My Favorite NFL Players 2.0 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jim Thorpe

The National Football League (then known as the American Professional Football Conference) was not founded until 1920 when Thorpe was well over thirty years old, but he was still an outstanding pro player by all accounts. An effective running back, blocking back, and defensive back, Thorpe's outstanding skill as a pro player was his kicking; in pre-game exhibitions, he was known to kick field goals from midfield, and informal accounts credit him with a 99-yard punt in a 1923 game. He is a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Jim Thorpe was my favorite old-school athlete when I was a kid - I drove my family crazy. If you want to read more about this superlative American athlete, check out Sally Jenkins' fine write up in the July 2012 issue of 'Smithsonian'.

Answer: Bronko Nagurski

Bronko Nagurski stood 6 feet, 2 inches and weighed around 240 pounds. These would be adequate proportions for a fullback eighty years later; in Nagurski's prime, he was bigger and stronger than most linemen, and could effectively run over most linebackers. Indeed, in addition to being a fine running back and blocking back, he was also a vaunted defensive lineman and linebacker. He even put time in on the offensive line when leg injuries dulled his running speed. After a fine NFL run with the Bears from 1930 to 1937, Nagurski spent time as a professional wrestler, winning the world championship from the legendary Lou Thesz in June 1939. (Though pro wrestling was staged entertainment even then, promoters were loathe to put the championship belt on anyone who they did not feel could handle themselves in the ring; Nagurski's title run was not an empty honor.)

In 1943, with World War II depleting the player pool, Nagurski was asked to come back to the Bears as a tackle. Though he warned the Bears that years of leglocks had robbed him of his speed, he proved capable of playing at the NFL level. He served as an emotional leader for the team, particularly in a game against Detroit which saw several Lions' fans spew anti-Semitic taunts against the Bears' quarterback Sid Luckman. After some choice words from Bronko, the area around the Bears' sideline became a bigot-free zone.

In the Bears' last regular season game against the Cardinals, Nagurski returned to the fullback slot with the Bears trailing in the fourth quarter, converting a fourth-down-and-four-yards desperation play by plowing the Cardinals' line for a six-yard gain. As the quarter wore on, Bronko punished the Cardinals' defense for 84 yards in a come-from-behind victory that gave the Bears a shot at the championship, which they won against Washington. It was a fitting swan song for the great player.

Player GuyLafleur10 would like me to point out that Bronko was born in Rainy River, Ontario. Go Canada.

Answer: Jim Parker

Parker nurtured his run blocking skills at Ohio State. He served as Woody Hayes' prototypical lineman in the Buckeyes' ground-oriented offense, winning the Outland Trophy and a National Championship in the process. When he came to the pro ranks, the Baltimore Colts used him extensively as a pass blocker to protect the great Johnny Unitas, but Parker would get his licks in as a run blocker, too. Highlight films from his 11-year career (1957-67) show him taking out as many as three defenders by himself, essentially serving as a one-man power sweep.

In 1973, Parker was the first Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee to earn his ticket solely as an offensive lineman.

Answer: John Riggins

After nine years in the league with New York and Washington, Riggins sat out the 1980 season in a contract dispute; many considered him retired for good. In 1981, new Washington coach Joe Gibbs visited Riggins in rural Kansas, where he was greeted by the camouflage-wearing fullback having a beer at ten in the morning. Gibbs was skeptical and considered trading Riggins, but player's dogged effort (and new no-trade contract) kept him on the squad.

After a lackluster 1982 regular season, Riggins went on a tear in the postseason, rushing for 610 yards (compared to only 553 in the regular season).

His signature play of the campaign was a fourth-down-and-inches run in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. Designed to get short yardage for a first down, Riggins turned the play into a 43-yard rumble for a TD.

The following two regular seasons would prove to be a Riggins renaissance. He gained a career-high 1,347 yards rushing in 1983 en route to scoring a then-record 24 touchdowns. He followed this with a 1,239-yard season in 1984 (his second-best career total) before tapering off into retirement in 1985. That same year, columnist Mike Royko would cite Riggins as a fine role model for adults (but decidedly NOT for children) after the player chided Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at the National Press Club's Salute to Congress, telling the staid jurist to "loosen up, Sandy baby." Riggins would end the evening snoring audibly in his seat; accounts differ as to whether this was precipitated by excessive alcohol or sheer boredom.

Answer: Vince Ferragamo

Facing stagnating NFL salaries, Ferragamo left the Rams in 1981 for a more lucrative contract with the CFL's Montreal Alouettes. After one unsuccessful Canadian campaign, Ferragamo returned to the Rams in 1982, becoming only the third quarterback to pass for over 500 yards in a game against the Chicago Bears on December 26 of that year.

He would never return to the Super Bowl, finishing his career as a backup for the Green Bay Packers in 1986.

Answer: Junior Seau

This was a tough one to write.

In 2012, Junior Seau took his own life with a gunshot wound to the chest. To many observers, this was eerily similar to the circumstances surrounding former NFL Man of the Year Dave Duerson's death, which saw Duerson leave specific instructions that his brain be studied for evidence of trauma that might explain his worsening depression. In January of 2013, the National Institutes of Health confirmed that Seau did suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a result of repeated concussions that manifests itself in profound depression and memory loss.

Shortly before his death, Seau gave an interview where he said that "[t]hose who are saying the game is changing for the worse, well, they don't have a father who can't remember his name because of the game. I'm pretty sure if everybody had to wake with their dad not knowing his name, not knowing his kids' name, not being able to function at a normal rate after football, they would understand that the game needs to change. If it doesn't there are going to be more players, more great players, being affected by the things that we know of and aren't changing. That's not right." In retrospect, it is chillingly possible that Seau was talking about himself. The Seau and Duerson cases, along with the stories of greats like Alex Karras and Mike Webster who suffered precocious dementia in their later years, have focused public attention on the long-term impact of football on neurological health.

Answer: Troy Polamalu

A wildly enthusiastic player, Polamalu is known as a quiet, contemplative man while not playing. He studied religious history at USC, eventually converting to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. He has made a ritual of praying through each game, though unlike the more demonstrative Tim Tebow, Polamalu's invocations are discreet to the casual observer.

In addition to his Super Bowl wins, Polamalu was named Defensive Player of the Year for 2010.

Answer: Drew Brees

In the wake of his Super Bowl victory, 'Sports Illustrated' named Brees their Sportsman of the Year for 2010. In their words, this was as much for his off-the-field accomplishments as for his football triumphs: Brees has been exceptionally active in efforts to rebuild New Orleans after Katrina, including work through Habitat for Humanity and his college fraternity, Sigma Chi.

He also contributed time in 2010 to the anti-bullying It Gets Better Project, one of the first NFL stars to do so. Perhaps most memorably, Brees served as Bacchus in the 2010 Mardi Gras parade.

Answer: Mean Joe Greene

Though Greene had his share of tackles and sacks, he often added value in other ways. Specifically, the 275-pound specimen would run a "stunt" angle between the center and left guard. Often this would occupy both blockers (and sometimes the fullback as well), leaving Greene's peers like L. C. Greenwood and Jack Lambert unblocked. This served his 1975, 1976, 1979, and 1980 Super Bowl Champion Steelers teams well.

The general public was probably more familiar with Greene's work in an ad for Coca-Cola, which featured the tackle tossing his jersey to a boy who had given him a bottle of the soda. He also played a memorable role in 'Smokey and the Bandit II', which saw him single-handedly flip over a patrol car. Those who saw Greene play will testify that this was only a slight exaggeration; Joe Greene was one of the strongest athletes in football, though by all accounts a legitimately good guy off the field.

Answer: Alex Henery

It speaks to the near-perfection of the pro game to point out that Henery's 88.9% was only good for fifth place in the NFL behind Matt Bryant's superior 93.1% in 2011. Henery went a perfect 46-for-46 on extra points his first year, missing just one in his sophomore campaign to go 25-for-26.