Two long-time NFC East rivals, the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles, will square off this week on the league schedule in a game that will likely decide the division championship. The Throwback Thursday post for the week will feature a game played between these two franchises on Thanksgiving Day in 1989, at the beginning of the Jimmy Johnson era of Dallas football, that would become known as the “Bounty Bowl”. It was Johnson’s first year as Cowboy coach after taking over for the legendary Tom Landry, and the team was enduring a horrific season that would find them finishing with a 1-15 record. The Eagles were coached by Buddy Ryan, considered a defensive “genius” who had earned the Philly head coaching job with his great work as defensive coordinator in the mid-1980s with the Chicago Bears. His Eagle team was a defensive powerhouse, and a heavy favorite to defeat Dallas on this day. The game pretty much followed the script, as the Eagles harassed Dallas’ rookie quarterback, Troy Aikman, all day and crushed the Cowboys 27-0. It was what supposedly happened during the game, however, that had Johnson fuming afterwards. Dallas’ coach accused Ryan of putting up bounties of up to $200 on two Cowboy players – Aikman and placekicker Luis Zendejas, who had been with Philly earlier in the season, was cut, and signed with Dallas. At his post-game press conference, Johnson said this: “I have absolutely no respect for the way they played the game. I would’ve said something to Buddy, but he wouldn’t stand on the field long enough. He put his big, fat rear end into the dressing room.”
For his part, Ryan denied the accusations, saying that his players had no intention of hurting anyone, and even claiming it was in the Eagles’ best interest to keep Zendejas in the game, since he was in a slump. He also joked about Johnson’s comments, saying: “I resent that. I’ve been on a diet. I lost a couple pounds, and I thought I was looking good.” The facts show that Eagle players took numerous cheap shots at both Aikman and Zendejas during the game, and the Mexican-born kicker said afterwards that during his time in Philadelphia, Ryan had paid an unnamed player $100 for each of two hits on an opposing punter. The game caused such a fury that when the two teams played later that year in Philadelphia, the contest was dubbed “Bounty Bowl II” by the media, with CBS Sports doing a pre-game opening that featured wanted posters of the involved players showing bounty amounts. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue attended the second game, and although no incidents occurred on the field, Johnson, some of the referees and television announcers Verne Lundquist and Terry Bradshaw were pelted with snowballs, ice and beer. Even Eagles’ player Jerome Brown was hit with a snowball while standing on the sideline, attempting to get the fans to stop throwing things. Eventually, Johnson got the last laugh, as he built the Cowboys into a dynasty that won a pair of Super Bowls in the early 1990s, while Ryan never reached that level of success as a head coach in stops at Philadelphia and later with the Arizona Cardinals.
Jimmy Johnson complains to the officials as Luis Zendejas (6) is helped by trainers after enduring a hard hit