 |
Ron Yary
|
In the waning seconds of the Viking-Lions clash on Nov. 30, the past met the present.
Todd Steussie, the Vikings’ Pro Bowl tackle, spied former Vikings All-Pro OT Ron Yary
behind the bench area of the Metrodome. Steussie hurried over to Yary, who was on the
field as a member of the Vikings’ 40th Anniversary Team, shook his hand
and said, "It's been hard trying to fill your shoes."
The two posed for a picture and exchanged the pleasantries esoteric to offensive
linemen like, "What do you weigh?" or "I watched you closely, you played a
hell of a game" and so on.
Yary was pleased at the respect the younger man showed, understanding this type of
thing does not happen often in today's NFL — the kind of respect that permeated the
NFL when Yary and his Vikings teammates were playing. Yary knows very well that with
today's salaries (a backup offensive lineman makes in one year what Yary did in his entire
career, "and I was well-paid," laughs Yary; "I was one of the fortunate
ones") being what they are, coupled with a me-first culture, players don't know much
about pro football history or the "dinosaurs" who made that history.
Earlier that day that it was the dinosaur Yary who learned that Steussie had been
indeed given Yary's number, 73, as a motivation to the Vikings' 1994 No. 1 draft pick. The
message was clear to Steussie, "Yary is the standard by which Vikings tackles are
measured to this day."
It is easy to see why. Yary was the NFL's overall No. 1 draft pick in 1968 — the
first offensive lineman to be picked that high since Chuck Bednarik in 1949 — and no
other offensive lineman would be so honored until 1997, when the St. Louis Rams drafted
Orlando Pace. Yary moved into the starting lineup early in the 1969 season and was there
through the 1981 season. In between, Yary was a first-team All-Pro six times and started
in seven Pro Bowls. He was All-NFC eight consecutive years. He was also the NFLPA
Offensive Lineman of the Year three times, 1974-76. He started in four Super Bowls and
five NFL/NFC championship games and holds the Vikings’ record for most playoff games
played.
Yary was reliable and durable. He missed two games in 1980 with a broken ankle, the
only two games he ever missed because of injury. He was a player who, at the end of his
career, got bigger and stronger to stay competitive in a young man's game. "1981 was
one of my best years. I was nearly 290 pounds and was bench-pressing more weight than I
ever had". Yary knew that making the Pro Bowl then would be more difficult because,
after you miss a few, they seem to forget you altogether. But in 1981, he was as good as
ever and better than a couple of the NFC Pro Bowl tackles.
Still, with all his honors and accolades, Yary has yet to be elected to the Pro
Football Hall of Fame. His numbers compare favorably to most of the modern-era offensive
linemen who have already been inducted. For example, Yary was All-Pro and All-Conference
more often than both Dan Dierdorf and Art Shell, two of his contemporaries from the 1970s
who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
In fact, among Hall of Fame offensive linemen who played primarily since 1970, only
Mike Webster played more years. Only Webster and Gene Upshaw played more games. Only John
Hannah and Anthony Munoz were unanimous All-Pro more often. Only Hannah and Munoz started
more Pro Bowls, and only Dwight Stephenson and Munoz won the NFLPA Offensive Lineman of
the Year award more often. Certainly Yary is among the most honored offensive linemen in
the history of the NFL.
But it is not just the numbers that defined Yary; it was the quality of his play.
According to Jerry Burns, the Vikings’ offensive coordinator during those years,
"Ron Yary was the most complete and most dominant offensive lineman during my years
with the Minnesota Vikings. He combined strength, size, quickness and techniques along
with intense competitiveness. His play allowed us to play at a championship level for
years."
His OL coach, John Michels, concurred, stating, "Ron Yary consistently graded out
in the high 90s (in Michels’ system, 100 was a perfect score). He was our
highest-graded lineman week in and week out, season in and season out." Michels
served not only as coach but as a motivator for Yary.
In one of Yary's first starts in 1969, he had to face Deacon Jones in Los Angeles,
where Yary had attended college at USC. Michels used every psychological angle to get the
message to the big second-year player that if he didn't work harder, he’d be
embarrassed in front of his hometown fans.
Michels’ strategy was successful. After a long kickoff return, the Vikings were
deep in Rams territory. "On the first play from scrimmage," according to
Michels, "Yary caught Deacon and drove him 30 yards straight back, right through the
endzone!" Yary repeated this treatment throughout the game. He not only held his own
but came close to embarrassing Jones, an All-Pro many times over and at the peak of his
career.
Mike Giddings, whose company, Pro Scout Inc., scouts all the players in the NFL and has
done so since the mid-1970s, thought that Yary was a fierce blocker who got his job done
by pitching "shutouts." Giddings observed, "The thing about Ron Yary is
that his man did not get to the football; his man just didn’t get tackles and sacks,
which is what his job was." Official game play-by-plays bear that out. Deacon Jones
got no sacks in the three games he played against Yary in 1969-70, not coincidentally all
being Vikings wins. Many NFC Central defensive ends would know how Deacon felt. Only they
would feel it over an entire decade.
What also complicated matters some for Yary was not only having a scrambling
quarterback, but one who drifted right on his dropbacks. Says Yary, "Francis, on
straight dropbacks, not rollouts, would usually end up right behind me." That meant
Yary had to devise a method of pass blocking that would best protect Tarkenton. "I
would have to drive out on pass plays, rather than give ground. I had to, or my man would
be right in Fran's face." Yary goes on, "I don't fault Francis in any way; he
was doing what it takes to win. It was my job to find the best way to protect him."
"Even so," said Michels, "the number of sacks Ron allowed were minimal.
We didn’t make it easy for Ron, either. We didn’t give him help because we knew
what he could do best."
What Yary did best was run-block. He had a size and strength advantage on nearly every
defensive end he faced and a quickness advantage on many of them. Yary felt that he was as
good a run-blocking tackle as there was in the league. Michels said, "Run blocking is
one thing; overwhelming them and engulfing them is another, and that's what Ron did."
Teammates would watch films and be amazed at how Yary would "destroy" people
on running plays. Mike McCormack, himself a Hall of Fame tackle, once said that in films
he'd watch Yary fire out and the defensive end would just disappear. Smashmouth football
at its best. Line up in the cold, fire off the line and bury your man, preferably in the
snow. The way it was supposed to be, at least in Minnesota.
Dave Wilcox, himself a recent Hall of Fame inductee, has a great deal of respect for
Yary. "There were only a couple of right tackles that created major problems for our
defense, and Ron was one of those," Wilcox said. Teams had to game-plan around Yary.
Wilcox's 49ers would move Tommy Hart around the line so he wouldn't have to face Yary on
every play. The San Francisco coaches knew that the best they could hope for was a
stalemate between Hart and Yary, so they looked for ways to get Hart in more favorable
matchups.
Another ringing endorsement praising Yary's talents came while he was still playing. It
came in George Allen's 1982 book, "Pro Football’s 100 Greatest Players."
Allen opined, "Ron Yary has been a tower of strength for many outstanding Bud Grant
football teams. High, wide, and heavy, Yary has been an immovable obstacle for pass
rushers, moving defensive ends and defensive tackles around almost at will. … He took
God-given size and abilities and built himself up into a massively effective football
player. He took native intelligence and outsmarted opponents."
Yary bristles at the suggestion that the four Vikings losses in the Super Bowl have
kept him and other fellow Vikings out of the Hall, but he still takes full responsibility
for the defeats. "We didn't play well as a team — there is no whitewashing it
— but I am still proud of that team and what it accomplished. We got there and had a
chance to win it all. That is all you can ask of a team."
What Yary did on the field is all you can ask of a player: to play great football and
play that way for a long period of time. Seattle head coach Mike Holmgren thought Yary did
just that. "Ron Yary is one of the all-time greats in our game," Holmgren said.
"Without question he belongs in the Hall of Fame."
John Turney is the researcher/historian for the Dick Butkus Football
Network and a member of the Pro Football Researchers Association.
|
