Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

we maybe have talked about this before but this year I have found two more claims of "he changed the game"

Urlacher and how he played Tampa-2

Randy Moss... no specifics given
“Few players have changed the game,” Moss said. “Lawrence Taylor changed the game. I changed it. A few others changed it. I deserve first-ballot.”


I think I am going to try and list as many of these as I can. With so many people changing the game, it's a wonder we recognize it.

"Hester also changed the game with the NFL instilling the "Hester Rule" on kickoffs. The NFL changed the kickoff to the 25-yard line to help promote more touchbacks, ultimately limiting Hester's ability to take over games as a return man. Want to keep up with ..

Brian Dawkins was the first of those not the last but he changed the game

The reporter asked Vick whether the former Falcons' quarterback believes he should be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. “I'll let the people decide on that,” Vick said. The cameraman pressed, though, asking whether Vick thought he should be inducted. “Yeah, absolutely,” Vick said. “I changed the game.

Dwight Freeney: "I definitely, without a question in my mind, know I changed the game. Without a question. Like I said, before me, before Mathis, there was nobody like me. So when I got to the league and I was this 6-1, 268, 265 pounds, he was this undersized guy. He's only a situation guy. Once I proved to them that hey, it's actually possible. I'm not playing basketball here where I need to post or box a guy out and grab a rebound.

“I thought the Hall of Fame is a guy who changed the game, where the ultimate goal was Super Bowls and championships,” said (Charles) Mann. “I don’t get it.”

49ers great Roger Craig shrugs off Hall of Fame snub ... "It's kind of funny all these other guys went in before me when I kind of changed the game for the millennials today

a Bears long snapper said "Charles Tillman — if you look at his numbers and what he did, almost being in the 40-40 club. He changed the game as well. "


Dermotti. Dawson
"It’s an honor when people say that, that you kind of changed the position. But it was pretty much a whim. We were in training camp and we were preparing for a game. We were in practice and we were making some adjustments and we were having a problem with trying to block the linebackers at the second level. At the time they were doing gap defenses where they had their defensive tackles in the gaps and they were penetrating and it was causing problems for the offensive line to get out of the first level and get to the second level so linebackers were running free. I told Coach, I’m fast enough where I can snap the ball I can make a call between the onside guard and the backside guard and if I feel that I can get the guy that’s in the gap, because he could slant out and make it tough. I told him if we make the calls and communicate with the front side and back side with the guards I can snap the ball and let those guys block my assignment and then I would run either straight through or I could pull around. So we started feeling around with that and next thing you know it became very, very popular."

Obviously, Don Hutson.
Pete Gogolak
Ray Guy?
Sammy Baugh?
Larry Wilson?

Great topic!

(Assuming this is limited to players who changed the game.
Coaches would be another topic entirely.)

"He changed the game" is in the same category as "can't write the history of the NFL without" (most recent I heard about Steve Smith Sr. today) and "you had to game plan for him" (most recent I heard about T.O. today).

Generally used when someone wasn't clearly the best player and/or best at their position people tend to add these things on -- or if for some reason they feel the need to attempt to further validate a clear HOF level player.

It reminds me of the old Bettis v. TD debates on our forum. The TD crowd could list actual accomplishments and honors (MVP, OPOY, etc) and the Bettis crowd had to go the other route and listed things like "he put fear into the defense" and other such trifling 'accomplishments'. Both eventually got in so it doesn't matter as the same with over half of the players mentioned in the OP who will obviously get in eventually -- perhaps as soon as tomorrow for some.

I liked when Belichick said, "I really don't know what the criteria is for the HOF" this week which pretty much sums it all up. The HOF overall, who votes, who gets in, etc.

Left out of the above is the "rings" argument, which I was surprised -or at least seemed out of character, to me- when Bruce said that today. Talked about how he brought all his family to Minnesota because he's confident he'll go in tomorrow and when asked about the 'logjam' at WR and while essentially comparing himself to Moss and Owens, "I have a ring" was what his reasoning was on why he's sure he's getting in out of that WR group this year.

As said here, many times, "rings" are a team accomplishment. While not making a "rings" argument one thing I will say, other than it being the point of the sport -to win the championship- is that at least it's something tangible. Being a champion. As opposed to the ever growing collection of random and overused phrases assigned to just about anyone who was above-average or better.

I guess the other labels are "innovation" for coaches which always lacks the context and purpose of innovation and the usually asinine "he had a short career" label put on players who literally played double the length of the average professional football career (or at least more than the average career length, depending on source used). But of course basic mathematics eludes many.

Steve Young said
“TERRELL OWENS CREATED A NEW POSITION AT WIDE RECEIVER, CALLED THE ‘BIG STRONG’ — JULIO JONES, CALVIN JOHNSON, YOU KNOW, JUST MADE AVAILABLE GUYS THAT WERE JUST SUPER STRONG, SUPER BIG,” YOUNG SAID. “WHY DID I THROW TO HIM ON THE LAST PLAY OF THE GAME? BECAUSE WHO ELSE ARE YOU GOING TO THROW IT TO WHO CAN MAKE THOSE KINDS OF PLAYS? HE CHANGED THE POSITION. SO IN THAT WAY, HE’S ALSO A HALL OF FAMER.

Urlacher said
“I hate talking about myself … but just look at the way I changed the position,” Urlacher said reluctantly. “I changed what was asked of middle linebackers, to do what a lot of guys can’t do: cover 40 yards down the middle and still play the run. Most guys can do one or the other, and you bring someone in on third downs.

First cousin to “you can’t tell the story of the NFL without him,” am thinking. And equally baloney as a rule.

EDIT: Reaser beat me to it.

HOF stuff is starting to leak via social media. Joe Jacoby apparently did not get in.

One of my favorite "he changed the game" pieces was about the Redskins' racist owner, George Preston Marshall, when he was inducted to the Hall of Fame. You've got to expect some hyperbole in these things, but the biographer missed the irony in declaring that Marshall was "the first to introduce true color" to pro football.

“Brian Urlacher should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” Rodgers said, per Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. “He is one of my favorites if not my favorite player … because he is hyper-competitive. He is a tough human and he does it the right way. He plays with a lot of passion, lot of grit and a lot of class. I always enjoyed our battles."

The duo faced off numerous times during Urlacher's career and Rodgers knows that the Bears legend helped changed the game.

“What he did at the middle linebacker position revolutionized the game," he said, per Biggs. "Before him there hadn’t been a 6-4 guy that could run down the middle like that and run sideline to sideline and take the middle of the field away in their Tampa-2 scheme and come up and hit and tackle and run and sack and blitz and intercept. To me, it shouldn’t be a difficult decision for those voters to put him in the first opportunity they can.”

___________________________

Okay, so if Urlacher revolutionized the game by being a " a 6-4 guy that could run down the middle like that and run sideline to sideline and take the middle of the field away in their Tampa-2 scheme and come up and hit and tackle and run and sack and blitz and intercept." should we have seen teams drafting tall MLBers to play in this new revolutionary way?

Total crap. And this, I am told, was a big selling point for Urlacher. To me the disgrace is that other writers fall for it. To revolutionize a game, that is a tall order, pretty heady stuff. Shouldn't there be evidence, proof of the changes brought about by the so-called revolutionary player?

JohnTurney wrote:“Brian Urlacher should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” Rodgers said, per Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. “He is one of my favorites if not my favorite player … because he is hyper-competitive. He is a tough human and he does it the right way. He plays with a lot of passion, lot of grit and a lot of class. I always enjoyed our battles."

The duo faced off numerous times during Urlacher's career and Rodgers knows that the Bears legend helped changed the game.

“What he did at the middle linebacker position revolutionized the game," he said, per Biggs. "Before him there hadn’t been a 6-4 guy that could run down the middle like that and run sideline to sideline and take the middle of the field away in their Tampa-2 scheme and come up and hit and tackle and run and sack and blitz and intercept. To me, it shouldn’t be a difficult decision for those voters to put him in the first opportunity they can.”

___________________________

Okay, so if Urlacher revolutionized the game by being a " a 6-4 guy that could run down the middle like that and run sideline to sideline and take the middle of the field away in their Tampa-2 scheme and come up and hit and tackle and run and sack and blitz and intercept." should we have seen teams drafting tall MLBers to play in this new revolutionary way?

Total crap. And this, I am told, was a big selling point for Urlacher. To me the disgrace is that other writers fall for it. To revolutionize a game, that is a tall order, pretty heady stuff. Shouldn't there be evidence, proof of the changes brought about by the so-called revolutionary player?

Wasn't Jack Lambert 6'4'' doing similar things? In general, I think it becomes much easier to make any of these statements when your knowledge of history only goes back to the 90s. Then more of the statements are correct

TanksAndSpartans wrote: Wasn't Jack Lambert 6'4'' doing similar things? In general, I think it becomes much easier to make any of these statements when your knowledge of history only goes back to the 90s. Then more of the statements are correct

Yes. Bud Carson's Cover-2 had the SAM backer cover the TE man to man. But he also had a Cover-22 which was identical to the Tampa-2 where Lambert would have the TE in the "hole" between the 2 deep zones. So yes, Lambert did that in the 1970s but he wasn't 260 pounds so he didn't "revolutionize the game" like Urlacher did, I guess.