NFL Sack Conspiracy
Feb 2, 2019 22:29:12 GMT -6
Funkytown, Oracle Bone Diviner, and 1 more like this
Post by Reignman on Feb 2, 2019 22:29:12 GMT -6
Remember when the NFL tried to convince us that sacks didn't become an official stat until 1982? Then what do you call these strange markings that I found in some play by play data of a game in 1978?
www.nytimes.com/2006/11/04/sports/football/04giants.html
96½ sacks in 1968? You don't say.
www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?page=weinreb/081006
What are you hiding NFL? 
I mean first we fake the moon landings, and now this? Maybe the flat-earthers are right too? 
www.nytimes.com/2006/11/04/sports/football/04giants.html
“I don’t know why they won’t grandfather folks in who were playing in 1981, “ he said. “You can find sacks back to 1970 in a very accurate way.”
For example, Turney has calculated that Jones, whose career ended in 1974, had 173½ sacks, and the longtime Rams defensive end Jack Youngblood had 151½.
For example, Turney has calculated that Jones, whose career ended in 1974, had 173½ sacks, and the longtime Rams defensive end Jack Youngblood had 151½.
In the Giants’ news media guide, a list of the “Top Ten Sack Leaders” shows Taylor with 142, following by Strahan, then Jim Katcavage, who played from 1956 to 1968, with 96½.
The Giants, obviously, know how many sacks everyone has. But in the guide, the team notes in parentheses that sacks are an “official statistic only since 1982.”
The Giants, obviously, know how many sacks everyone has. But in the guide, the team notes in parentheses that sacks are an “official statistic only since 1982.”
www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?page=weinreb/081006
But it is Bacon's 1976 season with Cincinnati that lies at the center of this story. Because in 1976, Coy Bacon was virtually unblockable.
That year, according to the inital counts, Coy Bacon had 26 sacks. Bacon recalls the number being printed on his football card. He says he still has a videotape of an announcer (he couldn't remember who it was) proclaiming on national television that he finished the season with 26 sacks, and, for him, this is enough to make it official.
Clearly, this man has done some homework. And according to Turney's numbers, Coy Bacon did not, in fact, have 26 sacks in 1976 -- not unless you count half-sacks as complete sacks, which is not the way it is done today. But Bacon had 21½, which, considering he did it in 14 games instead of 16 games, is still pretty remarkable, and arguably more impressive than either Mark Gastineau's 22 in 1984 or Strahan's 21½ (subtracting one Favre flop) in 2001
So I called the Elias Sports Bureau, which keeps all the official statistics for all the major sports leagues in this country. I spoke to a man whose name I cannot use because he never gave it to me, and whom I cannot quote because he declined to be quoted, and who didn't want to be forced to repudiate my premise. At times, I felt like I was engaging in a semantic discussion with the Comic Book Guy from "The Simpsons."
To summarize: The Elias Sports Bureau feels as if there is no need to revise the history before 1982 because it would be impossible. They claim it would be impossible because there is no uniformity, because there was no standard definition of a sack before 1982
Seymour Siwoff of Elias told Pro Football Weekly a couple of years ago that the only reason sacks were adopted as an official statistic in 1982 is because an increased number of incentive clauses and bonuses were built into contracts.
I mean first we fake the moon landings, and now this? Maybe the flat-earthers are right too? 
... and neither is this Chris guy.