Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

A few years ago there was an intriguing article in the Coffin Corner about apparent mistakes in Jim Brown's rushing stats for 1962 -- several games where his totals didn't match what was reported in the presumably official play-by-play accounts. I don't remember all the details, but Brown has always been credited with 996 yards that season, but if the play-by-play accounts are correct, he actually finished with something like 1,012, or maybe a bit more.

Several of us went through the play-by-plays to double-check the results, and as far as I know, we all came to the same conclusion. As I recall, the PFRA was going to put together a report and send it to the Elias bureau, in the hope that they'd do a similar check and correct Brown's record if they agreed. But I don't believe we've ever heard anything about it since then.

So my question is, does anybody know what became of that request? Did Elias just ignore it? Is somebody working on it as we speak?

Unless there's complete film of every Browns game in 1962, they won't change his total based on the play-by-play.

Anyone have a link to the article? There doesn't seem to be a fast way to search PFRA articles - I tried Google but it didn't turn up for me.

TodMaher wrote:Unless there's complete film of every Browns game in 1962, they won't change his total based on the play-by-play.

They haven't changed errors even when there is complete film so it was a long shot to begin with.

TanksAndSpartans wrote:Anyone have a link to the article? There doesn't seem to be a fast way to search PFRA articles - I tried Google but it didn't turn up for me.

The article was written by Brian Marshall and was titled “Rushing to Judgment: Recovering Jim Brown’s Lost Yardage in 1962.” It was also the cover story for that particular issue (vol. 35, no. 3) back in 2013. If you don't have an actual physical copy of the magazine, you can download the PDF from the Members Only section here:

http://www.profootballresearchers.com/members-only.htm

Anyone that wants is welcome to verify the results for themselves, it's an easy experiment to run. All you’d need to do is download the gamebooks for the Browns that year (Gamebooks section of Members Only) and add up his rushing totals. Fun with numbers!

Thanks Mark. I'll check it out - I don't think I got that one in the mail - it probably predates my membership.

I know statistics used to get changed. Ace Gutowsky broke Cliff Battles career rushing yards record, but it was later revised, and now he no longer appears on the list of players who held that mark.