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It’s the last week of the NFL’s 18 game regular season schedule, and the final Throwback Thursday post for the 2024 season. With the Buffalo Bills facing the New England Patriots on the docket, we’ve chosen a “playoff” game from 1963 between these 2 clubs as our feature for the week. At the time in the AFL there weren’t any playoff games other than the league championship, but this contest was necessitated by the fact that the 2 teams tied for the Eastern Division lead with 7-6-1 records. Played on a snowy field at Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium on a cold wintry December 28, 1963, it wasn’t much of a contest as the visiting Patriots earned a 26-8 victory. Also, the story of this game for me is that I didn’t get to see it, since I was in a school Christmas play that day at the Catholic elementary school I attended back then.

I was 10 years old at the time, and what I remember is that each class would put on a short performance, either singing Christmas songs or doing short skits. The nun in charge of our class decided to have us act out nursery rhymes, and I got the dubious role of playing Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. I don’t remember if I had lines or if another classmate read the rhyme as I acted it out but my part involved pulling a wagon decorated to look like a pumpkin holding my wife’s hand, and then giving her a quick smooch before depositing her into the pumpkin. Of course this was a source of great laughter for the other boys in my class. The girl who played my wife was a shy classmate who we boys made fun of because of her long jet black hair. We had cruelly nicknamed her “Tarpit”. I guess we were typical insecure brats back then who did things like that, but this is just another example of why I say that if time travel is ever made possible in my lifetime I would surely go back in time and beat the crap out of little me. The shy little girl got her revenge eventually. Although she is now deceased, she grew up to be an absolutely gorgeous woman. Rest in peace, Mary Jane, I’m sure you were a beautiful person inside and out.

Ok, back to the actual game. After my part in the play was complete, I was allowed to go sit with the audience and watch the rest of the performances. What I found out when I sat down was that there were a number of small transistor radios among the parents tuned into the game. It wasn’t a very happy audience, as the Patriots dominated the first half. Gino Cappelletti booted 3 field goals and the star of the game, Boston halfback Larry Garron, grabbed a Babe Parilli pass and raced 59 yards for a touchdown, giving his team a 16-0 lead at the break. We didn’t have much in the way of music classes back then, but one of my classmates, Norm Skiba, was a talented drummer, and he did a drum solo performance which was excellent, but the ovation he got when he finished was more than he probably would’ve gotten if it wasn’t perfectly timed with a Daryle Lamonica to Elbert Dubenion Buffalo touchdown pass of 93 yards which, coupled with a successful 2 point conversion, cut the Bills’ deficit to 16-8. Unfortunately that was all the Bills could manage. Parilli and Garron connected again on a 17 yard scoring throw, and Cappelletti added another three pointer to account for the final 26-8 score. The win gave the Patriots the Eastern Division crown, and the right to get slaughtered in the AFL title game the following week by the clearly superior San Diego Chargers 51-10.

Pats’ Larry Garron high-steps Bills’ defender (UPI Photo)

The Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants battle on this week’s schedule of NFL games, and we’ll highlight a matchup of these 2 old franchises for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature. It was the 1959 NFL Championship. A rematch of the ’58 title game, won by the Colts in the first sudden death contest in league history that has been labeled “The Greatest Game Ever Played”. Would this contest provide the same dramatics?

It was played on December 27, 1959 at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, and to say it was decided in the final quarter would be an understatement. The Colts were defending champions, of course, but the Giants were also a proud franchise, having won the title as recently as the 1956 season and reaching the championship for the second year in a row. The biggest fireworks of the early part of this contest came in the first quarter on a 60 yard touchdown hookup from the Colts’ John Unitas to Lenny Moore. The rest of the first 3 quarters were a defensive battle, with New York managing a Pat Summerall field goal in each quarter to fashion a slight 9-7 lead going into the fourth. Finally, Unitas, who had basically invented the “2 minute drill” in the previous year’s title game, began to solve the Giants’ defense and engineered a pair of scoring drives to break open the close game. He finished one by scrambling 4 yards to paydirt on his own, then threw a 12 yard touchdown pass to split end and future Carolina Panthers’ owner Jerry Richardson for the second one as Baltimore gained a 28-9 lead. Kicker Steve Myhra added a field goal to total, while New York finally found the end zone late in the game as QB Charlie Conerly tossed 32 yards to Bob Schnelker to provide the final score of 31-16, giving Unitas and the Colts their second straight championship.

It was Deja Vu for the Big Blue, and part of a frustrating stretch of years for the Giants. After winning the ’56 title and faltering in 1957, they reached the league’s final game 4 more times in the next 5 years, only to lose all 4 games. After coach Weeb Ewbank’s Colts and Unitas defeated them twice, they ran into Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers in 1961 and ’62 and absorbed 2 more losses.

Colts’ Unitas scans the field

Week 16 of the 2024 NFL schedule finds 2 old league rivals, the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions, meeting with the clubs going in opposite directions. The Lions are quite possibly the best team in the league, while the Bears are struggling with a rookie quarterback and have already fired their head coach. Circumstances were different, but not completely, when this week’s featured Throwback Thursday game was played between the 2 teams. It was on November 11, 1951 at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, and the Bears, a powerhouse at the time, had won 5 of their first 6 games. Detroit was a good team looking for respect, sporting a 3-2-1 mark. However, the Bears ruled the series between the clubs, having beaten the Lions 11 consecutive times.

This record didn’t sit well with one Lion player in particular – their extremely competitive quarterback Bobby Layne. Layne’s 26 yard touchdown pass to Dorne Dibble gave the Lions a 7-0 first quarter lead. The Bears squared the score with a 54 yard Steve Romanik to John Hoffman pass to open the second stanza, but Layne caught fire for the rest of the half. He led a trio of scoring drives, first managing a short Doak Walker field goal, then finding Leon Hart, along with Dibble his favorite target of the day, on scoring throws of 17 and 9 yards. Detroit’s second quarter surge left them with a 24-7 halftime advantage.

Chicago switched to Johnny Lujack at quarterback in the second half, and he delivered the first score of the half when he tossed a 10 yard touchdown pass to Gene Shroeder. The Lions kept the heat on, however, upping their lead to 31-14 when Pat Harder rushed 3 yards to paydirt to close out the third period. Determined to continue their dominance over their Western Division rivals, the Bears scored next with a Lujack 7 yard pass to Jim Keane, but the Lions, just as determined to break the losing streak to George Halas’ forces, kept up the fight. Layne and Harder supplied the needed push. A Layne to Harder 15 yard touchdown pass and a Harder field goal completed Detroit’s scoring, giving them a comfortable 41-21 lead. Chicago’s George Gulyanics scored from 4 yards out to make the final margin 41-28, but Layne and the Lions finally earned a victory over the Bears after 11 unsuccessful tries. Detroit managed to surpass the Bears in the final standings for the ’51 season with a 7-4-1 record to Chicago’s 7-5. Unfortunately they still fell short of the Western Division crown to the Los Angeles Rams, who finished 8-4.

Detroit’s feisty QB Bobby Layne

The Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts clash on this week’s NFL slate of games, and for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature we will revisit a game played between these 2 AFC rivals on January 11, 2015. It was a divisional round playoff contest, and Denver’s Mile High Stadium was it’s location. The story line of this game was the clash of quarterbacks. Peyton Manning meeting his former team, now led by brash young gunslinger Andrew Luck.

Manning got the party started by leading a first quarter drive that ended with a 1 yard touchdown toss to Demaryius Thomas. The Colts fought back to take the lead 14-7 in the second quarter with touchdowns from Dan Herron on a 6 yard run and Dwayne Allen on a 3 yard pass from Luck. Denver’s Connor Barth cut that lead to 14-10 with a 45 yard field goal in the waning seconds of the half. The Indy defense clamped down on Manning in the second half, and upped their lead to 21-10 with the only score of the third quarter, a 15 yard Luck to Hakeem Nicks touchdown pass. Manning’s frustrations continued throughout the remainder of the game, and the only scoring the Broncos could muster was another Barth field goal. Adam Vinatieri matched that for the Colts, and that was all the scoring they needed to secure a 24-13 win and a trip to the AFC Championship game the following week, where the mighty New England Patriots awaited them.

The loss by Manning robbed  America of another classic battle between him and the Patriots’ Tom Brady. Instead it was Luck who got the privilege. Typically, Luck ran out of luck as he and the Colts were schooled by Brady and Bill Belichick in a 45-7 rout in the title game.

Dejected Peyton Manning after playoff loss to Colts

The NFL season is moving along quickly, entering week 14 already. This week, we honed in on a matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons, who meet on this week’s schedule, to find a game to highlight for Throwback Thursday. It was the NFC Championship game for the 1998 season, played on January 7, 1999. It was a fairy tale regular season for coach Dennis Green’s Vikings, who were near perfect in finishing 15-1. Atlanta wasn’t far behind at 14-2, so that made for an evenly-matched contest in the title game. The first quarter was a wash as both teams scored, the Falcons on a short 5 yard pass from Chris Chandler to back Jamal Anderson, and the Vikings on a 31 yard Randall Cunningham to Randy Moss throw.

Minnesota, behind their raucous home crowd at the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome, took over the game in the second stanza. Gary Anderson sandwiched field goals around a 1 yard Cunningham QB sneak to pull ahead 20-7. Atlanta salvaged the period by cobbling together a drive that ended with Chandler finding Terance Mathis for a 14 yard score with 59 seconds left, shortening the deficit to 20-14. Morten Andersen, Atlanta’s kicker, provided the only third quarter scoring with a field goal, but in the final quarter Cunningham widened his team’s lead to 27-17 with a touchdown pass of 5 yards to Matthew Hatchette. Morten Andersen kicked another field goal to keep the game close, but with just a few minutes remaining, the Vikings had a chance to salt the game away when Gary Anderson entered to attempt a 38 yard field goal. Anderson had been perfect on every one of his three point tries in ’98, so this seemed to be a lock.

Of course Anderson missed the kick. This fueled the Falcons to drive to a tying touchdown with 57 seconds left on another Chandler to Mathis pass of 16 yards, almost mirroring the TD they scored with less than a minute left in the first half. The touchdown sent the game into overtime, where, after failed possessions by both teams, Morten Andersen booted a 38 yard field goal to send Atlanta on to the Super Bowl. A huge disappointing end and a lost opportunity for Minnesota, a franchise that bears the burden of also losing the Super Bowl 4 different times.

Gary Anderson watches his missed field goal

The Dallas Cowboys versus the New York Giants. A classic NFC East matchup that will be renewed this weekend on the NFL schedule. This week for our Throwback Thursday feature, we’ll go back almost exactly 10 years, to a prime time Sunday night battle played on November 23, 2014, between these 2 clubs. They entered the contest at opposite ends of the spectrum, the Cowboys at 7-3 for the year and the Giants at 3-7. It turned out to be a tale of 2 halves, as the Giants took control of the game early while Dallas rallied in the second half to assume command. Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning, a Hall of Fame candidate for 2025, got his team on the board with a drive that ended in a short 3 yard touchdown pass to his rookie wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who was on his way to being named the Offensive Rookie Of The Year. The Cowboys countered with a Dan Bailey field goal that would turn out to be the difference in the game. It was Manning to OBJ again to start the second quarter, on a 43 yard TD throw, and the Giants now led 14-3. The half continued with the teams trading scores, Dallas cutting the lead to 14-10 when Tony Romo hit his tight end Jason Witten with a 4 yard touchdown toss and New York getting a 3 yard TD run from Andre Williams.

Romo came out with guns blazing in the second half and quickly engineered his club into the lead at 24-21 with a pair of scoring throws, 45 yards to reliable target Cole Beasley and 31 yards to Dez Bryant. Manning’s short touchdown pass to Adrien Robinson got the Giants the lead back in the fourth quarter, but Romo finished off the scoring by hitting Bryant for a 13 yard score, giving Dallas a 31-28 victory. Running back DeMarco Murray was an unsung hero for the Cowboys as he contributed a solid running game with 121 yards on 24 carries to complement Romo’s 4 touchdown passes. Despite the loss, New York gained the national spotlight with the play of the game, an amazing one-handed touchdown catch by Beckham Jr. that some pundits called the greatest catch of all time. Indeed it was what old time sportswriters would’ve called a “circus” catch. Today’s receivers, somewhat aided by modern gloves, seem to make these types of grabs routinely, but OBJ was definitely the pioneer at it. He has maintained a career in the league, with it’s share of ups and downs, and is still active today with the Miami Dolphins.

Odell Beckham Jr.’s “circus” catch

Two NFL rivals who have battled each other over the decades, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns, face off on the week 12 schedule, and our featured Throwback Thursday contest, played between these clubs on September 10, 1989, was an anomaly as far as the way most games went when these AFC rivals met. It was opening day of the ’89 season and Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium was rocking, expecting coach Chuck Noll’s forces to start the year with a big win over the Browns. The game marked the head coaching debut for Cleveland of Noll’s former defensive coordinator, Bud Carson, who had been part of 2 Steeler Super Bowl wins under Noll in the 1970s.

One thing about this late ’80s version of the Steelers – they were not the Mean Joe Greene Steel Curtain, Terry Bradshaw-led club of the previous decade. The quarterback to begin this season was one Bubby Brister, who would never be mistaken for the Blonde Bomber. The Browns’ defense feasted on Pittsburgh miscues all day long. They began the game jumping out to a 17-0 first quarter lead, with a Matt Bahr field goal sandwiched between 2 defensive touchdowns scored on fumble returns by linebackers Clay Matthews and David Grayson. The onslaught continued in the second quarter as Bahr added a pair of field goals and Tim Manoa scored on a 3 yard TD run, giving Cleveland a commanding 30-0 lead at the break.

There was no letup in the second half, either. Manoa scored again on a short run, Grayson scored his second defensive touchdown of the day with a 14 yard interception return, and Mike Oliphant rambled 21 yards for the final tally. When the dust settled, the Browns had garnered a shocking 51-0 victory. The statistics didn’t lie as far as how one-sided the contest was. The Steelers turned the ball over 8 times. Brister threw 3 interceptions and was sacked 6 times. First round draft pick Tim Worley contributed 3 fumbles in his rookie debut. In all the Pittsburgh offense could only muster 53 total yards, while the Browns gained 357. No single Cleveland player collected big numbers on the day, but there were plenty of contributors, as the Browns also possessed the ball for almost 41 of the game’s 60 minutes. That’s pretty easy to do when your opponent hands you the ball 8 extra times in a game. The game was not only the worst loss in Noll’s tenure, but at that point was the worst defeat in the franchise’s 57 year history, which is saying a lot since the team didn’t have much success until Noll arrived in the ’70s.

Pittsburgh head coach Chuck Noll

It was perhaps the most important game in pro football history – Super Bowl III in Miami between the AFL’s New York Jets and NFL powerhouse Baltimore Colts, and with those 2 clubs meeting on this week’s schedule, it is an obvious pick to be chosen as this week’s throwback feature. I have featured this game in other posts regarding past Super Bowls, usually during the week of the ultimate title game, but to my actual surprise, have never given it the TBT treatment. The story of this game is pro football legend today, and the reason is because of a brash young quarterback who stood the sport on it’s collective ear.

To set up the story, let’s look at the games that got the 2 teams to this contest. The Colts were an NFL behemoth in the ’68 season. They had run roughshod through the league and finished 13-1, including running off 8 consecutive wins to finish the regular season after their lone loss, 30-20, to the Cleveland Browns. After dispatching Minnesota in the divisional playoff, they found themselves facing the Browns again in the title game.  This time, they dismantled Cleveland 34-0 and after the result of the AFL championship was decided, sportswriters and analysts everywhere predicted that the “Super Bowl” would be a laugher. In that AFL game, the underdog New York Jets, guided by the passing of their stellar quarterback Joe Namath, rallied in the final quarter to upset the previous year’s champs, the Oakland Raiders, 27-23. Oakland had beaten the Jets 43-32 earlier that year in the infamous “Heidi” game and were favored for a repeat trip to the Super Bowl.

So after 2 resounding victories for Vince Lombardi’s Packers, the third big game was expected to be even more of a one-sided rout, since it was a match between an NFL juggernaut and a club that wasn’t even seen as the best the AFL had to offer. This was reflected in the pre-game betting odds, with the Colts being installed as anywhere from 18 to 23 point favorites. Sportswriters and pundits spent the week ridiculing the Jets, and finally Namath, fed up with it all, stopped the sports world in it’s tracks when he boldly stated “We’re a better team than Baltimore. We’re going to win the game. I guarantee it.” Of course this set off a media feeding frenzy and the ridicule got even louder and more boisterous. Namath in particular, who at the time was disliked by the buttoned-up, conservative media for his unconventional look, (his white shoes, wearing a mink coat on the sidelines while injured, etc.) and his supposed wild lifestyle, took the brunt of the jokes and insults.

Then there was the actual game. Namath wasn’t particularly great, but he engineered a surgical attack mixing the run and the pass to befuddle the Baltimore defense. Running back Matt Snell, who was the unsung hero for the Jets, continually exposed a weakness on the Colts’ left side and scored the game’s first touchdown on a 4 yard run, and did yeoman’s work for the game with 121 yards on 30 carries. Namath used his  quick release to frustrate coach Don Shula’s Baltimore defense, connecting on short and intermediate throws to his backs and to wide receiver George Sauer, who caught 8 passes for 133 yards. Namath’s favorite target, future Hall of Famer Don Maynard, did not catch a pass on the day, but Namath shrewdly used the rest of his team’s weapons to lead 3 field goal drives and build up a 16-0 lead. The Jets’ defense surprisingly shut down Colts’ MVP quarterback Earl Morrall, intercepting him 3 times, including 1 by former Colt Johnny Sample, and holding him to 6 of 17 passing for a paltry 71 yards. Shula, in a sign of desperation,  eventually benched Morrall and turned to legendary John Unitas, his aging and now often injured backup. Unitas led one scoring drive but couldn’t complete the comeback, also throwing a pick.

Matt Snell, Super Bowl III’s unsung hero

When the final gun sounded, the Jets had themselves a stunning 16-7 conquest of their personal Goliath. The win sent feelings of pride throughout the other organizations in the AFL, as their league had finally shown that they were indeed an equal force to their established big brother. The next year, in the final Super Bowl played before the 2 leagues were officially merged into one, the Kansas City Chiefs, humiliated by Lombardi’s Packers in the initial title game, defeated a favored Minnesota Viking squad to end any argument that the AFL had reached parity. Incidentally, Lombardi, the smartest man in pro football at the time, was in the stands at Super Bowl III. Beforehand, he issued a warning to the Colts about Namath, saying the Colts had better not get caught up in the press clippings and underestimate him as he was “a perfect passer”.

Super Bowl III – Namath’s shining hour