Getty Images Colin Kaepernick during his final season with the San Francisco 49ers.
The NFL has been celebrating its milestone 100th anniversary in a variety of interesting ways. There are patches on game jerseys and greatest-player rankings being compiled every day. This latest list celebrates something else: the most influential players.
Sports Illustrated took the baton and ran with a catalog of those forward-thinking folks who broke the mold. In a list termed “100 Figures Who Shaped the NFL’s First Century,” the magazine went beyond X’s and O’s to examine “the power brokers who turned it into the most dominant sport in America.” It is a very long and insightful piece — totally worth a read at the end of a hectic workday — and names a few polarizing characters.
The expected names are there, people like George Halas and Vince Lombardi and Joe Montana — and then it gets real. Really real. Sports Illustrated peels the onion on Sarah Thomas, the first female referee; Lyle Alzado, the first player to admit to using PEDs; and Colin Kaepernick, the man who attacked racial injustice by kneeling down.
Here is a brief excerpt from their snippet on Kaepernick and why he deserves a place on the list:
Kaepernick chose to sit on the bench during the playing of the national anthem, in protest of police brutality and systemic racism in the U.S. Kaepernick’s community activism and his apparel partnership with Nike have kept him in the public eye, though he has not played a down since 2016. “I don’t want to be someone who can be put into a category,” Kaepernick told The MMQB in 2013. “I want to be my own person. … And I want to have a positive influence as much as I can.”
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Here are the 100 figures who shaped the NFL’s first century, from players and coaches to unorthodox and unfamiliar personalities: t.co/YJhwKuoHCa
Chip Kelly Makes ‘Most Influential List’
Perhaps the most shocking person in the article is Colin Kaepernick’s former coach in San Francisco, Chip Kelly. The writer credits Kelly for introducing “wide-open spread concepts” to the NFL. Remember, the RPO is what fueled his up-tempo offenses and led to early success in his first two seasons in Philadelphia.
Many venerable coaches, including Andy Reid and Bill Belichick, even copied the zone-read plays from his playbook. While Kelly fizzled out in the pros — and made a boatload of enemies in the process — he did change the way the professional game was played.
After some flirtations, Kelly finally made the leap to the pros in 2013 and reached the playoffs in his first year with Philly,” wrote Sports Illustrated. The Eagles finished fourth in points, second in yards, fifth in passing touchdowns, first in rushing yards and second in rushing touchdowns. They were gaining, on average, more than five yards per carry that season despite averaging only about two minutes per drive.
Philadelphians & Eagles Make All-Century List
Philadelphia has played a huge role in shaping the NFL narrative since its inception in 1920. The first draft was held in a Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the city in 1936. NFL Films was established in the city in 1962. And Eagles great Chuck Bednarik may have delivered the first concussion when he knocked out Frank Gifford in 1960. Controversial or not, these are all crucial moments in the telling of the league’s story.
Eight people with ties to the area made Sports Illustrated‘s list of the “100 Figures Who Shaped the NFL’s First Century.” They included the following:
Reggie White: the greatest pass-rusher in NFL history, and there’s no debate about that. White played eight seasons in Philadelphia and went to six Pro Bowls for the Eagles. He retired with 198 sacks and had his number retired by two different teams. The defensive end was also responsible for modern free agency.
Per Sports Illustrated: White’s was the most prominent name on the 1992 lawsuit that compelled the NFL to accept unrestricted free agency, the culmination of years of contentious labor disputes between the owners and the players union.
Michael Vick: the greatest dual-threat quarterback in NFL history (with all apologies to Randall Cunningham). Vick spent five seasons with the Eagles after the team took a chance on him following his release from prison on a dogfighting sentence. He threw for 57 touchdowns and ran for 15 more in midnight green.
Per Sports Illustrated: When you think of dual-threat quarterbacks, you think of Michael Vick. The former No. 1 overall pick holds the record for career rushing yards by a quarterback, and he’s the only quarterback ever to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
Chip Kelly: his Philadelphia tenure will be remembered as a failed experiment that ended with a front-office power struggle. Still, Kelly finished with a winning record (26-21) in three seasons on the Eagles sideline. He took the team to the playoffs in his first year as head coach.
Per Sports Illustrated: Kelly, who suffered from an inability to politick like the high-level used car salesmen abundant in the profession, was booted out of Philadelphia before he could finish a third season. But … not before he helped change the way teams practice, prepare, eat and play.
Bert Bell: the founder of the Philadelphia Eagles after buying the underwhelming franchise in 1933. Bell, a Philly native who attended Penn, served as NFL Commissioner from 1946–1959 and helped end racial segregation in the league. He was also responsible for the first NFL Draft.
Per Sports Illustrated: His legacy includes anti-gambling rules and sudden-death overtime, both essential to the integrity and watchability of the sport in his era and beyond, not to mention the merger of the NFL with the AAFC.
Mike Ditka: the former tight end played 20 games in two seasons for the Eagles (1967-68) and caught 39 balls for 385 yards, with four touchdowns. He is best remembered for coaching the Bears. Ditka is also the only head coach to catch a touchdown as a player in a Super Bowl.
Per Sports Illustrated: A fast and bruising proto-Gronkowski, Ditka revolutionized tight end in the pros: His 1,076 receiving yards as a rookie were most ever at the position.
Chuck Bednarik: the last of the two-way players, a moniker that should be on his grave. Bednarik spent all 14 of his NFL seasons with the Eagles where he played as both a linebacker and center. The highlight-reel plays included knocking Frank Gifford out and holding Jim Taylor down to seal the 1960 NFL championship.
Per Sports Illustrated: When fans bemoan the (somewhat) safer game we see today, it is the halcyon era of Bednarik and his brand of brutal, old-school, smash-mouth football they’re pining for.
Herschel Walker: the electric running back starred mainly for the Cowboys, but did suit up for the Eagles for three seasons at the end of his career. Walker rushed for 2,344 yards and 14 touchdowns in Philadelphia in the forgettable Rich Kotite years.
Per Sports Illustrated: In 1988, Walker rushed for 1,514 yards and appeared ready to establish himself as the best back in football at age 26. But in midseason of the following year, in what remains the biggest blockbuster trade in NFL history, the Cowboys dealt him to the Vikings for four players and eight draft picks.
Ed and Steve Sabol: the father-son team in charge of NFL Films helped launch the league into the national spotlight. Ed founded the company in 1962, five years before the first Super Bowl — and Steve took over as president in 1985. The Philadelphia natives started it in the city and then moved it to its current headquarters in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
Per Sports Illustrated: The Sabols were innovators in the field of sports programming. They were the first to mic up players and coaches for sound, which opened up the human side of the game to fans.
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