Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Why were Merton Hanks and Ken Norton Jr. not good in your opinion? And out of curiosity, since you said the media had a bias in favor of that team, was Dana Stubblefield any good? (he won the defensive player of the year in 1997) Hanks was a showboat who got a lot of fluky INT's, wore a bandanna, a...

What if the Bears don’t win 1977’s Slush Bowl and miss the playoffs? Washington instead would have played LA in the Mud Bowl I actually can see the Redskins pulling off the upset that year in LA before falling in Dallas. Also, if this leads to George Allen getting an extension, then maybe Bill Wals...

No knock on Deion at all, but I find that interesting. They went from having the 1994 defensive player of the year in Sanders to having two players who received votes for the award in 1995 in Merton Hanks and Ken Norton Jr. Hanks and Norton weren't good players. They got votes because the media had...

On page 10 of this thread, I talked about how KC could have had Troy Aikman. They aren't the only ones. In Week 1 of the 1988 season, this happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geH3xsQF5m0 Then, in Week 13, the Steelers were able to beat KC 16-10 after Steve DeBerg overthrew a wide open Kittrick...

Who's better between the Saints & Packers, '83, not a bad idea for a thread. Would NO's defense despite their offense have been able to take advantage of a falling Dallas team as the Rams were able to do? Would Green Bay's offense have been able to do the same despite their defense? NO almost w...

I heard that the Falcons were also looking at Thomas, but he went to SF because he was friends with Eddie D.

He probably doesn't do much better in Atlanta. They probably fire him, and maybe they hire Eddie Lebaron a few years later (and maybe Dan Reeves takes the HC job and doesn't go to Denver).

One key is that DEN had the previous Super Debacles looming over their heads- PIT/CLE wouldn't have had that pressure.

Especially the Steelers. Bubby Brister would have been too young and devil may care to know that he is supposed to get slammed.

As for a hypothetical SB..... I don't think Leeman Bennett would have had ATL as uptight ala Vermeil. Bartkowski couldn't have fared any worse than Jaws did. The Raiders routed the Falcons the year before (50-19 in Week 7). In that game, Atlanta out-gained the Raiders (434-347) but had six turnover...

The 73 Raiders lost 4 games and had a tie. They barely held off Denver in their own division, plus benefitted from a playoff rotation where they avoided Cincinnati. That was by far OAK’s weakest team of the Madden era 1970 seemed to be a bit weaker, but 1973 wasn't far off. The next three years, th...

The 84 Chargers are more intriguing 0-8 in the AFC West but 7-1 against the rest of the league (including wins over Miami AND Chicago) Right. I remember PRO! magazine doing a feature on the AFC West at the end of that season (being the toughest division in football, which it was in spades). I am al...