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Football great George Blanda dies
September 29th, 2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
George Blanda has passed away after a brief illness. He was 83. The Hall of Fame quarterback and kicker who played a record 26 seasons of professional football and once almost single-handedly won five consecutive games for the Oakland Raiders is remembered as "a brave Raider and a close personal friend of Raiders owner Al Davis."
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Blanda's career dated to an era when players routinely manned two positions. He scored a then-record 2,002 points by throwing for 236 touchdowns and running for nine, as well as kicking 335 field goals and 943 extra points.
Blanda retired before the 1976 season, a month shy of his 49th birthday, having spent 10 seasons with the Chicago Bears, part of one with the Baltimore Colts, seven with the Houston Oilers and his last nine with the Raiders.
"If you put him in a group of most-competitive, biggest-clutch players, I think he'd have to be the guy who would win it all," Raiders coach John Madden said. "He was the most competitive guy that I ever knew."
Blanda's shining hours were during a five-game stretch in 1970 when the 43-year-old Blanda, his chiseled jaw framed by salt-and-pepper sideburns, led the Raiders to four victories and one tie with late touchdown throws or field goals.
"It got to the point where when he'd come in [the game], the whole team would go, 'Here comes George. We're going to do it now,'" Madden said. "Then pretty soon all the fans started believing and they'd all go nuts. And then the topper is when the opponents knew it. It was like, 'Oh no, here he comes.'"
In looking at that incredible streak, NFL Films called Blanda "football's King Tut exhibit," noting that even though people initially thought the quarterback was too old to be a player, "he was just the right age to become a legend."
Blanda, who split time between homes in Chicago and La Quinta, is survived by his wife, Betty and two children. Services are pending.