Home at Last
BALTIMORE BELTERS AT STADIUM
Yankee Stadium becomes a haunted house again on
Sunday. The haunting will be done by a 37-year-old quar­
terback named Earl Morrall, who was cast aside for Fran
Tarkenton, and a 26-year-old mountain named ]?ubba
Smith, who could havebeen the Giants' No. 1 draft choice
if the Tarkenton trade had never been made.
"Sure, it means something special to come back to
Yankee Stadium and win," Morrall had said after quarterbacking the Colts he humiliated the Giants, 26-0 three
years ago. Morrall was cheered that day by fans who had
just begun to boo Earl when he was injured in the season
before the trade of four high draft choices to the Minnesota
Vikings for Tarkenton in 1968.
However, Earl had become accustomed to booing in
his travels around the National Football League from San
Francisco to Pittsburgh to Detroit to New York and final­
ly to Baltimore for the meager price of a tight end named
Butch Wilson, who was better as John Mackey's backup
than as anything else.
— Bill Guthrie
1, 218-pounder, set a Colt record with 198 yards in the
opening rout of the Jets, 22-0. Then he injured his knee
and temporarily turned the running over to Don Not­
tingham, the 12th player selected in the 1971 NFL draft.
"Don's built like a squirrel, but he hits hard," Morrall
said of the 5-foot-10, 210-pounder from Kent State, where
he avoided both tacklers and stray bullets.
"We're not afraid to use Nottingham," McCafferty
said. But he still uses Tom Matte, who has retained the
tag of "garbage can" runner stuck on him by since-re­
tired Detroit Lion defensive tackle Alex Karras
All the Colt runners are the same: steady, but not
about to win any 100-yard dashes. But when has a 100yard dash ever won a football game?
If the Colts showed any major problem in earlyseason, it has been the inconsistency of their receivers: Ed
Hinton, Ray Perkins and John Mackey. That's why
Miami Dolphin castoff Willie Richardson was signed
again by the Colts who had him from 1963 through 1969.
The Colts had hands like horseshoes in some games
and the two Colt wins in their first three games were
secured without the benefit of a touchdown pass. "We're
not the type of team that needs touchdown passes," Mor­
rall said. "We'll take points any way we can get them."
The Colts don't care if Jim O'Brien scores all of their
points. He even kicked a 50-yard field goal in the 23-3 win
over the New England Patriots.
It was his longest ever and kept a consecutive streak
of successes going for O'Brien, who was a high-jumping
rookie pinching himself after he kicked the winning 32yarder in the Super Bowl to throw the Cowboys, 16-13,
with five seconds to go. "I was worried because of the
synthetic turf in the Orange Bowl," O'Brien said. "I like
the real thing." The Giants hope he doesn't like the grass
too much in Yankee Stadium. There are a stable of other
capable Colts to be worrying about.
Morrall, in the absence of injured John Unitas, quarterbacked the Colts into the 1969 Super Bowl where Unitas
was unable to bail the Colts out of a 16-7 loss to the New
York Jets. Last January it was Morrall's turn to come in
as a relief pitcher. The Colts won and the Colts are con­
tinuing their concentration on defense. Morrall and
Unitas compiled more gross passing yardage (3,087) last
year than any team in the NFL, but Baltimore has the
championship quality. It s defense gives the quarterback
the ball in great position to score.
v
"When I play end the tackles hold m e . said Smith, the
best of the experienced Colt defensive linemen. "When I
go in the middle in a five-man front, the center holds me
But I guess that I can't complain. It wouldn't be much of a
game if the officials kept blowing the whistle."
Smith expects fingerprints to be on his jersey before
Sunday's visit to the Giants is over. Mike Curtis doesn't
He's the Colt middle linebacker who became more
respected as the 1971 Super Bowl victory hijinxed into his­
tory Curtis likes the nickname, "The Animal," which
says more than a 1,000 words or a picture.
"If we had 22 Mike Curtises," said Colt head coach
Don McCafferty, "we'd send them into the stadium and
tell them to bring back a winner while we sat and
watched the game on TV "
The Colts don't have 22 Mike Curtises, but they do
have another outstanding linebacker in Ted Hendricks,
the one built like the Empire State Building He's 6foot-7 and 212 pounds.
Rick Volk heads the secondary which has the benefit
of the Bubba-led pass rush. Safeties Volk and Jerry
Logan work well with corners Charlie Stukes and Jim
Duncan. The latter also set a Colt kickoff return re­
cord in 1970 with a 35.4 average.
While either Morrall or Unitas, who made a quick re­
covery from an Achilles' tendon injury, hands off, there is
usually dependability on the other end of the football
Norm Bulaich, the No. 1 draftee of 1970 who became the
No. 1 Colt rusher as a rookie, started 1971 as though he
was aiming at Jimmy Brown's records Bulaich. a 6-foot-
him a college great. O n e occasion w a s a
miraculous 57 yard touchdown run against
M i a m i on which he ran around everyone in
sight. But the Bills still do not get the ball to
him enough.
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