Francis Marion "Cotton" Davidson (born November 30, 1931) is a former American football quarterback. Davidson attended Baylor University, and played professionally for the National Football League's Baltimore Colts (1954, 1957), and the American Football League's Dallas Texans (1960–1962) and Oakland Raiders (1962–1968). Davidson also played quarterback for the Fort Bliss Falcons in 1955 to 1957. A game between the Fort Bliss Falcons and the Fort Sill, Oklahoma Cannoneers was played for a trophy called "The Little Brown Dud." The Cannoneers won the game and took home the Little Brown Dud. Cotton was awarded ALL ARMY QUARTERBACK in 1955.
Davidson was selected in the first round of the 1954 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Colts. In addition to playing quarterback, he also was a placekicker and punter. An original Dallas Texan, Davidson was the first starting quarterback for the franchise. Davidson was selected to the American Football League All-Star Game twice: in 1961 and in 1963. He was honored as the MVP of the 1961 AFL All-Star Game while with the Texans.
In 1963, the Chiefs traded Davidson to the Oakland Raiders for the first overall selection in the 1963 American Football League Draft, which was used by the Chiefs to select future Hall of Famer Buck Buchanan.
Famous quotes containing the words cotton and/or davidson:
“We are constituted a good deal like chickens, which, taken from the hen, and put in a basket of cotton in the chimney-corner, will often peep till they die, nevertheless; but if you put in a book, or anything heavy, which will press down the cotton, and feel like the hen, they go to sleep directly.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“How long she stayed I cannot tell;
But when she felt this perfidy,
She marched across the floor of hell;
And all the damned stood up to see.”
—John Davidson (1857–1909)