No player in The Football 101 inspired more disagreement, more consternation, more immovable viewpoints among the people I consulted with than Steven Michael Largent, a 5-foot-10 (maybe), 187-pound (maybe) wide receiver from Oklahoma who broke all the records, won all the hearts and has left behind a parade of football fans who feel sure that he was the most underrated or most overrated player in NFL history.
It’s weird to see 1978 referenced as a demarcation and no mention of the Mel Blount rule you wrote at length about just a couple articles previous. The fact that Largent was just coming into his own when this took effect had to be a big part of why he was blowing away pre-1978 players and would allow him a huge advantage in establishing career numbers early. His receiving yards nearly doubled between 77 & 78.
Thank You Joe, great article! I worked at Naval Shipyard 1985-88 (outside Seattle), loved Steve Largent I still do...
Moved to the Cape Cod after Puget Sound,
and waited at the SeaHawks bus after a Patriots game. I told 2 kids, "you can go in front of me" when greeting other players and Chuck Knox, "but when when Steve Largent comes I'm first again." When Mr. Steve Largent came the kids started acting rude "sign my,sign my", Steve Largent was excellent, and corrected them like a Father, Then signed my now cherished ticket stub for me, and he knew I wasn't the kids mother! (only 27 then).
I have always liked Jerry Rice, talented and funny, after reading your article I admire him (& Steve), even more!
Was a somewhat youthful teenager when Largent broke the receiving record, so I only really saw the end of his career. Growing up on the west coast of Canada meant the Seahawks were our team. With both Largent and Rice it just seemed like I never saw them drop a pass. If they could get a hand on the ball it seemed like it was caught every single time.
Out here in the Pacific Northwest in the late 80s-90s this Seattle comedy show "Almost Live" bumped SNL by half an hour, so we'd often end up watching it. It almost seemed funnier for a few of those seasons and they paid tribute with Largent Hands
I lived in Seattle for 6 years starting in 1979 and rooted for the Seahawks right in the middle of Largent’s career. . He just seemed to be so consistently good- game after game after game.
Wasn’t aware of the Jerry Rhome connection. There’s a case where an assistant coach hiring paid huge dividends.
Being a little too young to have seen Largent in his prime (whatever that would have been), I always considered Jerry Rice to be the gold standard for perfect route running. It's very cool to learn that, before him, this would have Steve Largent.
It’s interesting to see how one career can set a wave of others following in their footsteps. I like to look at the progressive stats in baseball-reference.com to see how career leaders vary. Obviously, some stats like career home runs and hits don’t have many changes in leadership. Others will never be broken, like career wins.
In the NFL, the change in the game is clearly seen in the progression of leaders continuously changing in passing stats. Unfortunately, pro-football-reference doesn’t make it as easy to track progressive leaders. I did a quick look through the career receiving yardage leaders to see when a new standard was set. Here’s what I found, with the name, yardage, and the year they broke the previous record (I apologize in advance if I made errors, since this required some manual dissection of player’s career stats):
Don Hutson: 7991 yds, retd. in 1945 (held for 18 yrs)
Billy Howton: 8459 yds, broke the record his last year of 1963 (held for 2 yrs)
Raymond Berry: 9,275 yds, broke the record in 1965, retd. In 1966 (held for 3 yrs)
Don Maynard: 11,834 yds, broke the record in 1968, retd in 1973 (held for 18 yrs)
Charlie Joyner: 12,146 yds, broke the record his last year of 1986 (held for 2 yrs)
Steve Largent: 13,089 yds, broke the record in 1988, retd in 1989 (held for 4 yrs)
James Lofton: 14,004 yds, broke the record in 1992, retd in 1993 (held for 3 yrs)
Jerry Rice: 22,895 yds, broke the record in 1995, retd in 2004 (held for 26 yrs and counting)
It seems like Don Hutson, Don Maynard, and Jerry Rice each moved the bar so high that it took well over a decade for those that followed to clear it. I suspect (or hope) that we’ll see each of these in Joe’s list.
And, yeah, Hutson, Maynard, and Rice are probably the best all-time *career* WRs, especially when using Baseball-Reference-style cross-era analysis. Maynard, in particular, seems a bit lost to history. But MAN, was he great. As a life-long Jets fan, I know that. But seems that his name is not at the top of as many lists as it should be.
I make the distinction about career, because Megatron, among others, surely had higher peaks than Hutson & Maynard. Rice tops both metrics!
I love seeing Largent on this list, in part because he was one of my first sports heroes, but also because I think he was the best receiver of the '70s and '80s (Alworth was too early; Rice too late), and it would seem weird to not put a receiver on the list from a two-decade stretch.
Incidentally, who will be the next white WR in the Hall of Fame? Welker has an decent case if you go by regular season counting stats, and Edelman is a possibility if you *heavily* weight postseason success. Beyond that though... I can't think of anybody. Thielen? Probably not.
My brother and I played Nerf football games on the street in front of our house. We were a two-man team, alternating possessions as quarterback and receiver. Our opponents were usually imaginary, but occasionally rivals from adjacent streets. Our quarterback alter-egos would change from possession to possession, but we were always Steve Largent when we took the role of receiver (well almost always - on certain patterns I would be Tony “Thrill” Hill).
For us, the signature street-Largent move was a sharp cut to the sideline (the curb), catch the ball and then fall - with arms fully outstretched, toes barely on the street, body a straight line, ball secure in our vise-like grip - onto the grassy bit between the curb and the sidewalk. Pulling off a perfect one of these was what we lived for on those autumn days.
Steve Largent said Always look the ball all the way into your hands, and never drop a pass that you get your hands on. These are words to live by. And as far as I know, Steve Largent never did drop one.
My friend Matt and I did the same thing. Nerf ball, run routes, make amazing catches. And the one we tried more than any other was to throw the ball as far over the curb as possible so the receiver could stretch for the catch while still keeping both feet on the street. I can't begin to count how many times we ran that against imaginary defenses.
Agreed, love the stories. And love the reference to Biletnikoff, one of my favorites growing up. Lamonica to Biletnikoff vs. Dawson to Otis Taylor on the 4 pm games (I'm in NY) on NBC in the Oakland sunshine. Remember those games well.
We're nine entries into Joe's FB101, and so far Mel Blount is the only overlap with the Athletic Football 100 list. I've added this feature to the tracker at:
It’s weird to see 1978 referenced as a demarcation and no mention of the Mel Blount rule you wrote at length about just a couple articles previous. The fact that Largent was just coming into his own when this took effect had to be a big part of why he was blowing away pre-1978 players and would allow him a huge advantage in establishing career numbers early. His receiving yards nearly doubled between 77 & 78.
Thank You Joe, great article! I worked at Naval Shipyard 1985-88 (outside Seattle), loved Steve Largent I still do...
Moved to the Cape Cod after Puget Sound,
and waited at the SeaHawks bus after a Patriots game. I told 2 kids, "you can go in front of me" when greeting other players and Chuck Knox, "but when when Steve Largent comes I'm first again." When Mr. Steve Largent came the kids started acting rude "sign my,sign my", Steve Largent was excellent, and corrected them like a Father, Then signed my now cherished ticket stub for me, and he knew I wasn't the kids mother! (only 27 then).
I have always liked Jerry Rice, talented and funny, after reading your article I admire him (& Steve), even more!
Thanks for the insight.
Was a somewhat youthful teenager when Largent broke the receiving record, so I only really saw the end of his career. Growing up on the west coast of Canada meant the Seahawks were our team. With both Largent and Rice it just seemed like I never saw them drop a pass. If they could get a hand on the ball it seemed like it was caught every single time.
Out here in the Pacific Northwest in the late 80s-90s this Seattle comedy show "Almost Live" bumped SNL by half an hour, so we'd often end up watching it. It almost seemed funnier for a few of those seasons and they paid tribute with Largent Hands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PluRtZDEMmg
I lived in Seattle for 6 years starting in 1979 and rooted for the Seahawks right in the middle of Largent’s career. . He just seemed to be so consistently good- game after game after game.
Wasn’t aware of the Jerry Rhome connection. There’s a case where an assistant coach hiring paid huge dividends.
Being a little too young to have seen Largent in his prime (whatever that would have been), I always considered Jerry Rice to be the gold standard for perfect route running. It's very cool to learn that, before him, this would have Steve Largent.
It’s interesting to see how one career can set a wave of others following in their footsteps. I like to look at the progressive stats in baseball-reference.com to see how career leaders vary. Obviously, some stats like career home runs and hits don’t have many changes in leadership. Others will never be broken, like career wins.
In the NFL, the change in the game is clearly seen in the progression of leaders continuously changing in passing stats. Unfortunately, pro-football-reference doesn’t make it as easy to track progressive leaders. I did a quick look through the career receiving yardage leaders to see when a new standard was set. Here’s what I found, with the name, yardage, and the year they broke the previous record (I apologize in advance if I made errors, since this required some manual dissection of player’s career stats):
Don Hutson: 7991 yds, retd. in 1945 (held for 18 yrs)
Billy Howton: 8459 yds, broke the record his last year of 1963 (held for 2 yrs)
Raymond Berry: 9,275 yds, broke the record in 1965, retd. In 1966 (held for 3 yrs)
Don Maynard: 11,834 yds, broke the record in 1968, retd in 1973 (held for 18 yrs)
Charlie Joyner: 12,146 yds, broke the record his last year of 1986 (held for 2 yrs)
Steve Largent: 13,089 yds, broke the record in 1988, retd in 1989 (held for 4 yrs)
James Lofton: 14,004 yds, broke the record in 1992, retd in 1993 (held for 3 yrs)
Jerry Rice: 22,895 yds, broke the record in 1995, retd in 2004 (held for 26 yrs and counting)
It seems like Don Hutson, Don Maynard, and Jerry Rice each moved the bar so high that it took well over a decade for those that followed to clear it. I suspect (or hope) that we’ll see each of these in Joe’s list.
Great stuff! Thanks.
And, yeah, Hutson, Maynard, and Rice are probably the best all-time *career* WRs, especially when using Baseball-Reference-style cross-era analysis. Maynard, in particular, seems a bit lost to history. But MAN, was he great. As a life-long Jets fan, I know that. But seems that his name is not at the top of as many lists as it should be.
I make the distinction about career, because Megatron, among others, surely had higher peaks than Hutson & Maynard. Rice tops both metrics!
I love seeing Largent on this list, in part because he was one of my first sports heroes, but also because I think he was the best receiver of the '70s and '80s (Alworth was too early; Rice too late), and it would seem weird to not put a receiver on the list from a two-decade stretch.
Incidentally, who will be the next white WR in the Hall of Fame? Welker has an decent case if you go by regular season counting stats, and Edelman is a possibility if you *heavily* weight postseason success. Beyond that though... I can't think of anybody. Thielen? Probably not.
Cooper Kupp should if he keeps it up.
My brother and I played Nerf football games on the street in front of our house. We were a two-man team, alternating possessions as quarterback and receiver. Our opponents were usually imaginary, but occasionally rivals from adjacent streets. Our quarterback alter-egos would change from possession to possession, but we were always Steve Largent when we took the role of receiver (well almost always - on certain patterns I would be Tony “Thrill” Hill).
For us, the signature street-Largent move was a sharp cut to the sideline (the curb), catch the ball and then fall - with arms fully outstretched, toes barely on the street, body a straight line, ball secure in our vise-like grip - onto the grassy bit between the curb and the sidewalk. Pulling off a perfect one of these was what we lived for on those autumn days.
Steve Largent said Always look the ball all the way into your hands, and never drop a pass that you get your hands on. These are words to live by. And as far as I know, Steve Largent never did drop one.
My friend Matt and I did the same thing. Nerf ball, run routes, make amazing catches. And the one we tried more than any other was to throw the ball as far over the curb as possible so the receiver could stretch for the catch while still keeping both feet on the street. I can't begin to count how many times we ran that against imaginary defenses.
My brother and I also did this with a Nerf football, catching the ball around scattered parked cars serving as defenders.
Agreed, love the stories. And love the reference to Biletnikoff, one of my favorites growing up. Lamonica to Biletnikoff vs. Dawson to Otis Taylor on the 4 pm games (I'm in NY) on NBC in the Oakland sunshine. Remember those games well.
Stephon Diggs reminds me of a faster Largent. Excellent route runner with good (not as good a Larget's) hands.
Loving the stories.
We're nine entries into Joe's FB101, and so far Mel Blount is the only overlap with the Athletic Football 100 list. I've added this feature to the tracker at:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19reESfIvV2ROI5rdehKSyU6j7ujt94xoHYUrPaJcDtw/edit?usp=sharing
Largent is the first wide receiver.