As America watches this season’s Super Bowl, we would like to remember Cape Charles’ own Johnny Sample, who played a major role in the New York Jets drubbing of the 3 touchdown favorite Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. During the game, Sample intercepted a pass, stopping a Baltimore Colts drive at the 2 yard line, and then asked the receiver “Is this what you’re looking for?” Later in the game, Baltimore Coach Don Shula confronted Sample claiming he had pushed a receiver over the Colts’ bench. In his face, Sample told Shula, “I wish I had pushed you over the bench.”
While becoming the prototype NFL cornerback (he was big at 6’1” 210lbs), he defined the pressing, bump and run style of pass defense.
In his 1970 autobiography, Confessions of a Dirty Ballplayer, he writes of growing up in segregated Cape Charles, the son of John B. Sample, a barber, and Evlyn Sample, a stenographer–and having to cross the hump to get to the “Colored” Rosenwald School.
As an athlete, he was outspoken about the rights of black players in the NFL. His views may have cost him some playing time. After leaving the Colts over a fine in the 1961 preseason, he believes that led to his being blackballed after the 1965 season.
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