NFL Fun Facts Part 3
Here goes part 3 of NFL fun facts.
51. In 1979, the Washington Redskins and Chicago Bears had one of the wildest final-day playoff battles ever. Washington needed a win over Dallas to clinch a playoff berth. If they didn't get that, all they'd need was to not lose a point differential of 33 points over the Chicago Bears, who were playing the Vikings. Improbably, Chicago took care of its job all by themselves, winning 42-6 in an early game, meaning the point differential tiebreak was over and the Redskins were in and win-and-in situation. Washington got out to a 17-0 lead in its game, then led 34-21 with 6:53 left, seemingly clinching a berth and ending the Bears season in the process. But Roger Staubach single-handedly got Chicago to the playoffs, leading a comeback that ended with a touchdown pass to Calvin Hill (Grant's dad) with 39 seconds left. The Bears were in, the Redskins were out.
52. Tom Brady has twice as many playoff passing yards (7,345) than the third-ranked active player on that list � Drew Brees (3,539). Only Peyton Manning comes close to Brady with his 6,800 yards.
53. Teams only began winning home-field advantage for the playoffs in 1975. Before, the sport switched off sites for the playoffs based on division placement, much like baseball and the World Series before that All-Star game tie.
54. Former Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley has any many NFL MVP awards as John Elway, Dan Marino, Marshall Faulk, Walter Payton, O.J. Simpson, Barry Sanders, Lawrence Taylor, Emmitt Smith and Terry Bradshaw. He's only one behind Tom Brady.
55. The New England Patriots are the only franchise to have scored three touchdowns in less than one minute, doing it twice, once in 2012 (three in 51 seconds in the second quarter against the Jets) and again last year (three in 57 seconds late in the first half against the Bears).
56. In 1961, there was a Bert Bell Benefit Bowl, named for the late commissioner, that pitted runners-up in each NFL conference. It was like a loser's bracket and an NFL Championship Lite for a meaningless «third place» award. Somehow, it lasted 10 years.
57. The last time the Washington Redskins shut out a team was in 1991, when the team did it three times in the first five weeks of the season. Since that Week 5 shutout of Philly, Washington hasn't had one since, a streak of 379 games, the longest in NFL history.
58. Football, unlike baseball, doesn't have a ton unbreakable records from a century ago when the game was completely different. (Team records, such as ties and shutouts are the big exception.) But there are a few modern marks we may never see broken, led by Jerry Rice's 197 receiving touchdowns. To beat that, Rob Gronkowski would need to score 10 touchdowns every season from now until he's 40 (it's basically the same for Dez Bryant).
59. An older unbreakable mark: Paul Krause's 81 interceptions. The active leader is Charles Woodson, with 61. The only other active player in the top 100 is DeAngelo Hall.
60. Brett Favre's record of 297 consecutive QB starts has been called unbreakable and it makes sense � he's more than five seasons clear of No. 2 on the list. However, four of the top 10 streaks in history are active. The aforementioned No. 2, Peyton Manning, would be at 275 if not for his missed 2011. With quarterbacks starting earlier and the league doing more and more to protect the game's marquee players, Favre going down isn't completely inconceivable.
61. The top five players in NFL history according to pro-football-reference's career approximate value: Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Jerry Rice, Fran Tarkenton and Reggie White.
62. The Indianapolis Colts won 23-straight regular-season games in 2008 and 2009.
63. Pittsburgh has the most wins (regular season and playoffs) since the AFL/NFL merger.
64. The Arizona Cardinals have scored 126 in the first three weeks of the 2015 season. In 1992, the Seattle Seahawks scored 140 points for the entire season.
65. Before the start of the 2000 season, Ryan Leaf appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline «Back From The Brink.» He then started 0-4 and lost nine of his 10 starts that year.
66. Despite football's predominance on SI covers (27 last year when combining the NCAA and NFL), no NFLer is in the top five for most covers of all time. Tom Brady has the most with 19, which is sixth-most ever. Michael Jordan leads with 49, while Muhammad Ali, who gets his 39th this week, is next on the list.
67. Though it's remarkably difficult to find information on early SI cover subjects, the magazine's cover archive shows that Doak Walker of the Detroit Lions was on the mag's first NFL cover (the Oct. 3, 1955 issue, more than one year after the magazine debuted).
68. It was a record-setting 1984, with marks broken for single-season passing yards (Dan Marino), rushing yards (Eric Dickerson) and receptions (Art Monk), as was an all-time mark for rushing yards (Walter Payton)
69. The New England Patriots set an NFL record by throwing just four interceptions total in 2010 (all by Tom Brady, obviously). In that season, there were 15 occasions when a team threw four interceptions in a single game.
70. In 2000, the San Diego Chargers had a total of 1,062 rushing yards, a record low for an NFL team. Nineteen runners had more than that by themselves.
71. Each of the last four seasons has featured at least one comeback of 24+ points, the longest streak in NFL history.
72. Only one 0-4 team has ever made the playoffs � the 1992 San Diego Chargers.
73. Did you know Bart Starr coached the Green Bay Packers for nine seasons from 1975-83, finishing with a 53-77-3 record? (I had no idea.) That winning percentage is ninth out of the 14 coaches in Green Bay history.
74. Of teams that have played after each of the NFL's 26 bye weeks, Philadelphia and Denver share the best record coming off those byes (20-6). The worst team coming off a bye is the Cincinnati Bengals, at 7-18-1, just worse than the Seattle Seahawks, who are 8-18.
75. Robert Griffin III, currently the Redskins' scout-team safety, set the record for rookie QB rating (102.4) just three years ago. Some other rookie ratings of distinguished NFL quarterbacks:
