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The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/RoScorpius97 on 2024-10-03 09:31:18+00:00.
In the past you had offenses, defenses, coaches and even players getting nicknames and most of them were great and amazing.
Nicknames like The Galloping Ghost(Red Grange), Crazy legs( Elroy Hirsch) “Slinging” Sammy Baugh, The Dutchman(Norm Van Brocklin), The Red Roach( Sonny Jurgensen), Dick “Nighttrain” Lane, Mr. Cowboy( Bob Lily), the Mad Bomber( Daryl Lamonica) , the Blonde Bomber( T.Bradshaw),The Ruston rifle( Bert Jones), " Mean" Joe Green, “Iron” Mike Webster, Sweetness( Walter Payton), The Kansas Comet( Gale Sayers), Jack " The Assassin" Tatum, The Snake( K.Stabler), Captain Comeback/The Dodger( Staubach), The Mad Scrambler/Sir( Fran Tarkenton), Too tall(Ed Jones),David “Deacon” Jones, Joe Cool, The Fridge, The Bus, The Minister Of Defense,the Sheriff,BeastMode,Megatron, Prime, Mr Consistent etc.
Units were even better, The Doomsday Defense, the Steel Curtain, The Purple people eaters, the Orange Crush ,The Fearsome Foursome, the No Names( all in 70s alone), The NY sack exchange, the Monsters of the midway, the Dome Patrol, The Legion of Boom were defensive units with all time names.
Offenses like Air Coryell, Lightning and Thunder( referrimg to a 2 back system with a bruiser and an elusive back), K-gun, The Greatest Show on Turf etc
Some eras of teams got nicknames too, the Cardiac kids Browns, The Triplets Cowboys are examples.
It seems like we don’t give players and units nicknames anymore and default to a combination of Initials and their numbers for players.
What happened? Mahomes, Allen, Donald,Kelce,Brady ( his nickname is now “The GOAT” ) didn’t have nicknames in their careers which would not be the case at all if they played pre 2000s.
Why aren’t NFL nicknames a thing anymore?
Edit: With new information, there are certainly still nicknames in the league, just in a different format.Modern Nick names aren’t " booky" like the old ones but they are nicknames nonetheless. Thanks for correcting me