ELL True or False: Blocking Kicks at the Goal Line

First run at what may become a recurring theme here….ELL True or False. First, the necessary pic:

That is R.C. Owens, 77 years old when he died last month. Owens was a Louisiana native and a former NFL star for the SF 49ers, Baltimore Colts, and New York Giants. So, true or false:

1) Owens went from the NFL to working for a soccer team;

2) Owens was the inspiration behind the very-southern “RC Cola;”

3) Owens blocked a kick by leaping up at the cross bar and batting away a line drive;

4) Owens was a cheerleader in college;

5) Owens invented the “ally-oop”

Make your guesses on the other four while you read that, yes, Owens invented the ally-oop, which seems crazy since he created it in football before it jumped sports to basketball. Would be the catbird seat of cool to see an NBA player in next year’s dunk contest wear a throwback Owens football jersey for an ally-oop dunk.

The other answers: all except for #2 (RC Cola) are true…which raises the question – why did the No Fun League outlaw jumping up to block a field goal at the goal line? Kicks are usually boring enough, except for late-n-close or crazy long distance or bad weather, so why not add a couple leapers at the goal line trying to smack the ball away? Yes, I know, the goal posts are further back so the defensive players would be in the end zone, but a kick that falls short of the cross bar, but lands in the end zone, isn’t considered good, so the official point-scoring line for a field goal is the cross bar, not the goal line. This is both a simple rule change to make a boring part of the game better and a perfect example of Ruining Fun by Committee.