Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Hey, if the NFL says it's Thursday, it's Thursday, and that's that.

I don't put any stock in consecutive-game streaks of any kind, but I seem to recall that Dan Abramowicz had a long streak that broke or threatened the record at the time, whatever it was. Ditto for Mel Gray of the Cardinals a few years later.

That's all true, but 1995 was a spike, not a new plateau. Receiving yards fell by 200 yards per game in 1996, and continued falling by another 100 yards per game in 1997. That can't be right, can it? If receiving yards fell by 200 yards per game, that would be the same as passing yards falling by 2...

Reaser wrote:I'de prefer four 8-team divisions with just those 4 division winners making the playoffs.

I'd like that too -- in baseball as well as football, though they'd have to add two more teams in baseball to make it work.

I seem to remember that the Sporting News carried box scores for all WFL games, though I don't know whether they were "complete" to the degree you might want. That is, I can't guarantee that they included punt returns and that sort of thing.

Todd Pence wrote:There's a concise history on this in the book THE HIDDEN GAME OF FOOTBALL.

I believe it has that mistaken bit about using only completion percentage from 1938 to 1940, though. Otherwise, I think it's the same list that Matt found earlier -- and maybe it came from the same original source.

What "system" does the NFL/PFRA people use to recognize historic passing leaders? The rating system that was in use as that time, or applying the current rating system to past seasons? I don't believe there's any way to compare passers across eras simply by using statistics. The standards...

Jerry Goldsteyn was a lousy QB backup on the Giants, backed up Picarcek. Had played for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the Continental Football League Goldsteyn didn't play in the Continental League, or any of the top minor leagues of the 1960s. That was way too early for him, anyway. He was 15 years old ...

Just a handful out of many, off the top of my head: Bob Kuechenberg and Jeff Van Note both played in the Continental League in 1969 before launching long NFL careers. Ted Vactor, a defensive back who was outstanding on kick coverage with the Redskins in the 1970s, started out in one of the minor lea...

1938-1940: Percentage of completions I've seen this before, but I'm not sure it's right. Just to take one example off the top of my head, Frankie Filchock was not the leader in 1939 despite completing more than 60 percent of his passes, far better than Parker Hall, the official leader. It could be ...