The Unbreakable Sports Record That We Never Talk About Is Arguably The Most Unbreakable Of All The Unbreakable Records

A few times per year, in the dog days of summer, or the weekend between the NFL Conference Championships and the Super Bowl, or any slow time of the sports calendar. Or even right now, smack dab in the middle of football season because a Barstool Sports employee needed a blog topic, the conversation of, "What's The Most Unbreakable Record in Sports" will come up. People always cite the same ones. Cy Young's 749 complete games, Wilt Chamberlain's 50.4 points per game, Gretzky's 2,857 career points, I could go on forever. Or at least until I got to the end of this Barstool Chicago Dog Walk Draft graphic I'm blatantly stealing from.

Some people might recognize the permed-up man in the picture at the top this blog, and know exactly where I'm going with this. But I was unfamiliar with this man's incredible feat/existence until today. Today, as I penned a very important blog about Lamar Odom doing the totally normal thing of creating a life-sized sex doll that looks exactly like his ex-wife Khloe Kardashian, I had the Barstool Sports' show Mostly Sports playing in the background. They were trying to name every NFL MVP ever (via Sporcle quiz). They were stumped on a player from the Washington Redskins (wasn't racist yet) in 1982. When they eventually gave up, I saw the player's name was Mark Moseley. They didn't even mention him on the show, but I Googled Mark Moseley myself. I had never heard that name in my life. And as it turns out, Mark Moseley was a god damn kicker.

Kicker Mark Moseley, in just 9 games of a strike-shortened NFL season, apparently led Washington to a Super Bowl. I can confidently say he led them there, because he was named their most valuable player. The most valuable player on any team, in fact. He edged out San Diego Chargers quarterback Dan Fouts by a mere 2 votes.

So in order to win an MVP, over the course of 9 games, you'd assume Moseley would have put up some crazy numbers. He must have been making 3-4 field goals per game. He must have been nailing 50+ yarders all over the place. He must have been a perennial Pro Bowler who was consistently hitting 80-90% of his kicks. Right? Not at all. Moseley's stats are surprisingly underwhelming (MVP season highlighted)

95.2% is incredible. But to win MVP and not make a single kick over 50 yards seems ridiculous. Nowadays, it's almost shocking to see any kicker miss from within 50. Anything under 60 you expect to go in. But apparently, kickers really stunk back then. There was barely better than a coin flip's chance a field goal attempt was going through the uprights any time a kicker lined one up. Aside from Moseley's MVP season, the only other year he even made the Pro Bowl was 1979, when he knocked in a whopping 75.8% of his kicks. So to go 95.2% on the season must have seemed like a god-like feat to the rest of the league in 1982 (although he did somehow miss 3 extra points).

Washington went on to win the Super Bowl that year, behind the automatic leg of Mark Moseley, who went a staggering..... 4 for 8 in the playoffs.... with a long of 31 yards... 

But he went 2 for 2 in the Super Bowl to defeat the Miami Dolphins. He nailed all 14 of his 19-yard extra points. And regardless, the MVP is a regular season award. Not only did Moseley hit at an unheard of percentage for that day in age, but carrying over from 1981, he set an NFL record of 23 straight field goals. He had multiple game winners and crucial late game kicks. He led Washington to an 8-1 record. He won the MVP as a kicker. Then he promptly went back to hitting well below 80% for the remainder of his career. He does however, to this day, hold the title of Washington's all-time leading scorer by a wide margin.

That's something new I learned today. So when people talk about unbreakable records, the record of "Most MVP's Won by a Kicker"... which is 1... can't imagine that's ever broken. MAYBE it could be tied. But I highly doubt that as well. There are way too many points scored nowadays. Plus, the NFL simply wouldn't allow it. They can't have a kicker be the face of the league. Unless a team is winning every game by a score of 15-14 on the back of 5 fields goals per game... but even in that case... they'd probably give it to the best player on defense. Or to whoever has the highest QBR that year. 

Shoutout Mark Moseley. He did something that will probably never be done again. I'm sure Pat McAfee is proud.