ARE YOU NEW HERE? NOT LOGGED IN? PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO REGISTER FOR AN ACCOUNT AND LOGIN TO REMOVE THIS WINDOW
Welcome to PatsFans.com. Do you have an account? If not - please take a moment to register for our forum and experience a much smoother experience with fewer ads, along with no longer having to see this notification window. Also learn about how you can receive a free Patriots T-Shirt from the Patriots Official ProShop by CLICKING HERE. Please enjoy your stay here, and Go Pats!
The issue is that training nutrition and many other factors weren't known at that time, so IF those players had the same back ground as today's players then they could certainly compete, People haven't changed genetically much if any from 1972, so the differences are either the above or PED's.
__________________
"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."
FEATURED ADVERTISEMENT
DONATE TO PATSFANS.COM
RECEIVE A FREE PATS T-SHIRT AND SAVE 15% OFF WHEN YOU BUY FROM THE OFFICIAL PROSHOP!
Free T-Shirt & Save 15% Off!
Like Our Site? Please help support our site and server costs by DONATING TO PATSFANS.COM and receive a FREE PATRIOTS T-SHIRT and SAVE 15% off EVERY purchase you make from PatriotsProShop.com. You'll also receive added benefits to your account including Removing All Ads During Your Experience Here At Our Forum.
NEEDED YEARLY SITE DONATIONS: 345 | CURRENT # OF SUBSCRIBED SUPPORTERS: 98
The key missing qualifier is "How long would they have to adapt to the modern game?"
One offseason isn't nearly enough.
2 years of training? It starts becoming more reasonable. The first year is just strength, conditioning, film work, and basic individual techniques. The second year is more like regular modern training.
__________________
"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." -- Oscar Wilde
Not only would the size be a disavantage, but they also were one dimensional. Bob Griese might be in the HOF, but that doesn't mean he was impressive. I think he completed 5 passes in that Superbowl win. Thus, great runners behind a small offensive line which would get destroyed against today's defense.
Personally I completely discount the differences in size, speed and style of play when comparing players or teams of different eras.
To me it is unfair to look at it that way. Every player, coach and team builds upon what was learned from pervious players, coaches and teams. In this example the 1972 Dolphins today would have the benefit of the knowledge of everything that has happened over the last forty years in terms of nutrition, training, film study, healthy lifestyle, etc. Similarly, put todays players in a time machine so they are born in 1950 and they're not nearly as big, fast, or have as much knowledge of how to prepare for a game.
To put it another way, if you are going to look at speed and size as a determination of 'who is the best', then you may as well not even bother having any 'best player ever' or 'best team ever' debates because today's player and team will always win. Then next year (okay, next decade) the same thing will happen and whomever is the best at that future date would be the 'best ever', ad infinitum.
In my opinion the best way to compare players or teams from different eras is to compare them against their contemporaries. While that Dolphin team should absolutely be remembered and credited with that undefeated season, they were not remotely close to being the most dominant team in a single season or over the course of several seasons in my opinion.
To me the biggest accomplishment of that Dolphin team was not that they went undefeated, a fact everyone is aware of thanks to the annual reminders. Instead, the big story which is vastly overlooked is that they persevered and won the NFL championship despite losing their starting quarterback, and having to rely on a 38-year old journeyman career backup - a player whose biggest claim to fame prior to that was being the QB of the first NFL team to lose to an AFL team in the Super Bowl.
Very well said. I agree, you can't compare the two eras. But these guys were determined that the 72 Dolphins could step into a time machine tonight and face off tomorrow against current teams and handle things. They could play as is, no adjustments to modern trainings, nothing. That's when I had to call bull ****.
Are you going to print this thread and be like, "See told you so. Guys on the internet agreed with me"
But seriously the answer is no. I'm not sure how it's even debatable
It's debatable because some folks WANT to believe. They HAVE to believe because they have so much wrapped up emotionally in it. Sometimes nostalgia clouds one's judgements to the facts of a situation. Those "good old days" usually weren't, and that simple time you yearn for was also a time where people died younger, suffered longer and often had a much harder time with things than we have today.
As a historian, one other thing about debates like this really bothers me: judging a team, or person, or event, outside of their own time/environment. You can't use today's standards or morals or whatever to judge someone or something from the past. To be fair & objective, you can only really do a comparison to how that team, or that player or coach or whatever, performed compared to those around them. A few years forward and back is about it. they were products of their own time, their environment, both socially, physically, financially, etc.
It's an interesting debate to compare the '72 Dolphins with the 2007 Patriots, but it's pointless for anything other than the sake of doing it.
Respects,
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
The '72 team wouldn't stand a chance in a game today. Every single play they'd be called for pass interference, roughing the passer, hitting a defenseless receiver...
The '72 team wouldn't stand a chance in a game today. Every single play they'd be called for pass interference, roughing the passer, hitting a defenseless receiver...
Very well said. I agree, you can't compare the two eras. But these guys were determined that the 72 Dolphins could step into a time machine tonight and face off tomorrow against current teams and handle things. They could play as is, no adjustments to modern trainings, nothing. That's when I had to call bull ****.
If they are going to look at it in that narrow of a viewpoint, then yes - there's absolutely no way that team or any other from a previous era could compete against modern teams.
Sorry if I veered the thread off-track; it's just that I often see that same argument thrown out there in any of the multitude of 'who's the greatest ever' debates that constantly crop up. In those discussions the height, weight and speed of players from differing are irrelevant, in my opinion.
If they are going to look at it in that narrow of a viewpoint, then yes - there's absolutely no way that team or any other from a previous era could compete against modern teams.
Sorry if I veered the thread off-track; it's just that I often see that same argument thrown out there in any of the multitude of 'who's the greatest ever' debates that constantly crop up. In those discussions the height, weight and speed of players from differing are irrelevant, in my opinion.
Now the 1989 49ers or the 1985 Bears could be a different story....those teams were Dominating almost the entire season....the Dolphins were good and better than the rest but were somewhat soft in that weak year of 72 and could not do that today.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Last edited by PATRIOTSFANINPA; 08-26-2011 at 10:08 PM..
11Likes
Re: Need help settling a football debate
Linear Mode
