During week 5 of the 2008 NFL season, the Minnesota Vikings’ special teams unit had a tough time punting to Reggie Bush, as evidenced below.

Reggie Bush is definitely a game changer, he so far has not proven himself to be an every down running back, but with punt returns like those he doesn’t have to be.

The Washington Redskins came into the NFL in 1932 and have a long list of great running backs. Over the years the team has experienced a great deal of success, and much of it was due to the strength of the offensive line and the running backs that ran through the holes opened up by them. What running backs sit at the top of the various career rushing categories for the Redskins though?

Rushing Yards
One of the most popular running backs in Redskins history was John Riggins. He also ended up rushing for more yards than any other Redskin in history, finishing his time with the team with 7,472 yards. Second on the list is Larry Brown with 5,875 yards and he is followed closely behind in third place by Stephen Davis with 5,790 yards. In fourth place is Clinton Portis with 5,434 and as he is still on the team, he has a chance of moving up on the list.

Games Played
No Redskins running back played in more Washington Redskins games than Brian Mitchell . His 159 games puts him 45 games above the second place player in this category, John Riggins who played in 119 games for Washington.

Rushing Attempts
Since John Riggins ran for more yards than any other Redskins running back, it should come as no surprise that he also has the most carries in team history with 1,988.

Rushing Touchdowns
Again at the top of the list is John Riggins, this time it is his 79 touchdown runs that lead the team. Stephen Davis sits in second this time with 45, followed closely by Clinton Portis with 41 and then Terry Allen with 37.

Longest Run From Scrimmage
Billy Wells only played five seasons in the NFL, and of those only a little over two seasons with the Redskins, but in his rookie year he had a run of 88 yards which was not only the longest run by anyone during the 1954 season, it is still the longest run by any Redskins running back ever.

Fumbles
Finally a category that John Riggins does not lead in, the Redskins running back who has fumbled the ball more than any other running back in team history is Larry Brown. His 40 fumbles places him just four ahead of John Riggins and his 36 career Redskins fumbles.

John Riggins, Larry Brown, Stephen Davis and Clinton Portis are just a few of the great running backs who have played for the team. Other notable running backs to wear the Redskins uniform include Terry Allen, Earnest Byner, Cliff Battles, Mike Thomas, Don Bosseler, Ladell Betts, George Rogers, Charlie Harraway, Joe Washington, Ricky Ervins, Brian Mitchell, Gerald Riggs, Reggie Brooks, Kelvin Bryant, Wilbur Jackson, Jamie Morris, Skip Hicks, Billy Wells, Trung Canidate, Timmy Smith, Ki-Jana Carter, Marc Logan, Larry Centers, Reggie Dupard, T.J. Duckett, Larry Bowie, Terry Metcalf, Adrian Murrell, Donnell Bennett, and Shaun Alexander.

Read more hard to find football facts about the Washington Redskins here.

Another great question coming in from an IQFB reader. This time Marla from New York asks what player has led the league in rushing the most consecutive years. This question, as opposed to some that we get, is actually an easy one to answer.

There are a few players who have led the league in rushing during three consecutive years, this list would include players like Steve Van Buren (1947, 48, 49), Earl Campbell (1978, 79, 80), and Emmitt Smith (1991, 92, 93). But it is the immortal Jim Brown who sits at the top of this list having led the NFL in rushing yards for five consecutive seasons from 1957 to 1961. As if that wasn’t enough, after Jim Brown finished out of the lead one season, he would come back to lead the league in rushing yards in the three consecutive seasons from 1963 to 1965. So to recap, Jim Brown played running back in the NFL for nine seasons and led the league in rushing during eight of them.

Pretty amazing.

Here is a great question we recently received from Mike in Florida. Mike asks: Who has scored the most touchdowns of any player born outside of the United States? What a great question!

The player that has the most touchdowns of any player born outside of the USA is Steve Van Buren. Van Buren was born in Honduras and after being orphaned as a young boy he was sent to New Orleans to be raised by relatives living there. Van Buren went to college at LSU and was drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1944. He played halfback on the Eagles for eight years and during that time he led the NFL in rushing yards four times, rushing attempts four times, rushing touchdowns four times, and rushing yards per game five times. He retired from the league following the 1951 season due to a knee injury. At the time of his retirement he held the record for most rushing yards in a career as well as most rushing touchdowns in a career. He was also the first running back to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season during two separate years in the league.

There is an added bit of information about this question. Steve Van Buren scored 77 touchdowns during his career. In second place for players born outside of the United States sits current Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward, who was born in South Korea, with 70 touchdowns. It shouldn’t be long before Ward is the leader in this category.

Here is the rest of the top ten touchdown scorers for players born outside the USA:

Player	Born In	Touchdowns
Steve Van Buren Hines Ward Christian Okoye Bronko Nagurski Tony Richardson Mosi Tatupu Ace Gutowsky Tim Biakabutuka Curly Oden Ron Davenport	Honduras South Korea Nigeria Canada Germany American Samoa Russia Zaire Sweden Bermuda	77 70 40 25 24 21 20 17 17 17

A few weeks ago we took a look at former Chicago Bears quarterback Steve Bradley who holds the distinction as being the career leader in touchdown passes for players who only played in one game during their entire career. That got us to thinking, what player is the career rushing leader for players that only played one game in their entire career?

That answer is Vincent Alexander of the New Orleans Saints. Like Bradley, Alexander played his one game during the 1987 NFL player’s strike. Alexander came out of Southern Mississippi and got his break in week 3 of the season when the Saints beat the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 37-10. During that game, his only game played in the NFL, he rushed 21 times for 71 yards (a respectable 3.4 yards per carry) and scored a touchdown. He also added to those totals with two pass receptions for 15 yards as well.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll take a look at the leading receiver of all players who only played in one game during their entire NFL career.

The Carolina Panthers came into the NFL as an expansion team for the 1995 season. They had their fair share of immediate success before falling on troubled times for a period of time. Which Carolina Panthers running backs though ended up on top of the team’s career rushing leaders lists in various categories?

Rushing Yards
The career rushing leader for the Carolina Panthers is DeShaun Foster who racked up 3,336 yards from 2003 through 2007. In second place in this category is Tim Biakabutuka followed by Stephen Davis and then Fred Lane.

Games Played
No player has played more games as a running back for the Carolina Panthers than fullback Brad Hoover who has appeared in 130 games and is still a member of the team. He is 38 games ahead of the second place running back who is Nick Goings, also a current member of the team.

Rushing Attempts
DeShaun Foster is the career rushing yards leader for the Panthers and that is for good reason, he also is the career leader in rushing attempts for the Panthers with 851 career carries.

Rushing Touchdowns
Though DeShaun Foster leads the team in career rushing attempts and rushing yards, he is only fourth on the list in terms of career rushing touchdowns with ten. Ahead of him are Fred Lane in third place with 13 touchdowns, Tim Biakabutuka in second place with 14, and Stephen Davis in first place with 20.

Longest Run From Scrimmage
The Carolina Panthers running back who has had the longest run from scrimmage is DeAngelo Williams who during the 2007 season had a 75 yard run. This run was four yards further than a 2004 run made by DeShaun Foster which had been the previous team record.

Fumbles
Another team category that DeShaun Foster leads in is fumbles. During his time with the Panthers he fumbled the ball 16 times, in second place on the career fumbles by a running back list for the team is Tim Biakabutuka with 12 fumbles.

Though they have only been in the league for a very short time, the Carolina Panthers have had a number of very good running backs including DeShaun Foster, Tim Biakabutuka, Stephen Davis, Fred Lane, Anthony Johnson, DeAngelo Williams, Nick Goings, Derrick Moore, and Lamar Smith.

More little known facts about the Carolina Panthers can be found here.

We took a look at first year head coach John Harbaugh last week, so we though to be fair we’d tackle first year head coach Mike Smith this week. Mike Smith was named the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons following a turbulent year when the Falcons’ starting quarterback would be sentenced to jail and their new highly touted head coach would resign during the season to return to college football. Mike Smith grew up in Florida and ended up coaching one state away in Georgia, but in between there was quite an interesting road traveled. Let’s take a look at Mike Smith:

-He played briefly in the Canadian Football League for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (one season).

-He played college football for East Tennessee State University and was the defensive MVP of the team twice.

-Before coming to the NFL, he spent time as an assistant coach at San Diego State, Morehead State, and Tennessee Tech.

-He was on the staff of the Baltimore Ravens as an assistant coach when they won the 2000 Super Bowl.

-Jack Del Rio left the Ravens as their linebackers coach to become the defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers following the 2001 season, he was replaced by Mike Smith. The next season when Del Rio became the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars he hired Smith to the team’s defensive coordinator.

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s look at players who have led the league in scoring in consecutive years, we’d like to point out some interesting facts regarding players who have led the league in scoring.

The oldest player to lead the league in scoring was George Blanda who at the age of 40 scored 116 points for the Oakland Raiders of the then American Football League (AFL) in 1967. The oldest player to lead the NFL in scoring was another Oakland Raiders player, this time kicker Errol Mann accomplished the feat at the age of 36 in 1977.

There have only been four times in pro football history where the top scorer in the league has come from the same team in consecutive years, but been two different players

-Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor both played for the Green Bay Packers and led the league in scoring in 1961 and 1962, respectively.

-Lou Groza and Jim Brown were both members of the Cleveland Browns, and each led the league in scoring; Groza in 1957 and Brown in 1958.

-Doak Walker and Bobby Layne both played for the Detroit Lions. Walker led the league in scoring in 1955 while Layne did so the following year in 1956.

-Dutch Clark and Glenn Presnell both played in the early 1930s for the Detroit Lions, and both led the league in scoring. Clark did it first in 1932 and then Presnell followed in 1933.

Eleven years passed between the first time Cleveland Browns kicker Lou Groza led the league in scoring and the second and last time he led the league in scoring. Groza accomplished this for the first time in 1946 when Cleveland was a member of the All American Football Conference (AAFC) and then again in 1957 long after Cleveland had joined the NFL.

When LaDainian Tomlinson led the league in scoring in 2006, his 186 points set the record for most points scored in a season. What is the highest point total though for a kicker who has led the league in scoring? In 1998, Gary Anderson scored 164 points while kicking for the Minnesota Vikings.

John Kasay led the league in scoring in 1996 for the Carolina Panthers even though it was only the team’s second season in existence, as they had been an expansion franchise in 1995.

Year in and year out, the NFL scoring leader is most often a kicker. It stands to reason as a kicker has more opportunities to score during a football game. In fact in the 28 seasons from 1980 through 2007, kickers led the league in scoring 20 times. A true oddity in the history of league leaders in scoring though is finding players who have led the league in scoring in consecutive years. Only nine players have accomplished that feat in the entire history of the NFL, so let’s take a look at the rare players who have managed to lead the league in scoring not only in multiple seasons, but multiple consecutive seasons.

Player	Position	Team	Seasons As Scoring Leader
Dutch Clark	Running Back	Lions	1935, 36
Don Hutson	Receiver	Packers	1940, 41, 42, 43, 44
Pat Harder	Running Back	Cardinals	1947, 48, 49
Gordie Soltau	Receiver/Kicker	49ers	1952, 53
Paul Hornung	Running Back	Packers	1959, 60, 61
Gino Cappelletti	Receiver/Kicker	Patriots (AFL)	1963, 64, 65, 66
Jim Turner	Kicker	Broncos (AFL)	1968, 69
Fred Cox	Kicker	Vikings	1969, 70
John Smith	Kicker	Patriots	1979, 80
Marshall Faulk	Running Back	Rams	2000, 01

Whether it is for business or pleasure, people are always looking for something to do. The truth is though that many of the best experiences people can have involve doing something they’ve never done yet. One great experience that people shouldn’t pass up on is the fun that can be had at an active and entertaining piano bar.

A piano bar is a great place to entertain business associates. In fact, if you’re looking for the perfect Chicago corporate party location, you can’t go wrong with a well established piano bar. Commercial contacts will love to meet and discuss business over exotic drinks like Pomegranate Lemonade, Peach Mist Sangria, or even the exclusive Piano Punch. All the while you and your associates will be entertained as the entire staff from top to bottom not only perform the duties of the employees of the bar, but they are also the entertainment. Singing, piano playing, dancing, and more can be viewed at Howl Of The Moon piano bars, you’ll know the songs too and you’re always welcome to sing along.

One of the quickest ways for a relationship, whether personal or business, to lose its spark is for it to become boring and run of the mill. Thee is little chance of this happening when the parties involved take advantage of the interactive fun at a Howl At The Moon piano bar. This isn’t the kind of entertainment you can get any where else.

John Harbaugh is the first year coach of the Baltimore Ravens. As a new head coach in the NFL there is little known about John Harbaugh though he has been an assistant coach at many levels for many years. So, let’s take a look at the new head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, John Harbaugh.

-He spent nine seasons as the special teams coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

-One of his first hirings was Cam Cameron as offensive coordinator, when Cameron was head coach at the University of Indiana one of his hirings was John Harbaugh to be one of his assistants.

-No NFL team had ever won a game that was the debut game for both their head coach (Harbaugh) and starting quarterback (Joe Flacco) until the Ravens did so at the beginning of the 2008 season with their victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. This was equaled on that same day when done so by the Atlanta Falcons and their new coach (Mike Smith) and quarterback (Matt Ryan).

-Spent time as an assistant coach at Western Michigan University, the University of Pittsburgh, Morehead State, the University of Cincinnati, and Indiana University before moving on to the NFL.

-Coaching runs in the family as his brother is the head coach of Stanford University, his father was the coach of both Western Michigan University and Western Kentucky University, and his brother-in-law is Tom Crean who is the current basketball coach at the University of Indiana.

-He played college football for the Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

One of the more interesting things to look at is a time line looking at the primary starting quarterbacks an NFL team has had. By looking back at a team’s history of quarterbacks we are reminded of some of the great and not-so-great quarterbacks that have played in the NFL. Here is a look at the starting quarterbacks of the Denver Broncos through the team’s history.

The 1960s
The Denver Broncos came into existence and their first decade in pro football was less than stellar. During the ten seasons from 1960 through 1969, the Broncos only had one season where they finished with a record of .500 or better. That season was 1962 and their record was 7-7. Part of the reason for these early struggles were the instability at the head coach and quarterback positions. The team went through five different head coaches in their first decade and seven different primary starting quarterbacks. The first quarterback in Broncos history was Frank Tripucka. Tripucka is an interesting story as although he was the Broncos quarterback, he already had pro football head coaching experience as he had held that position while with the Saskatchewan Roughriders before coming to Denver. After Tripucka came Mickey Slaughter, Jacky Lee, John McCormick, Max Choboian, Steve Tensi, and Marlin Briscoe as primary starting quarterbacks before the 1960s ended.

The 1970s
The new decade started with a new quarterback at the helm of the Broncos offense, that man was Pete Liske. Liske would not go down in history with the Broncos fans as that year would be his last with the team. They would however go 5-4 with Liske as the starter. Steve Ramsey would then become the leading passer for the Broncos during the 1971 and 1972 seasons before being demoted to the second string when Charley Johnson became the starter. Ramsey would return as the starting quarterback for the 1975 and 1976 seasons before turning the reins over to Craig Morton who would lead the Broncos to the first real success the team had ever experienced, immediately making the playoffs and then an appearance in the Super Bowl following his first season with the team. Morton would stay as the starting quarterback throughout the rest of the decade.

The 1980s
The 1980s started out right where the 1970s had ended at the quarterback position for the Denver Broncos with Craig Morton leading the way during the first two seasons of the new decade. The next season the offense was turned over to a young Steve DeBerg who led the team to a disappointing 2-7 record during the strike shortened 1982 NFL year. In 1983, the groundwork for great seasons to come was laid when the Broncos traded for rookie quarterback John Elway who had been drafted by the Indianapolis Colts. Elway would payoff almost immediately for the Broncos leading them to Super Bowl appearances following the 1986, 1987, and 1989 seasons. Unfortunately, the Broncos would lose all three of those appearances.

The 1990s
With a future hall of famer like John Elway leading their offense, the 1990s also saw few changes at the starting quarterback position. Elway would lead the team through the 1998 season when he would retire. Before he did though, he would spur them on to Super Victories following the 1997 and 1998 seasons. The last year of the decade, 1999, would see the team’s offense turned over to the highly rated son of another member of pro football’s hall of fame, Brian Griese.

The 2000s
The new century would see Griese show promise at times as well as struggle at other times. Griese would stay as the Broncos’s primary starting quarterback for four seasons before the team went in a different direction by signing highly touted free agent quarterback Jake Plummer. Plummer had experienced moderate team success and great personal success as the quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals and made an immediate impact on the Broncos returning them to the playoffs during the 2003, 2004, and 2005 seasons. During the 2006 season the team would turn its offense over to rooke Jay Cutler who would stay in that position late into the decade.

The Broncos, like most NFL teams, have experienced their greatest success when they have gone through periods of stability at the head coach and quarterback positions. The team has had roughly the same amount of primary starting quarterbacks in the last thirty seasons as they had in their first ten seasons.

Joe Theismann is one of America’s favorite football broadcasters, he is knowledgeable about the game because he played the game. Theismann starred in college football at the University of Notre Dame, then transitioned into pro football in the Canadian Football League before coming to the Washington Redskins and eventually becoming the starting quarterback there. But what Theismann is probably most famous for is being the victim of a terrible broken leg injury that happened during a 1985 Monday Night Football game against the New York Giants.

The one thing that makes it so obvious how serious the injury was is when you see one of the all time greats, Lawrence Taylor, immediately jump up and wave for medical help to come onto the field. It is common to see a defensive player sack a quarterback and then get up and celebrate… to see one of the most intense linebackers ever get up from a sack and summon medical attention for the player he just tackled is truly eye opening.

With the injury to quarterback Tony Romo, the Cowboys have elevated Brad Johnson to be the starter for what may be the next four weeks. Johnson is well traveled through the league and has experienced a decent amount of success as a starting quarterback before joining the Cowboys as Romo’s backup before the 2007 season. Let’s look at a few things about Brad Johnson that some people may not know.

-The 2007 season with the Cowboys was only Johnson’s third in the NFL in which he did not start at least one game, the other two were 1994 and 1994, his first two seasons in the league.

-Through the end of the 2007 season, Brad Johnson has a career record of 71-51 as a starting quarterback with the Minnesota Vikings, Washington Redskins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and then with the Vikings again.

-Johnson has made the Pro Bowl as a quarterback twice, first in 1999 and then in 2002.

-In 2003, while with Tampa Bay, no quarterback in the NFL attempted more passes than Brad Johnson.

-In a 1997 game against the Carolina Panthers, made famous on highlight films and ESPN, Johnson was the starting quarterback for the Vikings and had the team poised to score from the three yard line. He dropped back, passed the ball, it was deflected back to him by a defensive lineman, he caught it and ran it into the endzone for a touchdown. On this day he became the first quarterback in the history of the NFL to complete a touchdown pass to himself.