rayonsports.com

The Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots square off this week on the NFL schedule, and for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature we’ll harken back to a game played between these 2 franchises on December 12, 1982. It was one of the strangest games ever played, and it eventually was tagged with the nickname “The Snowplow Game” due to the weird and controversial way it was decided. It was played on a snowy Sunday afternoon and playing conditions were not good, leading to an absence of any real offense by either time. Statistically, Miami running back Andra Franklin had the most successful outing, rushing for 107 yards on 23 carries, but overall neither team could muster up much of an attack. There were a total of 11 passes completed in the game. Miami’s David Woodley had 9 of those completions, but he also threw 2 interceptions and was sacked twice. Patriot QB Steve Grogan completed only 2 passes, but he also threw only 5 times. There was a total of only 89 passing yards combined between the two struggling clubs.

The offensive doldrums continued until late in the fourth quarter. With the game scoreless and a little over 4 minutes remaining, New England managed to drive deep enough into Miami territory to set up a 33 yard field goal attempt by kicker John Smith.  This is when the game’s MVP, a snowplow operator named Mark Henderson, entered the fray. Because of the poor conditions, the league allowed teams to employ the snowplows to clear the yard markers occasionally so that the officials could better track first down yardage. Except now, with the Pats setting up for their field goal attempt, Henderson, a convicted felon out on a weekend work release program from prison, started to plow the yardline, then veered left to clear the spot where holder Matt Cavanaugh was to spot the ball. Smith made the attempt, and New England won the game 3-0.

Mark Henderson clears the field for John Smith’s field goal attempt

Miami coach Don Shula, who basically owned the NFL officials in those days as a prominent member of the Competition Committee, vehemently protested allowing the field goal to stand but the officials let it go. Shula even protested later to commissioner Pete Rozelle, but to no avail. Skeptical current NFL fans might look back on this as an early example of a long history of Patriot cheating, but at the time it was unusual for Shula not to get his way with the refs so it was mostly looked on positively.  As for Henderson, he became a New England folk hero. Pats’ coach Ron Meyer awarded him a game ball, and the actual John Deere snowplow he used is now an exhibit in the team’s Hall of Fame. When he was questioned later about whether he thought he might be in trouble for pulling the stunt, Henderson replied, “What are they gonna do, throw me in jail?” He was released from prison a few years later and worked in the construction business.

Game ball awarded to snowplow operator Mark Henderson

It’s that time of year again, the beginning of the NFL season, when we revive one of our favorite pastimes on Rayonsports.com , the weekly Throwback Thursday post. Each week during the season, we pick out a matchup on that week’s schedule and then feature a game from the past between those teams. To open the 2016 season, we’ll feature a matchup between the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles, who play on opening day. The historical matchup we’ll remember was not only played on opening day, of the 1950 season, but was also the first game the Browns ever played in the NFL. They had been members of the All American Football Conference, a league formed to challenge the established NFL, and had dominated the AAFC for it’s entire four year existence, winning every championship from 1946 to 1949. The Browns, San Francisco 49ers and an early version of the Baltimore Colts were merged into the NFL when the fledgling league folded, and all began play in the established league in 1950. NFL Commissioner Bert Bell set up the schedule to match the Browns against the two-time defending NFL champion Eagles on opening day of the ’50 season purposely, with the intent of showing the public his league’s superiority over the champions of the AAFC. The game was even scheduled for Saturday, a day before the rest of the league’s scheduled games, to further feature the matchup.

Game program from the Eagles-Browns 1950 opening game matchup

The Browns were considered by all the pro football experts at the time to be a good team, but only the best team in a “minor” league and certainly no match for the NFL champion Eagles. Of course, things didn’t go the way Bell and the so-called experts had expected.  The Eagles kicked an early field goal to go ahead 3-0, but the Browns’ passing attack, directed by quarterback Otto Graham, then proceeded to carve up the supposedly vaunted Philadelphia defense. Graham threw for 3 touchdowns, one apiece to Dub Jones, Dante Lavelli and Mac Speedie, and scored himself on a one yard keeper to stake his club to a 28-3 lead they never relinquished. The teams traded fourth quarter scores to put the final score at 35-10 in favor of the upstart Browns. The game is widely considered one of the greatest upsets in NFL history, but the contest itself was a little sloppy. The teams combined for 9 turnovers, and in what a skeptic might consider favoritism toward the Eagles, the Browns were penalized 12 times for 98 yards (compared to only 3 calls against Philly). But Cleveland’s dominance couldn’t be denied – they outgained the Eagles 487 yards to 266 in addition to the lopsided score. Eagle coach Greasy Neale reluctantly congratulated the Browns on the win, critiquing the team for relying heavily on the pass and comparing them to a basketball team. Neale certainly would not be a fan of today’s game.

Obviously all the experts underestimated the quality of play of the old AAFC, and also the powerful team Cleveland coach Paul Brown had assembled which dominated that league. The opening day dominance was no fluke. Paul Brown’s forces went on to win the NFL championship in that season, their first in NFL play. That was quite a remarkable achievement, and the franchise continued to be one of the league’s strongest well into the 1960s.

Browns’ legends Otto Graham and Paul Brown

It’s officially Super Bowl week, and Super Bowl 50, the golden anniversary of the NFL’s championship game, will be played this Sunday between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. I usually post some Super Bowl stories or memories of past games during the week preceding the game, and for starters, this post will be a “list” post, which I’ve done many of. This is a list of the five most obscure Super Bowl heroes of the first 49 years:

1. Jim O’Brien – he was a rookie kicker when he was placed in the pressure-packed position of having to kick the winning field goal in Super Bowl V, which was a game filled with errors that was dubbed “The Blunder Bowl”. O’Brien made the kick, a 32 yarder which is the extra point distance in today’s game, to give the Colts their first Super Bowl title.

2. Timmy Smith – he was the ultimate Super Bowl one hit wonder. In the Washington Redskins’ 42-10 rout of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII, Smith, a rookie, set an NFL record by rushing for 204 yards and 2 touchdowns. It was the only significant accomplishment of his career, as he played only parts of 3 seasons in a career hampered by injuries and suspicions of drug use.

3. Larry Brown – in Super Bowl XXX, he intercepted a pair of Neil O’Donnell passes to help his Dallas Cowboys defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers, and his efforts earned him the game’s MVP honors. He parlayed that accomplishment into a big free agent contract with Oakland, then quickly faded into oblivion after making the move.

4. David Tyree – he made possibly the most famous catch in Super Bowl history – the “Helmet Catch” – in Super Bowl XLII, on a pass from Eli Manning to keep the New York Giants’ winning drive alive as they upset the previously unbeaten New England Patriots. He clutched the ball against his helmet as he and defender Rodney Harrison fell to the ground, making an improbable grab. He was mostly an obscure special teams player prior to the catch.

5. Malcom Butler – he was an obscure undrafted free agent on the fringes of the New England Patriots’ roster, but late in the game in Super Bowl XLIX, was sent out on the field as an extra defensive back as the Seattle Seahawks were driving toward the winning touchdown. He wound up making the play of the game, intercepting an ill-advised Russell Wilson pass at the goal line to preserve the win for his team. To his credit, Butler didn’t let himself become a flash-in-the-pan player. He has developed into a dependable, starting cornerback, even earning a Pro Bowl berth this season.

The New York Jets will attempt to qualify for the NFL playoffs this weekend by defeating their AFC East rivals, the Buffalo Bills. This week’s Throwback Thursday post harkens back to another season finale played between these two franchises, on December 16, 1973. Neither team had any postseason hopes, but the Bills had their eye on an individual accomplishment for their star running back, O.J. Simpson, who had a chance to break Jim Brown’s single season rushing yardage record. Brown’s record of 1,863 yards in a season had stood since 1963, and the Buffalo running back needed 61 yards to eclipse the mark.

The Bills dominated the game, building up a 28-7 lead through three quarters, allowing them to concentrate on getting Simpson the record. Running behind his offensive line, nicknamed “The Electric Company” (because they turned on The Juice, O.J.’s nickname at the time), Simpson eclipsed the record easily. Early in the fourth quarter, members of the line realized it was possible for Simpson to reach the unreachable 2,000 yard total, never done before in pro football. It was their best offensive weapon anyway, so the Bills continued to feed Simpson the ball, and he wound up carrying 34 times for 200 yards, the third time in the ’73 season that he went over 200 in a game, to finish the year with a record-breaking 2,003 yards rushing. The 2,000 yard mark has been eclipsed a few times since Simpson did it, but he remains the only player to accomplish the feat in a 14 game season, as the NFL went to a 16 game slate in 1978.

Although they didn’t make the playoffs, 1973 was a successful season for the Bills. They finished 9-5, their first winning season since 1966, found a new quarterback in rookie Joe Ferguson, who would be a mainstay there for a decade, and with O.J. and his fullback Jim Braxton carrying the load, also set an NFL record for the most rushing yards in a season for a team. Braxton actually ran for 98 yards and two touchdowns in Simpson’s record-breaking game. How much did the Bills feature Simpson on this day in the attempt to get the record? Ferguson’s stat line was 3 of 5 passes for 70 yards. Simpson’s personal life took a complete nose-dive after his playing days ended, but for one shining moment on a cold December day in 1973, he was king of the football world.

O.J. Simpson on his way to a 2,003 yard rushing season in 1973

The NFL season is winding down, with only 2 more weeks of games to be played. On this week’s schedule, the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals meet, which takes this week’s Throwback Thursday post back to January of 1965, when these two franchises met in what was then a postseason game played annually known as the “Playoff Bowl”. Officially, the game was called the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl, named in honor of the league’s late commissioner, with proceeds benefitting the players’ pension fund. The  game, held in Miami’s Orange Bowl, was played between the two teams who finished second in their respective divisions, and was essentially a game to decide who finished in third place, or a “consolation” game as it’s called in the NCAA basketball tournament. It was also known to some as the “Runnerup Bowl”.

The Packers finished second behind the Baltimore Colts in the 1964 season, while St. Louis (where the Cardinals were located then) wound up behind the Cleveland Browns. Cardinal quarterback Charley Johnson had a pretty good game, throwing a pair of touchdown passes to split end Billy Gambrell, who had the game of his life. Gambrell’s season total for receiving yards was 398, but on this day he grabbed 6 catches for 184 yards and both TD receptions from Johnson, one from 10 yards out and the second from 80. St. Louis built a 17-3 lead, but Green Bay’s Jim Taylor scored on a short run to cut the lead to 17-10. When Jerry Stovall intercepted a Bart Starr pass and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown, the Cards pretty much sealed the victory, winding up winning by a 24-17 count. (Taylor scored again late in the game for the Packers but it wasn’t enough). Green Bay coach Vince Lombardi is said to have lost only one postseason game in his coaching career, the 1960 NFL championship game, but this would have been his second one, except that the NFL made the decision to count the “Playoff Bowl” results as exhibition games, which was pretty much what they were.

Lombardi, who hated losing, detested the third place game. After losing this one, he called the game “the Shit Bowl…a loser’s bowl for losers. A hinky dink football game, played in a hinky dink town, by hinky dink players. That’s all third place is. Hinky dink.” That was probably a bit extreme. The game did have some value, raising over a million dollars for the pension fund over the years. The game was discontinued in 1970 after the NFL merged with the AFL and the playoffs were expanded to add divisional round games.

Packers and Cardinals battle in Miami in the “Playoff Bowl”

It’s always included in NFL Films’ lists of the greatest games of all time, and rightfully so. With the Miami Dolphins and San Diego Chargers meeting this week on the league schedule, we’ll feature this game, known as the “Epic In Miami”, as our Throwback Thursday game of the week. Classic games are always more memorable when they occur in the playoffs, and this game was an AFC Divisional round clash played on January 2, 1982 in Miami’s Orange Bowl. The Dolphins, under coach Don Shula, were perennially one of the NFL’s best teams, and on this day they met up with the Chargers, who were at the pinnacle of their high-powered offensive era under coach Don Coryell. With quarterback Dan Fouts engineering the attack, the Chargers’ offense was nicknamed “Air Coryell” for its’ proficiency in the passing game. San Diego, behind Fouts’ passing and a couple of big plays from wide receiver Wes Chandler, jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the first quarter, and it appeared the game was going to turn into a blowout. As the second quarter began, Shula made the strategic decision to bench his starting QB, David Woodley, in favor of Don Strock, and the Fish rallied back to pull within 24-17 at halftime, scoring on a “hook and lateral” play at the end of the half. Miami came back to tie the game in the third quarter, but the Chargers continued to put together scoring drives, with their star tight end, Kellen Winslow, having an individual game for the ages. He caught an NFL playoff record 13 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown and blocked a potential game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter, playing through various injuries in addition to being treated for severe cramps and dehydration. He also suffered a pinched nerve in his shoulder and a gash in his lower lip that required three stitches.

A game this great needed to last longer than the standard 60 minutes, and indeed it did, as the two AFC rivals battled to a 38-38 tie through regulation. Both club’s offenses strung together drives deep into enemy territory in overtime, with both kickers, Miami’s Uve Von Schamann and San Diego’s Rolf Benirschke, missing chip shot field goals. Aided by a couple of big passes to Charlie Joiner, Fouts then drove his club into field goal range again, and given another chance, Benirschke made good on his mulligan, giving the Chargers a 41-38 win to advance to the AFC Championship game the following week in Cincinnati.

An exhausted Kellen Winslow is helped into the locker room after the “Epic In Miami”

A short while ago, we featured the 1966 American Football League championship game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs as a Throwback Thursday post – a game that decided which AFL team would represent the league in the very first Super Bowl. This week, we’ll remember the same season’s title game for the NFL, played between two clubs who meet on this week’s schedule, the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers. The most famous game played between these two teams was the championship game played the following year, forever known as the “Ice Bowl”. Since we featured that game already in the past, we’ll go with this game instead. which was just as exciting and had as much drama as that “Ice Bowl” contest.

This game pitted two head coaches who had worked together as assistants in the 1950s with the New York Giants, Green Bay’s Vince Lombardi and Dallas’ Tom Landry. They would both go on to become NFL coaching legends, but were at different stages of their success at this point. Lombardi’s Packers had already appeared in 4 championship games, winning 3 of them, while Landry, who had taken over an expansion team in 1960, was just beginning to enjoy the fruits of his labor, this being the Cowboys’ first postseason venture. The Cowboys’ inexperience showed up early in the game, as Green Bay drove for an early touchdown using misdirection runs by Elijah Pitts to churn out yardage. Lombardi had figured Landry would have his team prepared to stop the vaunted Packer power sweep, so he installed those misdirection runs playing off of fake sweep plays. Bart Starr finished the drive by tossing a 17 yard scoring throw to Pitts, and when a jittery Dallas club fumbled the ensuing kickoff, the Packers’ Jim Grabowski scooped it up and ran it in for another score to up Green Bay’s lead to 14-0. It looked like the defending champions were going to coast to victory after they took advantage of Dallas’ early nervousness, but to their credit the Cowboys settled down and put together a pair of scoring drives to tie the game. The clubs traded scores after that but Starr fired three TD passes to three different receivers, while the Cowboys settled for field goals, so the Pack widened their lead to 34-20. Dallas QB Don Meredith rallied his troops to stay in the game, however. With his top target, Bob Hayes, being blanketed all day by Green Bay’s defense (he had 1 catch for 1 yard), Meredith hooked up with his other top flight receiver, Frank Clarke, on a 68 yard touchdown pass to pull the Cowboys to within 34-27. When the Cowboy defense held late in the game and got the ball back, Meredith again led a drive which reached the Packer 2 yard line with a chance to tie the game. They failed to score on consecutive plays until it was fourth down, giving them one last chance at the tying touchdown. Meredith rolled out and Packer linebacker Dave Robinson, who was supposed to drop into coverage, rushed Meredith instead and harassed him into a hurried throw into the end zone that Tom Brown intercepted to seal Green Bay’s win. In typical Lombardi style, after the game he congratulated Robinson for the play, then criticized him for being out of position. Green Bay went on to defeat Kansas City in the first Super Bowl, then called the AFL-NFL Championship game, 35-10, following the victory over Dallas.

Dave Robinson pursues Dallas QB Don Meredith

On this week’s NFL schedule, two AFC teams fighting to qualify for the playoffs, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts, are slated to meet. This week’s Throwback Thursday post will highlight a playoff game played between them, the 1995 AFC Championship game. It was played on January 14, 1996 in Pittsburgh’s old Three Rivers Stadium. The game was expected to be somewhat of a mismatch, with the Steelers, considered a strong Super Bowl contender under coach Bill Cowher, a heavy favorite over the Colts, who snuck into the playoffs as a wild card with an underwhelming 9-7 record. Ted Marchibroda, who had some success as the franchise’s head coach when they were still located in Baltimore in the 1970s, had returned to lead the Colts after a successful stint as offensive coordinator in Buffalo, helping the Bills reach multiple Super Bowls. Neither team had what would be considered a “franchise” quarterback, with Neil O’Donnell manning the position for the Steelers, while the Colts rallied behind veteran warrior Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh had earned the nickname “Captain Comeback” for leading the Colts to a few surprising come-from-behind victories in the regular season. Their wild card status meant the Colts would have to take the hard road of playing on the road in all playoff games for as long as they could stay alive, and they managed to pull off a pair of incredible wins, first defeating the defending AFC champion San Diego Chargers, then shocking the top seeded Kansas City Chiefs, 10-7, in as hard of a place to win as there is in the NFL, Arrowhead Stadium.

Meanwhile, the Steelers rolled over Buffalo 40-21 in the divisional round to advance directly into the title contest. Kansas City’s loss gave Pittsburgh the additional advantage of playing the game at home. Pittsburgh’s versatile weapon, Kordell Stewart, a former college QB who played multiple positions and was nicknamed Slash (because he was technically a halfback/quarterback/receiver) made some big plays to convert third downs and keep a drive alive which saw his club score on a 5 yard TD throw to Stewart from O’Donnell. Otherwise the teams traded field goals as the Steelers took a 13-9 lead. Early in the final quarter, Harbaugh connected with Floyd Turner on a 47 yard scoring throw and once again, it looked like Captain Comeback was leading his team to another surprising win. The Steelers weren’t going down easily, however, and O’Donnell led them on a 67 yard drive, capped by a one yard touchdown run by Bam Morris, to put Pittsburgh back on top 20-16 with a minute and a half left. Harbaugh would now have one more chance for a miracle comeback, and he proceeded to put together an impressive drive that reached the Pittsburgh 29 yard line with 5 seconds left. Needing a touchdown to win, Harbaugh launched a high, lofting “Hail Mary” pass into the end zone into a crowd of players from both clubs. The ball eventually landed in the chest of Colt receiver Aaron Bailey, but he couldn’t hold on and the Steelers secured the win by the narrowest of margins.

The ensuing Super Bowl proved to be too big of a stage for O’Donnell, who threw a pair of interceptions to the game’s MVP, Dallas cornerback Larry Brown, helping Dallas win their third Super Bowl title of the decade.

Colts’ last second Hail Mary falls short

Two old American Football League rivals, the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs, play on the NFL’s schedule this weekend, and this week’s Throwback Thursday feature will travel back in time to 1967, when these two clubs met to decide not only the AFL championship for the 1966 season, but also who would represent the upstart league in the very first AFL-NFL Championship game, which of course, was the very first Super Bowl. The game was originally scheduled for December 26th, the day after Christmas, but when merger talks between the two leagues were completed, the new title game was created and this matchup was moved to New Year’s Day.

The Chiefs, under coach Hank Stram, were a powerhouse AFL team that year, blending a creative offensive attack with a menacing defense to post an 11-2-1 record, dominating the Western Division. Stram was a true innovator, from his team’s use of their unique “choir huddle” to their use of different formations and motion to confuse opposing defenses.  The Bills were two-time defending AFL champs and a league dynasty at the time, but the ’66 season had been a bit of a struggle. Lou Saban, who coached the Bills to their consecutive titles, left abruptly following the previous season in a dispute with owner Ralph Wilson, and his top assistant, Joel Collier, took over as head man. Collier did a decent job of keeping the Bills afloat even though they were decimated by injuries to the defense, while quarterback Jack Kemp was getting up in years. Also, even though he’s widely considered one of the top defensive minds in pro football history, Collier was a bit in over his head as a head coach. The media’s feelings about this game showed up in the fact that even though Buffalo was a two-time defending champ and the game was being played in their home stadium, they were three point underdogs.

There was an omen of sorts for the Bills on the game’s first play, as they fumbled the opening kickoff, which the Chiefs recovered, setting up a touchdown pass from K.C.’s veteran QB, Len Dawson, to tight end Fred Arbanas. The Bills, trying valiantly to play like defending champs, countered with a 69 yard touchdown throw from Kemp to Elbert “Golden Wheels” Dubenion, to tie the score. However, that would be the Bills’ only shining moment in this game. They turned the ball over three more times and the Chiefs’ offense made them pay, riding the passing of Dawson and the running of Mike Garrett, who scored a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns, to an easy 31-7 win. The Bills were clearly a team in decline, starting to show signs of age, and their fortunes dipped considerably in the years to follow. The Chiefs were just getting started. Although they lost to Green Bay in that first Super Bowl, they remained an AFL power the rest of the decade and a few years later stunned the Minnesota Vikings to win their first (and only) Super Bowl.

 QB Len Dawson calls the play in the Chiefs’ unique “Choir Huddle”

The Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins meet on this week’s NFL schedule, and we’ll feature a game played in the past between these two teams for this week’s Throwback Thursday post. We’ve featured a lot of past Super Bowl games this year as throwback games with Super Bowl 50 approaching, and the Cowboys and Dolphins once played in one. However, with Thanksgiving coming up soon, let’s go back to a Turkey Day clash played between the two in Dallas, in an unexpected snow storm, that saw a Dallas player, defensive lineman Leon Lett, commit a major gaffe that cost his team the game.

The game was played on Thanksgiving Day in 1993, with both teams fighting for playoff spots. Miami was 8-2 entering the game and leading the AFC East, while the Cowboys had a 7-3 mark. The city of Dallas was hit with the rare snow storm, which also included sleet and made for slippery playing conditions for the game. The Cowboys, behind a pair of touchdowns from Kevin Williams, one on a punt return and another on a pass from Troy Aikman, led 14-7 at halftime. Miami’s offense struggled, not only because of the field conditions, but also because their star quarterback, Dan Marino, was sidelined with an Achilles tendon injury, leaving aging veteran Steve DeBerg to guide them. They managed only a pair of Pete Stoyanovich field goals and trailed 14-13 when DeBerg, who had thrown 2 interceptions in the game, led them on a drive to set up another field goal attempt by Stoyanovich. It was a 41 yard attempt to take the lead but the kick was blocked. That’s when Lett stepped in to help Miami’s cause. While most of his Cowboy teammates began celebrating, Lett attempted to recover the ball. He slipped on the ice as he tried to pick up the football, and Miami recovered on the Dallas one-yard line. Had Lett simply done nothing, the Cowboys would have automatically received possession and could have run out the clock. By touching the ball and then failing to hold onto it, Lett enabled the Dolphins to take possession and then try another field goal with three seconds left on the clock. Given another chance, Stoyanovich’s second attempt was good, giving the Dolphins a 16–14 victory as time expired.

Oddly, both teams’ fortunes changed dramatically after this epic contest. Dallas won all their remaining games on their way to a Super Bowl title, while Miami never won another game the rest of the season.

Leon Lett kicks some snow after his Thanksgiving Day blunder