re: In defense of Tommy Casanova

All around ace, which was his problem, huge recognition goes to specialists. Met him once, while he was still playing, and he was a real nice person. Even told me he knew where Springhill was, which means he was either lost, or into exploring. Wish the secondary had 4 clones of him every year.

Saw him play a few times, but missed the hit on Musso against Alabama. Did'nt Musso win the Heisman the year or the year before. That hit is in LSU football folklore.

This is truly a bizarre thread, although I think most folks realize that not THAT much has changed in the last 30 years or so.

Of course, modern training methods have had a huge impact, as have changes in style of play. But when you're talking about a guy who had the height, size and speed equal to or better than most NFL players right now, I have to laugh at the idea that he "couldn't cover the WR's on an 8-5 team." And that doesn't even get into what modern training methods could have done for him.

This sums it up nicely:

"Do u not think Bob Hayes was fast enough to play in todays NFL? How about Paul Warfield? Lynn Swann, John Stallworth? Cliff Branch? Casanova played against all these guys. It is not even debatable Casanova was an athlete who could play in any era up to now and be a star."

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If you're comparing Tommy Casanova to Demetrius Hookfin, then you're a moron

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Please do not insult the moron population by including this guy in it!

TC was a cover corner. In the 3-0 ND game in South Bend, he completely shut down ND AA Tom Gatewood. After the game, Gatewood said "It was like he was playing inside my jockstrap all day".
I'd have to say he was probably second only to Billy Cannon in all the years I've been watching LSU fb. Cannon was better only because he was more powerfully built than TC but talent wise, they were pretty much equal.
Make no mistake about it, TC could cover ANYBODY, then or now!

Here he is on a 1971 Sports Illustrated. Same as my avatar.

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no one who saw casanova shut down notre dame's all american receiver - gatewood - in 1971

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Read about it here: "Irish Stew"

LINK

That hit on Musso was by Richard Picou

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Did'nt Musso win the Heisman the year or the year before.

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Musso (nor any other Bama player) ever won the Heisman. I saw TC send Musso flying that night. I was sitting next to a couple of Bama fans and yelled, "Kill his arse!" Needless to say, they didn't like it!

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I would compare him to Hookfin in the modern era

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You're kidding,right ?

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Dude, its only
40 years...no evolution of the species at work here.

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This thread reminds me of something Skip Bertman said back in the early '90s at an alumni banquet I attended.

He told the story of a legendary Olympic swimmer from the 1930s or 1940s (Johnny Weismuller, if I recall correctly). He had won a number of gold medals in various events. Skip then said that in last year's AAU swimming national championships, a 12-year-old girl swam a faster time than his gold-medal-winning time in one of the events.

This doesn't answer the question of how Weismuller (or Casanova) would have done with modern training techniques, but it does demonstrate that, for whatever reason, modern athletes are performing at a far higher level than athletes did even just a few decades ago.