Best NFL Players of All Time: Lance Alworth. Ranking the Top Players in History. Place a bet on an NFL football game now.

Best NFL Players of All Time: Lance Alworth

The phrase is, “yards after catch.” Nearly every football fan is aware of it, and fantasy football players are particularly interested in it. The yards a receiver obtains after catching the ball are an important aspect in distinguishing between good and ordinary receivers, as well as great and good ones.

Lance Alworth excelled in that area before the term was even created. Alworth might have been the American Football League’s first big star. He was undoubtedly in the right position at the right time, collaborating with quarterback John Hadl and a superb thinker in head coach Sid Gillman to give the San Diego Chargers the AFL’s best pitch-and-catch combo.

Alworth, Hadl, and other AFL stars received little attention at the time since they competed with the NFL, and their accomplishments were criticized, disregarded, and treated as if they were the older league’s inferior relations. However, the AFL players knew better. They knew better since many of them had been high draft picks in the NFL, and few had been sought as aggressively as Alworth.

The San Francisco 49ers selected Alworth eighth overall in the 1962 NFL Draft. The AFL’s Oakland Raiders chose Alworth ninth overall and promptly traded his rights to the Chargers, who were a more complete team at the time and needed a game-changing wide receiver to give them a championship advantage. San Francisco’s head coach Red

Hickey attempted to persuade Alworth to sign with the 49ers, but he was up against Chargers assistant coach and chief recruiter Al Davis, who would later own the Raiders. At the time, he was learning football from Gillman, a man whose creative thinking and strategic planning provided him a substantial advantage over the competition.

Davis and Hickey’s fight was no contest. Davis persuaded Alworth that the Chargers’ offense focused on attacking downfield through the air and that the AFL was the best place to be. The Chargers guaranteed Alworth a no-cuts deal. When Alworth notified Hickey of the Chargers’ offer, he chose to match it. But Alworth realized that the 49ers saw him as just another piece of their business, and he didn’t feel truly wanted—it left a terrible taste in his mouth. Davis also told Alworth that he would play immediately away.

Unfortunately, Alworth sustained a strange injury while kicking a football during his first training camp, preventing him from participating. He tore a muscle in his right leg and only played four games before the end of the season, catching ten passes and scoring three touchdowns. His numbers were impressive after that. Over the next six years, Alworth caught 384 receptions for 7,747 yards and 70 touchdowns, with an average of 20.2 yards per catch. In comparison, Jerry Rice averaged 15.4 yards per reception during his 20-year career and once averaged more than 20 yards per catch.

Alworth didn’t have Joe Montana or Steve Young tossing him the ball, either. Prior to the arrival of the strong-armed but raw Hadl, he had an old veteran in Tobin Rote. Throughout the 1964 season, Alworth got open with his 9.6 speed (he raced the 100-yard dash and the 220 as a track star at the University of Arkansas). After that, word spread throughout the AFL that in order to cover Alworth—nicknamed “Bambi” for his wide brown eyes and the way he ran—you had to double-cover him. The decision pushed Alworth to develop a set of maneuvers that would always get him open.

Alworth learned his skills by watching films of Houston Oilers wide receiver Charlie Hennigan. He noticed that Hennigan ran every pattern with purpose, regardless of whether he received passes or not. “I saw that every step he made had a purpose,” Alworth explained. “When I ran a square out, it formed a circle. Charlie ran these tight routes, and every step counted. I realized there was a lot I could do to enhance my technique.”

While Alworth improved his route-running, it was never the primary focus of his game, and Gillman never intended it to be. Hadl planned for Alworth to reach a specific place on the field and then take a different route than expected. The two had excellent timing, and the quarterback and coach expected Alworth to catch the ball even if it was tossed into the crowd.

That was because the 6-foot-2 Alworth excelled at leaping—at least when it came to grabbing a football. “I played a lot of basketball when I was young and when I tried to cram it [dunk] after practice I couldn’t,” Alworth told the reporter. “But during a game, there were photos of me going above the rim to retrieve a rebound. The same was true for football. I could go over the linebackers and defensive backs to get it.”

That’s when Alworth’s ability to run after a catch became apparent. He came down ready to go and didn’t need to collect himself after making an incredible catch. His feet would strike the ground running, and the defense would rarely catch him.

Alworth also took to blocking, like few other wide receivers have. Gillman demanded it of him and all Chargers receivers, but Alworth discovered that it was an area that benefited him as a player. “If I block for Paul Lowe and the running game, it makes me a more dangerous receiver,” Alworth told Sports Illustrated. “If I block him into the open field, he’ll want to do the same for me. And that’s exactly how it has worked.”

Alworth was the first AFL player elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978. He was named an All-AFL player seven times and led the league in receiving yards and receptions three times. He still has the Chargers’ franchise records for receiving touchdowns (83) and receiving yards (9,584).

Alworth coined the term “run after the catch.”

Best NFL Players of All Time: Lance Alworth Stats

Regular Season

Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	Lng	R/G	Y/G	Att	Yds	TD	Lng
1962	22	SDG	FL	24	4	4	10	226	22.6	3	67	2.5	56.5	1	17	0	17
1963	23	SDG	FL	19	14	14	61	1205	19.8	11	85	4.4	86.1	2	14	0	21
1964	24	SDG	FL	19	12	12	61	1235	20.2	13	82	5.1	102.9	3	60	2	35
1965	25	SDG	FL	19	14	14	69	1602	23.2	14	85	4.9	114.4	3	-12	0	-1
1966	26	SDG	FL	19	13	13	73	1383	18.9	13	78	5.6	106.4	3	10	0	4
1967	27	SDG	FL	19	11	11	52	1010	19.4	9	71	4.7	91.8	1	5	0	5
1968	28	SDG	FL	19	14	14	68	1312	19.3	10	80	4.9	93.7	3	18	0	10
1969	29	SDG	WR	19	14	14	64	1003	15.7	4	76	4.6	71.6	5	25	0	16

Playoffs

Year	Age	Tm	Pos	G	GS	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	Lng	R/G	Y/G	Att	Yds	TD	Lng	Y/A	Y/G	A/G	Touch	Y/Tch	YScm	RRTD	Fmb
1963	23	SDG	FL	1	1	4	77	19.3	1	48	4	77			0					4	19.3	77	1	0
1965	25	SDG	FL	1	1	4	82	20.5	0	25	4	82			0					4	20.5	82	0	0
1971	31	DAL	WR	3	3	5	78	15.6	1	30	1.7	26			0					5	15.6	78	1	0
1972	32	DAL	WR	2	2	3	55	18.3	1	28	1.5	27.5			0					3	18.3	55	1	0
Career				7	7	16	292	18.3	3	48	2.3	41.7			0					16	18.3	292	3
2 yrs		DAL		5	5	8	133	16.6	2	30	1.6	26.6			0					8	16.6	133	2
2 yrs		SDG		2	2	8	159	19.9	1	48	4	79.5			0					8	19.9	159	1

 

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