Coming Back for the Ball in the 1970s

One of the important duties for any wide receiver in the sport of football at any level and in any era was to come back for the ball. Running your pass route, then changing your direction in an instant and then running back towards the flight of the ball. The idea was – and is – to create some amount of separation between you and the defensive back who is covering you.

It’s one of the basic tenets in the game that all good pass catchers should be able to do this part of his job and do it well. If a receiver makes it into the professional level, then performing this task should be second nature to him.

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But football is a game of specialization. Specialties, if you will. Some players specialize in one aspect of the game, while others may specialize in another part of the game. The undisputed mark of a pro wide receiver is one who can perform and excel at many duties.

In this episode of Pro Football in the 1970s, we’re going to focus on the wide receivers who were probably the best in the NFL during the 1970s at coming back for the ball. Some are noteworthy enough to have a bronze bust of themselves inside the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Others may not be so honored, but they still were outstanding at changing directions on their pass routes and coming back for the ball.

THE HALL OF FAMERS

Let’s start with the Hall of Famers who I think were the best at coming back for the ball during the 1970s. They include Paul Warfield of the Miami Dolphins and the Cleveland Browns; Charlie Joiner of the Houston Oilers, Cincinnati Bengals, and San Diego Chargers, Fred Biletnikoff of the Oakland Raiders, and Charley Taylor of the Washington Redskins.

There’s a reason why I decided to put Warfield and Joiner at the top of this list. That’s because I feel that they were the best in possibly all of NFL history at coming back for a pass. Both of those guys would meticulously time their steps and gauge their approach to where they needed to be to catch the ball.

Yes, both Warfield and Joiner had the necessary speed to run deep routes. But on many plays, they would convince the defenders that they were running deep downfield, only to break off their patterns and run back for the ball. Oh, and did I forget to mention that both of those guys usually caught any ball that touched their hands? In short, both Warfield and Joiner were very dependable and sensational wide receivers.

Fred Biletnikoff and Charley Taylor were dependable too. Biletnikoff was typically coming back for the ball on practically every other passing play that the Raiders called. And, of course, he had glue-fingered hands…literally! Taylor, on the other hand, was a much more muscular wide receiver.

When he came back for the ball, he was going to use his strength to ward off any impending defensive back. If Taylor and a defender both grabbed the ball, nine times out of ten, Taylor was going to end up making the catch.

OTHER GREAT RECEIVERS

Now the wide receivers who are presently not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame who also displayed some of those talents include the likes of Howard Twilley of Miami, Danny Abramowicz of New Orleans and San Francisco, Ken Burrow of Atlanta, Randy Vataha of New England, Mel Gray of St. Louis, Jack Snow of Los Angeles, and Glenn Doughty of Baltimore.

Each of these pros practically made a career out of coming back for a thrown pass. Defensive coaches throughout the league knew this, so they instructed their defensive backs to play each of these guys tighter than usual, to prohibit these pass catchers from creating the separation that they needed to make the catch.

All the wide receivers that I listed played the sport before the new rules changes occurred in 1978, which benefited their efforts to create separation downfield. As a result, all the players that I named should be lauded for their abilities to come back for the ball, in the pre-1978 era when doing so required much more talent and ability.

Trivia Question:

Which one of the Hall of Fame wide receivers that I named in this episode had the most pass receptions during his pro football career?

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Host of Pro Football in the 1970s - Joe Zagorski

Throughout his days, Joe spent some time as a sportswriter and has been a member of the Pro Football Researchers Association since the mid-1980s. Joe is also a proud member of the Pro Football Writers of America.

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