Tag Archives: Houston Oilers

NFL

Alm, Jeff (1968-1993)

Card: ProSet 1990, Score Supplemental 1990
Acquired: In Person 1992, Highland Mall

In 1992 the Oilers were doing a media and fan blitz outside of their normal home territory and were appearing at a local mall sending in coach Jim Eddy, Jeff Alm and Al Smith. It was one of my first memorable face to face interactions with players and Al and Jeff cracked jokes with me while they set up the tables in front of the food court. Al signed my Pro Set 1991 and then jokingly told me I could have probably carried in the table for them. Jeff signed my cards and firmly shook my hand and smiled, thanking me for hanging in there and being a fan and I gave him some encouraging words for the season. We also joked that Jim Eddy (the defensive coordinator) would be upset because I did not have his card. (He didn’t have one.)

Jeff Alm was drafted in the second round of the 1990 draft by the Houston Oilers out of Notre Dame to play defensive tackle. The man mountain checked in at a whopping 6″6′ and 284 .  In 1992 Alm began to have more playing time on the line, playing in 14 games, collecting 35 tackles, 1 sack and 2 forced fumbles. After a prolonged holdout in 1993, Alm signed and played but had sustained a painful hairline fracture in his leg. He was placed on injured reserve and was upset about the lack of playing time. His childhood friend Sean Lynch came to visit him in Houston to cheer him up. He and jeff had a close relationship, like siblings- and loved to compete with each other in interests like car stereos. On December 13th, Jeff and Sean had a night out on the town. On the way home Alm was driving recklessly on the 610 and sideswiped the guardrail. Sean was thrown from the car and killed. When Jeff emerged from the wreckage of the vehicle, he was so overcome that he grabbed a shotgun from the back of his car, and took his own life.  Both were drunk at the time of the accident, and although Alm’s was signifigantly lower, he was on a muscle relaxant that amplified the effects of the alcohol. The Oilers would wear a memorial sticker with his number on it for the remainder of the season. I remember I was working at Best Buy when I heard the news, late in the evening. I was shocked to hear that Jeff had passed on, and it was all over the TVs in the video department. (Alm remains a rarety in the NFL- that is a player who commits suicide while he was still on an active roster.) Since those days, horrible urban legends have emerged about Jeff, but based on the coroner’s report and on the scene services, those claims have no merit and are substantiated as being untrue. Jeff’s only injury was a gunshot wound and neither of them had clothes that were removed. Below are Jeff’s statistics.

G/Gs  44/8     Tac N/a     Sac  2.5     Fum 2      Int  0  Yds  0   Avg -.-  Td 0

Arena, NFL

Del Greco, Al

Cards: Topps Traded 1989, Upper Deck 1992
Acquired: In Person, Houston Oilers Training Camp 1992, CGA Youth Golf Tournament 1993.

The Oilers were searching for the replacement to Tony Zendejas whom they lost in Plan B to the Los Angeles Rams. Passing by established names such as Mike Lansford and Raul Allegre, the Oilers brought Teddy Garcia into camp. Unimpressed, the Oilers sent out an APB for a replacement, and found the feel good story of the year in Ian Howfield who won the job with an impressive preseason, but after 9 games it was obvious that he was not the answer, missing 4 extra points and quite a few field goals.  The Oilers called up Al Del Greco, who had lost the kicking job in Phoenix earlier that year. He had a decent enough resume and was the starting kicker for Green Bay (after Jan Stenerud) from 1984-1987 and Phoenix from 1987-1990. (He was also ironically replaced by another Zendejas in Green Bay.)

Del Greco would win the job outright in Houston, (and at that time I wasn’t really impressed,)  providing the Oilers with the consistency and clutch kicking that the team direly needed. He played for the Oilers the next 6 seasons, two for the Tennessee Oilers and then his final two seasons with the Titans- retiring after 2000 and 17 seasons. Del Greco currently stands at number 14 on the all time scoring list with 1592 points (as of 2010).

Al has since been inducted into the Alabama sports Hall of Fame. He briefly got into coaching and was a kicking coach in the AFL for the Birmingham Steeldogs as well, and does some radio and motivational speaking on the side. Del Greco is quite the golfer I hear, and was the winner of the CGA tournament that I went to way back in 1993.

G 248    XPA  543       XPM  551       FGA 449      FGM 347    PCT 77.3%

CFL, NFL, usfl

Jones, June

Card: Topps 1978
Acquired: TTM 2010, C/o SMU
Sent:  1/13  Recieved: 2/1  (26 days)

A member of the Mouse Davis coaching tree, June Jones is considered a quarterback guru and offensive innovator and his teams typically employ a spread offense or Run ‘N Shoot variant. After playing in 3 different offensive systems and 3 different colleges, June would be drafted by the Atlanta Falcons out of Portland State where he played from 1977 to 1981. He’d then briefly play in the CFL for the Toronto Argonauts. Jones quickly moved into coaching, working under Jack Pardee and Mouse Davis as the wide receivers coach for the USFL Houston Gamblers, and then into the CFL coaching with the Ottawa Rough Riders. In 1987, June was hired by Jerry Glanville to coach Warren Moon as the quarterbacks coach in Houston and then with Detroit under offensive coordinator Mouse Davis. After this stint he would follow Glanville to Atlanta where he’d install the Run ‘N Shoot offense. Later he’d replace Glanville as head coach of the Falcons. June guided the team to the playoffs before a meltdown with quarterback Jeff  George that was infamously caught on tape. The rift caused both of them to get released. Jones then worked for Kevin Gilbride briefly on the Chargers staff, before returing to the college ranks as head coach for the University of Hawaii. He turned a winless team around to a 9-4 bowl bound team in what is considered to be the fastest turn around in NCAA football history. By 2006 he was the winningest coach in Hawaii history and finished his career there in 2007 at 76-41. In 2008 Jones decided to leave Hawaii to coach perennial doormat SMU turning that franchise around in two seasons and leading them to their first bowl game in many years. Posted below are his college coaching statistics.

Wins 85   Losses 57  Ties 0