Bullet Bob was my first sports hero as a kid. I had a poster of him on my wall. I still remember his pigeon toed way of walking between plays. He didn’t look fast. Then the play started and his speed was just stunning.
I was a sprinter so he was a sports hero of mine and I watched every game they broadcast of Florida A&M because of him and he made that transition to the NFL better than the others because he was already a force in football. Hell, watching him was not easy as all the other players, and you can imagine the competition at that level, made him look like a blur.
One player made one of the most significant changes to NFL defenses in history and was responsible for the creation of the zone defense. The problem for them was the coach that wanted Bullet in the first place was a defensive guru and had already anticipated how they would have to cover him because his own secondary couldn't cover him.
It wasn't just his speed that impressed me, it was his ability to control his body, particularly his eyes which were problems for other sprinters, and adjust to the ball.
Staubach had a good arm but not a strong one and I knew when he was throwing to Bullet because he would have to release it earlier. Could you imagine Bullet in an offense with a QB with the arms of Allen or Mahomes?
I remember Aikman commenting when Galloway first got there that he could not outthrow him. Meaning he would turn it loose at the snap and Galloway would run it down.
There have been a lot of fast WR's since Bullet but none have been able to match his ypc because he was the original and it took time to figure him out and when they did it was play against the rest of the offense with 9 players.
