LA Rams great wide receiver Henry Ellard turns 60 today

When you reach a certain age in life, you get a reality check every now and then (whether you like it or not) about how much of your own water’s gone under the bridge on this planet by hearing about the age of some of your contemporaries. You know, Paul McCartney is 79 years old now, Mick Jagger is 77, William Shatner, (err, Capt. James Tiberius Kirk) is 90 (!) and Leonard Nimoy (Spock) left this planet six years ago.

They are like mile markers on your own personal highway of life. Or, cold slaps in the face. All these lines on my face getting clearer.

Well, today, former LA Rams’-great wide receiver Henry Ellard, who played for the team for an entire decade (1983 -1993), and then went on to play for the Washington Football Team (back when that team actually had a real name) and finished up his career with the New England Patriots, turned 60.

So very many memorable TD catches, most of them as a Rams star receiver! Top 25 Henry Ellard TD catches

And talk about athleticism, Ellard qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials in 1992 (after nine years in the league) in the triple jump, although he injured his hamstring during the Trials and did not make the team. He was a bona fide leaper in the red zone. . . before the red zone was even a term in the football lexicon!

In 1988, Ellard flat-out soared. He caught a career-high 86 passes for a league-high 1,414 yards with 10 touchdowns. His 88.4 yards per game led the league. Even when he played on bad teams and bad quarterbacks (can you say, Heath Shuler?), his stand-out gridiron receptions, well, stood out. On a 1994 Washington team that won just three games, Ellard caught 74 passes for 1,397 yards (just 102 yards behind league-leader Hall of Famer Jerry Rice).

What a great WR-duo you made with the Rams’ Flipper Anderson back in the day! This Rams fan happens to think you should be rocking a gold jacket from Canton.

Happy Birthday, Henry, and thanks for the memories!