Tag Archives: the waterboy

NFL, Pro Football HoF

Fouts, Dan

udlgd97 foutsCard: Upper Deck Legends 1997
Acquired: TTM 2013, C/o Home
Sent: 3/18   Received: 3/28    (10 days)
Failure:  TTM 2011, C/o Home

Dan has always been good to fans and through the mail, so I was a bit miffed when I did not receive anything back from him a few years ago. I patiently waited for a response, – one that I never got. Since then I saw a lot of traffic on him recently, I chocked the Topps 1977 card of him up to the mail gods, and finally worked around to another attempt.

Dan Fouts numbers are misleading based on the era he played college ball in and it was frequent during the early 70s for quarterbacks to struggle with both their TD/Int ratio and also their completion percentage. While at the college, Fouts shattered 19 different career and season records for quarterbacks at Oregon.

Standing at 6-3, 204, Fouts was not the highest rated quarterback in the 1973 draft however. That honor fell to Bert Jones. In the meantime, Dan had to wait until the middle of round 3 (pick #64) and would be the 5th quarterback off the board.  He had a rough patch early on, as he honed his craft, but with the Don Coryell bringing his revolutionary vertical offense (also known as ‘Air Coryell’) to town under offensive coordinator Bill Walsh, Dan gave it his best shot. The Chargers offense matured and became one of the most prolific and exciting offenses in the league, bringing a thunderous end to the ‘Dead Ball Era’.  Fouts guided the Chargers to the playoffs from 1979 to 1982, but the team was never able to advance beyond the AFC Championship game.  Fouts played in 6 Pro Bowls, and was AP 3 times.

By the time of his retirement in 1987, Dan pretty much owned most of the Chargers all time records for quarterbacks. He is also the first quarterback to throw for back to back 4,000 yard seasons, and one of a select few who have thrown for back to back 30 TD seasons. Considered ‘The Greatest Charger of All-Time’ by fans, and one of the 100 Greatest NFL Players of all time, Fouts was inducted into the NFL HoF in 1993.  He has spent a lot of his time in broadcasting, both radio and TV color commentary for NFL games, and appeared in the movie “Waterboy”.

G/Gs 181/171    Att 5604     Comp 3297     Yds 43040     Pct 58.8     Td  254   Int 242    Rat 80.2  |
Rush  224    Yds  476    Avg 2.1   Td 13  Lg 32

Arena, CFL, NFL, NFLE, WLAF

Ervin, Corris

Cards: ProSet WLAF Helmet Card 1991, ProSet 1991, ProSet WLAF 1991
Acquired: TTM 2010, C/o work.
Sent: 10/15  Received: 10/26 (11 days)

Corris Ervin would be an outstanding defensive back for the Central Florida Knights- being so good as to be drafted by the Denver Broncos with their 5th round pick in the 1988 draft. Ervin would spend time on the San Fransisco 49ers developmental squad in 1989 and would walk by me a few times in Dallas Cowboys Training camp in 1990. In 1991, the London Monarchs would draft Corris first in the WLAF positional draft for the defensive secondary. He’d form a cornerstone of the Monarchs #1 defense and secondary, helping the team win the World Bowl in 1991. After winning All-World League honors, he’d return to the states after the 1991 season, but in 1995 decided to take another shot- this time with the NFLE playing for the Scottish Claymores. Corris would make another 2 interceptions playing for the team and return back to the United States to play in the CFL for the Baltimore Stallions and in Canada with the Blue Bombers. In 1996 Ervin would go to the Arena Football league playing for both the Tampa Bay Storm and the Orlando Predators that year. He’d hang onto the roster of the Predators through 1999 where he was then traded to the Florida Bobcats, retiring after the season. Corris would also make an appearance as a defensive back in the movie “The Waterboy”. I started trying to track down players through social network sites and quickly found Corris after I was able to acquire teammate Howard Feggins. He kindly signed 3 cards for me and currently runs his own cabinetry business out of the Orlando area. Below are his statistics from the London Monarchs in 1991.

G/Gs  10/10   Tac  37  Sac 0  Fum n/a    Int 2   Yds 13  Avg 6.5  Td 0  lg 13