John Hadl

John Hadl

No. 21
Position:	Quarterback
Personal information
Date of birth:	(1940-02-15) February 15, 1940
Place of birth:	Lawrence, Kansas
Height:
Weight:
Career information
College:	Kansas
NFL draft:	1962 / Round: 1 / Pick: 10
AFL draft:	1962 / Round: 3 / Pick: 24
Career history
San Diego Chargers (1962–1972) Los Angeles Rams (1973–1974) Green Bay Packers (1974–1975) Houston Oilers (1976–1977)
Career highlights and awards
4× AFL All-Star (1964, 1965, 1968, 1969) AP Second-Team All-AFL (1965) UPI Second-Team All-AFL (1965, 1966) AFL All-Star Game MVP (1969) 2× Pro Bowl (1972, 1973) AP First-Team All-Pro (1973) 1973 NFC Player of the Year (UPI, SN) Rams MVP (1973) San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame Chargers 50th Anniversary Team College Football Hall of Fame inductee (1994)
Career NFL statistics
Pass attempts: 4,687 Pass completions: 2,363 Percentage: 50.4 TD–INT: 244–268 Passing yards: 33,503 QB Rating: 67.4 Player stats at NFL.com
College Football Hall of Fame

John Willard Hadl (born February 15, 1940) is a former American football player and coach. Hadl was born in Lawrence, Kansas. After playing halfback on both offense and defense at the University of Kansas as a sophomore, Hadl played quarterback for his last two years at Kansas, and was selected as the school's Player of the Century. He was an All-American at halfback in 1960 and at quarterback in 1961. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1994.

College football career

Hadl was the first Kansas player to be picked twice for All-America (1960 and 1961) honors for his skills as a quarterback and halfback. Hadl also excelled as a defensive back, punt returner, and punter; he led the country with a 45.6-yard punting average in 1959. Hadl's No. 21 jersey is one of only three Kansas has retired. Hadl, who was picked for the all-conference team for three seasons, wound up with 1,281 yards passing and 1,016 yards rushing. Hadl still holds two Kansas records: longest interception return, a 98-yard run against TCU; and longest punt, 94 yards versus Oklahoma.

With Hadl running the offense, the Jayhawks were ranked in the top 20 during his junior and senior years, finishing 15–5–2. He wrapped up his Kansas career leading his team to a 33–7 win over Rice in the Bluebonnet Bowl. He was also named MVP in the East–West Shrine Game and the College All-Star Game.

Professional playing career

Hadl played at 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) and 210 lb (95 kg). He joined the American Football League's San Diego Chargers in 1962. He shared quarterbacking duties until 1966, when he became San Diego's starting quarterback, and averaged over 3,000 yards and 23 touchdowns per (14-game) season for the next four years.

He was the American Football League's leading passer in both 1965 and 1968, and was a four-time AFL All-Star. In 1969, he was selected as the AFL All-Star Game's Most Valuable Player. The other half of the Chargers' potent passing/receiving tandem was Lance Alworth, the first American Football League player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Before the 1973 season, Hadl was traded to the Los Angeles Rams for defensive end Coy Bacon and running back Bob Thomas. Leading the Rams to the playoffs that year—his first playoff appearance of any sort since 1964—he was named the National Football Conference Player of the Year. In the following season, after he was beaten out for the starting quarterback position by James Harris, he was traded to the Green Bay Packers for five draft picks—first and second round picks for 1975 and 1976, as well as a third round pick in 1975. Reportedly, head coach and general manager Dan Devine felt that an experienced quarterback was the only thing standing between the Packers and only their second playoff appearance since 1967. The trade turned out to be an unmitigated disaster; it is reckoned as one of the worst (if not the worst) trades for a starting quarterback in NFL history. Hadl played a total of 22 games with the Packers and threw for 9 touchdowns and 29 interceptions behind a porous offensive line; the team posted a 7-15 record over this span. The trade caused irreparable harm to Hadl's legacy and hastened a two-decade fall from glory for the Packer franchise; they would not make the playoffs again in a non-strike year until 1993. At the same time, the Rams used the picks acquired in the trade to acquire many of the players that allowed them to dominate the NFC West for the rest of the 1970s and lead them to an appearance in Super Bowl XIV. In later years, when asked for his thoughts on the infamous deal, Hadl himself expressed the surprise he felt, in 1974, at being sent to Green Bay: "I really didn't believe it... I didn't think anyone would be that desperate." Following the 1975 season, he was traded to another moribund franchise, the Houston Oilers, serving as backup to Dan Pastorini for two years before retiring.

Despite his unfortunate tenure with Green Bay, Hadl finished with a starting record of 82–76–9 in his professional career. He holds the NFL record for the most tied games (9) by a starting quarterback. Hadl wore #21 for nearly his entire NFL career, aside from his first season with Green Bay when he briefly wore #12. He was the last regular starting quarterback to wear a uniform number greater than #19 before the NFL adopted a rigid uniform numbering system in 1973.

Coaching and administrative career

Hadl was the head coach of the Los Angeles Express of the United States Football League (USFL) during 1984 and 1985, compiling a record of 13–23 in the regular season, 1–1 in the postseason.

Hadl is currently an associate athletic director in the University of Kansas athletic department, despite the belief that he might have been the "unnamed assistant football coach" at Kansas who provided improper benefits to recruits in the early 1980s in violation of NCAA regulations. Hadl has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and his current tenure with Kansas athletics has not yielded any suggestion of rules violations.

See also

• List of American Football League players
• List of most consecutive starts and games played by National Football League players

External links

• John Hadl at the College Football Hall of Fame
• Career statistics and player information from NFL.com · Pro Football Reference