The Daily Banter: Don Coryell -- The Chargers Coach During The Freezer Bowl -- Passes Away

+ Former San Diego head coach Don Coryell died Thursday afternoon. One of Coryell's greater achievements is that he's the only coach to "have more than 100 wins at both the collegiate and professional levels and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. He was a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010."

Coryell, perhaps one of the least recognizable great coaches in the game, was the Chargers head coach during the Dan Fouts era, where San Diego's passing offense ranked either first or second from 1978-1985.

For some of you veteran Bengals fans, Coryell was the Chargers head coach during the legendary Freezer Bowl; the 1981 AFC Championship game in which the Bengals won 27-7, shutting out the Chargers offense in the second half. A quick fun note: James Brooks fumbled an early first quarter kickoff return that led to an eight-yard touchdown pass from Kenny Anderson to tight end M.L. Harris to give the Bengals an early 10-0 lead. Brooks, who at last report is now a DHL employee at the Greater Cincinnati airport, would be traded to the Cincinnati Bengals a few years later.

+ Former Baltimore Colts defensive back Bruce Laird chimes in on the recent findings that Chris Henry was suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (h/t to Bruce at Baltimore Beatdown).

+ David Krichavsky details the second day on Marvin Lewis' NFL-USO Coaches tour. On one of the stops, Lewis met and took a picture with an old high school buddy of mine, Byron Mays, who is currently serving in Germany.

+ Who Dey Fans takes a look at arrests in the NFL, grouped by teams.

+ Speaking of which, Chris Simms was arrested for "driving while stoned." Not sure if that's the legal term, but it seems that there's a dispute.

No drugs were found on Simms or in the car, and his wife, Danielle, was allowed to drive off in the Mercedes.

"My client never admitted to smoking marijuana that night. He said he was smoking cigarettes that night," said Simms’ attorney, Nathan Semmel, who revealed that two other unnamed passengers were in the car at some point during the evening.

"The DA should investigate whether those two individuals were responsible for the marijuana odor."

But police sources insisted to The Post that only Simms and his wife were in the car.

So the Simms believe that others were in the car while the police "insisted" that the Simms were the only occupants. Classic.

+ Several banters ago, we wrote that former Cowboys tackle Flozell Adams visited the Pittsburgh Steelers; an effort by Pittsburgh to look at their options after Willie Colon tore an Achilles. Jason La Canfora writes that a deal isn't imminent and that the Adams may be asking for more money than what the Steelers are willing to pay. Feeling bad for Willie Colon.

+ The Michael Vick Drama Story Part II keeps getting interesting. At first, the shooting during his birthday on June 25 included Vick claiming to have left 30 minutes before. Then 20 minutes. Then 10 minutes. Then the owner of the establishment claims to have video of Vick leaving only three minutes prior to the shooting.

Now, Vick is just saying "I want to assure everyone that I had nothing to do with that incident. I left the restaurant prior to it occurring and did not witness what happened."

Unfortunately for Vick, the issue for him includes his Federal Probation officer getting involved, as well as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.