The Career Taken Away By Injuries And Concussions | The NFL Story Of Al Toon

So if you never heard of Al Toon he was a Wide Receiver who went to college at Wisconsin. He was selected by the New York Jets in the 1st round (10th overall) of the 1985 NFL Draft. He was drafted ahead of Eddie Brown who went to the Bengals and Jerry Rice who went to the 49ers. Of course now people consider Rice to be the best Wide Receiver ever, let alone in his draft class but Toon did managed to become the Jets’ second leading receiver during his 1985 rookie season and had hopes of being the best Wide Receiver in the league. At the time, it looked like Toon was going to be the best WR of his class. He was selected to the Pro Bowl three times in 1986-1988 which all were all-pro seasons. So after four years it was hard to argue who was better, Rice or Toon. Toon’s best year as a pro came in the 1988 season when he led the league with 93 receptions. After that injuries derailed his career and makes one of the most forgotten players of his era.

The arguments to make for Toon against Rice is that Rice had QB Joe Montana to throw too him and was on a great team. He also had a pretty good WR in John Taylor on the other side as well as other weapons around him like Roger Craig. Al Toon had little of a supporting cast around him and had an okay QB in Ken O’Brien who was a former first round pick but wasn’t Joe Montana or any of the quarterbacks he was drafted around in the 1983 draft like John Elway, Jim Kelly, or Dan Marino.

At the time of his retirement, Al Toon became one of the early forecasters of the “concussion tsunami” that would strike the NFL. Toon retired at age 29 after sustaining his ninth diagnosed concussion. After his career he was recognized and put in the Jets’ Ring of Honor. Many players like Toon could of been great but unfortunately injuries and concussions ended his career short while players like Jerry Rice played twenty great years in the NFL.

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