NFL Team Yearbooks: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[nicefellow31]

They’re all propaganda, and yet, I enjoy them. You get a time capsule of obscurantia/nostalgia.

I’ve not seen them all by any means, but the Packers films of my youth are probably funny. I’m sure there’s fawning montages to the coming stardom of Alphonso Carreker and Jessie Clark.

Oh yeah. When I was in high school I was fascinated with "Black and Blue" division. I taped all the yearbooks with the exception of Tampa Bay that covered the 1984 season. Watched them numerous times You got it right about Alphonso Carreker being talked about as a future star. Donnie Humphrey too. On the Detroit Lions, they talked about the arrival of Daryl Rodgers as head coach. Doug English was interviewed and he said that Rodgers coaching style reminded him of Bill Walsh!

[ShinobiMusashi]

The later 80's Cowboys episodes when they were going through the down Landry years are a fun watch. "If the NFL were Wrestlemania, Danny Noonan would be Hulk Hogan" coldest line ever delivered in history of NFL Films. Steve Sabol was cooking when he wrote that.

[Citizen]

I’ve not seen them all by any means, but the Packers films of my youth are probably funny. I’m sure there’s fawning montages to the coming stardom of Alphonso Carreker and Jessie Clark.

Those are pretty great. That's where I learned that Gary Ellerson was "a solid contributor," Randy Wright finished in the top half of the league in completion percentage, and that the 1986 Packers "never stopped trying."

[Jay Z]

I liked the yearbooks as I like to see all the highlights of the year. I didn't like it when they showed too much of players or coaches heads talking or tried to get too artistic, I just wanted to see the best plays and games. I have noticed some were more honest about a team's shortcomings such as the 1970 Redskins Yearbook.

I like the earlier ones better, 1965 and prior, where there isn't a storyline and it's just plays, including good ones by the other team. When they started including plays called back by penalty as highlights it got a lot worse for me.

One where they didn't mince words was the 1974 Falcons, they said they stunk. I don't know how many highlights they could get out of a team that scored 111 points. They talked a lot about Steve Bartkowski.

[ShinobiMusashi]

The 1993 Falcons preview of the 94 season June Jones saying he has what it takes to get the best out of Jeff George and get along with him, eek.

His talk about choosing Jeff George over the 94 draft class of QB's got me thinking, could the Falcons have tried harder to go after Moon coming out of Houston in 94? I know Houston didn't ask much for him, a lot of teams looking back would have been wise to gamble on the old man, he put in some excellent seasons in 94-95, and even though had a down year in 96 bounced back with one of his best seasons in 97(when he finally had speed to stretch the field in Galloway in Seattle). June Jones ended up being right about the 94 rookie QB class but he went with the wrong guy in George I think. They fell apart harder in 1996 than Moon's decline was in Minny that year(where he got benched for Brad Johnson).