James Lofton

James Lofton
Position (s): Wide Receiver	Jersey numbers: 80, 86, 22
born January 5, 1956 in Fort Ord , California
Career information
Active : 1978 - 1993
NFL Draft : 1978 / Round: 2 / Pick: 6
College : Stanford University
Teams
player Green Bay Packers ( 1978 - 1986 ) Los Angeles Raiders ( 1987 , 1988 ) Buffalo Bills ( 1989 - 1992 ) Philadelphia Eagles ( 1993 ) Los Angeles Rams ( 1993 ) Assistant coach San Diego Chargers ( 2002 - 2007 ) Oakland Raiders ( 2008 )
Career statistics
Games	233
Captive yards	14.004
Touchdown	76
Stats at NFL.com
Stats at pro-football-reference.com
Career highlights and awards
8 × Pro Bowl election (1978, 1980–1985, 1991) 6 × All-Pro election (1980–1985) 1st + 2nd team Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame (1978) Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame (1999) Senior Bowl Hall of Fame (1996) 3 × AFC champions (1990–1992) NFL 1980s All-Decade Team Pro Football Hall of Fame (2003)
Pro Football Hall of Fame

James David Lofton (* 5. January 1956 in Fort Ord , California ) is a former American American football poker players. He played as a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) with the Green Bay Packers , Los Angeles Raiders , Los Angeles Rams , Philadelphia Eagles and the Buffalo Bills .

youth

James Lofton was born in the Fort Ord military base. He had three older siblings. His father, Mike Lofton, was a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army and, after completing his military career, worked as a bank clerk. At the age of seven, he was raised alone due to his parents' divorce from his father. He attended in Los Angeles , the High School and played in the local football team as a quarterback . Lofton was a talented athlete and won the California School Championship as a long jumper . His athletic achievements earned him an athletic scholarship from Stanford University .

Player career

College career

James Lofton studied at Stanford University from 1975 to 1978 and successfully completed his engineering degree in 1978. For the college football team there , the Stanford Cardinals , he only played in 1977 as a wide receiver. That year he moved with his team to the Sun Bowl , where the Louisiana State University team was defeated 24:14. Lofton caught two touchdown passes in the game . That same year he played in the Senior Bowl , a selection game, and was named the game's MVP after the game . In the game he was able to catch nine passes. In his only year at college , he was able to achieve a total of twelve touchdowns, which earned him an All-American (2nd team) nomination .

Lofton was also able to convince as a track and field athlete at college. In 1978 he was able to qualify for the NCAA championship. Lofton started at the championships as a sprinter and long jumper. In the long jump he won the championship. As a long jumper, he was also voted All-American three times. Through his college he was awarded a total of three times for his sporting success.

Professional career

Lofton was drafted sixth in the first round in 1978 by the Bart Starr coached Green Bay Packers . Starr already used Lofton as a starter in his rookie year . Lofton was elected to the Pro Bowl for the first time that year . Lofton did not manage to move into the play-offs with the Packers until 1986 . In 1984 the US judiciary charged him with sexual assault to the detriment of an erotic dancer. The charge was later converted into trespassing . In 1986 he came into conflict with the judiciary again. He was charged with rape . However, he was acquitted of the charge. However, the Packers took these allegations very seriously and feared a loss of image. He was suspended for the last game of the 1986 season and released to the Los Angeles Raiders in April 1987 . The trainer of the Raiders Tom Flores immediately put Lofton in the offense as a starter. Even with the Raiders, however, he could not qualify for the play-offs. He therefore moved to the Buffalo Bills after the 1988 season .

The playing years in Buffalo were more successful for Lofton under his new coach Marv Levy . His new team dominated the American Football Conference (AFC) for the next few years . In 1990 the Bills were able to move into the AFC Championship Game for the first time , where they met the Los Angeles Raiders. Lofton played brilliantly. He was able to catch five passes from quarterback Jim Kelly for a space gain of 113 yards . Two pass catches led to touchdowns. The victory meant the Bills move into the Super Bowl . Opponents in Super Bowl XXV were the New York Giants who prevailed with 20:19. In the following year, the Bills were able to win the title in the AFC. They beat the Denver Broncos 10-7 in the final , but lost 37:24 to the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXVI . Lofton could not prevent the defeat in the Super Bowl with his seven pass catches for a gain of 92 yards.

The 1992 season did not bring Lofton the hoped-for Super Bowl win. He won his third AFC title with a 29:10 win for his team against the Miami Dolphins . In Super Bowl XXVII , however, the Bills failed at the Dallas Cowboys with 52:17.

James Lofton was fired from the Bills in 1993 and moved to the Los Angeles Rams . After just one game, Lofton moved to the Philadelphia Eagles and ended his career after the 1993 season. He was the first player to achieve a space gain of over 14,000 yards with 14,004 yards in his career.

After the playing / coaching career

After his career as a player, James Lofton initially worked as a sports presenter for various television channels, including CNN . From 1999 to 2001 he worked as a radio host. In 2002 he returned to the NFL and was assistant coach under Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer at the San Diego Chargers . In 2007 he celebrated his greatest success as an assistant coach. The team from San Diego was able to move into the AFC Championship Game, but failed there with 21:12 to the New England Patriots . After another season as an assistant coach with the Oakland Raiders in 2008, he returned to broadcasting.

Off the field

Lofton is married with three children. His son David Lofton also studied at Stanford , where he also played football. He could not assert himself in the NFL in 2007 and began a short professional career in the Canadian Football League (CFL).

Honors

James Lofton played eight times in the Pro Bowl . He was voted All-Pro six times . Lofton is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame , the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame , the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, and the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame, and the NFL 1980s All-Decade Team .

Web links

• James Lofton with the Green Bay Packers
• biography
• James Lofton in the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame
• Short biography (PDF; 24 kB)
• Short biography II ( Memento from September 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• James Lofton in the New York Times
• James Lofton at the Buffalo Bills ( Memento from May 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

source

• Jens Plassmann: NFL - American Football. The game, the stars, the stories (= Rororo 9445 rororo Sport ). Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-499-19445-7 .
• David L. Porter (Ed.): African-American sports greats. A biographical dictionary. Greenwood Press, Westport CT 1995, ISBN 0-313-28987-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ College Awards from James Lofton  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Annual statistics 1990 of the Buffalo Bills
3. ↑ Statistics AFC Championship Game 1990
4. ↑ Statistics Super Bowl XXV
5. ↑ 1991 annual statistics of the Buffalo Bills
6. ↑ Statistics AFC Championship Game 1991
7. ↑ Statistics Super Bowl XXVI
8. ↑ 1992 annual statistics of the Buffalo Bills
9. ↑ Statistics AFC Championship Game 1992
10. ↑ Statistics Super Bowl XXVII
11. ↑ 2007 annual statistics of the San Diego Chargers
12. ↑ Statistics AFC Championship Game 2007