This sounds kind of fun..I'll do one
Dennis John Kucinich (1946-present)
He stood just 5'8" and weigh 160 pounds, but few quarterbacks in the history of the National Football League stood taller than the signal caller fans affectionately call "The Kooch".
Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1946, Kucinich grew up poor, small and sickly. In his first 18 years of his life, he said "I lived in 19 houses and a more than a few cars."
His life took a marked change in his sophomore year at St. Ignatius high school. He was the team's fourth string quarterback its smallest player. During a game against a hated rival, the other three quarterbacks were injured. Little Dennis came off the bench and threw for three touchdowns and ran for a fourth. St. Ignatius lost the game, but found a quarterback.
For the next two seasons. Dennis led St. Ignatius to from the back to the front of high school football in Cleveland, going 20-1 as a starter and leading his school to a city championship his senior year, while graduating in the top 10 in his class.
Despite completing over 60 percent of his passes and throwing for 26 touchdowns that championship season, no major college wanted him.
He went to hometown Case Western Reserve University, where he started for three years and rewrote the school and NCAA College Division passing records.
College fans still recall the 1968 "Duel of the Little Generals" at Cleveland Stadium between Kucinich and Omaha University's Marlin Briscoe. Both quarterbacks stood under six feet, and both threw for over 400 yards in a wild ballgame. A Briscoe 15 yard touchdown run with :07 to play gave Omaha U a 48-44 win. Afterward Briscoe paid the opposing quarterback high praise saying, "I'm sure Dennis will get a chance to get revenge when we met again in the NFL."
After graduating from Case Western. Dennis was left undrafted by both the NFL and AFL. He enrolled to study law at Ohio State, but he didn't want to quit without giving the pro football a chance. He begged for a tryout with the Cleveland Browns, and got one.
Head Coach Blanton Collier saw something in the diminutive quarterback. The kid who Woody Hayes said was "too damn small to play for Ohio State" made an NFL team behind Frank Ryan and Bill Nelson.
Kucinich spent two seasons on the bench, and tending to his law studies. Heading into the 1970, Kucinich figured he would study law full time. Fate had a different idea.
In week 5 of the '70 season the Detroit Lions defense knocked out Nelson and Ryan. Collier had to call for his third string quarterback.
Kucinich rallied the Browns to a 38-38 tie in the final minute. They'd lose on a field goal at the final gun. But the scrambling gunslinger jumpstarted an offense that had lost scoring punch.
His scramble and throw style opened the running lanes for LeRoy Kelley, and made dangerous wide receiver Paul Warfield an even greater threat as the Browns beat up the San Diego Chargers the next week 50-7 and then shocked the Oakland Raiders 27-23. That set up a showdown with the division leading Cincinnati Bengals, who the Browns had beaten earlier in the season.
In one of the season most thrilling games, Dennis was magnificent! He threw for 5 touchdowns as he matched Greg Cook pass for pass as the Browns won 40-34 in overtime, and forced a tie in AFC Central, with the Browns holding a key tiebreaker. They won both games against the rivals Bengals.
In the final 5 weeks of the regular season, Dennis Kucinich had put himself in same class as quarterbacks like Unitas, Brodie and Jurgensen. The Browns won four of the remaining 5 games. On the final Sunday of the regular season, Kucinich got that revenge Marlin Briscoe was talking about, beating Briscoe's Denver Broncos 31-27. The win clinched the AFC Central for Cleveland and knocked the Broncos out of chance at the playoffs.
1970 AFC Divisional Playoffs
Miami Dolphins (10-4) at Cleveland Browns (11-3)
Oakland Raiders (8-5-2) at Baltimore Colts (11-2-1)
Dennis Kucinich walked on the field where Super Bowl V would be played and surgically cut up the newly strong Miami Dolphins in his first playoff start, going 21-for-31 for 385 yards and 3 touchdowns with 1 interception. Cleveland won 30-14 and earned a trip to Baltimore for the AFC Championship. The Colts destroyed the Oakland Raiders 35-7 to set up the title game.
The AFC Championship matched two quarterbacks who many doubted when their career started. The great John Unitas was cut by his first NFL team back in 1955. Dennis Kucinich was cut by everybody.
Together they staged what many cite as the first great post-merger game.
The Colts won on a 65 yard touchdown from Unitas to Ray Perkins with :56 left. Kucinich tried to drive the team one more time, and got them to the 28, but a deep ball to Paul Warfield was intercepted in the endzone by Ron Gardin with 9 seconds left. Baltimore won 30-26, but Dennis Kucinich showed the entire league that he was for real.
At the end of the season head coach Blanton Collier retired, citing his constant hearing problems as the reason to step away from the sideline. Owner Art Modell hired a 31-year-old offensive assistant from the Cincinnati Bengals to the take the head coaching job.
Together, Bill Walsh and Dennis Kucinich would turn Cleveland into Titletown.
After a tough 1971, that saw the Browns lose in the AFC playoff to the eventual AFC Champion Miami Dolphins. Walsh retooled the Browns through a strong 1972 draft that brought in three future Hall of Famers, including the great wide receiver Cliff Branch (Walsh traded WR Fair Hooker to the Oakland Raiders for their 4th round pick). The Browns became one of the highest scoring teams in football in Bill Walsh's rhythm passing offense, today known as the "Cuyahoga River Offense".
Kucinich was top-rated passer in the AFC. He threw for 3,754 yards and 32 touchdowns. Paul Warfield led the AFC with 11 touchdowns and 19 yards per catch. The Browns beat the Pittsburgh Steelers by a single game to win the AFC Central Division
1972 AFC Divisional Playoffs
Oakland Raiders (10-4) at Cleveland Browns (11-3)
Pittsburgh Steelers (10-4) at Miami Dolphins (14-0)
The Kucinich to Warfield combo set an NFL playoff record. 230 yard receiving as the Browns tore into the Raiders 32-14. But even Kucinich's record got trumped by a wild finish in Miami.
The Dolphins lead the Steelers 17-16 with :22 left in the Orange Bowl. Facing 4th and 8th, Terry Bradshaw threw down the middle for John "Frenchy" Fuqua, safety Jake Scott nailed Fuqua and the ball fluttered away...right into the hand of Franco Harris trailing the play...the rookie running back caught the ball and raced 50 yards to the end zone. In what is known in football lore as the "Immaculate Reception". Pittsburgh ended Miami's perfect season 23-16, and set up a AFC Championship game between rust belt rivals at Municipal Stadium.
The next Sunday, there was no miracle for the upstart Steelers. The Kooch was on fire again. 3 touchdown tosses. 1 each to Branch, Warfield and Milt Morin gave the Browns a 27-17 win, and a trip to Southern California for Super Bowl VII.
Bill Walsh's space-age offense versus the Washington Redskins and George Allen's Over The Hill Gang. It wasn't even close.
Walsh's coups in the offseason set the tone. On draft day, Walsh traded three picks to Baltimore for veteran defensive tackle Billy Ray Smith and young linebacker Ted Hendricks. He made another trade with Green Bay and got aggressive young defense end Aldon Roche. All three took turns beating up on Billy Kilmer, with 6 quarterback sacks.
Offensively, Dennis Kucinich put up the greatest day a quarterback has ever had in a Super Bowl. 22-for-36 406 yards 4 touchdown passes. He was a runaway Super Bowl MVP in a runaway victory. Cleveland Browns 35, Washington Redskins 7.
The headline of the Cleveland Plain Dealer the next morning said it all. "CHAMPS!"
1973 was even better. The Browns season opened with rookie Greg Pruitt taking the first kickoff of the year 100 yards. It continued with Dennis Kucinich throwing an NFL record tying 7 touchdown passes in a 55-20 win over the Baltimore Colts.
It was huge year for The Kooch. 4,155 yard passing, an NFL record. 44 touchdown passes. Most points scored in a season. All-Pro honors.
It continued with playoff victories over Miami and Oakland.
It ended with a sparkling performance at Rice Stadium in Houston Texas. Dennis Kucinich with 2 touchdown passes spearheaded and total team effort as the Cleveland Browns completed a perfect 17-0 season beating the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl VIII 37-13.
1974 was a year of turmoil. The NFL players strike of '74 started in training camp. It would last 29 days, but Dennis Kucinich as the Browns player rep and Art Modell as one of the hardline owners caused a rift that hurt the chance of a threepeat. The Browns season ended with a 27-13 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship game. Despite another Pro Bowl year with 27 touchdown passes, Modell was at odds with his quarterback.
It came to a head in 1975. Kucinich, battling injuries shared time with young Brian Sipe. For the Browns it was another year that saw them lose the AFC Central to the Steelers for the second straight year and then loss to them in the AFC Championship.
At the end of the season, Modell told Walsh that Kucinich would be exposed to the coming expansion draft. The hometown boy was leaving Cleveland and heading south to be a Tampa Bay Buccaneer.
The 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers would be the worst team in football on paper. But nobody told "The Kooch" that.
Dennis Kucinich went out on September 12, 1976 and won the Tampa Bay Buccaneers first game as a franchise with 3 touchdown passes. They beat the Houston Oilers 28-20.
Kucinich still threw for 3,041 yards as the Buccaneers shocked everybody by going 3-11. The next year the Buccaneers brought in their future in Doug Williams, but the future star quarterback had a great teacher to learn from.
"The Kooch taught me what it took to win this league. The main reason why I'm in Canton today is because of Dennis Kucinich." -- Doug Williams at his Hall of Fame Induction speech. August, 1998.
In 1978 splitting time with Williams, the Buccaneers narrowly missed the playoffs. In 1979, the Buccaneers made it to the NFC Championship game against the Los Angeles Rams. An injury to Williams in the third quarter brought in Kucinich to try and rally the troops. He promptly drove the Bucs to a touchdown to cut a Rams lead to 9-7, and late in the game drove the Bucs into a chance to win. He set up Neil O'Donaghue for a 37 yard field goal to send the Buccaneers to the Super Bowl. But the NFL all-time leader in game winning field goal misses, missed again.
Kucinich started the 1980 season in Tampa Bay. He had said '80 would be his last year. But oh, what a last year.
At week 4 of the season, in the third quarter of the game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Cleveland Browns, Lee Roy Selmon sacks Brian Sipe on a blitz..and the young quarterback ended up with a broken leg. In the fourth quarter, Richard Wood separated backup Paul McDonald's shoulder. The Buccaneers won the game 42-27, and Bill Walsh was reduced to a wide receiver taking snaps.
The next day, the Browns traded Elvis Franks, Judson Flint, Greg Pruitt and their 2nd round pick in the 1981 draft to Tampa Bay, for their 4th and 5th round and 6th picks in 1981 draft -- and quarterback Dennis Kucinich.
It was the year of The Kooch and the Cardiac Kids.
The Browns won 9 games in the final minute, including a do-or-die playoff game against the Oakland Raiders in the cold... Dennis won the game 10 seconds left on a pass to Ozzie Newsome between two Oakland defenders on a gutsy play called "Red Right 88". The 18-14 victory set up another passers duel with the San Diego Chargers and their aerial ace Dan Fouts.
The 35-year-old pocket rocket was his equal. The lead changed hands 9 times before Kucinich hooked up with his old friend Cliff Branch for a 40 yard screamer with 38 seconds left to give Cleveland a 45-41 win in San Diego, a trip to New Orleans, and a date with irony.
Earlier in the day the Tampa Bay Buccaneers shocked the Philadelphia Eagles 24-20 in the NFC Championship. Dennis Kucinich would meet the quarterback he helped build in Super Bowl XV.
Super Bowl XV -- January 25, 1981 -- Superdome/New Orleans, Louisiana.
It was a special Super Bowl. The Superdome was adorned with a big yellow ribbon as a welcome home to U.S. peacekeeping forces from Iran. The security was heavy as President Jimmy Carter would be in attendance.
And it ended up being one of the great Super Bowls. Young strong armed Doug Williams would be the third black quarterback to start a Super Bowl. He hoped to be the second Grambling College quarterback to win one (Super Bowl IX saw two black starting quarterbacks. Joe Gilliam for the Pittsburgh Steelers. James Harris for the Los Angeles Rams. Shack outdid Jefferson Street Joe as the Rams gave Chuck Knox his first Super Bowl win 27-20)
On the Cleveland side, Bill Walsh has been here before, but since Art Modell put Dennis in exile. The Browns last trip to the Super Bowl was a 31-17 beating at the hands of the L.A. Rams in Super Bowl XI. Some said Walsh was losing a step.
With his old quarterback under center, Walsh could envision his third Vince Lombardi Trophy.
In the true fashion of the '80 Browns, it came down to the final minute. Facing 3rd and 6 with :47 left at the Browns 48. Dennis rolled out left to avoid a hard rush by Dewey Selmon and floating a soft toss to Dave Logan. Logan outjumped Curtis Jordan for the ball and galloped the rest of the way to complete a 53-yard touchdown pass to give the Browns a 35-33 lead with :34 left.
Doug Williams marched the Buccaneers back down the field, but Thom Darden stepped in front of a pass that could have set up the winning field goal.
The Kooch took a knee on the final play. Dennis Kucinich would walk away from pro football as a champion.
Before he left for Tampa Bay, he got his law degree from Ohio State and passed the bar exam. In the years after football, he became a successful labor lawyer crossing swords with powerful adversaries including the National Football League as an NFLPA counsel during the NFL player strikes in 1987, 1995 and most recently during the 2011 lockout. The "Kucinich Plan" was settled the dispute. A plan which restructured free agency, the salary cap and mandated financial transparency within the league. Many credit Kucinich with saving the season and say that his effort to mediate between the two sides may be the thing that finally gets Dennis Kucinich's bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Today, Dennis still lives in Cleveland where he runs his firm Kucinich and Associates in an office tower not far from the neighborhood where he grew up. He's married these days. His wife Elizabeth is a professor of International Relations and Conflic Resolution Studies at Ohio State.
On Sundays in the fall you can still find him at the stadium rooting for the Browns.
Long Live "The Kooch"!