Untouchable Sports Records

[Déjà Bru]

What do you guys think of this? Fox Sports had this as number 2 on their list, a gaggle of records:

Tom Brady: 102,614 career passing yards, 737 career TD passes, oldest QB to win a Super Bowl (43 years, 6 months, and 4 days), 7 Super Bowl wins, 286 career wins; playoffs included

Patrick Mahomes has had an electric start to his career, but Brady has set an almost impossible bar to reach. The G.O.A.T's 102,614 passing yards (regular season and postseason combined) are almost 17,000 more than Drew Brees for the second-most all-time and over 23,000 more than Peyton Manning for third all-time. He also has 129 more passing TDs than any other QB, playoffs included.

The most amazing thing, though, is he has 86 MORE all-time wins than any other quarterback. Second-place is Manning with 200, which means even if he came out of retirement and led a team to a perfect 20-0 record through the next four seasons, Manning would still be six wins short of tying Brady.

If Manning somehow did that, he'd also pass Brady as the oldest quarterback to win the Super Bowl, but it's a tall task imagining anyone beating Brady in that regard, either. And of course, Brady's seven Super Bowl titles is more than any player in league history.

Here is my take: I look askance at "unbreakable" records that are based merely on longevity. They are not like the feats that are truly remarkable and unthinkable to top by, say, throwing three no-hitters in a row.

Sure, it's going to be tough to pass Brady in any of these categories but I would bet that someday, somebody is going to break one or all of them. The problem with me betting on that, though, is that it's unlikely I would live long enough to collect.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

What do you guys think of this? Fox Sports had this as number 2 on their list, a gaggle of records:

Here is my take: I look askance at "unbreakable" records that are based merely on longevity. They are not like the feats that are truly remarkable and unthinkable to top by, say, throwing three no-hitters in a row.

Sure, it's going to be tough to pass Brady in any of these categories but I would bet that someday, somebody is going to break one or all of them. The problem with me betting on that, though, is that it's unlikely I would live long enough to collect.

Cal Ripken or Pete Rose, while their peak performance wasn't spectacular, were still well above replacement level. They get credit for making their teams better.

Something to be said for filling up a spot on a team, for decades.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Whoops! Sorry I forgot to put a URL in my link, above.

To atone, I show you the scoreboard for that game.



Notice that Georgia Tech eased up in the 3rd Quarter and even more in the 4th. So much for claiming Heisman showed poor sportsmanship!

Also I believe they played shortened quarters for that game. And of course part of the issue was that the papers were calling the national championship based on point differential, which I guess Heisman wanted to put a stop to. I think most of all though there had been a baseball game between the two colleges the previous year where tiny Cumberland thumped Tech and later were found to have used ringers. IIRC Cumberland tried to even out of this meaning, presenting such excuses as “sirs, we don’t even have a football team” but a deal is a deal…

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

Cal Ripken or Pete Rose, while their peak performance wasn't spectacular, were still well above replacement level. They get credit for making their teams better.

Something to be said for filling up a spot on a team, for decades.

Rose was worth -2.5 WAR his last 5 years in the league (82-86), many of which featured himself as his own manager. He was of course above replacement level for his career but he absolutely tacked on some awful play at the end to surpass Ty Cobb (who also wasn’t exactly a picture of great character).

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

LOL, I just re--read these posts. Imagine being that kicker who, I would venture to say, is usually not the most athletic guy on the team.

Kicker: "WTF, again?" Or, given the times, "My goodness, again? Coach, my leg is killing me. Mind if I sit this one out?"

Heisman: "Yeah, I do mind. Get your sorry a$$ . . ." er, "Kindly get yourself out there and kick the ball. And don't miss. I want every point!"

I *think* they were also having problems keeping and retrieving all the footballs they used so they stopped kicking PATs (and ran them in instead) in the 2nd half.

[Syd Thrift]

quadrola,

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

What do you guys think of this? Fox Sports had this as number 2 on their list, a gaggle of records:

Here is my take: I look askance at "unbreakable" records that are based merely on longevity. They are not like the feats that are truly remarkable and unthinkable to top by, say, throwing three no-hitters in a row.

Sure, it's going to be tough to pass Brady in any of these categories but I would bet that someday, somebody is going to break one or all of them. The problem with me betting on that, though, is that it's unlikely I would live long enough to collect.

Yeah, this is just BS. These other records are unreachable because the games have changed. Nobody but nobody is playing 48 minutes a night in the NBA, no pitcher is completing every game they start in, and so on. In order for records like Cy Young’s 511 wins to be broken the game of baseball will have to change. Brady on the other hand was the first guy to play 20 years in the modern offensive era. You can’t tell me that where we sit now, where Russell Wilson is 17th ALL TIME in passing yards, that someone isn’t going to come up and have at least a Brady type career.

[Cobra Mgr]

Are you guys scoffing at naming some records untouchable because they are untouchable?

[Syd Thrift]

I can’t speak for anyone else but for me it’s the opposite. Cy Young’s 511 wins won’t be reached unless the game changes in a huge way. Brady’s 89k yards is just not in that realm unless football changes and the passing game becomes a lot less important. You’d need to average around 4,000 yards a season for a little over 22 years, which is a long time… but 15 guys had at least 3700 yards passing this season, all well within that rate of being able to average that much. Pat Mahomes looks like the most likely of current players to get there but if not him then the next generation… again, unless the game changes.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

I can’t speak for anyone else but for me it’s the opposite. Cy Young’s 511 wins won’t be reached unless the game changes in a huge way. Brady’s 89k yards is just not in that realm unless football changes and the passing game becomes a lot less important. You’d need to average around 4,000 yards a season for a little over 22 years, which is a long time… but 15 guys had at least 3700 yards passing this season, all well within that rate of being able to average that much. Pat Mahomes looks like the most likely of current players to get there but if not him then the next generation… again, unless the game changes.

^^ 2nd time today I think Syd's right on.

[Cobra Mgr]

I think Brady can be reached because at some point the NFL will expand its season and amount of teams. Which means more games and a better chance for a Pro Bowl vet to do a Pete Rose and hang on past their prime.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

I think Brady can be reached because at some point the NFL will expand its season and amount of teams. Which means more games and a better chance for a Pro Bowl vet to do a Pete Rose and hang on past their prime.

This is a reasonable take. When was the last time a major sport REDUCED the number of events it had per season?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

This is a reasonable take. When was the last time a major sport REDUCED the number of events it had per season?

In 1995, the Premier League reduced itself from 22 to 20 teams.

This millenium? Sorry, got nothing.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Westheim

In 1995, the Premier League reduced itself from 22 to 20 teams.

This millenium? Sorry, got nothing.

Did they reduce the number of matches as well?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

Did they reduce the number of matches as well?

Yes. I should have added that each team plays each other team twice during a season, so the matches went down from 42 to 38 games at that point.

This is how all European soccerball leagues work; except in smaller countries where the league might only have 10-12 teams and they might play three or four rounds or entirely different modes.

[Amazin69]

After bumping the length of the season from 80 to 84 games for the 1992-1993 season, the NHL cut back to 82 games as part of the agreement that was signed during the lockout-truncated 1994-1995 season (that season was only 48 games, but they designated 82 going forward.)

Again, not exactly this century, but a voluntary decision, nonetheless.

[Westheim]

For obscurity's sake, the 1991-92 Bundesliga season was the only one contested with 20 teams and 38 games rather than the traditional 18 teams and 34 games. This was to hamfistedly integrate the top teams from the dissolved GDR's Oberliga. Two teams were added to the Bundesliga, and seven more to the second league; but the number of relegations to lower leagues was increased such that the Bundesliga returned to its usual 18 teams after one season, and the second league after two seasons. Most of the former GDR teams, unaccustomed to maneuvering a capitalist sports environment without assistance from the almighty sports ministry, quickly sagged down the league pyramid.

Getting into the weeds now, though.

Back on topic, the record for the highest Bundesliga win was set in 1978, when on the final day of the season Mönchengladbach dismembered Dortmund to the tune of a 12-0 score. This mark has not been challenged since, especially not in this century, which hasn't seen a game being decided by more than eight goals.

Mönchengladbach were tied on points for first place, but with a significantly worse goal difference than leader Cologne going into the final round, while Dortmund had escaped relegation the week before and was playing several reserves, including a backup goalkeeper in his seventh and final (you don't say!) Bundesliga appearance.

In the event, even the 12-0 win was not enough for Mönchengladbach to win the title, as Cologne beat St. Pauli 5-0 to remain on top through their superior goal difference.

12-0 is also the most lopsided score in English First Division history (achieved twice, both times before WW1), while in Premier League times it's 9-0. None of the other top 5 European leagues have seen even a 12-goal win.