Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Here’s a bit of trivia from my fellow collector Pete. Pictured here are three vintage rookie cards: a 1948 Bowman Charley Trippi, a 1950 Bowman Bob Hoernschemeyer, and a 1948 Leaf George Taliaferro. What did these three players achieve that no one has since?

Answer: They are the only three NFL players to have gotten over 1000 yards passing, 1000 yards rushing, and 1000 yards receiving in their pro careers. Here are their numbers from pro-football-reference.com:

• Charley Trippi: 2547 yards passing, 3506 yards rushing, 1321 yards receiving.
• Bob Hoernschemeyer: 4302 yards passing, 4548 yards rushing, 1139 yards receiving.
• George Taliaferro: 1633 yards passing, 2266 yards rushing, 1300 yards receiving.

But wait–there’s an asterisk.

Some of Taliaferro and Hoernschemeyer’s stats are from the AAFC, it turns out, and without their AAFC stats, they would not have achieved their triple-1000s. I wondered if the NFL recognized AAFC stats, and I learned that they don’t: Hoernschemeyer’s page at nfl.com shows his seasons in the AAFC, but not his statistics. By contrast, George Blanda’s page shows both his NFL and AFL statistics. Why would the NFL recognize AFL stats but not AAFC stats? Wikipedia’s page on the AAFC offers two possible explanations: either the AAFC didn’t provide the NFL with its official scoresheets, or the NFL considered the AAFC less than equal, since the NFL absorbed only three of the AAFC teams when the AAFC folded in 1950. Both reasons seem silly, especially the latter. One of those three AAFC teams, the Cleveland Browns, reached the championship game in each of their first six years in the NFL, and they won three of those six games.

So, if you go by the NFL record book, Charley Trippi is the only player to have achieved the 1000-yard passing/rushing/receiving career triple. I’m siding with my friend Pete, though, and also including the other two here. Especially since I like the name Hoernschemeyer.