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NFL historical oddities, weird facts, stats and trivia

Todd Pence

By Todd Pence
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Todd Pence

Todd Pence

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Here's a few random interesting bits of weird NFL trivia I've managed to come up with over the years. Feel free to contribute your own.

 

In ten meetings spanning over forty years, the New York Jets have never defeated the Philadelphia Eagles. This marks the only instance of one of the original 26
merger teams from 1970 failing to ever defeat another one.

In a 1983 game against the Detroit Lions, Washington Redskin running back Reggie Evans had the following stat line: 10 carries, 4 yards, 3 thouchdowns.

In 1979, San Diego Charger running back Hank Bauer had a grand total of 28 yards for the entire season, yet scored eight touchdowns.

From the late 1960's into the mid 1970's, the Minnesota Vikings dealt away three different quarterbacks, only to later reaquire all three. The most notable of
these is of course, Fran Tarkenton, whom the Vikes put "on loan" to the Giants from 1967-71, only to retrade for him in time for the 1972 season. The other two signal
callers were Bob Berry and Bob Lee. Berry and Lee both spent their interim time with the Atlanta Falcons, with Lee replacing Berry as the Falcs' full-time starter in 
1973, before both men boomeranged back to Minnesota.

In their history, the Seattle Seahawks have won five different division titles in seasons in which they have failed to register ten wins.

From 1970-76, the Green Bay Packers had a starting defensive lineman named Robert Brown. And from 1986-1992, the Green Bay Packers had a starting defensive lineman
named Robert Brown. They were two different men.

The two starting wide receivers for the NFC in the very first interconference Pro Bowl played after the 1970 season were both named Gene Washington. One played for
the Vikings, the other the 49ers.

The 1980 New York Giants threw thirteen touchdown passes in their four wins, and just six in their twelve losses.

There have been only two games in modern NFL history which have finished with the score of 5-0. The first was a 1970 playoff game in which the Dallas Cowboys defeated
the Detroit Lions. The second was a 1978 game in which the Buffalo Bills triumphed over the Cincinatti Bengals. The late Chuck Knox was on the sidelines for both
games; first as a Detroit assistnant, later as the Bills' head coach.

The 1981 San Francisco 49ers became the first team to win the Super Bowl without once during the season appearing on MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL (since that 
program's 1970 debut). The next season, the Washington Redskins duplicated the feat. The only two other teams to win the Super Bowl without appearing on MNF also
did it in consecutive years (the 1999 Rams and the 2000 Ravens).

No quarterback drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs since 1987 has ever won a game for the team as a starter.

Georgia Tech has sent over 150 players to the NFL, but only one ex-Yellowjacket has ever started a game at quarterback. That would be Mike Kelley, who went under
center as a scab for the San Diego Chargers during the 1987 strike.

Edited by Todd Pence
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August4th

August4th

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- steelers lost to Houston Texans by double digits in 2003, despite having 422 yards total offense to the texans 47

- Tee Martin has only completed passes to hall of famers during his NFL career; tim brown and jerry rice

- Jerome Bettis once had a game where he scored 3 touchdowns on 5 carries and 1 yard

- Ben Roethlisbger has more wins in the city of Cleveland than any browns QB since they returned in 99, his career started in 2004

 

Edited by August4th
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TecmoSuperJoe

TecmoSuperJoe

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49ers have never had a 9-7 record. 

Jim Kelly spent his entire career in the AFC as a Buffalo Bill from 1986 to 1996, but never once played San Diego. 

John Elway and Dan Marino both played in the AFC from 1983 to 1998, but only met a total of 3 times. 

Edited by PapaShogun
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Kiltman

Kiltman

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The Eagles have only had the 1st overall pick in the draft 3 times, of those 3 only one played a down for the team.
Jay Berwanger, 1st pick in the history of the draft, never played a professional game. Sam Francis the following year was traded for assets during the draft.

Funnily enough the one guy who stayed played the minutes of two, "The Last 60 Minute Man" ...Chuck Bednarik.

One of our closest chances to getting it again was for the 1969 draft, which bred an incident that sticks with the team's fans til this day...
The Eagles had been winless at Thanksgiving, but there was light at the end of the tunnel...future Hall of Famer OJ Simpson was the surefire 1st overall pick. 
Do to a tie earlier in the year, the Bills would pick behind the eagles as long as they had the same win total.
However the team won their first game on Nov 28th, it was ok since the Bills had a win too.
But the next week they won again,  and do to scheduling the Bills played their final game the same day and lost. Cementing them as the golden ticket winners.
The following week in Mid December..a disgruntled fanbase took out their frustrations, with snowballs, on a drunk fan dressed as Santa Claus, who the team asked to come out at halftime.
Thus begun the legend of how terrible Eagles fans are.

And one of the other go to examples of both points, the 1999 draft. Where an expansion franchise Browns team superseded the Eagles for the #1 pick.
Now who's to say how it would've gone..would Andy have taken McNabb still? resulting in the same chorus of boos because he wasn't Ricky Williams? Would he have taken the better known TIm Couch? and we have received similar boos? Hard to say, but it was something that defined the relationship between McNabb and the fans and further branded the fanbase as the worst.

Not sure if it was the point of the thread, but I thought some might find the context of the Santa stuff interesting.

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RandyMossIsBoss

RandyMossIsBoss

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Oh I love this thread. My favorite "oddity" is the 2004 Buffalo Bills. 

 

The 04 Bills started their season with a pair of 3 point losses, and stumbled their way to a pitiful 1-5 start. What ensued was a simply dominant stretch of football, one that was certainly unprecedented for a team at the bottom of the standings. Winning 8 of their next 9 games, outscoring opponents by an average of 15.4 points per game, the Bills were now somehow on their way to the playoffs. Sitting at 9-6, all they needed was to win their week 17 matchup, and as luck would have it they were going up against backups as the Steelers, with nothing to play for, would rest their starters. Did I mention this game would be at home? The Bills had the playoffs all but locked... but you know it doesn't end that way. Instead they get embarrassed by the Steeler's B-Team, trailing by as much as 12 points in the 4th quarter en route to a 29-24 defeat. Their fall was as unexpected as their rise, and the 04 Bills would largely fade into obscurity as just another 9-7 team in the record books. 

 

Of course it is worth noting, as hot as they got, there is little doubt they would have fallen to the Pats in the postseason had they made it that far. Their lone loss during their 9 game hot streak was to the Pats, and it was a beatdown to the tune of 29-6. Still, for a 1-5 team to take such a SHARP turn, going from bottom of the standings to blowing teams out, and then go and take another SHARP turn, losing a play-in game to backups at home, makes this one of the most interesting seasons in history.

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TecmoSuperJoe

TecmoSuperJoe

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1 hour ago, RandyMossIsBoss said:

Oh I love this thread. My favorite "oddity" is the 2004 Buffalo Bills. 

 

The 04 Bills started their season with a pair of 3 point losses, and stumbled their way to a pitiful 1-5 start. What ensued was a simply dominant stretch of football, one that was certainly unprecedented for a team at the bottom of the standings. Winning 8 of their next 9 games, outscoring opponents by an average of 15.4 points per game, the Bills were now somehow on their way to the playoffs. Sitting at 9-6, all they needed was to win their week 17 matchup, and as luck would have it they were going up against backups as the Steelers, with nothing to play for, would rest their starters. Did I mention this game would be at home? The Bills had the playoffs all but locked... but you know it doesn't end that way. Instead they get embarrassed by the Steeler's B-Team, trailing by as much as 12 points in the 4th quarter en route to a 29-24 defeat. Their fall was as unexpected as their rise, and the 04 Bills would largely fade into obscurity as just another 9-7 team in the record books. 

 

Of course it is worth noting, as hot as they got, there is little doubt they would have fallen to the Pats in the postseason had they made it that far. Their lone loss during their 9 game hot streak was to the Pats, and it was a beatdown to the tune of 29-6. Still, for a 1-5 team to take such a SHARP turn, going from bottom of the standings to blowing teams out, and then go and take another SHARP turn, losing a play-in game to backups at home, makes this one of the most interesting seasons in history.

I had forgotten that aspect about that Bills team. I vaguely remember Bledsoe, despite the sacks, was looking good later in the year. Eric Moulds had I think his last good season. The defense was also good. Didn't remember the choke job against the Steelers to get into the playoffs. What I do remember is an absolute curb stop they gave the lowly 49ers at Candlestick. 

EDIT: Interesting that that team actually finished 5th in DVOA that year. So I guess if they beat the Steelers they would have taken the Broncos spot as the 6th seed? So the Bills are in Indianapolis instead of the Broncos. Don't think the outcome would have changed, but they probably put up a better fight compared to Denver. 

Edited by PapaShogun
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