REDSKINS GREAT SAMMY BAUGH PASSES

Hall of Famer Sammy Baugh, one of the greatest quarterbacks (and punters) of all time, has died at the age of 94.
Said Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, in a release: “Sammy Baugh embodied all we aspire to at the Washington Redskins.  He was a competitor in everything he did and a winner.  He was one of the greatest to ever play the game of football, and one of the greatest the Redskins ever had.  My thoughts and prayers are with his family tonight.”
Baugh joined the Redskins in 1937, when the team moved from Boston to Washington. 
In 1943, he led the league in passing, punting, and pass interceptions (while playing defense, not while doing the Brett Favre chuck-and-duck).
Baugh also had a great sense of humor.  After the Bears blasted the Redskins for the 1940 NFL title by a score of 73-0, a reporter asked Baugh if the outcome would have been different if a touchdown pass hadn’t been dropped by one of Baugh’s teammates.
 “Yeah,” Baugh said.  “It would have made it 73-7.”
Here’s a quick look at how Baugh used to do it, in the days that laid the foundation for the sport we now know.

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28 responses to “REDSKINS GREAT SAMMY BAUGH PASSES

  1. A pioneer at the QB position. Obviously no one here was around to see him play but he widely regarded as the first “passing” QB.
    He was the last surviving member of the inaugural HOF class in 1963.
    He once threw 4 TD passes and on defense had 4 INT’s in the same game.
    He still holds the NFL record for punt average in a season at 51.7 yds.
    Now he was a “football” player…

  2. Slinging Sammy was one of the best athletes Pro Football ever saw. He may have been sick but what probably killed him was London “Just a Guy” Fletcher declaring his career Hall of Fame Worthy!! Talk about diminishing the worth of being a Hall of Famer!! Redskins lose a real hall of Famer today so don’t insult the meaning of that title!

  3. hey florio, you may not want to watch or post alot of this type of footage on your site. the football played back then was pretty violent and players got hit hard, late, & often, and the only time the whistle blew was when there were so many opponents piled on top of you, you couldn’t move any farther. i know you and many faint-hearted commentors here can’t stand the sight of a good, hard tackle in football today, so just a friendly caution. watch out, this old time footage could make you and your more feminine readers queezy.
    rest in peace slingin’ sammy. you played football the way it should be played.
    .

  4. A true football player. Best all around athlete ever to ball.
    RIP
    (Feel free to haunt Snyder to the point of selling the team.)

  5. Sammy still has the record for one season punting average. Many football historians rightly feel he may have been the greatest all-time player.
    The Ol’ cowboy finally rode off into the sunset.

  6. not to pull anything away from the man, but, I thought todays nfl was bad. Did they even attempt to tackle back then, or just push them to the ground?

  7. R.I.P. Slinggin Sammy. You will be missed and were a true football player. HAIL TO THE REDSKINS PAST AND PRESENT!!!!!

  8. A real football player…not a primadonna…did it all. Rest in peace, “Slingin'” Sammy Baugh…

  9. He was a football legend. He’ll be missed.
    I really hope the title isn’t a pun for “passes.”

  10. Like Sammy Baugh said many times on TV, he would have loved to play in today’s game. He called himself “a passing man.”. May he rest in peace.

  11. Amazing to watch those guys play with the Goalposts at the front of the endzone. You run some nice pick plays using the goal posts to shed your coverage.

  12. sjb12681, nice job watching a 45 second clip and assuming you’re an expert on the way football was played in the 40s and 50s.
    Yes they tried to tackle back then. They tried to hurt the other guys. Just watch the clip again. No facemasks, helmets were either softshell or hardshell but with minimal inside padding, goalpost not padded and on the field of play, and fields were rock hard. Legal tackles included closelines and horse collars. Late hits were a part of the game. And anything went at the bottom of piles (eye gouging, twisting knees and ankles, etc.).
    Players wore minimal padding so the form of tackling was different (defenders weren’t in the protective shell over their head and face like they are nowadays so any leading with the helmet or face was like getting punched). Also guys were smaller and not as fast — knowledge and access to nutrition and training wasn’t what it is today, and most of these guys had full-time jobs off the field and in the offseason to minimize their training.
    So the tackling was different. These guys were tougher to a man and there was actually more defense back then than now (today’s players go for the hard highlight reel shot and do a worse job with wrapping up and gang tackling). Just don’t expect to see that in a 45 second clip about that era’s greatest offensive player.

  13. that was one of the toughest SOBs that ever lived.
    RIP Sammy. you were an icon to the sport of football and helped make it what it is today.

  14. sammy was a racsist, he did not like it when the nfl forced the deadskins owner george marshall to trade for bobby mithell to
    intergrate the deadskins in 1964. of course, the deadskins was
    the last nfl team to integrate. sammy played in a league that
    did not allow blacks to participate in the sport. i agree with
    hollywood wags he was a sumbitch.

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