Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Last night I stumbled on the fact that Pro Football Reference has some All Decade Teams. For the 50s, I liked the addition of some HOVG players like Tank Younger, but not having Otto Graham on the team seems kind of bizarre to me. I'm curious how they justify it.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... e_1950.htm

The HoF all decade teams are interesting and many of the players named are reasonable choices (though that gets to be more of a problem on some of the older squads, especially when trying to account for actual positions in the 20s, 30s, etc.). But there are some issues with all of them. With the one from the 50s, the problems include:

Jim Parker at guard when he played tackle during the decade.
Joe Fortunato on the team when none of his honors came during the decade.
Bobby Walston on this team at all.

Significant omissions include Stan Jones, Billy Howton, Billy Wilson, Jack Butler, Tommy McDonald, and Bobby Dillon, among others.

And none of this includes the problems inherent to choosing the numerical decades as basis. Players like Jim Ray Smith and Jimmy Patton overlap both the 50s and 60s and are left in no-man's land as a result.

As for the PFR all decade teams, I find the presence of Jim Marshall on both the 60s and 70s teams a non-starter for taking them seriously.

I'm glad you mentioned the 20s. The best team I've seen is from the book "The Pro Football Chronicle" by Dan Daly & Bob O'Donnell:

E Guy Chamberlin
T Ed Healey
G Gus Sonnenberg
G Jim McMillen
C Clyde Smith
T Duke Slater
E Lavie Dilweg
B Benny Friedman
B/Kicker Paddy Driscoll
B Tony Latone
B Ernie Nevers

Returner Two Bits Holman
Punter Fats Henry
Wild Card Selection Charlie Berry
Enforcer George Trafton

I bolded the players not on the HOF team.

TanksAndSpartans wrote:I'm glad you mentioned the 20s. The best team I've seen is from the book "The Pro Football Chronicle" by Dan Daly & Bob O'Donnell:

E Guy Chamberlin
T Ed Healey
G Gus Sonnenberg
G Jim McMillen
C Clyde Smith
T Duke Slater
E Lavie Dilweg
B Benny Friedman
B/Kicker Paddy Driscoll
B Tony Latone
B Ernie Nevers

Returner Two Bits Holman
Punter Fats Henry
Wild Card Selection Charlie Berry
Enforcer George Trafton

I bolded the players not on the HOF team.

I liked the picks those guys made, included them on the combined all decade charts a few years back

http://nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com/ ... -team.html

http://nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com/ ... 1960s.html

http://nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com/ ... teams.html

http://nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com/ ... on_66.html

http://nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com/ ... 2000s.html

Thanks for the links. Chris Willis had their book all the way up at #2. I was definitely impressed with their analysis of the early years of the league. I've read a good bit about the Frankford Yellow Jackets and it never dawned on me to think of Holman as a top special teams player of the decade.