Thursday, June 24, 2010
"...the NFL's record book is nearly worthless right now."
That's the best point made in the linked article about the effect of switching to an 18-game season. I tend to roll my eyes a bit whenever people start blathering on about how this or that NFL players was the "all-time" best. Comparing very different eras invalidates the notion of "best-ever."
- You've had the squeezing of the hash marks closer to the center of the field in 1972. You've had the moving of the goalposts from the goal line to the end line two years after that. You've had the endless rules to favor offensive linemen along with offenses in general. You've had the penalization of defenders just for breathing on quarterbacks.
And before 1960 there were only 12 games to a season. You simply cannot compare a season record for a player who played 12-14 games to those who played 16 or 18. You can make single-game comparisons more fairly, but even there, the rule changes have had serious effects on how the game is played. The record book is not completely worthless. But it is close. It's fun for fans and commentators to talk about records as though they are some objective measure of an accomplishment, but it is largely a bullshit concept.
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