Sam Huff, 1934-2021

Robert Lee Huff was born on October 4, 1934, at the Edna mining camp, now part of the town of Farmington, West Virginia, near the Pennsylvania State Line. By his own admission, he didn't know why he was called "Sam" instead of Robert, or a variation such as "Bob" or "Bobby." He helped Farmington High School, now closed, to an undefeated season in his senior year, 1951, and earned a scholarship to West Virginia University.

Along with basketball legend Jerry West, who came along a few years later, Huff is the greatest athlete that WVU has ever produced. Over 4 years, playing both offensive line and defensive line, he helped them go 31-7. This included 2 road upsets of arch-rival Pittsburgh, road upsets of Penn State and South Carolina, 3 Southern Conference Championships, and a loss to Georgia Tech in the 1954 Sugar Bowl. He was named a First Team All-American, a First Team Academic All-American, Captain of the East team in the East-West Shrine Game, and Captain of the North team in the Senior Bowl.

The New York Giants selected him in the 3rd round of the 1956 NFL Draft. He did not get along with head coach Jim Lee Howell, and quit. But before he could get on a plane to go home, the team's offensive coordinator caught him at the airport, and talked him into going back. That coach's name was Vince Lombardi.

The defensive coordinator was Tom Landry, who had been perhaps the 1st player in the two-platoon era to became a great defensive back without also playing on offense. He devised the 4-3 defense, with 2 tackles, 2 ends, and 3 linebackers, and dropped Huff to the position of middle linebacker, which did not previously exist. (Up to then, most teams used a 5-2 defense.)

The Giants had a good offense, with quarterback Charley Conerly; running backs Frank Gifford, Mel Triplett and Alex Webster; end Kyle Rote; and offensive tackle Roosevelt Brown. But, for the 1st time in NFL history, it was a defense that caught everybody's attention. Before the various Fearsome Foursomes (at least 3 teams had lines nicknamed that), before the No-Name Defense in Miami, before the Steel Curtain in Pittsburgh, before the Doomsday Defense in Dallas, before the Jets' New York Sack Exchange, and before the 46 Defense in Chicago, there was the Big Blue Wrecking Crew.

This began a run of 8 seasons in which the Giants would win their Division 6 times, but they wouldn't win the NFL Championship Game again. In 1958, the Giants hosted the Baltimore Colts, and lost in overtime, in what has become known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played." In 1959, they had a rematch at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, and the Colts won again.

By that point, Lombardi was gone, having been named the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. In 1960, Landry was named the 1st head coach of the expansion Dallas Cowboys. That season, the Giants lost the Division title to the Philadelphia Eagles, after a fumble-forcing tackle by Chuck Bednarik knocked Gifford out for the rest of the season.

Gifford sat out the 1961 season, while Allie Sherman was named the Giants' new head coach, and Y.A. Tittle having replaced Conerly as quarterback. They won the Division again, but lost the Championship Game to Lombardi's Packers on a snow-strewn Lambeau Field on New Year's Eve. In 1962, with Gifford returning, it was Giants vs. Packers again, this time at Yankee Stadium, again with the field frozen, and the Packers won. In 1963, on yet another frozen field, the Giants went out against the Bears at Wrigley Field, and lost a tough battle.

All the while, Huff became more and more famous. He was named to 5 Pro Bowls. Time magazine had placed college football players on its cover before, but Huff became the 1st NFL player on it, for its issue dated November 30, 1959.

In the 1960 preseason, the CBS news program The Twentieth Century approached Huff, offering to put a microphone on his uniform for practices and an exhibition game, to show TV viewers what a football game really sounded like. Hosted by Walter Cronkite, it was titled "The Violent World of Sam Huff," and it aired, perhaps appropriately, on October 30, Mischief Night.

How successful was the program? The next day, a CBS executive wrote a letter, put it in an envelope, and wrote nothing on the envelope except "Number 70." No actual name, no return address, nothing except "Number 70." Three days later, the letter was delivered to Huff's locker at Yankee Stadium.

The U.S. Postal Service employees knew exactly what, and who, it meant. Even before Lawrence Taylor was born, Huff might have been a better linebacker.

Sherman, the Giants' general manager as well as the head coach, began to think that the defense was the problem. He was wrong: The average score of a Giants game in 1963 was New York 30, Opposition 20. True, there were 5 games where they allowed at least 24 points; but there were also 7, including the Championship Game, where they allowed 14 or fewer.

In hindsight, the Giants' biggest problem may have been a lack of home-field advantage. Like every other pro football team that rented a stadium from a baseball team, they had to play their first few games on the road, in case the baseball team reached the World Series. And the Giants were playing in the home of the New York Yankees. Of their 8 losses in the regular seasons of 1961, '62 and '63, 3 were early in the season.

But Sherman broke up the defense, trading Modzelewski to Cleveland, where he helped them win the title in 1964; and Grier to Los Angeles, where he joined Hall-of-Famers Deacon Jones and Merlin Olsen, and All-Pro Lamar Lundy, to form one of those "Fearsome Foursomes" I mentioned.

Huff went to Giants owner Wellington Mara, and demanded not to be traded. Mara assured him he was staying put. Instead, Sherman traded Huff to the Washington Redskins for running back Dick James and defensive tackle Andy Stynchula.

Huff said, "As long as I live, I will never forgive Allie Sherman for trading me." On September 25, 1964, the Redskins made their 1st appearance at Yankee Stadium after the trade. The Giants won 13-10, but the home fans chanted Huff's name throughout the game. Huff was also appeased by the Redskins offering to raise his salary from the $19,000 he was making just to play for the Giants to $30,000 for playing and an additional $5,000 for scouting.

In 1963, the Giants were 11-3, and the Redskins were 3-11. In 1964, the Giants got old in a hurry, and fell to 2-10-2, while the Redskins improved to 6-8, mainly because Huff reorganized the defense. In 1965, their defense was ranked 2nd in the NFL. And on November 27, 1966, the highest-scoring game in NFL history was played at District of Columbia Stadium (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium): The Redskins beat the Giants 72-41. True, Huff's defensive teammates had allowed 6 touchdowns... but without him at middle linebacker, the Giants allowed 10 touchdowns.

In 1967, at the age of 33, Huff injured an ankle. He had played 150 games in the NFL, and had never missed one until now. He decided to retire. But in 1969, having led the Packers to 5 NFL Championships, Vince Lombardi became head coach of the Redskins, and, again, talked Huff back onto a team. The Redskins went 7-5-2, and looked like they were ready to join the NFL's elite.

But Lombardi developed cancer, and died. Bill Austin became head coach, and asked Huff to stay on as linebackers coach. The following season, George Allen was lured away from the Rams, and brought in his own staff, and Huff never coached again.

Huff was fine with that: In 1971, he joined the Marriott Corporation, working with the hotel chain to provide lodging for traveling NFL teams, and made a lot more money doing that than he ever made playing.

From 1971 to 1973, he was also a color commentator for Giants radio broadcasts. (By this point, Sherman was gone, and Huff and Mara had reconciled.) In 1974, he went back to the Redskins, calling games with former quarterback Sonny Jurgensen, remaining in this role until 2012. He also became a successful breeder of racehorses. In 1988, he wrote a memoir with Washington Post columnist Leonard Shapiro, Tough Stuff.

He even tried politics. He was one of the State natives who helped John F. Kennedy win the 1960 West Virginia Primary, key to JFK's securing the Democratic nomination and then the general election. But, like coach Allen and many of the Redskins, he also managed to become friends with Republican President Richard Nixon. In 1970, Huff ran for the Democratic nomination for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He lost to Bob Mollohan, who had previously held the seat, and served a total of 18 years in Congress. Huff often said that he thought Lombardi would make a good President.

Huff was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982. WVU retired his Number 75. Neither of the teams he played for retired his Number 70, but the Giants named him to their Ring of Honor, and the Redskins to their Ring of Fame. He was named to the NFL's 1950s All-Decade Team, despite playing only 4 seasons in the decade. (He was not named to the All-Decade Team for the 1960s.)

In 1999, The Sporting News listed him 76th on their list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. In 2010, the NFL Network ranked him 93rd on their list of the 100 Greatest Players. In somewhat of a surprise, he was not among the 6 inside or middle linebackers named to the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019. (They were, in chronological order: Joe Schmidt, Dick Butkus, Willie Lanier, Jack Lambert, Junior Seau and Ray Lewis.)

He was married once, to Mary Helen Fletcher. They had 2 sons, Joseph and Robert Jr.; and a daughter, Carol. He lived to see 3 grandchildren and a great-grandchild. After he and Mary were divorced, he lived on a farm outside Winchester, Virginia, about 75 miles northwest of Washington. For 30 years, he lived and trained horses there with domestic partner Carol Holden.

But in 2013, he was diagnosed with dementia, and had to bring his broadcasting career to a close. Sam Huff died yesterday, November 13, 2021, at a hospital in Winchester. He was 87 years old.

Giants co-owner and team president John Mara released this statement: "Sam was one of the greatest Giants of all time. He was the heart and soul of our defense in his era. He almost singlehandedly influenced the first chants of 'Defense, defense' in Yankee Stadium."

With his death, there are now:

* Only 2 surviving players from the 1956 NFL Champion New York Giants: Defensive tackle Rosey Grier and defensive back Henry Moore.

* 9 surviving players players from the 1958 NFL Championship Game, "The Greatest Game Ever Played": From the Giants, Grier, Don Maynard and Al Barry; from the Colts, Lenny Moore, Raymond Berry, Dick Horn, Jack Call, Leo Sanford and Andy Nelson.

* And 3 surviving players from the NFL's 1950s All-Decade Team: Moore, Joe Schmidt and Hugh McElhenny.