The Jets-Colts Super Bowl - a tangent

I could be wrong on this but the thought just occurred to me, is there anyone else out there that was first team All-Pro three times but not in the HOF. Could very well be but the list would be extremely short. T-D made it three years in a row before the injury. I can't think of any other person who is considered a possible that had three first team All-Pro's.

 

Where are you on Schill?

 

Davis in his time was considered spectacular. But then after he got hurt and the Broncos kept getting 1,200-yard seasons from Olandis Gary, Mike Anderson, Clinton Portis and Reuben Droughns, it led to retroactive questions about how good he really was.

 

Anderson walked in practically sight unseen and rushed for 1,000 yards and had a top individual rushing performance.

 

The AFL had already surpassed its growing pains stage when Namath arrived in 1965. What Namath did do is become the face of the bidding war of players between the AFL and NFL. At the same time was when Peter Gogolak became a free agent and jumped from the Bills to the Giants. Neither league wanted to continue bidding wars (even for kickers), so they agreed on the merger.

 

Except for the glaring distinction that Koufax's bad arm did NOT detract from the quality of his play. In fact, Koufax had some of the greatest seasons in baseball history at the tail end of his career WHEN his arm problems were at their absolute worst. He not only played with the pain, but did so magnificently. Conversely, Namath was horrible during the years after his knee went bad. The Koufax analogy is absurd, not on point at all.

And, frankly, I suspect the knee problems are somewhat of an overblown excuse. Namath's primary flaw was his propensity to throw to the wrong guy, he was one of the most reckless decision makers with the ball ever. Not sure how bad knees explain bad decision-making.

Here's just a thought, perhaps instead of just bad knees being the explanation for the huge dropoff in his game after the 60s, it might also have something to do with the fact that that's when the MERGER happened and he found himself facing higher quality defenses on average. Much is made of how Namath prevailed in his first ever game against an NFL team in that Super Bowl, but less mentioned is the fact that NFL teams consistently chewed him up for the next nine years after that game. Yeah, he looked good during the years when he was only facing AFL teams, but boy did that ever change when the field of competitors widened.

 

No Stoney, that can't explain the dropoff, because AFC teams didn't play NFC teams that often, even the old NFL teams that switched conferences. And I believe it was against the Colts that Namath and Unitas had that game where they each threw for aabout 500 yards and six TDs.

 

Yes - Against the Colts. Was lucky to be at that game -- in the swirling winds of Shea.

 

I would beg to differ. In fact, in the very first post merger season the Jets played 7 of their 14 games--HALF their season--against team that had been in the NFL pre-merger (http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nyj/1970.htm) and they went 2-5 in those games. The next year 5 of their 14 games were against pre-merger NFL teams, and they went 0-5 in those games (http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nyj/1971.htm).

And from a brief scan of subsequent schedules, it appears that pattern basically held throughout the rest of the 70s. They'd have at least 5 of those games on their schedule each year and disproportionately got their asses kicked in those games.

Also interesting to note that the Jets were 10-4 in 69, the last season when they didn't have to play any NFL teams. But dramatically dropped to 4-10 the very next year when they had 7 of those teams on their schedule. And, once those NFL teams started appearing on their schedule, they NEVER had a winning record again during the Namath era. The merger marks an almost perfect dividing line revealing when the Jets and Namath's fortunes turned.

 

My late dad's top five:
1. Brown
2. Sayers
3. Simpson
4. Dorsett (forgive me, I grew up in a house of Cowboys fans; we had Thanksgiving dinner at halftime of the Dallas game)
5. Campbell

Good point, Shockey. Also great points in how Shanny kept cranking out 1,000-yard rushers even after Davis was gone. Still, his three-year peak is among the best runners of the past 40 years.

The one thing working in Davis' favor: working on NFL Network, where his co-hosts can shill for him the same way the ABC college football announcers shilled for Lynn Swann's eventual induction. Without going too far into a tangent (for now), how Swann is in and Cliff Branch is out is beyond me (don't give Swann's four SBs; Branch has three and a longer, more productive career).

 

Has anyone here watched Namath actually play...live or on tape? some people said he made bad decisions when throwing...not really. He just had the worst tell in the history of sports. He would drop back with the ball in two hands and almost always slap the ball before throwing. A smart DB/lb could watch this and know immediatley that the ball was coming. Did it lead to all of his picks? No. Did it help, more than likely.

 

It has definitely affected him but their is a big difference between 1200-1500 and 2,000. No one even approached what T-D in the two year stretch before the injury and his third really good year (1,538 yards) was only surpassed by Clinton Portis (1,591) who went on to be great in Washington as well.

Then there is the whole idea no one mentions ... maybe Shannahan is really good at evaluating running backs. The system certainly had a lot to do with it but Shannahan also knows how to find good RB's late in the draft.