1979: The First Modern Year in NFL History

George Atkinson covering Lynn Swann in a way that would now be very illegal in football terms.

Probably the defining characteristic of the modern NFL is its ability to appeal, for lack of a better term, to everyone’s collective attention deficit disorder. We love to be entertained with fast paced action involving great athletes who hit each other.

Yet for all the bluster of those who pine for the days when defenders “could really hit”, they should also remember that the league’s rise to the forefront of American sport has mirrored its gradual move away from the kind of legendary violence that was so pervasive decades ago.

And the reason why rule changes have increasingly inhibited big hits and defensive contact isn’t necessarily to prevent injuries. That’s part of it (at least now it is), but it’s more about the game itself and the fundamental changes that occur when, for example, receivers can’t be clubbed by a forearm to the face.

The result of these changes is, obviously, that it opens the game up (more touchdowns, basically).

It’s a policy choice that is probably one of the most successful in the history of sports marketing. In fact it’s probably one of the best business models since someone decided people would actually want personal computers.

Appealing to people’s excitement with speed and intricacy (two hallmarks of the modern NFL) is so simple and yet so genius.

Still, I find myself asking when this really began. When did the NFL stop being “three yards and a cloud of dust” and become the kind of offenses that compare most closely with what we use in Madden video games?

The answer, initially, is never.

At no point did NFL teams collectively decide “Ok, now were going to pass most of the time.” But you probably could’ve guessed that. The transition was gradual. Yet that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few large leaps forward.

And that’s where 1979 comes in.

The birth of “new”

More than almost any other year in the history of the post-merger NFL, 1979 can rank as the faultline, separating the “old” and “new” styles of football.

The Super Bowl which actually took place in 1979 (technically the tail end of the ’78 season), was an early indicator.

Super Bowl XIII was seen by most as the greatest championship game in the league’s history. Not simply because it was the Steelers vs. the Cowboys (two of the best of the decade), but because of the manner in which the game was played.

Ending 35-31, it was by far the highest scoring Super Bowl ever and had more touchdown passes (seven), more passing yards (546) and more big plays than any Super Bowl before it.

It was a harbinger of things to come.

New rules further accentuated the trend towards more passing and more open play. Defenders were prohibited from making contact with receivers beyond five yards from the line of scrimmage. This was momentous, especially for passing games which would depend on intricate timing.

Added to that, linemen were allowed to extend their arms and open their hands, basically making pass-blocking easier.

The net result was that the door was ajar for a more sustained passing attack. The signal from the NFL hierarchy was clear: they wanted more games like Super Bowl XIII.

So the 1979 season was in many ways a perfect storm of both contrived circumstance and unforeseen luck. The new contact rules allowed new coaches to inject innovative philosophies that exploited the advantages now granted to passing games.

And luckily, two such coaches rose to positions of power just in time. One was Bill Walsh (in his first season as coach of the 49ers) and the other was Don Coryell (in his first full season as Chargers coach).

Each professed to pass first and run second (which, for the first time in their franchise’s histories, was true.) And each proved that their ideas could get results. Coryell led the Chargers to the AFC West title and Walsh overachieved spectacularly with a terrible Niners offense, though the team’s record did not improve due to their horrible defense.

Yet the passing trend went way beyond the two most notable examples. Seven teams passed more than they ran in 1979. Only one had done that in 1978. And the league average for passing yards per game jumped to a record 180 after it had never gone about 162.

(And the mark would never again fall below 180, culminating in last year's record of 229.)

It was a remarkable shift, unprecedented in NFL history (except for the original years of the AFL).

Obviously, the trend was fully legitimized in the ‘81 season, as San Francisco marched triumphantly to a remarkable Super Bowl only two years removed from back to back 2-14 seasons.

However it was the 1979 season where the spark was lit. Steve DeBerg, a mediocre quarterback, was the best example of the wonders of a passing game. He went from an utterly atrocious 1978 (1570 yards passing, eight touchdowns to 22 interceptions and a paltry 45.4 completion percentage) to leading the league in completions in 1979.

It was a mind-blowing turnaround, and as soon as Walsh handed the ball off to a young 3^rd round pick named Joe Montana, things really started to pick up.

Conclusion

So when someone asks you why football is the most popular sport in America, you can answer with “because it satiates our ADD.” (Or, you can be really lame and just say that you like the commercials.)

In any event, know that the NFL did consciously try to make the game more exciting, but that was only half the battle.

If it had been left up to the same old cast of coaches, we might never have known the exhilaration of the pass-happy, speed-first offenses that exploded in the 1980s and beyond.

Luckily though, enough risk takers emerged to exploit the rule changes and show the NFL what was truly possible.