The AFL came into existence in 1960. A year later, tight end Mike Ditka caught 58 passes for 1076 yards. It was an awesome accomplishment at the time, but little did anyone know that 63 years later, that record would still stand.
And now it’s fallen.
In the first quarter of the Raiders week 17 game against the Saints in New Orleans, Brock Bowers ran right past that six-decade old record.
Bowers came into the game needing just 10 yards to hit 1077 yards to rewrite the record books. Averaging over 10 yards per catch on the season, it seemed possible he would break the record on one catch. But it ended up taking three catches for him to do it.
He got the first pass of the day, with the catch going for six yards. Aidan O’Connell went back to him on second down, but he picked up just two yards on the catch, putting him two yards away. Then, finally, late in the second quarter, he got it. Making a 13-yard catch to get the record plus 11 yards.
Bowers now has the rest of this game as well as the season finale next week to add to the record as well as break some other records.
Next up is the rookie receptions record which was set by Puka Nacua last season. The record is 105, and Bowers came into this game needing just five receptions to break it. Which means at the time of this writing, he was two catches away from that record as well.
