tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47151035369971056572024-03-13T03:58:06.654-07:00Old-Timey FootballImpressions gleaned from watching old NFL games from the 1970s and 1980sTom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4715103536997105657.post-2037448230318060972013-02-04T19:09:00.000-08:002013-02-04T19:09:46.722-08:00The Miracle of Great Neck<br />
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I don’t intend to write exhaustively about the 1985 Bears,
but this game was so remarkable – and famous – that it is worth a review. For
one thing, it aired on a special Thursday night edition of <i>Monday Night
Football</i>, which they did a bit of back then. Aside from the Thanksgiving
games, there was another Thursday nighter in 1985, the week prior to
this one, plus a Friday night game in December between the Broncos and
Seahwaks, for some reason.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The game used ABC’s regular <i>Monday Night Football</i> team, which
for this season was Frank Gifford flanked by Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson – a couple
of real ladykillers there. This would be Broadway Joe’s only season in the
Monday Night booth. He wasn’t too bad, although he seemed reluctant to talk,
and usually contributed only when Gifford asked him to directly. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.chicitysports.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/jimmcmahon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.chicitysports.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/jimmcmahon.jpg" width="165" /></a>Bears quarterback Jim McMahon had pinched a nerve in his
neck the previous week in the latter stages of a destruction of the Patriots,
and was considered for this game to be only the emergency quarterback. The emergency came in the third
quarter, with the Bears down 17-9 and backup Steve Fuller unable to put the
ball into the end zone. McMahon took over on the Bear 30, then stepped back and
threw a 70-yard bomb on the first play to Willie Gault. <o:p></o:p></div>
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While this play has become a key element in the Legend of Jim
McMahon, it ought to also have been a key part of the Legend of Walter Payton. The
Vikings middle linebacker was not only blitzing but had timed McMahon’s snap
count to the point that he was crossing the line of scrimmage as the ball was
snapped. Payton, lined up to next to McMahon in the shotgun, saw this happening
and cleared the linebacker out with a beautiful block. Without that block,
McMahon would have been sacked easily rather than hitting Gault in stride 40
yards downfield.<o:p></o:p><br />
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After the touchdown and a Wilber Marshall interception, the
Bears took over again, this time on the Vikings’ 25. On the first play from
scrimmage, McMahon rolled out and hit Dennis McKinnon crossing into the end
zone, into a window of opportunity that couldn’t have been more than about a
foot. It was a more difficult throw even than the Gault bomb. McMahon had now
been in the game for two plays and had thrown two touchdowns. Bears 23, Vikings
17. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Namath told a cute story about going to talk to Jim McMahon
during the week, and having McMahon show up in an enormous neck brace that made
it look like he’d never play football again. At the end of the interview,
McMahon said the brace was just a joke and took it off, and everyone had a big
laugh. Gifford, meanwhile, was just loopy. At one point, he said, “Jim McMahon
has really fired this crowd up,” then realized the game was in the Metrodome,
so just continued on with “or rather he has really quieted this crowd, partisan
Vikings fans, of course.” ABC used to do this weird thing where, at the end of
the third quarter, they’d show the first half stats, then dissolve into the
third quarter stats. As soon as the first half numbers appeared, Gifford
started talking about them as if they were up to the minute. He didn’t even try to cover up that mistake.<o:p></o:p><br />
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McMahon picked up a third TD pass in that third quarter, and
almost had a fourth when he connected with Dennis McKinnon down the sideline in
the fourth quarter for a 45-yarder, but Vikings safety Joey Browner came over
to save the touchdown. The Bears ended up coasting to a 33-24 win. Steve Fuller would go on to start four more games for the Bears that season, including the infamous Monday night loss to the Dolphins. McMahon would come on at the end of that one, too, but he was all out of miracles. <o:p></o:p><br />
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Tom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4715103536997105657.post-4523426362169510642013-01-24T15:16:00.000-08:002013-01-24T15:16:48.853-08:00Snake Eyes<b>Oilers vs. Steelers, September 7, 1980, Three Rivers Stadium</b><br />
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The 1979 Houston Oilers finished their season by losing to the eventual Super Bowl champs, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in the AFC Championship Game, for the second year in a row. This was apparently too much for Oilers owner Bud Adams to take, because before the start of the 1980 season, he traded longtime Houston quarterback Dan Pastorini to the Oakland Raiders for their own longtime starting quarterback, Kenny Stabler. (The Raiders also traded, in a separate deal, Jack "the Assassin" Tatum to the Oilers for Kenny King and some draft picks.)<br />
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<a href="http://www.mmbolding.com/BSR/pq80Stabler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.mmbolding.com/BSR/pq80Stabler.jpg" width="278" /></a>The 1980 Oilers opened the season, as luck would have it, against those same Steelers in Pittsburgh, with the Snake at the controls. And it was a disaster. Stabler's first pass was dropped by Earl Campbell, whom the Oilers were trying to make into more of a pass-catching threat. (According to Dick Enberg, in about the most interesting thing I ever heard him say, Pastorini claimed that Campbell couldn't catch a cold, and based on this game, Dante appears to have been correct.) Stabler's second pass attempt was intercepted. Stabler's third pass attempt was intercepted. Stabler's sixth pass attempt was intercepted.<br />
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At that point, I lost count of the number of Stabler's pass attempts, but he threw one more pick before halftime. Stabler finally completed more passes to Oilers than to Steelers sometime late in the second quarter, with a ratio of five to four. The score at that point was 17-0 Steelers. To be fair to Stabler, his best receiver, Kenny Burrough, was on the sideline in a Bum Phillips-style cowboy hat, blue jeans, and some kind of protective leg brace.<br />
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Although Stabler eventually stopped throwing picks, Phillips figured out a better use for Earl Campbell than catching passes in the second half: Earl threw a 57-yard bomb downfield to Billy "White Shoes" Johnson in the third quarter to close the deficit to 17-10. Steeler Theo Bell fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and the Oilers were in position to tie the game. Down by the goal line, new QB Stabler bumped into Earl Campbell on the handoff and the ball bounced into the end zone, then backward into the arms of a Houston lineman at the one. It sure was weird to see the ball land in the end zone on a non-scoring play, but there you go. Campbell took it in on the next play to tie it up at 17.<br />
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The Steelers added two fourth-quarter touchdowns to build up another lead. One of them featured Terry Bradshaw scrambling around before throwing a desperation heave down to John Stallworth at the goal line. NBC's cameras completely lost sight of where the ball went; they bobbed around the field after Bradshaw's throw, then finally found Stallworth after he had danced into the end zone.<br />
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Stabler iced it with yet another interception in the fourth quarter. The Snake finished 24 of 42 for 196 yards with five interceptions and no touchdowns. Pastorini, for his part, didn't make it through the season as the Raiders starter.Tom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4715103536997105657.post-58442940525739097892013-01-04T11:56:00.000-08:002013-01-04T11:56:38.950-08:00Hot and Bothered<b>Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, September 8, 1985</b><br />
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Games at Soldier Field are famous for their brutal, unforgiving weather conditions, and this one was no exception. The Bucs arrived in Chicago to face 92-degree heat, which rose - according to a pregame graphic - to 121 degrees on the artificial turf. The stands looked more like the bleachers at Wrigley Field, with approximately 40 percent of the male customers (but approximately 0 percent of the female customers) going shirtless. (Meanwhile, across town, Pete Rose was garnering the 4,191st hit of his career, tying Ty Cobb's all-time mark, as Brent Musburger helpfully told us.)<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-znrPSxSoeI4/UOct7_g7a-I/AAAAAAAAALU/bvfJ8U7HX4k/s1600/Ditka+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-znrPSxSoeI4/UOct7_g7a-I/AAAAAAAAALU/bvfJ8U7HX4k/s320/Ditka+crop.jpg" width="154" /></a>The warm weather also pointed up how Coach Ditka had not yet established his iconic look. He couldn't really wear one of his sweaters, so he went with a short-sleeved shirt and tie, dark slacks and white sneakers. He looked like the newly promoted manager of a struggling lumberyard. To illustrate just how far removed we were from the mythology of Coach Ditka, CBS didn't even see fit to show a picture of him until seven minutes into game time (which is even longer into the broadcast, since the tape I was watching had no commercials). We had already seen several shots of Buccaneers coach Leeman Bennett by that point.<br />
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There were many questions about the Bear defense heading into this game. They had the best defense in the NFL in 1984, when they advanced to the NFC Championship Game, but two of their stars were holding out (as they would do all season). Safety Todd Bell would be replaced by Dave Duerson, and linebacker Al Harris would be replaced by rookie Wilber Marshall, and Tim Ryan and Johnny Morris harped on how this might hurt the Bears.<br />
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And for a long time, it looked bad. Tampa Bay marched all the way down the field on its opening drive for a touchdown. Then they took a kickoff back into Bears territory, and threw a 44-yard TD bomb on the first play of the drive. The Bear defense finally forced a punt on the Bucs' third drive, but rookie punt returner Ken Taylor let the bouncing ball hit him, and Tampa recovered. Again, they needed just one play to score. With a minute to go in the first half, they scored a fourth touchdown to go up 28-17. Rookie Kevin Butler, in his first NFL game, missed a 63-yard field goal - it was way short - as the half expired.<br />
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But in the second half, the Bears defense asserted itself. Leslie Frazier took a Steve DeBergh pass back for a Chicago touchdown. Shaun Gayle blocked a punt, which the Bears converted into another quick TD. Walter Payton had to come out of the game a couple of times, woozy from the heat, but he was marvelous: elusive, shifty, quick, possessed of incredible balance. He held the ball out away from him, in one hand, which other Bears picked up on; a couple of receivers did the same thing, as did Jim McMahon on a bootleg.<br />
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In the end, the defense was the 1985 Bears defense that has gone down into legend. Very early in the fourth quarter, the Bears went up 38-28, and the game was clearly over. Not only had the Bucs stopped moving the ball, but they were frustrated and angry, just as every other Bears opponent would be that year. It can't have been much fun to have an untouched Richard Dent swooping down on you.<br />
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After allowing 28 points in the first half of the first game of the year, the Bears wouldn't allow that many points in an entire game until week 13 in the infamous Monday Nighter against the Dolphins. I'm not savvy enough to read the defensive formations on the TV screen, but I did notice that in the first half, the Bears occasionally had nickel back Shaun Gayle on the field, which means they weren't running a strict 46 defense at that point. I wonder if Buddy Ryan decided at halftime that it was time to go full-out into the 46 - and the rest was history.Tom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4715103536997105657.post-89293212257939122422012-11-16T22:56:00.000-08:002012-11-16T22:56:10.920-08:00A Kiick in the Pants<br />
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Oakland Raiders
vs. Miami Dolphins at the Orange Bowl, September 22, 1975<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<a href="http://store03.prostores.com/dcbcollectibles/media/a8/a20792b129dd02713582ad_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://store03.prostores.com/dcbcollectibles/media/a8/a20792b129dd02713582ad_m.jpg" width="144" /></a><strong><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">There was a lot
of history incumbent on this game, the first one on the Monday night schedule
of 1975. In the 1974 playoffs, the Raiders had dethroned the two-time-champion
Dolphins on the infamous Sea of Hands play, with a tumbling Ken Stabler
finding Clarence Davis for the game-winning touchdown. Subsequent to that, the
Dolphins lost Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield to the Memphis
Grizzlies; this would be their first game of the WFL era. <o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4gwnmkgIPKk/UKcxWwC9rYI/AAAAAAAAAJs/sUtPdh7BExc/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-11-17-20h30m54s179.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4gwnmkgIPKk/UKcxWwC9rYI/AAAAAAAAAJs/sUtPdh7BExc/s200/vlcsnap-2012-11-17-20h30m54s179.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blanda, Otto: Chuffed</td></tr>
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<strong><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">For the Raiders,
this was the first game in their entire history without longtime center Jim
Otto, who had moved upstairs to become their business manager. Literally, this was the first Oakland Raiders game that Jim Otto didn't play in. Ever. (Howard Cosell
noted that Otto was now reduced to complaining that dinner for the Raiders cost eighteen
and a half bucks per man.) Otto didn’t exactly retire, and he didn’t get
released: The team just started playing Dave Dalby at center, and let Otto sit
on the sidelines in preseason until he got the message. He must have been
totally chuffed to spend the evening on the sidelines talking to George Blanda,
who was more than ten years older than Otto, but still had a slot on the team. Ray Guy, though, had taken over the kickoff duties.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17.77777862548828px;">The two constants for these teams were the coaches, Madden and Shula “his indomitability etched in his visage,” said Guess Who - maybe the most recognizable coaches in the game along with Landry and possibly Noll. The booth team talked about how Madden looked as dapper as ever, but I always thought he dressed like crap, white belt or no.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j0MPTOAGbyk/UKcxlfawIrI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/qjrF5xjg0Qc/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-11-17-20h21m29s155.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j0MPTOAGbyk/UKcxlfawIrI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/qjrF5xjg0Qc/s200/vlcsnap-2012-11-17-20h21m29s155.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jerry, Betty: Sloshed but unhit</td></tr>
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<strong><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Actual American
history intruded on the game as well. That afternoon, Sara Jane Moore fired a
shot in the direction of President Ford, following in the footsteps of assassination-minded
babe Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme 17 days earlier, and the broadcast switched to
Harry Reasoner for a full report at halftime. (This wasn’t on the tape I
watched.) In the fourth quarter, ABC News broke away from the game to show President Ford
addressing the press corps about the situation, a visibly sloshed Betty at his
side, as we missed the guts of an ultimately futile Dolphins comeback drive. <o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This was Alex
Karras’ second year in the MNF booth, and he had become the Otis Sistrunk bureau chief,
after famously declaring Otis a graudate of the University of Mars the year before. In
reality, Sistrunk, who grew up in a very poor family, was lucky to finish high
school and had to go to work in a warehouse when he otherwise might have been
playing college ball. Of course, Cosell needled Karras into saying something
every time Sistrunk – his jersey majestically untucked- did something in the
game, which he did with great regularity.</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The game itself was
kind of anticlimactic: The Raiders jumped out to a 17-0 lead, then held on for
a 31-21 victory. Despite the legendary MNF production values, the broadast
itself wasn’t very good. At the end of the third quarter, with the Dolphins
mounting a furious comeback, Miami receiver Howard Twilley caught a pass right
at the goal line as he was coming back toward Bob Griese. It looked like a
touchdown to me – Howard Cosell belatedly agreed – but the ball was spotted at
the one. Incredibly, there was no replay of any kind until after Don Nottingham
crashed across the goal line on the next play, and then it was only the same
inconclusive angle from which we had originally seen the play. They did however, get a good shot of a Dolphin assistant trainer, coming on to help Nat Moore off the field, wearing cutoff denim shorts. Hey, it was the '70s.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The broadcast's one shining moment was a brief segment with William Shatner in the
booth. Shatner, fresh off his triumphant turn in <i>Big Bad Mama</i>, was starring in
a new ABC series called <i>Barbary Coast</i>, which had premiered two weeks earlier.
It didn’t even last as long as the NFL season.</span></strong></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Tom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4715103536997105657.post-25167116950658533002012-11-04T18:47:00.000-08:002012-11-04T18:48:04.724-08:00Outlaw Country<br />
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<b>Raiders vs. Falcons, October 14, 1979 at the Oakland Coliseum<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.hollywoodmemorabilia.com/files/cache/steve-bartkowski-autographed-football-card-atlanta-falcons-1979-topps-71_ea165bd18af10c08b4525e63c17cc05d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.hollywoodmemorabilia.com/files/cache/steve-bartkowski-autographed-football-card-atlanta-falcons-1979-topps-71_ea165bd18af10c08b4525e63c17cc05d.jpg" width="142" /></a>On paper, it seemed like a good game: 1979 was part of a
brief window of competence the Falcons displayed in the Steve Bartkowski era,
and the Raiders in the 1970s were always fun. But not only was the game a
blowout, but it wasn’t even particularly interesting. The Raiders were in
transition; John Madden had retired before the start of the season, leaving Tom
Flores with his blow-dried hair and lapels the size of a small child on the
sidelines. Freddy Biletnikoff had retired. Otis Sistrunk had gone to wherever
the Otis Sistrunks of the world go to. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Plus, Cliff Branch was absent with some sort of illness –
Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier were highly suspicious of whatever was ailing
Branch – leaving Rich Martini as the No. 1 wide receiver for Kenny Stabler. I
never heard of him either. This was one of five
career starts for Martini, a rookie seventh-round pick out of Cal-Davis,
and he hauled in six passes for a career high. (The Raiders did have Raymond Chester
and Dave Casper starting in a two tight-end set, plus rookie Todd Christensen playing
on special teams, which has gotta be the greatest collection of tight end
talent any team has ever had.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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At one point, the cameras spotted Waylon Jennings, or
someone looking an awful lot like him, on the sideline, producing the following
conversation:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">PAT</span>: Waylon Jennings!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">TOM:</span> All right!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">PAT:</span> That is not of course Waylon Jennings. Oh, it is! That’s
Martini [making a grab near the sidelines]. A couple of weeks ago, we had a
person we thought was Captain Kangaroo, turned out not to be the Captain. And I
wasn’t really sure if that was Waylon Jennings or not. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">TOM:</span> Couldn’t tell with the shades. I know that’s Ken
Stabler.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There was a real C&W vibe to the entire proceedings. Falcons coach Leeman Bennett was not just wearing a trucker
hat but had a big chaw in the side of his mouth, leaving him as a perfect
emblem of Atlanta in the 1970s.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As far as the game goes, the Raiders leapt out to a 19-0 lead in the first half, as
Falcon kicker Tim Mazzetti missed two field goals. They made it 26-0 on the
opening drive of the second half, then stretched it out to 50-12 as Mazzetti
missed two extra points. He finally converted on a garbage-time TD that made the
final 50-19. I kind of assumed Mazzetti was going to be cut after that
performance, but Bennett kept him around, and kept him even though the next
week against the 49ers, Mazzetti went 0-for-2 on extra points. He hung on
kicking for Atlanta all the way through the 1980 season.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The biggest thing about this game was that the newly retired
Madden, who was already doing games for CBS, did a brief interview at halftime, then sat in with Brookshier and Summerall for the
entire second half. He wasn’t a finished product – he didn’t say <i>doink </i>even
once – but he was clearly, right out of the gate, an astonishingly good
broadcaster. He knew everything the Raiders were trying to do, and why it was likely
to succeed or not, without ever coming off as a know-it-all, or even trading
all that much on his position as their former coach. He was just very observant,
very good with the language, and a lot of fun. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.behindthehype.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/wl005170.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://www.behindthehype.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/wl005170.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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According to an unconfirmed report I saw on Wikipedia, CBS
decided at this point that Madden needed to be on their A broadcasting team,
and the only question was who to pair him with. The decision came down to
Summerall or Vin Scully, and they decided the laconic Summerall would mesh well
with the loquacious Madden. That was probably the right choice, although Scully
was also extremely good at football. The most important thing about this game
is that here, October 14, 1979, is where Summerall and Madden first worked as a
team. <o:p></o:p></div>
Tom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4715103536997105657.post-51865236135356340642012-03-02T09:25:00.003-08:002012-03-02T09:47:31.061-08:00The Hour of Our Death<span style="font-weight:bold;">Vikings vs. Cowboys at Metropolitan Stadium (Divisional Playoffs), December 28, 1975</span><a href="http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/multimedia/photo_gallery/1011/hail.mary.finishes/images/drew-pearson-hail-mary.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 641px; height: 449px;" src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/multimedia/photo_gallery/1011/hail.mary.finishes/images/drew-pearson-hail-mary.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />One thing I’m interested to discover in watching all these old games is when exactly football players decided it wasn’t macho to wear long sleeves in cold weather. The 1975 Cowboys-Vikings playoff game was played in very cold conditions – you could see Bud Grant’s breath, which was helpful in that it reassured the viewer that he was actually alive. One of the contrasts to today’s game is that all the players were wearing long undersleeves, with the notable exception of Roger Staubach. I think he and Preston Pearson were the only players on the field in short sleeves.<br /><br />It seems to me that there was a single game in there that was a turning point, when the players decided it would look unmanly to take the field in short sleeves, although I can’t recollect exactly when that was. Whenever I watch a cold-weather game nowadays, I make a point of rooting for that small handful of players who are sensible enough to dress for the conditions.<br /><br />Speaking of uniforms, the Vikings jerseys from this game – from this era – were a rich, saturated purple, looking gorgeous even on the several-generation videotape I watched the game on. The Falcons uniforms had a similar texture to them, with a glorious rich red. I think the stretchy mesh jerseys of today don’t hold their colors nearly as well. <br /><br />Metropolitan Stadium appears to have been a crummy place to watch a game. With the football field situated in the center of the baseball field, the sideline stands were a long way from the action. Watching the game on TV, you get an enervated feeling because of that, with long swaths of tarpaulins and snow extending back from the sidelines. The handheld sideline cams showing the coaches would catch the industrial-looking scoreboard with its steel girders, or even gray sky from the open corners of the stadium. Plus, it looks really cold.<br /><br />For some reason, CBS put Gary Bender and Johnny Unitas on this game, rather than Summerall and Brookshier (who may have been at the Rams/Cardinals game the day before) or Vin Scully and George Allen. Scully and Sonny Jurgensen would do the Rams/Cowboys NFC Championship the following week. Scully, by the way, was a great football announcer; I may be a minority of one here, but I prefer his work on football to his work on baseball.<br /><br />I haven’t said very much about the game itself, I know. I can remember watching this game as a very young Vikings fan and being totally bummed out about the ending, first by Drew Pearson’s amazing sideline catch at the 50 on a fourth and 17 with 37 seconds to go, then by Pearson’s TD catch two plays later. <br /><br />In truth, though, the Vikings didn’t really deserve to win this game. Their first touchdown came after a Cowboy rookie offensive lineman named Pat Donovan stupidly touched a bouncing Vikings punt on his own three-yard line, leading to a Vikings recovery and a quick score. On top of that, it sure looked to me like the Vikings interfered with the man trying to catch the punt, who had signaled for a fair catch. In the end, the Cowboys grossly outgained the Vikings, 356 yards to 215. <br /><br />Something else you may not know about this game: With 14 seconds left, after the Cowboys scored the winning touchdown, field judge Armen Terzian – who had just decided not to call offensive pass interference on Drew Pearson - got hit by something thrown from the stands and went down like a shot. He would eventually be led off the field with a big white bandage around his head. <br /><br />Bender speculated that the instrument of destruction was a pop bottle, and Unitas went all “Minnesota, love it or leave it.” He said, “There’s no room in this country for that kind of behavior,” then started rambling on about “Argentina, where they stab the soccer players and stuff like that.” You tell ‘em, Johnny U.Tom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4715103536997105657.post-22625486281801224672012-02-27T09:38:00.004-08:002012-02-27T09:57:40.657-08:00The John Lennon Game<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EA8KAIqTL._SL500_AA300_.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EA8KAIqTL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Patriots vs. Dolphins at the Orange Bowl, December 8, 1980<br /></span><br />This was a fairly desultory affair for a Monday Nighter, with a quarterback matchup pitting David Woodley against Matt Cavanaugh, and not a whole lot happened till the end. The Patriots, I had long since forgotten, had added Chuck Foreman as a third-down back, and for some bizarre reason, every time Foreman appeared in the game, Howard Cosell loudly wondered why in the world the Pats weren’t using him more often. I guess he could empathize with a faded big name who was clearly no longer capable of getting the job done. <br /><br />Foreman was totally washed up at this point; having lost his job as the Vikings’ starting running back in 1979, when he gained 223 yards at an average of just 2.6 yards a pop. This would be the last NFL game of his career. The Patriots also had Harold Jackson on the roster, in an apparent attempt to reunite the 1975 NFC Pro Bowl team.<br /><br />One of the best things about the tape I watched was that the commercials were intact. I always prefer to have the commercials on the games I watch, to provide the full cultural context of the moment. I particularly enjoy seeing which celebs were endorsing products at that point: Here we have Orson Welles for Paul Masson wines, Suzanne Somers for Ace Hardware, Bruce Jenner for Minolta. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice any future stars working their way up in the business, though. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.tvparty.com/bgifs14/welles.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 167px;" src="http://www.tvparty.com/bgifs14/welles.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>The absolute pinnacle in this regard was the 1970 NFC Championship between the Cowboys and the 49ers, which featured an up-and-coming Vic Tayback for Edge and a down-and-outing Rod Serling for Ford. Seeing the Ford spot really made you appreciate what yeoman work the <span style="font-style:italic;">Twilight Zone</span> staff did on trimming Serling’s eyebrows. <br /><br />Of course, late in the fourth quarter, this game became part of history. There's a legend that has grown up around it, fostering the notion that the person who broadcast the news of the murder of John Lennon to the American public was Howard Cosell. Last year, ESPN devoted an entire special to the role played by Monday Night Football on that terrible night. <br /><br />But by the time Cosell got around to telling the nation what had happened, many people already had a pretty solid inkling. On the telecast I watched, taped off the air from the ABC affiliate in Baltimore, with three minutes left in the game, there was a special news bulletin reported via crawl, noting that "Former Beattle [sic] John Lennon" had been shot. The text appeared just as the Dolphins were connecting on a deflected touchdown pass that a surprised Nat Moore snared at the side of the end zone to tie up the game at 13-13. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ksAKUA8MjHI/T0vDgQl_hDI/AAAAAAAAAIE/mw2kE3CghJI/s1600/SC20120227-104829.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ksAKUA8MjHI/T0vDgQl_hDI/AAAAAAAAAIE/mw2kE3CghJI/s200/SC20120227-104829.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713875511227155506" /></a><br />It wasn't until the Patriots were lined up for a potential game-winning field goal, with just three seconds left in the game, that Cosell made his fateful announcement. That was about 12 minutes in real time after the crawl had appeared in Baltimore. Clearly, many football fans in Charm City - and presumably elsewhere around the country - knew Lennon had been shot or even killed before Cosell said anything about it. <br /><br />The Dolphins blocked that kick, by the way, sending the game into overtime, to the obvious dismay of Cosell and Frank Gifford, who clearly could not fathom how they were going to shift gears back into the excitement of professional football. Fran Tarkenton, the third man in the booth, just seemed oblivious.<br /><br />Part of this may be due to the lag between the initial reports, which were simply that Lennon had been shot, and word of his death. On the other hand, there couldn't have been too much time in between, since he was reported DOA at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital. One wonders if the shooting of a Beatle would have been enough to disrupt Monday Night Football, as opposed to the death of one. I really don't know.<br /><br />In overtime, the Dolphins won the toss, Woodley connected with Duriel Harris on a long over-the-shoulder pass, and Uwe von Schamann kicked a game-winning field goal on the next play, sending all those Dolphin fans home to find out there were only three Beatles left.Tom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4715103536997105657.post-52463937171539085552012-02-23T16:53:00.002-08:002012-02-23T16:57:47.921-08:00ColloquyVin Scully: "What a great show, 'Logan’s Run.’ Mind-bending adventure. Eight p.m. eastern, seven p.m. central and mountain time."<br /><br />Alex Hawkins: “I like it. That mind-bending – I like it.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">From the fourth quarter of the Cardinals vs. Cowboys game at Busch Stadium, October 9, 1977 </span>Tom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4715103536997105657.post-47702751131757389322012-02-21T17:36:00.005-08:002012-02-23T20:02:43.761-08:00It's Boxing Day, Charlie Brown<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/1982-404-FB-TPS-NA_F_285x412.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 300px;" src="http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/1982-404-FB-TPS-NA_F_285x412.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Redskins vs. Saints at the Superdome, December 26, 1982</span><br /><br />In the waning days of the misbegotten nine-game NFL schedule of 1982, the woeful Saints still had some kind of shot at the playoffs when this game – from a belated Week Eight – was played. But the Redskins were the best team in the league, the eventual Super Bowl champs, and the Saints were saddled with Guido Merkens at quarterback, filling in for the injured Ken Stabler. I’m not sure what exactly was wrong with the Snake, but he had been 10 for 29 with 88 yards and five interceptions in the previous two games combined, so it probably wasn’t a bad idea to get him out of there.<br /><br />The Saints had tried to make a wide receiver out of Merkens in 1981 before shifting him back to QB in 1982. This would be his only start under center for the Saints, and he played about as well as you'd expect a guy named Guido Merkens to play, going 9 for 24. His lead running back on the day was Jimmy Rogers, and I had to listen closely to the announcers to make sure they weren’t saying “George Rogers,” the Heisman Trophy winner who had been the Saints No. 1 draft choice in 1981, and a big star that season. I guess he was hurt, although the announcers weren’t any more forthcoming about that injury than they were about Stabler’s. <br /><br />Those announcers were Tom Brookshier and Wayne Walker. Brookshier had been half of CBS’ lead NFL team for years, alongside Pat Summerall. But when John Madden moved into broadcasting, it became clear that he was a star in the making, and CBS realized he needed to be on their A team. They considered teaming him with Vin Scully, but decided the laconic Summerall would mesh well with the hyper Madden. They were right.<br /><br />Summerall and Brookshier, both ex-players, made a terrific team on their own, and it’s kind of a shame Brookshier had to be demoted. As a consolation, CBS moved Brookshier into play-by-play, which was his role for this game. And it pains me to say he was not very good, for a simple reason: He couldn’t shut up. He was not exceptionally long-winded as a color man, so apparently he thought it was the job of the lead announcer to talk constantly: “Guido Merkens, out to the side, now he’s gonna do a little dance, he’s a very good athlete, now he’s gonna run for the first, or is he?” That’s how he called a third-down scramble by Merkens. Enough already. <br /><br />Wayne Walker, for his part, sounded like an insurance executive. He was a longtime linebacker for the Lions and did the 49ers games on the radio for years. I can't say he seemed very enthusiastic about this game.<br /><br />There was a horrendously unjust call in this game, when Joe Theismann threw a pass down the sideline for Charlie Brown, who was out of bounds when the ball came down. But it was tipped by Saints DB Johnnie Poe, and Brown, whose feet were out of bounds when he first touched the ball, was able to get back in before he made the catch and ran it in for a touchdown. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--4dmHnpqnUU/T0RNDlG0BlI/AAAAAAAAAH4/INwFNiXZyo4/s1600/SC20120221-135046.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--4dmHnpqnUU/T0RNDlG0BlI/AAAAAAAAAH4/INwFNiXZyo4/s200/SC20120221-135046.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711774951308265042" /></a><br />The rule is that a receiver can come back in bounds and make a catch if he’s not the first person to touch the ball, which is technically what happened here, but it just points up that the rule needed to be tightened. Someone downing a punt near the goal line needs to establish himself in the field of play before he can down the ball at the one; that would be a nice precedent to use for this type of play. I’ve never seen another catch where you had to watch the replay to make sure the receiver got his feet back in bounds before he had full possession of the ball.<br /><br />The Redskins won, 27-10, in a game that didn’t feel nearly that close. Guido Merkens would start one more game at quarterback in his career, as a scab for the Eagles in week three of the 1987 season. He got plastered by the Bears, 35-3.Tom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4715103536997105657.post-18408003461979541462012-02-21T16:44:00.003-08:002012-02-21T16:48:44.633-08:00The Hands of TimeSpeaking of the Giants and Eagles, the two teams also appeared on the first season of <span style="font-style:italic;">Monday Night Football</span>, on November 23, 1970. And as time was winding down at Franklin Field, they kept flashing to the scoreboard and the clock... which had this big hand sweeping around. <br /><br />This was in 1970! Man had walked on the moon, and the NFL was still keeping time with a second hand.Tom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4715103536997105657.post-45865055852657963302012-02-19T20:30:00.001-08:002012-02-21T07:55:32.022-08:00Miracle at the Meadowlands<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2008/1120/nfl_a_pisarcik01_580.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 290px; height: 162px;" src="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2008/1120/nfl_a_pisarcik01_580.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Eagles vs. Giants at the Meadowlands, November 19, 1978</span><br /><br />I was initially not very excited about watching this game, not so much because it involved two mediocre teams (the Giants came in at 5-6 and the Eagles at 6-5, though the Eagles rallied to make the playoffs as a Wild Card) but because I knew who won, the final score, and the very play that ended the game. I much prefer to watch games whose outcomes are a mystery to me.<br /><br />The mythology around this game holds that it was the nadir of Giantsdom, resulting in the teardown that led directly to the Parcells-led renaissance, but that wasn't quite true. The loss dropped the Giants to 5-7, on their way to a 6-10 finish. It did lead to coach John McVay's firing, but he was replaced by Ray Perkins, not Parcells, who didn't arrive until 1983. By my count, there were only two members of the Giants Super Bowl team on the field for the Miracle: Harry Carson and Brad Benson.<br /><br />Sure enough, the game seemed like kind of a bore, with the Giants jumping out to an early 14-0 lead then cruising along with a 17-6 lead until late in the fourth quarter. Then, things got very interesting, with Ron Jaworski leading the Eagles down the field for a touchdown with about five minutes left. Twice the Giants seemed to have the drive stopped only to commit a huge penalty on third down (pass interference against Harold Carmichael and roughing the passer on Jaworski), although in neither instance did CBS have the wherewithal to show us a replay of the foul. With Don Criqui and Sonny Jurgensen in the booth, I think we can assume CBS assigned this game to its last-string team. Criqui at one point did note that Carmichael, who was of course six-foot-eight to begin with, like to go around in his off-field hours in high heels and a feathered hat, which must have made him clear seven feet. <br /><br />The touchdown brought the Eagles to within 17-12, but Louie Giammona couldn’t handle the snap on the extra point, and in the ensuing confusion, kicker Nick Mike-Mayer tried to throw a pass and ended up on the ground with some kind of leg injury, his season over. This would have tremendous implications on the Eagles’ season going forward, but at the moment, it seemed kind of irrelevant; the Eagles were going to be down a TD whether they made the XP or not. <br /><br />When the Giants started running the ball, up by five, with five minutes left in the game, I figured I knew exactly how this one was going to end. But then Giants tailback Doug Kotar fumbled, and the Eagles recovered on the Giants 30, with just over three minutes to go. Suddenly, I didn’t know what was going to happen. The Eagles (who would have been down by just a field goal if they hadn’t honked two extra points by this point) started driving, but one of their running backs (I think it was Mike Hogan) coughed up the ball – only to have an Eagles lineman fall on the ball. Then Jaworski rifled a ball off a receiver’s hands into the hands of Giants DB Odis McKinney. With 1:22 left, the Giants took over on their own 10. The Eagles had one timeout left.<br /><br />On the first snap, Jersey Joe Pisarcik just fell on the ball, only to get crunched by Eagles linebacker Frank LeMaster. The Eagles took their last timeout. On the next play, perhaps to avoid getting crushed, Pisarcik handed off to Larry Csonka, who tore up the middle for 11 yards. The clock was still ticking; the Giants needed to run one more play. CBS rolled the credits. Pisarcik took the snap and turned to hand off again to Csonka, who wasn’t expecting the ball and ran right past him. It deflected off his elbow and fell to the ground. Herman Edwards scooped up the ball and ran in untouched. <br /><br />One wonders why Csonka was in the game in the first place. Even within the Giants committee of running backs, he was clearly a backup. The 11-yard run was only his second carry of the day. Maybe McVay felt like he needed some veteran presence to help close out the game. <br /><br />“An incredible development!” Criqui screamed. The cameras caught Dick Vermeil completely blissed out, hugging random players, but they never did show anyone in the stands. It would have been fun to see Giants rooters staring into nothingness.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Special thanks to Dan Lee for his invaluable assistance</span>Tom Nawrockihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766845038505392731noreply@blogger.com0