Garo Yepremian Dolphins Kicker Passes Away

I remember that they once asked Norm Van Brocklin when he was coaching in the NFL "How do you defend against a kicker like Garo Yepremian?" His response was "Tighten the immigration laws...."

GrayTide said:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/former-dolphins-kicker-garo-yepremian-dies-at-70/ar-BBjQqHR

Another former NFL great passes away. I am really getting old.

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Here's one I don't get:

Garo is obviously best known for a comical play in Super Bowl VII, which in itself is somewhat tragic. Yet here's what I don't understand - it was a 41-yard field goal attempt. Garo - in his career - only hit 42% of his field goals outside of 40 yards, so it was a less than 50/50. Even if you take it from that point in his career, he was only 26 of 58 (44.8%) and 12 of those kicks (nearly half) came in a spectacular 1970 season when he led the league in FG scoring percentage and was 11 for 16. In 1972, he was 7 for 19 from 40 or more yards although he did hit THREE of his five career 50-yard plus field goals that year.

I mean, that coaching decision sounds eerily similar to some made by a former Alabama head coach with the same last name. If the Dolphins had not tried that field goal then, they probably would have the only shutout in Super Bowl history. I realize hindsight is 20/20 and it turned out okay, but I just think the decision itself is at least somewhat questionable. Punt Washington inside the five and make them earn it. There was slightly more than two minutes left in the game at that point and the Skins only had about 200 yards total offense (Billy Kilmer had thrown 28 passes and only picked up 104 yards; it wasn't like today when QBs routinely throw 400-yard games. The new passing rules came in in 1978).

It's sorta funny that that's the most memorable play of Miami's unbeaten season - a mistake.

RIP Garo.


EDITED TO ADD:
I was watching the infamous Epic In Miami game while working out the other day and just had to nearly fall over laughing at the comments of John Brodie, the color analyst. He was raving (and rightly so) over Dan Fouts's pass statistics in a year Fouts became the first QB to average 300 ypg. He said stuff like, "I don't think this will ever happen again that another QB will have a year like this because I don't think we'll ever see a time when quarterbacks AVERAGE 300-yard games, it just isn't going to happen."

A quarterback that couldn't average something close to that today is not going to be in the league for long. I thought it funny that only three years later Dan Marino had a year where he averaged over 400 yards per game and 4 TDs per game as well. Not to mock Brodie but those comments were just ridiculous even then.

selmaborntidefan said:

A quarterback that couldn't average something close to that today is not going to be in the league for long. I thought it funny that only three years later Dan Marino had a year where he averaged over 400 yards per game and 4 TDs per game as well. Not to mock Brodie but those comments were just ridiculous even then.

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Dan Marino never had a year where he averaged over 400 yards per game. No one has. That's 6400 yards in a season.

CoachJeff said:

Dan Marino never had a year where he averaged over 400 yards per game. No one has. That's 6400 yards in a season.

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Yes, I mis-spoke. My apologies. 300 yards per game is 4800 and IIRC he had 5084 or something close to that.

Let me clarify my point because I botched it pretty badly. Averaging 300 ypg puts you at 4800 in a season. My point (which as I noted I botched terribly) was his whole "this won't ever happen again" blah blah blah but when Fouts did that he was only the second QB to pass for over 4000 yards in a season (Namath was first). It's true that finding QBs that average 300 ypg is rare, but since then 5,000 yards has been broken eight times (Peyton Manning has 14 seasons of over 4000 yards passing) and about half the league now has a QB who can top 4000 yards.

I just thought his "foresight" was kind of myopic was really the issue, but perhaps my own statement here was as poor as his.

"I mean, that coaching decision sounds eerily similar to some made by a former Alabama head coach with the same last name. If the Dolphins had not tried that field goal then, they probably would have the only shutout in Super Bowl history. I realize hindsight is 20/20 and it turned out okay, but I just think the decision itself is at least somewhat questionable. Punt Washington inside the five and make them earn it. There was slightly more than two minutes left in the game at that point and the Skins only had about 200 yards total offense (Billy Kilmer had thrown 28 passes and only picked up 104 yards; it wasn't like today when QBs routinely throw 400-yard games. The new passing rules came in in 1978)."

(edit: I am a lifelong redskin fan and Kilmer was my favorite in the 70's)
I use to wonder why they tried that field goal too. But I believe Kilmer had two td's but he hit the goal post on one and one was overthrown--I think..... I guess CDS was just trying to play the percentages and make it a three score game. But I agree with your punt it deep and make them earn it comment... RTR

aerospace_ray said:

"I mean, that coaching decision sounds eerily similar to some made by a former Alabama head coach with the same last name. If the Dolphins had not tried that field goal then, they probably would have the only shutout in Super Bowl history. I realize hindsight is 20/20 and it turned out okay, but I just think the decision itself is at least somewhat questionable. Punt Washington inside the five and make them earn it. There was slightly more than two minutes left in the game at that point and the Skins only had about 200 yards total offense (Billy Kilmer had thrown 28 passes and only picked up 104 yards; it wasn't like today when QBs routinely throw 400-yard games. The new passing rules came in in 1978)."

(edit: I am a lifelong redskin fan and Kilmer was my favorite in the 70's)
I use to wonder why they tried that field goal too. But I believe Kilmer had two td's but he hit the goal post on one and one was overthrown--I think..... I guess CDS was just trying to play the percentages and make it a three score game. But I agree with your punt it deep and make them earn it comment... RTR

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I didn't see the game when it was played, but I have it on a DVD converted from an old VHS tape. The late Jerry Smith (who for the record was the first known former NFL player to die from AIDS fwiw) was wide open in the end zone and Kilmer had a sure TD. But back then the goal posts were on the goal line, and he hit the crossbar with the pass. IIRC, it was shortly after that that Jake Scott intercepted the pass and took it to about midfield or so.

I don't remember much about the game even on rebroadcast, but I do recall that one. Having Yepremian kick there was just highly questionable and risky (as subsequent events proved) - but since the Dolphins won he got away with it.

I'm not trying to be mean and it's not because of his son, but I always thought Don Shula was somewhat overrated as a coach anyway. It sounds kinda harsh to say about the all-time leading winner, but here's a guy who went to six Super Bowls and not only lost four of them but got blown to pieces twice and somehow managed to lose perhaps the biggest upset in NFL history. Yeah, I know they went undefeated but if you'll go back and look their NFL schedule was a sick joke and easier than 99% of the schedules any NFL team plays (given how the NFL tries to create parity by giving the teams in the previous year's playoff to consume each other, I think it's safe to say nobody will ever go unbeaten again).

Poor guy. I think he was in every football blooper video I had as a kid. RIP.