{"id":76179,"date":"2014-11-26T15:36:45","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T15:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=76179"},"modified":"2023-02-16T14:20:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T14:20:17","slug":"sportstalk-shop-joes-take-greatest-lv-football-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-joes-take-greatest-lv-football-players\/","title":{"rendered":"The SportsTalk Shop: Joe&#8217;s Take &#8212; Greatest LV Football Players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>First of all, a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving Day holiday to all of our faithful \u201cSportsTalk\u201d viewers and blog readers.\u00a0 We\u2019ve gotten some wonderful feedback about the show and our blog the last few months and appreciate all the positive responses. We hope to continue earning your interest and attention as we transition to the winter sports season very soon.\u00a0 Chris Michael is taking a few days off for the holiday this week and in his place is \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d co-host Joe Craig manning the \u201cSportsTalk Shop.\u201d\u00a0 Joe gives his commentary on a variety of sports issues for each edition of the \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show on (what is suppose to be a short) segment, entitled, \u201cJoe\u2019s Take,\u201d which you can see every Thursday at 6pm on RCN-TV.\u00a0 Here, Joe gives his opinions on who he thinks are the top ten football players\u2014EVER\u2014in the Lehigh Valley area.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Picking the top 10 football players to ever play in the Lehigh Valley is absolutely the toughest assignment I could have undertaken.\u00a0 There&#8217;s no way anyone is going to agree with me because there have been so many worthy choices.\u00a0 Now, before you jump all over me, remember that I&#8217;m not very bright.\u00a0 But I will put up these 10 guys against anyone&#8217;s list.<\/p>\n<p>Here goes!\u00a0 The list is not in any particular order but I do believe the very best player ever is Chuck Bednarik of Bethlehem Liberty.\u00a0 How can anyone argue with this choice?\u00a0 Following Chuck is Jim Ringo of Phillipsburg.\u00a0 Both of these men played in the Lehigh Valley, went on to play professional football, and are members of the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>So far, I have listed two great linemen.\u00a0 Now for two great backs.\u00a0 How about Bobby Pilz of Easton, 1968.\u00a0 Pound for pound he may be the best ever.\u00a0 In three years at Easton, they went 28-1-1 and that 1968 team is considered by many to be the best team ever to play in the Lehigh Valley.\u00a0 Pilz had a stellar career at N.C. State under Lou Holtz.\u00a0 Another back has to be the great Artie Owens of Stroudsburg.\u00a0 He played in the early 1970&#8217;s and went on to become an All-American at West Virginia under Bobby Bowden.<\/p>\n<p>No list of linemen would be complete without the next two greats:\u00a0 Mike Hartenstine of Bethlehem Liberty and Matt Millen of Whitehall.\u00a0 Hartenstine was All-State and an All-American in high school who went on to play at Penn State under Joe Paterno.\u00a0 He went to the pros and had a great career with the Chicago Bears.\u00a0 Neshaminy All-Stater Bruce Traney called Mike &#8220;the scariest player I ever faced.&#8221;\u00a0 Now, Matt Milen was also Mr. Everything at Whitehall and became an All-American at Penn State again under Joe Paterno.\u00a0 Matt went on to become an all-pro linebacker at Oakland and finished his career with the Washington Redskins.\u00a0 He was a five-time Super Bowl champion.<\/p>\n<p>Two more backs:\u00a0 actually Andre Reed of Dieruff became a Hall of Famer in the pro ranks as a wide receiver with the then-great Buffalo Bills.\u00a0 He played in four Super Bowls.\u00a0 A Kutztown graduate, Andre excelled at receiver and quarterback at Dieruff.\u00a0 That brings us to James Mungro of East Stroudsburg.\u00a0 James held the state record for rushing yards for many years.\u00a0 He went on to play at Syracuse and was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts where he had a fine career.<\/p>\n<p>The last two members of my top 10 are both from across the Delaware River.\u00a0 How about Dick Lynch from Phillipsburg Catholic and the great Ned Bolcar of Phillipsburg.\u00a0 Dick Lynch played for coach Mickey Frinzi at the now-closed P&#8217;burg Catholic.\u00a0\u00a0Dick went\u00a0on to Notre Dame University.\u00a0 While at Notre Dame, he scored the game-winning touchdown that beat Oklahoma and broke the Sooners\u2019 54-game winning streak.\u00a0 He was then\u00a0drafted and played for seven years for the New York Giants as a defensive back.\u00a0 He was an\u00a0all-pro during this time.\u00a0 Ned Bolcar was best known as a tough linebacker at P&#8217;burg.\u00a0 He played for Phil Rohm and Tom Dominic from 1983-1985.\u00a0 Ned was a two-time All-Stater in New Jersey.\u00a0 He went on to Notre Dame where he started at middle linebacker for three years.\u00a0\u00a0In 1988 he captained the Irish to a national championship.\u00a0 He then was\u00a0drafted\u00a0by the Seattle Seahawks and finished his career with the Miami Dolphins.<\/p>\n<p>Well, there you have it.\u00a0 I know what you&#8217;re thinking:\u00a0 \u201cHow could Joe miss ______________ (fill in the blank)!\u201d\u00a0 Yeah, there are plenty of other great players that we have been blessed to see play right here in the Valley.\u00a0 And while you could make another deserving list, I think you&#8217;d agree that at least some of my top 10 transcend time.\u00a0 Let me know what you think by emailing us at <a href=\"mailto:rcnsportstalk@rcn.com\">rcnsportstalk@rcn.com<\/a> and who you would include in your top 10.\u00a0 Until next time, that&#8217;s &#8220;Joe&#8217;s take&#8221;.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First of all, a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving Day holiday to all of our faithful \u201cSportsTalk\u201d viewers and blog readers.\u00a0 We\u2019ve gotten some wonderful feedback about the show and our blog the last few months and appreciate all the positive responses. We hope to continue earning your interest and attention as we transition to&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The SportsTalk Shop: Joe&#039;s Take - Greatest LV Football Players - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The SportsTalk Shop: Joe&#039;s Take - Greatest LV Football Players - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"First of all, a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving Day holiday to all of our faithful \u201cSportsTalk\u201d viewers and blog readers.\u00a0 We\u2019ve gotten some wonderful feedback about the show and our blog the last few months and appreciate all the positive responses. 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