Footballs Oldest Record - is it breakable?

[ZXTT]

Originally Posted by Axxon

I like Stecker. I think he got a raw deal in Tampa. Who is your team btw?

I recall hearing that an announcer in Tampa (local radio broadcast) said something like this in a past season: "The Bucs have never returned a kickoff for a TD and, with Aaron Stecker back there, they won't".

Meanwhile this year, Stecker returns the opening kickoff 98 yards for a TD against the Bucs in Tampa...

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by Axxon

There are only TWO NFL records than can't be broken.

Anyone else want to chime in?

Didn't some player for the Jets have a 98 yard punt back in the day?

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Didn't some player for the Jets have a 98 yard punt back in the day?

Wouldn't the only unbreakable record for a punt/kick/interception return be 109 yards?

[rkmsuf]

They'd give me 110 if I toed the endline.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Not return. Punt.

Ah, gotcha.

[albionmoonlight]

Not return. Punt.

And some quick googling confirms my suspicion. Here's a list of five hard to break records, including the punt

http://www.totalaction.com/cjfile/070700_recorsds.htm

Have you ever heard that expression, "records are made to be broken"? Well, not so fast with that one. I've dug up a few that aren't likely to be shattered, or even equaled any time soon. They have stood the test of time, and through either their sheer oddity, or the simple evolution that the pro game itself has gone through, you're likely to see these records etched in stone in the record books for as long as professional football is played:

1) BEATTIE FEATHERS' 9.94-YARD AVERAGE FOR THE 1934 CHICAGO BEARS.
-- Feathers owns the record for the highest per-carry average for any 1000-yard rusher in NFL history. How solid is this record? Well, let's put it this way - in the last 65 seasons, no 1000-yard rusher in the NFL has gotten to within three yards of his average. And no one with a minimum of 100 attempts - PERIOD - has come within two yards of it. Randall Cunningham, a quarterback, had 7.78 yards per carry in 1990.

2) GEORGE HALAS' 40 YEARS AS A HEAD COACH WITH THE SAME TEAM.
-- There are a lot of reasons this record will stay in place. For one thing, coaches make so much money these days they just don't have to coach for that long. Also, "burnout" has become a real buzzword for coaches who get out after a certain period of time because the pressure, workload, and insecurity is just too much for them. And don't forget, the prospect of a television career is always waiting for a "name" coach. As for those coaches who are extremely successful, the opportunity to grab big-money offers from others teams is greater than ever before. That translates into greater coaching mobility than ever. For those who do not meet the expectations of demanding owners, there is less patience and less job security than at any other time. And speaking of job security, that's one thing Halas had very much in his favor, since he owned the team he coached. Can't beat that deal!

3) STEVE O'NEAL'S 98-YARD PUNT.
-- O'Neal, an otherwise nondescript punter for the New York Jets, really got his leg into one on September 21, 1969 against Denver. The Jets found themselves mired in a hole at their own one-yard line, and the rookie from Texas A&M, kicking out of his own end zone, boomed one way beyond Bronco return man Floyd Little, and deep into the Denver end of the field. After a very fortuitous roll, the ball came to rest on the Broncos' one-yard line. Thus it went from the 1 to the 1 - a kick of 98 yards. Not that there haven't been over big punts in pro football - in 1920 Joe Guyon of the Canton Bulldogs hit a 95-yarder against the Chicago Tigers, and in 1923 Pete Henry of Canton had a 94-yard punt against Akron. But those kicks are not recognized officially by the NFL. Joe Lintzenich of the Bears held the official record before O'Neal, with a 94-yard punt against the Giants on November 16, 1931. And since O'Neal's kick occurred in the AFL and not the NFL, technically I guess you could say Lintzenich made the longest NFL punt. But O'Neal's kick is nonetheless recognized officially by the NFL. No one has gotten very close since. And it would be hard to see anyone topping it.

4) BOB TIMBERLAKE'S FIELD GOAL FUTULITY.
-- In this era of the high-tech passing game, and increasingly complicated defensive schemes, what many fans don't realize is that one of the major advancements in NFL play has been in the kicking game, most notably in field-goal kicking. Kickers today are FAR more accurate than those of yesteryear. It is for this reason that it would be hard to fathom future kickers rivaling the non-success of Bob Timberlake of the 1965 New York Giants. Timberlake was a backup QB from the University of Michigan who was pressed into service as a field goal kicker, and obviously did not take a shine to it, hitting just ONE of 15 field goal attempts, in what turned out to be his one and only season in the NFL. Over the course of a career, no one in NFL history has attempted so many and made so few. Ironically, though, Timberlake made 21 of his 22 extra-point attempts in '65, one of the better percentages in the league. Another player who deserves mention here is Art Michalik, who made one of his 13 career field goal attempts, all but one of which was for the 1955 Pittsburgh Steelers.

5) THIRTEEN TEAMS SHUT OUT IN ONE DAY.
-- On October 7, 1923, there were ten NFL games played. In every one of those games, a team was shut out. And three of those games were scoreless ties. That means 13 teams scored no points on the same day. With high-powered offenses, not to mention overtime periods, I think it's safe to say we'll never see a day like that again.

A couple of others - off the beaten path:

* LUTHER BRADLEY'S SIX INTERCEPTIONS IN ONE GAME.
-- Bradley, a defensive back out of Notre Dame, picked off six Tampa Bay passes on April 3, 1983 while a member of the Chicago Blitz of the United States Football League. It's not likely anyone's going to come around and get more, even if Ryan Leaf is the opposing quarterback. Bradley's feat gets the asterisk (*), since it happened in the USFL.

* THE DETROIT WHEELS - NEVER ON SATURDAY.
-- In the 1974 season, the Detroit Wheels were arguably the least accomplished team in the new World Football League. After 14 weeks of the 20-game season, in which Detroit had won only one game and lost all of its cash, the team was disbanded by the league office, which had assumed control of the franchise about a week beforehand. But during their brief existence, the Wheels distinguished themselves in a dubious way - in the helter-skelter WFL, in which games were scheduled for several days during the week, they managed to lose games on six different days - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday - every day except Saturday! Not unless Tuesday or Wednesday night football becomes an NFL staple will any team even be eligible to equal Detroit's futility mark.


Honorable Mention (or dishonorable, as it were):

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS' 7.4 POINTS PER GAME IN 1977.
-- This is the record for least points per game in the post-merger era. And it wasn't even in the Bucs' 0-14 season - it was a year later, when, at least for the first 12 games of the campaign, they were arguably worse. Through the first 12 contests (all losses), Tampa Bay had scored just 53 points, an average of 4.4 per game. Even with two offensive outbursts at the tail end of the year, where they scored 33 points against New Orleans and 17 against St. Louis - both games victories - the Bucs still only tallied 103 points for the year. This team was shut out six times in 1977, and produced just THREE touchdown passes, with THIRTY interceptions. The offense accounted for only SEVEN touchdowns, just three more than the defense. Their leading scorer, kicker Allan Leavitt, had just TWENTY points on the year, ranking him 44th in the league.

That's some pretty bad stuff.

And I don't think we'll see it again. At least I hope not.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Axxon

I also agree with the latter which is why I said that I thought Vanderjagt's feat was better even though Anderson scored more points. I wonder if ESPN2 was writing the article this season if they'd use Vanderjagt instead of Anderson or if they'd just skip it and use another record in the piece.

Another thing to note about the two, in 1998 teams were still allowed to doctor their kicking balls, while Vandgerjagt had to use the league supplied K balls.

EDIT: 1999 was the first year of using the league supplied K balls. After being 12 of 12 from 40-49 yards and 2 of 2 from 50+ yards in 1998, Gary Anderson was 4 of 9 from 40-49 and and 0 or 2 from 50+ under the new rules in 1999.

[Aardvark]

Another one -- Tony Dorsett's 99 yard run from scrimage. (On a busted play -- the FB wasn't on the field.)

[Aardvark]

Largest salary relative to the rest of league -- Red Grange -- 1925. (Counting his share of the gate receipts, he made $100,000, or about 50 times the league average.)