Don't Rush to Recognize These Records

When someone says that NFL games lack competitiveness during the final week of the regular season, they are obviously missing the point. The decimal point, that is. Whether it’s to add leverage for the free agent market or for personal performance bonuses, players had a lot to play for even if their Week 17 game didn’t have any playoff implications.

And we’re not just talking of the Tennessee Titans’ relentless use of Chris Johnson to break the all-time total yards from scrimmage record and also to become the 6th player in league history to rush for more than 2,000 in a season. The Indianapolis Colts and Buffalo Bills game wasn’t at all being played for the final score (Buffalo won 30-7, I think), but for certain individual accomplishments. Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne got a lot of short passes thrown in their direction and each left the game following their respective catches that gave both 100 for the season. Terrell Owens caught 4 balls to surpass Tim Brown for 3rd place on the all-time receptions list. Running back Fred Jackson rambled through a defense of Colts’ reserves to reach 1,000 yards for the first time in his career.

I’m not trying to knock Jackson’s 212-yard rushing day or break my New Year’s revolution for picking on team’s that I hardly got to see (did the Bills even play in between their Week 1 Monday night loss to the Patriots and the Week 17 formality with the Colts?) but do we still even recognize a 1,000 rushing season as an actual accomplishment??

We shouldn’t.

Before 1978, when the NFL regular season was only 14 games in length, it was a heck of a deal. Before 1961, when the regular season was only 12 games, it was one helluva an accomplishment.

Let’s do some math (and, by doing so, I’m breaking a second resolution this year). In 1960, only 3 NFL players (Jim Brown, Jim Taylor and John Crow) surpassed 1,000 rushing. To reach that plateau, they needed to average 83.3 yards per game. That same weekly average for rushing output, today, would total over 1,333 yards in a season.

(And, likewise, the “water mark” for a great receiving season would now also be 1,333 yards and, by doing some more mathematics, 3,000 yard passing should now be measured by 4,000.)

Using that 83.3/game average as a measuring stick for today’s running backs and only six players (Chris Johnson, Steven Jackson, Thomas Jones, Maurice Jones-Drew, Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice) accumulated enough yards on the ground to consider the 2009 season a statistical accomplishment.

So Fred Jackson, and some others, just doesn’t make the cut.

Throw that souvenir ball back to the fans, Fred. It won’t be worth much on eBay.