Football Historian Answers Football Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

[@riffsthatkill2180]

Kinda wild that the dude with no toes is considered to have an unfair advantage because of his unfair disadvantage 😂

[@stevencook388]

Kinda like Oscar Pistorious

[@MrGreen-dm2tt]

lol I mean his leg was basically a golf club...

[@CamberRockerCamber]

It is though. Just like that south African sprinter who had fake legs. The disability was actually a huge advantage. He didn't have to worry about tired legs or muscle cramps.

[@r3d5ive87]

Oscar pistorious had rocket engines for legs.

[@JackieDaytona1776]

Especially when considering in those first two seasons his field goal percentage was 53.3%

[@misterandrew]

The first American football game was at Rutgers in 1869 BUT a similar football game was at University of Toronto in 1861. US was a little busy at that time

[@lazzarus1978]

Speaking of Jerry Rice being the G.O.A.T and records that might never get broken, his record for most receiving yards of 22,895 is unreal, the great Larry Fitzgerald is over 5k (!!) behind him.

[@newgoliard6059]

Randy Moss had the balls to call himself the greatest. 🤣

[@lordsirdragor]

I did the math at some point and if Jerry Rice had stopped playing at 36 or 37(iirc) he would still be the career receiving yardage leader

[@sjrigatti]

@@newgoliard6059 certainly he is not by career stats, but if you threw them both 10,000 passes of various quality I think Moss catches a few more than Rice. High ones in a crowd mostly.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Considering I have little to no interest in football, I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed listening to this!

[@gadoatl5133]

I immediately considered cutting off all my toes to become a kicker in the NFL until he told me they banned the squared off shoe.

[@Ftc.6]

Life just ain't fair boss

[@jflo789]

As someone who has worked for the company that created the yellow line and player/vehicle tracking technology (including GPS for NASCAR), there are several reasons why GPS is not and cannot be used for this purpose and it has been very heavily investigated and suggested many times. GPS is not accurate enough. Stadiums are giant metal bowls where GPS signals bounce around which causes a reduction in accuracy. Some stadiums are domes, others have only small openings to the sky. GPS antenna are fairly bulky and don't like to be jostled around. It's fine for single-point and Differential GPS, but RTK mode (which goes down to 2cm accuracy) loses track quite quickly when bounced around and covered by other objects. What IS being used is a LPS or (Local Position System) through RFID by a company called Zebra. Though this is not used for ball placement because the NFL loves tradition and people like the drama of the chain.

[@treysonmcgrady4750]

The NFL is a multi billion dollar entity. I’m sure if they wanted to, they could figure out the tech.

[@seth131]

Then how does Euro football have precise spots on offside players? as well as the ball going into the goal? That doesnt make sense. You are either claiming incompetence or ignorance

[@MikamuraKaoru]

@@seth131 Because in Euro football, we can "see" the ball all the time, but not in American football that the ball maybe well covered by pile of players so the same tracking technology used in VAR can't be used in American football.

[@casperguo7177]

@@seth131because football players don’t hold the ball as close to their body as possible. And you are definitely not getting a pile of players on the ball. Hawkeye works by having a bunch of cameras around the stadium. So it’s no good if you cannot see the ball. Even without how many camera positions we have at the Super Bowl, sometimes the bowl is just way too obstructed to get a good view

[@stargazer2504]

Great. So, can you tell them to stop putting the floating labels above the players while the play is in process? With HDTV we can see and follow the action just fine and the labels muddy up and sometimes cover the action...

[@normanrodriguez6670]

Historians have determined the box show Dempsey used had no advantage prior to it being outlawed, but accuracy was even lower than a normal shoe

[@williamrupnow6397]

Brett Favre's career INTs will never be broken as well

[@gmwdim]

Yeah it would be extremely difficult to throw that many INTs without being replaced. Kind of like Cy Young's record for most losses in baseball.

[@djturner-smith6380]

Nathan Peterman was on his way until Goodell and the 32 owners colluded against him

[@drzarkov39]

Don Hutson's 29 points in one quarter is a record that will never be broken. 4 tds, 5 xtra pts.

[@pboogity8309]

@@drzarkov39 didn’t brady have 5 td’s in a quarter?

[@drzarkov39]

@@pboogity8309 If he "threw" 5 tds, his receivers did the scoring. If you look at stats, quarterbacks are only credited with a score if they ran for a td. You can't have the passer and the receiver both credited with the same touchdown.

[@Jeremy-rp3in]

Could Stewie Griffin be thrown for a touchdown?

[@rodneymartin6154]

@@Jeremy-rp3in probably

[@nbas_newgm5999]

I hate to be this guy, but 2 teams have allowed more than 33 points per game, and one other team has allowed more PPG that the 2008 Lions. The 66 Giants allowed 35.78, the 81 Colts allowed 33.31, and the 2020 Lions allowed 32.44. The 2008 Lions allowed 32.31. 5:50

[@RobertBalto]

Wish this guy had been asked better questions than "why is Jerry Rice the greatest receiver?" and "Who was Vince Lombardi?" I love football history myself, his knowledge is quite impressive.

[@claytonkobs8394]

In reguards to the Cowboys America's team question. NFL Films makes a show every year called team yearbook that makes a 30 minute documentary on the past season for each team. They made a team yearbook on one of the Cowboys seasons in the 70s. They titled that season's yearbook for the Cowboys 'America's team' due to them having the most nationally televised games, the most popular player (Roger Staubach), and having an iconic coach in Tom Landry.

[@tonyschmitz1997]

Interesting. I always thought that was a phrase Jerry Jones claimed but NFL Films being the origin make a lot of sense. I miss those yearbook videos

[@claytonkobs8394]

@tonyschmitz1997 they still make yearbook. They play it in July or August before the season. I think Fox currently has the deal with NFL Films to air it on FS1. I know that show has bounced around between many networks.

[@NathanielPuente]

16:00 George Blanda's 42 interceptions with the 1962 Oilers also seems unbreakable

[@dbii6349]

Growing up as a kid in the 60’s and 70’s there was no one as cool as Joe Namath. It would take blending Tom Brady with Elvis to equal him.

[@civlyzed]

Agreed. My first football as a kid was a Joe Namath model. I wish I still had it.

[@brandonr2906]

4:30 unlimited substitutions was big, but I would've put the legalization of the forward pass over it

[@RM-56]

The 2007 Patriots were by far the best NFL team by pure talent and play calling. Largest point differential by an NFL team all time and never lost a regular season game. Only way they would have lost was with a miracle, and the heroics of a guy in a #10 jersey...

[@andrsmaldo]

Hardly heroic... Brady was basically playing on one foot

[@mastod0n1]

​@@andrsmaldoand it wasn't just Eli Manning. David Tyree made one of the most iconic, if not the most, catches in NFL history.

[@samuraidom6542]

@@mastod0n1I’d argue one of the most, I keep the #1 spot for my dear Santonio…

[@astrobullivant5908]

Justin Tuck was a major factor

[@jonlohrenz5446]

There is a strong argument for the 1991 Redskins being the greatest team of all time. Pro Football Focus set up objective metrics to determine who the greatest team of all time was. The ‘91 Redskins came out on top. A large part because they have the largest average margin of victory during the playoffs in the Super Bowl era.

[@KJM3SMG]

I was just about to say this. They lost 1 game to a hail mary, and 1 game they let the eagles win coz they were resting players in the last game of the season.

[@wretched27]

Imagine being Matt Ryan and having two of the greatest comebacks happen AGAINST you

[@twelvefootboy]

was he playing defense?

[@wretched27]

@ was he still playing the game?

[@rieldebonk1044]

@@twelvefootboy Ikr, TEAMS lose games, NOT players.

[@MightyManotaur22]

I'm a Colts fan that lives in Atlanta and I remember watching that Vikings game thinking "not again, this can't happen again"

[@InsideSportJapan]

It's called a touchdown because it's the down (play) where you reach touch. Rugby still uses the phrases "into touch" and "out of touch"

[@Omar-wq9dz]

I always wondered why it was called football, if you hold the ball in your hands most of the time. It makes sense everywhere, outside North America, calls soccer ‘football’ because you actually have to use your feet

[@MrDarkx1000]

North Americans aren’t the only ones to call it soccer

[@Real_Name_Redacted]

Soccer was originally coined in Europe. America didn’t come up with it.

[@whosjulez1157]

@@Real_Name_Redacted and today everyone calls it football

[@artair70]

@@whosjulez1157Who’s “Everyone” even the Irish call it soccer

[@gmwdim]

It's literally the first question he answers in the video. It's called football because it was played with a ball on foot. It shares its origin with other forms of football such as rugby and soccer/football.

[@aaronolafson1604]

I’m disappointed he didn’t talk about Canadian football at all when mentioning the origin of the game or when it comes to the field goal posts at the front of the end zone

[@FullMetalLazyboi]

Technically the first recorded game of football was played at the University of Toronto. I thought for sure he would mention that

[@southron_d1349]

Now that gridiron has been more or less covered, other football codes need their turn. Including Australian rules football.

[@KJM3SMG]

The greatest performance in game question was asking pure stats, not "Tom Brady's comeback". In that game the defense and dumbfounding calls by the Falcons lost them that game, not just Tom making passes. The answer should be some insane statistical game like say 270 yards rushing, or receiving or passing for 600 yards or even 7 TD passing game.

[@friedbergje]

Showed up for facts about football, but utterly enjoyed the shade thrown at Dallas 😂

[@sjrigatti]

CTE won’t end the NFL, but at least now the players know what kind of a deal they are making when they sign those big contracts.

[@BadgerUKvideo]

They need to get rid of the suit of armour and focus on tackling with skill. I watched the Mega Plate one year and the level of tackling was awful. Everyone would run up-right, face-first into their opponents. Not only does running your face into another guys' face damage your brain but it will never be effective against an opponent who is more than a couple of stone heavier than the "tackler". edit: 14 pounds to a stone for those who can't use Imperial well 6 kilos to a stone for those who don't use Imperial.

[@EmmaKing30]

@@BadgerUKvideothe suit of armor is now part of the mystic of the sport & also considering merch sales that’s not going anywhere. But yes, they need to improve their tackling

[@seanscott]

for me, one of the greatest single game performances of all time is randy moss in the 1998 thanksgiving day game. 3 catches, 163 yds and 3 tds. he was a rookie

[@GeofCates8075]

'85 Bears! (Just glad they got in there briefly)

[@PiecesofVinyl]

@1:13 - I love this guy - he is CLEARLY an EXPERT in his field - should be lauded by all. Go BIRDS! 🦅

[@jvanek8512]

On Miami Dolphins you need to be accurate in your language. Pre-SuperBowl era The NFL had several NFL teams go undefeated

[@ikebeckman1074]

The main problem I have with brain injury and the nfl is simply that these brave guys aren’t paid nearly enough to put their bodies through the gamut like they do. As far as ethics, we know the risks now. We knew the risks of mma and boxing and they’ve stuck around, so as long as football players understand the risks of playing, it’ll stick around too.

[@alextownley9388]

I couldn’t give any less fucks about sports, but I’m still watching this some reason 🤣

[@AndrewRice-d8p]

Panem et Circuses. Let's go crazy over a game of men in armor chasing an oddly shaped ball!

[@twoshirts1842]

5:58 it's the Brady effect, brother. Pat is definitely more athletic. Do it for 20 years with all different teams.

[@Martinj1417]

For a football historian he got the first two answers wrong. UK football had 11 men per side, offsides, Rugby and football split in the early 1800s. American football only came a sport in the 1860s. The last cowboys win was 1995 not early 90s.

[@djjoshski]

actually was hoping for a video like this couldnt not watch this as a big international nfl fan

[@brettpetty7840]

I would love to see the old goal line defense/offense with the goal post being right on the goal line lol. Like did the defensive tackles straddle the thing? Id imagine you could use it to run pick plays

[@nab2420]

The CFL still has the goal posts on the goal line still. They don't have the injury problems

[@StarQueenEstrella]

But they have longer football fields though

The posts are on the goals líne un rugby. There was a play in the NFL where the QB hit the posts and nobody knew what to call. And they decided to move them to the end of the field

[@DiamondEDC]

Awesome video

[@BKaneNp8]

Go Birds 🦅💚🦅

[@scottbrooks711]

Joe Namath called his win because in order for the AFL to merge and the Super Bowl to be born . So he knew he was going to win . Selling the football as it is today was critical . And a business decision. The hole “sports entertainment” still lingers today .

[@tommyknowles9136]

Love John Eisenberg!!

[@josephmiller38]

The real question: Why does the Canadian Football League still have the goal post in front of the end zone?

[@smcmaster1796]

CFL: Meh, screw the danger. And on kick returns, the defence only needs to give 5 yards breathing room to catch the ball (you can be moving too). Then they are fair game, even at full speed.

[@mech-x-xavious]

CFL end zones are twice as big as NFL endzones, so keeping the goalposts behind them would make field goals even more difficult to complete and teams would try them less often.

[@jvanek8512]

He's Cowboy answer made no sense. They are "America's Team" because of their popularity not because of how many championships they've won. Patriots and Chiefs despite their success on the field were never as popular The Cowboys

[@claytonkobs8394]

He doesn't even know that the phrase America's team was coined by NFL Films in the 70s

[@BigFellaThx]

I thought the question about single season turnaround meant within a single season, starting off really bad and then turning it around to make the playoffs or whatever

[@GeofCates8075]

7:42 merely a head push :)

[@zacharygrenier8249]

Hockey next??

[@Bctass]

The Atlanta Falcons of 1977 had the best defense in history if one considers score prevention the hallmark of a great defense . Research if you're skeptical. The Falcons went 7-7 . We said " yeah the defense won 7 and the offense lost 7 games" A defense shouldn't be penalized for having a crappy offense. In fact, that makes the job even harder The Falcons went 7-7 . We said " yeah the defense won 7 and the offense lost 7 games"

[@tiagohongchulkanglee8624]

6:00 I'm no Football Historian and even I know that!

[@twoshirts1842]

4:22 i actually didn't know that

[@bobwiegers]

28-3 making multiple appearances!

[@StarQueenEstrella]

They oughta bring on someone like this but for baseball

[@taldru6]

Feels very weird that the sport changes so much... consider non-us football, can you imagine if they just decided randomly to move the goal forward or backwards? Seems wild to me

[@MrSlightlymad]

Dude, I know you don't want to repeat yourself but most of your answers that relate to history and origins are "rugby". Why is a score called a touchdown? Rugby. Why were the goal posts on the goal line? Rugby. Why is the sport called football? it is a derivation of rugby football. Who invented football? A guy who thought rugby was too exhausting for him.

[@N7spectre117]

Kelly green sweatshirt. I see you 😉🦅

[@johmyh14]

That's not football, it's American eggball.

[@sleze]

You didn't answer why they are America's team which goes back to them being on National TV in the 70s.

[@jacasoasheland6815]

I love this stuff

[@tylerperry3453]

Eli had a shot at the iron man record. But was benched for Geno Smith. Got the HC fired.

[@artair70]

Prepare for bad “hand egg” jokes, truly comical peaks.

[@gmwdim]

European children that think they're clever by repeating the same joke over and over.

[@artair70]

@@gmwdim I'm Euro myself and I don't get it, I don't actually think many of them are, seen at lost of non Euro names saying such.

[@PatrickJeremyHughes]

Smart move. Being that it's new XAI315K will probably hit $0.60 usd by Winter 2025 and next year will boom to like $25. Glad we got in early.

[@zmend]

The key to being a lions fan (although its been easier the last couple years) is that you have to be tough 😂

[@FreeRangeBunnies]

You call it football. It is more like rugby. What everybody else calls football you call soccer. Why am i thinking about Henry Higgins?:)

[@ChrisDelChris]

Literally impossible for Falcons fans to avoid talk of the comeback.

[@metalorion]

11:50 OFFICALS UNIONS!! Same reason there's no robo umps calling balls and strikes in MLB

[@SpottedSharks]

The 72 Dolphins did not play a single opponent with a winning record in the regular season. Not impressed.

[@pboogity8309]

6:14 I agree with this take but the exact same thing applies to Aaron Rodgers and we know he not better than brady at the end of the day

[@Dwickle23]

People asking questions like Google doesn’t exist

[@kentstallard6512]

The Dolphins were better the season AFTER the perfect campaign. They lost 2 regular season games but were MUCH more dominant. That perfect season was a bit flukey even though they were the best team that year.

[@airthief36]

I doubt a qb could last long enough to break Brett Favre's record of career interceptions.

[@MightyManotaur22]

In the Mahomes vs Brady debate, I disagree with the assertion that cumulative counting stats and team wins equals best at the position. Brady's longevity is insane and his team's success is insane, and I don't think it's fair to say that Mahomes is better than Brady was yet. And looking at super bowl wins I think is asinine, that's removing every other player's accomplishments and giving all the credit to the QB. Dumb argument. I think it's much more impactful to look at stats like completion percentage, yards per game, touchdown rate, etc, as well as individual accomplishments like MVP wins, when thinking about "best" QB.

[@michaelvaughn1496]

Great video

[@morganchilds9054]

What could possibly be the origin of the term "touchdown". I mean... who on Earth could possibly parse that?

[@xmattx315]

I hope they play Never Meant

[@mosayed4867]

Cowboys won the Super Bowl in 1995. This expert said early 90s. I’m a petty a cowboy fan.

[@guilhermearanha5676]

Wait... So football is called football because before there was the sport, people would refer to all sports as footsports? That is the most american thing I've ever heard.

[@marcbaumser2756]

A chain with a stick on each end, while low tech, is extremely accurate and repeatable. The problem with GPS or putting sensors in the ball, is: GPS cannot determine "forward progress is stopped" GPS can not determine if a player was down by contact or if a player landed on a defensive player and was never down. Don't blame the sticks because the referees are guessing at the spot of the ball

[@frigginjerk]

The sticks also make for a very TV-friendly moment of drama.

[@osamabedunkin2323]

Disagree with that. The point of a GPS is to determine the location of the ball when it’s not visible to cameras. It should be pretty easy to correlate the point of the ball with accordance to time and when the play is called dead. With simple x/y coordinates, the ability to spot the ball should be much more accurate than chains. Also chains seem to be extremely flawed with the chains being on the sidelines, where it’s not easy to determine where the actual distance is for first downs.

[@leestamm3187]

Namath's importance to the NFL had little to do with his statistics. He is in the HOF because of the huge effect he had on the NFL/AFL merger, which created the NFL as it exists today. His Superbowl win proved that the AFL was as good as the NFL, which many fans at the time had refused to believe. The merger was a direct result of that win. He was also a major media figure who greatly enhanced the popularity of the NFL with the public and resulted in more TV coverage. These are things you just have to be old enough to remember. Since most people today were not yet born in that era, they will never understand Namath's true importance.

[@user-ow3og9ef9r]

I was so excited about this until I realized it's american football and not rest of the world football (soccer for americans). Pt 2?

[@CRUCESlGNATUS]

Hand egg not football dont steal the name of our great national British sport

[@seanj3667]

28-3 That's all.

[@AlexUSAF]

The CTE question was a good one I am glad it was brought up. Of course playing football is dangerous, but so is boxing, wrestling, hockey, & MMA. Many occupations in life can be very dangerous such as being a fire fighter, a cop, or in the Military but we still have people who need to do them, & want to do them. Athletes make 900 times more than cops, or troops do, but there is a need for many to play & coach, & that need nor industry will never go away because sports are in people's DNA. Especially in the USA.

[@OGPigman]

12:00 the reason the nfl hasnt brought in GPS for spotting the ball is because that is a great tool in pushing their will on the game. A great example recently was the chiefs bills afccg. 2 obvious short spots in a row really dictated how the rest of the game went.

[@BoosieBraun-q5s]

Why does this guy kind of remind me of Jeremy irons

[@MatthewSchellGaming]

Do you think players in the 50s-70s could compete in today's football?

[@racecarrik]

So many Europeans crying in here 😂

[@IamGumbyy]

11:37 I'm sorry but GPS isn't precise enough to accurately measure distances that small. There are other close range measurement systems that could be used, but not GPS.

[@johnmcgimpsey1825]

Soccer's semi-automated offside uses short-range radio to determine the position of the ball 500 times per second to an accuracy of a few millimeters.

[@JackieDaytona1776]

I'm no engineer and don't know the technology, but couldn't you make the technology calibrated with the field itself - maybe that isn't 'GPS' per say, but colloquially it would be considered the same.

[@SkepticalRaptor]

With expensive equipment, GPS can have mm level accuracy. You don’t know what you’re talking about, per usual on the internet.

[@ethannelson1555]

“Football historian” can’t even tell us the actual origin of the nickname “Americas Team”? Really? Has nothing to do with stats or playoffs, but is just an old reference to an old highlight reel.

[@twoshirts1842]

13:17 thats what they get paid for. Accepted risk for payment. They are modern gladiators.

[@theodanielwollff]

Wait hasnt the last 10 Superbowls been cowboy winning with Brady?

[@GustavoLovato]

I wish American Rugby would have stuck. It’s a much better fit.

[@vakke]

Isn't pigskin just type of leather?

[@jvanek8512]

It's dangerous to drive yet people drive

[@wtfrocks8663]

11:02 - If technology eliminated the human error, what would people talk about all week. Too much money in arguing over and bad call or spot.

[@aarrueba]

Taming of the shoe

[@tyler_du]

ok i thought it was the actual football, but it s the handegg

[@212razorsharp]

He’s literally holding a helmet in the thumbnail

[@luismiranda6567]

Soccer fans are the most insecure people on earth

[@notredamecoltsfan]

Watch the video. That's the first thing he explains

[@tyler_du]

@ yeah I didn’t watch at all tbh coz I don’t follow the sport

[@artair70]

@@tyler_duYet you clicked on it…

[@jvanek8512]

Irony the helmets are the reason concussions are higher.

[@MS-wh5lt]

In terms of sheer talent Patrick Mahomes is better than Brady. In terms of accolades obviously Brady wins given the timeline difference. But Mahomes is going to his 5th Super Bowl in his first 7 years not something Mr. Brady ever came close to. Time will tell, Pat has 15 more years to catch up to Brady in playing time, so we shall see.

[@02smitj]

Soccer is an English word that was used by the rich, whereas football was used by the poor. The poor outnumbered the rich and so it being called football was more popular until it eventually became football for everyone. After this, the Yanks created their own version of football, naming it American football.

[@weirdofromhalo]

Completely wrong. Please watch the video first before spreading misinformation.

[@kristofingaming9888]

Its is true tho​@@weirdofromhalo

[@MrByrnzie]

Shout out Wick

[@FiveFigsDigital]

Favre has the pickled brain to show for it.