Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Working on tracking down details of missed PATs (amongst other things) and noticed that Bill Tobin was listed in PFRA linescores with kicking two PATs for Houston on 12/8/1963.
Oddly, the official stats (well, those on nfl.com) say George Blanda kicked all of Houston's PATs that year.
Double checked the gamebook. Nope, Tobin is listed as kicking the Houston's final two PATs.
Checked the Houston Chronicle. They, too, list Tobin. Also, read in the Chronicle Houston was sacked ten times in that game. Also, noticed Blanda attempted 20 passes in that game, Jacky Lee 19. Then read "Blanda limped off the field at halftime on a gimpy left ankle. He tried to carry on in the second half, but he couldn't have dodged A Little Sister of the Poor. That's when Lee, Blanda's her apparent, took over."

nice job Tod, attention to detail

good job . . . interesting

Wow. We need an upvote button in the forum. Nice work, Tod.

Wow! Major find! I just went through all the XPs for the Oilers 1963 season here...

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/t ... i/1963.htm

I count 37 for Blanda, 2 for Tobin (from the game on 12/8/63)
p-f-r has all 39 credited to Blanda along with his 9 FGs giving him 66 points on the year.

Congrats to Tod on a great piece of research.

So... I’ll address the white elephant in the room. The NFL’s official total for Blanda is 2002, not 2000. It was even a record at one point. It seemed sort of “mythical” to me as a kid poring over lists of records. Similar to Simpson’s 2003 rushing yards. Do we, as the PFRA want to spearhead an effort to get this officially corrected? How would we go about doing that? I’m just thinking out loud here.

ChrisBabcock wrote:So... I’ll address the white elephant in the room. The NFL’s official total for Blanda is 2002, not 2000. It was even a record at one point. It seemed sort of “mythical” to me as a kid poring over lists of records. Similar to Simpson’s 2003 rushing yards. Do we, as the PFRA want to spearhead an effort to get this officially corrected? How would we go about doing that? I’m just thinking out loud here.

It's being looked into by the NFL. I have my doubts that they will change it.

TodMaher wrote:

ChrisBabcock wrote:So... I’ll address the white elephant in the room. The NFL’s official total for Blanda is 2002, not 2000. It was even a record at one point. It seemed sort of “mythical” to me as a kid poring over lists of records. Similar to Simpson’s 2003 rushing yards. Do we, as the PFRA want to spearhead an effort to get this officially corrected? How would we go about doing that? I’m just thinking out loud here.

It's being looked into by the NFL. I have my doubts that they will change it.

In that same vein (with respect to baseball), I recall in 1981, when The Sporting News had solid evidence about a mistake that affected the winner of the 1910 American League batting race, and all then-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn could say was to claim that a "statute of limitations" for such corrections should apply.

TodMaher wrote:

ChrisBabcock wrote:So... I’ll address the white elephant in the room. The NFL’s official total for Blanda is 2002, not 2000. It was even a record at one point. It seemed sort of “mythical” to me as a kid poring over lists of records. Similar to Simpson’s 2003 rushing yards. Do we, as the PFRA want to spearhead an effort to get this officially corrected? How would we go about doing that? I’m just thinking out loud here.

It's being looked into by the NFL. I have my doubts that they will change it.

"When legend becomes fact, print the legend." I suspect you are correct, Tod.