Obviously the first 30 years of NFL history from 1920 to 1949 were the formative years of the league where the rules, teams, format and everything went through a rapid evolution. The league struggled to survive during those years and rarely ever got a whiff of becoming a mainstream attraction until TV became a thing in the 1950's. The 50's are looked at as a golden age of NFL history, the Browns dynasty, Johnny Unitas and the 58 NFL Championship legend, great teams like the Rams, Giants, and Lions, legendary heroes like Jim Brown, Sam Huff, the NFL really started to become big time finally by the 1950's. 

Then you had such an amazing 20 year stretch from 1960 to 1979. The 1960's seen the ten year war between the NFL vs AFL push the sport into the stratosphere, culminating with the invention of the fucking Super Bowl and then the lead up to the Merger. 

After the merger in 1970 I think you can make a pretty solid argument that the 70's decade is when the now merged super-NFL hit it's peak as a sports league. So many of the all time great games took place in this decade, so many games that have names like Ghost To The Post, The Immaculate Reception, Sea Of Hands, among others. You had the undefeated Dolphins, the Steelers dynasty, Roger Staubach Cowboys vs George Allen Redskins rivalry, The Oakland Raiders, The Purple People Eaters, the two Steelers vs Cowboys Super Bowls, Luv Ya Blue Oilers, I mean I just don't know that it gets any better than 1970's NFL thats real pure football, before they changed all the rules in 1978 those were real battles. 

And then the NFL kind of went through a funk from 1980 to 1983. Ratings and attendance hit a plateau and actually started to decline after the player strike shortened the 1982 season. You had the USFL rise up in 1983 and fuck up all kind of NFL drafts there in 83-84-85. After all those great teams and players declined and retired it seemed like the league lost the interest of the general public there in the years before and after that 1982 strike. 

The 1984 NFL season is widely regarded as the season that saved the NFL. This was the year that all of the big records were shattered, Dan Marino destroyed the passing records, Eric Dickerson broke the single season rushing mark, Art Monk set receiving records, new stars like John Elway got over and the league was off to the races the rest of the 1980's decade. 1984 to 1989 is like another golden era there and the primary seasons that people think about when you mention 1980's NFL. Of course the 90's and 2000's are fondly and freshly remembered by all of us here on these boards as this was the era we grew up watching. 

But I noticed something about that little window there from 1980 to 1983. I started an AFL revision history fan fiction where I rebook history as if the AFL never merged with the NFL and put them out of business. I rebook every season from the 70's up to 1989 on another forum. I have been reposting the project here on PW this year since that other forum died and it really hits me just how unfamiliar I am with this little period. This 80-83 period just seems glossed over and neglected compared to the 70's or the latter part of the 80's or other decades. I grew up an NFL Films junkie so I've always been pretty familiar with the 70's and latter 80's but when working on my fan fiction combing through this era of NFL history it hits me that there is just so many teams, players, games that I just never really heard or read about, but probably should have. 

The players:

Billy Simms- To me he really embodies the point I try to make about this era perfectly. The Lions drafted the Heisman Trophy winner in 1980 and he finished 3rd in the NFL his rookie year with over 1,300 rushing yards. He just electrified the whole franchise, the Lions got really good around him and had a theme song of "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen in the Silverdome. Simms was super popular and had trademark high step and air plane TD celebrations that got over. He ran for over 1,400 yards and 13 touchdowns in 1981. In 1983 Simms had another 1,000 yard season and the Lions won their division. Believe it or not, it's something that seems glossed over or overlooked to the point that it's hard to believe that it's actually even reality that Detroit was a missed field goal away from beating the Bill Walsh/Joe Montana 49ers to advance to the 1983 NFC Championship Game. That was how close they were, they had San Francisco beat in that divisional playoff game but the kick sailed no good in the final seconds and they lost 24-23.

It all came to an end when Simms suffered a career ending injury in the 8th game of the 1984 season, he was finished for good and never played again. The Lions fell apart and were terrible the rest of the 80's and Simms and that whole little period of the Lions was totally forgotten, Billy Simms whole thing was erased by Barry Sanders(who took his #20 number). When I was a kid my uncle told me about Billy Simms and how much of a legend he was in high school here in East Texas and how great he was in college. At the time Simms still lived in Hooks Tx where my uncle lived we would see him, I had no idea he was some bad ass dude that had the Lions kicking all kinds of ass, that whole little period just kind of was left behind by NFL lore. 


William Andrews- Another perfect example with a guy who's entire prime fits into this forgotten era, and I'd bet you reading this have never heard of him. He was a running back drafted by the Falcons in 1979, just completely dominated the NFL from 1980 to 1983, ran for over 1,300 yards in 1980, had over 2,000 yards from scrimmage in 1981. He had his best season in 1983 with 1,567 rushing yards and a total of 2,176 total yards from scrimmage. He suffered a knee injury that cut him down and caused him to miss the entire 1984 and 1985 seasons, he tried to make a comeback in 1986 but only ran the ball 52 times for 214 rushing yards and that was the end.

Joe Cribbs- Buffalo Bills running back drafted in 1980, looked like a future star running back for the Bills his first 2 years with back to back 1,000 yard seasons. He was on pace to lead the NFL in rushing in the strike shortened 1982 season(he led the league in average yards per game with 90.4), had another great season in 1983 with some of the best hands of any running back in the league. Then he sells out the Bills and jumps to the USFL for the 1984 season. The USFL goes out of business and he comes back to the NFL in 1985 but he doesn't look anywhere close to what he did from 80-83 he just kind of bounces around the league before retiring after the 88 season and is totally forgotten about.

Quarterbacks that were really good for this era that were forgotten:

Brian Sipe: Browns quarterback that won 1980 MVP award for setting new passer rating record. Probably not forgotten but to me I don't feel like he should have won that award and had he not I think he would indeed have been forgotten. He had been with Cleveland since 1974 but didn't become the starter until 1978. He had a great season in 1979(had 7 game winning drives) then won the MVP in 1980. Followed it up with a pretty bad year in 1981 leading the Browns to a 5-11 record with 25 interceptions. Didn't play well at all in 6 starts in that 1982 strike season and finished his Browns career with a pretty mediocre season in 1983. He left the Browns and played some in the USFL I believe. I think his MVP award in 1980 was pretty much wiped away by that loss to the Raiders in the playoffs that season and then he just never even came close to living up to that season, by 1984 he was gone.

Lynn Dickey- He was a backup for the Oilers from 71 to 75 before going to Green Bay and riding the bench as a backup from 1976 to 1979. Finally got his shot as a starter in 1980 and didn't play all that great, threw 25 interceptions and Packers went 5-10-1. He got better in 1981 and in the 1982 strike shortened season he went 5-3-1 as a starter and got the Packers into the Super Bowl tournament(they got beat by the Cowboys). But in 1983 he has a pretty remarkable one hit wonder season, he led the NFL in passing yards with 4,458, which at the time was 3rd most in NFL history behind Dan Fouts 1980 and 1981 marks(4,715 and 4,802 respectively). He also threw 32 touchdown passes in 1983(along with 29 interceptions). The Packers had the 5th highest scoring offense in the NFL in 1983, Dickey finished 5th in MVP voting that year, but their defense was in the bottom 3 in the league and they missed the playoffs at 8-8. He had 2 average seasons in 1984 and 1985 before retiring and being totally forgotten. Until discovering him through research for my AFL fan fic I had never heard of him before, a guy who at one time had the 3rd most single season passing yards in NFL history.

Danny White- Of course we have heard of this Cowboys quarterback that lost 3 consecutive NFC Championship games in 1980-1981-1982. But I feel like this guy is way underrated, and that his underrated-ness is due to his best years taking place in this forgotten glossed over era. He's a Dallas Cowboys quarterback that just is not as remembered as Aikman, Romo, Staubach, or even Don Meredith, who became a star in the commentary booth on Monday Night Football long after he retired(Meredith, like White, lost many big championship games and never won a title). But look closer at it and Staubach retired after the 1979 season, so Danny White takes over full time as the Cowboys starter in 1980 a new era all around the NFL. He plays pretty well, throwing 28 touchdown passes and leading Dallas to a 12-4 record, they had the highest scoring offense in the NFL that season. The Cowboys would go on to lose to the Eagles in the '80 NFC Championship. White has another solid season in 1981 but this was the year they lost the NFC Championship to San Francisco due to "The Catch". White would lose his 3rd NFCCG in a row when the Cowboys got beat by the Redskins in the 82 Strike year(Dallas had the 5th highest scoring offense that year).

I feel like White hit his peak with his best season in 1983, he went 12-4 as a starter threw for 3,980 yards with 29 touchdown passes while Dallas had the 2nd highest scoring offense in the NFL. So with Danny White at quarterback the Cowboys offense in scoring finished in the top 5 in the NFL three times in four years(1st in 1980, 5th in 1982, and 2nd in 1983). The Cowboys at one time in 1983 were 9-1, they were on a roll with White at QB. They would end up going one and done when Eric Dickerson came in and upset them with the Rams in Dallas. White threw 3 interceptions in the game and all accounts I've read was that Tom Landry was pretty well done with him as the Cowboys starter after that. Dallas went with Gary Hogeboom in 1984 but I believe he got his job back for some of 1985 and had another bad game in another playoff loss to the Rams and that was it.

The 1981 draft was one of the greatest in NFL history, especially if you're a fan of defense.

Lawrence Taylor, Ronnie Lott, Kenny Easley, Mike Singletary, Howie Long,and Rickey Jackson all came out of this draft. Sam Mills was undrafted, but he was signed out this class as well

3 of the Hogs were drafted this year as well. Russ Grimm, Mark May, and Joe Jacoby signed as an undrafted.

Nov 20, 2022 8:07:04 GMT thereallt said:

The 1981 draft was one of the greatest in NFL history, especially if you're a fan of defense.

Lawrence Taylor, Ronnie Lott, Kenny Easley, Mike Singletary, Howie Long,and Rickey Jackson all came out of this draft. Sam Mills was undrafted, but he was signed out this class as well

3 of the Hogs were drafted this year as well. Russ Grimm, Mark May, and Joe Jacoby signed as an undrafted.

Yes, I feel like the 81 draft is another underrated/glossed over deal from this period, so much is made about the 83 draft that it kind of led to everybody forgetting about the amazing draft class of 81, to me was even better than the 83 draft. Also had Cris Collinsworth. Also George Rogers taken #1 goes on to burn the NFL his rookie year leading the league with almost 1,700 rushing yards.

And then several lesser known but great guys that seem to fit the theme of this thread, James Brooks one of the biggest weapons of the Bengals offense there had like 5 years with over 1,200-1,700 total yards from scrimmage. Neil Lomax a great underrated quarterback for the St. Louis Cardinals. James Wilder a damn good fullback that played for a god awful Tampa offensive line his whole career(still managed to have a couple of great seasons). 

Joe Delaney was drafted by KC in 81 and he looked like a stud his rookie year with 1,121 rushing yards averaging 4.8 yards a carry, died before the 1983 season trying to save 3 little boys that were drowning in a lake. He was from nearby Henderson TX here. 

Huge draft for Joe Gibbs and the Hogs also they found a steal in the 5th round in Dexter Manley he had 58 sacks over a 4 year span from 1983 to 1986, including an all pro season in 1986 with 18.5 sacks won two rings 82 and 87 with the Redskins. Receiver Charlie Brown was another great late round pick they took him in the 8th round, he didn't play his rookie year but he was a huge part of Skins Super Bowl runs in 82 and 83, had 1,225 yards and 8 touchdowns in 1983 the year the Redskins broke the record for points scored in a season. Then his career just declined, he went to the Falcons in 1985 had a solid season with them in 1986 but was never what he was those 82-83 years and was out of the league after 87. 

I can't help but wonder what Manley would have been if he wouldn't have let cocaine addiction ruin his life. He was fast, strong, and he had that dog in him, he brought it every down.

Nov 20, 2022 8:07:04 GMT thereallt said:

The 1981 draft was one of the greatest in NFL history, especially if you're a fan of defense.

Lawrence Taylor, Ronnie Lott, Kenny Easley, Mike Singletary, Howie Long,and Rickey Jackson all came out of this draft. Sam Mills was undrafted, but he was signed out this class as well

3 of the Hogs were drafted this year as well. Russ Grimm, Mark May, and Joe Jacoby signed as an undrafted.

And we forgot about Everson Walls undrafted free agent signing for Dallas in 81, went on to lead the NFL in interceptions as a rookie with 11, he would end up leading the league in ints 3 times in the 80’s. Had a career resurgence with the Giants had 6 ints their Super Bowl year 1990 and had a huge open field tackle of Thurman Thomas that saved that win for them in SB XXV. I feel like Walls is one of the most underrated players, he’s another guy I had never really heard of until my AFL fan fic led me on a deeper dive of this era.

I've always felt the 1981 playoffs were one of the best playoffs in history. It had a lot of lore that's well known (The Epic in Miami, the Freezer Bowl, the Catch), multiple closes game, and even the Super Bowl had a big goal line stand by the Niners, and they'd go on to win their first of 5 Super Bowls. Must be a thing with the Bengals winning in the playoffs that makes them memorable.😂

A few other smaller crazy stories about those playoffs.

I have been in love with Profootballreference new sack stats that just recently were put together for the first time. Before a year or so ago the sack wasn't an official NFL stat until 1982, so being able to see the numbers before that year now is pretty eye opening.

Until these pre-82 sack numbers came to light recently I think I was like a lot of others that had never heard of Detroit Lions pass rusher Al Baker. He holds the unofficial record for sacks in a single season with something like 23 in 1979 I believe. He led the NFL in 1980 with 17.5 sacks.

Going back to Danny White, I'm watching the NFL's Greatest Games episode on the 1980 Cowboys vs Falcons playoff game. I really feel like I need to emphasize just how underrated I think this guy is. Just think of the shoes he had to fill in Roger Staubach after he retired after 1979. Because White couldn't win a Super Bowl, it's way overlooked how fortunate Dallas really was that they didn't go through a decade of looking for a replacement for Staubach. White jumped in there in 1980 and really he put up even better stats than Staubach and had Landry's offense like at it's most effective ever? And got Dallas back into 3 consecutive NFC Championship Games in this era specified in this thread, 80, 81, 82, then had his best year in 1983.

White had ridiculous shoes to fill and was in one hell of a high pressure spot there in Dallas after Staubach retired. Definitely feels like the forgotten Cowboys quarterback, I always try to bring him up when talking Cowboys with the old timers here but they never have much to say about him. Even though I hate the Cowboys it's always fun to get a "Who was better, Staubach or Aikman" debate going at the barbershop here. 

Nov 23, 2022 0:05:23 GMT Leper Messiah said:

I've always felt the 1981 playoffs were one of the best playoffs in history. It had a lot of lore that's well known (The Epic in Miami, the Freezer Bowl, the Catch), multiple closes game, and even the Super Bowl had a big goal line stand by the Niners, and they'd go on to win their first of 5 Super Bowls. Must be a thing with the Bengals winning in the playoffs that makes them memorable.😂

A few other smaller crazy stories about those playoffs.

I'm fascinated with this 1981 Bills team right now, one of those underrated forgotten teams for sure.

The thing I always find interesting about the Freezer Bowl(Bengals vs Chargers 81 AFCCG) that is always forgotten or never mentioned(history paints a picture that it was San Diego's year but the weather in that game cost them) was that Cincy went to San Diego and mopped the floor with the Chargers in California when it was like 80 degrees earlier that regular season. It was like 41-17 or something like that. 

Will definitely watch those videos this morning. 

1981 actually seen the attendance and ratings reach all time highs. They averaged over 60,000 per game for the first time in 1981, which is 93.8 percent of stadium capacity, a new record. Also ABC and CBS set new all time records for ratings with NFL in 1981, though NBC ratings for NFL games dropped a little. 

To me I'm starting to think that 1982 strike just really killed a lot of momentum the league had going and had like a Graham Hancock bottleneck amnesia effect on that era of NFL history, fucked up a lot of momentum that some of the teams and players had(many of them never managing to get it back), kind of reset the league a little(especially with the 83 draft). 1980 is very similar to the 1999 season I recently covered in that it was like a reset for the league, one of those seasons where it seems like everything turned over all in one season. The 1981 season was the continuation of it and it was a fresh and exciting season that culminated in an epic playoff tournament. Then the strike killed it all in 1982, then in 1983 it was legit like people actually stopped giving a fuck about the NFL. You had the rise of the USFL that year and they were poaching top college talent, then you had a lot of media actually criticizing the NFL for being boring, ratings and attendance dropped in 1983. And then now when you look back at NFL history there just seems like there is this little window from 1980 to 1983 where there are a lot of teams and players and games and performances that somehow flew under the radar of NFL lore. 

This Atlanta Falcons is one of those teams that falls into that category to me.

Growing up watching 90's NFL you never took the Falcons seriously. They were a team that had been nowhere and were going nowhere, always one of the jobbers of the NFL, if they made the playoffs like in 91 or 95 you knew they were getting smashed.

So for me back in the day to open up a record and fact book and find that Atlanta actually at one time finished with a best record in the NFL and #1 seed in the NFC in 1980 it's like it had to be some type of misprint or type o. Surely that doesn't say 12-4 right? It does. The Falcons were for the most part really bad from the time they entered the NFL as an expansion team in 1966 until their 1977 "Gritz Blitz" season where they set the record for fewest points allowed in a 14 game season. In 1978 they finally made the playoffs and won a playoff game against the Eagles. They fell to a 6-10 record in 1979 but they were red hot in 1980. After a 3-3 start they went on a 9 game winning streak including wins over playoff team the Bills and a win over the eventual NFC Champion Eagles in Philly. They had the top seed locked up with a 12-3 record and would lose their finale to finish with an NFL best 12-4 record in 1980.

This 1980 Falcons team is a massively underrated team in the scope of "Missing Rings" teams, and the roster is littered with underrated players that perfectly fit into the theme of this thread, they were excellent during a period of NFL history that seems underplayed and somewhat forgotten. Steve Bartkowski the quarterback after being pedestrian for 5 years in the 70's was money in 1980, he threw for over 3,500 yards and led the NFL with 31 touchdown passes(he finished 3rd in MVP voting for 1980) and 4 game winning drives for the Falcons. He had another great year in 1981 and was solid in 1983 but just completely fell off after that as the franchise settled into the role that I grew up knowing them to play.

I already covered Falcons' runner William Andrews but to copy and paste: Another perfect example with a guy who's entire prime fits into this forgotten era, and I'd bet you reading this have never heard of him. He was a running back drafted by the Falcons in 1979, just completely dominated the NFL from 1980 to 1983, ran for over 1,300 yards in 1980, had over 2,000 yards from scrimmage in 1981. He had his best season in 1983 with 1,567 rushing yards and a total of 2,176 total yards from scrimmage. He suffered a knee injury that cut him down and caused him to miss the entire 1984 and 1985 seasons, he tried to make a comeback in 1986 but only ran the ball 52 times for 214 rushing yards and that was the end.

Another Falcons player from this 1980 team that fits this thread is receiver Alfred Jenkins. I have never heard of the guy until I started this thread and looked closer at this team. He started with the Falcons the same year as Bartkowski and like him put up pretty pedestrian numbers from 1975 to 1979. I guess by 1980 the two of them really clicked because Jenkins finished with 1,035 yards and 6 touchdowns. In 1981 Jenkins led the NFL in receiving with 1,358 yards and 13 touchdowns, earning him 1st team All Pro honors. Jenkins didn't put up much numbers in the strike shortened 1982 season, and then after missing 6 games in 1983 he was out of football. So here you have another one hit wonder guy like Lynn Dickey that led the NFL just 1 year here in this era and then was out of football and forgotten.

After taking the #1 seed in the NFC the Falcons would end up getting taken out by Danny White and the Cowboys 30-27 in Atlanta and that was it, it was over. One and done. They were hyped to be a Super Bowl contender in 1981 but they didn't even make the playoffs and finished with a losing record. They jumped out as one of the best teams going into the 1982 season but the strike killed them. They lost their last 3 games and would lose in the first round of the playoff tournament to the Vikings after giving up a 4th quarter lead. After that the Falcons fell into being one of the worst teams in the NFL through the rest of the 1980's.

Neo Zeed bringing the goods as usual. Love this topic. Major blast from the past.

Being a little older than you I am familiar with most of the players mentioned and knew most of the ones before my time because kiddie me studied sports books (100 Greatest Quarterbacks and 100 Greatest Running Backs for the win) the way teenage me studied wrestling mags. Only one you got me on was Joe Delaney, who I literally never heard of. Never heard of Al "Bubba" Baker either until his unofficial sack record made news a while back. Probably could have stumped me with Alfred Jenkins as well. It would have rang a bell, but beyond that....? And I had no idea Joe Cribbs was actually good.

Ricky Bell of the Bucs is another great one year wonder/tragic story from that era. Learned about him through an early 90s made for tv movie.

Yeah, Danny White was a solid QB saddled with the double whammy of succeeding Staubach and failing to win the big one. Kiddie me gave him props because he was also their punter!

I know Sipe & Dickey through 100 Greatest Quarterbacks and each having that one ridiculous year. Bartkowski is one of those solid, admittedly forgotten QB's like Danny White (or Ron Jaworski). Andrews & Sims I learned about through 100 Greatest Running Backs. Rogers was the Redskins workhorse back when I first got into football in 1986. He fell out of favor along with Jay Schroeder the following year iirc leading to one game wonder Timmy Smith staking his claim to fame. Brooks I remember well. He was the lightning to Ickey's(!) thunder. Cincy also had short yardage specialist Larry Kinnebrew for additional thunder. Not sure he was actually good though lol. No young football fan growing up where I did could ever forget the Skins Mannley tag team terrorizing opposing offenses. Wilder peaked with his ridiculous 1985- one year before I started watching. Walls was an interception machine and I put over Neil Lomax in a previous post. I could name maybe 8 offensive lineman back then. 4 of them were Hogs…assuming I am correct and they did indeed have one of the Lacheys?

Falcons did indeed suck when I first got into football, but I have to disagree with you on the 90s Falcons. Maybe it's a Baltimore thing, but they were super trendy here in the early 90s when they had Deion, Rison, Glanville as coach, switched from the red to the black jerseys, and Chris Miller had that one big year. Suddenly Falcons Starter jackets were not at all uncommon. My friend Matt The IRS Fan's twin brother had one. Of course I hated those trendy Falcons and their bandwagon fans even before stupid Bobby Hebert had to run around flapping his arms like wings after they beat my Saints  

Lions were another cellar dweller team in the mid-late 80s. Their battles with the Packers were the most nothing happening affairs in football not involving the Buccaneers....with one exception. The Lions/Packers 1986(?) Thanksgiving game. aka The Walter Stanley Game. That game rules. It also made Walter Stanley a Football God to my brother and I. Walter Stanley & Neil Lomax: the GOATs to kiddie me and my even younger brother 

I need these books, 100 greatest QB's and RB's

Nov 24, 2022 3:10:09 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I need these books, 100 greatest QB's and RB's

Best I can do right now...




I'll see if I can find them over the next few days. They came out around 1987. Remember Jim Brown was their top ranked RB and Unitas-Otto Graham were 1-2 in their QB rankings, though I forget the order. Another football book favored by young Baker came out around the same time and was titled something like "NFL's Greatest Games" but I can't find a pic of that one. You'd be surprised how much football knowledge I retained from a handful of books I read over 30 years ago lol. 

OK I think I remember that quarterback book, is Neil Lomax like #100? Or in the 90's? I'm pretty sure that was how I found out about him.

I’m sure Neil made The List. Can’t remember where though. I’ll guess the 60s or 70s. I mean I remember one year wonder Jay Schroeder cracking their Top 100 and Lomax had quite a few (good!) years on him.

Lomax had an amazing season in 1984 that was overshadowed by Marino that year breaking all the records. After that Lomax got sacked... a lot. Like David Carr 2002-2005 a lot. And playing 8 games a year against 80's NFC East too, so Buddy Ryan/Reggie White/Clyde Simmons Eagles, LT Giants, Wilber Marshall/Charles Mann Redskins, and Cowboys had pretty underrated Jim Jeffcoat and maybe a few prime years of Too Tall Jones going after him. Those are hard sacks and late hits right there. That's like Earl Campbell running into the Steel Curtain three times a year shortening his career, but multiply it to half a season of that. To be a Cardinals quarterback in the 80's/early 90's is like a defenseless prey on National Geographic "When Predators Attack", one of those tapes you would find in the Special Interest section of Blockbuster next to bare knuckle UFC and Faces Of Death tapes. 

Neo Zeed I looked up Lomax's stats earlier today and he's even better than I thought. Gonna declare him an Officially Good Quarterback.

You mentioned his monster 1984 but his 1987 was just as good. Remember this was the strike season, so if you extrapolate his stats from 12 games to a full 16 he would have thrown for over 4500 passing yards (he lead the league with 3387 in 12 games) and 32 touchdown passes. Monster numbers in those days.

He sucked his first two seasons. No surprise there. Most young quarterbacks sucked in those days. But he hit his stride in year three and was solid to good to great every year from 83-88.

3000 yards and 20 TD were my barometers for a good QB season in those days. Neil surpassed both marks 4 times in those 6 seasons. He threw 127 TD passes to 74 interceptions during that stretch for a strong 1.7 TD to INT ratio. His ranking in Yards/TD/QB Rating for each of those 6 years...

1983: 16/8/7
1984: 2/3/4
1985: 11/12/11
1986: 16/16/14 (finished below Eric "LOL" Hipple in QB rating. Yikes!)
1987: 1/3/5
1988: 5/6/7

It's no stretch to call him a Top 10 QB during that 6 year period. Only real question is "how high?" He was great in 84 & 87, very good 88, good in 83, above average in 85, and even his mediocre 86 campaign was still average.

You're right about him taking a beating. His sack totals are awfully high, ranging from 43 to a whopping 61 during his 6 year peak period. And, oh yeah, he lead the league by getting sacked 31 times right before his peak during the strike shortened 9 game 1982 season. Incredibly that was the only year he lead the league in getting sacked. But all those hits surely lead to the degenerative hip condition which ultimately shortened the career of the 80s most underrated quarterback (suck it Dave Krieg fans).
=============
Another good forgotten one year wonder from this period is Chiefs QB Bill Kenney. When I first got into football he was embroiled in a QB competition with Todd "The Bust" Blackledge of all people. So imagine my surprise a year or two later when I hit the jackpot by scoring a boatload of old football cards from my much older cousin and discover Bill Kenney threw for over 4300 yards in 1983 when such a thing was still an extreme rarity outside of curve killer Dan Fouts.

Ottis Anderson is another good forgotten star from this period. The second OJ ran for over 1600 yards his rookie year and went over 1000 five of his first six years, only missing out in the strike shortened season of 1982. Then he fell off the face of the earth for a few years before rebounding outta nowhere with 1000 yards (on about as many carries lol) and a bunch of touchdowns for the 1989 Giants.

Nov 26, 2022 15:22:58 GMT Baker said:

Ottis Anderson is another good forgotten star from this period. The second OJ ran for over 1600 yards his rookie year and went over 1000 five of his first six years, only missing out in the strike shortened season of 1982. Then he fell off the face of the earth for a few years before rebounding outta nowhere with 1000 yards (on about as many carries lol) and a bunch of touchdowns for the 1989 Giants.

He was also the MVP of the Giants 2nd Super Bowl win.

O.A. certainly is interesting to consider for the theme of this thread. He is known for his run with the Giants he's a Super Bowl hero in to me the GOAT Super Bowl. But I've heard in documentaries him talking about his own Giants team mates had no idea he was the same guy that played for the St. Louis Cardinals a decade earlier. By the time he became a household name the Cardinals didn't even play in St. Louis anymore they moved to Phoenix where definitely nobody remembered his run from 1979 to 1984. And that was one hell of an underrated run, 1,605 in 1979 then followed up with over 1,300 yards in 1980 and 1981, yet another guy that came out of the other end of that 1982 player strike just not the same guy, rushing stats dropped some in 1983 and 1984.

Interesting stat though that 1984 season when Lomax was burning it up O.A. had 70 catches for over 600 yards receiving, that's pretty great for a running back. So his rushing stats dropped in 1984 but so did his carries, he ran the ball the least amount of times of any season up to that point he had played, yet with those receiving numbers he finished with the most total yards from scrimmage that he had since his rookie year.

I'm assuming he got hurt in 1985 idk he missed 7-8 games, this was around the time Lomax was getting killed too. The Cardinals I guess traded him to the Giants mid-season 1986, he went on to play in Super Bowl XXI against Denver, I didn't realize he played in that game also.

That's pretty mind blowing that the Cardinals would trade a talent like that within the division to help a rival win 2 Super Bowls like they weren't beating your ass bad enough already.

I feel like we could make a whole thread on the 1982 season, talk about a forgotten NFL season, a lost season really. I never realized the specifics of this strike, they played the first 2 weeks of the 1982 NFL season then shut everything down. From week 3 to week 10 was lost to the strike. So essentially after 2 games, they shut the whole season down for 2 months, then kickstarted it back up and played 7 games(after 2 months off this was pretty much like a restarted all new condensed 7 game season). Then after all the teams played 9 games total they just set up a 16 team playoff tournament, 8 teams each conference with seeds like basketball.

Think about what that 8 week break did to this whole season. I'm just now finally digging through some of this for the first time and notice a few things:

The Buffalo Bills of Chuck Knox, were bad ass in 1981, started 1982 2-0 before the strike, came back and fell flat in the 7 games went 2-5 team was never the same again.

The Chargers were seemingly at the peak of their powers offensively, they were killing it averaging 32 points per game that year, they had a run there in December where they scored like 134 points in 3 games, destroying the Super Bowl teams from the year before(41-37 over 49ers in San Fran then 50-34 over Cincinnati the very next week).

Fouts was on track to have another amazing year, he averaged 320 yards per game and finished with a 93 rating. Wes Chandler finished with over 1,000 yards in just 8 games, which led the NFL, then Winslow finished 3rd with over 700 yards. This Chargers offense had there not been a strike maybe they would have been their best season? I mean what kind of numbers would these guys have put up? Would Chandler have broken the single season receiving record? Would Fouts have broken his own single season passing marks for the 4th year in a row? How many points would this team have scored in 16 games? Yikes.

I feel like Wes Chandler having over 1,000 yards in 8 games for the NFL to give the 1982 MVP award to a kicker is pretty wild right? What the hell.

So they beat Pittsburgh in the first round of the playoff tournament then they fall in a rematch against the Dolphins. And with that I definitely feel like this 1982 Charger team is crazy underrated what if.

Fouts was the rightful MVP in 82, giving it to a kicker (Mark Moselely for those curious) was an absolute joke.

Just accidentally proved my own point about Ottis Anderson being a forgotten star by forgetting his famous moment :lol:   Whoops. And it's one of my favorite Super Bowls too! Only thing sweeter was the Giants knocking off the hated back to back Super Bowl Champion 49ers in the NFC Championship game.

Yeah, Mark Moseley as the 1982 NFL MVP is one of the all time great NFL wtf moments, but I'm not gonna sit here and dunk on the NFL's last straight on kicker too much. Last of a dying breed, brothers.