The greatest player who never was

His mother, Dorothy, of San Angelo, Tex., says she thinks the explanation of his childhood and its results is simple: "He was just the product of a bad marriage." Joe Don's parents divorced in 1962.

At Oklahoma, where he had a tumultuous 14-game career - but one long enough to be fifth in the nation in average per carry in 1962 (6.21 yards) and the nation's best punter, averaging 43.4 yards per try - he went to a sorority house to pick up his date, a spectacular blonde widely considered to be the prettiest around. He arrived at 7 p.m., the appointed hour. By 7:02, she had not come dowmstairs. He left a note: "Joe Don waits for no one." That story made quick time around Norman.

To designate Joe Don as the best player ever requires a leap in faith. It is a little like saying Jack Nicklaus might have the driver out of his bag; like saying Michael Jordan might have been the best basketball player ever - if he had ever shot an 18-foot pull-up jumper. Of course, Nicklaus did and Jordan did and they are the best because they have proved it Joe Don never proved jack squat. Even Uncle Bill, perhaps the closest to Joe Don of anybody, concedes, "What he actually accomplished didn't amount to -." In 42 games in the NFL over parts of five seasons, he rushed for 724 yards. Walter Payton rushed for 16,726, Tony Dorsett 12,739, Jim Brown, 12,312. Cliff Battles is No. 125 in lifetime NFL rushing, with 3,622 yards. Who is Cliff Battles? Looney's achievement was pathetic. Marvels Joe Schmidt the former AllPro Lions linebacker and coach, "Joe Don's a national hero, still. My God, think what he would be like if he had ever done anything."

Yet, nobody has ever been capable of ignoring what he might have accomplished. Allie Sherman says, "He had it all. I mean all. He was more than just size. He was more than just speed. He was wonderfully built big legs, huge torso, could deliver a blow. He had slashing, veering power, agility, acceleration. He had body control like Payton - only with power. He could bust that first tackle, then go 14 to 24 yards more. He could catch the ball. He was bright He had vision. There wasn't a single thing he didn't have. But, whatever devils rode with the guy, it was always, `This is the way I want it.'" Once during a Giants practice, Looney persisted in running the- ball right when it was supposed to go left. Finally, Sherman asked him why he was doing that. Said Joe Don, "I feel like running right more than left."

So was Looney really better than, say, Dick Butkus, Otto Graham, Joe Montana, Bruiser Kinard, Jim Ringo, Mike Ditka, O.J. Simpson, Gale Sayers, Jim Brown? Maybe. "He had all those great assets," Sherman laments. Looney is accorded such lofty praise by Sherman because of a little-considered attribute of a great back: "With or without the ball, they create pressure on the defense." Shula agrees: "He had all the ability in the world, with those great skills, to be a great, great back. But... I don't know, no coach had been able to handle him, but every coach thought he could, including me." A friend from Oklahoma days, Danny Boyd, says Joe Don was "a man without limits. I really think he could have been the greatest ever, the next Jim Brown only better. The problem was he grew up in a time when you didn't talk back to the system, the system talked to you. For him to go along with that, he would have had to give up too much of his soul."