Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Rolled Snake Eyes

Ken Stabler, who preferred Birmingham to Oakland, has died of colon cancer at the age of 69. Recruited by Bear Bryant, Stabler had a unique career at the University of Alabama, watching from the bench as Joe Namath and Steve Sloan led the Crimson Tide to consecutive national championships in 1964 and 1965. Given his chance, he led the Tide to another undefeated season, capped by a blowout in the Sugar Bowl, but voters apparently had Tide fatigue and Alabama finished 3rd. Senior year saw a disappointing 8-2-1 finish, with Stabler briefly kicked off the team, but highlighted by his 53-yard TD scamper in the rain to beat Auburn, a play known in Iron Bowl lore as the “Run in the Mud.” Drafted by the Oakland Raiders, Stabler was again a late bloomer, doing little for 3 seasons, until a late TD run in the 1972 AFC Divisional Playoff would have made him a hero, but he who lives by the fancy named play dies by the fancy named play, and Franco Harris’ Immaculate Reception ended the Raiders season. With Hall of Famers Fred Biletnikoff and Dave Casper and Hall of Fame finalist Cliff Branch catching passes, Stabler was AFC player of the year in 1974 and 1976 and led the Raiders to their first Super Bowl title in 1977. The Raiders traded the franchise leader in passing yards and TD passes after the 1979 season, as the Houston Oilers thought that adding past their prime stars like Stabler and Casper to a still ambulatory Earl Campbell was the ticket to the Super Bowl. It was not. Stabler moved on to bring the Saints within a game of their first playoff appearance in 1983, then retired in the middle of the 1984 season. Stabler set the record for fewest games to reach 100 wins as a starting quarterback (150) and still remains the 4th fastest. In 1974, Stabler was one of several NFL stars who signed contracts to join the World Football League after their current contracts expired in 1976, and he proudly declared his intent to bring pro football to the South as a member of the Birmingham Americans. The WFL folded in 1975, and Stabler stayed a Raider. Stabler was as celebrated for his prowess off the field as on, and there has been some speculation that his hard-partying may have kept him out of that bastion of decorum in Canton. Stabler decorated his hotel suite in training camp with the underwear of his conquests, and bragged that he studied his playbook by the light of a jukebox. In-huddle belches that carried the distinct aroma of the remnants of amber liquid from the previous evening, which had invariably stretched into game day morning, were not uncommon.

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