Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you (bold above) are correct. Does "tougher physically gifted" mean better football players?
Sure, there may be 75 OLBs on the 32 NFL rosters in 2015 that can run a faster 40 or do more reps with 225 than Jack Ham. But, how many of those guys are a better player than Ham?
Is there a better MLB in the NFL than Dick Butkus was? Is there a starting MLB in the league today that can even hold a candle to Butkus? And yet how many MLBs today and how many college MLBs can run a much faster 40 than Butkus could on his best day? Ndamakug Suh can very likely bench press more than Mean Joe Green or Bob Lilly, but does he dominate his level of competition the way those two all-time greats did theirs?
A lot of you guys on this forum are very smart and have a ton of football knowledge, but let's not be so quick to make broad-brushed statements about today's player-athlete versus yesteryear's.
Roger played in an era that featured the likes of Lilly, Greene, Merlin Olsen, Alan Page, Curly Culp, L.C. Greenwood, Deacon Jones, Jack Youngblood, Carl Eller, Harvey Martin, Lyle Alzado, Jim Marshall and Dwight White on the D-line; Butkus, Jack Lambert, Ham, Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier, Tommy Nobis, Randy Gradishar, Ted Hendricks and Nick Buoniconti at LB; Mel Blount, Mike Haynes, Willie Brown, Mel Renfro, Roger Wehrli, Lem Barney, Ken Houston, Jake Scott, Jack Tatum, Cliff Harris, Paul Krause and Dick Anderson at DB.
Tell me those guys wouldn't make NFL rosters today, and of that bunch how many would be starting over guys who can run, say, a 4.4 to their 4.55?
Staubach played in an era when QBs were not protected; when you rarely saw three WRs on the field at the same time (the passing game is much more sophisticated today) and when receivers were hit and pushed and grabbed throughout their entire routes; and when O-linemen were unable to extend their arms in pass protection. Moreover, there was no sliding in that era. A QB past the line of scrimmage was open game. Guys like Staubach and Terry Bradshaw took a heavy pounding, with none of the protections afforded today's QB.
Yes, today's athlete is bigger and faster. And there are players that transcend eras. Jim Brown and Walter Payton would still run over, through and past today's LBs just as they did in the 1960s or 1970s-80s, respectively. Cliff Branch, Paul Warfield, Lynn Swann, Lance Alworth, John Stallworth, John Jefferson, Raymond Berry and Bob Hayes would put up huge numbers versus today's corners. And Staubach, Bradshaw, Bart Starr, Ken Stabler, Dan Fouts, Johnny Unitas, Sonny Jergensen and a few others would post 4000+ yard and 30-35+ TD seasons in today's NFL.
I wonder how Tom Brady, taking seven-step drops, and getting hit late and getting hit high multiple times a game would have fared in the 1960s-70s. He would have been great, no doubt, but his stats would be pedestrian compared to what they are now. Put him on the 1970s Steelers and he probably wins four SBs. But put him on a team that had to face the 1970s Steelers, and he may not have won any.
