AAFC records now to be acknowledged by the NFL!

[Bob Gill]

-2 games less than the Ravens.
-Most of it with under center handoffs (I think), no Lamar Jackson taking off on passing plays (Albert pitched in with 350, solid, but not amazing at 5.1 ypg)
-A leading rusher I wasn't able to name. Can anyone guess without looking?

Can't recall the exact spelling, but I think it's the guy whose last name starts with Stryz.

[TanksAndSpartans]

-A leading rusher I wasn't able to name. Can anyone guess without looking?

Can't recall the exact spelling, but I think it's the guy whose last name starts with Stryz.

You got it: Johnny Strzykalski:

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... rzJo00.htm

My guess was Joe Perry .

I'd be lying if I said the monster YPCs some AAFC RBs managed to put up every year didn't bother me as well as 3x with 14 game seasons and what was a pretty weak league in '49. I actually think people were smart enough to make sense of things without doing this (look at all the AAFC HOFers).

[JohnTurney]

The only thing this probably changes is that Spec Sanders passes Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts for season rushing yards and TDs by a QB? Can't think of any other records still standing from the AAFC.

I believe the Yankees were still using the single wing in 1947 and Sanders was a halfback, not a quarterback.

Yes, that is right--he was a tailback. But that begs the question for pre-T passers. As you know as well as anyone, classifications back then are problematic. Tuffy Leemans (again, not saying anything you do not already know) was the fullback for Giants but was also the passer, and have seen Dutch Clark sometimes identified as a halfback as well as tailback. And so on --- Benny Friedman tailback but when he got in in HOF he was identified by modern media as a quarterback because was the passer ... so I wonder what they will do with Spec (Speck) Sanders ... kind of a post-facto reclassification.

They would be arguments either way

[TanksAndSpartans]

If not for the 1400 yard season, I don't think it would matter, but I hesitate to rank his '47 season with a comparable 1,000 yard season from a RB. To me, it isn't the same. Sanders was getting the snap directly several yards behind the LOS and the defense had to be wary of both the threat of the pass and the potential for a handoff to the "FB". Small sample size, but I've seen plays where he would fake to Young sprinting behind him (like an end around) going one way and run himself the other.

[TodMaher]

https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-s-official ... statistics

Is this an April Fool's Joke?

[Reaser]

About time.

I always argued that more of the AAFC than just 3 teams ended up in the NFL.

I'll just copy/paste what I said from one of the many discussions on this in the past:

"The NY Yanks were essentially the NY Yankees minus the 6 players that went to the Giants, and Brooklyn and NY merged while in the AAFC so that covers two AAFC teams. That doesn't even get into Topping on the front end (NFL to AAFC) ... The Buffalo owner took 25% ownership in the Browns and 3 Buffalo players with him. Saying Buffalo 'survived' wouldn't be the best way to put it, but in way ... at least if the owner is the franchise.

The Rams and Dons consolidated interests, though I've never figured out that full situation, I think the Dons owner passed on partial ownership of the Rams?

Which just leaves Chicago, which obviously there wasn't going to be 3 Chicago teams.

Buffalo is the only city that lost out (personally think they should have ended up in the NFL, but again, the owner took part of the Browns.) ...

Of course all of the players that were in the Allocation Draft.

I just think when it's phrased "only 3 teams survived" implies that 4 just died, when in reality a 4th team all but officially survived (by previous merger can say a 5th AAFC team), then the partial Browns/Bills merger brings the Bills (owner) with the Browns into the NFL, then whatever Rams/Dons interests were consolidated. All or part of pretty much every AAFC franchise except Chicago (not counting players) ended up in the NFL. A flimsy tack-on here could be to say that the NFL essentially lost the NY Bulldogs in the so-called 'merger' ..."

[Terry Baldshaw]

The ABA and the WHA should also be considered by the NBA and NHL .

[JuggernautJ]

https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-s-official ... statistics

Is this an April Fool's Joke?

That's what I thought, too.
I'm holding my breath before breaking out the champagne.

Although the NFL doesn't really have a sense of humor...

[RichardBak]

For Johnny Strzykalski fans, a pic of the last of his 31 AAFC/NFL touchdowns. It was a 1-yard run @ Detroit at tail end of the 1951 season. I'm using it in a picture book I'm doing on the 1950s Lions. That may be Don Doll looking down at him, but not sure.

Strzykalski TD at Detroit.png (217.35 KiB) Viewed 3848 times

[TodMaher]

https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-s-official ... statistics

Is this an April Fool's Joke?

That's what I thought, too.
I'm holding my breath before breaking out the champagne.

Although the NFL doesn't really have a sense of humor...

What's next? Counting the pre-1982 sacks as official?