‘You can’t make those comparisons.’ Troy Aikman explains his Patrick Mahomes tweet
CBS broadcaster Troy Aikman made headlines on the NFL’s website and elsewhere this past week for tweeting a response about his stats being compared to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The Athletic noted Mahomes had thrown 36% of Aikman’s career touchdowns with the Cowboys in about 8% of the games.
Aikman’s response: “Talk to me when when he has 33% of my Super Bowl Titles”
During a regular appearance on KTCK (1310 AM) in Dallas, Aikman was asked about that response.
“I guess, in a way, I’m defending my turf, if you will,” Aikman said. “But I’m really not that guy. I stopped doing that a long time ago. I really don’t care. But I think that when somebody tweets something like that, it just totally misses the point. It’s so naive as to what is happening in the world around us that you just want to point it out.
“I’ve gotten to where I love what these guys are doing. I love watching the games, it’s exciting, but to try to compare anything that’s happening, you can’t compare anything that’s happening in today’s game to any other era. Ten years ago, you can’t make those comparisons.”
Aikman wasn’t disparaging Mahomes, but said this era of the NFL is unlike anything in the past.
“I’ve seen Pat’s games,” Aikman said. “The guy’s been phenomenal. Great kid, love everything about him. But I don’t even look at the numbers anymore and say, ‘oh yeah, this guy’s playing great.’ I just don’t because the numbers are so incomprehensible. ... If you watch the film and you’re able to actually study these guys, you’d come away saying, ‘Wow, this guy’s really playing great.’
“I just don’t like when we start trying to look at numbers and say, ‘this is why this guy’s greater than this particular player or this former player or whatever it is.’ It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Aikman then mentioned former Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, who retired after the 1979 season with an 83.4 quarterback rating. At the time it was the highest quarterback rating in NFL history, if one doesn’t include Otto Graham’s games in the All-American Football Conference, as FootballPerspective.com has noted.
Aikman mistakenly said in the radio spot that Staubach had an 82 rating, but his point remains the same.
“Now if you had an 82 quarterback rating, you may never see the field again,” Aikman said. “Now if a quarterback has below a 100 quarterback rating, ... you’d say he play OK. Not great. Played alright.
“It’s just different and that OK. It’s OK that it’s different. I could go on and on about that one. I am proud of that tweet, by the way.”
You can listen to Aikman’s conversation here.