"The term JUGGERNAUT is used to describe any literal or metaphorical force regarded as unstoppable that will crush all in its path.
The word is derived from the SanskritJagannātha, which means "Lord of the universe"." Thanks Wiki.
The A-Train was one of those players that you needed adjectives for, lots of them. His highlights are the kind of thing real football fans like. It was old-school to say the least, but despite its brutality, his highlights show a balance and poetry of motion. Locomotive motion. There were times he was as elegant as a bulldozer, and there were times he as elusive as a greased pig.
If my father could have made me in the model of any man, he would have made me Mike Alstott.
I have to fight back tears. I really do. Alstott was more than just a football player. He is an icon. He is THE number 40. He represents a mid-western toughness and an esprit de corps unmatched by most of today's athletes. He made it cool to root for Tampa Bay. He was loyal to his hometown, his college, and his adoptive home of Tampa Bay, making it clear that he only wanted to be a Buc and would not leave despite the team's image early in his career.
I watched every home game he ever played in college. He was amazing. The only thing that limited his considerable success was some of the worst coaching I have ever witnessed. Thanks Jim Colletto, good luck Detroit. Your last offensive coordinator was a real piece of work, good luck with this one.
It isn't just that Alstott was a monster. Sure, people always heard about how he used to push a Jeep around in the parking lot of Ross-Aide Stadium to train in the spring (which is no laughing matter if you have seen the slope on that bastard), but he was more of an athlete than that. He had uncanny balance, which was just as much of his power running as his low pad level and tree trunk legs. He was as agile for 6'1" and 250 pounds as any human has ever been. On top of that, he had hands. He wasn't just a solid pass catching option out of the backfield, he was one of the best receiving backs ever. Yeah, he was. There are the Roger Craigs and the Marshall Faulks who really took games over from the backfield, but the list of guys who caught balls out of the backfield that are better than Alstott is a short list. He had vision, grit, and work ethic. No player ever played with Alstott that didn't love him. He was a team guy, even at the cost of his own stats and playing time. He was rare, damn rare. A combination of speed, power, agility, frame, work ethic and desire rarely produced. He played all four years in college and graduated. He only played for one team in the pros regardless of free agency and playing time. How often do we say that?
One of the great complaints of the Tampa fan was that they never gave Mike the ball enough. Lots of backs moved in and out of Tampa, but Alstott remained. His career average per yard is over four yards. Their record in games when he rushed for a touchdown is astronomical. I found this on the Buccaneers.com page:
"In the 58 games in which Alstott scored at least one touchdown, the
Bucs had a record of 44-14. That includes just a 6-6 mark over the last
four years; from 1996 through 2002 - a span in which he averaged 167
carries per year before it declined to 47 per year from 2003-06 - the
team was an amazing 38-8 when he found pay dirt."
Unreal. One reason for this was that the Bucs, and modern coaches in general, were never able to figure out exactly what to do with Alstott. He was too much of a freak. If he had played for George Halas he would have been a starting tailback and be in the yardage record books, but there were few places for Mike in 1996. Alstott could have excelled in more traditional I formation teams and One-Back schemes but he was never quite the right fit in Tampa. He could have done what the Bus did in Pittsburgh, not to take anything away from Bettis, but Alstott was their kind of back. He could have been a short yardage option in Dallas or a born and bred Chicago Bear, but he was never willing to abandon Tampa. Things only got worse in the years after Dungy left. Chucky, who has the mastery of the West Coast system and the knowledge of how to use a pass-catching back in a variety of sets, was always looking for a faster, smaller guy regardless of production. It was a mentality that seemed to pervade the staffs in Tampa during Alstott's tenure.
Alstott sort of suffered from the same thing Walter Payton suffered from, bad offensive lines, as well.
His play style always spoke for itself. It was real football. Check out these three clips,
I remember a game when Purdue had a good Penn State team on the ropes and was looking for a win since they were down 3 (I think it was 23-26 or 26-29 but I am not sure and couldn't find it on the web). This would have been 95 or 96 and they had a first and goal on the 3 yard line thanks to a big run by Alstott. They were a losing team, then. A bad team that couldn't do much. With this field position and three chances at the end zone to go ahead, everyone in the stadium thought that Mike Alstott was going to get three shots since he held something like a 5.7 yards per carry average in college. Well, good old Jim Colletto called in the speed back for a sweep on first and it got stopped. He used the same kid up the gut with 40 as a decoy on second and the crowd got restless. Still, Mike could get his shot on third down. As it happened, Purdue had a big, athletic quarterback by the name of Eric Hunter at the time, and on third down Colletto AGAIN USED ALSTOTT AS A DECOY and sent this QB out on a bootleg run/pass option to the short side of the field. He gets picked off and the game is over. Jim Colletto, I will see you in Hell. There were happy memories. They beat a ranked Michigan team the next year and threw the goal posts in the Wabash, but those moments were few and far between and Drew Brees was barely out of junior high.
Alstott was the guy you wanted to root for. He still wears Purdue hats around St. Petersburg, his adoptive home, and he returns to Purdue games often. Back in 04, my old man and I were leaving the press box at Ross-Aide after Purdue lost to a 11th ranked Michigan team by 2 points late. As we were walking to the elevator, Alstott came out of a suite with Leroy Keyes (a 2-time All-American tailback from the late 60s and Alstott's running backs coach from the day). Keyes was impressive. A real athlete in every sense, he was over 60 and still ripped, and not old man ripped. I mean ripped. He would have won the Heisman in 68 but there was this guy named OJ... What was tough to miss, though, was how massive Alstott was. Even in a suit and tie you could see that his thighs were like tree trunks. There is no other way to describe them. They were HUGE things of strapped muscle. They were easily bigger than my waist. He was also huge through his core and back. As we all got in the elevator, I stood behind Alstott and realized his arm was bigger than my head. This was a creature that could pull my arms off with little or no effort and run away from pretty much anyone chasing him. If god built a man in the shape of a battering ram, he would look like Mike Alstott.
So Alstott went to Joliet Catholic high school and I went to their rival school. Alstott is alot older then me (I'm in college), but in high school you would kids tell stories of him like he was Paul Bunyon or something. The most famous one was that he used to run laps around the track with a truck tied to his back...when he was 17. The guy was a monster. I always felt like he shoulda been a Bear.
Bruce Paine
said
That story followed him to Purdue, as well. I guess he was a pretty good baseball player, too. Catcher and third base. He was a consensus High school All-American and was recruited by a lot of big schools. His junior year at Catholic they were undefeated in what I am told was a pretty competitive conference at the time. He was being recruited by everybody. He decided to go to Purdue and was the biggest recruit they had had since Rod Woodson. He holds almost all of their rushing records and ( I am going from memory here, so don't trust me) I don't think they ever won more than 4 games. Tampa drafted Regan Upshaw and Marcus Jones in the first round before they picked Alstott at 35 in the second (there were only 30 teams then, no Carolina no Cleveland). It is the A-Train that remained. That year turned around the club. In 96 Glazer bought the club, hired Dungy, and drafted Alstott. Glazer is a Chicago native himself and his sons were raised there and they are the real operators of the team. I wonder if it was a homer pick for them. Regardless, it is rare that you can pick moments of real momentum shift out of history, but that has to be one. A team drafted some giant, corn-fed kid from the mid-west that went to a corn-fed, mid-western college and his heart and attitude made all the difference in the world. I just wish he had been able to end it on his own terms instead of from a neck injury.
I want you guys to drop what you're doing right now and put together a book proposal on this guy. I found the read interesting, and the fan passion convincing, and I have no ties to the guy at all.
In other words, nice article.
Bruce Paine
said
It would defineitely not be about football, but mroe about how a person's attitude and heart can be so big people get caught up in it. It would be about how a fan base, earned through toughness and not fancy dancy crap, is the best kind. The eternal kind. It would be about how a guy played a position that was going out of style and becoming extinct but was so good you couldn't quite put him out to pasture. It would be about the scariest thighs I have seen this side of Susanne Summers.
Shit I don't know, if I could write books I wouldn't be putting together blog posts for a jackass like you. As much as I appreciate the Extrapolator's support i don't know the first thing about how to write, and the world of book publishing scares me in the very same way as that of fashion design.
But yeah, something like Brian's Song, but without the death, the elegance of Sayers style, and the hovering race issue. It would focus more on how low key the fansbase was until Alstott starts crushing people and Sapp starts sacking QBs. Then it would be kinda explosive. But it would have to have a running narrative about the nature of the modern player and the hype that surrounds talent versus the thirst for heroes with true work ethic. Kind of like Vonnegut's Player Piano. It would have to be about the kind of reaction society has when it recognizes the lunch box and hard hat kind of guy and how badly they want him to win despite his losing. I think that is key. Alstott was never on a winning team at Purdue, yet his legendary status there outshines even Brees because the blue-collar fanbase saw one of their own. It was interesting that at the press conference, the oldest Glazer boy said that when they got down on the goal line during the Super Bowl that if Alstott didn't get the ball he was going to say something to Gruden because he was in Chicago when Sweetness didn't get the ball during the SB and how it broke his heart. He wasn't going to let that happen to his team's Payton. that is how much they thought of him, he was their walter payton.
Unfortunately, it would make for a better story if he died in the end....or if he found Bin Laden
Bruce Paine
said
I am starting to think HOF. I think his numbers and impact bear up if he is seen as a fullback/h-back, but I fear that the position, not being something in vogue right now, may be overlooked.
under 4 yards a rush for his career and only 5,000 yards rushing...that's a tough sell.
if tom rathman and daryl johnston get in though he could have a case at some point.
Hernia
said
I just tried to be like Mike and pull my truck. It did not turn out well. Alas, I will never be as strong as Mike A.
Bruce Paine
said
Well, you have to consider the position. He had those totals playing fullback with only about 120 carries a year. Not only that, but whenever he came in the game, because he wasn't used as a tailback, the defenses knew exactly what was coming. Yeah he is under 4 yards, but the majority of his carries came when they HAD to get 1 or the game or drive was over and he went and got them 3. That is the important part of his carries. Not only that, but his receiving yards have to be considered, and his touchdown total versus carries. its clearly a case on the fence, but I think if he is considered a fullback then it is a definite. His totals are high enough for the fullback position and he has the SB win and the pro bowls, but the position is dying away and that is what i a afraid will hurt his legacy in the next 5 to 10 years.
Jack Cobra
said
He only had over 900 yards rushing once and even that year he had an average of less than 4. He had less receiving yards than Rathman, but more rushing yards and TD's, with less Super Bowl rings. I'm doubting either gets in.
Anonymous
said
i was a d back at morris high school in 90 never been hit like he hit me his legs were like unreal we were#1 1n state they 2 john horn and mike hit hard they beat us bad
Bruce Paine
said
Thanks for the comment on the old article. I always wonder how people find our older stuff. Yeah, I have seen the guy in person twice and I have to admit that even for a grown, heterosexual male it is difficult to not stare at the enormity of his legs. I have never seen anything like it. It is almost as if God made something experimental, realized that it worked, but didn't do it again for fear of the repercussions on the rest of humanity.
2008 Cubs Preview
one word. warrior
So Alstott went to Joliet Catholic high school and I went to their rival school. Alstott is alot older then me (I'm in college), but in high school you would kids tell stories of him like he was Paul Bunyon or something. The most famous one was that he used to run laps around the track with a truck tied to his back...when he was 17. The guy was a monster. I always felt like he shoulda been a Bear.
That story followed him to Purdue, as well. I guess he was a pretty good baseball player, too. Catcher and third base. He was a consensus High school All-American and was recruited by a lot of big schools. His junior year at Catholic they were undefeated in what I am told was a pretty competitive conference at the time. He was being recruited by everybody. He decided to go to Purdue and was the biggest recruit they had had since Rod Woodson. He holds almost all of their rushing records and ( I am going from memory here, so don't trust me) I don't think they ever won more than 4 games. Tampa drafted Regan Upshaw and Marcus Jones in the first round before they picked Alstott at 35 in the second (there were only 30 teams then, no Carolina no Cleveland). It is the A-Train that remained. That year turned around the club. In 96 Glazer bought the club, hired Dungy, and drafted Alstott. Glazer is a Chicago native himself and his sons were raised there and they are the real operators of the team. I wonder if it was a homer pick for them. Regardless, it is rare that you can pick moments of real momentum shift out of history, but that has to be one. A team drafted some giant, corn-fed kid from the mid-west that went to a corn-fed, mid-western college and his heart and attitude made all the difference in the world. I just wish he had been able to end it on his own terms instead of from a neck injury.
I want you guys to drop what you're doing right now and put together a book proposal on this guy. I found the read interesting, and the fan passion convincing, and I have no ties to the guy at all.
In other words, nice article.
It would defineitely not be about football, but mroe about how a person's attitude and heart can be so big people get caught up in it. It would be about how a fan base, earned through toughness and not fancy dancy crap, is the best kind. The eternal kind. It would be about how a guy played a position that was going out of style and becoming extinct but was so good you couldn't quite put him out to pasture. It would be about the scariest thighs I have seen this side of Susanne Summers.
Kind of like Brian's Song?
Shit I don't know, if I could write books I wouldn't be putting together blog posts for a jackass like you. As much as I appreciate the Extrapolator's support i don't know the first thing about how to write, and the world of book publishing scares me in the very same way as that of fashion design.
But yeah, something like Brian's Song, but without the death, the elegance of Sayers style, and the hovering race issue. It would focus more on how low key the fansbase was until Alstott starts crushing people and Sapp starts sacking QBs. Then it would be kinda explosive. But it would have to have a running narrative about the nature of the modern player and the hype that surrounds talent versus the thirst for heroes with true work ethic. Kind of like Vonnegut's Player Piano. It would have to be about the kind of reaction society has when it recognizes the lunch box and hard hat kind of guy and how badly they want him to win despite his losing. I think that is key. Alstott was never on a winning team at Purdue, yet his legendary status there outshines even Brees because the blue-collar fanbase saw one of their own. It was interesting that at the press conference, the oldest Glazer boy said that when they got down on the goal line during the Super Bowl that if Alstott didn't get the ball he was going to say something to Gruden because he was in Chicago when Sweetness didn't get the ball during the SB and how it broke his heart. He wasn't going to let that happen to his team's Payton. that is how much they thought of him, he was their walter payton.
Unfortunately, it would make for a better story if he died in the end....or if he found Bin Laden
I am starting to think HOF. I think his numbers and impact bear up if he is seen as a fullback/h-back, but I fear that the position, not being something in vogue right now, may be overlooked.
under 4 yards a rush for his career and only 5,000 yards rushing...that's a tough sell.
if tom rathman and daryl johnston get in though he could have a case at some point.
I just tried to be like Mike and pull my truck. It did not turn out well. Alas, I will never be as strong as Mike A.
Well, you have to consider the position. He had those totals playing fullback with only about 120 carries a year. Not only that, but whenever he came in the game, because he wasn't used as a tailback, the defenses knew exactly what was coming. Yeah he is under 4 yards, but the majority of his carries came when they HAD to get 1 or the game or drive was over and he went and got them 3. That is the important part of his carries. Not only that, but his receiving yards have to be considered, and his touchdown total versus carries. its clearly a case on the fence, but I think if he is considered a fullback then it is a definite. His totals are high enough for the fullback position and he has the SB win and the pro bowls, but the position is dying away and that is what i a afraid will hurt his legacy in the next 5 to 10 years.
He only had over 900 yards rushing once and even that year he had an average of less than 4. He had less receiving yards than Rathman, but more rushing yards and TD's, with less Super Bowl rings. I'm doubting either gets in.
i was a d back at morris high school in 90 never been hit like he hit me his legs were like unreal we were#1 1n state they 2 john horn and mike hit hard they beat us bad
Thanks for the comment on the old article. I always wonder how people find our older stuff. Yeah, I have seen the guy in person twice and I have to admit that even for a grown, heterosexual male it is difficult to not stare at the enormity of his legs. I have never seen anything like it. It is almost as if God made something experimental, realized that it worked, but didn't do it again for fear of the repercussions on the rest of humanity.