Loran Smith - Philly Dawgs

Loran

Smith

With 57 former Georgia players with their names on National Football League rosters, it is often difficult to pull for one team over the other, but for the Super Bowl, I was happily lined up in support for the Eagles. There is a personal history with the Eagles, which dates to their 1960 NFL championship team which had four Bulldogs on their roster. With Mecole Hardman (3) and Malik Herring (1) having won Super Bowl rings with the Kansas City Chiefs, I was happy to become an Eagles fan in this big game. For the six players on the Philadelphia roster, it would have been something they would have to live with, perhaps forever, had they not won the big game.

This situation begs the question: Is there too much made of NOT winning a Super Bowl ring? There are many reasons we should not consider those who do not win a ring, “losers.” You are a winner by just getting to the ultimate championship.

Jordan Davis, Nolan Smith, Jalen Carter, Kelee Ringo, Lewis Cine, and Nakobe Dean won’t have to slink out the back door when a discussion is taking place about who won or who did not win a Super Bowl ring.

The list is long when you note those who never won a ring including Jack Youngblood, Terrell Owens, J.J. Watt, Eric Dickerson, Larry Fitzgerald, Randy Moss, Barry Sanders, and Dan Marino. Champ Bailey did not win a ring, Fran Tarkenton was 0-3 in Super Bowls, Jim Kelly was 0-4.

Consider the list of those who did not even play in the big game. If you have visited this space before, you are likely to have seen a reference to both Tarkenton and his coach Bud Grant who never won a ring.

You also may be familiar with an interesting reference involving Ted Williams, who only played in one World Series in 1946 when the Red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals. He said that he believed his body of work should define his career, not one Series.

Tarkenton in latent years has come around to that position. There are some, including Bud Grant, who believe that Tarkenton, who played 18 years in the NFL, was the greatest quarterback even when compared to Tom Brady, who won seven Super Bowl rings—six with the Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Bucs.

It would be easy to make the assessment that Tarkenton has not been given credit he deserves because he did not win a championship in all those years he played for Grant and the Vikings.

For years I have had discussions about this topic with many NFL coaches and players. Sonny Jurgenson was on crutches when the Redskins played the Dolphins in Super Bowl VII. He has never carped about not winning the game. He didn’t start and continued from page

he didn’t play. Nonetheless, he does not have any regrets. Like Ted Williams, he feels that his body of work should determine how his career is rated.

There are several great quarterbacks who not only do not own a ring, but they also never played in the game. That list includes John Brodie, Dan Marino, Dan Fouts, Jim Hart, and Randall Cunningham.

How is it that they, Jim Kelly, Fran Tarkenton and so many others did not enjoy the raining down of the confetti on the winners and Tom Brady has rings for seven of his eight fingers?

Chuck Howley is next on the list of Super Bowl Rings won with five, two from his years with the San Francisco 49ers and three while playing for the Dallas Cowboys.

If your team is great, then there is the likelihood of there being multiple great players becoming honored. There are many players who played for the Chuck Noll Steelers who accumulated four rings, one of whom is Lynn Swann, the elite receiver who now lives at Lake Oconee.

As a member of the Augusta National, he has had fun when serving as a committee host at the upscale restaurant and sports bar, Berckman’s Place, by allowing fans to have their photo made with him and his four Super Bowl rings.

For some in the sports arena, when it comes to championship artifacts, there is an embarrassment of riches and for others there is the affiliation of the quote in John Greenleaf Miller’s poem Maud Miller: “For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘it might have been.’” None of the Philly Dawgs will ever have to recite those words.