Maynard and Sauer were the stars of the late '60s Jets, but Maynard first achieved success with another New York wideout.
There have been 105 teams to have at least two players gain 1,000 receiving yards in a season. It first happened in 1960 in the AFL, where wide receivers benefited by playing against lower quality of defensive backs and also a fourteen-game schedule (the NFL schedule switched from a 12 to 14 games the following year). New York’s
Don Maynard led the team with 1,265 yards, while
Art Powell finished with 1,167. Maynard and Powell repeated the feat in 1962, and then Maynard and the Jets’
George Sauer also joined the club in ’67 and ’68. In total, seven different AFL teams fielded a pair of 1,000 yard receivers, with
Bill Groman and
Charley Hennigan (1961, Houston),
Warren Wells and
Fred Biletnikoff (1968, Oakland) and
Lance Alworth and
Gary Garrison (1968, San Diego) rounding out the list.
But in the NFL, no team fielded a pair of 1,000 yard receivers in the ’60s, even with the 14-game schedule. And as professional football entered the dead ball era in the 1970s, it wasn’t until the passing rules changes and the advent of the 16-game schedule that an NFL team — in fact, three NFL teams — first fielded multiple 1,000-yard receivers.
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The three NFL teams to first set this record all did it in 1979.
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Of the six wide receivers, only one is in the Hall of Fame.
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The teams were San Diego, Dallas and New England.
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In 1979, Dallas’ Tony Hill (1,062) and Drew Pearson (1,026) became the first pair of NFC teammates to crack the 1,000-yard mark. That same year, in the AFC, John Jefferson (1,090) and Charlie Joiner (1,008) matched the feat for the Chargers and Stanley Morgan (1,002) and Harold Jackson (1,013) did the same for the Patriots.
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Tagged as:
1978 Rules Changes,
Weekend Trivia
