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The Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots tangle in an AFC East rivalry game this weekend on the NFL schedule, and that takes our weekly Throwback Thursday feature back to November 29, 1998, to a game with a very controversial ending. The Patriots, guided by Drew Bledsoe, had jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead in the game before the Bills rallied back behind the season’s Comeback Player of The Year, their QB and New England native Doug Flutie, to pull ahead 21-17. This set up a final Patriot drive with just under 2 minutes remaining in the game, and Bledsoe led his team down field with crisp passes, reaching the Bills’ 37 yard line. Buffalo’s defense stiffened, giving up only a single yard on three separate downs to set up a crucial fourth and nine play with only 11 seconds left on the clock. Bledsoe then fired a pass to Shawn Jefferson, who caught the ball at the sideline and was brought down. The Bills disputed that the receiver had first down yardage and was even in bounds, but the officials awarded the Pats a first down. In postgame interviews, both Flutie and receiver Andre Reed, who were standing on the sideline near where the play took place, claimed they overheard the refs say, “just give it to them.” With only six seconds now left, and the ball at Buffalo’s 26, Bledsoe threw to the end zone to Terry Glenn, and the ball bounced out of his hands. However, a controversial interference call was made on Bills’ safety Henry Jones, and with no time left on the clock, New England was awarded one more play at the one yard line. Bledsoe took advantage of the gift and hit his fine tight end, Ben Coates, in the back of the end zone for the winning score. The Bills were so incensed with the game’s ending that coach Wade Phillips took his team off the field and into the locker room prior to the extra point try, so Patriot kicker Adam Vinatieri took the snap directly and ran the ball into the end zone for a two point conversion, giving his club a 25-21 victory that left an extremely bad taste in the mouths of Buffalo players in the locker room. Flutie commented afterwards, “The refs gave them the game, so we decided we might as well give them the extra point.” It was an especially disappointing afternoon for Flutie, who was robbed of what should have been a rousing homecoming comeback win.

The Bills’ cantankerous owner, Ralph Wilson, barbecued the officials in interviews after the game and basically dared commissioner Paul Tagliabue to fine him, which he did. Of his meeting with the commissioner in the league’s New York office to decide his punishment, Wilson proclaimed, “the commissioner lecturing to me as if I were a novice, instead of one who has been involved in football infinitely longer than he has, contends that criticizing a call has ‘destructive and corrosive effects on the game’. What is more destructive and corrosive — errant calls in front of millions of viewers, or my statements of opinion? People all over the country registered shock at the way the officials, however honorable their purpose, took the game away from us. Even the league has admitted to us that the calls near the conclusion of the game were incorrect.”  Wilson added: ”I do know I don’t need pompous lectures from the commissioner and I feel that the $50,000 is not only unwarranted, but punitive in nature. The next time he may ask me to sit in the corner.” To that memory of this Throwback Thursday game, I can only say – God bless you, Mr. Wilson, and rest in peace. As the new Pegula era of Bills’ ownership begins officially this week, that’s a terrific remembrance of ol’ Ralph. He was truly one of a kind.

Patriots’ QB Drew Bledsoe

On the week five National Football League schedule is a game between two NFC clubs, the Philadelphia Eagles and St. Louis Rams. “Throwback Thursday” for this week will be a contest played on a Monday night – Monday, November 5, 1975 to be exact, between these two franchises. It was a lop-sided game played between 2 teams headed in opposite directions at the time. It was in the relatively early years of Monday Night Football, when each week’s game was a nationally televised spectacle with the broadcasting team of Frank Gifford, “Dandy” Don Meredith and Howard Cosell providing as much entertainment as the game at times. At a prior appearance in Philly in 1973, Cosell was supposedly drunk during the broadcast (he had been drinking in an attempt to stay warm) and disappeared from the broadcast booth late in the game after he apparently threw up on Meredith’s cowboy boots. The Ram franchise was still located in Los Angeles, and the team was a powerhouse in the NFL, as they wound up losing only 2 regular season games that year. The Eagles, on the other hand, were mired in a miserable year under coach Mike McCormack, and coming into this prime time clash had lost 5 of their previous 6 games. In an interview prior to the game, McCormack made a comment to the media that his roster contained “some dogs”, and the notorious Philadelphia fans came to the game loaded for bear that night. The fan base in Cleveland, nowadays, has all but copyrighted the title of “Dawg Pound” at their home games, with an end zone section of the stadium nicknamed that, as fans come dressed in dog masks and pelt the field with dog biscuits. It’s become a tradition in the city.

On this November 1975 night in Philly, however, the Eagle fan base pre-dated Cleveland with their own version of the pound, as they picked up on coach McCormack’s remarks by wearing dog masks, parading around Veteran’s Stadium carrying a giant Alpo dog bone and tossing biscuits at the team’s bench. With their home fans turning against them, the Eagles didn’t show much fight. Ram quarterback James Harris had a great night, throwing for 207 yards and 3 touchdowns, 2 of them to former Eagle Harold Jackson. Roman Gabriel, a legend when he played for the Rams in the late 1960s, had been traded to Philly for Jackson and had a terrible night, throwing 2 interceptions before backup Mike Boryla came in and threw 2 more. The Ram defense polished off the night by returning 2 of the picks for scores in the final quarter, with Fred Dryer and Isiah Robertson doing the honors. The Rams walked away with a 42-3 victory, and that type of blowout usually ended with the Monday Night broadcast team filling the airwaves with whatever nonsense they could come up with. I’m sure Cosell was his usual obnoxious self, and Dandy Don probably sang his trademark “turn out the lights, the party’s over” very early that night.

 Coach McCormack with Harold Carmichael, Roman Gabriel (photo courtesy of philly.com)

The National Football League’s week four schedule includes a match between the Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons, and so this week’s edition of Throwback Thursday returns to 1998, one of the most successful seasons in Vikings’ history. That is, right up until January 17, 1999, the date of the NFC title game that season between the Vikings and Falcons. The game was a match between the conference’s 2 best teams, with the Vikings finishing 15-1 and the Falcons 14-2. In a fact that made it perhaps a true “modern era” title game, it was the first conference championship game in NFL history played between two teams who played their home games in domed stadiums. Coach Dennis Green’s Viking squad featured a high-scoring passing attack led by quarterback Randall Cunningham throwing to his dynamic receivers – Chris Carter and Randy Moss. Their offense set an NFL record by scoring 556 points, and the team was undefeated at home. The Falcons, under coach Dan Reeves, were led by a journeyman QB, Chris Chandler, and behind young running back Jamal Anderson, were affectionately known to their fans as the “Dirty Birds”, after a winged touchdown dance the players did when they scored. The Vikings had been so dominant that year, with 10 Pro Bowlers on their roster and having won their home games by an average of 23 points, that Atlanta came into the title game as 11-point underdogs despite losing only twice all season.   It turned out to be one of the league’s most exciting title games of all time, as Minnesota, as expected, jumped out to an early lead only to see the Falcons rally to overcome a 13 point deficit. Still, the Vikings pulled ahead 27-20 and drove into field goal position with the chance to go ahead by a pretty much insurmountable 10 points. Old pro Gary Anderson was the Vikings’ kicker, and had completed a “perfect” regular season, having made all his extra point and field goal attempts. However, he sent a 38 yard attempt wide left, his first miss of the year, leaving an opening for Atlanta with just over 2 minutes left. Chandler drove his club down the field and hit Terance Mathis on a 16 yard TD pass to tie the game and send it into overtime.   The teams traded punts in the extra session before Atlanta’s kicker,Morten Andersen, another seasoned vet, hit the game winning field goal from 38 yards to send the underdog Falcons on to the Super Bowl. Chandler’s performance was memorable, as he threw for 340 yards and 3 touchdowns while limping around on an injured ankle. It was an unfortunate ending to a sensational season for the Vikings, but it should be noted that they lost 5 starters to injury during the game. The bottom line was that the franchise that had four Super Bowl losses on its’ resume, this time found a way to come up short in the conference championship, with probably the most talented roster in team history.

Falcons’ kicker Morten Andersen celebrates his game-winning kick (photo courtesy of petemyersrules.com)

The Kansas City Chiefs meet the Miami Dolphins in one of the week 3 matchups on the NFL schedule, and that will make the “Throwback Thursday” feature for this week a game played between these two franchises on Christmas Day, December 25, 1971, that became the longest game played in league history. The game was played in the era prior to regular season overtime being implemented, but because it was a playoff game it had to be played until a winner was determined, and wound up going into double overtime. The Chiefs, under coach Hank Stram, had won the Super Bowl 2 seasons earlier, having shocked the Minnesota Vikings to give the upstart AFL their second straight title before the merger took full effect and the AFL was dissolved. It was the last game played at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, as the Chiefs would move into their new home, Arrowhead Stadium, the following year. Both coaches, Stram and Miami’s Don Shula, would go on to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as would 12 other players involved in the game. The game was a see-saw affair, as K.C. jumped out to a 10-0 lead, only to see the Dolphins come back to tie. The teams traded scores and Chief quarterback Len Dawson then engineered a classic 91 yard scoring drive, with unsung back Ed Podolak supplying much of the yardage and capping off the drive with a three yard TD run. Miami’s Bob Griese then matched Dawson by guiding the Fish to a tying score, hitting tight end Marv Fleming with a short touchdown pass to cap it off. When Podolak returned the ensuing kickoff 78 yards to the Dolphins 22 yard line, it looked like the Chiefs were a lock to win, especially since their field goal kicker was Jan Stenerud, arguably the best kicker of the era and still the only pure placekicker to make it into the Hall of Fame. Stenerud, however, sent his game-winning 31 yard attempt sailing wide right, and suffered his own personal Scott Norwood moment 20 years before the Bills’ kicker’s failed attempt. The game then went on long into the night, before the Dolphins’ Garo Yepremian finally won it with a field goal after 82 minutes and 40 seconds of playing time. It became the longest game in pro football history, surpassing the 1962 AFL title game between the Houston Oilers and Dallas Texans. The Texans won that game, and ironically the coach and quarterback of that Texan team were Stram and Dawson, as the Chiefs began their AFL lives in Dallas as the Texans before moving to Kansas City.

Podolak had a game for the ages in a losing cause for the Chiefs. He rushed for 85 yards on 17 carries, caught 8 passes for another 110 yards, returned 3 kickoffs for an amazing 153 yards, and with an additional few yards on punt returns, set an NFL record with 350 all-purpose yards in a single game, a mark that still stands today, some 40+ years later. Miami fullback Larry Csonka was quoted as saying afterwards that the game was going to be played until “somebody won, or died.” The win was the first playoff victory in Miami franchise history, and they would go on to advance to the Super Bowl, where they lost to Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys.

 Chiefs’ LB Willie Lanier takes on Miami FB Larry Csonka (photo courtesy of Spokeo.com)

This week’s Throwback Thursday featured story was an easy one to pick, once I saw that the Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers were scheduled to meet. That matchup immediately brought me back to a game etched in the memory of any NFL fan who followed the game in the 1960s. It happened on a muddy field, on December 12, 1965, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, where the Bears played their home games at that time. The Bears had three first round draft picks in the college draft of 1965, and two of their choices, linebacker Dick Butkus and halfback Gale Sayers, were destined to become Hall of Famers. On this particular day, Sayers put an exclamation point on a sensational, record-breaking rookie season, scoring six touchdowns to lead his team to a 61-20 rout of the 49ers. My apologies to the San Francisco franchise, since I’ve now started this year’s “Throwback Thursday” posts by featuring two of the most crushing losses in the team’s history, but this game was memorable. Sayers was spectacular, scoring four rushing TDs, from 1, 7, 21 and 50 yards out, on an 80 yard pass from quarterback Rudy Bukich, and also on an 85 yard punt return. His record-breaking day overshadowed a terrific performance by Bukich, who threw for 347 yards (a huge single-game amount in the NFL of the 1960s) and three TDs on only 16 completions. Sayers would end the 1965 season with an NFL rookie record 22 touchdowns, and although knee injuries shortened his brilliant career, he still managed to do enough in the six seasons he played to become the youngest player ever inducted into Canton when he was voted in, in his first year of eligibility in 1977.  Having played his college ball at Kansas, Sayers would come to be known, as his career progressed, as the “Kansas Comet”, a moniker that described his speed and ability to elude defenders, but having only played full time for a little under five seasons, it might also be fitting to say that, like a comet, he flashed across the NFL landscape for a short period, yet his likes will never be seen again.

Bears RB Gale Sayers torments the 49er defense