Obscure sports trivia

Oh wait, you said no Hall of Famers.

 

I thought about him, but as I recall, the Stars always seemed to be more of a running team.

 

Yup. A lot of Kelvin Bryant following Irv Eatman and Bart Oates between the tackles.

 

1. Both good guesses, but neither of those is correct.

2. No, but another good guess, since ...

3. Bobby Hebert is correct, and I fell victim to the dreaded conflicting information virus on Question No. 2. Hebert is also the answer for No. 2, with seven more completions and 43 more attempts than John Reaves. Wikipedia has Reaves listed as the leader in both categories, but a USFL stats site has Hebert. I trust the stats site more.
Hebert is the leader in yards, though. He had 11,137 yards in three seasons with Michigan and Oakland.
And, of course, I also botched the touchdowns question. Hebert had 81 and Jim Kelly had 83.

I need to start quadruple-checking information before I post questions. I'm bad at this. I have checked the receiver question, though. That answer has not been given yet.

 

For the receiver question, I’ll guess either Jim Smith or Ricky Sanders.

 

Ring-a-ding-ding.
Jim Smith is the correct answer. He had 227 career receptions for 3,559 yards and 31 touchdowns in three seasons with Birmingham. Smith won two Super Bowls with the Steelers in the second half of their dynasty, jumped to the USFL for huge money in 1983, and had a few solid seasons for the Stallions before playing one more year with the Raiders.

 

Who was the first player to catch at least 50 passes each season for their first 10 years in the NFL?

bonus question: there are only four players to get this mark. Who are the other three?

 

Outside-the-box guess: Is Larry Centers one of them?

 

I'll say Jerry Rice was the first.

The other three? Let's say Larry Fitzgerald, Marvin Harrison and Terrell Owens. Unless Larry Centers is one.

 

Harrison and Fitzgerald are two, but neither did it first.

Rice had 49 catches his rookie year.

 

I’m going to continue the Cardinals sub-thread and guess Anquan Boldin is another.

 

So I looked up Larry Centers. While he had 0 and 19 receptions his first two seasons, he followed that with 11 consecutive seasons of 50 or more receptions.