Drew Brees breaks Marino's single-season record for passing yardage

Drew Brees breaks Marino's single-season record for passing yardage.

Marino's total stayed on top of the heap about as long as you might expect from any major record in a major sport. Many of Brees's fans weren't born when Marino set the bar 27 years ago.

Ruth's season total of 60 homers was the record for 34 years. Ruth's lifetime 714 homers was a record for 39 years.

On the other hand, many of the most significant sports records will probably never be broken, like:

1. Baseball's lifetime and single-season batting averages. Hugh Duffy's .440 average was set way back in 1894, and that record ain't goin' nowhere unless Ty Cobb comes back to life and spends his entire second career playing at Coors, and has a few seasons conveniently shortened by strikes. And probably not even then. Two guys have topped .390 since WW2, but both in short seasons (419 and 449 at-bats). The post WW2 record for 500 or more at-bats is only .376. That was Musial in 1948, which was a long time ago, and even that is a long way from .440. Hell, even Tony Gwynn's .394 in a strike-shortened season is nowhere near .440.

Cobb's lifetime average of .366 seems equally unbreakable. Gwynn's .338 is extremely impressive in the modern game, but is nowhere near .366. Frankly, I would be surprised if even Gwynn's mark were topped.

2. Wilt Chamberlain's single-season scoring and rebounding records. Kobe scored 2800 points in his best year. Chamberlain's record is over 4000! Rodman's best rebounding season was about 1500. Wilt once went over 2100!

3. One reader pointed out that Cy Young threw 749 complete games. In order to break that, assuming 33.33 starts per year, a pitcher would need to complete 75% of his starts for 30 years, or ALL of his starts for about 23 years! Ain't gonna happen. Roy Halladay is the leader among active pitchers, with 66 complete games in 14 years, so he's got it sewed up if he can continue to average 5 per year until he's 171 years old.