Your favorite era of the NFL and why?

I guess I don't really have a favorite era. They all had something I enjoyed. At the same time, that's the most annoying thing about all the different era's ... they're too different. You can't compare anything that's even 10 years apart. With the other 3 major sports you can pretty much compare players/teams from just about any era and it's close enough.

Modern era NFL could be more enjoyable if every team weren't playing not to lose. Everything is about not making mistakes, and being careful. If the NFL wanted to see more offense all they have to do is make point-differential an important tie-breaker lol. That would make teams more aggressive and eliminate garbage time.

You can see the evolution of how careful the NFL has become via one statistic. Yards per completion.

YEAR  Y/CMP  CMP% Y/ATT  TD%   INT% RATING
1960  15.44  49.4  7.62  5.21  6.31  66.1
1961  15.84  50.0  7.92  5.23  6.32  67.9
1962  15.97  51.0  8.15  5.40  6.43  69.8
1963  16.16  50.4  8.14  5.52  5.74  72.5
1964  15.74  50.4  7.94  5.09  5.45  71.4
1965  15.83  48.9  7.73  5.19  5.30  70.3
1966  15.31  49.5  7.58  4.75  5.30  68.7
1967  15.23  49.7  7.58  4.98  5.74  67.8
1968  15.45  49.9  7.71  4.94  5.52  69.3
1969  14.94  51.5  7.70  4.98  5.24  71.9
1970  14.59  51.1  7.46  4.36  5.21  68.6
1971  14.58  50.9  7.42  4.13  5.78  65.1
1972  14.49  51.7  7.49  4.48  5.33  69.1
1973  14.06  52.0  7.32  4.27  5.31  68.0
1974  13.69  52.5  7.18  3.91  5.20  67.1
1975  14.13  52.5  7.41  4.34  5.34  68.9
1976  14.27  52.2  7.44  4.21  4.84  70.5
1977  14.25  51.3  7.31  3.96  5.74  64.6
1978  14.01  53.1  7.44  3.96  5.40  68.0
1979  13.89  54.1  7.51  4.15  4.60  73.1
1980  13.52  56.2  7.59  4.42  4.57  76.2
1981  13.93  54.6  7.61  4.17  4.29  75.3
1982  13.65  56.4  7.70  4.03  4.40  76.3
1983  13.78  56.9  7.84  4.45  4.41  78.6
1984  13.90  56.4  7.83  4.29  4.08  79.0
1985  14.08  54.8  7.72  4.15  4.17  76.4
1986  13.75  55.4  7.61  4.05  4.02  76.7
1987  13.81  54.8  7.57  4.53  4.00  77.7
1988  13.74  54.3  7.46  3.93  3.91  75.2
1989  13.80  55.8  7.70  4.06  3.90  78.0
1990  13.49  56.0  7.56  4.25  3.55  79.6
1991  12.87  57.4  7.38  3.66  3.50  78.3
1992  12.97  57.5  7.46  3.85  3.87  77.8
1993  12.35  57.9  7.15  3.59  3.25  78.6
1994  12.37  58.0  7.18  3.87  3.15  80.1
1995  12.37  58.2  7.20  3.97  3.07  81.0
1996  12.37  57.6  7.12  3.92  3.39  78.7
1997  12.86  56.2  7.23  3.92  3.05  79.4
1998  12.98  56.6  7.35  4.25  3.29  80.3
1999  12.67  57.1  7.23  3.97  3.35  79.1
2000  12.39  58.2  7.21  3.88  3.25  80.0
2001  12.28  59.0  7.24  3.92  3.37  80.4
2002  12.00  59.6  7.16  4.01  3.05  82.2
2003  12.00  58.8  7.05  3.97  3.26  80.1
2004  12.57  59.8  7.51  4.48  3.20  84.8
2005  12.18  59.5  7.24  3.91  3.07  82.1
2006  12.22  59.8  7.30  3.95  3.17  82.3
2007  11.90  61.2  7.28  4.22  3.13  84.4
2008  12.04  61.0  7.34  3.91  2.81  84.8
2009  12.15  60.9  7.40  4.17  3.08  84.7
2010  12.25  60.8  7.44  4.35  2.96  85.9
2011  12.72  60.1  7.64  4.28  2.91  86.1
2012  12.32  60.9  7.50  4.26  2.63  87.3
2013  12.41  61.2  7.59  4.43  2.77  87.9
2014  12.19  62.6  7.64  4.51  2.52  90.6
2015  12.19  63.0  7.68  4.60  2.38  92.0
2016  11.98  63.0  7.55  4.30  2.27  90.9
2017  12.02  62.1  7.46  4.24  2.46  88.8
2018  11.37  64.9  7.37  4.79  2.37  93.0
2019  11.38  63.5  7.22  4.46  2.30  90.4
2020  11.10  65.2  7.24  4.83  2.19  93.6
2021  10.96  64.8  7.10  4.49  2.35  90.8
2022  10.95  64.5  7.06  4.16  2.27  89.6
~
2070   7.82  76.7  7.01  4.22  1.45 103.2  projected
2200   1.75  92.3  0.68  1.36  0.09  80.0  projected

Almost 5 yards less (33%) per completion than 60 years ago. So the league is becoming more and more conservative, so naturally CMP% goes up and INT% goes down, while Y/ATT and TD% remains relatively the same (the 4 components of QB rating), so QB rating goes up. By 2070 every QB in the NFL will be a checkdown charlie, and every drive will be 18 plays and 9 minutes for a long FG attempt.