Which Hall Of Fame Players Played For The Most Teams?

When you take a look at football players who have made it into the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame, usually you find a player who has spent the vast majority of his career with one team. This is mainly because when a team gets a player with exceptional ability like that; they usually do all they can to hold onto him. Sometimes, because of diminishing skills or payroll reasons, a player will play his last couple years with another team before retiring. That being said it is rare that a Hall-of-Fame caliber player plays with more than two or three teams during their entire career.

So, that begs the question: What is the most teams that a member of the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame has played for.

The easy answer is: Six.

Three member of the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame have played for six different teams in their career. The back story on these three players is that they all played the majority of their careers in the NFL's startup days (1920's) when teams would go out of business, change names or cities frequently, and just overall not have the stability of the modern NFL, making it more likely that a player would play for multiple teams. Those players are:

Jim Thorpe - 1915-1928

Canton Bulldogs

Cleveland Indians (NFL)

Oorang Indians

Rock Island Independents

New York Giants

Chicago Cardinals

Joe Grunyon - 1919-1927

Canton Bulldogs

Clevenland Indians (NFL)

Oorang Indians

Rock Island Independents

Kansas City Cowboys

New York Giants

Fritz Pollard - 1919-1928

Akron Pros/Indians

Milwaukee Badgers

Hammond Pros

Gilberton Cadamounts

Providence Steam Roller

Chicago Black Hawks

If we look at the more modern era of professional football, the most teams any Hall-of-Fame member has played for is five, and three different players have accomplished this feat.

Warren Moon 1983-2000

While Moon is in the Hall-of-Fame and has played for five different teams, some may count it differently as only four of the teams were in the NFL.

Edmonton Eskimos (CFL)

Houston Oilers

Minnesota Vikings

Seattle Seahawks

Kansas City Chiefs

Tommy MacDonald 1957-1968

Philadelphia Eagles

Dallas Cowboys

Los Angeles Rams

Atlanta Falcons

Cleveland Browns

James Lofton 1978-1993

Green Bay Packers

Los Angeles Raiders

Buffalo Bills

Los Angeles Rams

Philadelphia Eagles

Most often, when we think of Hall-of-Fame players we think of players like Barry Sanders, Terry Bradshaw, Bart Starr, or John Elway who played their entire career with one team. Sometimes we think of players like Joe Montana, O.J. Simpson, Tony Dorsett, or Emmitt Smith who played the majority of their career with one team and then finished it with another. Not too often do we remember the players who played for four or five different teams as Hall-of-Famers.

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How to Maintain Your Football Team's Fan List

The postman carries as much mail back as he delivers. What is amazing, is how same organisations continue to send mail to the same address even when they receive bundles of it back. What does that tell us about such an organisation? They do not understand the dynamics of society. They do not understand that a list needs maintenance. All they are doing in the meantime is to enrich the post.

The following steps could go a long way in keeping your football club's fan list clean, current, accurate and relevant:

1. A list becomes outdated as soon as it is compiled

True, a list becomes outdated as soon as it is compiled. I have lived in flats before and I have witnessed movement hardly seen in other areas. Every month end tenants come and others go. But those that have gone generated mail and no sooner had they started receiving it than they moved on. People change jobs and others pass on. All these factors point to a need to continuously maintain your mailing list. If you do not do so they will be a lot of wastage.

2. Incomplete Data

Lists are often characterised by mistakes and incomplete data. Some people for one reason or another can never write information correctly or fully. Check out for this and try to correct it in order to avoid wastage.

3. Duplication

Scan your lists for duplication of fans. It is very irritating to some people and wasteful to your football club to send out the same information to one person several times. Clean the list and get rid of duplicate data.

One way you can sniff out this data is to filter similar names with a bit of variance and check to see whether the address is the same.

4. Segment your list

Your information and marketing will be most relevant and will receive the desired objective if it is sent to only the relevant people. For example you have a football match in Pretoria and you want to market it to your fans directly, it would be most fruitful to only appeal to those who can economically and geographically make it to Pretoria. It would be very wasteful to communicate with an unemployed fan based in Port Elizabeth (1,500km away). This person can not geographically and economically make it for this match, however much he loves the club.

5. Grow your list

It is very critical for your marketing team to use every working moment to grow your club's fan list. Every unregistered fan that they come across in one way or the other should be registered and communication initiated.

This helps in growing your fan base and the stronger the relationship you grow with these fans the more they act as fan evangelists and recruit new fans for your team.

Success in the business of football is about getting the business of fans right. When this happens all other factors can easily fall into place. To get the business of fans correct, you must know them by name and create a relationship with them. It is therefore imperative to work on your fan lists aggressively.

Give your football club a chance to succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Fans are the corner stone of football business success, but they are the most ignored. We can help you change this for your benefit and the benefit of your club. Visit our website and learn more about how to grow your fan base, football marketing and fan relationship management: http://www.footballmarketing.biz