Quote Originally Posted by pbmax View Post
1970 football was terrible, only I was young so it was hard to know how terrible until the NFL put in the 1978 rules changes.

1970 football was ruled by hoary cliches and a lack of risk taking. Unless your idea of innovation was run, run, then long pass on 3rd and 7.

I could see arguing that the 1960s were better. For every Lombardi then there was the AFL.

But better passing AND player movement means that teams are not stuck in the same track for nearly as long as they were back in the day. Now teams that bounce around from mediocre to terrible and back again are truly poorly run (see Rams, Los Angeles, or Jets, New York).
Nonsense, you had plenty of innovation. See, the Chiefs and Oilers would run on 3rd and long, and the Raiders would throw long on 1st and 2nd downs. Ok, so the 70s wasn't a good time for offensive innovation. But that is just because it was the defenses' turn to shine.

When I say I liked the NFL of the 70s better I'm not speaking of offensive schemes (although the modern paradigm for offensive innovation was forged in the 70s with Coryell) but of being a fan, of following a team.