Sorry, but Dan Marino was already playing in a dumbed up league, compared to what I witnessed earlier. Not even debatable. I think they had the correct balance in the '80s and '90s but it was hardly the brutal sport of the '60s and early '70s. The posters who rip Joe Namath, now that's comedic. Candidates for the corn field. They look at those stats and think it was today's rules and style of play, with worthless dump off passes and crossing patterns. Namath was a true downfield gunslinger. His lifetime 14.7 yards per completion is seven tenths higher than the best season Marino ever had (1984), and more than 2 yards beyond Marino's lifetime average. By Marino's era it was already an underneath league with heavy benefit of a doubt to the passer, compared to only 10 or 15 years earlier.
I remember Namath, I watched Namath.....please don't even attempt to put Namath in the same sentence as Marino, let alone try to force feed us anything that would indicate Namath in any way did anything better then Marino.
Namath was a very gifted player, but he was inconsistent, and no where as dominant as Marino. Every defense that played Miami knew one thing about their offense, stop Marino, you stop the Offense, yet VERY VERY rarely did any defense stop or even slow down Marino. Namath relied on the running game, no running game, very rarely was there much offense.