by Nick Webster
Researcher Eric Goska has spent decades chronicling the history of the Green Bay Packers using Books, Journalists notes, Media Guides, Film and of course play-by-plays. In all his study Goska has been able to use film to fill in gaps in play-by-plays, but to also make corrections when they are erroneous; and boy are there opportunities for corrections. It’s not quite the national debt clock, but the corrections already number in the 100’s – many as far back as the 40’s and 50’s but some as recently as the 1980’s. And these are not just judgment calls, “hey I think John Anderson has more to do with taking down the ballcarrier than Mike Douglass”, these are out and out errors. Some errors are a distinction without a difference, e.g.: Charles Johnson’s September 9, 1979 sack of Archie Manning should have been credited for 3-yards rather than 2, but some matter.
In his research Goska has found that an error in the Press Box, never corrected, allowed Doug Martin to be the lone leader in QB Sacks in 1982. We’ve done a lot of work on sack stats – if you’re here you probably know that already – and there was historically lots of leeway in how particular teams counted them. Finally, in 1982 the NFL decided that Individual Sacks would be an official stat with consistent rules and accounting. The League actually trailed the CFL, which officially started keeping track in 1981. But 1982 was an unusual season, marred by a player strike which shortened the season to a mere 9-games. In such a small sample size single-games or outliers can have outsized effects, and this was certainly the case for the sack title. The anointed sack-champ in ’82 was Viking DE Doug Martin topping the league with just 11.5 sacks in the shortened season.
Martin was a solid pass rusher and notched a total of 61.5 sacks over his 10-year career, all with the Vikings. But the 3rd year player had only notched 5 and 6 sacks, respectively, in his Rookie and Sophomore seasons heading into 1982. But in ’82, with a mere 9-games to play with, Martin led the NFL with the lowest leading number in history, and more than half of his 11.5 sacks were in just two solid games. Martin notched 3-sacks twice in a game at Detroit in the Silver Dome but also in a game at The Packers in Milwaukee County Stadium. The Packers used their same “professional” crew in the County Stadium Box as they did in Lambeau, and the errors travelled with them.
In the waning moments of the 2nd Quarter Lynn Dickey dropped back and was slammed to the turf by Defensive End Randy Holloway and Doug Martin, his happy compatriot pumps his fist in the air from ~5-yards away. The announcers Frank Gleiber and recently retired Joe Greene call out Holloway, “I mean no one touched Randy Holloway, number 75”. One last play, a desperate bomb to James Lofton and the half was over. But the Packer crew didn’t see it that way, from their perch in County Stadium the Packer crew credited Doug Martin with the downing of Dickey. And by the time the game came to a close, with 2 others to his credit, Martin had a 3-sack game.
A little over a month later the strike shortened season became the first NFL season to stretch into the following year. On Jan 2nd, 1983 going into the final weekend of the season Philadelphia Eagle Dennis Harrison and Doug Martin were tied for the League sack lead with 10.5 each. But at Home against the Giants – with Doug’s brother George on the opposing team – Harrison would get shut out, staying at 10.5. Doug Martin had till the following day with his Vikings hosting the Cowboys on Monday night in a game famous for a different reason. A few days earlier, on December 30th, a hole was torn in the roof of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and only after emergency repairs and re-inflating the massive dome could the Monday night game proceed. Doug Martin took advantage of the opportunity, in the 3rd quarter Martin knocked the ball loose from Danny White’s grip notching an 11.5 sack and claiming the sack title.
But the November 21st phantom sack awarded Martin over Holloway was never corrected. Check any source, NFL.com, Pro-Football-Reference, anywhere you look that was a 3-sack game for Martin, Holloway notching none. We were tickled a few years back to see Bubba Baker’s reaction to the recognition of his 23-sack 1978, we wonder what Dennis Harrison might think if he knew he was rightfully the co-owner of the 1982 NFL sack title? Can we guarantee that every sack in every gamebook from the early years – including the unofficial history pre ’82 – is correct, of course not. There will be other errors, some we will find and correct, some we won’t. Of course a sack or two here and there won’t invalidate the overall dominance of a Deacon Jones, a Reggie White or a Doug Atkins; but leaders matter, and the record should reflect that in 1982 the sack title was co-owned.
In the years that followed the Quarterback sack started to garner more attention. Credit Mark Gastineau’s antics, Lawrence Taylor’s greatness and the Rivalries in the NFC East between Reggie White, Dexter Manley and Taylor. By 1986 there was a huge rivalry among the NFC East pass rushers, after week 13 Manley led the league with 17.5, Taylor right on his heels with 16.5 and Reggie training with just 12. But over the final three games Taylor notched 4 to Manley’s 1, taking the league lead and the NFL Defensive Player of the Year as well as the AP’s Most Valuable Player, the last defender to do so. Reggie picked up 6-sacks in the final three weeks to reach 18, just a half sack behind Manley. The race was on and the numbers counted. Beginning in 1987 Elias, official keeper of the League’s numbers, began issuing “corrected” Gamebooks in mid-week. Errors could be corrected – and often were – a meaningful portion of corrections came on sacks, and we’re better now for the scrutiny. Unfortunately for Dennis Harrison, the change didn’t come around nearly soon enough.
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