Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

John, my take was a little different than yours. I thought the second guy was disagreeing with the first by being sarcastic or satiric or whatever the right word is. Maybe I'm giving him too much credit. When I hear stuff like this (disregarding the historic players because they couldn't play today), I always think of what Benny Friedman said about modern QBs - what are you going to do with them on defense?

TanksAndSpartans wrote:John, my take was a little different than yours. I thought the second guy was disagreeing with the first by being sarcastic or satiric or whatever the right word is. Maybe I'm giving him too much credit. When I hear stuff like this (disregarding the historic players because they couldn't play today), I always think of what Benny Friedman said about modern QBs - what are you going to do with them on defense?

You could be right---I have the longer clip but didn't upload it....my take was that both were being critical. Will try and upload longer version

The obvious truth is that they could play today, given the technology and training regimens of today. Whether they could play both ways, I don't know, but I believe there are guys in the NFL today who could play both ways if it was up to them. JJ Watt, for an obvious one, if he'd stop getting injured. Several modern players like Myles Jack and Jabrill Peppers did it in college. So I don't see why not, for those who were near equally great on both sides. Would love to see it in practice with someone like Shohei Ohtani, who is too good at both to force him to choose, but we haven't seen that talent yet. What two positions would this be most likely to occur at? WR/DB? OT/DT?

Benny Friedman sounds like a goldmine of quotability btw. Anywhere one can find a repository of Bennyisms?

JameisLoseston wrote:Benny Friedman sounds like a goldmine of quotability btw. Anywhere one can find a repository of Bennyisms?

There's a nice book called "Pro Football's Rag Days," by Bob Curran, which appeared in the late 1960s or early '70s. It's nothing but interviews with a bunch of players from the early years, and Friedman is one of them.

Speaking of guys today who could play both ways, I'm sure Russell Wilson would do fine as a safety on defense.

Bob Gill wrote:

JameisLoseston wrote:Benny Friedman sounds like a goldmine of quotability btw. Anywhere one can find a repository of Bennyisms?

There's a nice book called "Pro Football's Rag Days," by Bob Curran, which appeared in the late 1960s or early '70s. It's nothing but interviews with a bunch of players from the early years, and Friedman is one of them.

Speaking of guys today who could play both ways, I'm sure Russell Wilson would do fine as a safety on defense.

Roethlisberger with his size would have been a good two-way linebacker.

It wasn't that long ago that the Patriots were using Troy Brown pretty regularly on defense as well as on offense.

Bob Gill wrote:

JameisLoseston wrote:Benny Friedman sounds like a goldmine of quotability btw. Anywhere one can find a repository of Bennyisms?

There's a nice book called "Pro Football's Rag Days," by Bob Curran, which appeared in the late 1960s or early '70s. It's nothing but interviews with a bunch of players from the early years, and Friedman is one of them.

Speaking of guys today who could play both ways, I'm sure Russell Wilson would do fine as a safety on defense.

He did play minor league baseball.

rhickok1109 wrote:It wasn't that long ago that the Patriots were using Troy Brown pretty regularly on defense as well as on offense.

And Mike "All He Does Is Catch Touchdowns!" Vrabel.