When the diminutive Joe Morris was racking up yards for the New York
Giants, fans simply watched the game. He became a fan favorite due to his size
(5’7”) and success (key member of the Super Bowl XXI team), but outside of the
fan base, he was somewhat overlooked. However, if he would have played 20-30
years later, Morris would have been a key fantasy football player people would
be clamoring to get on their roster.
After spending two seasons in relative obscurity for the Giants, Morris
first got a shot to showcase his talents in 1984. He would rush for 510 yards
and four touchdowns that season in part-time duty, and that would have probably
been enough to inspire some fantasy football draft hype the following year.
With that being said, no one could have expected his truly epic 1985 season.
In 1985, Morris led the NFL in touchdowns with 21, and he was able to
rack up a grand total of 1336 yards. Touchdowns are gold in fantasy football, and he was able to get plenty touches
near the end zone to pad his totals.
The next season, most fantasy football owners probably would have
tempered their expectations because it is simply hard to score 20+ touchdowns
in a season. While he might have come up short in 1986 with just 14 touchdowns,
he saw his workload increase as he topped 1500 yards for the only time in his
career. More importantly, he missed just one game in that two year span,
meaning that he was a dependable every week starter.
After two years as a fantasy football star, Morris likely would have
been somewhat of a cult hero for the owners lucky enough to get him.
Unfortunately, he never repeated that two-year stretch, although he would top
1000 yards one more time in 1988. Morris obviously had a short prime of a
career, but fantasy football would have raised his national profile in the
mid-1980s. New York Giants fans will always remember his key contributions to a
Super Bowl champion, but unfortunately he is largely overlooked on a national
scale.
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