Sport: The Bald Eagle

Self-consciously, he tugged at the faded blue baseball cap he wears in practice to cover his balding head. “They always say,” murmured Yelberton Abraham Tittle Jr., “that a player is the last one to know when he’s too old to play.” At 36, the New York Giants’ “Yat” Tittle is the oldest quarterback in the National Football League, and the odd cant of his ruddy nose is the talisman of a violent game that he can no longer remember. But nobody—least of all Quarterback—Tittle thinks that he is too ancient to play a young man’s game.

Last week against the unbeaten Washington Redskins, the Giants’ bald eagle put on a display that left the fans in Yankee Stadium limp with ecstasy. When the Giant running game crumbled against a Washington line averaging 255 Ibs. per man, Yat filled the air with footballs, completed 27 of 39 passes for 505 yds. and seven touchdowns—tying an N.F.L. touchdown record set 19 years ago by the Chicago Bears’ Sid Luckman. Then, with the game on ice 49-34 late in the fourth quarter, Tittle passed up a chance to try for a record-breaking eighth touchdown instead chose to run out the clock: “Why add insult to injury? We’ve got to play these guys again, and in their own park next time.” To Redskin Coach Bill McPeak the insult was already severe enough: “The way that old man cranked his arm—I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.”

No Twinkle Toes. A onetime single-wing tailback at Louisiana State, Tittle started his pro career in 1948 when many of his teammates were still in grammar school. He spent two years with Baltimore in the old All-America Conference (1949 record: 1 win, 11 losses), put in ten years with the San Francisco 49ers. Everyone agreed that he could pass, but he was no twinkle toes as a runner, and when the 49ers shifted to a ground game last year, he was traded to the Giants. “Hindsight,” says San Francisco Coach Red Hickey mournfully, “is always clearer than foresight.” Against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the season’s second game. Tittle got the kind of protection a passer needs, completed ten of twelve passes for a 17-14 victory that started the Giants on the road to the Eastern Conference championship.

A sidearm passer in the mold of Slingin’ Sammy Baugh, Tittle throws one of the longest (up to 60 yds.) passes in football. Pressed by enemy linemen, he will sometimes roll out of his protective pocket and throw on the dead run. But he usually gets all the time he needs to fade leisurely back and pick apart the defense. In the huddle, Tittle solicits reports on enemy weaknesses, looking for a charging linebacker who leaves the way open for a short screen pass, a safetyman who plays too shallow and can be caught flatfooted by a suddenly sprung long pass. “There’s no such thing as a ‘sure thing’ in football,” says Tittle. “The important thing is to play percentages—to do the thing that has the best chance of success.” Last week End Del Shofner reported that Redskin Defender Claude Crabb could be faked out of position. “Yeah,” nodded Tittle, ‘as soon as we get a chance.” By game’s end, Shofner had caught eleven Tittle passes for 269 yds. and one touchdown.

“Bust in There!” Unlike some pro quarterbacks, who take their orders from the bench, Tittle calls almost all the Giants’ plays himself, has a repertoire of hundreds to choose from. About one play m seven is an “automatic,” changed by Tittle (in code) at the line of scrimmage after he inspects the constantly shifting enemy defenses. “You call an automatic ” says Tittle, “not so much to get into something better, as to get out of something worse.” And when things go very wrong he can be a testy leader. “Yat has the enthusiasm of a high school kid ” says Halfback Frank Gifford, 32. “This is great for our young players: when they see a 36-year-old man get so fired up they have to get excited, too. Heck, so do I and I’m no kid.” Against Dallas last season, Rookie Halfback Bob Gaiters took a hand-off from Tittle, dawdled too long before hitting the line, and was dumped for a loss. Tittle knelt beside Gaiters pounded the ground with his fist and screamed: “That’s the last time you do that! Next time, bust in there!” Replied the chastened rookie: “Yes, sir.”

This year the aggressive old pro tops all N.F.L. quarterbacks in passes attempted (202), completions (118), yards gained (1,844) and touchdowns (16)—and his Giants are good bets to win their second Eastern Conference title in a row. Says Tittle, whose passing talents earn him an estimated $30,000 a year: “Man, you can’t beat this winning. It can keep a guy going till he’s 50.”