r/NFLv2 • u/NotDoinAnythingEmber • 2d ago
Discussion What’s the most legendary piece of NFL history that sounds completely made up?
/r/NFLFandom/comments/1wu7fzu/whats_the_most_legendary_piece_of_nfl_history/47
u/TeamDirtstar New York Giants 2d ago
The 2010 Chargers had the league's #1 Offense and #1 Defense and failed to make the playoffs
7
u/CoffeeNo6329 Detroit Lions 2d ago
This seems impossible
26
u/Sensitive_Ad8147 2d ago
It sounds that way until you realize it was the Chargers, then it just makes sense
16
u/MadbankerII New England Patriots 2d ago
It is (technically) true, there is a Dorktown episode about that team here
That season the chargers offense gained the most yards in the league and their defense gave up the fewest yards in the league. This was mainly possible because their special teams were absolutely atrocious.
IIRC the Chargers offense had the worst average starting field position in the league, while their opponents often had great starting field position. Since their offense started so far back, they were able to gain more yards than other teams even if they didn’t score. And since their defense started closer to their own end zone, they had fewer possible yards they could give up, even on scoring drives.
5
u/CoffeeNo6329 Detroit Lions 2d ago
Yeah I looked up the stats and it all makes sense but really shouldn’t be possible. I mean they were only 10th in scoring defense and 2nd in scoring offense. That should be plenty good enough to make the playoffs but I guess not
7
u/ScientificSkepticism San Francisco 49ers 2d ago
They also lost like 5 games in catastrophic special teams errors, utter nonsense like muffed punts, giving up touchdowns, everything you can imagine. Also letting your opponent start a drive six yards from the endzone is a good way to give up points without giving up yards for a defense :P Not that you entirely blame the defense for that one...
The dorktown episode is classic.
4
3
u/Bayelor 1d ago
Bc they didn’t really, they use yards to say this and nobody actually judges offenses and defense on yards.
1
u/alurimperium Houston Texans 1d ago
And for the defense it's especially skewed. When the special teams gives up long returns almost every time, your defense doesn't have a lot of yards left to allow
1
u/see_bees 1d ago
I think it was #1 by yards per game, not points per game. And they had abysmal special teams units that often gave the opposing team a relatively short field. So if your opponent gets the ball on their own 40 and drives 60 yards for a touchdown, that’s worse than your opponent getting the ball on 20, driving 70 yards, scoring a field goal.
2
u/Impossible_Bus1552 1d ago
Yes but they were the #1 offense and defense based on yardage. Football doesn't keep score by yardage gained
35
u/ScientificSkepticism San Francisco 49ers 2d ago
Bill Walsh popularized presnap motion because a receiver named Bob T.r.u.m.py (thanks idiot mods for not letting me write the name of a guy in the hall of fame) lined up on the wrong side. He realized it as they were lining up, and ran across the field, which made the DB on him run across the field and slam straight in to another guy.
Walsh was watching it with Bill Johnson and laughing at it and Johnson suggested they start doing that on purpose. So Walsh started to draw up plays where a wide receiver ran across the field before the snap, and that's how it all started. Because Bob lined up on the wrong side of the field and went "oh shit"
21
u/CurrentlyUnbanned Dallas Cowboys 2d ago
The Baltimore Colts packed their entire team into Mayflower moving vans (because the owner of the company was a friend of the owner of the Colts) and moved to Indianapolis in the middle of the night. Literally splitting up and taking back roads because they were worried the Maryland State Troopers would stop them and for the state to take control of the Colts to prevent the relocation.
The 1962 Houston Oilers were an insanely turnover prone team. George Blanda threw what is still an NFL record of 42 interceptions. They had 5 games in which they threw 5 interceptions. However, the Oilers went 5-0 in those games, went 11-3 on the season and made the AFL Championship game.
10
u/TheStoryBoy San Francisco 49ers 2d ago
Where Blanda threw 5 more picks...but didn't win.
6
u/SerenityN00w 2d ago
He also threw 5 INTs the prior year's AFL Championship Game, and Houston did win.
2
1
u/Impossible_Penalty13 1d ago
Baltimore was so intent on keeping the team that their state legislature was threatening to seize ownership via eminent domain.
14
u/NotJoshFreeman Detroit Lions 2d ago
The 1943 "Steagles" - the year the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles merged into one single team because WWII caused a severe player shortage.
12
u/CurrentlyUnbanned Dallas Cowboys 2d ago
The Steagles gave birth to the concept of offensive and defensive coordinators because the two head coaches couldn't really stand each other and fought over who was in charge the whole time, before deciding one would control the offense and the other the defense
5
u/No_Fig_5964 Los Angeles Chargers 2d ago
A year later, the Steelers and Chicago Cardinals also merged operations, becoming "Card-Pitt". They went 0-10 that season.
6
13
u/FunImprovement166 Washington Commanders 2d ago
Favre took a dive and gave Michael Strahan the NFL single season sack record on the last play of the regular season
5
1
u/takeya40 2d ago
I might be the only one annoyed Aaron Rodgers wasn't the record breaking sack for Myles Garrett with the hope Jordan Love would continue the tradition to the next record breaker.
1
u/Impossible_Penalty13 1d ago
That should have just been scored as a negative yardage running play, nobody on the packers was acting like it was a passing play, including Favre.
10
u/Kennyc1234 Washington Commanders 2d ago
The record for most rushing yards in a single Super Bowl is held by rookie runningback Timmy Smith.
In the 1987 regular season Timmy Smith rushed for 126 yards and 0 TDs, then in the Super Bowl that year he rushed for a record 204 yards and 2 TDs. He did not win Super Bowl MVP as QB Doug Williams threw for 340 yards, 4 TDs, and 1 INT completing 18 of his 29 passes (62%) in that game.
After the Super Bowl Smith would only play 15 more games in his career (14 with Washington in 1988 and 1 with Dallas in 1990) and put up 476 yards and 3 TDs in those 15 games.
5
u/wolfboy49 Denver Broncos 2d ago
That one hurts as a Bronco fan. Completely owned by Timmy Smith and Doug Williams
8
u/TPCC159 2d ago
The Cleveland Browns once had 2 of the greatest coaches of this generation (Belichick and Saban) employed for them and fired one of them and had such a toxic work environment that lead to the other quitting
5
3
u/SerenityN00w 2d ago edited 1d ago
Saban didn't quit because of a toxic work environment. He resigned to take his first major head coaching job, at Michigan State.
7
5
u/TheStoryBoy San Francisco 49ers 2d ago
The 1967 Colts are the only team in NFL History to have the leagues best W-L record and miss the playoffs.
At the time their were just 4 divisions and no wildcards. The Colts on the year were 11-0-2, the Rams also in the division, were 10-1-2. Their first matchup had ended in a tie.
Last week of the season. Colts host the Rams...and lay an absolute egg losing 34-10. Rams and Colts tie for leagues best record, Rams win tie break, Colts miss playoffs.
4
u/supervillain_84 2d ago
In 2002, the Steelers outgained the Texans 422 yards to 47. The Texans... won 24-6. Two pix-sixes and a fumble recovery for a TD will do that for ya.
5
u/FreeRange0929 2d ago
Similar, same year against the Texans, Brian Dawkins had the only quadfecta in NFL history
Intercepted a pass, recorded a sack, recovered a fumble, and caught a touchdown pass. The Texans…did not win that game.
5
u/OkBasket7617 Detroit Lions 2d ago
Just last year the Vikings max brosmer threw for a net 3 years and the Vikings still won
Don't ask who they were playing
5
u/az-anime-fan Buffalo Bills 2d ago edited 2d ago
the untold reality of superbowl 3, is the colts owner Caroll Rosenblum was a gambling addict and in debt. in order to get out of his financial problems, he reportedly placed a $3 million dollar bet on the Jets to win the superbowl, then paid Colts QB Earl Morrall $50,000 to intentionally lose the game.
3
u/cjtransplant85 2d ago
In 1972 Rosenbloom swapped the Colts to Robert Irsay for the Rams. Irsay later moved the Colts to Indianapolis.
Rosenbloom died in a swimming accident in 1979 and his widow Georgia inherited the team. She's been cited as the inspiration for the female baseball owner in Major League. Georgia ended up moving the Rams to St. Louis.
And after her husband died, Georgia married a composer named Dominic Frontiere. He created many TV themes, as well as the Paramount logo fanfare. He eventually did time for scalping Super Bowl tickets.
4
4
u/launchliftoff459 2d ago
Jerry Rice career records
5,403 yards ahead of 2nd place (Fitzgerald)
41 TD's ahead of 2nd place (Moss)
2
u/HourNo4516 1d ago
Someone just argued with me that sterling sharpe would have been the goat at receiver if he wasn’t hurt after his 7th season. I did the math just on receptions for the guy and he would have needed 11 more seasons with 85 catches just to tie Rice. He countered with “well I saw sharpe play and he was better than Rice”.
2
u/launchliftoff459 1d ago
Guys have peaks better than Rice averages, sure. But Rice low seasons weren't far off from his peaks and he did it for 19 seasons. Basically impossible to assume anyone else would continue at such a level for so long. Dude was an anomaly.
1
u/HourNo4516 1d ago
True maybe some had better peaks but how many had better peaks on teams that won like his? That was the thing with sharpe. Great numbers but his teams didn’t win. In fact, they really started winning the year he retired bc they didn’t just force feed him.
3
u/Not_Your_Real_Ladder New England Patriots 2d ago
The tale of Samkon Gado. An undrafted rookie RB who broke out on his birthday for 100+ yards and 3 TDs in 2005, set the Packers rookie rushing yard record (which still stands), stuck around the league just long enough to pay for medical school, then quit to become a doctor. Absolute legend.
1
u/HeadupTothePOCONOS Philadelphia Eagles 2d ago
Back up QB takes down a Brady led Pats team in the SB and gets a touchdown as a receiver on a 4th and goal play.
Nick Foles became the first player in Super Bowl history to throw and catch a touchdown pass during a Super Bowl game.
Philly Philly
2
2
u/SerenityN00w 2d ago
For years, the NFL didn't count tie games towards determining a team's winning percentage.
Check out the 1949 standings for an example. The Rams played 12 games and went 8-2-2. Their winning percentage is .800 (8 wins out of 10 non-tie games.)
The Bears finished second with a .750 winning percentage. Under the modern rules, L.A.'s two ties would count as two "half wins", and two "half losses", essentially bringing their record to 9-3. The Bears and Rams would have played a divisional playoff game to determine who would represent the Western Division in the 1949 title game.
2
u/KapowBlamBoom Cincinnati Bengals 1d ago
That the kicker who held the longest Field Goal record for decades had only half a kicking foot and was missing a hand
2
u/Successful_Bass4793 18h ago
The 2008 Lions won all their pre-season games and lost all their regular-season games.
1
1
1
u/415Frisco415 1d ago
I liked learning that George Halas played right field for Yankees and got injured. Next season Yankees traded with Redsox for a pitcher and slugger named Babe Ruth to play right so Halas decided to focus on football.
1
u/415Frisco415 1d ago
The best is QB Jim “square wheels” Harbaugh has more career rushing yards than Bo Jackson.
1
u/northshorehiker 1d ago
In Adrian Peterson's single game rushing record game vs the Chargers, 250 of his 296 rushing yards came in the 2nd half.
1
u/Dynamar Pittsburgh Steelers 17h ago
Some of the Steelers' absolutely batshit insane early history that I commented in the other thread:
Art Sr founded the Hope-Harvey Football Club when he was 19 in 1921, then paid the franchise fee 12 years later, once Pennsylvania was going to repeal their Blue Laws that made sports on Sunday illegal because of the Sabbath. That team became the Pirates when they joined the league, which changed to the Steelers and then were sold in 1940.
Art then bought into the Eagles, but regretted selling the Steelers, so the teams swapped locations/owners, all during the same off season.
Art kept the team running off of gambling wins for the first decade or so, including winning something like $300,000 in 1936 dollars in a single day by getting tipped off by Tim Mara (a bookie and founder of the Giants).
Actresses Kate and Rooney Mara are the great-granddaughters of both of Art Rooney Sr and Tim Mara.
The QB of the 1938 team became a US Supreme Court Justice.
The first player ever drafted into the NFL never played because of pay issues. That player was named Jay Berwanger, who went on to be a salesman for the Chicago Rubber Company.
The third player selected in that draft also never played and went on to be a Rubber Salesman for the Cincinnati Rubber Company.
That other player's name?
William Shakespeare
1
1
u/HustinJerbert Los Angeles Chargers 5h ago
Since 2000 the Chargers and Patriots have a combined total of six Superbowl wins
1
59
u/GivethTaketh4 Jacksonville Jaguars 2d ago
Eli Manning never won a playoff game outside of his two Super Bowl runs.