Doug Pederson Turns 55

Despite his modest skills, Doug Pederson spent 10 years as an NFL player mostly because he had influential friends. Born on January 31, 1968, in Bellingham, Washington, Pederson went to the deep Southeast to play college football at Northeast Louisiana (now Louisiana-Monroe) where he set several passing records in his three seasons quarterbacking the Warhawks. As an undrafted free agent, the 6’3” 220-pound Pederson signed with the Dolphins in 1991, but the only game he got to throw the ball in was Don Shula’s record setting 325^th win on November 14, 1993. Scott Mitchell was injured in the second half of that game, and Doug came in to threw just eight passes in leading Miami to two second half field goals to pull out the 19-14 victory. He also spent two seasons in the developmental World League.

Pederson had two stints (1996-98 and 2001-04) backing up the indestructible Brett Favre in Green Bay and became close friends with Favre. Those backup gigs were broken up by a season in Philadelphia mentoring rookie Donovan McNabb and one in Cleveland mentoring second year man Tim Couch. Former Green Bay assistant Andy Reid signed Pederson to an unwarranted three-year $4.5 million contract in Philadelphia in 1999 because of his familiarity with the offense that Reid was installing for McNabb to run. In his playing career, Pederson was 3-14 as a starter; he averaged just 5.3 yards per pass and threw 12 touchdowns to 19 interceptions. Doug impressed no one with his play on the field, but his knowledgeable approach to the game led him into coaching after he retired. Pederson worked under Reid for seven seasons, first in Philadelphia and then Kansas City.

As a coach, Pederson has embraced the go-for-it mentality encouraged by football analytics gurus and found great success after returning to the Eagles as head coach in 2016. In his second season, he led the team and its star second-year quarterback Carson Wentz to a 13-3 record. When Wentz got hurt late in the year, Nick Foles stepped in, and the Eagles upset the mighty Patriots due largely to Pederson’s fearless coaching style. The Birds made the playoffs the next two seasons, but Wentz began to display major limitations, and Pederson got caught between the quarterback and the front office in a power play. He was fired after a 4-11-1 2020 season that saw the introduction of another rookie quarterback, Jalen Hurts, to Philadelphia.

After a year out of the game, Pederson was hired as head coach of the moribund Jaguars in 2022. In his first season, he straightened out struggling young quarterback Trevor Lawrence and led Jacksonville to its first postseason appearance in five years.

(Adapted from The Quarterback Abstract.)

Custom cards in a variety of styles.

Richard Rodgers

Born on January 22, 1992 in Martinez, California, tight end Richard Rodgers turns 31 today. After going to high school in Massachusetts, Rodgers returned to the West Coast for college. He attended the University of California, where his father, Richard Rodgers Sr. graduated in the 1980s. In fact, Senior handled two of the five laterals in the 1982 miracle play that beat Stanford while the band marched onto the field. Senior has coached on Cal teammate Ron Rivera’s staffs in Carolina and Washington for the last 11 years

Junior was selected by Green Bay in the third round of the 2014 NFL draft and spent four seasons with the Pack. In those four seasons, he caught 20, 58, 30 and 12 passes good for 13 scores. The 6’4” 255-pound Rodgers was somewhat reminiscent of Bubba Franks, another massive tight end known for blocking and catching short passes. Rodgers averaged just 9.7 yards per catch in Green Bay, yet ironically is recalled chiefly for the longest reception of his career. On December 3, 2015, Richard Rodgers was on the receiving end of a 61-yard rainbow Hail Mary from Cal alum Aaron Rodgers that defeated the Lions on the final play of the game, 27-23. Junior’s miracle play.

Richard signed a free agent contract with Philadelphia in 2018 and spent four seasons there, broken up into three different stints, since he also was with Washington for the preseason in 2020 and was with Arizona for three days in 2021. Rodgers caught 24 passes with the Eagles in 2020 but just three in his other three years (2018, ’19 and ’21) bothered by knee and foot maladies. This year he appeared in 10 games with the Chargers but is currently on injured reserve.

Custom cards in a variety of styles.

Morgan Burnett Turns 34

Drafted out of Georgia Tech in the third round of the 2010 NFL draft, Morgan Burnett earned a Super Bowl ring as a rookie even though he tore his ACL in week four and missed the rest of the season. Born on January 13, 1989, he attained All-America status at Tech and declared for the NFL draft a year early. GM Ted Thompson envisioned Burnett as a worthy strong safety to team with free safety star Nick Collins for several years, but then Collins’ career ended with a neck injury in week two of 2011. Morgan remained healthy and was moved to free safety to replace Collins in 2012 and ‘13. He moved back to strong safety in 2014.

With adequate speed, the hard hitting 6’1” 210-pound Burnett developed into a solid strong safety over the years. He was named an All-Pro in 2014, probably more because of his excellent work in run support rather than his still-developing pass coverage skills. He did have what looked to be a crucial interception in the 2014 NFC Championship game in Seattle, but inexplicably took a knee and gave himself up rather than run the ball back. That error, though, is more on veteran Julius Peppers who signaled Burnett to get down and play it safe in a game the Packers mistakenly felt they had firmly in control.

Burnett continued to play well through the 2016 season but slipped badly in 2017 and left as a free agent. He then spent one season with the Steelers and one with the Browns before leaving the game in 2020. He officially retired as a Packer in August 2022 and now coaches high school football in his native Georgia.

(Adapted from Green Bay Gold.)

Custom cards in a variety of styles.

A Grand Finale

Today’s win-you’re-in-lose-or-tie-you’re-out season finale is a pretty rare occurrence in Packer history. Here are the closest analogs I could find:

1930: There was no postseason at this time in the league but going into their final game on December 14 against the Portsmouth Spartans, the 10-3 Packers were just percentage points ahead of the 13-4 New York Giants whose season had concluded. In fact, the Packer game was the final game of the NFL season, and a loss would drop Green Bay to second place. Fortunately, a tie was as good as a win since ties did not count in the standings in 1930. Green Bay 6 Portsmouth 6 won the Packers its second consecutive title.

1939: The December 3 finale in Detroit found the 8-2 Packers one half game ahead of the 8-3 Bears. The 12-7 Packer victory cliched the Western Crown. A tie would have done so, too. Had Green Bay lost, it would have forced a playoff with Chicago, but not ended their season.

1960: Going into the final weekend, the 7-4 Packers led the West over three 6-5 teams: the Colts, Lions and 49ers. The Packers 35-21 win over the Rams clinched the crown, but a tie would have worked as well. A loss would not have ended the season but forced some sort of playoff round robin with the Lions and 49es.

1962: Leading the 11-2 Lions by one game, the 12-1 Packers clinched the West with a 41-10 thrashing of the Rams. Again, a tie would have worked as well. A loss would have allowed the potential for a playoff with their nemesis, the Lions, but Detroit lost to Chicago 3-0 anyway.

1965: The retooling 10-3 Packers had swept past the 9-3-1 Colts, who had lost both Johnny Unitas and backup Gary Cuozzo to injury and were using halfback Tom Matte at quarterback, going into the concluding weekend. However, the undermanned Colts surprised the Rams 20-17 on Saturday to move one half game behind the Packers. Had the Packers beaten the 49ers that Sunday, they would have won the West; had they lost, the Colts would have won. Instead, Green Bay was tied in San Francisco, which led to a playoff game with the Colts a week later that Green Bay won in overtime.

2010: The injury-ravaged Packers came on late to beat the Giants in the penultimate week of the season. With the Packers, Giants and Bucs all sitting at 9-6 for the last week, Green Bay would clinch the sixth and final playoff slot with a victory. A loss would require both the other teams to lose as well for the Packers to get in. Green Bay whipped archrival Chicago 10-3 to slip into the playoffs, while both the Bucs and Giants won as well, but stayed home while the Packers drove to a Super Bowl title.

2014: With Aaron Rodgers sidelined, the Packers slipped from 5-3 to 7-7-1 behind Seneca Wallace, Scott Tolzien and Matt Flynn. Rodgers returned for the finale against the 8-7 Bears, with the winner gaining the NFC North crown, and the loser going home. On fourth-and-8 from the Bears 48-yard line with 43 seconds left, Rodgers spun out of the grasp of Julius Peppers and hit Randall Cobb downfield for the game-winning score in a 33-28 Packer triumph.

Other Teams’ Jerseys: College All-Stars, Part II

Many of Lombardi’s biggest stars appeared in the annual classic before it died a natural death in 1976, with the All-Stars having lost the last 11 games of the series to mark the final tally of 30-9-2 in favor of the professionals. Here are some cards that depict them in those other jerseys.

All custom cards but Nitschke are colorized.