publication, featuring full color photography and graphics in all four sections. On April 8,1985, the paper published its first special bonus section, a 12-page section called Baseball 85, on May 6,1986, USA Today began printing production of its international edition in Switzerland. On April 15, USA Today launched an international printing site. On August 28,1995, an international publishing site was launched in Frankfurt, Germany, to print. On October 4,1999, USA Today began running advertisements on its front page for the first time. The paper launched a sixth printing site for its international edition on May 15,2000, in Milan, Italy, followed on July 10 by the launch of a printing facility in Charleroi. That November, USA Today migrated its operations from Gannetts previous corporate headquarters in Arlington, in 2010, USA Today launched the USA Today API for sharing data with partners of all types. On August 27,2010, USA Today announced that it would undergo a reorganization of its newsroom and it also announced that the paper would shift its focus away from print and place more emphasis on its digital platforms and launch of a new publication called USA Today Sports. On September 14,2012, USA Today underwent the first major redesign in its history, to accomplish this goal, Gannett migrated its newspaper and television station websites to the Presto platform and the USA Today site design throughout 2013 and 2014. On January 4,2014, USA Today acquired the book and film review website, on September 3,2014, USA Today announced that it would lay off roughly 70 employees in a restructuring of its newsroom and business operations. In October 2014, USA Today and OpenWager Inc. entered into a partnership to release a Bingo app called USA TODAY Bingo Cruise, USA Today is known for synthesizing news down to easy-to-read-and-comprehend stories. In the main edition circulated in the United States and some Canadian cities, each consists of four sections, News, Money, Sports. The international edition of the paper features two sections, News and Money in one, with Sports and Life in the other, atypical of most daily newspapers, the paper does not print on Saturdays and Sundays, the Friday edition serves as the weekend edition. USA Today prints each complete story on the front page of the section with the exception of the cover story. The cover story is a story that requires a jump
9.
American football
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The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team, if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the teams end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponents goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins, American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of association football and rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6,1869, during the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby Union code, which allowed carrying the ball. American football as a whole is the most popular sport in the United States, Professional football and college football are the most popular forms of the game, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. As of 2012, nearly 1.1 million high school athletes and 70,000 college athletes play the sport in the United States annually, almost all of them men, in the United States, American football is referred to as football. The term football was established in the rulebook for the 1876 college football season. The terms gridiron or American football are favored in English-speaking countries where other codes of football are popular, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, American football evolved from the sports of association football and rugby football. What is considered to be the first American football game was played on November 6,1869 between Rutgers and Princeton, two college teams, the game was played between two teams of 25 players each and used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried. It could, however, be kicked or batted with the feet, hands, head or sides, Rutgers won the game 6 goals to 4. Collegiate play continued for years in which matches were played using the rules of the host school. Representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Rutgers met on October 19,1873 to create a set of rules for all schools to adhere to. Teams were set at 20 players each, and fields of 400 by 250 feet were specified, Harvard abstained from the conference, as they favored a rugby-style game that allowed running with the ball. An 1875 Harvard-Yale game played under rugby-style rules was observed by two impressed Princeton athletes and these players introduced the sport to Princeton, a feat the Professional Football Researchers Association compared to selling refrigerators to Eskimos. Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia then agreed to play using a form of rugby union rules with a modified scoring system. These schools formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, although Yale did not join until 1879, the introduction of the snap resulted in unexpected consequences. Prior to the snap, the strategy had been to punt if a scrum resulted in bad field position, however, a group of Princeton players realized that, as the snap was uncontested, they now could hold the ball indefinitely to prevent their opponent from scoring. In 1881, both teams in a game between Yale-Princeton used this strategy to maintain their undefeated records, each team held the ball, gaining no ground, for an entire half, resulting in a 0-0 tie
10.
Ohio State University
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The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State or OSU, is a large, primarily residential, public university in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and ninth university in Ohio with the Morrill Act of 1862, Hayes, and in 1878 the Ohio General Assembly passed a law changing the name to The Ohio State University. It has since grown into the third-largest university campus in the United States, along with its main campus in Columbus, Ohio State also operates a regional campus system with regional campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and Wooster. Ohio State athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are known as the Ohio State Buckeyes, athletes from Ohio State have won 100 Olympic medals. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference for the majority of sports, the Ohio State mens ice hockey program competes in the Big Ten Conference, while its womens hockey program competes in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. In addition, the OSU mens volleyball team is a member of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, OSU is one of only 14 universities that plays Division I FBS football and Division I ice hockey. As of August 2015, the university had awarded a total of 714,512 degrees, alumni and former students have gone on to prominent careers in government, business, science, medicine, education, sports, and entertainment. Championed by the Republican stalwart Governor Rutherford B, Hayes, the Ohio State University was founded in 1870 as a land-grant university under the Morrill Act of 1862 as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The school was originally within a community on the northern edge of Columbus. The university opened its doors to 24 students on September 17,1873, in 1878, the first class of six men graduated. The first woman graduated the following year, also in 1878, in light of its expanded focus, the Ohio legislature changed the name to the now-familiar The Ohio State University, with The as part of its official name. Ohio State began accepting students in the 1880s, and in 1891. It would later acquire colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, veterinary medicine, commerce, in 1916, Ohio State was elected into membership in the Association of American Universities. Michael V. Drake, former chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, in an attack against the campus on November 28,2016, an unrelated fluorine leak was called in for Watts Hall, resulting in the evacuation of the building to an outside courtyard. As firetrucks began to depart, Abdul Razak Ali Artan drove into the crowd, then emerged, the attack was stopped in under two minutes by OSU Police Officer Alan Horujko, who witnessed the attack after responding to the reported gas leak, and who shot and killed Artan. The universitys Buckeye Alert system was triggered and the campus was placed on lockdown, Ten were transported to local hospitals and one suspect was killed according to multiple sources. Local law enforcement and the FBI launched an investigation, according to authorities, Artan was inspired by terrorist propaganda from the Islamic State and radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Ohio States 1, 764-acre main campus is about 2.5 miles north of the citys downtown, the historical center of campus is the Oval, quad of about 11 acres
11.
Kurt Warner
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Kurtis Eugene Warner is a former American football quarterback, a current part-time TV football analyst, and a philanthropist. He played for three National Football League teams, the St. Louis Rams, the New York Giants, and he was originally signed by the Green Bay Packers as an undrafted free agent in 1994 after playing college football at Northern Iowa. Warner went on to be considered the best undrafted NFL player of all time, Warner will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August 2017. He led the 2008 Arizona Cardinals to Super Bowl XLIII, Warner currently holds the seventh-highest career passer rating of all-time, and the fourth-highest career completion percentage in NFL history with 65. 5%. Born in Burlington, Iowa, Warner played football at Regis High School in Cedar Rapids, after that he attended the University of Northern Iowa, graduating in 1993. At UNI, Warner was third on the Panthers depth chart until his senior year, when Warner was finally given the chance to start, he was named the Gateway Conferences Offensive Player of the Year. Following his college career, Warner went undrafted in the 1994 NFL Draft, while Warner was with the Packers, the head coach was Mike Holmgren, the quarterback coach was Steve Mariucci, and Andy Reid was the offensive assistant. After Warner was released, Mariucci told him that he knew Warner had enormous potential but was not ready to be an NFL quarterback yet, after his release, Warner stocked shelves at a Hy-Vee grocery store in Cedar Falls for $5.50 an hour. Warner often notes this as the point when telling of his rise to NFL stardom in 1999. He also mentions his conversion to Christianity that occurred around 1997, Warner also returned to Northern Iowa and worked as a graduate assistant coach with the football team, all the while still hoping to get another tryout with an NFL team. With no NFL teams willing to give him a chance, Warner turned to the Arena Football League in 1995, Warner was named to the AFLs First-team All-Arena in both 1996 and 1997 after he led the Barnstormers to Arena Bowl appearances in both seasons. Warners performance was so impressive that he would be named out of the 20 Best Arena Football Players of all time. In 2000, after Warners breakout NFL season, the Arena Football League used his new fame for the name of its first widely available video game, on August 12,2011, Warner was named as an inductee into the Arena Football Hall of Fame. In 1998, Warner was finally signed by an NFL franchise, the St. Louis Rams, and was allocated to NFL Europes Amsterdam Admirals and his backup at the time was future Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme, another famous rags-to-riches quarterback story. Returning to the United States for the season, Warner spent the 1998 season as St. Louis third-string quarterback behind Tony Banks and he ended his season completing only 4 of 11 pass attempts for 39 yards and a 47.2 QB rating. After releasing Banks and Bono following the 1998 season, the Rams signed free agent Trent Green to be their starting QB, when Green tore his ACL in a preseason game, Rams coach Dick Vermeil named Warner as the Rams starter. In an emotional press conference, Vermeil—who hadnt seen Warner work with the first-string offense—famously said, We will rally around Kurt Warner, Warner threw three touchdown passes in each of his first three NFL starts, he is the only NFL quarterback in history to accomplish that feat. Warner drew more attention in the Rams fourth game of the season, Warner finished the game with five touchdown passes, giving him 14 in four games and the Rams a 4–0 record
12.
Marshall Faulk
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Marshall William Faulk is a former college and professional American football player who was a running back in the National Football League for twelve seasons. He played college football for San Diego State University, and was a two-time consensus All-American and he was selected by the Indianapolis Colts as the second overall pick in the 1994 NFL Draft, and he also played professionally for the NFLs St. Louis Rams. Faulk is one of only three NFL players to reach at least 10,000 rushing yards and 5,000 receiving yards and he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011. He is currently a pro football analyst for NFL Total Access, Thursday Night Football and he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2017. Faulk was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana and he attended Carver High School in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where he played for the Carver Rams high school football team. Also a standout sprinter, Faulk was timed at 10.3 seconds in the 100 meters,21.74 over 200 meters and 49.4 in the 400 meters. Faulk received a scholarship to attend San Diego State University. One of the best performances of his career was against the University of the Pacific on September 14,1991 in just his second collegiate game, in 37 carries, he amassed 386 yards and scored seven touchdowns, both records for freshmen. Faulk had scoring runs of 61,7,47,9,5,8 and 25 yards and that performance sparked one of the greatest freshman seasons in NCAA history, gaining 1,429 yards rushing, with 23 total touchdowns, and 140 points scored. Faulk went on to better 1600 yards rushing in his sophomore year, in Faulks junior season in 1993, he was finally able to showcase his all-purpose ability by catching 47 passes for 640 yards and 3 TDs to go with 1530 yards and 21 TDs on the ground. These numbers put Faulk 3rd in the nation in all-purpose yardage that year, Faulk left San Diego State University with many of the schools offensive records, among them 5,562 all-purpose yards and 62 career touchdowns, which is the 8th most in NCAA history. 1 in the country before the Heisman balloting, Faulks team finished with a middling 5-5-1 record, ESPN analyst Lee Corso led a campaign supporting Torretta for the Heisman and left Marshall Faulk off of his ballot. He was a Heisman finalist as well in 1991 and 1993, along with defensive tackle Dan Wilkinson and quarterbacks Heath Shuler and Trent Dilfer, Faulk was regarded as one of the four players who rank well above the others in this draft. On February 14,1994, at the NFL Scouting Combine Faulk ran a 4.28 forty-yard dash. and on March 31, Faulk was drafted 2nd overall in the 1994 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts, who were in desperate need of a running game. On July 25,1994, Faulk signed a seven-year $17.2 million contract, Faulk responded by rushing for 1,282 yards,11 touchdowns, and one receiving touchdown. Marshall Faulk, later that season, would become the first NFL player to win both the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award and the Pro Bowl’s Most Valuable Player Award in the same season and he was also the first rookie to win Pro Bowl MVP. The next season Faulk rushed for 1,078 yards and 14 total touchdowns. The Colts made the postseason, going 9-7, and narrowly missed the Super Bowl after a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship Game which Faulk missed due to a nagging toe injury
