It's always awe inducing watching a record fall. The feeling is stronger when that record belongs to someone legendary to you.
That's what it felt like watching New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees break the NFL single season passing record held by Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino in Week 16 of the season.
Now this happened two weeks ago. A column reflecting this feat would logically come within two or three days after it happened. I've held off this long though for two reasons.
1.) There was a realistic chance that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady might match and possibly surpass Brees.
2.) This isn't something that should be done too quickly.
It takes time to reflect on what Brees did. He broke a record that's almost as old as I am, that says something. The fact that he did this AND will probably not win the MVP trophy also says something.
The main reason I say that reflecting on this feat takes time is that writing somethink quickly out of deadline causes one to not fully appreciate how Marino set the mark before. It also causes one to not see how the game of football has changed since Marino played.
When Marino set the mark in 1984 the NFL wasn't a pass happy league. The West-Coast offense didn't fully make a splash and defense mainly controlled the game. Another aspect that is different from today is how much the rules today favor a quarterback. Today the NFL is so protective of quaterbacks that sometimes it feels that breathing on one would warrant a roughing the passer penalty.
Think about it, it took 27 years and for the NFL to tilt the scale drastically in favor of offenses to break this record.
That't the thing about records though, they aren't truly looked at, both good and bad, until they are about to be broken.
So folks, when things like this happen don't simply glance at what's about to be broken. Truly appreciate it for the workit took to that thing to become meaningful.
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