Records will fall with longer campaign

There’s no animosity emanating from Charlie Hennigan. He talks about his single-season pro football records – long since smashed in the NFL’s 16-game schedule – and would rather cheerfully retell a few stories than lament a seemingly undercut era.

There was the time he walloped Fred “The Hammer” Williamson with an uppercut in the middle of a play, just to let the punishing defensive back know he wasn’t going to be intimidated. There was the way Hennigan, an All-Pro wideout for the Houston Oilers of the AFL, used to gleefully drag unsuspecting cornerbacks and safeties over lumps and potholes in less than pristine fields. And of course, there was the record-setting production: his 1,746 receiving yards in 1961 (which stood for 34 years) and his 101 receptions in 1964 (which lasted until 1984).

Both of those records, staggering for their era, eventually were wiped away by the NFL’s regular-season expansion to 16 games in 1978. And with the league presumably headed toward another expansion, those same feats are likely to be further deflated.

“It’s OK,” Hennigan says now. “I’m not bitter or anything. They stood for a long time. They weren’t going to stand forever.”

Hennigan, who was finally nominated this year for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is one of countless stars who have seen their accomplishments dim as the NFL game has changed and moved forward. The 16-game slate has bumped his and many previously unassailable numbers from the 14-game era down the line. Now, with an 18-game slate likely to be negotiated and passed by the league’s owners in the next year, many single-season records are poised to be rewritten.

Dan Marino’s impressive single-season passing-yardage mark of 5,084 is poised to drop quickly, much like Joe Namath’s mark of 4,007 yards did shortly after the NFL went from 14 games to 16 in 1978. Now Namath’s record sits at 72nd overall, buried under an avalanche of passing numbers that have spun north like the wheels of a slot machine.

“In my mind, the numbers don’t really define the player as much as how you remember him in his era,” said Hall of Famer Dan Fouts, who was the first to break Namath’s mark. “Jim Brown was great. Johnny Unitas was great. And they’d be just as great today. For me, having broken records and then having them subsequently broken by other players, once you’re in the Hall of Fame, it doesn’t matter. I don’t even know where I stand anymore in some things because it doesn’t matter to me.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by many Hall of Famers who have seen their marks fall by the wayside. Unlike professional baseball, where many seasonal marks carry a great amount of weight and become a significant focus when they are approached, some of the NFL’s single-season records have regularly changed hands – particularly on offense, where the expanded 16-game season, wide-open schemes and specialization have facilitated larger numbers.

“To me, [the records are] much ado about nothing,” said Hall of Fame running back John Riggins, who set the single-season rushing touchdown mark at 24 in 1983, then watched as that number was surpassed by four players since 1995. “Records in professional sports, particularly in football: The more complicated the sport becomes, the more complicated the actual achievement becomes.”

And now the NFL records will add another level of complication to the mix: a schedule expansion that would mark the league’s third bump since 1960 – from 12 to 14 to 16 and now likely 16 to 18. That’s a potential increase of 50 percent in regular-season games since 1960. By comparison, Major League Baseball has gone from 154 games to 162, a 5-percent bump, in the same time frame.

That reality leaves many former stars shrugging their shoulders when it comes to records. Because of expansion, NFL records are not only more difficult to hold on to, they are far more difficult to quantify over a longer view of history.

“Records don’t really mean a lot [historically],” said Hall of Fame wideout Art Monk, who once held the single-season record for receptions. “It’s great to have them, but as talented as players were coming up behind me, I knew a record was not going to last very long. It’s great to have it while you have it, but eventually it’s going to get broken – whether the length of the season stays the same or not.”

With that in mind, and anticipating an eventual move to an 18-game schedule, here’s a look at some of the NFL’s major single-season records …

Poised to be broken

• Single-season passing yardage
Drew Brees(notes) nearly broke Marino’s mark of 5,084 last season, but fell 15 yards short. Like the mark of 4,007 which Namath set in a 14-game season, this one likely will be toppled quickly with an expanded slate. It took Fouts only two seasons to break Namath’s mark when the league expanded to 16 games. Since 2000, nine single-season performances have gotten within 600 yards of Marino’s mark. Of the owners of those nine seasons, four players could still have a conceivable shot at Marino’s gold standard by the time expansion kicks in: Brees, Kurt Warner(notes), Jay Cutler(notes) and Peyton Manning(notes). This one is destined to be broken.

• Single-season receiving yardage
It took 34 years before Jerry Rice(notes) and Isaac Bruce(notes) stepped forward in 1995 and snapped Hennigan’s mark of 1,746. And while Rice’s standard of 1,848 has stood since, it shouldn’t go much longer as teams trend toward more potent passing schemes. Since 2000, eight performances have gotten within 300 yards of Rice’s record. Players such as Larry Fitzgerald(notes), Steve Smith, Andre Johnson(notes) and Reggie Wayne(notes) will be in their primes for the next several seasons. Health permitting, at least one and likely a couple from that quartet could challenge this record in the first expanded season.

• Single-season rushing touchdowns
This record, now held at 28 by LaDainian Tomlinson(notes), has been tied or broken four times in the past 14 seasons. So it trends toward weakness in this era of the NFL. With scoring on the high end, there will continue to be a plethora of red-zone opportunities as young rushers such as the Minnesota Vikings’ Adrian Peterson, Jacksonville Jaguars’ Maurice Jones-Drew(notes) and Houston Texans’ Steve Slaton(notes) hit their prime in the coming seasons. Even in an 18-game season, it will take a perfect mix of health, scheme and talent, but there are a stable of young runners who should be more than capable of challenging the mark. One trend could keep it in place for a longer-than-anticipated period: the use of a specialized red-zone back that high-scoring teams such as the New Orleans Saints employ. Still, there are too many talented young runners for this one to remain in place long.

Tough but not impossible

• Single-season touchdown catches
Randy Moss(notes) holds the record at 23, having broken the 20-year hold Rice had on the mark. The next closest total this decade was Moss’ 17 back in 2003. It’s simply not an easy record to break, largely due to the ability of teams to make more effective defensive adjustments on single players. It’s saying something that only two receivers have breached the 20-touchdown threshold in all of NFL history, and those two players just happen to be arguably the two best players ever to catch a pass in pro football. But like all passing marks, the expanded passing games paired with an 18-game schedule will eventually put this record in reach again. It may take another decade, but it will be tested eventually.

• Single-season touchdown passes
Since Y.A. Tittle and George Blanda set the single-season touchdown record at 36 in the early 1960s, that number has been bested eight times. And three of those eight efforts have happened in the past five seasons. That said, players have still had a tough time cracking 40 in the 16-game slate, let alone getting near the 50 that Tom Brady(notes) reached in 2007. Only five individual seasons have finished north of 40 touchdowns – and of those five, Brady, Manning and Warner could still be active for an 18-game slate. But all three will be at least 32 next season, which makes another big run unlikely. Even with the stellar futures of younger players such as Brees and the San Diego Chargers’ Philip Rivers(notes), who each put up 34 touchdowns in 2008, jumping past the 50 mark in an 18-game schedule will take a magical season. It’s more likely that Brady’s mark will last a sustained period, like the 20 years that passed before Marino’s mark of 48 was broken by Manning in 2004.

• Single-season sacks
Sacks didn’t become an official statistic until 1982, so this would be the first time the record is challenged in an expanded schedule. DeMarcus Ware(notes) got within three sacks of breaking Michael Strahan’s(notes) 2001 record of 22½ last season, but that’s only the second time someone has hit the 20 mark this decade. With more defenses moving to the 3-4 alignment – in which rush linebackers are burdened with pass-coverage assignments or subbed out completely – the number of every-down rush ends has dwindled. That should help this mark stand for some time. One major wild card: the youth of Ware and San Diego’s Shawne Merriman(notes). Both players are dynamic pass rushers capable of going on season-long tears. That should mean that, at some point in the first few years of an 18-game schedule, this record will be tested.

• Single-season interceptions
Dick “Night Train” Lane still holds what is one of the most impressive – and underrated – NFL records in existence. Lane set the interception mark at 14 in a 12-game schedule in 1952. In the 56 years since, only Lester Hayes’ 13 interceptions in 1980 have come close to matching the mark. Breaking it will be extremely difficult, but with passing games expanding, opportunities abound in the secondary. Seven players – Champ Bailey(notes), Asante Samuel(notes), Antonio Cromartie(notes), Ty Law(notes), Deltha O’Neal(notes), Anthony Henry(notes) and Ronde Barber(notes) – each notched 10-interception seasons this decade. With the additional two games, it’s likely that another player will finally make another run at Lane’s mark.

They may never fall

• Single-season rushing yardage
From afar, it appears two extra games could put Eric Dickerson’s mark of 2,105 in jeopardy, but it’s highly unlikely. Like pitch counts in baseball, teams monitor the number of carries for running backs, and because of the brutal nature of the position, that carry count isn’t likely to rise exponentially. Instead, teams will just increase the workload of No. 2 running backs.

To get near the 2,000-yard mark, most NFL running backs would have to rush in the neighborhood of 400 times in a season. But many teams now try to keep their primary back below 350 carries in a regular season in hopes of extending their careers. Why? Because they’ve seen the damage a “super” season can do.

Jamal Lewis(notes) has never been the same since he rushed the ball 387 times for 2,066 yards in 2003. Terrell Davis’ career essentially ended with his 392-carry season in 1998. Shaun Alexander’s(notes) career plummeted after his 370 carries in 2005. In essence, any back hoping to push Dickerson’s record would likely have to do it in the fashion Barry Sanders did in 1997, when he averaged 6.1 yards per carry on 335 rushing attempts.

• Single-season receptions
The staggering total – 143 – put up by Marvin Harrison(notes) in 2002 will likely keep this record safe for a long, long time. The next highest total is 123 by Herman Moore in 1995. Even in this era of ballooning passing numbers, Torry Holt’s(notes) 117-catch effort in 2003 is the closest season to Harrison this decade. The number appeared virtually unbreakable in a 16-game season, but even in an 18-game slate, a wideout would have to play every single game and average eight catches per outing to break Harrison’s mark. It’s more likely this one stands for decades, much like Hennigan’s mark of 101 stood for 20 years, until Monk broke it in 1984.