steelreserve
01-12-2014, 01:07 PM
So maybe some of you remember this thread, about a former Steelers #1 draft pick named Dan Edwards, who holds the record for shortest kickoff return in NFL history at 17 yards while playing for the old Chicago Hornets in 1949. A few of us were racking our brains about how that could've happened. Possibly an onside kick that got backed up by penalties, or a kick that deflected off someone, etc.
http://www.steelersuniverse.com/forums/showthread.php/18981-this-day-in-Pittsburgh-Steeler-history
Well, I finally got the answer by contacting the Chicago library, who were able to look up the Chicago Tribune article from the following day. It was not as exciting as we thought. Just a regular kickoff return with a lateral at the end:
"The New York Yankees unexpectedly took to the air last night in Soldiers' field with a change of pace supplied by the unstoppable running of Claude [Buddy] Young. The combination cost the Chicago Hornets a football game before 17,098 disappointed customers, the New Yorkers winning, 38 to 24.
...
In fact the only department in which the Hornets exceled was that of kick-off returns, where they rolled up 237 yards on eight carries, the longest a 98 yard collaboration in which Ramsey went 80, then lateraled to Dan Edwards who picked up the final 18 for the touchdown."
What it boils down to is the rules concerning the way laterals are counted in the official score, which I think someone had guessed at in the original thread but no one knew for sure. The weird way that it works for most plays is that, say, if you received a lateral on a hook-and-ladder pass play and then ran it for 10 more yards, you would get credit for 10 receiving yards but 0 receptions. The same would go for rushing or return yards. However, if you score a touchdown on the play, you would get credit for a receiving TD but not a reception, or a kick return TD without being credited with a kick return, as the case may be. For example, the box score from the 1982 Cal-Stanford game officially lists "The Play" as a 25-yard kick return TD.
http://www.calbears.com/ViewContent.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=30100&CONTENT_ID=767873
Since these kinds of things can make a big swing one way or the other in fantasy football when they occur, it's no surprise that they have sorted all of this out:
http://www.footballsoftware.com/faq-commish-stats.html#s1
http://myfantasyleague.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/lateral-confusion/
what amazes me is that there has not been shorter run for a TD after a lateral on more than 60 years.
side note: If you recover your own team's fumble and advance it for a touchdown, or recover it in the end zone, I believe it counts as either a fumble return TD or an "Individual fumble recovery TD," respectively. However, if you recover your own fumble and score a TD, as Jerry Rice did on a long bomb in this game against the Dolphins, you still get a rushing/receiving TD. I think.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198609280mia.htm
http://www.steelersuniverse.com/forums/showthread.php/18981-this-day-in-Pittsburgh-Steeler-history
Well, I finally got the answer by contacting the Chicago library, who were able to look up the Chicago Tribune article from the following day. It was not as exciting as we thought. Just a regular kickoff return with a lateral at the end:
"The New York Yankees unexpectedly took to the air last night in Soldiers' field with a change of pace supplied by the unstoppable running of Claude [Buddy] Young. The combination cost the Chicago Hornets a football game before 17,098 disappointed customers, the New Yorkers winning, 38 to 24.
...
In fact the only department in which the Hornets exceled was that of kick-off returns, where they rolled up 237 yards on eight carries, the longest a 98 yard collaboration in which Ramsey went 80, then lateraled to Dan Edwards who picked up the final 18 for the touchdown."
What it boils down to is the rules concerning the way laterals are counted in the official score, which I think someone had guessed at in the original thread but no one knew for sure. The weird way that it works for most plays is that, say, if you received a lateral on a hook-and-ladder pass play and then ran it for 10 more yards, you would get credit for 10 receiving yards but 0 receptions. The same would go for rushing or return yards. However, if you score a touchdown on the play, you would get credit for a receiving TD but not a reception, or a kick return TD without being credited with a kick return, as the case may be. For example, the box score from the 1982 Cal-Stanford game officially lists "The Play" as a 25-yard kick return TD.
http://www.calbears.com/ViewContent.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=30100&CONTENT_ID=767873
Since these kinds of things can make a big swing one way or the other in fantasy football when they occur, it's no surprise that they have sorted all of this out:
http://www.footballsoftware.com/faq-commish-stats.html#s1
http://myfantasyleague.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/lateral-confusion/
what amazes me is that there has not been shorter run for a TD after a lateral on more than 60 years.
side note: If you recover your own team's fumble and advance it for a touchdown, or recover it in the end zone, I believe it counts as either a fumble return TD or an "Individual fumble recovery TD," respectively. However, if you recover your own fumble and score a TD, as Jerry Rice did on a long bomb in this game against the Dolphins, you still get a rushing/receiving TD. I think.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198609280mia.htm