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One of the games on this week’s NFL schedule is expected to be one of the most lopsided games in league history, matching the undefeated and seemingly unstoppable Denver Broncos, led by Peyton Manning, and the hapless Jacksonville Jaguars, who are winless and going nowhere. The point spread on the game has reached as high as 28 points. The Throwback Thursday game I’m highlighting this week was also played between these two franchises, and wound up being featured by NFL Films as one of the top ten in their “Greatest Games” series. They dubbed it the “Ambush at Mile High”, and going into the game the expected result was pretty much what the experts are counting on this week – a one-sided Bronco victory. The year was 1996 and the Broncos were the AFC’s top seed going into the playoffs, and behind star quarterback John Elway, were expected to breeze through the competition into the Super Bowl. When the first team they would face turned out to be the Jaguars, that path looked to be extremely easy. The Jaguars were a second year expansion team that finished the year with a 9-7 win/loss record, barely squeaking into the playoffs as a wild card team. They pulled what appeared to be a major surprise in the wild card round the previous week when they overcame an early 14-0 deficit to upset the Buffalo Bills 30-27. It wasn’t clear at the time, but it turned out the Bills were in decline at that point. In fact, the game turned out to be Jim Kelly’s final appearance, as he left the field with a head injury and wound up retiring in the off-season. Against the 13-3 Broncos, the Jaguars, under coach Tom Coughlin, were supposed to be an easy mark, especially at Mile High Stadium, where the team had a major home field advantage. The game followed the same pattern as the Jags’ wild card win the previous week, with Denver jumping out to a 12-0 lead in the first quarter. However, just as in the Buffalo game, Jacksonville stormed back behind the pinpoint passing of Mark Brunell, who played the game of his life, and the hard running of Natrone Means, who ground out 140 rushing yards. Jacksonville hung on for the win, again by a 30-27 score, but unfortunately they were eliminated the next week in the AFC Championship game by coach Bill Parcells’ New England Patriots. The upset may have lit a fire under Elway and the Broncos, however, as they went on to win back-to-back Super Bowls following the 1997 and ’98 seasons.

Natrone Means (photo courtesy of Bleacherreport.com)

One of the matchups on this week’s NFL schedule is an NFC East clash between two long-time rivals, the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. This week’s Thursday Throwback features a famous game played between these 2 rivals on November 20, 1960, at Yankee Stadium, when a play that became known as “the hit heard ’round the world” took place involving a pair of future Hall of Famers, Eagle linebacker Chuck Bednarik and Giant running back Frank Gifford. The game was a must-win situation for the Eagles, who were enjoying a rare season where they had a shot at dethroning the 2 dominant teams in the NFL’s Eastern Division, the Giants and Cleveland Browns. They were hanging onto a 17-10 lead late in the game and the Giants were beginning to mount a comeback when Bednarik laid out Gifford with a hard, clean hit as the Giant back was attempting to catch a pass over the middle. The hit was so hard it knocked Gifford unconscious, and he had to be carried off the field on a stretcher. He suffered a concussion, with symptoms so bad that he was out of football for 18 months, and wound up retiring.

The two players involved were polar opposites of each other. Bednarik, whose nickname was “Concrete Charlie”, was a hard-nosed intimidating player who took pride in the fact that he was the last of the NFL’s two-way players, playing both linebacker on defense and center on offense. Gifford was a “golden boy” back who played his college career at USC and became a media darling there on the West Coast, then moved onto the pro stage on the other coast, under the bright lights of New York City, where he garnered endorsement deals and, after winning the NFL MVP Award in 1956 while helping the Giants win the league championship, became a player the league tried to push as the face of the NFL. There’s no question that at the time, Bednarik relished in the fact that he knocked the “golden boy” out cold, but as time passed, grew to respect Gifford, especially after the Giant star defended the hit as clean when Bednarik began to get a reputation for being a dirty player.

The iconic photo pictured below of the hit appears to show Bednarik celebrating over Gifford’s prone body, but the Eagle Hall of Famer always insisted that in that moment, he wasn’t even aware of the injury, and was actually celebrating the fact that the hit forced Gifford to fumble, and the Eagles had recovered to basically put the must-win game away. It turned out to be a huge win for Philadelphia, as they went on to win an improbable NFL title, handing Green Bay a 17-13 loss in what turned out to be Vince Lombardi’s only postseason defeat. Gifford’s retirement turned out to be temporary, as he came back in 1962 and switched positions to flanker. As the pro game began evolving the third running back into a second wide receiver, other star runners of that era, like Bobby Mitchell and Paul Warfield, were doing the same. Gifford became an All Pro at that position also, then retired again following the ’63 season to go into broadcasting.

Chuck Bednarik celebrates over the prone Frank Gifford

This week’s “Throwback Thursday” matchup from the NFL’s week 4 schedule is between the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, two franchises with close ties that go beyond their proximity in the state of Ohio. They face each other this Sunday in the first of their two annual meetings as AFC North rivals, and those meetings have become routine over the years. Their first meeting, however, was anything but routine. It came on October 11, 1970, in Cleveland, and was a “homecoming” for Bengals founder and head coach Paul Brown. Brown had also founded the Browns franchise, in the old All America Conference in 1946, and coached the team through its’ most successful era from ’46 in the AAFC, through its’ entry into the NFL in 1950, until he was unceremoniously relieved of his coaching duties by owner Art Modell following the 1963 season. Brown’s iron-fisted approach with the Cleveland team had grown tiresome among the players, who revolted against him, and went to Modell, led by star Jim Brown, to try to get rid of him. Modell complied with their wishes, and the decision looked like a good one when the Browns won the NFL championship in 1964 under Brown’s replacement, Blanton Collier. The legendary coach resurfaced a couple of years later when the American Football League decided to award an expansion franchise to Cincinnati, as the new team’s ownership group recruited him to come on board as part owner, general manager and coach to help build the new team. Brown, a staunch NFL guy, had little use for the AFL, which was ridiculed by the old-line NFLers as a “Mickey Mouse” league, and would only agree to join the Cincinnati group after the NFL/AFL merger agreement was completed, assuring the Bengals would be an NFL team. In a move many believe was done just to “tweak” Modell, Brown chose the exact shade of orange for the Bengals’ uniforms as he had for the Browns in Cleveland, with black as the primary color instead of brown. As a football executive, Brown proved he hadn’t lost his touch – he built the Bengals into a playoff team by their second year of existence. The club boasted the AFL’s Rookie of the Year in their first 2 years also – running back Paul Robinson in 1968 and quarterback Greg Cook in 1969. The two leagues finally merged into one starting with the 1970 season, and the Browns and Bengals were put together in the same division of the AFC, which meant they would regularly meet twice a year.

Paul Brown with one of his Bengal assistants, Bill Walsh

As for that first meeting, Brown’s Bengals fought mightily but in the end the Browns pulled out a 30-27 victory, with Bill Nelsen throwing a pair of touchdown passes and future Hall of Fame running back Leroy Kelly supplying 163 combined rushing and receiving yards and scoring twice. The Browns were still a formidable club in 1970 but were on the decline, and in their second meeting, in Cincinnati, Paul Brown got his revenge as the Bengals won a defensive struggle, 14-10. With those two hard-fought games, the annual “Battle of Ohio” was on.

Leroy Kelly (photo courtesy of Bleacherreport.com)

This week’s NFL matchup that I decided to highlight a past game of on “Throwback Thursday” is between the San Diego Chargers and Tennessee Titans. The classic matchup between these 2 franchises took place on New Year’s Day in 1961, when both were located in different cities. The Chargers, playing in Los Angeles, won the Western Division title, while the Titans’ descendants, the Houston Oilers, won the Eastern crown. This game, played in Houston’s Jeppesen Stadium, would decide who would be champion of the inaugural season of the fledgling American Football League. The AFL was founded to rival the National Football League, by eight men, some of which had been spurned by the NFL in bids to acquire franchises in that league, and that group became known as “The Foolish Club”, a nickname they all wore proudly after the new league became popular and eventually forced a merger with the NFL. Owner Bud Adams’ Oilers would win this game, 24-16, to be crowned the first AFL champs. Adams had pulled a major coup by luring Heisman Trophy-winning back Billy Cannon from LSU to sign with the new Oiler franchise instead of the NFL, and the move paid off as Cannon was a major factor in helping win the title game. In the fourth quarter, he snared a short pass from QB George Blanda and scampered 88 yards to a touchdown which put the game away. The same 2 clubs would meet again the next season for the new league’s second championship, and the Oilers won again, 10-3, in a defensive struggle. Cannon was again the hero, scoring the game’s only touchdown on a 35 yard pass from Blanda. Things were a lot different for both teams in the second title matchup, with the Chargers now located in San Diego, and the Oilers being coached by Wally Lemm, who took over for Lou Rymkus after Rymkus was fired early in the year, despite the fact he had led the team to the ’60 championship.

“The Foolish Club” – original AFL owners 

This is the second installment of a weekly feature during this NFL season that I’m calling “Throwback Thursday”, in which I highlight a past encounter between 2 teams that are scheduled to play on that weekend. This week, one of the scheduled games is an NFC North divisional matchup between the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings, who have been NFL division rivals since the Vikings came in the league as an expansion franchise in 1961. These 2 clubs played on opening day of the ’61 season in the Vikings first ever regular season NFL game. The Bears were one of the league’s flagship’s franchises at the time, led by legendary coach George Halas. The Vikings originally were committed to joining the fledging American Football League, but the NFL convinced the ownership group to jump ship and be added as a new team in the established league. The NFL, at that time, wasn’t very generous to new teams when it came to stocking their rosters through the expansion draft, so the Vikings were a ragtag bunch. They hired Norm Van Brocklin, who had just ended his playing career as an NFL quarterback by guiding the Philadelphia Eagles to the 1960 NFL title over Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers, as head coach. The “Dutchman”, as he was known, was a perfect fit to lead the new team in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region. The opening day matchup, on paper, looked more like a sacrificial offering, with the Vikings playing the lamb. Van Brocklin’s team didn’t show much in the early stages of the game, so the coach played a long shot – benching his starting quarterback, veteran George Shaw,  in favor of an unknown rookie, some guy named Fran Tarkenton. Tarkenton went on to throw four touchdown passes while running for another in a stunning performance, as the upstart Vikings shocked the Bears, 37-13. Jerry Reichow, a receiver who played on the ’60 title-winning Eagle team with Van Brocklin, caught 3 passes for 101 yards and one of the four TDs. The Vikes eventually came down to earth and finished their first year with a 3-11 won/loss record, and in fact, on the season’s final day, the Bears got their revenge by pounding the Vikings 52-35 at Wrigley Field. But for one day, on opening day of their inaugural season, they were NFL world-beaters, trouncing one of the league’s top teams. Tarkenton, of course, became one of the top players in franchise history, and wound up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. With his scrambling style of play, he would probably be a great fit in today’s pro game that features read-option running quarterbacks.

QB Fran Tarkenton

The new NFL season begins tonight, and in past years this is where I would post my weekly predictions for the upcoming games. This year, however, I decided to substitute a new weekly feature in place of picking games. It’s a post called “Throwback Thursday” and will feature an NFL game from past years between 2 teams that are scheduled to play that weekend. On this opening day weekend, there’s a game scheduled between the Indianapolis Colts and Oakland Raiders, two franchises who played a famous playoff game in the 1970s that became known as the “Ghost to the Post” game. The game is regularly featured on NFL Films as one of the greatest contests in league history, and the “Ghost to the Post” describes a key play in the game – a 42 yard pass from Raider quarterback Ken Stabler to his tight end, Dave Casper, that set up a game-tying field goal to send the game into overtime. Casper the Friendly Ghost was a popular cartoon character at the time – thus the tight end Casper running a post pattern and catching the key pass became the “Ghost to the Post” play.

Casper the Friendly Ghost

The game wound up going into double overtime, and the Raiders won when Stabler hit Casper again, this time for a 10-yard touchdown to seal a 37-31 win. It was an exciting see-saw battle between the Raiders, one of the winningest teams of the era, and the Colts, who of course were located in Baltimore at the time. 1977, when the game was played, was the Colts’ 25th season in the NFL, and their QB at the time, Bert Jones, was one of the league’s best. Their head coach was Ted Marchibroda, who would go on to be offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills’ Super Bowl teams in the early ’90s, then return to the head coaching post with the Colts after they had already relocated to Indianapolis. The Raiders also relocated – to Los Angeles – before returning to Oakland. The double OT game was one of many thrilling Raider victories in the franchise’s history, with a lot of them coming during the coaching reign of their head coach that year, John Madden. However, they may have emptied their collective tanks to pull out the win, as they lost the AFC Championship game the following week to the division rival Denver Broncos.

Dave Casper hauls in the “Ghost to the Post” pass

The recent passing of Steve Sabol, son of the founder of NFL Films and long-time president of the company, Ed Sabol, sent me searching through my modest DVD collection for the NFL Films gems that I dig out and replay every year around Super Bowl time. Between those DVDs, the Super Bowl highlight shows that are shown late at night around that time and the collection of NFL Films music that I have on my Ipod, I can always count on working myself into the proper frame of mind to get psyched up for the game, no matter who is playing in it that particular year. There’s no doubt that the work of the Sabols in uniquely capturing the game of pro football in the 1960s drew many fans to the game. The use of sideline cameras to capture the action up close, and the use of slow-motion to punctuate great plays, were markedly different than the way the game was shown on television broadcasts, and enhanced the game for fans. The shot of a perfect spiral, spinning in slow motion through the air and landing softly in the hands of a receiver, was a trademark of what NFL Films brought to the game.

The NFL Films story began when Ed, who was a topcoat salesman but filmed his son Steve’s high school football games as a hobby, formed a small production company, called Blair Motion Pictures, hiring his son Steve to join the company. In 1962 the company won a bid to film the league championship game and put together a highlight movie. I remember watching a show in which Ed Sabol recalled the filming of that game. It was played between the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers at frozen Yankee Stadium, and the some of the cameras the Blair Motion Pictures crew was using wound up freezing. Sabol recalled thinking, “what the hell kind of footage are we going to get from these?” Well, the footage turned out to be pretty good, and the highlight film that was put together impressed NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle so much that he lobbied the league’s owners to buy out Sabol’s company and put them to work full time promoting the league. The owners, relunctantly, agreed and the company was renamed NFL Films. It was one of the best decisions those owners ever made, as NFL Films turned out to be a tremendous promotional tool for the league, bringing the game closer to its’ fans and personalizing the players to the public. Steve Sabol once said that it was Rozelle’s genius that really should be credited for the company’s success. He claimed that at the time, nobody working for NFL Films realized what they were accomplishing, but Rozelle did, and realized the potential it had. Eventually, the highlight videos and shows produced by the company were enhanced by the music of Sam Spence, whose orchestral scores combined elements of jazz, classical, rock, marching band music and western movie tracks to add drama to the close-up, slow motion game films. NFL Films videos were narrated by John Facenda, who has been dubbed “The Voice of God”. His narrations were classic, and the combination of his deep baritone voice and the poetic scripts he read made for unforgettable viewing. Maybe the best example of the style of NFL Films  is the Oakland Raider film titled “The Autumn Wind“, featured below. A television critic named Matt Zoller Seitz probably summed it up best when he called NFL Films “the greatest in-house P.R. machine in pro sports history . . . an outfit that could make even a tedious stalemate seem as momentous as the battle for the Alamo.”

Over the years, the Sabols and NFL Films produced such classics as Football Follies, featuring bloopers from NFL games, This Week In Pro Football, which would show highlights from the previous week’s games, NFL Films Presents, Lost Treasures, Greatest Moments and the recent HBO series Hard Knocks. The company has won a total of 107 Sports Emmys, and was a big player in helping the league reach its’ position as the most popular sport in the country today. The league, of course, now has it’s own network, and NFL Films provides a lot of the content shown on it. Steve Sabol, whose love for the game always came across on the screen in the videos he produced and introduced on camera, will be sorely missed. To view The Autumn Wind , click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Jroy7fHIMaI?rel=0