“He wanted to be Smurftastic tonight, he told me,” quarterback Nick Foles said after Arizona’s 41-10 victory over NAU on Saturday night. “And he was. He ran the ball well, and he was Smurftastic.”
“He wanted to be Smurftastic tonight, he told me,” quarterback Nick Foles said after Arizona’s 41-10 victory over NAU on Saturday night. “And he was. He ran the ball well, and he was Smurftastic.”
Jeff Demps, “possibly the fastest running back in the SEC,” will not be locked out this fall.
Cookie Gilchrist, who died earlier this week, was the first athlete posted on this blog (the orange and blue 2 that is our favicon is his Denver Bronco’s number designation from his page on ProFootballReference.com).
Gilchrist, who was compared with Jim Brown, did most of his damage on the gridiron wearing 34, an iconic football number, for the Buffalo Bills. His release from the Bills came after a boycott of the 1965 AFL All-Star Game in New Orleans for racial discrimination he experienced in the city.
After that, he wore 2 for the Broncos and, pictured here, the Miami Dolphins. He’s one of our favorite 2s.
blahblahblahblahStatsblahblahblahblahAwardsblahblahblahblah Rodney Scott saved an opponent’s life by not moving underneath Zac Etheridge when the Auburn safety suffered potentially fatal spinal injuries during their meeting last season.
SI named Charley Trippi the best football player to ever wear 2. Seeing as how he made the 1940s All-Decade Team, has a bust in Canton, is the only HoFer to tally 1000 yards passing, rushing, and receiving, and was the dominant player in the 1947 NFL Championship Game (206 all-purpose yards, 2 TDs) for the then Chicago Cardinals, we’re open to that suggestion—with two caveats.
1. 2 is reserved for punters, kickers, and quarterbacks in the NFL, so we’re down to a third of that group who could actually wrest the title of Best Football Player to Wear 2 away from Mr. Trippi. While QBs are good competition, punters and kickers are not.
2. He wore 62 for a good portion of his career (Georgia even retired that number for him), and it seems his best work came early on with the 6 tacked onto the 2. He didn’t even wear 2 until 1952.
Cookie Gilchrist wore 34 as a Buffalo Bill when the AFL opened play in 1960, as the first AFL RB to rush for over 1000 yards, and as the leader of a boycott of New Orleans as site of the 1965 AFL All-Star game due to the refusal of service to black players in the city.
The game was moved to Houston, Gilchrist was traded to Denver before the next season, and he switched to 2 as a Bronco, where he rushed for 954 yards, led the league in touchdowns (6), and was an AFL All-Star.
This photo comes from a gallery of Bills runners on the Pro Football Hall of Fame website, and Gilchrist definitely made his name in Buffalo, but he’s wearing one of the earliest orange and blue Broncos uniforms here.
