Carmichael no longer on bubble with Hall of Fame
For defensive backs trying to set the edge, Eagles wide receiver Harold Carmichael was a nightmare with the ball on bubble screens.
Just the sight of a 6-8, 225-pound runner towering over the blockers and coming toward you elicited an involuntary backpedal.
That play, probably more than any other helped Carmichael put up numbers worthy of induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The 70-year-old Eagles icon got the word Wednesday that he’s part of an expanded class of 20 new members that coincides with the NFL’s
100 season celebration. “They used to call it the quick screen,” Carmichael said on a conference call Thursday. “I believe the Eagles were the first ones to start the quick screen. I think Dick Vermeil told me I had about an 18-yard average on that. One of the things I loved doing was to run after the catch. That was fun for me, catching a pass and running after that. That was my thrill and I had a lot of fun doing it.”
Carmichael was the most dominant wide receiver in the NFL from
1973-83 as he registered 549 receptions for 8,914 yards and 77 TDs, all tops for the position. He also established a standard by catching at least one pass in 127 straight games.
The Eagles took Carmichael off the board in the seventh round of the 1971 draft out of Southern University, where he spent two years playing basketball.
It all came back into focus this week for Carmichael, who caught
589 passes for 8,978 yards (15.2yard average) and 79 touchdowns from 1971 through 1983 with the Eagles, an era where teams were run-heavy on offense and where defensive backs could make contact virtually anywhere on the field, not solely in the five-yard bump zone in today’s game.
Carmichael’s thoughts drifted to his childhood in Jacksonville, Fla., where he played touch football on the street, tackle football in the grass and indoor football in the bowling alley.
“At college, I was a walk-on, nobody knew who I was,” Carmichael said. “I got a starting job. I just thought about all these things and then coming to Philadelphia as a seventh-round draft choice and becoming a starter with Roman Gabriel, Charley Young, Don Zimmerman. Winning the NFC championship game. All these things flashed back on me. That meant so much to me. And then getting that call was awesome.”
Teammates and media during Carmichael’s playing days knew that he had a baseball tryout with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a senior at Raines High in Jacksonville, the venue that gave the NFL Eagles Hall of Fame safety Brian Dawkins, among others.
Carmichael once threw a football 100 yards– from goal line to goal line – at Veterans Stadium. Even after he retired and worked in the player program department for the Eagles, he had a pre-game ritual of throwing the football 80 yards during the warmups.
Carmichael applauded Eagles assistant coach Boyd Dowler, a talented wide receiver in his playing days with the Green Bay Packers, for helping him refine his pass routes from 1973-75. Dowler (6-5, 225) basically felt Carmichael was wasting his time running routes like the smaller guys.
“He said ‘your strides are too long,’” Carmichael recalled. “He said ‘we’re going to tweak your pass routes a little bit so we can get the ball to you on time.”
The rest is history, including the bubble screen.
“My favorite route,” Carmichael said.
Carmichael has a presenter in mind when he grabs hold of the bust of himself in Canton, Ohio. He’s keeping it to himself now.
Don’t be surprised if it’s the inventor of the quick screen. One of the biggest disappointments was that Vermeil didn’t make the final cut in the expanded voting.
Until then, Carmichael is grateful the wait is almost over.
“I’ve been hearing that I should be in there for the past 37 years,” Carmichael said of the HOF. “I’m 100 years old now. You want to get this stuff done because you want to enjoy it.”