The seventh and last time Chargers' Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts met the Bengals' Ken Anderson, a man Fouts endorses for the Hall, they both threw for 400 yards in a Wild West shootout at San Diego's venerable Jack Murphy Stadium.
In prime time, no less, in the NFL's eternal quest to match the most eyes with the most points even as far back as 1982.
Anderson, for one, can't wait to see what their modern-day descendants conjure up Sunday night (8:20-Cincinnati's Channel 5) in the Chargers' new confines of SoFi Stadium hard by Los Angeles in Hollywood Park when the Bengals' Joe Burrow and the Chargers' Justin Herbert continue their 2020s duel.
(By the way, NBC's Cris Collinsworth, the man in Sunday's booth, was Anderson's Ja’Marr Chase that night in '82 with 156 yards on nine catches.)
"It's fun," Anderson says. "It goes back to when they had Dan Fouts and we were two pretty good offensive teams," Anderson says, "and I think that's what we'll see Sunday night."
Only a script by a sportswriter could craft these numbers and this storyline, which is exactly what Jack Murphy was back in the day:
Burrow, the first draft pick of the 2020s, comes in sixth on the all-time list for passing yards with 270.3 per game. Herbert, the sixth pick in 2020, is seventh on the list with 269.3.
While Burrow leads the NFL with 24 touchdowns and 2, 672 yards, here is Herbert with at least a 90 passer rating in each of the first nine games. In the last 54 years, the only other quarterbacks with 90s passer ratings in each of their first nine starts of a season are Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers during MVP campaigns.
And while Herbert has seven straight starts without an interception for the NFL's longest current streak, Burrow's 108.1 passer rating is second only to Lamar Jackson.
So maybe if these draft day cousins once removed aren't keeping tabs on each other, they should.
"We got to know each other a little bit at the combine," said Burrow of the 2020 scouting extravaganza. "He's fun to be around. I liked his personality. I think we'd be friends if we ever spent time together. That's not really where we're at. But I always liked him."
The Bengals did, too.
But by the time they were coaching Oregon's Herbert at the 2020 Senior Bowl holding the draft's overall No. 1 pick a month before the combine, they were already sold on LSU's Burrow.
"We had a week with Justin and we came out of that feeling, 'We love Joe. He's our guy. But someone's going to get a really good one,'" says Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher. "We did our due diligence. That was a pretty good quarterback class to say the least."
This was back before the Senior Bowl ended the Civil War and Appomattox broke up the college all-star teams into the American and National squads instead of North and South. The Bengals stepped up to coach the South in case Burrow decided to travel to Mobile, Ala., but the Heisman Trophy winner was only a week removed from finishing LSU's undefeated national title season and R&R had to be done.
Still, Pitcher, in his last act as the Bengals assistant quarterbacks coach, was blessed with Herbert and Oklahoma's Jalen Hurts. (If you recall Colorado's Steven Montez was the third South quarterback that week, pass Go and collect $200.)
By the time the Bengals went to Indianapolis for the combine a month later, Pitcher had been elevated to quarterbacks coach with Alex van Pelt's departure. But Burrow was still their guy even before they sat down with him for the combine's 18-minute interview.
After that, he was really their guy.
Maybe the person under the most heat that day in Indy was the rookie quarterbacks coach guiding Burrow through the dozen or so clips of his college career with the owner sitting in. Both Burrow and Pitcher crushed it, and they've been together through an AFC championship and two AFC North titles, items Herbert is still chasing in Patrick Mahomes' AFC West.
Yet, Pitcher studied everyone because that's due diligence.
"Great tools. Really good person. Fun to be around. Smart," Pitcher says. "Proofs in the pudding with what he's done there. He's been in a bunch of systems and a bunch of different circumstances and he's been the steady rock through the whole thing. Steadiness is how I would have described him. Not too hot. Not too cold."
Burrow has had the same head coach for his five seasons, and Pitcher was his quarterbacks coach for all four years until the promotion came this year. Herbert has been the anti-Burrow: Jim Harbaugh is Herbert's third head coach, and Greg Roman is his fourth offensive coordinator.
But it hasn't hurt his production. Herbert's 1,772 completions are the most in a player's first five seasons. But you can always find another number with these draft day cousins.
Since 2021, Burrow has the highest completion percentage, yards per attempt and passer rating, as well as the most passing yards per game in post- Halloween games. One of those games includes his lone game against Herbert three years ago, when Herbert's three touchdown passes eclipsed Burrow's three turnovers. But it was vintage Gut Check Joe: He never missed a snap in a game he dislocated the pinky on his throwing hand in the first half.
"(Herbert is) Really big. Really athletic. Has an incredibly strong arm," says Pitcher, who catches him from time to time on crossover tape. "He makes good decisions. One interception this season. They put him in good spots in that offense where they don't have to put the ball at risk a lot when they ask him to make big plays, he makes them. A legit guy."
These two guys are joined at the decimal point. Burrow starts the game as the NFL's all-time completion percentage leader at 68.1. Herbert is hanging in ninth place at 66.5.
Because of injuries, Herbert has played and started nine more games than Burrow. As Burrow makes his 63rd start Sunday, his 121 touchdowns are the fourth most by a player in his first 62 starts, behind Dan Marino, Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers. With 114, Herbert is seventh on the list. Flip it to yards and Herbert is fifth, Burrow 10th.
They are also second and third, respectively, to Lamar Jackon (24-2) this season when it comes to TD-INT ratio. with Herbert at 11-1 and Burrow 24-4. Herbert is averaging a career-low 209 passing yards per game, but he's navigating Harbaugh's AFC North style to six wins.
"I think Harbaugh going there has really made (Herbert) better," says Anderson, an NFL quarterbacks coach for longer than he was a player.
No wonder it sounds so familiar to Anderson. In the first 16 seasons of the 1970 merger, only Fouts (37,492) had more passing yards than Anderson's 32,677.
And there was that December Monday Night game in '82 at The Murph, when Fouts got revenge for the Freezer Bowl in a 50-34 win he pitched for 435 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions on 25 of 40 passing. Anderson was his usual accurate self. He completed 40 of 56 for 416 yards, a touchdown, two interceptions and even added a 12-yard touchdown run.
But Anderson beat Fouts in their two biggest games. The year before at The Murph, Anderson rung up a 107.4 passer rating to best Fouts' 352 yards in another wild one, this one won by the Bengals, 40-34.
"That's the one that gave us home-field for the Freezer Bowl," Anderson says. "So you'd have to say we earned the right to have the championship game in Cincinnati."
Two months later at Riverfront Stadium in 59-below wind chill at the AFC title game, Anderson somehow threw two touchdowns while Fouts threw two interceptions to put the Bengals in the Super Bowl.
Anderson had all his weapons that day. He's hoping Burrow gets to line up wide receiver Tee Higgins Sunday after a game last Thursday night where Chase shot into the NFL lead for yards, catches and touchdowns with his 264-yard, three-touchdown masterpiece while Burrow threw for 428 yards.
"Unbelievable," Anderson says of Burrow's season. "And he hasn't had Tee half the time. He's got that connection going with Ja'Marr and (tight end Mike) Gesicki has been playing really well. I'm anxious to see what this offense looks like with (if) Tee coming back this Sunday.
"(Burrow) has always been a smart quarterback. He understands protections. He may have to take check-downs, but when he gets the matchups he wants and he's got a chance to let it go down the field and make a big play, he'll take it. Get the ball in Ja'Marr's hands and you never know what big play is going to happen."
Anderson gets it. He threw 56 times one night against Fouts looking for the big shot, his career high for attempts.
It sounds like hanging in the pocket, looking for the big play no matter the hits, is what Burrow admires about Herbert.
"I think Justin's great. He's got one of the strongest arms in the league. He plays football the right way," Burrow says. "Runs around and makes plays when he needs to. Big, strong guy who can make plays with his legs, too. Tough guy who is going to stand in there and take hits. I've always had a ton of respect for him."
And you know if it takes 56 passes, like it did Thursday night for the second most attempts of his career, Burrow takes the hits, too.
"I think I do a great job of getting the ball out quickly when I have to, but there are certain situations in certain games that you're going to have to hang in there and make plays and run around and hold the ball a little longer. Trying to make those plays down the field," Burrow says.
"If I feel like I can take it, you get out and try to make a play and that's what I'm going to do. I think we're at that point in the season where that's needed. It might be a little different mindset first five games. But where we are right now, I think that's how I'm going to have to play it."
No doubt his draft day cousin can relate.
