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Posts Tagged ‘San Diego Chargers’

There are few teams in history that have had a quarterback as good as Tom Brady. He is incredibly accurate, has deceptive arm strength, and is about as cool under pressure as a player can be. Brady came out of the University of Michigan without a lot of high expectations. He got onto the field due to an injury to the player starting ahead of him and went on to make the most of that opportunity. Since then he has won multiple Super Bowls, conference championships, and individual awards.

With the high powered offense that the New England Patriots have run since Brady came into the league, he has been able to put up some great passing numbers. Here is a look at five little known facts surrounding his touchdown passes. All information is taken from his entire career through the end of the 2009 NFL season.

#1 The first touchdown pass that Tom Brady ever threw in the National Football League came in the second quarter of a 29-26 win over the San Diego Chargers in 2001. The pass went for 21 yards and was caught by Terry Glenn. This was the only time that Brady would ever throw a touchdown pass to Glenn.

#2 Tom Brady has thrown more touchdown passes against the Buffalo Bills, 33 in total, during his career than he has against any other team in the NFL.

#3 He is a second quarter kind of guy. Over the course of his career, he has thrown 47 touchdown passes in the first quarter, 47 in the third quarter, 53 in the fourth quarter, and one in overtime. He has topped all of those though with 77 career second quarter touchdowns.

#4 No player has caught more touchdown passes from Tom Brady than Randy Moss. He and Moss have hooked up for a touchdown 36 times during their time together. This is more than twice the amount of touchdown passes he has thrown to anyone else.

#5 During his career, Brady has thrown 19 touchdown pass of 50 yards or more in distance. Even though he has only played with him for two seasons, 2007 to 2009 with 2008 lost due to Brady’s injury, more than one third of those 50 yard touchdown passes have been caught by Randy Moss (7).

national football

Trojan football has been a part of the NCAA since 1888, with the University of Southern California team having consistently been one of the teams to beat. With 11 national titles to the program’s credit, the Trojans have spent much of their history dominating the Pacific 10 Conference in which they compete, while also routinely threatening the national championship picture. Over the last decade, USC has spent much of their time ranked within the very top tier of the vote tabulations that have counted: the Associated Press (AP) and Bowl Championship Series (BCS) polls. Over the course of that decade, the Trojans were led by Coach Pete Carroll, who made a name for both himself and his team with a fast-paced style of offense and hard-nosed defense.

Not the first choice

Proving that hindsight is indeed 20/20, Carroll’s initial selection in 2000 as the coach of the USC team was an unwelcome one from the perspective of both fans and alumni alike. Coming as he did from the coaching ranks of the NFL – and not having coached in the college game for more than a decade and a half – there were many who believed that he was simply not the man for the job. However, after first attempting to lure Oregon State’s coach to the team, and then following that up with a failed attempt to acquire the coach from Oregon and an unsuccessful overture to Mike Riley of the San Diego Chargers organization, USC’s athletic department eventually settled for Carroll. To his credit, Pete had never backed away from openly campaigning for the job, which he saw as perfect fit for him and his family. The truly odd thing about the reluctance to hire him is the fact that USC had in fact tried to hire him three years before, but he was unable to leave his job with the Patriots.

A bumpy start

In the beginning of Carroll’s time at USC it appeared as though he and the team were providing his critics more than their fair share of ammunition. The 2001 campaign began about as badly as it could have, with the Trojans limping out to a 2 win and 5-loss beginning to the season. Immediately, the sports media began calling Carroll’s hiring a mistake, declaring that the mighty Trojans were now doomed to fade even farther into mediocrity.

Instead, Carroll’s system began to see the results he knew it would, and the USC Trojans roared back to life. In the process, they amassed a record of 67 victories with only 7 defeats, while winning a pair of national titles and once again cementing USC’s position as a dominant football program. His teams also managed to win every Pac-10 conference championship title between 2003 and 2008. Within a few short seasons of his hiring, of course, the media consensus had changed its tune, and now held that he had not been a mistake at all, but had rather been one of the best hires in college football history.

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The Cincinnati Bengals were founded in 1968 and played their first two seasons as part of the American Football League before being included in the merger with the National Football League where they have been an NFL team ever since. The Bengals have had an up and down roller coaster existence in the NFL, but over the years they’ve been a part of a number of interesting games and moments in the league’s history. The team has also have a number of great players too. Here is a look at five fun facts about the Cincinnati Bengals.

1. The Cincinnati Bengals lost the first pro football game they ever played when they were beaten by the San Diego Chargers by the score of 29-13 on September 6th, 1968 on the road in Southern California.

2. The all time leader in passing yards for the Cincinnati Bengals is Ken Anderson who served as the team’s quarterback from 1971 to 1986. Though not a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, at the time of his retirement only five other quarterbacks in NFL history had thrown for more yards in their career as he did. Though he failed to get a Super Bowl ring in 1981 when the team he quarterbacked lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the big game, Anderson would get a Super Bowl ring 27 years later as the quarterbacks coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

3. When the Bengals debuted in 1968, former Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown filled the positions of the team’s general manager and head coach, thanks in large part to the fact that he was also the principal owner of the team. One of Brown’s assistant coaches while with the Bengals, and a man passed over for the head coaching position when Brown stepped down in 1976, was future San Francisco 49ers head coach Bill Walsh. Coincidentally, the Bengals lost both of their two Super Bowl appearances to Walsh coached 49ers teams.

4. The Cincinnati Bengals had the AFL Rookie of the Year on their roster in both their first two seasons in football. In 1968, running back Paul Robinson won the award and then the next year in 1969 the award was won by quarterback Greg Cook. The Bengals wouldn’t have a rookie of the year award winner again until 1985 when the award was won by wide receiver Eddie Brown.

5. The college that the Cincinnati Bengals have drafted the most players out of over the years is Ohio State University. Some of the great players to have joined the team from there include defensive tackle Dan Wilkinson, defensive back Ray Griffin, running back Archie Griffin, running back Pete Johnson, and linebacker Steve Tovar.

Fans of the Cincinnati Bengals are proud of their team, and deservedly so. They have stuck with the team through good years and bad and will continue to do so in the future as well. This is a great team and a valued franchise of the National Football League.

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