It’s the caveat I’m forced to add anytime I’m passing along a “stat of the weird” related to sacks. The “since the stat became official in 1982” disclaimer that if I don’t add, someone will bring it up.
I may still need to add that context going forward. But the fine folks over at Pro Football Reference have given us a new window of stats and information we’ve never had before. They’ve done the incredibly tough job of researching sacks from 1960 to 1981. And though it’s not official and not 100% complete (they claim 99% of sacks from 1970 to 1981 have been accounted for), it’s giving us information we’ve never reliably had before.