Jean Fugett: Around the NFL
By Jean Fugett; thanks to Charlie Campbell – @draftcampbell
WalterFootball.com is proud to partner with former Redskins and Cowboys tight end Jean Fugett, Jr. Esq. Fugett grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended Amherst College. He was the last pick of the 13th round in the 1972 NFL Draft. Fugett made the Cowboys as a backup to future Hall of Famer Mike Ditka. Fugett eventually became a starter for Tom Landry’s Cowboys and started in Super Bowl X. He made the Pro Bowl in 1977.
As a free agent, Fugett went from being the lowest-paid starting tight end to the highest-paid with the Washington Redskins. While playing for legendary Redskins coach George Allen, Fugett attended law school at George Washington University at night.
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During and after his playing days, Fugett worked with CBS, the Washington Post and other media. He went on to serve as Director and Vice-Chair of the McCall Pattern Company Management Committee, founded a Baltimore law firm and partnered with Fanfone in Europe. After the death of his brother Reginald F. Lewis in 1993, Fugett took over TLC Beatrice International Foods, the largest black-owned and black-managed business in the world at the time. Fugett has served on committees with the NFL Players Association and on the Leadership Council for the American Diabetes Association Maryland Chapter. |
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WalterFootball.com would like to thank Redskins general manager Bruce Allen and senior vice president/executive producer of media Larry Michael for connecting us to Fugett. Now, let’s let Jean take over.
Offensive Player of the Week: Kirk Cousins, QB, Washington Redskins
Defensive Player of the Week: Dontari Poe, DT, Kansas City Chiefs
Coach of the Week: Bruce Arians, Arizona Cardinals
Goat of the Week: Gus Bradley, head coach Jacksonville Jaguars
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The NFL had an exciting week with a lot of good games. Looking at the quarterback play this week, there was some exceptional performances. Obviously, Kirk Cousins stands out the most. Andrew Luck dominated the Jaguars; Austin Davis from St. Louis looked good; Drew Stanton played well for Arizona; and Matt Ryan and Philip Rivers were exceptional. The league’s rules favoring the passing game has taken effect as there are more passing touchdowns than rushing touchdowns these days. There was a time when rushing touchdowns were more common than passing touchdowns, but now we look at the rushing and, according to the statistics this week, there were only six rushers who ran for 100 yards – two of them came from the Steelers. That means of 32 teams in the NFL, only five produced a 100-yard rusher last week. |
Former Redskin and Cowboy tight end Jean Fugett was a Pro Bowler in 1977 and a starter in Super Bowl X. |
In the history of the NFL, when a team has a back run for 100 yards, they usually win the game. The 100-yard backs over the weekend were: Giants’ Rashard Jennings, Chiefs’ Knile Davis, Cowboys’ DeMarco Murray, Dolphins’ Lamar Miller, and Steelers’ Le’Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount. Unsurprisingly, four of those five teams won on Sunday. Know your NFL historic trends!
It looks like it is going to be a long time before Robert Griffin III gets another snap, and he may never get another snap as the starter in Washington. Kirk Cousins looks like he is taking that job. Who would have thought that Michigan State would become a quarterback factory? I had forgotten that Nick Foles started out there. The Spartans always had great running backs and linebackers; now, you have to say Michigan State produces NFL quarterbacks. Plus, the program now has Connor Cook, who will be starting on NFL Sundays in a year or two.
AFC –
Denver, fully equipped, will still have a tough time beating a physical team like Seattle and it showed. The Chargers showed a lot, after a big victory last week at home against the Super Bowl champions, to not have a letdown going coast to coast and beating a Bills team that was 2-0. Philip Rivers has a nice clutch receiver there in Eddie Royal.
The Chiefs found enough depth to get a road win despite tons of injuries, and now appear ready for a winning streak. Who thought Oakland was going to cover the spread at New England? Seriously, the Raiders were 14-point underdogs yet lost 16-9. There is hope for Raider fans.
The fans in New England have to be wondering what the heck is going on. The Patriots are a conundrum. It is not clear why the team can score a bunch points against Minnesota, but cannot score against Oakland. I don’t think you can say it is the opposition. Something is off with the Patriots. The Dolphins’ performance certainly has dropped back to where everybody thought they would be at the start of the season: a middle-of-the-pack, underperforming team.
The Colts needed a victory, and they could not have asked for a better opponent than the Jaguars. Jacksonville can be counted on to supply a win for a team in need.
We said at the beginning of the year that the Browns were a team that nobody would want to play, and they proved that again on Sunday with another hard-fought loss. Steve Smith Sr. of the Ravens has been dropping more than he’s been catching, but he came up clutch for Baltimore and was the go-to guy when the Ravens needed yards. Boy, can Joe Flacco throw the ball. He is quite a passer. His protection is weak, and the team suffered poor play calling. I’m skeptical of the Gary Kubiak offense; if a team is not running the ball all that well, you cannot run play action. If you cannot run play action, the bootlegs and waggles will not work. And that was very sad to see about Dennis Pitta suffering another season-ending hip injury.
Finally, who is going to beat the Bengals? They’re looking better and better every week. They are fundamentally sound and play the game well in all aspects. It is going to take a great effort to beat them.
NFC –
I have to say the Arizona Cardinals are for real. There clearly are issues going on with the 49ers. We thought some teams would pick up where they left off last year, but that certainly does not appear to be the case with the 49ers.
That was a quite a return and performance by DeSean Jackson in his return to Philadelphia, although his new team lost. There is good news in New York that the Giants are not dead yet, and they have a shot at two in a row against Washington on Thursday night. The Cowboys are not dead, but a lot of people thought they were after the first game and the first half of Sunday against the Rams, but Dallas found a way to come back and win.
Is it too soon to say the Packers’ season is over? They started out stumbling and bumbling against Seattle. The Jets jumped out to a big lead on them before they made a comeback, and we thought Green Bay would go into Detroit and take care of business against the Lions as usual. So Green Bay has to be concerned. The Detroit Lions look like a team that is up and coming. Minnesota is going to rack up losses this season.
The Saints needed a victory and got one against a Vikings team in disarray. What can you say about that Thursday game and Tampa Bay? Disgraceful. Happy to see Julio Jones has recovered from his injury, and congratulations to Devin Hester for setting the NFL record for return touchdowns. This record should last for a while!!!
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