As any college biology student can tell you (hopefully anyway), one of the most common myths about the theory of evolution pertains to its most popular maxim: survival of the fittest.
Contrary to popular belief, the meaning of the word “fittest” is not predicated around physical strength or condition. Those things can be important, but ultimately the saying is a reference to an organism’s ability to quickly adapt to its local environment and survive.
(Now, excuse my completely bizarre tangent into the field of science. I hope it’s at least 20% correct.)
But as strange as it sounds, I keep thinking about Darwin and evolution every time I see NFL players like Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham.
I finally put my finger on it when I saw this year’s Pro Bowl rosters, which put on paper what had been rolling around in my head all season (and probably longer).
The starting tight ends in the 2012 Pro Bowl will be both Graham and Gronkowski. Together, they’ve combined for more than 2,400 yards from scrimmage this season.
The starting fullbacks will be Vonta Leach of the Houston Texans and John Kuhn of the defending champion Packers. Their stats are less impressive, as collectively they’ve combined for about 1200 yards from scrimmage.
What’s the only difference in the stats (other than the massive disparity in yards)?
It would be that the fullbacks accumulated those 1200 yards over the course of their entire careers. The tight end stats are from the 2011 season alone. Wow.
Vonta Leach and John Kuhn have, over the course of their entire careers in the NFL (14 years in total), compiled only 2,580 yards from scrimmage.
And these are the best fullbacks.
How did it come to this?
The Best Athlete on the Field
When Paul Brown and his Cleveland Browns won the NFL Championship in 1950, the prospect of the fullback being usurped by the tight end would have indeed seemed impossible. This is mostly to do with the fact that the tight end position didn’t even exist yet.
(And yes, the Cleveland Browns were in fact named after Paul Brown. What other person can say that about their professional sports team? That’s the kind of power even Jerry Jones can’t comprehend.)
And it’s not as if the fullback loses the comparison in 1950 by default. Fullbacks were franchise players.
The Browns had Marion Motley that year, one of the best fullbacks ever. He was the best athlete on the field, and would play defense as well as offense.
At more than 5.8 yards per carry, he was the Browns’ most explosive runner.
And totaling more than 800 rushing yards (in a 12 game season), Motley had double the next highest rusher on the Browns.
Yet Motley was no anomaly. Players like Jim Brown, Larry Csonka and Franco Harris dominated the football landscape for decades.
This was mostly attributed to a couple of key factors.
Initially, the rules which protected quarterbacks and receivers didn’t exist. And without question, the game was more conducive to running the ball.
From 1950-1980, the NFL saw no season in which the league averaged more pass plays than run plays.
But how does that explain fullbacks being quite so prolific? Wouldn’t halfbacks be the ones averaging the most yards per carry as they do now? The answer is no, for a simple reason: defenses were smaller and, on average, less athletic in relation to the average fullback.
The concept of an offensive or defensive line composed entirely of 300 pound players was unfathomable. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that the explosion of such massive players truly began.
According to the Associated Press, in 1970 there was only one 300 pound player. In 1980, there were 3. By 1990, that total had risen to 94 and promptly surged to 301 by 2000.
So the linemen were smaller. And smaller linemen meant fullbacks could generate more momentum and gain more yards. As a result, they feasted on defenses that were less capable of tackling them for no gain.
The End of the Beginning
Somewhere in this part of the story, appearing almost as a minor footnote, was the creation of the tight end position.
The eventual decline of the “one-platoon system” (where substitutions were limited and most players played offense and defense) brought about new possibilities.
Suddenly, medium sized players who were either too big for receiver or too small for lineman had a chance. Where they had previously been defensive liabilities, now they became useful.
This new position, derived from an arbitrary rule change and not necessity, must have appeared obscure to the point of invisibility compared to a fullback.
Within a few decades though, the two positions had changed completely. Stay tuned for part two...
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