Super Bowl LX, 2/8/26 Levi's Stadium

[sheajets]

In hindsight, the real SB was the NFC Championship game.

Seahawks/Rams being the real SB says all I need to know how watered down and mediocre a season this was

It was. And with Kansas City finally having that lost season that just never turned around, unable to right the ship or find any kind of offensive rhythm, with Baltimore running hot and cold...it's defense being uncharacteristically subpar, the Steelers being very pedestrian...things could not have been set up more perfectly for the Buffalo Bills. That Denver game is the latest in a long list of postseason nightmares. Though they very easily could've lost to Jacksonville the week before

[sheajets]

Its really amazing how many players constantly move around these days. It really is, a results driven league rather than patient player development. A player either has it down with a team or system within 2-3 years, or he is gone and replaced...

Which means to me, among other things, that there is a far greater emphasis on raw, physical talent and much less on teamwork, strategy, skill and development... things which used to constitute good football (and which football was supposed to "teach" the young people who played it).

Are today's athletes superior to what we saw in the earlier days of the NFL?
Absolutely, yes.

Are the teams proportionally better?
That's a matter of opinion but I would say "No."

What do you all think?
I know we're a bunch of old folks (i.e. historians) here but (in your opinion) is the game played today a better game than the one we grew up with?

For myself I'll just say that this season constituted and all-time low in live games watched and an all-time high in old games watched on youtube, etc.
I've gone from watching every game available to maybe one to two games a week... usually Sunday and Monday night. There are more games available and, being retired now, I am available to watch more of them but my viewership is probably 25% of what it once was. Whereas my watching older games has increased at least by the inverse of that number.
I hope NFL Marketing reads this and realizes it is the wave of the future if they don't get back to basics.

If you watch the old games, the talent today is clearly better. The old players were much more sloppy, more really bad passes and ints thrown, carrying the ball like a loaf of bread and fumbling a lot. Better play is why turnovers have gone down so much, teams spend a lot more time on ball security.

Passing percentages, kicker accuracy, you can't watch old games and say it was as good. Receivers getting their feet down in bounds, they nail it almost every time now, much sloppier in the past. The players practice their skills much more and much longer today, let's face it, and they are better at all of those things where it's a measurable skill.

On defense in the 1970s, you rarely had subs. They started doing the nickel backs then, and a few teams would maybe switch in someone for pass rush, most didn't but a few did. And that's it, no formation variations, no trying to confuse the playcalling. And no using 7 defensive linemen in a rotation the way Seattle did, the bench just didn't play very much.

Now this goes down to the lower levels too. College and High School ball are far better played than they were in the 1970s.

This doesn't mean you can't enjoy the old games, any more than you can enjoy High School or College ball today or prefer it the NFL (of course College ball is professional at this point.)

The reason there are more INT's is because it was far more difficult to throw the football back then as defenders were allowed to actually defend, as well as hit receivers hard. Of course you're going to have fewer interceptions when quarterbacks are overprotected, offensive linemen are allowed to extend their arms and get away with more holding, and are able to throw to wide open receivers constantly. Also the conditions of the games are sadly becoming more bland and more sanitized and it too has an impact on things. It's easier to throw the ball in boring climate controlled domes than Metropolitan Stadium in December or an impossibly windy day at Shea.

There were more fumbles back then yes, but again these guys were carrying the ball with their bare hands a lot of the time or gloves that helped their grip a bit. Some did use stickum which thankfully was banned...today they essentially have velcro/stickum gloves which are really a joke. I still remember seeing a game where a QB was throwing the ball to an RB wearing them. He turns around late and the ball is way behind him, so he just throws his left hand back in desperation and the ball (which has some zip on it) just thwap sticks the tip of the ball right into his palm and stops. He didn't even have to close his fingers over the ball.