Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Because I occasionally have way too much time on my age-spotted hands, and because I like stats as much as the next guy, I just spent the last 45 minutes counting the number of articles that have been published in the Coffin Corner since its inception 43 years ago. I meant to do this when originally compiling the articles index. I counted very carefully, and lo and behold, the number stands at exactly 1,700. That nice round number includes features, PFRA-ternizing, book reviews, and photo essays. If anybody wants to challenge that figure---sure, it could be 1,699 or 1,701, depending on how glazed over my eyes were on a particular page---go ahead and start the recount. But I'm pretty sure I nailed the right number.

I didn't add up individual stats for contributors, but Bob Carroll is easily the all-time leader. Actually, it's almost impossible to figure out how many Bob wrote because he used pseudonyms and also co-authored or ghosted other pieces.

One thing that struck me as I went through the pages were the contributors listed under Z. There's 4 of them, and what are the odds of them all having the exact initials?

Joe Ziemba
Jack Ziegler
Joe Zagorski
Jay Zahn

RichardBak wrote:Because I occasionally have way too much time on my age-spotted hands, and because I like stats as much as the next guy, I just spent the last 45 minutes counting the number of articles that have been published in the Coffin Corner since its inception 43 years ago. I meant to do this when originally compiling the articles index. I counted very carefully, and lo and behold, the number stands at exactly 1,700. That nice round number includes features, PFRA-ternizing, book reviews, and photo essays. If anybody wants to challenge that figure---sure, it could be 1,699 or 1,701, depending on how glazed over my eyes were on a particular page---go ahead and start the recount. But I'm pretty sure I nailed the right number.

I didn't add up individual stats for contributors, but Bob Carroll is easily the all-time leader. Actually, it's almost impossible to figure out how many Bob wrote because he used pseudonyms and also co-authored or ghosted other pieces.

One thing that struck me as I went through the pages were the contributors listed under Z. There's 4 of them, and what are the odds of them all having the exact initials?

Joe Ziemba
Jack Ziegler
Joe Zagorski
Jay Zahn

I've always wondered which one posts in the forum as "Jay Z"...perhaps its like Shakespeare, and it's really 4 different guys posting as Jay Z.

[/quote] I've always wondered which one posts in the forum as "Jay Z"...perhaps its like Shakespeare, and it's really 4 different guys posting as Jay Z.[/quote]


Well, if we ever get someone posting here as John Barron, John Miller, or David Dennison, we'll know who it is.

RichardBak wrote:Well, if we ever get someone posting here as John Barron, John Miller, or David Dennison, we'll know who it is.

Yeah, better do some deep-dive background checks on any articles about the USFL.

Jay Z is me, Jay Zahn.

Maybe recommending the index is the best thing I've done for the group! And someone else did all of the work! Thanks, Richard!

Based on the subject line and the knowledge that you had just recently put together the Coffin Corner index, I thought this message was going to say you'd read or skimmed through 1,700 articles and they put you to sleep.

Bob Gill wrote:Based on the subject line and the knowledge that you had just recently put together the Coffin Corner index, I thought this message was going to say you'd read or skimmed through 1,700 articles and they put you to sleep.

Ha! Yeah, I won't lie, the eyelids drooped at times....

But going through them all was a great primer. I learned a lot, and I put down a few notes for possible future projects. While I skimmed most of the articles, there were some long pieces that were so interesting I found myself making a sandwich and spending the next half-hour or so reading the whole thing. But no matter what the length or who the writer was, I often found "nuggets"---those little factoids or throwaway quotes that unexpectedly crop up in a piece that help fill in blanks in unrelated topics that I'm interested in. In fact, I'm now thinking of digging into 1900-33 FB in Detroit (before the Lions) because of some of the odds and ends I picked up reading CC articles about that era in Ohio and Penna. Who knows, might be a book in there somewhere....

Thank you for your hard work Richard, it also gave me ideas on what players, teams or topics have not been covered.