Breaking it down - "Err" on Garcia

Andy Lopusnak
Monday June 7, 2010

Fuzzy math and bad stats have become a trademark of the AFL this season, but not adding up Aaron Garcia’s career passing touchdowns when he’s on the verge of breaking your all-time league mark is a new low in league public relations.

Last week, I mentioned that Garcia needed four touchdowns to pass Clint Dolezel for the league’s all-time mark. Since the Sharks and AFL stated Garcia needed three for the new record, I did some research to ensure my numbers were indeed correct (and yes, they are correct).

I use a plethora of sources to get all the historical information used in Breaking it Down, and as it turns out, I need it since the league is too lazy to put out a record book. Here’s one way I found that Garcia had 928 career passing touchdowns entering the Chicago game (not the 929 that the league and Sharks promoted).

According to the 2008 New York Dragons’ Media Guide (page 26), Garcia entered that season with 802 career passing TDs, add the 78 from that year and it gives you 880. No AFL in 2009, so then add his 48 through the first nine weeks of 2010 (prior to the Chicago) game and you get 928. The AFL record before Friday night was Dolezel’s 931 and bingo, you need four touchdown passes to set a new record of 932 not three.

If you look at the bottom of the AFL’s actual press release about the milestone, there’s a season-by-season statline for Garcia where all his numbers and the touchdowns add up to 928, not 929. Obviously, the AFL had the correct numbers, but couldn’t be bothered to pick up a calculator.

To make matters more confusing, the AFL said in a press release, that Garcia set the record “early in the third quarter and was his third touchdown pass of the game. Garcia found an open Jomo Wilson for the score.” Though Wilson did, in fact, catch the record-setting TD three minutes later; it was Jason Willis that caught the third passing score of the night by Garcia, not Wilson.

Two more things irked me in the league’s press release (though it’s refreshing to see some original content that’s not one of those stupid, useless polls). It mentions that in Garcia’s career, he has “a mere 148 interceptions.” So, let me get this straight? The fourth most picks in league history are considered “mere?” Come on AFL, really? Do you consider his 14 picks this season mere as well? He’s only tied for the league lead in picks and needs just one more to tie his all-time single-season high (15 set in 1999 and 2001).

The other blood-curdling note was “he bounced between the Connecticut, New Jersey and Iowa franchises until 2001, where he found a home with the New York Dragons.” WHAT?!? Are you telling me that the new AFL doesn’t realize that the Iowa and New York franchises are, in fact, the same franchise? The team just moved and changed its name. This is just another in a long series of examples showing how this league has completely abandoned its rich history.

First, the commissioner said before the season that he was going to bastardize league history by combining the stats and records of the minor-league af2 with the major-league AFL (it’s freaking Week Ten and there’s not a record book yet with these combined records either). Next, no official press release when Milwaukee’s Damian Harrell became the league’s all-time career leader in receiving yards. Then again, not a peep regarding whether the 167 combined points by the Yard Dawgz and BattleWings did indeed tie an AFL record or not (if no af2 stats then it did tie, if the af2 is added then it’s tied for third most). Hell, the league didn’t even put out a weekly recap of the games for that week.

Garcia topping the league’s all-time career passing touchdown mark is a big deal and should’ve been promoted before the event - it’s unacceptable that it took the league almost 15 hours to pen a release, after the fact. The error-ridden release should’ve included other AFL notes about Garcia to emphasize how good he’s been over the last decade and a half in this sport. Here’s a few, just off the top of my head.

· 2001 AFL Offensive Player of the Year

· Two-time All-Arena First Team selection (2000, 2001)

· 1^st player in AFL history to pass for 90 TDs in a single season (92 in 2000)

· 1^st player in AFL history to pass for 100 TDs in a single season (104 in 2001)

· 1^st player in AFL history to pass for 100 TDs in two different seasons (2001, 2003)

· One of just three players with multiple 100 TD seasons (tied with Clint Dolezel and Mark Grieb)

· Selected as the 11^th Greatest Player in AFL history during the league’s 20^th anniversary season

· 1^st professional football player to surpass 600 and 700 career passing touchdowns

Imagine any sport not mentioning the significance of becoming the all-time career leader in a major category like passing touchdowns. The NFL pumped up Brett Favre breaking the NFL’s all-time passing TD lead for weeks. There was a daily countdown with every at-bat for Barry Bonds when he was chasing the home-run record. This week, the big news from the league was an acknowledgement that a career af2 player was retiring. Apparently, Tim Dodge retiring is more important to this league than Aaron Garcia becoming the all-time TD king. It’s like the league either didn’t realize this record was about to be broken or didn’t care. The way this season has been handled from the PR side, both are probably true. This enforces an email I received earlier this year from a newspaper writer about the AFL in 2010: “you've got a league that looks like the AFL on the field and runs like af2 in the front office and everywhere else.”

How true indeed.