Sac Fly: Floyd Little

Thursday, December 02, 2021

Floyd Little < Herschel

Floyd Little of the Denver Broncos was a great running back, but he slipped into the Pro Football Hall of Fame by the slimmest of margins. Come to think, his 9 year career stats aren’t quite as good as the last 9 seasons of Herschel’s NFL career – Walker’s descent into oblivion, when he was traded from the Cowboys, underutilized in Minnesota, and played out the string for the Giants, Eagles, and Cowboys.

..G….ATT..rush.TD.rec.rec yd.TD.touch.APYD.comb yd.TD.years

117 1641 6323 43 215 2418 09 1856 8741 12173 54 67-75 FL

143 1233 5083 37 323 2802 16 1556 7885 12969 55 89-97 HW

044 0721 2142 24 189 2057 05 0910 5199 05199 29 86-88 HW

042 0756 2971 27 095 1045 05 0851 4016 04334 32 71-73 FL best 3

033 0434 1694 10 045 0560 02 0479 2254 04527 14 67-69 FL AFL

In Herschel’s last nine years he had 33% more receptions, more receiving and combined yards, and more touchdowns than Little – on 300 fewer touches. This includes when Walker played for the Vikings, Giants, and Eagles, and his last few years with the Cowboys. In his career Little missed 9 games, and average of one per year. In his last nine years Herschel only missed three of the 146 games his teams played.

In Herschel’s first three NFL seasons he gained 5199 yards to Little’s 8741 career all-purpose yards – in half as many touches. Herschel’s first three years better Little’s best three seasons, and certainly Little’s first three seasons. And remember, Little’s stats include his first three seasons spent in an inferior league.

Little was one of a line of great backs to wear number 44 at Syracuse: Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, and Little. Larry Csonka wore 39 for the Orangemen.

Worked until almost 6 pm last night trying to get everything done, since I’m off tomorrow and leaving early today. C brought leftover pizza home from school so me and M ate that instead of the lentils that C cooked. Watched episode 3 of Only Murders in the Building. Good stuff. Yesterday they started filming season two.

Just my luck. I buy the annual golf pass, and won’t be able to play the entire month of December.

Last year Anna gave me a nice jean jacket for Christmas. It didn’t fit and they were sold out of my size, so I exchanged it for other clothes. Yesterday I nabbed a decent jean jacket at a thrift store for seven bucks, nice and broken in, not stiff but soft. The clerk was impressed with my score. Still I’m not really a jean jacket guy. Seems like the only old guys I see wearing jean jackets are millionaire politicians in campaign commercials, trying to appeal to the common man.

Finishing up the new Stephen King novel Billy Summers. The main character becomes a writer for the first time, telling his sad life story as he writes it out in book form – a book within a book. After making the hit he makes his getaway. While hiding out he rescues a college girl who’d been abused and dumped on the street. She goes with him to hide out in Colorado with an old friend, then to Vegas where he pays a visit to the mobster who stiffed him, then to New York to settle the score with the real bad guy, a murdering elderly media mogul millionaire.

TOMMY HENRICH [SABR Bio] reached base on catcher Mickey Owen’s dropped third strike. When Henrich stuck out with two out in the top of the 9th inning in the 4th game of the 1941 WS, it appeared the hometown Dodgers had won the game to tie the Series at two games apiece. However, Owen dropped the strike and Henrich made it safely to first. The Yankees went on to win the game and the Series. Henrich once had four grand slams in one season. He didn’t hit one grand slam in any other season of his career. Henrich hit grand slams on 23-Jun; 08-Jul; 30-Jul; & 17-Aug-1948. At the time of his death in 2009, he was Lou Gehrig’s final surviving teammate. Henrich passed away 01-Dec-2009 back in his home state of Ohio.