NFL players prepared to strike

You also threw Montana into your comparison with Manning, and he already had two Super Bowl championships by then.

The only difference between what Montana and Marino meant to the game then and what Brady and Manning mean now is media coverage, which was what I told you when this ridiculous debate started.

 

Yes. The NFLPA has been consistently let down by the star players at every turn over the years. The NFL split the union in that dispute by inventing "The Quarterback Club" and funneling money to the elite players

It's why I laugh when I see some of these guys complaining about the union and the active players now. They should have been concerned when it was their turn back in the '70s and '80s and they wouldn't be in trouble now.

Where were Ditka and the rest of these clowns when it was their time to be pushing back against the owners?

 

1987 was Dan Marino's fifth year in the league. Up to then he had made one Super Bowl, had thrown 142 TD passes, and compiled 16,319 yards passing.

Through four years in the league, Peyton Manning had thrown for 16,418 yards, and 111 TDs. Since that time, Peyton Manning has broken Marino's record for TDs in a season (since surpassed) and won a Super Bowl.

So yes, current Peyton Manning > than 1987 Dan Marino.

Joe Montana up to 1987 -- 31 years old, two Super Bowl rings, 21,402 passing yards, 141 TD passes, and coming off an injury-shortened season. Peyton Manning is currently 31 and has everything Joe Montana did at that time except the comeback from an injury and one extra Super Bowl ring.

So current Manning pretty equal to 1987 Joe Montana.

 

So, a Super Bowl ring is a huge difference between Manning and Marino, but when it's a comparison between Montana and Manning, Montana just has "an extra Super Bowl ring?"

Once again. Montana and Marino were Hall of Fame quarterbacks in their primes who held very much the same place in the game in 1987 that Brady and Manning hold now. The only difference in perception is how media coverage of NFL players has changed.

Are you too young to remember the '80s or did you just forget?

 

There's a much bigger difference between zero and one than there is between one and two. Have you forgotten that for many years Peyton Manning was called "the new Dan Marino" in a disparaging way, as in great numbers but no championships? Boomer Esiason even said it on the CBS NFL pregame show while sitting right next to Dan Marino, pissing him off:

THAT'S how big a difference there is between zero and one.

 

What would Boomer Esiason know about having one?

 

Long ago, an orgainizer who was trying to make One Big Union out of professional athletes said football players were the worst -- even worse than hockey players, who were sheep. The NFL guys, this person said, all think like owners.

 

He knows plenty about NOT having one!

 

Jack Del Rio, who didn't cross, got into a scuffle with his position coach in KC during the strike. Wonder if his view of labor has changed since then.

 

The NFL players, by far have the shortest earning shelf life, so their anxiety is far more acute than the others'.

 

None of the quarterbacks had as little to work with.... at any point in that span... as Marino.

 

The big problem football players have as unionists is that the NFL has large rosters with only a very small percentage of guys -- skill position players -- who are are well-known among fans, which makes dozens of guys on every roster pretty easy to replace. Other factors: short careers, no guaranteed contracts and big money straight out of college. The militaristic mentality of the sport doesn't lend itself to independent thinking, either.