A couple football stars I know made the news the last couple days…
My good pal, Ted McKnight, former running back of the Kansas City Chiefs, made the front page of the Star sports section this past weekend. Ted was the star running back for the Chiefs in the late 1970’s til 1980.
McKnight had the impressive record of most yards per carry of any Chief ever.
This is a record current Chiefs star Jamaal Charles is chasing today. McKnight lighted it up for 6.3 yards per carry in 1978.
Wow, a now thirty plus year record.
Charles is currently second behind Ted with 5.8 yards per carry. Ted and I have been good friends for 20 years and to his credit, he’s never mentioned that milestone to me, ever. He did tell me about his other Chiefs record of the longest touchdown run on the ground. In 1979 McKnight went 84 yards to pay dirt against the Seattle Seahawks. He had broken the same record years before with a then 69 yard touchdown.
I asked Ted about the record, "Hey man I can’t believe it’s still standing with all the great backs that have been with the Chiefs since I left in 1980 for the Bills. That group includes Marcus Allen, Priest Holmes, Barry Word, Ed Pollack ,Larry Johnson and many other strong runners."
Ted is a great guy, we even were roommate’s for a bit when our gals kicked us out years back.
McKnight, who does work at times for 101 The Fox, would make an outstanding TV color guy for the Chiefs. Mcknight and I are both on the board of "Ren West" a drug and alcohol treatment center for KCMO.
On a sad note, Don Meredith, a three-time, all-pro quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys died Monday.
"Dandy Don" – better known as the star of Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and latter Keith Jackson – always had the last laugh.
TURN OUT THE LIGHTS THE PARTIES OVER!
Who can forget his fun and often serious arguments with Howard "the mouth" Cosell. Don would often say when the game was out of hand,"The fat lady’s warming up."
I met Don in Los Angeles at all places a dry cleaners in Beverly Hills.
The place, Filoy’s, was owned and operated by my movie agent, Harold Moskovitz. Harold introduced me to Meredith back in the early 80’s, Don was nearing the end of his TV career and doing Lipton Tea commercials. We had many long talks about the NFL, movies and, of course, the Chiefs. Don was a Len Dawson fan.
Meredith and I had one thing in common, "always a bridesmaid, never a bride."
I had too many near misses with scripts and movies at the time. And Don, on a far bigger stage, could never win that big one. The Cowboys always lost close to Green Bay in the NFL Championship games of the late 60’s. He was a pistol.
Now forgotten, Meredith and longtime friend Leslie Neilson starred at the time on Police Story, a hit TV series. Neilson, the Disney "Swamp Fox" passed away a couple days ago.
Those were the days. "Turn out the lights, the party’s over….."
wonderful people
Knew them both. Kind and wonderful men. Don left too early. He was only 31 when he left the NFL. He had a loving family, lived in New Mexico. Ted was always a hard runner on a below average Chiefs team at that time. Had he been with a winner, the guy would have other records as well.
THE LONG & THE SHORT OF IT
"In 1979 McKnight went 84 yards to pay dirt against the Seattle Seahawks. He had broken the same record years before with a then 69 yard touchdown." ~` ~ not quite; both Abner Haynes and Warren McVea held a tie for tthe record at 80 yards before McKnight’s 84 yarder. _______________________________ Speaking of long runs, pre-season Larry Johnson’s 97 yard td comes to mind & of course who can forget (I shant ever) Noland "Supergnat" Smith’s ‘official’ 106 yard kickoff return td 1967 in DEN which was actually 107 – 107 1/2 yards long? #1 got robbed. _________________________ I knew Don Meredith and visited him at his Santa Fe home several times over the years. Of interest, Don (like Roger Staubach later) was drafted by the Texans/Chiefs, but did not sign with us. Had he, likely Len Dawson wouldn’t have. In fact, the names players who once wore or could have worn the Red & Gold are legendary. In addition to Meredith & Staubach, Bob Lilly (HOF), Gale Sayers (HOF, tho if Gale were here, Garrett likely never would’ve been), Warren Wells (Raiders), Mike Curtis (Colts) Charlie Gogolak (had this soccerstyle K signed here Jan Stenerud may never have), Walt "Just a pinch between your cheek and gum" Garrison, John Amos (‘Good Times’) & of course Rambo – Roy Lee – OG from TCU that is, not Stallone. Ah, memories. ______________