The big guys didn't even eat supper the day before weigh-in. The big guys stepped on the scale in just their jockstraps.
'For the Thursday weigh-ins,' Hauss says, 'the underweight guys like Jerry and me wore sweat clothes. Smith and Hauss had weight concerns in common, too. He had those gnarly fingers, like mine.' Talons. Len Hauss, the Redskins' center and captain at the time, says, 'Most receivers, when they hit the ground, the ball comes right out. If I'd say, 'Do you have time after practice to catch a few?' he'd say, 'As long as you want.' All I remember about the Super Bowl is, Jerry was wide-open in the end zone and I hit the goalpost.' ' a good, kind, nice man and a great football player. 'Jerry was a team guy,' adds Billy Kilmer, the other Redskins quarterback in the early 1970s. 'He was the best pattern-running tight end I ever saw.'
'Covering Jerry at practice made me the safety I was,' says Houston, a 10-time Pro Bowler in two leagues, a first-ballot Hall of Famer and a safety on the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team.
