A good friend of mine who enjoys listening to my podcast here on the Sports History Network commented to me recently that he would like to hear me discuss the worst trades that occurred during the 1970s in pro football.
It is definitely a topic that I had not addressed before, so to my good buddy Tom Edell, this one’s for you!
When you actually think about it, you have to conclude that it isn’t all that easy of a subject. And somewhat surprisingly, those trades are not necessarily inclusive to just players, however.
I’ll expand on that later. But when exploring the worst player trades, the focus is often on a large amount of players or draft picks being given for the services of just one player. Randomly, when that one player in question is well past his prime…well, that gives you the blueprint for the worst trade in the NFL during the 1970s.
The Worst Trade of the Decade
The Green Bay Packers, and specifically their head coach, Dan Devine, were involved in what I believe to be the absolute worst trade during the decade. Many have called it the worst trade in NFL history. Green Bay had several quarterbacks on their roster back in 1973 and 1974, but none of them really offered the team with any real amount of success at that key position.
The Pack had given a chance to the likes of Jim Del Gaizo, Scott Hunter, Jerry Tagge, and Jack Concannon during those years. Green Bay could earn just five wins in 1973 and six wins in 1974. In October of 1974, Devine gave up an incredible five draft choices for a quarterback that most experts considered to be nothing more than a has-been, the veteran from Los Angeles and previously from San Diego, John Hadl.
Devine dealt the Rams the Packers’ first three draft picks in 1975 and his first two draft picks in 1976, all for a 34-year-old quarterback who was not even a starter anymore in Los Angeles. Pitiful.
But it gets even worse. The Rams were prepared to waive Hadl just days after the trade deadline! The Packers could have obtained him for the staggering fee of $100! But Devine was too anxious and too paranoid. As it turned out, no other team showed any interest in obtaining Hadl.
So one man’s bad decision and bad timing lead to several years of failure in Green Bay. Devine then resigned from Green Bay immediately following the 1974 season to coach at Notre Dame. But his decision for Hadl relegated his successor in Packerland, Bart Starr, into a deep abyss of being unable to be competitive in the league for a long number of years.
Another Bad Trade Involving Draft Picks
But at least the trade that Jack Patera, the head coach of the one-year-old Seattle Seahawks, and John Thompson, the general manager of the Seahawks, made in 1977, had a smattering of hope mixed in with his decision. The Seahawks would begin their second year of existence in 1977 with the second overall draft selection.
There were many teams, however, who wanted to displace the Seahawks from that pick, and the deals that those teams proposed were enticing, to say the least. In the end, it was the Dallas Cowboys whose proposal to Patera was the sweetest of all. Dallas general manager Tex Schramm offered Seattle a total of three draft picks and a player on the Cowboys roster, wide receiver Duke Ferguson.
The draft picks that were given up by Dallas to Seattle included the Cowboys’ original first-round pick and three second-round picks. The Cowboys used the Seahawks’ first-round pick to obtain Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett, a tailback from the University of Pittsburgh who would lead Dallas to a victory in Super Bowl XII in his rookie season. Dorsett also managed to carve out a Hall of Fame career for himself, as he rushed for a total of 12,739 yards in his 12 seasons in pro football.
Besides Ferguson, the players who came to Seattle back in 1977 to give up the pick that would become Tony Dorsett included offensive linemen Steve August and Tom Lynch, and linebacker Terry Beeson. None of those players came anywhere close to achieving the success that Dorsett did. One only wonders…how would the Seahawks would have done with a rookie like Tony Dorsett on their roster in 1977.
Coaching "Trades"
As previously mentioned, sometimes a “trade” can involve a coach. This next situation was not really a trade…but it did involve the departure of someone specific. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does happen, a coach that leaves one team for another for some sort of compensation usually gets a lot of headlines and notoriety.
Perhaps the most shocking of coaching “trades” came back in 1970 when the Baltimore Colts surrendered their rights to head coach Don Shula, who was signed by Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie.
The deal occurred when Baltimore owner Carroll Rosenbloom was out of the country. He accused Robbie of tampering with Shula and enticing Shula with a $750,000 contract and plenty of perks. Robbie claimed that Rosenbloom’s son gave him (Robbie) permission to talk to Shula. Carroll Rosenbloom said that his son did not have his permission to deal Shula off to Miami.
It was one hot mess of a soap opera.
In the end, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle ruled that Shula could sign with the Dolphins, but Miami had to give the Colts their first-round draft pick, which they did.
Despite all of that, Baltimore and Rosenbloom won the Super Bowl in 1970. Miami, Robbie, and Shula would then appear in three straight Super Bowls in 1971, 1972, and 1973, winning the Vince Lombardi Trophy in 1972 and 1973. So in a way, the immediate benefits were visible for both teams.
But the Dolphins had Shula, and all he did was become the winningest head coach in pro football history by the time he retired in 1995 after 33 years and 347 victories. One can only wonder…how would Baltimore’s franchise have looked had Don Shula stayed on board on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, instead of moving down south to Miami in 1970.
There are obviously many more questionable trades that occurred in the NFL during the 1970s. But those that I mentioned are some of the more unique, to say the least.
Podcast Trivia Time
Trivia Question:
Who took over as the head coach for the Baltimore Colts after Don Shula left the team for the Miami Dolphins?
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.
Also, if you’re interested in picking one of Joe’s books up, all three are listed below.
Here, you can learn more about Joe and Pro Football in the 1970s.
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