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On this week’s National Football League schedule, the St. Louis Rams take on the Cleveland Browns, and our Throwback Thursday feature harkens back to an NFL championship game that pre-dates the Super Bowl era, the 1950 title game between these two franchises. Played on Christmas Eve, the game featured a clash between the Rams, based in Los Angeles at the time and a league offensive juggernaut, and the Browns, who were a powerhouse in the old All America Football Conference and joined the NFL, along with the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts, for the 1950 season. The Rams, already a strong club, were made stronger when they added players from the defunct AAFC L.A. Dons. They averaged almost 39 points per game, and scored over 60 in two of their games, in racking up a 9-3 record to reach the title game, while the Browns went 10-2 but were underdogs in the game due to being the “new kids on the block” in the NFL.

Program from the 1950 NFL Championship, played on Christmas Eve

The Rams were loaded with offensive weapons – future Hall of Famers like Bob Waterfield, Norm Van Brocklin, Tom Fears and Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch, plus others – Deacon Dan Towler, Tank Younger and former Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis, who had a short-lived NFL career but had his best season in 1950. The Browns, under owner/coach Paul Brown, were a force in the AAFC, winning the title in all 4 years of the league’s existence.  However, owners in the NFL considered them to be a decent team in what they considered an inferior league. Those feelings looked like they were correct when the Rams opened the game with an 82 yard touchdown throw from Waterfield to Davis, giving L.A. a 7-0 lead. Cleveland, however, stayed the course and kept the game close behind the play of their star quarterback, Otto Graham. He threw for 298 yards and 4 scores, compared to Waterfield, who wound up passing for 312 yards, but only one TD with 4 interceptions. The Browns’ defense proved to be ballhawks that day with the four picks, two of which were pilfered by Warren Lahr. As the game wound down, the Rams clung to a 28-27 lead, which they held only because the Browns had missed an extra point on one of their touchdowns. At this point, Graham led his team on a drive from his own 31 yard line, with 1:28 left, to set up a field goal attempt by Lou “The Toe” Groza, which he made to send the Browns on to a 30-28 win, securing the NFL championship in the team’s first year in the league. After the game, NFL commissioner Bert Bell called the Browns “the greatest team ever to play football”, now that they’d proven they could handle the old NFL’s best. The win was also of great satisfaction for the city of Cleveland, since the Rams had abandoned the town and moved to the west coast. Now their new (and better) team beat the Rams, the best the NFL had to offer.

Lou “The Toe” Groza kicks the winning field goal for Cleveland

The Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns meet on this week’s NFL schedule, and that matchup brings back memories of a contest between these two franchises that will be this week’s Thursday Throwback feature. It was a playoff game, the 1986 AFC Championship game, and was a game that was  a major contributor to the legacy of Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway. His Broncos were placed in an almost impossible position as the Browns had scored to take a 20-13 lead, then on the ensuing kickoff, Denver muffed the ball and wound up pinned at their own 2 yard line with about 5 minutes to play. So Elway was faced with the proposition of needing to drive his team 98 yards, almost the entire length of the field, on the road in the most hostile of environments – Cleveland’s Dawg Pound. Elway, who was a master of the two minute drill during his career, methodically drove his club downfield, mixing in short passes to his backs, Sammy Winder and Steve Sewell, a couple of scrambles for positive yardage, and a pair of completions to one of his favorite targets, wide receiver Mark Jackson. It was Jackson who hauled in the pass in the end zone to culminate “The Drive”, a five yard completion from Elway to tie the game with 37 seconds left, sending it into overtime.

The overtime session is mostly forgotten as Elway’s mastery on the game-tying drive immediately went into NFL folklore. In the extra period, Denver’s defense held the Browns on their first possession, and Denver took over for their first try. Elway was brilliant again, taking his club 60 yards to set up a game-winning field goal by Rich Karlis. A key play on the winning drive was a 28 yard completion from Elway to receiver Steve Watson on a third and 12 play. The loss was another chapter in Cleveland’s supposedly cursed professional sports history, and another chapter would be added the following year as the same two clubs would meet again for the right to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, this time with running back Earnest Byner being the goat by fumbling the ball as he attempted to cross the goal line for a go-ahead score. That game would go down in league history as “The Fumble”. To this day, the Browns’ last NFL championship was accomplished in 1964, and in the modern era, they are one of a small group of teams that has yet to qualify for a Super Bowl.

Denver QB John Elway engineers “The Drive” in 1986

This week’s Throwback Thursday featured game (the Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Bears meet this week) will be the first and most likely only one of it’s kind to be highlighted here – a preseason game. The preseason of 1967, however, was unique compared to any other season. It was the first year when established NFL teams played clubs from the upstart AFL after an agreed merger of the leagues took place. The first Super Bowl had taken place the previous year, and the NFL was pounding its’ collective chests after their representative in that game, the Green Bay Packers, had soundly beaten the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. Green Bay coach Vince Lombardi poured a little salt in the AFL’s wounds after the game, claiming that although the Chiefs were a fine club, there were more than a handful of NFL teams who were better. The Chiefs were looking for some redemption and respect in ’67, and the first chance they had to get back at the cocky NFL came in a preseason contest against George Halas’ Chicago Bears. Preseason games today can barely even be considered legitimate NFL contests, as they are mostly used as glorified scrimmages to evaluate young players while all the star players rest up for the regular year. But in 1967, things were completely different. The fact that the AFL clubs were going to get a chance to show how well they matched up with the established league meant that these games, even though they were exhibitions and the results didn’t count, were very important. How important was this game to the Chiefs? Their quarterback, Len Dawson, had been battling a virus all week leading up to the contest, but climbed out of the sick bed to play and throw 4 touchdown passes as coach Hank Stram’s forces totally befuddled the Bears. Can anyone imagine a sick player playing in an exhibition game in today’s game? Kansas City pulled out all the stops, emptying out their playbook with all sorts of offensive formations and defensive shifts and blitzes to crush the proud NFL Bears. The final score was a whopping 66-24. After Dawson was finished with his aerial display, K.C.’s backup signal caller, Pete Beathard, came into the game and fired a fifth scoring pass. In all, Gloster Richardson and Otis Taylor caught a pair of TD passes each, while Chris Burford hauled in the fifth. Gale Sayers, Chicago’s star back who was the “Kansas Comet” in his college career, had a rough homecoming as he was held to a paltry 35 yards. The Bears’ lone positive moment came when Dick Gordon returned a kickoff 103 yards for a touchdown. Of course, with all the scoring the Chiefs did, their kickoff coverage teams were probably pretty tired. Despite the fact that the Chiefs had their triumphant moment in manhandling the Bears in this game, in the 16 exhibitions played between AFL and NFL clubs that season, the NFL dominated play overall, winning 13 of the games.

Chiefs’ coach Hank Stram plots strategy with his QB, Len Dawson

For the third time in the first four weeks of the young NFL season, the 50th Anniversary celebration season of the Super Bowl, our Throwback Thursday feature game is one that has a pair of clubs matching up on the schedule who previously faced each other in the big game. This week it’s the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills, who met in one of the most exciting Super Bowls ever played, Super Bowl XXV. The game was played under heightened security measures with our country engaged in the first Gulf War, and the atmosphere was a patriotic display of flags waving and a stirring rendition of the National Anthem before the game, provided by Whitney Houston.

Whitney Houston sings the Star Spangled Banner

The game featured the Bills and their high-powered “K-Gun” offense, which operated in a hurry-up mode, against coach Bill Parcells’ grind-it-out Giants, who fought their way into the game using a backup quarterback, Jeff Hostetler, and an offensive attack bent on slowing down the game, controlling the ball and minimizing the opponent’s possessions. The Giants had used that tactic to perfection in the NFC Championship game, stifling the high-powered San Francisco 49ers and QB Joe Montana on their way to a 15-13 win. The conservative offensive approach was teamed up with a tough, aggressive defense led by All Pro linebacker Lawrence Taylor. Parcells and defensive coordinator Bill Belichick employed the same tactics against the Bills, sometimes rushing only 2 players and dropping all the other defenders into coverage, daring the Bills to run rather than allowing Buffalo QB Jim Kelly to pick apart the secondary. That strategy allowed Bills’ running back Thurman Thomas to rush for 135 yards on 15 carries, a performance that surely would have won him the game’s Most Valuable Player Award if the Bills had managed to win. Unfortunately for him and the Bills, however, Parcels’ strategy worked, as the Giants controlled the ball for 40 of the game’s 60 minutes, keeping the vaunted Buffalo offense off the field for most of the game. Still, when Thomas ran 31 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, the Bills took a 19-17 lead. New York drove to a Matt Bahr field goal to retake the lead at 20-19, setting up a dramatic game-ending drive by the Bills. Kelly drove his club into position for a 47 yard field goal attempt by Scott Norwood, but the Buffalo kicker was wide right and the Giants escaped with the win by the narrowest of margins. It is still, to this day, the only Super Bowl game to be decided on the game’s final play. What became known as the “Wide Right” game formed Norwood’s lasting legacy, which is really not fair considering he was only a 50/50 proposition from the 47 yard distance on grass for his career, and he had made a lot of kicks during the regular season to help get his team into the big game.

A dejected Scott Norwood leaves the field as Super Bowl XXV ends

The Pittsburgh Steelers and St. Louis Rams clash on this week’s National Football League schedule, which brings back Throwback Thursday memories of a Super Bowl played following the 1979 season between these two franchises. They entered the big game with totally different credentials – the Steelers had already won 3 titles in the decade and were a dominant franchise, while the Rams somehow snuck into the championship game after winning the NFC West title with a mediocre 9-7 record. Their coach, Ray Malavasi, had become the head man almost by accident the previous season when George Allen, who always wanted full control of all football operations but had to share that control with GM Don Klosterman, was abruptly dismissed after balking about the situation. The Steelers entered the game as heavy favorites, having dominated the ’70s with their “Steel Curtain” defense, which was expected to have their way with young L.A. quarterback Vince Ferragamo, who was only in his third season in the NFL and was forced into the starting role early in the season due to an injury to Pat Haden. Ferragamo’s statistics were very pedestrian, as he threw twice as many interceptions (10) as touchdown passes (5) after taking over as starter. Somehow, however, the Rams managed to win 6 of his last 7 starts to reach the Super Bowl. Still, conventional wisdom said he would be no match for Pittsburgh’s Terry Bradshaw, who at that point had 3 Super Bowl wins under his belt. The game didn’t quite go according to plan. The plucky Rams built a surprising 13-10 halftime lead, and the Steeler coaches laid into their players at halftime, feeling they were taking the Rams too lightly. Early in the third quarter, Bradshaw gave a preview of things to come by hooking up with Lynn Swann on a 47 yard scoring pass to give the Steelers the lead. The Rams came right back and scored on a play that was popular in the era – a halfback option pass – from Lawrence McCutcheon to Ron Smith. Pittsburgh then proceeded to move the ball on successive drives into Ram territory, only to have Bradshaw throw interceptions to keep the Rams in the lead. It began to appear as if the impossible were possible, that the overwhelming underdogs from Los Angeles could really win this game. It was then that Bradshaw cemented his legend as a true winner. He had been somewhat of an afterthought in the Steelers’ first 3 Super Bowl wins, as most of the credit for the team’s domination went to the defense. But in this game, despite having thrown 3 picks to this point, the “Blonde Bomber”, even with his star receiver, Swann now sidelined by injury, hooked up with another future Hall of Famer, John Stallworth, on a pair of stunning long passes – the first a 47 yard scoring throw, and the second another long toss to set up a 1 yard TD run by Franco Harris to put the Steelers up 31-19, which would turn out to be the final score. The win, the Steelers’ fourth of the decade, cemented Pittsburgh as the “Team of the 70s”, but it was their last hurrah, at least for this particular group. Players from the dynasty club’s roster began to retire in the next few years, including Rocky Bleier and the guy who was the face of the franchise, “Mean Joe” Greene.  

Steeler QB Terry Bradshaw unleashes a bomb

Despite losing, the Rams received a great deal of respect for pushing a club that was an NFL dynasty at the time to the brink of disaster before finally succumbing. The team’s defense matched the Steel Curtain blow for blow for most of the game, led by outstanding, hard-nosed players like linebacker Jack “Hacksaw” Reynolds, defensive end Fred Dryer, safety Nolan Cromwell and especially the other defensive end, Jack Youngblood, who played the game on a broken leg in an effort for the ages. Reaching the Super Bowl was also a career highlight for coach Malavasi, who was fired a few years later and died in 1987 at the age of 57.

The Rams’ Jack Youngblood (85) became a legend in Super Bowl XIV (photo courtesy of Spokeo.com)

We didn’t go very far back in NFL history for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature game. The Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers will meet in Lambeau Field, and that matchup is a reminder of the game played early in the 2012 season, when the regular officials were locked out in a labor dispute with the league and replacement officials, who were horrendous during the preseason of that year, wound up refereeing games to open the regular season. The use of these “amateur” refs for regular games was extremely controversial, and that controversy came to a head in this game. The contest was a nationally televised Monday Night Football game, which drew even more of a spotlight on what turned out to be a disputed ending. It was a defensive battle, with the Packers clinging to a 12-7 lead as Seattle drove down toward a possible winning touchdown. On the game’s final play, Seahawk quarterback Russell Wilson launched a “Hail Mary” throw into the end zone, and receiver Golden Tate and Packer defender M.D. Jennings both jumped up to try to catch it. The two both maintained possession as they crashed to the ground, and it appeared that Jennings had intercepted the pass. Two of the referees conferred briefly, then simultaneously gave different signals – one signaling touchdown and the other a touchback, which would have been the call that resulted from the interception. The head official went to the replay booth to settle the situation. In the meantime, television replays clearly showed Tate shoving the Green Bay defender with both hands as the ball arrived, an obvious offensive pass interference penalty that all the officials missed. As the Monday Night analyst, Jon Gruden, railed against the missed call and said he felt the ball had been intercepted, the replay ref returned and called the play a touchdown, giving the Seahawks a controversial win in a game that would instantly be dubbed the “Fail Mary” game, a takeoff on the old “Hail Mary” play. Other media pundits began calling the final play the “Inaccurate Reception”, a comical version of Franco Harris’ famous “Immaculate Reception” play of yesteryear. Being in the social media age, the internet exploded with negative comments about the outcome, and not just from Green Bay’s disgruntled fan base. President Obama called the ending “terrible” and called on the NFL to settle the lockout. Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers took another approach, he apologized to the fans, commenting that the NFL is a multi-billion dollar industry and that the games were not being supported by competent, professional officiating by using the replacements, therefore diluting the quality of play. Incidentally, the amateur refs, in this game, called a total of 24 penalties for 245 yards, more than Seattle’s 238 total yards gained for the entire game. One positive did come out of this mess. Commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners ended the referee lockout two days after the game. The NFL’s full-time officials are often guilty of “over-officiating” and taking advantage of all the camera face time to make themselves “celebrities”, but on this night the league learned their true value in the long run.

The “Fail Mary” play ending the game and the replacement officials’ term

It’s the best time of the year for Ray On Sports, the beginning of another NFL season. That means the start of another season’s worth of Throwback Thursday posts, featuring games of the past played between franchises who are slated to play that week on the NFL schedule. This is the 50th Anniversary of the Super Bowl, so some of the throwback posts will be about past Super Bowl matchups, including this week’s. The Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins meet on opening day this year, recalling a classic Super Bowl matchup from over forty years ago.

Super Bowl VII wasn’t the most exciting game ever played, but it was one of the most historic. When the Miami Dolphins held off the Washington Redskins to win the game 14-7, it capped off the first undefeated season accomplished by a team in NFL history, as Miami finished a perfect 17-0 to claim the NFL title. The accomplishment still stands alone today, although the New England Patriots managed to go 18-0 in 2007 before being upset in the Super Bowl by the New York Giants to thwart their dreams of perfection. The game not only made history, it provided vindication for Dolphin coach Don Shula, who was on the losing end of one of the biggest upsets in sports history a few years earlier as his heavily favored Baltimore Colts were stunned by the upstart New York Jets in Super Bowl III. The game was typical of the Dolphins’ season – the score wasn’t very one-sided, yet the game was pretty much dominated by Miami’s “No-Name” defense and powerful running game. Miami’s starting quarterback, Bob Griese, had returned from an almost season long injury the previous game, in the AFC Championship, to rally his club over Pittsburgh to the win that vaulted them into the Super Bowl. Griese had been sidelined since the fifth game of the season, and old veteran Earl Morrall, who came to Miami after playing for Shula in Baltimore, took over the reins and brilliantly guided the club to this point, keeping the undefeated record intact.

The Dolphins’ opponent was a lightly regarded squad from Washington coached by George Allen. Allen took over the Redskins a couple of years earlier following the untimely death of Vince Lombardi, and loaded up the roster with grisled veterans and castoffs from other clubs, feeling that experienced players made fewer mistakes than rookies. This patchwork roster of old-timers became known as “The Over The Hill Gang” and was a sentimental favorite among fans to win the game. Even the nation’s president at the time, Richard Nixon, got caught up in the hype of the nation’s capital’s team, suggesting plays to Allen to use in the game. Miami’s methodical offense worked their game plan to perfection, grinding out a long, time-consuming drive in the first quarter that ended with a 28 yard touchdown pass from Griese to Howard Twilley. Then in the second quarter, the defense took command, as Nick Buoniconti thwarted a Redskin drive by intercepting a Bill Kilmer pass and returning it deep into Washington territory to set up a one yard Jim Kiick scoring run. That gave Shula’s club a 14-0 lead at halftime, and the way Miami played all year, that lead already looked insurmountable. And it was, until a little over two minutes remained in the game. Miami sent kicker Garo Yepremian out to boot a field goal to put the game completely out of reach. However, the Dolphins made an uncharacteristic mistake, botching the snap with the ball ending up in Yepremian’s hands. He made a feeble, ill-fated attempt to pass it, and Washington’s Mike Bass picked it off and returned it for a touchdown to suddenly give his team unexpected life. That play became one of the NFL’s most famous “bloopers” and basically took on a life of it’s own.  Disaster was averted, however, and Shula’s Dolphins completed their unbeaten run.

Garo Yepremian’s errant Super Bowl pass

Pro football, more than any of the other major sports, has a rich history of folklore that incudes many team and tandem nicknames. It was really hard cutting this list down to only ten, and some of the “honorable mention” names that didn’t make the list are well known ones, like Miami’s “No Name Defense”,  the self-proclaimed Dallas Cowboys’ “America’s Team”, a current one – Seattle’s “Legion of Boom” secondary, the  “Big Blue Wrecking Crew” of the New York Giants of the Lawrence Taylor era, San Diego’s prolific “Air Coryell” offense, and the “Bull Elephant Backfield” of the 1950s Los Angeles Rams. Here are the ten that made the cut:

1. Purple People Eaters – this nickname is sometimes used to describe the entire 11-man unit of the dominant 1960s and ’70s Minnesota Vikings’ defensive units, but is really the nickname of the team’s front four, which included Gary Larsen, a pair of Hall of Famers in Alan Page and Carl Eller, and a Viking legend who belongs in Canton in Jim Marshall. The nickname stuck into the mid-70s, when Doug Sutherland replaced Larsen.

2. The Steel Curtain – this nickname was given to the dominant Pittsburgh Steeler defensive units of the 1970s that helped the franchise win four Super Bowls. Anchored by legends like Mean Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, L.C. Greenwood, Jack Ham, Mel Blount and Donnie Shell, the Steelers dominated the decade under coach Chuck Noll with a hard-nosed in your face style of play.

3. Fearsome Foursome – the Los Angeles Rams’ front four of the 1960s earned this nickname. The line consisted of four hard-working players intent on getting after the quarterback – Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen, Rosey Grier and Lamar Lundy. Jones, in fact, pretty much invented the term “sack”, which is an official stat in pro football today. Grier was eventually replaced on the line by Roger Brown, but the unit kept the nickname throughout the decade.

4. Million Dollar Backfield – this unit, consisting of four Hall of Famers, was the San Francisco 49ers starting backfield of the 1950s. In an era when the running game dominated, this backfield included quarterback Y.A. Tittle and three running backs – Hugh McElhenny, Joe Perry and John Henry Johnson. Later in the decade, Tittle remained as the QB, but the trio of backs were replaced by J.D. Smith, R.C. Owens and C.R. Roberts and became known as the “All Alphabet Backfield”.

5. Doomsday Defense – this nickname was given to the swarming, dominant defense of coach Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys of the 1960s and ’70s. The nickname stuck with two different Dallas defensive units – the 1960s version featuring players like Chuck Howley, Bob Lilly, Jethro Pugh, Lee Roy Jordan, Cornell Green and Mel Renfro, and a later 1970s club that included Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Randy White, Harvey Martin, Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson, Cliff Harris and Charlie Waters. Both versions produced Super Bowl titles for Landry.

6. The Electric Company – the Buffalo Bills’ offensive line of the 1970s that opened holes for O.J. Simpson was tagged with this nickname, as they “turned on The Juice”. They were responsible for Simpson breaking the 2,000 yard barrier in 1973, breaking Jim Brown’s single season rushing yardage record. The unit included center Mike Montler, guards Reggie McKenzie and Joe DeLamielleure, tackles Dave Foley and Donnie Green and tight end Paul Seymour.

7. Greatest Show on Turf – guided by former Arena League quarterback Kurt Warner, the 1999 St. Louis Rams developed into an explosive offensive unit that surprisingly won the Super Bowl and earned this nickname. The team remained an offensive powerhouse the following 2 seasons also, as offensive coordinator Mike Martz was promoted to head coach. Stars of those teams included not only Warner but Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, Az Hakim and Ricky Proehl.

8. Monsters of The Midway – like Dallas’ “America’s Team” handle, this nickname is used to signify any and all Chicago Bear teams. It was especially fitting for coach George Halas’s championship clubs in the early years, and definitely fit the 1985 championship “Super Bowl Shuffle” Bears’ team coached by Mike Ditka, who along with rugged legends like Dick Butkus, Doug Atkins, Joe Fortunato, Mike Singletary and Brian Urlacher embodied the Bears’ style of play.

9. Orange Crush – this nickname was coined by a Denver sportswriter for the 1970s Bronco defense, specifically the 1977 club that reached the Super Bowl. Defensive coordinator Joel Collier, one of the game’s top defensive minds of all time, installed a 3-4 defense that made stars of players like Tom Jackson, Randy Gradishar, Paul Smith, Lyle Alzado, Steve Foley, Rubin Carter and Barney Chavous.

10. The Over The Hill Gang – Washington Redskins’ coach George Allen had a soft spot for veteran players, and despised having to use rookies due to their penchant for making mistakes. When he built the early 1970s Washington teams, he loaded the roster with veteran retreads like Ron McDole, Myron Pottios, Bill Kilmer, Richie Petitbon, Maxie Baughan, Jack Pardee, Verlon Biggs, Roy Jefferson and Boyd Dowler. When the team started to play well and win games, they were given this nickname. Allen even guided the crusty veteran team into the 1972 Super Bowl, where they lost to the undefeated Miami Dolphins.