KRC

It is always good to hear the older players getting a win now and again. I can’t tell you how many times the older players have talked to me about paltry benefits and needing assistance. Let’s hope Smith continues to spend time fixing things for the older players.

Jeff Miller's new book (He wrote Rockin' the Rockpile) will be out this year. He worked with Marv Levy on it. As mentioned previously, Rob Thompson will be coming out with a new book. Mine will be out probably December/January time frame. There will also be a few slapped together because of the 50th Anniversary.

Who you calling old? The Bills had a decent shot at getting in the NFL in 1950, but were screwed. Just a little history lesson for the kiddies: The Baltimore Colts that came into the league in 1950 were not the same Baltimore Colts that started in 1953 (the current Indianapolis Colts). It was not even the same lineage. I will cover that lineage in the Indianapolis Colts Historical Game of the Week this season.

OK, I am getting ready for the 2009 season and the Historical Game of the Week feature. Below, you will see the schedule and some potential games for me to cover. I am looking for suggestions for the games not allocated, as well as the bye week. You can see last year's topics here. This what I have: 09/14-@ New England Patriots 09/20-TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS (October 24, 1926 against the Los Angeles Buccaneers) 09/27-NEW ORLEANS SAINTS 10/04-@ Miami Dolphins 10/11-CLEVELAND BROWNS (November 28, 1920 against the Cleveland Tigers) 10/18-@ New York Jets 10/25-@ Carolina Panthers 11/01-HOUSTON TEXANS 11/08-BYE 11/15-@ Tennessee Titans 11/22-@ Jacksonville Jaguars 11/29-MIAMI DOLPHINS 12/03-NEW YORK JETS (Toronto)(I will pick a Rochester Jeffersons game in protest of Buffalo's "Home" game in Toronto) 12/13-@ Kansas City Chiefs (November 21, 1926 against the Kansas City Cowboys) 12/20-NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (October 27, 1929 against the Boston Bulldogs) 12/27-@ Atlanta Falcons 01/03-INDIANAPOLIS COLTS (November 27, 1921 against the Dayton Triangles*) *Yes, there is a connection between the Indianapolis Colts of today and the Dayton Triangles of 1921. You will have to wait until then to see that connection. For the Bye week, I can cover pretty much anything on the major pro arena. If you want semi-pro, I will cover something pre-1920. I would like to cover as many different eras as possible.

Ace Parker, but you are probably only referring to players within the last 15-20 years. He started playing pro baseball and then went to the NFL (playing both).

Week 1 Mon, Sep 14 @ New England Patriots* L Week 2 Sun, Sep 20 Tampa Bay Buccaneers W Week 3 Sun, Sep 27 New Orleans Saints L Week 4 Sun, Oct 04 @ Miami Dolphins L Week 5 Sun, Oct 11 Cleveland Browns W Week 6 Sun, Oct 18 @ New York Jets W Week 7 Sun, Oct 25 @ Carolina Panthers L Week 8 Sun, Nov 01 Houston Texans W Week 9 Sun, Nov 08 BYE Week 10 Sun, Nov 15 @ Tennessee Titans L Week 11 Sun, Nov 22 @ Jacksonville Jaguars L Week 12 Sun, Nov 29 Miami Dolphins W Week 13 Thu, Dec 03 New York Jets (Toronto) L Week 14 Sun, Dec 13 @ Kansas City Chiefs W Week 15 Sun, Dec 20 New England Patriots* L Week 16 Sun, Dec 27 @ Atlanta Falcons L Week 17 Sun, Jan 03 Indianapolis Colts W

That is a good point. People like to look at QB ratings, etc to judge the quarterback. The QB rating is nothing more than an efficiency rating. If you toss a lot of dump-off passes, you will have a high QB rating. If you have a lot of yards with this, it has nothing to do with the QB, but more the RB or WR catching the ball and making the plays. If you add YPA, it can be influenced by a couple of deep passes and a bunch of short passes. Still, it tells you nothing. That is why I say stats are meaningless without context. You can't just look numbers up in an encyclopedia to find out who are the best players. Here are a few more threads talking about stats: Linky 1 Linky 2 Linky 3

Stats without context are meaningless. A few good points on this subject (namely the Bill James interview on 60 Minutes on Sunday) have been raised on the PFRA messageboard. For those of you who don't know, the OP of that thread (Bob Carroll) is a legend in the industry. He and Pete Palmer have done extensive work with trying to redefine the passer rating system, as well as looking at other areas of football analysis. Tod Maher, Sean Lahman and others have also done extensive work in this area. I highly suggest everyone read the following books to get some perspective in how to treat football statistics: The Hidden Game of Football The Pro Football Historical Abstract

Just need the time, which is in short supply right now.

Linky Thingy Is this what you are looking for? It doesn't have all of the AAFC logos, but it has some. I have all of them, but they are not online.

To honor the AAFC Buffalo Bills (where the logo in question originated).

He is also keeping a travel log on the Pro Football HOF website.

The Professional Football Researchers Association has a similar problem, but obviously on a smaller scale. With the increase in costs to publish/deliver our magazine, we need to find a way to keep costs down and still be able to deliver the magazine. Raising dues will cost us memberships. We would not be able to generate enough ad revenue online to pay expenses. The option we are tossing out is an electronic subscription. That way, we can e-mail the magazine to anyone who has paid their dues and we save the costs of printing/postage. The incentive to go with the electronic subscription is that dues will be lower. If you still want the hard copy of the magazine, you can still get that at the normal level of dues. The hope is that we can keep from raising dues by getting enough people to switch to the electronic version of the magazine.

Who says you are only rushing one on one? Who says that the rushing stops when the whistle blows? All I am trying to say is that if you were to take a modern athlete and put them in a different era, you cannot assume that modern training techniques/supplements will translate. Just like you cannot assume that older players wouldn't train like modern athletes if they lived now. That is why stats, size, speed, etc cannot be the determining factor. You have to compare within era, which gives you the baseline to compare across eras.

So, it is only OK when you use extreme hypotheticals, huh? You can do compare, as long as you live in reality. You compare the players against their peers withing that timeframe. You can then use that knowledge to compare across eras. If you tossed one of the juiced-up athletes of today into the 1930s/40s, I can tell you exactly what would happen. Weight-lifting was discouraged at that time. If you did it, you would be shunned. If you take one of the athletes from today that trained under current methods and juiced up using the same supplements, you would see a bunch of the players gang up on him, break his legs and his career would be over. Remember, since you are playing under the rules of the 1930s/40s, you are allowed to touch the skirts of the quarterbacks. Vick/Brady/Manning would be broken in half in the first couple of series. Late hit? What's that? All of that training and supplements would be meaningless as they would be lying on the field in a bloody pulp. Then the game would resume as normal.

...and if Graham, Unitas, et. al. were playing today, they would be doing the same things as current players, giving them an even greater edge over the modern guys. It's fun living in a vacuum, isn't it?

Which is why both Lori and I stated that you cannot call this "Best of All" if you are limiting it to a small part of history. Hell, he made an exception, just to make sure Montana could be listed. If Manning played in the other eras, he would be as good as he is now: Good but not the best. I base my opinions on watching game films and talking to the players who played with/against the quarterback. Tittle would be top ten. Right now, I am undecided on who is number 5 on my list.

Graham and Unitas were better than Montana. 1. Graham 2. Unitas (Sorry Rich) 3. Baugh/Montana 4. Montana/Baugh

It's like you are reading my mind. This thread should be called "Let's Skew the Poll to Make Sure Montana Wins."

That thread brought back some memories. I forgot about the stuff that Kristy had me post. I had to leave the thread once the paver stuff started. I still remember being at the funeral and seeing his brother. A taller and heavier version of Paul. The look was remarkable similar, including the hairstyle and glasses. It was spooky.

Nope. Can't share anything. You just have to buy his book.

For those of you who are fans of Jeff Miller's previous works, he is coming out with a new title this fall: Game Changers: 50 Greatest Plays in Buffalo Bills Football History (50 Greatest Plays in Football History). I wanted to wait until it was officially announced before I mentioned anything. Knowing the type of researcher that Jeff is, this should be an excellent book. Unfortunately, there is a lot of junk out there and the market is saturated with Buffalo Bills books. As a result, the good stuff can get lost in the muck. Jeff's other works: Rockin' the Rockpile: The Buffalo Bills of the American Football League Buffalo's Forgotten Champions: The Story Of Buffalo's First Professional Football Team And The Lost 1921 Title

Yes. Some good people were let go.

Who?

From a business perspective, all you have to do is look at this board to see why they don't care. Their biggest audience are people who think the NFL started 10-20 years ago.