Really, Really Trivial...

[Evan]

Worst back-to-back pass defense games ever -- Houston Oilers.

Last game of 1982 - Ken Anderson completes NFL record 20 passes in a row en route to 27 of 31, 323 yards, 2 TDs.
First game of 1983 - Lynn Dickey completes first 18 passes of game en route to 27 of 31 for 333 yards, 5 TDs. Dickey played the game with severe migraines and didn't remember most of it afterward.

Another odd note, those 1983 Houston Oilers fielded a team with five Hall of Famers (Campbell, Munchak, Matthews, Casper, Brazile) and wound up going 2-14. Most HOFers ever for a team that won 2 games or less?

In fact were six, with Bethea, but they dealt Casper to Minnesota at mid-season.

Great catch, I should not have missed Mr. Bethea. I thought it was interesting that none of the six HOFers were near their peak. Campbell was probably the closest to his peak, but the rest it could be said were not yet on the way up or were considered on the way down.

[Evan]

What's the most consecutive plays with the same player catching a pass? Eric Sievers caught passes on three straight plays for San Diego against Seattle on Sept. 18, 1983. Anyone catch the ball on four straight plays or more?

I was just reviewing an old Gamebook a few days ago and saw this from 9/9/2001 game between Bears and Ravens.

2-12-BLT 30 (11:22) S. Matthews pass to M. Booker to BLT 22 for 8 yards (J.Sharper, J.Trapp).
3-4-BLT 22 (10:32) S. Matthews pass to M. Booker to BLT 18 for 4 yards (C.Harris). P4
1-10-BLT 18 (9:51) S. Matthews pass to M. Booker pushed ob at BLT 9 for 9 yards (J.Trapp).
2-1-BLT 9 (9:22) S. Matthews pass to M. Booker to BLT 5 for 4 yards (J.Sharper). P5

4 consecutive plays. They were all Quick passes/WR screens.

That's a great catch (no pun intended). It is amazing the kinds of trivial stuff you just happen to notice by watching old games, reading old articles, or browsing through old gamebooks, that there is no record of anywhere else. It's great to have a Forum like this to share this kind of stuff, just in case anyone else thinks it's interesting.

[John Grasso]

How many of you know that there was an NFL coach who compiled a winning percentage of .737 over his 2 years
in the league. He has the top winning percentage for all coaches in his franchise.
In college he played four sports - football, basketball, swimming and water polo and was a ICAAAA backstroke champion
in 2 years.
As a college coach he coached football, basketball, baseball and track in the same year as well as being the
school's athletic director.
But what I found most remarkable about him was that he won an Olympic Gold medal in rugby.

His name was Dudley DeGroot and until yesterday (when I came across an article about him in a 1946 newspaper)
I had never heard of him.

[rhickok1109]

How many of you know that there was an NFL coach who compiled a winning percentage of .737 over his 2 years
in the league. He has the top winning percentage for all coaches in his franchise.
In college he played four sports - football, basketball, swimming and water polo and was a ICAAAA backstroke champion
in 2 years.
As a college coach he coached football, basketball, baseball and track in the same year as well as being the
school's athletic director.
But what I found most remarkable about him was that he won an Olympic Gold medal in rugby.

His name was Dudley DeGroot and until yesterday (when I came across an article about him in a 1946 newspaper)
I had never heard of him.

He also coached the Los Angeles Dons of the AAFC to a 14-12-2 record in 1946-47.

I know of DeGroot because I wrote brief biographies of him for my Who Was Who in American Sports and A Who's Who of Sports Champions.

[JWL]

Ron Meyer was an NFL head coach in nine seasons but never had double digit wins or double digit losses in any of those seasons.

[Rupert Patrick]

Jeff Fisher in Houston/Tennessee had 16 full seasons as their Head Coach, six were above .500, five were below .500, and five seasons he finished .500. His five seasons where he led his team to .500 finishes is the most of any HC in pro football history. Next was Don Shula, who finished .500 four times in Miami, and Weeb Ewbank, who finished .500 twice in Baltimore and twice with the Jets. I found six coaches who had three .500 seasons, Mike Shanahan, Allie Sherman, Marvin Lewis, Dennis Erickson, Jason Garrett and Bobby Ross, with San Diego and Detroit. I'm pretty sure that is all of them who had three or more .500 seasons as a head coach.

I did a little review of the teams that have finished .500 in pro football history since 1933. The team who has finished the most seasons since 1933 at .500 is the New York Football Jets at 11, they did it in 1960, 61, 66, 72, 74, 78, 79, 91, 93, 99, 2011 and 2013. Of the 32 current NFL teams, the Tampa Bay Bucs have only finished .500 one time, in 1998. The current team who has gone the longest since they last finished .500 was the Browns, whose last .500 season was in 1985, but they were out of the NFL from 1996-98. Among those who have been in the league continuously, that would be the Bucs and Seahawks, and the last season they finished .500 was 1998 for both of them.

[JeffreyMiller]

How many of you know that there was an NFL coach who compiled a winning percentage of .737 over his 2 years
in the league. He has the top winning percentage for all coaches in his franchise.
In college he played four sports - football, basketball, swimming and water polo and was a ICAAAA backstroke champion
in 2 years.
As a college coach he coached football, basketball, baseball and track in the same year as well as being the
school's athletic director.
But what I found most remarkable about him was that he won an Olympic Gold medal in rugby.

His name was Dudley DeGroot and until yesterday (when I came across an article about him in a 1946 newspaper)
I had never heard of him.

A member of the Pop Warner coaching tree …

[conace21]

Worst back-to-back pass defense games ever -- Houston Oilers.

Last game of 1982 - Ken Anderson completes NFL record 20 passes in a row en route to 27 of 31, 323 yards, 2 TDs.
First game of 1983 - Lynn Dickey completes first 18 passes of game en route to 27 of 31 for 333 yards, 5 TDs. Dickey played the game with severe migraines and didn't remember most of it afterward.

Another odd note, those 1983 Houston Oilers fielded a team with five Hall of Famers (Campbell, Munchak, Matthews, Casper, Brazile) and wound up going 2-14. Most HOFers ever for a team that won 2 games or less?

Back to the 1958 Packers again! (See the thread about the best 1-win times.)

The 1958 Packers had seven Hall-of-Famers (Starr, Hornung, Taylor, Nitschke, Ringo, Gregg, and Jerry Kramer) and went 1-10-1.

The 1958 Packers had an 8th HOF player, Len Ford. He was in the final season of his career, but he did start most of the season.

[JKelly]

Roman Gabriel's league leading 3,219 passing yards in 1973 would have translated to a 6,175 yard passing season in 2017.



Umm maybe I'm being thick but could someone explain this one to me? It's not like the NFL stats work like inflation or they shortened the length of a yard. If you plop Roman into 2017 and he throws and completes the exact same number of passes other than the lack of tackling skills his stats should be the same more or less.

If your going to throw all the defensive rules changes and the fact that if Roman Gabriel played under the same rules as Tom Brady he would have won a Super Bowl with the 1999 Rams then okay I get it but there are a lot of unknowns to come up with 6,175 yards

[ChrisBabcock]

Roman Gabriel's league leading 3,219 passing yards in 1973 would have translated to a 6,175 yard passing season in 2017.



Umm maybe I'm being thick but could someone explain this one to me? It's not like the NFL stats work like inflation or they shortened the length of a yard. If you plop Roman into 2017 and he throws and completes the exact same number of passes other than the lack of tackling skills his stats should be the same more or less.

If your going to throw all the defensive rules changes and the fact that if Roman Gabriel played under the same rules as Tom Brady he would have won a Super Bowl with the 1999 Rams then okay I get it but there are a lot of unknowns to come up with 6,175 yards

I think some sort of adjustment for era is going on behind this statement. Like, average team passing yards per game in 2017 was 191% of what it was in 1973. 6,175 is 191% of 3,219. Yeah it could have been explained better. Either way, he really did have an amazing 1973 season.