Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I'm just curious to see what people think about including postseason stats along in career stats?

For instance, Tom Brady would have an additional 13,049 career passing yards in addition to his 89,214 regular season yards. Emmitt Smith would have a career total of 19,941 rushing yards. Rice would have 25,140 receiving yards.

I'm thinking in the early years (up to the merger) there was usually only 1 postseason game, so including it in the career stats didn't make much of a difference. However with teams now playing 2, 3, or 4 postseason games a year, their postseason stats can add up quickly.

Same idea regarding single-game records.

Just curious as to what everyone else thinks.

College players get to keep their postseason stat totals.

I consulted my ouija board, and Bobby Layne and Y.A. Tittle would both like to cast posthumous "no" votes for this idea.

For individual game records I am for it. It felt wrong this year when it was announced that Justin Fields set the record for rushing yards by a QB in a game. Yet Colin Kaepernick had more in a playoff game vs. the Packers in 2012.

For clarity, you would need to mention that the statistics include postseason play, but I'm entirely on board. I see including postseason play in the same category as recognizing longevity as a virtue when considering whether a player should be recognized for some honor. My goodness, if a player started a whole lot of games, the coach decided he was the best person for the job, and that should mean something. The same thing with postseason statistics: Typically, the player earned the opportunity to play in the postseason, so he should be given those statistics.

In the postseason against the best teams, statistics are even harder to come by, so they should be part of overrall statistics but even if theyre not, postseason statistics along with conference and World/SB championships should go along way in determining HOF deserving players.

I believe postseason stats should be a separate category. Of course, postseason stats should be considered for things like the HOF. And playoff games are far and away more remembered than regular season games.

SixtiesFan wrote:I believe postseason stats should be a separate category. Of course, postseason stats should be considered for things like the HOF. And playoff games are far and away more remembered than regular season games.

Yes, I agree, Every other major pro sport handles regular-season and post-season stats separately. I don't see why the NFL should be different.