This is the fourteenth in a series of examinations of football-related legends and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of all the previous football legends.

Let’s begin!

FOOTBALL LEGEND: One of the most prominent “Mr. Irrelevant”s was irrelevant enough that his team misspelled his name on his jersey when he became the starting quarterback!

STATUS: True

One of the odder traditions (but also one of the coolest) in the NFL is that of “Mr. Irrelevant.”

Started by former NFL player Paul Salata (seen here in 2005)…

it is a ceremony “celebrating” the player chosen last in the NFL Draft.

The first Mr. Irrelevant was Kelvin Kirk, picked number 487 of the 1976 draft.

Mr. Irrelevant and his family is invited to Newport Beach for a weekend in the summer after the draft devoted to celebrating him – a golf tournament, a regatta, a roast where people give the player advice and, of course, the awarding of the Lowsman Trophy (a parody of the Heisman Trophy, with the trophy fumbling the ball)…

A “problem” with the ceremony as the years have gone by is that the NFL has greatly reduced the number of rounds in the draft. So while, sure, being the last person drafted today is still a spot where you’re not assured a future in the league, being the 255th player in the draft is a lot better than the 487th player!

And in recent years, Mr. Irrelevants have become more and more major parts of teams.

But even in the old days, when the odds of a Mr. Irrelevant becoming a major part of a team were slim, there were exceptions.

The most notable exception was 1978′s Mr. Irrelevant, Bill Kenney (technically, Kenney was chosen SECOND-to-last, but the player chosen last suffered a career-ending injury before training camp began, so Kenney became Mr. Irrelevant).

Kenney was drafted 333rd overall by the Miami Dolphins. He was cut at the end of training camp, but managed to make the Kansas City Chiefs in 1980 as the backup to starter Steve Fuller.

When Fuller went down to an injury late in the season, Kenney was pressed into service – and in a moment fit for a man who was deemed “Mr. Irrelevant,” the Chiefs actually SPELLED his name wrong on his jersey the day he became the starter!! His name was spelled as Kenny, not Kenney.

Surprisingly, though, Kenney played well enough to be named the starter going into the 1981 season and even though the Chiefs kept planning to replace him, he kept playing so well that they couldn’t. This included making the Pro Bowl in 1983!!! He remains the only Mr. Irrelevant to ever make the Pro Bowl.

His career with the Chiefs finally came to a close in 1988, and his career was completely finished a year later.

Still, he remains the most successful Mr. Irrelevant ever!! So he’s got that going for him!

He went on to become a successful politician in Missouri.

FOOTBALL LEGEND: Gino Marchetti won the 1958 NFL MVP Award.

STATUS: False

Here is a 2008 list of Associated Press National Football League Most Valuable Player Award winners from the Dallas News.

Here‘s a site devoted to the Baltimore Colts.

Here is a football database site profile on Hall of Fame Defensive End Gino Marchetti.

I could keep giving you links, but I think three is enough.

What do all those sites have in common?

They all list Baltimore Colt defensive legend Gino Marchetti as the 1958 Associated Press NFL MVP (which is basically just “the NFL MVP”).

And they’re all wrong.

You see, the Associated Press MVP for 1958 was Jim Brown.

Gino Marchetti was the Associated Press Lineman of the Year in 1958. Lineman of the Year was an award that the AP did from 1956 through 1960.

At some point in the past, someone at the Associated Press made a transcription error, and Marchetti was accidentally listed as the MVP winner, and that was the official list of record for YEARS.

In 2009, the Associated Press, presumably in response to folks pointing out that there were a few mistakes such as this with their late 1950s records, made a change. They determined that their MVP Award began in 1961 – anything before that was some OTHER award (it IS true that they used the term Player of the Year back then instead of MVP, but it was just an interchangeable thing – for instance, when Jim Brown won the 1962 MVP, it was, at the time, called Player of the Year, then back to MVP in 1963).

It’s a pretty funny solution!

FOOTBALL LEGEND: A player suffered a career ending injury walking back from a coin toss.

STATUS: True

Albert “Turk” Edwards was a high profile offensive tackle coming out of college in 1932. An All-American for Washington State, Edwards had teams climbing over themselves to sign him. He ultimately signed with the Boston Braves, who changed their name in 1933 to the Boston Redskins and then moved to Washington in 1937.

Edwards spent his entire career playing for the Redskins, and upon his retirement in 1940, he became an assistant coach before finally becoming Head Coach in 1946. He retired in 1948, having spent all of his seventeen years in the NFL as a member of the Redskins organization.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1969.

Edwards was a massive guy – Life Magazine even did a spread on him in 1938, spotlighting his size…

However, as you might imagine, size can have a major downside, and in Edwards’ case, it was the wear and tear on his knees. Despite knee problems, he still managed to make the All-NFL team in all but his last season in the NFL.

It was during his last season, 1940, that Edwards, as the Captain of the Redskins, came out to do the coin toss in a game against the New York Giants (Edwards former teammate, Mel Hein, was the Giants captain).

After calling the coin toss, Edwards turned to go back to his sideline. However, his cleats stuck in the turf and his knee popped – the injury would finish his career in the NFL!

Four decades later, Baltimore Colts co-captain Robert Pratt pulled a hamstring walking back from a coin toss against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1981!

Those coin tosses are deadly!!

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com