Pat Haden
Former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Pat Haden turns 63 today.
The only thing, when you think about it, Haden didn’t accomplish in his football career was winning the Super Bowl.
He starred at Bishop Amat, played in three consecutive Rose Bowls and won a national championship for USC, and then became the starting quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams.
On top of that, he played for the Southern California Sun of the World Football League out of college and then studied at Oxford.
It sounds easy when you look at it that way…but long time Rams fans will remember nothing was easy for Haden during his NFL career. In 1976, he was part of a three-man rotation with James Harris and Ron Jaworski. He emerged on top and led the team to a playoff win in Dallas before losing the NFC title game at Minnesota.
In 1977 the Rams brought in Joe Namath and four games into that season Haden became the starter but took heavy criticism for losing the Mud Bowl game, 14-7, in the Coliseum to the Vikings in the first round of the playoffs.
In 1978, he was the starter, but a hand injury forced him from the 28-0 NFC title game loss in the Coliseum against Dallas.
In 1979, he was the starter when things began but an injury forced him to the sidelines. A stronger-armed, better looking (yes, that matters in LA) took over and led the Rams to the brink of a championship in Super Bowl 14.
In 1980, he sat and watched Ferragamo have one of the best seasons any Rams quarterback, to that point, had ever had in club history.
When Ferragamo left for Montreal in 1981, Haden was given back the keys to the car but the vehicle was now a broken down mismanaged wreck and the team crashed dived to its first losing season since 1972.
The booing was merciless and Haden went from golden local boy to the guy fans couldn’t wait to get rid of.
At the conclusion of the 1981 season, after six years in the NFL, Haden retired to take up law.
“Joe has captured the essence of the high school football experience. You don’t have to have played or coached to be instantly engaged in the story and identify with the characters. A great read!…Lots of laughs and memories from what high school football is like on the inside.”—Mike Mooney
“A very accurate account of high school football.”—Jon Dimalante
“F-bombing Papa Joe, has written something truly great here…He’s done a great job capturing the moments in the life of a high school football player both big and small from a unique angle.”—Josh Ouellette
“TANGENT DREAMS: A High School Football Novel” by Joe Torosian is NOW available through Amazon.com
(Cover by Pat Cherry www.blackheartart.com)
Leave a Reply