Anderson’s lofty kicks started something new
This year’s Super Bowl HOUSTON features two dynamic and destructive offenses. Even so, it is likely that punters Ryan Allen of the New England Patriots and Matt Bosher of the Atlanta Falcons will at least see some action at NRG Stadium on Sunday.
And when they do, they will be following a tactical tradition that can be traced to one of the stars of the first Super Bowl 50 years ago.
Donny Anderson’s primary job, both as a college standout with Texas Tech and with the Green Bay Packers, was as a hard-charging halfback, but it was in his makeshift role with the punt team that he would have a longlasting effect on the sport.
“Punting back then was all about distance,” Anderson told USA TODAY Sports at the Touchdown Club of Houston’s Super Alumni Luncheon on Monday. “The idea was just to smash it as far as it could go. But we decided to try something a little different.”
While at college, Anderson had been encouraged by coach J.T. King to experiment with punting the ball high in the air, to enable the covering unit to get downfield and prevent long returns.
After being drafted by the Packers, Anderson soon was enlisted by legendary coach Vince Lombardi to try what was then a revolutionary idea.
Anderson made his first punts against the Chicago Bears, who had future Hall of Famer Gale Sayers as a returner. Anderson sent three left-footed kicks soaring into the sky, two of which Sayers dropped, setting up a Green Bay touchdown and a field goal. On the third, Sayers, probably wisely, called for a fair catch.
And thus the concept of hang time in professional football was born: The idea that the paucity of the return, rather than the length of the initial kick, is of greater importance.
In 1967, Anderson punted 63 times, with 13 returned for a total of 22 yards. Before long, the NFL changed its coverage rules to allow for more returning opportunities.
“After the first game when I punted, a reporter asked Vince if he would go back to the regular punter because I had only punted for an average of 38 yards,” Anderson said. “Vince gave him this kind of look out of the side of his face and stared at him. ‘Didn’t you see what happened? We scored twice. Who cares how far it went?’
“Before long other people were taking notice, and then everyone was doing it.”
Anderson played a pivotal role in Super Bowl I, as the Packers claimed the championship by comfortably beating the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10.
In the second half, Anderson ran the ball before colliding with Chiefs defensive back and future Hollywood actor Fred Williamson, knocking him out. As Williamson had spent much of the week leading up to the game boasting of the hard hits that he would deliver, the incident caused much mirth among the Packers. Receiver Max McGee, who scored two touchdowns just hours after getting drunk and breaking curfew, quipped that Anderson must have “hit (Williamson) with his wallet,” a reference to the lucrative contract worth $600,000 Anderson signed coming out of college.
Fifty years on, recalling the game still gives Anderson reason to smile.
“It is a special memory, but we had no idea back then how big it would become,” he said. “It was fun and competitive then; now it feels like it is on a different planet.”