NFL Sacks Before They Were Stats with Guest Nick Webster

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We may have all wondered in the past how players like Deacon Jones, Joe Greene, and countless others compared in the realm of tackles for loss and QB sacks with modern players. Our Guest Nick Webster did not only wonder, but did something about it along with cohort John Turney, as they brought to us the sacks and tackles prior to 1982.

Nick Webster, John Turney, and others over at the Pro Football Journal have painstakingly helped us know how players prior to the NFL officially adopting some statistics fared in comparison to today's athletes on the gridiron. Nick joins us in this episode to tell us how they did it and bring some good old-time football memories back to our modern times.

In the interview, Webster discusses the challenges of finding data on sacks from before 1982, when the NFL began tracking them officially. He explains that he and Turney used a variety of sources, including play-by-play accounts, newspaper articles, and coaches' accounts.

Webster also discusses the reasons why sacks were not an official statistic before 1982. He says that the nature of football makes it more difficult to track sacks than other statistics, such as interceptions or fumbles. Additionally, he says there was no focus on defense in the early days of football, so there was no incentive to track sacks.

The interview concludes with Webster discussing his ongoing work to collect data on sacks from before 1982. He says that he is still looking for play-by-play accounts and film footage from the 1950s and 1960s.