Receiver Berry Good In Any Era

By Rick Gosselin @ Dallas News

Aspiring quarterback that he was as a teenager, Mike Holmgren found a unique learning opportunity outside the back door of his high school in San Francisco. Holmgren could stroll onto the Lincoln High practice field and watch Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts at work. He idolized Unitas, but came to develop a sense of appreciation for the skills of Raymond Berry on those crisp fall afternoons.

Back in the 1960s, when America flew airplanes instead of jets, the NFL would schedule East Coast teams back-to-back road games on the West Coast. That allowed them to stay over between games at Los Angeles and San Francisco, thereby reducing two cross-country road trips in a week to one.

Teams had to practice somewhere, so an assistant coach at Lincoln who had a pro tryout with Baltimore offered the Colts use of the school's facilities on one of the trips. That allowed Holmgren to study Unitas up close, but quite often it was Berry who caught his eye. "In those days, if you weren't in the group that was practicing, it was a little more relaxed - except for Raymond Berry", said Holmgren, who is now the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks and one of the foremost authorities on NFL passing games.

"He had someone throwing him passes the whole time. If he wasn't in there, he was on the sideline catching passes. Trainers, equipment guys, teammates - there was always someone throwing him footballs." What struck Holgren wasn't the quantity of his work but the quality. "He never dropped a pass", Holmgren said. "Never." Berry wasn't overly big or fast. He wasn't going to run past cornerbacks like Randy Moss nor would he run over them like Michael Irvin. But he built himself up from a 20th round draft pick out of SMU into a Hall of Fame receiver.

Berry didn't intimidate cornerbacks with his physical tools. He unnerved them with his perfection. Perfect footwork. Perfect routes. Perfect hands. He'd create a crease of daylight and Unitas would thread him a pass.

"Berry was so precise," Holmgren said. "He was like [Fred] Belitnikoff and [Steve] Largent - guys with great ability who didn't have the blazing speed or big vertical jump, the things that we measure receivers on now. But they had huge hearts, were very smart and caught everything."

How great a receiver was Berry? In an era when the NFL played games on the ground instead of the air, Berry still caught 631 passes, He retired in 1968 as the game's all-time leading receiver - and it's still taken souped-up NFL passing offenses 34 years to finally push Berry out of the Top 20.

That moment could come this week. Baltimore tight end Shannon Sharpe caught four passes in the season opener against Chicago, giving him 623 for his career. Eight more catches Monday and Berry will be out of the Top 20 for the first time since the 1960s. His name rarely comes up any more in discussion of the greatest receivers of all time. Talk starts with Jerry Rice, then moves on to Hall of Famers Lance Alworth, Charles Taylor and Paul Warfield. Then there's Cris Carter, Tim Brown, Irvin and, more recently, Moss, Isaac Bruce and Marvin Harrison.

Splashy statistics like those of Rice, Brown and Moss tend to dominate debates. Berry never caught 100 passes in a season, and he only hit 1,000 yards once. "That's a reflection of the style of play," said Bengals coach Dick LeBeau, who covered Berry as a cornerback for the Detroit Lions in the 1960s. "Raymond played in the Lombardi era when teams ran the ball 60 percent and threw 40. Now they throw it 60 and run it 40. It's a different game.

"If Raymond Berry were playing today, he'd have numbers that would keep him in the Top 10 for a long, long time. He would catch his share of balls no matter when he played. If he was playing in today's philosophy, he'd have twice as many catches as he had back then. "Berry had to work for every one of his 631 catches. He didn't benefit from the saturation of three and four-receiver sets and zone coverage that spread the field and defenses. He played against man coverage when passing games had only two options, the flanker and the split end.

Everyone knew Raymond Berry was going to get the ball - and he still managed to get open. He led the NFL in catches three times, yards three times and touchdowns twice in his 13-year career. "In those 100-catch seasons by the Jerry Rices and Herman Moores, how many were little hitches or quick outs?" Holmgren said. "Raymond Berry didn't do that stuff. Passing games were different then. He ran patterns. He was really great. Wow."

Greatness doesn't come in statistics. It comes in abilities. Berry will soon be gone from the Top 20 but he'll never be forgotten. You don't forget greatness.

Raymond Berry was greatness.