Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

RichardBak wrote:Dick "Night Train" Lane---14 seasons with LA, Detroit, and Cards and not a single postseason appearance (well, outside of Pro Bowls and Playoff Bowls). The closest he ever got was his sensational rookie season of 1952, when he was injured in last game of regular season and missed the following week's divisional tie-breaker vs Lions. If he'd been healthy, who knows---the Rams might've won their 4th straight conference crown and gone on to successfully defend their title vs Cleveland.

Wow! Someone as not-so-unknowledgeable as myself assumed all this time that Night Train had at least one Ring! No playoff appearances either??? I thought his time with Detroit was during those championship years!

Bryan wrote:The YA Tittle segment in the NFL Films Best Ever Quarterbacks video made me tear up as a kid.

I don't know if that's the one I first became familiar with long ago, or another NFL Films piece on him, but whatever it was its what makes me place he - and Marino - as, pretty much, the first two whom I'd think of upon reading this thread's title (if the piece showed he and his wife sitting on a couch being interviewed with his wife giving an anecdote about hearing one of his games on the radio, then that's the one). The beatings he took, those three-straight championship defeats, he also being apart of that '57 heart breaker to Detroit, etc.

Yes, Dan also who I first think of. To play in that Super Bowl in 'Year Two' ("oh, he'll be in many more")...yes, painful! However, he sadly never had the total team around him most of his career, simple as that. And if he ever did have "enough", it simply wasn't enough for there'd be an even-better team or teams in their way (or an upset to a 9-7 team in the divisional round before even meeting that better team).

Hail Casares wrote:Dan Marino is high on my list. Always feel like he deserved to get another shot at a title but Miami generally had terrible defenses during his peak and he was in the same division as the Buffalo Bills. 1985, 1990, 1992, and 1994 feel like the real "missed chances" for him.

-Could he have repeated his performance against the '85 Bears?

-Can the Giants stifle the Dolphins the way they did the Bills?

-Could he have gotten to the Cowboys and avoided the turnovers that doomed the Bills?

-Can he have gotten into a shootout with Steve Young?

In my opinion, da Bears win a rematch and not by a nail-biter either (Dolphins' D even worse in '85). But because Miami did best them in that forever-famous Wk#13 on MNF - and that Dolphins passing attack was the most potent Chi-town faced that year - it'll still be widely considered a legit 'what-if' debate among the masses (remember, though, Marino's Dolphins also handed juggernaut Denver a MNF-upset in '98, and we saw what happened in the playoffs).

1990, to me, is one of the two most respectable non-'84 Marino teams. They had the defense! But the one loss in their 8-1 start that year, was 20-3 to the G-men themselves at the Meadowlands. I do think Miami plays better in a hypo-SBXXV event, but not better enough. Giants by 10-or-more, IMO.

No way are they putting a dent into Big D two years later!

And two years after that, I think Dan certainly puts up a better showing than Stan did - as well as better than O'Donnell would have as well! They would have scored some. But the problem there would have (again) been their D whereas San Fran didn't have a problem there! Maybe not the 49 points that they actually did put up vs SD, but how about San Fran scoring 42 instead (to Miami's 20, or 21)? That Dolphin O, though, made them 'dangerous' going into those '94 playoffs and even Steeler-fan me was a little worried. Not a lot, but a little. We barely beat them, at home, in OT.

1983 is the other of the two non-'84 Marino teams I respect! If they avert that close upset to Seattle and somehow get into Tampa Bay three weeks later (given just how bad the defending-Champs actually played that day vs LA), Miami may actually punch-in that Lombardi in 'Year One' of Dan! Just one problem though...(despite #13 rallying them in their regular-season match once he got in late)...I just don't see them getting by the Raiders who were simply on-fire once the playoffs began! And Raiders were still in midst of their 6-0 hold on them (beating them even in '79, '81, and '84 despite Dolphins finishing with a better record).

Yeah, it starts with Y.A. and Dan with me. Then I open up the can-of-worms by thinking of Butkus/Sayers which immediately leads to Fearsome Foursome, '70s Vikings, '90s Bills (except Beebe, that is), etc, etc. So many all-time-greats to mention!

As for one not mentioned yet on this thread...

LEO NOMELLINI?

I had to think about it for a moment. . .John Hannah. His team beats MIA in Miami for the first time since the 1960s and finally makes it to the Super Bowl (in what turned out to be his last season) only to run into an absolute buzz-saw that was simply NOT going to be denied. That had to hurt.

I feel for Dan Marino myself but some people in Miami felt he was all about throwing as well and never wanted to establish or stay with the running game, even when Johnson coached. Like Jurgensen, Fouts and even Stafford, coaches wanted to throw the ball, Shula included, but the defenses always suffered without getting enough rest, because these QBs either scored quickly or turned the ball over. Marino won consistently however and attacked the opposing endzone while many QBs today dont throw towards the endzone enough, they just throw short and hope the receiver takes it all the way.

Maybe Hugh McElhenny. Just the two playoff games, on the wrong end of a big comeback in '57 and he mentioned if he hadn't been caught from behind on a long run, maybe they win. Then at 35 in '63, a sad day for Tittle too.

Brian wolf wrote:I loved watching John Hannah and Dwight Stephenson maul defenders. Both really deserved a ring ...

S.I. had a cover in (I believe) 1980 showing John Hannah as "The Best Offensive Lineman, Ever" and from what I've read Dwight Stephenson was maybe the best OL in the league in the 1980s. Better even than Anthony Muñoz. Who wouldn't LOVE to see how John Hannah and Dwight Stephenson would've done against Aaron Donald?

74_75_78_79_ wrote:


1990, to me, is one of the two most respectable non-'84 Marino teams. They had the defense! But the one loss in their 8-1 start that year, was 20-3 to the G-men themselves at the Meadowlands. I do think Miami plays better in a hypo-SBXXV event, but not better enough. Giants by 10-or-more, IMO.

No way are they putting a dent into Big D two years later!

That loss to the Giants was really early in the season, IIRC. I don't think the Giants win that game by 10 or more. I think it's really close. You have to think the Giants strategy somewhat stays the same as it was vs the Bills. Can Marino do more than Kelly?

The 1992 Cowboys-Bills SB was weirdly closer than many thought. I rewatched it a week or so ago and forgot that the Bills were only down 14-10 late into the second quarter before they imploded with turnovers on their last two drives and the Cowboys quick struck them twice in two minutes to take a 31-10 lead. The Bills had something like 9 turnovers in that game that completely submerged them and Kelly got hurt. Assuming Marino wouldn't get hurt and the Dolphins don't turn it over 9(?!) times. I think the game is at least competitive.

Brian Dawkins, all time great, leader, class act who's career stretched into three-decades.

Fran Tarkento

JeffreyMiller wrote:Fran Tarkento

Actually, Fran "Fat Frankie" Tarkento was Fran Tarkenton's brother-in-law. He was in the carting business in Jersey.

Racepug, if you have never watched Dwight Stephenson play and want to, watch his game for the Dolphins against the 1985 Bears who were undefeated at the time on MNF. Stephenson was lifting and throwing William Perry around like a bag of wet leaves on the lawn. The best center I ever saw on TV but I liked Jim Ringo's quickness on NFL Films.