An old sage once told me that one doesn’t grow old. Instead our youth is taken away a single piece at a time until it is no longer there. A rather large piece of it was removed on Friday with the passing on Sonny Jurgensen. For many of us, he was the Quarterback of our early fandom. But, he blossomed into much more than being a simple jock. Sonny became the face of the franchise before it achieved relevance…and stayed in that role long after it did.
A Backwater
Sonny Jurgensen arrived in Washington in 1964 at the age of 29. He had been traded from the Philadelphia Eagles where he had spent the first seven years of his career. In 1960 he had been on the Championship team that defeated Vince Lombardi’s Packers. But, he wasn’t the featured Quarterback. The Eagles wanted to infuse youth so they traded Sonny and a player to Washington for Norm Snead and a player. The Eagles got a Quarterback. Washington got a legend-in-waiting.
When he arrived the glory days of the Redskins were a distant memory. The franchise had been to the Championship Game some five times in their first nine years in the city. The last trip was in 1945 when Sammy Baugh and the crew lost to the Cleveland Rams 14-15. In the intervening 18 years there was only one winning season. That wouldn’t change during Sonny’s first five years here. He would lead the League in passing yardage twice, Touchdown passes once, and still the team could not find the playoffs during that stretch. A quick glance at the scoring differential tells the tale. In only one of those years did the team score more points than they allowed. It was in 1964 and the black ink was limited to two points. The Defense was just plain bad.
So, how dysfunctional was this organization? In 1967 the team shipped Free Safety Paul Krause to Minnesota for Marlin McKeever and a 7th-Round Draft pick. Krause had been All Pro twice already in Washington. He was an Interception machine picking some 28-balls in 4-seasons. After he left DC Krause went on to play 12-years in Minnesota ending up with 82-career interceptions. It’s still the all-time record. The brain trust in Washington got rid of that guy for a Middle Linebacker who played here all of two years garnering one pick and one fumble recovery.
There were three Hall of Famers on the Offense in Jurgensen, Charley Taylor, and Bobby Mitchell. There weren’t three slightly above average players on the Defense aside from a past-prime Sam Huff. That was the Sixties for the ‘Skins. A lot of fun to watch when they had the ball. Anything but when the other team had it.
One Year
An overused term in Business circles is “Change Agent.” Sonny had brought the Offense to life. But, he wasn’t the Change Agent for the franchise. That was Vince Lombardi. He brought a seriousness that had been lacking. Sonny lost his paunch. At one time one of the Washington coaches had been asked if Sonny was in shape given his generously soft midsection. The reply was that Sonny had been born with an unusual extra rib that gave that appearance. As far as we know Vince Lombardi did not order up a surgery to remove said extra ribs.
It was only one year. But, Lombardi’s stint changed the future of the franchise. No one grasped the change more than Sonny. At age 35 the red head led the team to their first winning record in 14-years.
George Allen would soon come to town. So too would come Billy Kilmer. So too would come winning.
A Transition
George Allen famously declared that “The Future is Now.” Now was suddenly a good place to be. He brought in old guys by the bus load while shipping out draft picks as if they were door prizes. And, it worked. By 1972 the team had climbed up out of the depths to get back to a Championship Game. They lost. No matter. The dreary years were over.
The late dancer, Gene Kelly, bemoaned the nature of his craft: “Just about the time you figure it all out your body begins to fail you.” Jurgensen was injured in 1971 and 1972, the latter being a torn Achilles.
Still, the old guy could chuck the ball around. These were the days when there were the “I like Sonny” “I like Billy” bumper stickers. Football at the time was a different game than today where the Quarterback called the plays. George Allen was a Defensive-minded guy. Billy Kilmer was his conservative kind of guy. The two had a bit of a time-sharing situation. Billy would start. If the team stayed ahead all game he would stay in. If it fell behind Sonny was behind the “Break Glass” panel.
One game Billy had moved the team to within the ten-yard line. Kilmer got hurt on a Second Down play. George sent Sonny in with instructions: “Run a Dive play and we’ll kick a Field Goal.” Sonny trotted out to the huddle, looked at how close they were to the Goal Line, and said, “To Hell with it.” Everyone in the stadium but the eleven men in the Washington huddle knew that the Offense was going to do exactly what George Allen had instructed. Sonny called for a Play Action. He lobbed the ball to a completely uncovered Jerry Smith in the End Zone. After handshakes and smiles Sonny made it back to the sideline. George refused to make eye contact with him. Sonny and mischief were the very best of friends.
Escapades
There are too many escapades by Sonny and aliases to catalog here. But, they all contain a central element of mischief.
When he was with the Eagles at Training Camp he and Tom Brookshier “borrowed” a Wooden Indian from a local storefront. They took turns putting it into their bunks so as to pass “Bed Check” while out on the town. Eventually they got caught, returned the mannequin, and were surely tongue whipped. But, hey, whatever fun they had in town was surely worth it.
Billy and Sonny decided to drive a complete lap of the Beltway with a bottle of hooch. It surely must have seemed like a good idea at the time. This was at the height of the Sonny/Billy nonsense. The two were fast friends and remained so. Sonny would often say that those two worked hard to keep that Locker Room tight. They could have torn it apart. But, the team was more important than the individual.
George Allen devised some silly tactic to make his players feel that they were getting an edge. In Training Camp one year he said they were being provided with a special water from a secret spring that would aid in recovery. Sonny’s BS antenna went up. He sleuthed out one night to surveil the Equipment Manager making his rounds. Sure enough the Manager took the water jugs to the hose bib and filled them up with good old tap water. By the time of the morning meeting every player in the room knew the gig was up on this secret healing water. When George extolled the group to make sure and drink this special water the room exploded in laughter. Beaver Cleaver would have been proud of Sonny.
Sonny teamed with the late Glenn Brenner at Channel 9 to air “Redskins Sidelines.” Brenner was comedic gold. Sonny was always the willing accomplice. The show aired on Mondays after the National News. Before that came the Local version. This one Monday the Weathercaster Gordon Barnes had joined the other local Oracles in predicting a massive snowstorm. The Low is going to come from Oklahoma and transfer energy to the Coast and all the magic cosmic tumblers are going to align to produce The Big One. Well, Mother Nature had other ideas. The storm never materialized aside from a light dusting. When it was time for Sports out came Brenner and Jurgensen geared up as if they were members of the Shackleton Expedition; Parkas, Goggles, Trapper Hats, Big Boots, monstrous Mittens…the whole nine yards. “Man, it’s rough out there, let me tell you.” Barnes was chewing on nails; ready to spit rivets. The bit lasted a minute. The memory will last a lifetime.
Balance
There’s an unmistakable boyish element of Sonny. Football is a kids’ game being played by grown men. Throughout his life he embraced the kid part of the equation. Football, at the end of the day, was fun. We are now conditioned to something different. Call it the “Brady Effect” if you will. Tom Brady changed the standard for modern Quarterbacking. At it’s keystone is an Obsessive Compulsive approach to the game. Charlie Weis would relay how he would communicate plays and concepts to Tom all evening all week until 10:pm when it was lights-out for Brady. In the early morning there would be emails back from Tom with thoughts on the plays. Nutrition was approached as if it were nuclear physics. So was physical training. The whole approach was monastic. In the end it produced championships, but the manner was both joyless and robotic. That’s now the modern standard. It wasn’t Sonny’s standard. That’s for sure. He left game preparation time when he left the building.
It’s telling that Jayden Daniels takes criticism for smiling on the field. Having fun is no longer supposed to be a part of the equation. Some of us instead prefer to see a distant mirror in Jayden’s enjoyment to the smiles Sonny used to flash on the pitch.
The old TV Cartoon show “The Jetsons” had an episode where the Championship of the football league was to be played. It was one coach and his robots versus the opposite coach and his robots. We are a lot closer to that than we are to the game Sonny played.
Radio
Andy Ockershausen was the head of WMAL Radio in Washington for many years. He had the idea to put Sonny into the radio booth with Sam Huff and Frank Herzog. It was a magical grouping. But, underlying the success of it was the beauty of the composition. Sonny was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. His voice resonated with the Dulcet tones and sweet Elizabethan notes of the Low Country. It was southern, yet lacked any hint of twang. His timing on pronunciations was distinctive. He would say that football was a game where the team that wins is the one that makes the most of their opportunities. But, he would pronounce it conjoining the first two and last two syllables while emphasizing the middle: Oppa-Tooon-ities. Un-real was “Un-Rill.”
Sam Huff spent his life running from the coal mines in West Virginia. His consonants were hard without a bit of southern influence. His “R’s” were especially hard. But, then there was Frank Herzog with the prototypical melodic FM voice weaving it all together. There was never a doubt about who was speaking.
If you were around in those days then muting the TV while synching in the radio was an absolute must.
Sonny and Sam demystified the game. Sam would say, “This team runs to the right better than the left.” He wasn’t studying spreadsheets to see that. It was obvious to him. “Second and long; look for a Draw or a Screen.” It was usually one or the other more often than not. Sonny would call out Defensive Backs that couldn’t cover. His notation that a Receiver was “Wiiide Open” would conjure an image of a player all alone. The two could spot a deficiency in an opponent or the home team and then explain it. “So and so couldn’t block a Nun.” “Is it going to be a Right-foot or a Left-foot mark. If it’s Left then we’ll have a first down.”
Simple. The game was simple. It still is, only it’s hidden beneath layers of veneer. Those guys would strip it away for the rest of us to see.
It was simply the best.
So was Sonny.
