Marvin Harrison has quietly become not only one of the best wide receivers in the National Football League, but simply one of the best wide receivers ever. Here are a few facts about this great football player that you may not know:

-Football wasn’t the only sport that Marvin Harrison excelled at while in high school. He was also a star on the basketball and soccer teams, as well as at tennis.

-Marvin Harrison graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in retailing.

-From 1999 through 2006, Marvin Harrison recorded eight straight seasons with double digit touchdowns.

Recently longtime Oakland Raiders great, and later NFL Players Association leader, Gene Upshaw passed away at the age of 67. Upshaw played for fifteen seasons with the Raiders and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987.

Here are three things you may not know about Gene Upshaw:

Gene Upshaw is the only player to play in three Super Bowls with the same team during three different decades (following the 1967, 1976, and 1980 seasons).

Gene Upshaw’s younger brother Marvin played on the defensive line with the Browns, Chiefs, and Cardinals.

Every year since 2004 there has been an award for the Division II Lineman of the Year as voted on by the NCAA Division II sports information directors, the award is named the Gene Upshaw Award.

But, How Good Was Joe Namath?

Ever since the New York Jets traded for Brett Favre, much has been said that this gives the Jets their best quarterback since Joe Namath. Joe Namath is a borderline mythical figure in football history. His prediction of a Super Bowl win and then following through with it went a long way in establishing the legitimacy of the old AFL teams. But, how good was Joe Namath?

Joe Namath is a five time Pro Bowler and a member of the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame. 1968 was Namath’s best year, in that year he was the Super Bowl MVP, the player of the year, and also was a 1st-team All-Pro selection. He would go on to win the 1969 player of the year award and the 1974 comeback player of the year.

But, Joe Namath wasn’t the picture of success that history now seems to paint him to be. The Jets record in games started by Joe Namath was exactly .500, sitting at 61-61-0. In his 13 seasons in professional football, Namath only had four seasons in which he led his team to a better than .500 record (1967, 1968, 1969, 1972).

Some other facts about Joe Namath:

-He led the league in interceptions on four different occasions, and was only the league leader in touchdown receptions one time.

-Though he did throw 173 touchdowns in his career, he also threw 220 interceptions.

-In only two of his 13 professional football seasons did he throw more touchdowns than interceptions.

It is quite possible that Brett Favre is not the best quarterback the Jets have had since Joe Namath, but simply the best quarterback that the Jets have ever had.

Now that Brett Favre’s time with the Green Bay Packers has come to an end, it’s time to take a look back at some interesting facts from his time with the team.

While with the Packers, Brett Favre completed more regular season touchdown passes to wide receiver Antonio Freeman, than any other player.

In fact, here are the top twenty regular season touchdown targets during Brett Favre’s Green Bay career:

Packers Receiver	Touchdowns Caught From Favre
Antonio Freeman Sterling Sharpe Donald Driver Robert Brooks Bubba Franks Javon Walker Bill Schroeder Dorsey Levens Mark Chmura Greg Jennings Ahman Green William Henderson Tyrone Davis Robert Ferguson Keith Jackson Edgar Bennett David Martin Donald Lee Anthony Morgan Corey Bradford	57 41 36 32 29 19 19 16 16 14 14 13 12 12 11 10 9 8 8 7

Brett Favre obviously played most of his games with the Packers against their division rivals, but which teams did he throw the most touchdowns against?

The answer is a tie. Favre threw 54 regular season touchdows against both the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions.

A list of the Packer receivers who over the years have only caught one touchdown pass from Brett Favre are:

Harry Sydney
Andre Rison
Koren Robinson
Reggie Cobb
Samkon Gado
Kitrick Taylor
Darrell Thompson
Wesley Walls
Charles Lee

The first regular season Green Bay Packers touchdown that Brett Favre threw went to Sterling Sharpe, the last one went to Bubba Franks. His final overall touchdown pass as a Packer was completed to Donald Lee in the 2007 NFL playoffs.

Early in his career, Favre had two seasons where he gained over 200 yards rushing.

Good luck in New York, Brett!

The sporting world is drowning in news and talk about Brett Favre coming back out of retirement and either playing for the Green Bay Packers or forcing them to trade him to another team. What does Brett owe the Packers? What do the Packers owe Brett? What do both parties owe the fans or backup quarterback Aaron Rodgers who was promised the starting quarterback role after Favre initially retired?

Let’s leave that all behind though, and look at one fact regarding Brett Favre’s impact on the Green Bay Packers:

From the time that Packers’ legendary quarterback Bart Starr retired in 1972, until Brett Favre joined the team in 1992, the Packers managed to only win approximately 40% of their games and no titles. In the years that Brett Favre has been the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers they have won approximately 63% of their games. They have also won division and conference titles, as well as a Super Bowl title.

Another interesting fact from the quarterbacks of the 2007 NFL season. Only two teams had every passing attempt thrown by one player. That means that no back up quarterback threw a pass, there was no running back option pass thrown, and no kicker or punter threw a fake special teams pass.

The two players and their teams?
Carson Palmer of the Cincinnati Bengals
Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints

When you look at the performances of all the quarterbacks that got into games during the 2007 NFL season for the Carolina Panthers, one thing stands out. Their lack of touchdown production. Now, as a team they did throw 19 touchdown passes which is more than one a game, but here is something interesting.

The Carolina Panthers had four different quarterbacks see playing time during the 2007 season:

Vinny Testaverde saw the most action starting six games and throwing 94 completions in 172 attempts for 5 touchdowns.

David Carr saw the next most action with 73 completions in 136 attempts and 3 touchdowns.

Matt Moore saw the next most action with 63 completions in 111 attempts and 3 touchdowns.

And the fourth quarterback to see the most action in terms of passes thrown was starter Jake Delhomme who had 55 completions in 86 attempts. Delhomme only played in three games during the 2007 season due to an injury, but it is too bad because out of the four quarterbacks who saw action, the quarterback who threw for the most touchdowns was also the quarterback who threw the fewest amount of passes for the Panthers in 2007. Yes, Delhomme threw for 8 touchdowns in his three games.

One of the more interesting things to note when you look at the all time leaders in touchdown passes is Peyton Manning’s spot on the list.

The Career Top 10 Touchdown Passing Leaders
1. Brett Favre - 442 TDs
2. Dan Marino - 420 TDs
3. Fran Tarkenton - 342 TDs
4. Peyton Manning - 306 TDs
5. John Elway - 300 TDs
6. Warren Moon - 291 TDs
7. Johnny Unitas - 290 TDs
8. Vinny Testaverde - 275 TDs
9. Joe Montana - 273 TDs
10. Dave Krieg - 261 TDs

Comparing Peyton Manning to the rest of the players on that list and one thing comes to mind. Brett Favre is at the top of the list and played 17 seasons in the league. Vinny Testaverde is on the list and played 21 season with seven different teams. But look at Peyton Manning, he is number four on the list of all time touchdown passes thrown by a quarterback, and he has only been in the league for ten seasons. He is averaging 30 TD passes a season, at that rate he would pass Brett Favre in a little less than five seasons.

One of the more popular statistics used to evaluate a quarterback in the NFL is completion percentage. This statistic gives an idea of the quarterback’s control. Through the end of the 2007 season, here is a list of the top ten quarterbacks based on their career completion percentage.

1. Chad Pennington
2. Kurt Warner
3. Steve Young
4. Peyton Manning
5. Carson Palmer
6. Daunte Culpepper
7. Drew Brees
8. Marc Bulger
9. Joe Montana
10. Ben Roethlisberger

The interesting thing to note in this list is that all but two of these quarterbacks are still active. Only Joe Montana and Steve Young (coincidentally, teammates at one time) are on this list and retired. Some of these players may not be on this top ten list by the time their careers are over, but some will remain there for many years to come. An interesting thing about the top two players on the list, Chad Pennington has struggled with injury troubles and fallen out of favor with his team’s fans and Kurt Warner has started games for three different teams in a career that has seen him on top of the world and also given up on.

Terrell Owens, the highly skilled Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, is a player surrounded by controversy. Much of the controversy that follows Owens is self inflicted and created. Terrell Owens’ life is divided into three equal pursuits: football, conflict, and explaining that the conflict was not his fault. Here is an ironic fact involving Owens’ autobiography that he put out partially to defend himself from criticism about being a bad guy.

Terrell Owens put out his autobiography in 2004 with the help of ghostwriter Stephen Singular. If you check the other works that Singular is credited with you’ll find a book about polygamist Warren Jeffs and also a book about the BTK serial killer. Not really the greatest company to lump yourself in with Terrell.

Okay, let’s take a look at the year-by-year interception leaders. No one wants to lead the league in interceptions, but sadly someone must. Here are some interception leader facts you may not know.

Q. Who has thrown the most interceptions in one season?
A. George Blanda, who at the age of 35 threw 42 interceptions as quarterback for the Houston Oilers.

Q. Who has thrown the fewest interceptions but still managed to lead the league in interceptions?
A. Benny Friedman, the quarterback of Brooklyn threw just 10 interceptions in the NFL’s first year in 1932. The answer for the same question since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger is Joe Ferguson, who in 1982 threw 16 interceptions for the Buffalo Bills, but this was a strike-shortened year. Since the AFL-NFL merger, the quarterback who threw the fewest interceptions to lead the league in interceptions was another Buffalo Bills quarterback. Jim Kelly in 1992 threw 19 interceptions to lead the league.

Only three quarterbacks have lead the league in interceptions in back-to-back years, and they’re both in the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame. George Blanda (1964 & 1965), Joe Namath (1974 & 1975), and Vinny Testaverde (1988 & 1989).

Vinny Testaverde holds another distinction on the interception leaders list. He is the only quarterback to have lead the league in interceptions in four different seasons.

The youngest player ever to lead the league in interceptions was future Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White who did it at the age of 21.

The oldest player to ever lead the league in interceptions was Vinny Testaverde who threw 20 interceptions as the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys in 2004.

Former Atlanta Falcons‘ running back John Settle holds a unique place in National Football League history. Settle was undrafted coming out of Appalachian State, and signed with the Atlanta Falcons. In his first season he started only one game, though he played in parts of eight others. He would finish the season with just over 70 yards rushing. It was Settle’s second year, 1988, that he would make his mark in. He ended the season with a respectable 4.4 yards per carry average and 1,024 total rushing yards. He also lead the Falcons in receiving with 68 receptions for 570 yards. With these totals, he was rewarded with his one and only trip to the Pro Bowl. He only played one other full season in the NFL, 1989, also with the Falcons, then played in six games during the 1990 season before he was out of football.

So, why did he go down in history this undrafted running back who came out of nowhere to have a great season in 1988 and then disappeared just as quickly? John Settle was the first running back to make his way into the league as an undrafted player and then to run for more than 1,000 yards in a season.

The Bad Luck Of Kelly Holcomb

Kelly Holcomb, although spending most of his career as a second string quarterback, has had a number of shining moments as a starter in the NFL. Playing for the Browns against the Steelers in 2003, Holcomb became just the third player ever in the NFL to throw for over 400 yards in a playoff game. The very next year he would have the best game of his career going 30 of 39 for 412 yards and five touchdowns in a regular season game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Unfortunately, the Browns would lose both games.

Lyle Alzado in the Movies

Lyle Alzado is yet another former NFL player (for the Broncos, Browns, and Raiders) who had a career in television and movies as well as is more successful football career. Here is a look at his acting credits:

1979 – The Double McGuffin
1981 – The Girl, the Gold Watch & Dynamite (TV Movie)
1985 – Riptide (1 Episode)
1986 – Oceans of Fire (TV Movie)
1987 – Ernest Goes To Camp
1987 – The Highwayman (TV Movie)
1988 – Destroyer
1988 – Tapeheads
1988-89 – Learning the Ropes (TV Series)
1989 – Shocktroop
1989 – Who’s Harry Crumb?
1989 – Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All (TV Movie)
1990 – Club Fed
1990 – Zapped Again!
1990 – CBS Schoolbreak Special (1 Episode)
1990 – MacGyver (1 Episode)
1990 – Broken Badges (1 Episode)
1991 – Comrades in Arms
1991 – Hangfire
1992 – Neon City