Fred Biletnikoff
| Fred Biletnikoff | |
|---|---|
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Position (s): Wide Receiver |
Jersey numbers: 14, 25 |
| born on February 23, 1943 in Erie , Pennsylvania | |
| Career information | |
| Active : 1965 - 1980 | |
| NFL Draft : 1965 / Round: 3 / Pick: 39 | |
| AFL Draft : 1965 / Round: 2 / Pick: 11 | |
| College : Florida State | |
| Teams | |
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as a player
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| Career statistics | |
| Captured passports | 627 |
| Captive yards | 9,444 |
| Touchdowns | 80 |
| Stats at NFL.com | |
| Stats at pro-football-reference.com | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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| Pro Football Hall of Fame | |
| College Football Hall of Fame | |
Frederick "Fred" Biletnikoff (* 23. February 1943 in Erie , Pennsylvania ) is a former American American football players and coaches. He played 14 seasons for the Oakland Raiders on the position of wide receiver and was later also assistant coach. During his active season, he was considered a comparatively slow wide receiver, who, however, had sure-fire hands and ran precise pass routes. With the Raiders, he won Super Bowl XI and was named MVP of the game there. In 1988 he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame . Since 1994, the Fred Biletnikoff Award for the best wide receiver in college football has been presented annually in his honor .
Career
college
Biletnikoff played in college for Florida State University , Florida State Seminoles . In his junior year 1963 he played for both offense and defense and led the team in the passes and interceptions . That year he also managed to catch an interception and run back to a 99 yard touchdown. It was also the longest intercepion return touchdown in college until 1987, when cornerback Deion Sanders raised it to 100 yards. In his senior year, he caught 40 passes for 1,179 yards and 15 touchdowns, helping the Seminoles play at the Gator Bowl . There they played and won against Oklahoma 36:19, with Biletnikoff catching 13 passes for 194 yards and four toudowns. By the end of his college days, he led the stats by a wide margin with 100 catches for 1,655 yards and 20 touchdowns.
AFL and NFL
After college , the Oakland Raiders , who played in the American Football League (AFL), voted him 11th in the second round of the 1965 AFL draft. In the same year he was selected by the Detroit Lions in the NFL Draft selected in the third round at the 39th. However, Biletnikoff decided to play for the Raiders because on the one hand they paid him more money and because of his childhood experiences he didn't want to play in cold weather. In his rookie season he was mainly used in the special team . He had his first game as a wide receiver in the seventh game of the season against the Boston Patriots , in which he caught seven passes for 118 yards and thus became an indispensable part of the raiders' attack. The following year he caught his first touchdown from quarterback Tom Flores .
His performance improved significantly from 1967 with the addition of Daryle Lamonica , which was shown, among other things, by the fact that he had the highest value in the league with an average of 21.9 yards per catch. That season he was also elected to the AFL All-Star Game , the AFL's Pro Bowl , for the first time . That year, the Raiders also clearly won the AFL Championship Game against the Houston Oilers 40-7 . In Super Bowl II , in which the master of the NFL played against the master of the AFL, the Raiders lost against the Green Bay Packers led by Bart Starr with 14:33. The 1968 season was his only season in which he caught 61 passes for 1,037 yards, passes for more than 1,000 yards. After the 1969 season he was selected for the second time in the AFL All-Star Game, as he reached his season record with 12 touchdowns, among other things. After the AFL was integrated into the NFL in 1970 , Biletnikoff managed to be elected to the Pro Bowl four times in his first five years in the NFL .
He reached the peak of his career in the 1976 season with the Super Bowl XI in which he with the Raiders and the Head Coach John Madden , the Minnesota Vikings beat with 32:14. Biletnikoff could not achieve a touchdown, but caught four balls for 79 yards and prepared the touchdowns with his catches. These accomplishments made him the MVP of the game. After the 1978 season , he was fired from the Raiders.
Although Biletnikoff was not the fastest, his catch safety and the precise pass routes he ran made him one of the most consistent receivers of his time. The two quarterbacks of the raiders Daryle Lamonica and Ken Stabler made him their favorite stopping points. In his 14 years in the AFL / NFL, he caught 589 balls for 8,974 yards and 76 touchdowns, leading the Raiders' record books until the 1990s. Since the Raiders never had a negative season with Biletnikoff and played regularly in the play-offs with 19 games , he was the record holder for balls caught (70), yards caught (1,167) and touchdowns (20) in his retirement the postseason.
CFL
After a year break, he played a single season in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for the Montreal Alouettes in 1980 . There he caught 38 passes for 470 yards and four touchdowns.
Coaching career
After his active time as a player, he worked as a coach for various institutions. He also worked as a coach in the United States Football League (USFL), a competitive league of the NFL. In 1989 , however, he moved to his old club, the Raiders, and trained the wide receivers there. During his time as a trainer with the Raiders, he also coached the later Hall of Famer Tim Brown , who set the records for the Raiders and still holds many to this day. In January 2007 he left the Raiders after 18 seasons and went into retirement.
Honors
For his achievements with the Raiders, Biletnikoff was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988, alongside Mike Ditka , Jack Ham and Alan Page . In 1991 he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame . Since 1994, the best wide receiver in college football has received the Fred Biletnikoff Award every year . The award is named after Biletnikoff and can theoretically be won by any NCAA Division I player who has successfully caught a pass .
Web links
- Player statistics in college on sports-reference.com
- Player statistics on pro-football-reference.com
- Fred Biletnikoff at Just Sports Stats
- Raiders in the Hall of Fame - Fred Biletnikoff
Individual evidence
- ↑ Record Books Rewritten As Florida State Rips TU. newsok.com, accessed January 30, 2017 .
- ↑ Receiving statistics from Florida State Seminoles on sports-reference.com
- ↑ 1965 AFL Draft in pro-football-reference.com
- ↑ 1965 NFL Draft in pro-football-reference.com
- ^ A b c Don Smith: Fred Biletnikoff: "I like catching passes." (pdf) The Coffin Corner, accessed on January 30, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Stefan Feldmann: Legends - Receivers: Fred Biletnikoff. bigplay.ch, February 22, 2014, accessed on January 22, 2017 .
- ↑ Jeff Birchfield: At 70, Biletnikoff relishes his past. In: johnsoncitypress.com. February 21, 2014, accessed January 30, 2017 .
- ^ Josh Dubow: Hall of Famer Biletnikoff Retires. The Washington Post , January 31, 2007, accessed January 22, 2017 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Biletnikoff, Fred |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Biletnikoff, Frederick |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American football player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 23, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Erie (Pennsylvania) , Pennsylvania , United States |