I noticed he claims that defensive holding and pass interference penalties are now 'commonplace' but couldn't bother to look up if the number of calls per game is actually different.

In 1984 there was no internet, and therefore many fewer outlets for writers to publish their work. With that in mind I will discount Mike Freeman's entire career with an asterisk. Had he been writing then no one would have ever heard of him.

And Marino deserves an asterisk because he was playing at a time when Night Train Lane was no longer allowed to tackle people by their facemasks, or something. Offensive philosophies in the '80s were starting to shift toward more emphasis on the passing game. They wouldn't have let Y.A. Tittle or Otto Graham throw as many passes as Marino did. So that must warrant an asterisk, too. Man's argument really doesn't make much sense, but then again, he's a sportswriter. Most of them are blithering idiots.

downtownkid: In 1984 there was no internet, and therefore many fewer outlets for writers to publish their work. With that in mind I will discount Mike Freeman's entire career with an asterisk. Had he been writing then no one would have ever heard of him.

Those lucky, lucky bastards...

I was more interested in the fact that Hines Ward is in the Batman trailer (one of the last bullet points) - I saw the trailer and had no idea it was him.

To his main point, he can EABOD

chimp_ninja: I noticed he claims that defensive holding and pass interference penalties are now 'commonplace' but couldn't bother to look up if the number of calls per game is actually different.

If the statistics don't back up your point, just pretend they don't exist

Harpy article is harpy. Records set today are less impressive than records set last decade. Or the decade before. In every sport. Including women's college basketball. In other words, the columnist just needed to fill space for this week's assignment because he couldn't come up with something better. I think I'll submit a column to cbssports.com: "Why My Favorite Sport Was Much Better Yesterday Than It Is Today, or How To Shut Up and Enjoy Great Feats of Athleticism". I could make millions.

/sarcasm meter is high today

So, should any MLB pitching record recorded before 1969* be denoted with an asterisk as well?

*The year MLB lowered the mound

/Games & rules evolved
//So do strategies

Paging robsul82 to the white courtesy phone.

Well, sh*t, let's put asterisks on all records then, since different eras do represent completely different rules and styles of play.

And, while it is certainly easier for WRs to get downfield in today's game than in '84, coverages are completely different. I don't think Marino faced a single defensive alignment where the middle linebacker retreated 20+ yards downfield to defend seam routes in a Tampa 2 shell.

Killer Cars: Well, sh*t, let's put asterisks on all records then, since different eras do represent completely different rules and styles of play.

And, while it is certainly easier for WRs to get downfield in today's game than in '84, coverages are completely different. I don't think Marino faced a single defensive alignment where the middle linebacker retreated 20+ yards downfield to defend seam routes in a Tampa 2 shell.

Bud Carson created that defense in the 70s. He had Jack Lambert doing it.

/currently reading Jaworski's book

Killer Cars: Well, sh*t, let's put asterisks on all records then, since different eras do represent completely different rules and styles of play.

And, while it is certainly easier for WRs to get downfield in today's game than in '84, coverages are completely different. I don't think Marino faced a single defensive alignment where the middle linebacker retreated 20+ yards downfield to defend seam routes in a Tampa 2 shell.

Love that you used an asterisk in "shiat." Gave me a nice chuckle.

/What you did there
//I saw it

FTA: "Defensive holding is commonplace now and pass interference calls are astronomically high. It's incredible to watch. It seems as often as not, a long pass downfield ends up in a penalty on the defensive player. This alters how a defender plays a wide receiver. Inevitably, fearing a penalty, a larger cushion is given.."

So a modern QB doesn't get credited with passing yards for a lot of long passes downfield because of all the pass interference calls? Not sure what the point of this is? Also, Brees is breaking Marino's record by throwing more and being more accurate, not by long passes down the field. Again, this argument doesn't make any sense.

Also, what about all the passing yards that Marino got on plays when the receiver got pushed out of bounds?

Well sure there needs to be an *....Brees has actually won a Super Bowl.

Dan Marino should die of gonorrhea and rot in hell. Would you like a cookie, son?

What a nonsense faux outrage article. Given that once upon a time, the regular season used to be ten games and some day it will be 18 games, I'd say that's a bigger issue than some minor rule changes.

His throws were unbelievably accurate and he did this during a ferocious era of NFL defense. The 1980s were one of the more violent in football when athleticism on the defensive side of the ball, in many ways, was better than the offense.

Yeah, the people on the defensive side of the line are now slow, small, unathletic, and meek by comparison. Suh wouldn't have even made 2nd team in 1984.

The forward pass used to be illegal, therefore all passing records should be asterisked. Like the national parks, yet another Teddy Roosevelt blunder that resonates to this day.

If you can't keep the sand out of your vagina stay off the beach.

Boxcutta: What a nonsense faux outrage article. Given that once upon a time, the regular season used to be ten games and some day it will be 18 games, I'd say that's a bigger issue than some minor rule changes.

Beat me to it.

Another QB article, another pic of the best QB to ever start in the NFL...



///No asterisk * needed

Playing devil's advocate for a second:

In 1984 there were 3 QBs who threw for 4000 yards and 13 for 3000 yards.
In 2011 there are 6 QBs who have thrown for 4000 yards and 15 for 3000 yards with 2 games remaining. In all likelyhood, these two numbers will increase to 10 and 20 (depending on injuries) by the end of the year.


Clearly, they are two different eras.

Failure. The reason there should be an asterisk is because defensive backs no longer know how to tackle.

The disheartening part for us Dolphins fans is we could have prevented this from happening by signing Brees when we had the chance. He would never have put up the numbers he did passing to Marty Booker or Cliff Russell.

/But maybe Welker would have stayed?

Reading this article, you can practically smell the onions hanging from the writer's belt.

Nabb1: roc6783: Another QB article, another pic of the best QB to ever start in the NFL...

[truelifewellness.com image 300x410]

///No asterisk * needed

FTFY

Welcome to the favs

/roc6783 is already farkied as "Funny Pack fan."

IMO * are reserved for those who won a record while on performance enhancing drugs.

degenerate-afro: Boxcutta: What a nonsense faux outrage article. Given that once upon a time, the regular season used to be ten games and some day it will be 18 games, I'd say that's a bigger issue than some minor rule changes.

That's bugs me when people talk about "1,000 yard rushers". It's not as hard to get 1000 yards in 16 games as it was back when it was 14 games. But for some reason the two extra games don't bug me when talking about passing records and titles. I'm not sure why. Maybe because a passing titles requires a group effort while the 1,000 yard rusher is an individual title. A good passer with crappy receivers isn't going to get a passing title, but a good runner with a crappy o-line can still get a rushing title.

See: Sanders, Barry

FriarReb98: KJUW89: Boxcutta: What a nonsense faux outrage article. Given that once upon a time, the regular season used to be ten games and some day it will be 18 games, I'd say that's a bigger issue than some minor rule changes.

Beat me to it.

It's why, to figure out who really belongs in a hall of fame, you should do per-game numbers by era. Makes figuring that stuff out a lot more obvious.

Sometimes numbers don't exist, though. If sacks had been an official statistic when Deacon Jones was playing, he might still have the record. There are also guys who don't look that good statistically, who could, and frequently did have enormous impact on the outcome of games they played in. I think this is especially true of certain positions, like fullback, or nose tackle.

Nabb1: roc6783: Another QB article, another pic of the best QB to ever start in the NFL...

[truelifewellness.com image 300x410]

///No asterisk * needed

FTFY

Haha, nice try, but seriously, Rodgers is better.

And of course *Mr. Sportswriter, there was also a time* before anyone could run* a sub-4:00 mile, *so anyone after that should get *an asterisk*

/*

studleystudstutterson: Clearly, they are two different eras.

I don't think anyone's disputing that, but it's intellectually lazy and disingenuous to cherry-pick one obvious difference between the two "eras" (namely, the rules nowadays making it harder to cover receivers one-on-one), and make the declaration that "well, what Brees is doing in 2011 is so easy compared to Marino in 1984, so, LOLASTRRISKK".

SuperChuck: Bud Carson created that defense in the 70s. He had Jack Lambert doing it.

D'oh...I didn't think that came into the NFL until later on in the 80's, and of course is pervasive throughout the league now. Either way, downfield coverage schemes are more complex now compared to then. Does this writer honestly think as the league has trended to make the rules more offense-friendly, that defensive coordinators have just sat on their hands and said "oh well" and rolling the dice with the same strategies, as opposed to trying to compensate for new rules and offensive schemes and change what they do?

The best



Then the rest...

Nana's Vibrator: Can't forget about how his passing yards don't really correlate with wins or rings. In the same era that Marino was throwing for all those yards, another QB used his passing abilities to win games. This man's quarterbacking included completion percentage, late-down conversions, yards after catch....etc.
How can you even put Marino in a conversation when he was such a one-dimensional jerkoff?

While the one SB he did make, he ended up losing, I don't think it's a fair criticism. It's a team game. Most of the teams he had around him in Miami were otherwise dreadful. If your running back never averages 4 yards per attempt, do you really keep giving him the ball? Without Marino, Miami would probably have been indistinguishable from the Tampa Bay teams of the era.