Obscure sports trivia

With Adam Vinatieri pondering retirement, it looks like the NFL's four-decade club might stay at two members for at least another 10 years. Who are those two players?

 

George Blanda is definitely one. Maybe Morten Andersen is the other

 

Correct on Blanda, not on Andersen.
Blanda played from 1949-75.
Andersen started his career a little too early in the decade (1982) to have a good chance at it. He played 25 years, and retired in 2007.

 

Taking a wild shot at it: Detroit's Jason Hanson?

 

Nope. Hanson's rookie year was 1992. He made it until 2012, but similar to Andersen started in the wrong part of a decade.
You're on the right track with kickers, though.

 

I don't believe Lou Groza made it to the merger. Loved the days when a lineman was your best field goal option.

 

Jon Carney?

It has to be a kicker who started in the late 1980 and hung until about 2011z

 

Winner, winner.
Carney started his career in 1988, kicked through the 1990s and 2000s, and then came back for a handful of games with the Saints in 2009 and 2010 as a sort of player-coach when Garrett Hartley was struggling. He played in two games during Weeks 4 and 5 the 2010 season to join Blanda as the only NFL players to play in four different decades.

Hell of a career, and yet this might be what he's best remembered for:

 

I remembered him playing at Notre Dame in the early part of the Holts era and went from there.

Looking at his career, never knew about his pre-chargers years.

So next question: who was the only active NFL/AFL player to be killed in Vietnam?

 

Lou Holts.

 

It’s been a long day...

 

Bob Kalsu.

I only know that because he attended the Oklahoma high school my wife later attended and the football stadium is named for him.