YEARS: 1962, 2007, & 2019
SIGNIFICANCE: Multiple single-season and career PASS records were set by Drew Brees, Brett Favre, and Y.A. Tittle
After proving the doubters wrong in 1961 and leading the New York Giants to the NFL Championship game, 35-year-old Y.A. Tittle wasn’t finished yet despite planning to retire after the next season. After tying the NFL record with seven TD passes in a victory over Washington in October, Tittle came into the season finale against Dallas on this day with 27 on the season. He proceeded to light up the Cowboys for 341 yards and SIX touchdowns in the 41-31 victory to bring his total to 33, breaking Sonny Jurgensen’s record of 32 TD passes set just a season earlier.
Near the end of his final season in Green Bay, Brett Favre officially became the NFL’s all-time leader in PASS yards exactly 45 years later, putting the game’s evolution over half a century into perspective. While the aforementioned Tittle would retire as the league’s career leader in YDS (28,339), TD (212), ATT (3,817), and CMP (2,118) over 17 seasons, Favre surpassed most of those by his eighth season. Surpassing Dan Marino’s career mark of 61,361 passing yards in a rout of the St. Louis Rams, Favre would continue with the Jets and Vikings until 2010, retiring with a final total of 71,838 career passing yards.
12 years after Favre’s monumental achievement, Drew Brees toppled a different career passing record on Monday Night Football — per usual. Completing 29-of-30 passes for 307 yards, Brees’ four TDs brought his career total to 541, breaking Peyton Manning’s all-time record in a 34-7 shellacking of Manning’s former team (Colts) ironically. In addition to the career record, Brees’ 96.7% completion rate also broke a single-game record as he went on a personal-record run of 22 consecutive completions. By the end of the night, Drew Brees officially became the NFL’s all-time leader in career YDS, TDs, CMP, and CMP%.