Throughout the 2009 regular season, the Redskins are putting a spotlight on a Hall of Fame player each week. This week: Sammy Baugh:
Sammy Baugh--best known as "Slingin' Sammy"--played from 1937-52 and is a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Despite a playing career that ended more than 50 years ago, Baugh still holds the record for most touchdown passes in Redskins history with 187, and the highest single-season quarterback rating at 109.7. He also ranks third all-time in Redskins passing yards with 22,085.
These numbers are made even more impressive by the fact that Baugh was more than just a quarterback.
In 1943, Baugh led the league not only in passing, but also in punting and interceptions. Baugh intercepted four passes and threw four touchdown passes in a single game against Detroit that year.
Baugh has been credited with changing the forward pass from a desperation play--to be used only sparingly, in near-hopeless situations--to an integral part of a professional football offense. And he accomplished all of this in an era with a larger, rounder, less-aerodynamic ball than the one used today, a ball that did not lend itself to high, arcing spiral passes.
"Sammy Baugh embodied all we aspire to at the Washington Redskins," owner Daniel M. Snyder said after Baugh's death in December 2008. "He was a competitor in everything he did and a winner. He was one of the greatest to ever play the game of football, and one of the greatest the Redskins ever had."
