Just to follow up on your first statement, in 1979 Todd ranked for 7th in interceptions with 22 and did not rank in the top 10 in fumbles, (there were 6 QB's that did rank in that top 10 so at worst he was the #7) Several of the Qb's on the top 10 fumble list were above Todd in interceptions. In 1980 Todd did lead the league in interceptions by 2 with 30. and was tied for 10th on the fumble list. I didn't do the full count up but it appears that Bradshaw, Fouts, Stabler all had more combined fumbles and interceptions than todd over that two year period. And a couple others that were pretty close. Interception totals back then were a lot higher than today's passing friendly game, though 79-80 marked the beginning of the more passing friendly league with the first of what would be a series of changes made to make passing the ball much more dominate.
I remember Howard cosell saying the following about Todd during a Monday night game: "not the best quarterback in the world, but you can win with him." Sounds familiar.
Sounds familiar, but not when talking about Mark Sanchez. He is a loser that makes everyone around him much, much worse.
And why did Todd regress ? Because Joe Walton was the HC instead of the OC. And then they brought in Ken O'Brien -- who never won a playoff game and never took the Jets as far as Todd did. I've been through this guys...I was your age once. Been there, done that. You want your New Hero. And he's likely to be another Ken O'Brien -- maybe worse. Oh yeah, and your next anti-Rex is likely to be another Joe Walton, who was POSITIVELY LOVED by the Jet faithful when he was 'promoted' in 1983.
No he wasn't. From the get-go I saw him as an operator who had moved Walt Michaels out when he saw the opportunity. Obviously we didn't have a way to grab the pulse of the fans the way the internet does now but "Spanky", named because of the way he turned his cap around and wore it backwards on the sidelines now and then, wasn't wildly popular with the fans. By 1984 he wasn't even popular.
Eh, shoved him into a locker.....Nassau DA said he wouldn't prosecute, said take it where you go when a neighbor's dog does poopie on your lawn.
We have to tank next year, we need to not draft a QB in the first round because they all suck and wait for Manziel to come out. Our QB situation is fucked for next season.
Yep, and in 1980 Stabler had 28, Lynn Dickey and Danny White had 25, Dan Fouts had 24, Tommy Kramer had 23, Terry Bradshaw and Steve Grogan had 22, Bert Jones had 21, Jim Hart and Jim Zorn and Archie Manning all had 20. Different era, interceptions were a lot more common back then than they are today due to rule changes in how defenders could contact receivers and such. I mean in 1978 you had two QB's over 30 interceptions, Fran Tarkenton with 32 and Kenny the snake Stabler with 30. (Stabler was the fastest QB to reach 100 Wins as a starting QB, only taking 150 games (Johnny Unitas previously held the record at 153 games). Something done faster later only by Joe Montana and Tom Brady) and of course Fran Tarkenton is a hall of famer who is the only QB to play his entire career before the passing rule changes of 1979 to rank in the top 10 in many passing categories, including total yardage... 1983 Was the first year, going back to the 60's, that there wasn't at least 4 QB's over 20 interceptions, 1983 was also the first year there were no QB's over 20 interceptions. While 30 was certainly a high number even for that era, you still have to view it through within the context of the rules the game was played under at the time. Two reasons the for the high interception totals back then, #1 the rules on how defenders could defend recievers and #2 the passing game back then was much more vertical, with many more deep passes going 15 or more yards in the air, this was previous to the introduction of the West coast offense that featured short high percentage passes.
The 70's had a lot more Farve type gunslingers than there are now, more offenses played in a wide open style...for better or for worse the game has changed in how it's played.
I never heard Bear Bryant say that Todd was not ready for the nfl. and, he started more than 8 college games after high school.:rofl:
Todd didn't start Game 1 of 1979 -- Matt Robinson did. I believe Todd played 15 or so games that year. In 1980, John Idzik was relieved of his OC duties after 1979. The story never got much publicity -- I read everything I could but it was like hush-hush -- but apparently he had a falling out with either Walt Michaels or the Team President Jim Kensil. Everyone thought the Jets would have a great 1979 but they had overachieved against an easy schedule in 1979 and then crashed in 1980.
Jet fans were ROARING for Todd at the Marriott during the 1976 draft. "WE WANT TODD !!!" they kept saying. "You got him" said Rozelle. And Matt Robinsion was out of the league by 1982 I believe.
Great post....I believe the rule change took place in 1978. I remember: all of a sudden, you had lots of games in which teams were making comebacks in the last 2 minutes. Very rare before then, then all of a sudden all these 2nd-tier QB's were passing their teams to victory: Brian Sipe, Dan Fouts, etc.
Yeah, I remember Richard Todd. The Richard Todd who in 1981 threw an interception in the red zone in the playoff game against the Bills with the game on the line in '81........the Richard Todd who threw 3 INTs to AJ Duhe in the championship game in '82 you mentioned .............the Richard Todd who was just like Mark Sanchez when it mattered. So what you are saying is Mark Sanchez may be able to be salvaged just enough to get us to a playoff game he can singlehandedly give away? Sounds great! Where do I sign?
Granted I was very young, was only my second year of following football, but if memory serves the final of that Raider game was 17-14. How amazing could Todd have been? I just remember what he did the week after. One of those INTs to Duhe was a Sanchez play all the way - just looked at him, threw it to him, Duhe jumped, picked it and ran it into the endzone.
