John Riggins

John Riggins
Riggins in the Redskins jersey
Position (s): running back	Jersey number (s): 44
born August 4, 1949 in Seneca , Kansas
Career information
Active : 1971 - 1985
NFL Draft : 1971 / Round: 1 / Pick: 6
College : Kansas
Teams
New York Jets ( 1971 - 1975 ) Washington Redskins ( 1976 - 1985 )
Career statistics
spilled yards	11,352
average	3.9
expired TDs	104
Stats at NFL.com
Stats at pro-football-reference.com
Career highlights and awards
1 × Pro Bowl selection (1975) 2 × All-Pro selection (1975, 1983) 1 × Super Bowl winner ( XVII ) 1 × Super Bowl MVP ( Super Bowl XVII ) National Football League 1980s All-Decade Team 1978 NFL Comeback Player of the Year 1983 Bert Bell Award The 70 Greatest Redskins
Pro Football Hall of Fame

Robert John Riggins (* 4. August 1949 in Seneca , Kansas ), and The Diesel called, is a former American American football poker players in the position of running backs .

college

Riggins began playing football at Centralia High School in Centralia , which is located in Kansas . After graduating there, he enrolled at the University of Kansas . In addition to his journalism studies , which he completed there, he also played on the university's American football team. The Kansas Jayhawks , the name of the team, were coached by Pepper Rodgers at the time and had finished the previous season with a balance of 5-5. As fullback , Riggins replaced JC Hixon, who had left university after last season. As a starter, Riggins then gained a total of 866 yards of space and achieved a balance of 9-2 with the Jayhawks, making the team, together with the Oklahoma Sooners, first in the Big Eight Conference . Therefore, the Jayhawks were eligible to participate in the Orange Bowl after the season ended . There Kansas met the Penn State Nittany Lions and had to admit defeat at 15:14. In the next season, the Jayhawks won only one of ten games and thus missed the return to a bowl final. Riggins ran a little less than last season with a space gain of 662 yards, but was still selected for his performance in the All-Big Eight Conference First Team . His achievements from the two previous years he was able to outbid again in his last season and so he gained a space gain of 1131 yards. As a result, the Jayhawks were able to win five of eleven games and Riggins was re-elected to the All First team of the conference.

Ultimately, he led the Jayhawks in all of his three years in run yards and even overtook Jayhawks legend Gale Sayers with a total gain of 2,659 yards . For his achievements at the university he was inducted into the Kansas University Ring of Honor on October 13, 2007 before the Jayhawks game against the Baylor Bears .

Player career

New York Jets

John Riggins was voted sixth in the 1971 NFL Draft by the New York Jets in the first round . He had a very successful rookie season during which he led his team in both running and catching. In the second year of his career, in a game against the New England Patriots on October 15, 1972 , he and his teammate Emerson Boozer accumulated 318 yards (Riggins 168 and Boozer 150) gain space on the floor. This makes the two of them the only running back tandem in NFL history to have ever run for 150+ yards of space in a game. In the same year he almost managed to beat the Jets franchise record for space gain. In the end, he was only 4 yards short of the record (948) with 944 yards, held by Matt Snell at the time .

Three years later, in 1975 , he managed to beat this record and became the first Jets player to run for more than 1000 yards of space in one season (1005). He was elected to the Pro Bowl for the first and only time at the end of what would be his last season as a player in the Jets .

Washington Redskins

After the 1975 season, he became a free agent and joined the Washington Redskins. He received a four-year contract for 1.5 million US dollars . This was a significant increase from his annual salary of $ 75,000 a year last year of his contract with the Jets.

He got off to a bumpy start with the Redskins. In the first year, 1976 , it was used almost exclusively in situations in which the goal was only a brief gain in space. And in the second year, 1977 , he almost completely sidelined with a knee injury. However, he succeeded in the two following years ( 1978 and 1979 ) to increase his performance: He gained more than 1000 yards of space and thus contributed significantly to the offense of the Redskins.

After the 1979 season, Riggins wanted to renegotiate his contract on different terms, which the Redskins team management refused. Riggins then left training camp, whereupon the Redskins reported him as a "resigned" to the NFL, which meant that he could not join any other team that season. The result was that he missed the entire 1980s season.

1981 was Joe Gibbs , the new head coach of the Redskins and he was able to convince Riggins that he would play for Washington again. He returned to the Redskins on a new contract eleven months after leaving training camp. He met the media representatives with the words:

"I'm bored, I'm broke, and I'm back" Translation: "I'm bored, I'm broke and I'm back"

In the following season of 1981 he did not manage to run for 1000 yards of space, but he scored 13 touchdowns . The 1982 season was reduced by a player strike from 16 to 9 games and the playoffs expanded from 12 to 16 teams. Riggins played an average season, gaining 553 yards of space on the floor. The Redskins reached the play-offs , in which Riggins improved his line by leaps and bounds and ran for 444 yards of space in three games up to Super Bowl XVII . On the way there, the Detroit Lions , Minnesota Vikings, and Dallas Cowboys were beaten. During the Super Bowl , Riggins again showed an excellent performance. He gained 166 yards of space in 38 runs. This performance helped the Washington Redskins, the Miami Dolphins with 27:17 to beat, and Riggins was chosen for its performance for MVP of the Super Bowl , so the most valuable player of the game chosen.

One move during the Super Bowl can be described as Riggins' most famous action of his entire career: There were ten minutes left to play. The Redskins were in a " fourth down " situation and only had to bridge a few inches to get a new first try. Riggins was sent onto the field with a plan to gain only a few yards of space to get the first down . Riggins received the ball from the quarterback and managed to avoid a tackle by a Dolphins defender . Instead of the few yards the play was supposed to bring, it ran 43 yards and scored a touchdown. This move was voted "Redskins' Greatest Moment" by Redskins fans in 2007. In addition, in the run-up to Super Bowl XLVI , this play was voted the eighth best play in Super Bowl history by the NFL Network . Riggins walked 610 yards in the playoffs (including the Super Bowl), which is an NFL playoff record.

1983 was another very successful year for Riggins. He got a space gain of 1,347 yards and 24 touchdowns, which was a record at the time. The Redskins reached the Super Bowl again, but this time lost to the Los Angeles Raiders (now Oakland Raiders) with 9:38. A bit of a curiosity is the fact that Riggins scored 144 points in the season and that was the second most points this season by a player. In first place this season was the Redskins kicker, Mark Moseley , a team-mate from Riggins. That was the first time since the 1951 season that two team-mates had scored the most and second-most points in a season in the league.

1984 was another quite successful season for Riggins, in which he again ran for more than 1,000 yards of space, although he suffered from back problems. He was replaced by George Rogers during the 1985 season and retired from there .

In 1990 he was inducted into the Washington Redskins Ring of Fame , which is the Redskins' in- team hall of fame . He was inducted on the same day as quarterback Joe Theismann . When Riggins' name was called, he ran into the field in full gear ( helmet , pads, jersey, etc.), whereupon the fans greeted him with stormy applause.

In 1992 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Riggins lands soap gig . ljworld.com. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
2. ^ ^{A b} Bob Boyles, Paul Guido: The USA Today College Football Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Modern Reference to America's Most Colorful Sport, 1953-Present. Skyhorse Publishing, New York 2008, ISBN 978-1602393318 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} John Riggins To Be Inducted Into KU Ring Of Honor . kuathletics.com. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
4. ↑ http://www.profootballhof.com/history/general/draft/1971.aspx
5. ↑ http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/197210150nwe.htm
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} http://www.nfl.com/player/johnriggins/2524163/profile
7. ↑ http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/R/RiggJo00.htm
8. ↑ ^{a b} http://www.hickoksports.com/biograph/rigginsjohn.shtml ( Memento from December 10, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
9. ↑ ^{a b c} http://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/12/sports/riggins-returns-to-redskins.html
10. ↑ ^{a b c} http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.aspx?PLAYER_ID=180
11. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/memories/gibbs/82sbowl.htm
12. ^ Gary Fitzgerald: Riggins 'Run Is Redskins' Greatest Moment. In: Redskins.com. December 6, 2007, archived from the original on January 31, 2008 ; accessed on January 6, 2015 . 
13. ↑ http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/09000d5d8268e359/Top-10-Super-Bowl-plays?module=HP11_content_stream (video)
14. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.