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Four Picks for Jim Plunkett: The Trade Nobody Lost

October 21, 2026

On January 25, 1981, a 33-year-old quarterback threw for 261 yards and three touchdowns in a 27-10 Super Bowl win over Philadelphia and was named the game's MVP.1 The Raiders became the first wild-card team ever to win a Super Bowl, and their quarterback — released by the San Francisco 49ers during the 1978 preseason, a backup until October — completed one of the strangest resurrections in NFL history.1

Five years earlier, the 49ers had paid a small fortune for that same man: two first-round picks in 1976, a first- and second-rounder in 1977, and a quarterback named Tom Owen.23 San Francisco got two losing seasons and no playoff games. New England got four long-term starters. And Plunkett got the thing neither side could give him. Somehow, almost everyone involved in this deal ended up with something worth having. Almost.

The price

By the spring of 1976, the Patriots were done with Jim Plunkett. The 1970 Heisman winner and first overall pick of the 1971 draft had gone 23-38 as New England's starter, completing 48.5% of his passes with more interceptions (87) than touchdowns (62).3 A left shoulder separation in 1975 had opened the door for rookie Steve Grogan, a fifth-rounder out of Kansas State, and coach Chuck Fairbanks was remaking the offense around Sam Cunningham and the run.1 Plunkett, battered and expensive, was playing out his option year — and New England was about to get nothing for him.

The 49ers were the buyer because they were desperate. Coming off a 5-9 season in which three different quarterbacks started, they paid the price of a franchise quarterback for one.3 On April 5, 1976, just days before the draft, the deal was announced: Plunkett for the 12th and 21st picks of 1976, the 16th and 44th picks of 1977, and Tom Owen.143

The pick that used to belong to Houston

One of those 1976 picks had a history of its own. The 21st overall selection was originally Houston's — and San Francisco had acquired it two years earlier by sending running back Vic Washington to the Oilers in exchange for Houston's 1976 first-rounder and a 1977 third-rounder.6 The official draft ledger still shows the pick's journey: Tim Fox, marked "[from Hou thru SF]."7 A trade within a trade, the way custody chains usually start — one franchise's forgotten running back becoming another franchise's safety.

The harvest

New England spent the picks with unnerving efficiency. At No. 12, center Pete Brock out of Colorado; at No. 21, Ohio State safety Tim Fox.4 Brock played his entire 12-year career in New England, appeared in 154 games, became the starting center in 1981, and helped the franchise reach its first Super Bowl. Fox started all 91 games of his six Patriot seasons, made the Pro Bowl in 1980, and intercepted 17 passes.3

In 1977, the deal kept paying. The 16th pick became Texas cornerback Raymond Clayborn5, who played 13 seasons in New England, made three Pro Bowls, and set the franchise's career interception record at 36 — a mark Ty Law would tie decades later. He entered the Patriots Hall of Fame in 2017.8 The 44th pick became Oklahoma running back Horace Ivory, who ran for 693 yards and 11 touchdowns in 1978 and was named All-Pro as a kick returner in 1980 — not bad for the back half of the package.9

And then there was the pick the trade didn't cost them. With their own fifth overall selection, New England took Arizona State cornerback Mike Haynes, an eight-interception rookie who became a Hall of Famer in 1997.12 Three of the first 21 picks in one draft, two of them Plunkett's. The Patriots went 11-3 in 1976 and reached the postseason for the first time in 13 years.23

The throw-in

Tom Owen was the kind of player trades are built around when one side needs a quarterback-shaped object to balance the announcement. He'd been the 49ers' 13th-round pick, 322nd overall, in 1974, out of Wichita State.11 His rookie year had genuine spark — ten touchdown passes, a franchise rookie record at the time, and four wins in seven starts. Then it was over: one more start for San Francisco, and after the trade, six seasons in New England in which he threw a grand total of five passes in 1976 and made exactly one start, a loss, in 1981.11

But here is the thing about Tom Owen: he finished with a Super Bowl ring, too. Washington carried him as a backup in 1982, and he was on the roster when they won Super Bowl XVII.10 The centerpiece of the trade got two rings as a starter. The throw-in got one as a clipboard holder. Everyone ate.

The afterlife

San Francisco, the team that paid, got the worst of it on the field. Plunkett led the 49ers to a 6-1 start in 1976, then watched it dissolve into 8-6.1 In 1977 they went 5-9, and in the 1978 preseason he was released — three first-round picks and a second for two years, no playoffs, nothing to show.1

Then came Oakland. Plunkett threw no passes in 1978 and fifteen in 1979, sitting behind Dan Pastorini.1 Five weeks into 1980, Pastorini fractured his leg against Kansas City, and the 32-year-old came off the bench.1 He won nine of eleven starts, took the Raiders through four playoff games as a wild card, and became the first minority quarterback to win a Super Bowl — and, with his Heisman, only the second man ever to hold both that trophy and a Super Bowl MVP.1 He was the 1980 NFL Comeback Player of the Year.1 Three years later, after Marc Wilson's injury, he did it again: Super Bowl XVIII, 38-9 over Washington.1 To this day he is the only eligible quarterback to start and win two Super Bowls and not be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame — Eli Manning joined the eligibility conversation, not the exception.1

And there was one more reunion hiding in that box score. The Raiders' cornerback in Super Bowl XVIII, starting opposite Lester Hayes with an interception of his own, was Mike Haynes — the fifth overall pick in the 1976 draft, the one New England kept for itself. He had played out his option with the Patriots in 1982; his contract was awarded to Los Angeles in November 1983, and he played the final five games and the entire playoff run.13 The quarterback New England sold and the cornerback New England drafted with the pick it didn't sell won a championship together, in another team's uniform.

Trace the assets from April 5, 1976, and they scatter to three cities. The draft picks became the spine of a Patriot decade — a center, a safety, a record-setting cornerback, an All-Pro return man. The throw-in quarterback found his ring in Washington. The discarded Heisman winner found two in Oakland. The 49ers, who paid for all of it, got to watch. Call it a lopsided trade if you want; New England's front office certainly did. But in the only currency that ever matters in this league, the man they gave up on ended up richer than the men they kept. The trade didn't have a winner. It had an ending, and it took five years and three area codes to arrive.

Trade terms, teams, and dates verified against the site's trade tree for this deal and cross-checked with the sources below.

Sources

  1. Jim Plunkett — Wikipedia — Heisman 1970, first overall 1971, 1975 shoulder injury, Grogan era, 1976 6–1 start and 8–6 finish, 1977 5–9, 1978 release, Raiders backup years, 1980 Pastorini injury, nine wins in eleven starts, Super Bowl XV MVP (261 yds, 3 TD, first wild-card winner), 1980 Comeback Player of the Year, Super Bowl XVIII, only eligible 2× Super Bowl-winning starting QB outside Canton, Heisman + Super Bowl MVP
  2. Patriots.com: Spirit of '76 — trade terms (SF's two 1976 firsts, 1977 first and second, Tom Owen), Brock and Fox in 1976, Clayborn and Ivory in 1977, first winning season since 1966, 11-3
  3. Pats Pulpit: Pats' Past — the Plunkett trade — April 5, 1976 terms (#12, #21, #16, #44, Owen), 49ers' 5-9 season with three starting QBs, Plunkett's 23-38 record and 87/62 TD-INT line, Brock/Fox/Clayborn career details, 11-3 and the playoffs
  4. Wikipedia: 1976 NFL draft — #12 Pete Brock (C, Colorado) and #21 Tim Fox (S, Ohio State) by New England, the latter "Houston via San Francisco"
  5. Wikipedia: 1977 NFL draft — #16 Raymond Clayborn (CB, Texas) by New England "from San Francisco"
  6. Wikipedia: List of San Francisco 49ers first-round draft picks — Vic Washington sent to Houston for the Oilers' 1976 first-rounder (#21) and 1977 third-rounder (#65); SF's 1976 and 1977 picks traded to New England for Plunkett
  7. Pro Football Hall of Fame: 1976 NFL draft list — Tim Fox pick marked "[from Hou thru SF]"
  8. Patriots Hall of Fame: Raymond Clayborn — 1977–89, three Pro Bowls (1983, 1985, 1986), franchise-record 36 interceptions (tied by Ty Law), 2017 induction
  9. Horace Ivory — Wikipedia — 44th overall 1977, New England 1977–81 then Seattle, 1978 (141 att, 693 yds, 11 TD), All-Pro kick returner 1980, two Oklahoma national titles
  10. Tom Owen — Wikipedia) — SF 1974–75, New England 1976–81, Washington 1982 (Super Bowl XVII champion), Giants 1983
  11. The Football Database: Tom Owen stats — 322nd overall, 13th round 1974; 1974 rookie line (184 att, 10 TD, 15 INT, 1,327 yds, 4-3); five passes thrown for New England in 1976; one start in 1981
  12. Mike Haynes — Pro Football Hall of Fame — fifth overall 1976, first defensive back taken; HOF 1997
  13. Mike Haynes — Wikipedia) — contract awarded to Raiders November 1983, started Super Bowl XVIII victory with an interception
  14. The Harvard Crimson: Plunkett Traded (April 6, 1976) — contemporary report: Plunkett to the 49ers for Tom Owen and draft choices
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About this article: it was drafted with AI assistance from the Football Trade Trees database and public reporting, then reviewed by a human editor. Spot an error? Email [email protected].