Ed Meador was good at duping the St. Louis football Cardinals. He did that at least a couple of times.
A defensive back for the Los Angeles Rams, Meador successfully pulled off a fake field goal attempt versus the Cardinals. He also tricked their quarterback, Jim Hart, into throwing passes to Jackie Smith that got intercepted.
As the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
The Cardinals weren’t alone, though, in getting outmaneuvered by Meador. In his 12 seasons with the Rams (1959-70), Meador totaled 46 interceptions (returning five for touchdowns), 22 fumble recoveries and 10 blocked kicks.
Ram tough
As a college player, Meador was a standout running back and defensive back for the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys. He was taken by the Rams (whose general manager was Pete Rozelle) in the seventh round of the 1959 NFL draft.
Placed with the defensive unit at Rams training camp in 1959, Meador impressed and won a starting cornerback spot as a rookie. “He has all the essentials to become an outstanding defensive back,” Rams head coach Sid Gillman told the Los Angeles Times. “He has speed and tremendous reactions. He has more poise than any rookie I’ve ever encountered.”
Defensive backs coach Jack Faulkner said to the newspaper, “I’ve never coached any first-year man with greater potential.”
After five seasons (1959-63) as a cornerback, Meador was moved to free safety in 1964 and stayed there the rest of his career. Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray noted, “As free safety, he goes where the ball does. With eyesight better than normal, and the speed of a startled doe, he is the surest tackler in the NFL.”
Meador said the toughest player to tackle was Chicago Bears running back Gale Sayers. “I’d much rather tackle a big man who’s trying to run over me. They don’t have the lateral movement,” Meador said to the Los Angeles Times. “Sayers is the best runner in football because when you try to get hold of him, he’s suddenly five yards away from you. The trick is to keep your eye on his belt buckle. His shoes may be going one way and his hat may be going the other, but he can’t get too far away from his belt.”
Right move
Because of his sure hands, Meador also was the holder on field goal and extra point attempts.
On Dec. 5, 1965, the Rams led the Cardinals, 20-3, in the fourth quarter when, on fourth down at the St. Louis 11-yard line, they set up for a Bruce Gossett field goal try. Instead, after the ball was snapped and Gossett went into his kicking motion, Meador got up and “scampered around right end with the ball, beating several Cardinals defenders to the corner of the end zone” for a touchdown, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Rams head coach Harland Svare told the newspaper, “We have had that play for three years, but it didn’t work until today. When you’re ahead, you can afford to do things like this.”
The Rams won, 27-3, marking the first time since 1962 versus the Green Bay Packers that the Cardinals failed to score a touchdown in a game. Game stats
Doing the unexpected
In the 1968 season opener, the Rams harassed Cardinals quarterback Jim Hart and won, 24-13. Hart had six passes knocked down, three by defensive end Lamar Lundy, was sacked five times and intercepted three times.
Meador made two of the interceptions. His 20-yard return with the first set up a Rams touchdown. The second prevented a Cardinals field goal attempt. Both picks came on Hart passes to tight end Jackie Smith, who was running hook patterns. “We had him covered inside and out,” Meador told the Los Angeles Times.
The coverage was not what Hart was expecting. Because Rams strong safety Ron Smith was new to the position, head coach George Allen had Meador, the free safety, help out in covering Jackie Smith.
As the Los Angeles Times explained, “Hart was keying on the tight safety (Ron Smith) on each occasion. He did not see Meador on either play. NFL quarterbacks are not in the habit of watching out for free safeties when they throw to the tight safety’s man. Meador skillfully took advantage of this fact to run for the ball the instant Hart unlimbered.”
George Allen said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “He’s the best free safety in pro football.” Game stats
Meador was one of three safeties selected to the NFL’s all-decade team for the 1960s. The other two, Larry Wilson of the Cardinals and Willie Wood of the Packers, were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Meador also was named to the Pro Bowl six times _ 1960 and each year from 1964 to 1968. He played in 159 consecutive games for the Rams before sitting out one because of an injury.
Columnist Sid Ziff wrote, “Watching Meador, you wonder how anybody can be that good all the time. He never has an off night.” Video highlights
RetroSimba 
How can you be All Decade and not in the HOF? It’s a darn shame that Eddie Meador was never inducted. He has some awesome game film on YouTube. It’s a good thing during his career the Rams and Cardinals played only 4 times. In all 4 of those games he either scored a touchdown or came away with a turnover.
Thank you for informing me of the You Tube videos, Phillip. I have added a link to one at the end of the story. It’s really good to see Ed Meador in action.
I was really looking forward to this one and it did not disappoint. I’ve done my own digging on Meador, and this may be one of the more comprehensive write-ups out there on the man. Sparkling job, Mark!
I am appreciative that a Rams fan likes the work, Gary. Thanks, too, for giving me the heads-up a few weeks ago about Ed Meador’s passing. You were the first to inform me _ and having that lead time enabled me to be able to produce something in a timely manner.
It’s refreshing to hear of a player with so much potential and initial praise from scouts and coaches to realize that potential. So many times we hear about players with so much promise that don’t pan out. I’m not much of a football fan anymore, but those field goal attempts that transform into touchdowns are one of the more exciting things in sports.
It always pleases me when a player from a school with a small enrollment (Arkansas Tech had about 1,200 students then) rather than from a college football factory succeeds in professional sports. Recalling how he prepared to report to Rams camp with his wife as a rookie in 1959, Meador told The Sporting News in October 1966, “I had $400 the day I left Arkansas. My aunt loaned it to me. I got a $500 bonus for signing with the Rams, but we used the $500 to make a down payment on the 1957 Chevrolet we drove to California.”
I’m with you on that Mark, players from small schools making it. Always exciting. I’m reminded of Dave Krieg who quarterbacked the Seahawks and came from Wisconsin’s Milton College, a school that no longer exists. It appears from this site that it had a very small enrollment.
https://www.lostcolleges.com/milton-college
What a marvelous example! Thank you for including the link. I enjoyed reading about Milton College and was heartened that it was known as a “second chance school.” It must have helped a lot of people. Naturally, your posting prompted me to read up on Dave Krieg. He beat the odds every step of the way. He was born in Iola, a Wisconsin village that at the time had fewer than 900 residents. Looking back on his Milton College days, Krieg told the St. Petersburg Times, “We played games before 300 or 400 people. The big ones were against Ripon and Lakeland. At Milton, those were my Super Bowls.” Krieg also said to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “I went to Milton, basically, because no one wanted me.”
My sister stumbled upon this article and tagged me in it as she shared it to our Facebook feed. We have read many articles over the years about our dad (Eddie Meador), and we have read many fine tributes about him in the past few weeks as well. However, “retrosimba”, I will speak for my entire family when I say how much this article means to us as a family and how happy for us it was to read such a fresh, creative article that brought both smiles and tears at this point on our journey without Dad with us. I, for one, needed this type of boost today, and your article certainly provided it. Not only is it well-written and as entertaining as it is enlightening, it is inspiring to me to not lose steam with our goal of making sure Dad is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday—something we had hoped would happen before he headed to heaven. Thank you for taking the time and using your talent to pen such an interesting article with so much imagery and supportive details and quotes. You are appreciated by our entire family, and I know if heaven lets Dad see a copy of your article, he’d let a humble grin break at least one corner of his mouth, just like he must have after picking off Hart or Unitas or Meredith. God bless always.
Dave, thank you for taking the time to read the article and to comment. I am pleased and honored that you and your family liked the tribute to your Dad. I am sorry for your loss. I hope that it can provide some small comfort to know that your Dad impacted a lot of people in a favorable way. As a kid in the 1960s in New Jersey, I collected football cards and I had several of your Dad and learned about him from the information on the backs. That’s how I became impressed by his achievements. When I learned about his passing, I wanted to do an article that might help others appreciate what he had accomplished. He is a Hall of Famer in the eyes of anyone who knows about him. _ Mark Tomasik (RetroSimba).
Thank you again, Mark. Coming across new articles and pictures and fan comments we see from time to time does help a lot somehow, and the Meador family really appreciates all the kind words especially. Keep doing what you do; it makes a difference. God bless you.