Logo of a pro football team that played in the old NFL Europe league, the Rhein Fire. Based in Dusseldorf, Germany, they were one of the league’s most successful franchises, reaching the World Bowl championship 5 times and winning twice. Some of their notable players included Fred Jackson, Gino Torretta, James Harrison, Drew Henson, Danny Wuerffel, Nick Ferguson and actor Terry Crews.
2012 Score football card of former pro quarterback Andrew Luck, who played 7 seasons in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts before abruptly retiring due to recurring injuries. He was a four-time Pro Bowler in those 7 seasons and led the league in passing touchdowns in 2014. Luck is currently serving in an administrative capacity as general manager for football at his alma mater, Stanford. His father Oliver also played quarterback in the NFL, and served in many front office roles in the game, including commissioner of the XFL for 3 years.
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
Logo of a college football team that plays in the Sooner Athletic Conference, the Langston University Lions. A historically black college, Langston plays at the NAIA level. The school has an impressive list of players who have enjoyed careers in pro football, including Chad Johnson, Maurice Bassett, Matthew Hatchette, Thomas Henderson, Gene Howard, Ken Payne and Odell Lawson.
1984 Topps football card, from the mullet era, of former pro placekicker Morten Andersen, who amazingly lasted 25 years in the NFL, kicking for 5 different teams. Born in Denmark, he was a 6 time All Pro and 7 time Pro Bowler, a 2 time winner of the Golden Toe Award as the NFL’s best kicker, and was named to the league’s All Decade teams for both the 1980s and 1990s. He currently co-hosts a football podcast with the Vegas Insider Podcast Network. Andersen was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017, only the second kicker to receive that honor.
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
Not a team logo, but with Thanksgiving being this week we’ll feature a logo dedicated to the man associated with Thanksgiving NFL football, John Madden. Following up a successful Hall of Fame coaching career with the Oakland Raiders, he transitioned to a broadcasting career with CBS and Fox, partnering with Pat Summerall. Madden was almost the main attraction of some of the games, awarding star players with turkey legs afterwards and introducing America to the turducken, a Thanksgiving feast that was a duck inside a chicken inside a turkey.
2003 Bowman Chrome football card of former pro quarterback Tony Romo, who joined the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent and carved out a 13 year career as the team’s field general. He was a four-time Pro Bowler and led the Cowboys to 4 postseason appearances, although postseason success evaded him. Romo still holds some of the team’s passing records. He retired after the 2016 season and entered broadcasting, where he is currently the lead color analyst for CBS NFL games.
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
Used from 1976 until 1981, this is a vintage logo of a college football team that resides in the Mountain West Conference, the Fresno State Bulldogs. They played their initial season in 1921 and have amassed 29 conference championships while bouncing between 6 different leagues. The Bulldogs will move again in 2026, to the Pac 12. The list of Fresno alumni who have played pro football is long, and includes James Williams, Ryan Wendell, Davante Adams, Omar Stoutmire, Michael Stewart, Bryan Robinson, James Sanders, Steven Baker, Sonny Bishop, Derek Carr, David Carr, Aaron Craver, Henry Ellard, Trent Dilfer, David Grayson, Logan Mankins, Richard Marshall, Lorenzo Neal, Stephone Paige, Michael Pittman, Bear Pascoe and Marquez Pope.