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The Scale of Falconliness, Special Teams Week: John James

By Jason Kirk

Who's the ultimate Falcon? And who's the ultimate anti-Falcon? That's what we're going to find out with our summer project: the Scale of Falconliness. We'll rate former Falcons on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most Falconly. The rule: minimum of three seasons with the Falcons for coaches, five seasons for players.

Time to take a look at the man who best defines an entire decade of Atlanta Falcons offense.

John James, Punter (1972 - 1981)

Falconly Unfalconly
  • Three Pro Bowls, two more than any other Falcons specialist.
  • Played more games for Atlanta than any other kicker or punter, 24 more than Morten Andersen.
  • Punted for 35,633 yards as a Falcon, by far the most ever. (Second and third place punters Billy Lothridge and Dan Stryzinski combined for 36,504.)
  • This is incredibly depressing, but he holds the NFL single season record for most punts per game. In 1977, a 14-game season, he punted 105 times (that's 7.5 per game, or one punt every eight minutes). His next season proved the Falcons '77 offense was no fluke, as his 109-punt 1978 is fourth on the 16-game list.
  • Sixteenth on NFL all-time punt yardage list.
  • Finished in the top seven in yards per punt for six straight years. Led the NFL in punting yardage four times.
  • Wasn't really that brilliant of a punter. He once led the league in total punting yardage despite only averaging 38.8 yards, and his career average is only seventh on the Falcons' all-time list.
  • Played three years for the Oilers and one for the Lions.
  • Some of you may be concerned that he attended the University of Florida and is currently the executive director of Gator Boosters, Inc.

Current standings after the jump:

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