Name One NFL Record That Won’t Ever Be Broken. This Ex-NFL Exec Just Did

By Clark Judge 

(EDITOR’S NOTE: To listen to Upton Bell, click on the following link: https://www.spreaker.com/user/fullpresscoverage/eyetest-20220927-1128)

When we talk about epic achievements in pro-football history, look no farther than what one backup quarterback did 71 years ago Wednesday: He set the NFL’s single-game passing record for yards.

And that record still stands.

On Sept. 28, 1951, the Rams’ Norm Van Brocklin – starting only because Bob Waterfield was hurt – threw for 554 yards in a 54-14 demolition of the New York Yankees. Since then, nobody – not John Unitas, not Dan Marino, not John Elway, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady – has eclipsed it.

Surprising? No.  Downright astonishing.

Van Brocklin didn’t just break the existing record. He obliterated it, besting the previous mark of 468 yards, set by Johnny Lujack two years earlier, and raised the bar so high that it has withstood 71 years of rules changes and close calls by Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks.

To appreciate how rare his performance was in 1951, know that Van Brocklin did it in a season where only two quarterbacks – Bobby Layne and Otto Graham – threw for over 2,000 yards. And he did it in a season where he had only two … you heard me, two … starts.

“Unless the NFL finds a way to manipulate it,” said former NFL executive Upton Bell on this week’s “Eye Test for Two” podcast, “I don’t think that record will ever be broken. When it happened, it reverberated all around the NFL.”

As it should have.

Remember: This was when the NFL played 12-game seasons, only one quarterback (Layne) threw for more than 17 TDs and just four of the top-rated quarterbacks completed over 50 percent of their passes. It was unlike anything in the NFL today, with teams so inclined then to run first that only two -- the Yanks and Green Bay Packers – threw more than they ran.

You can look it up.

“No shotgun then,” said Bell. “T-formation. You dropped back and you threw. You had to get rid of the ball in like 3.2 seconds. No matter how bad the opponent might be (and the Yanks were 1-9-2), to be able to set it up and throw for hat amount of yardage still -- to me -- is one of the great modern feats of the NFL.”

Bell should know. As the son of former NFL commissioner and Hall-of-Famer Bert Bell, he’s been in and around the NFL all his life … and he soon turns 85. He saw Van Brocklin play. He saw Waterfield play. He was with the Baltimore Colts when Unitas ruled the league. He was the GM of the New England Patriots. And he is a historian with a keen eye for the best and brightest in the sport.

So how, he was asked, would Van Brocklin’s achievement translate to today’s game? Six hundred yards? Seven hundred? Layne led the league in 1951 with 2,406 passing yards, and Van Brocklin’s total – on 27 completions, no less (an average of 20.5 per) – is 23 percent of that figure. So how would it play in today’s league?

“Well, today,” said Bell, “probably about 1,000 yards. Now that may sound like an exaggeration, but think about it.”

We have. Played over a 17-game season, Van Brocklin’s 554 yards in one game would result in 9,418 for one season – or a 42 percent increase over Peyton Manning’s league record of 5,477 in 2013.

“All the great quarterbacks that I’ve seen with great arms,” said Bell, “starting with Sammy Baugh, right through to Dan Marino and John Elway and many of the magicians you have today – (I’d say) that Van Brocklin probably was one of the best long distance throwers. I mean, he could lay that ball out there, either on the line or over the top, at 50, 60 yards .

“Think about that: 1951. No training program. No quarterback coaches. No sent-in plays. Nothing. And yet this guy tore the Yanks apart.”

He wasn’t alone. Three receivers, including Hall-of-Famers Elroy Hirsch and Tom Fears, each had over 100 yards in receptions. Van Brocklin threw for five TDs. The Rams had 34 first downs (then a league high) and produced 735 yards in total offense, which – like Van Brocklin’s record -- remains the NFL’s platinum bar 71 years later. Furthermore, L.A. would go on to beat Cleveland 24-17 in the NFL championship game on a 73-yard fourth-quarter touchdown pass thrown by Waterfield’s replacement.

You guessed it. Norm Van Brocklin.

“Most teams played man for man,” said Bell. “They didn’t play a lot of zone. Even if the defensive backs were not that good, they ran with you all the way. There was no penalty for hitting somebody after five yards. None of that. It was a running game, which makes (the record) more extraordinary. Because the average quarterback threw maybe … maybe … 20 times a game.

“All the things you see today, where the records have been obliterated because there are so many more games, the game is wide open, you’re penalizing the defense … all of those things, to me, add up to what I think are a lot of phony statistics.

“Great. The quarterbacks are better, all of the things that you can say. But if you were to go back then and say that this person was going to throw for way over 500 yards against a team – whether they were good or not – was just an amazing feat. I really hope that people will understand how great Van Brocklin really was.”