Tag Archives: NFL History

SUPER BOWL XII CHAMPION 1977 DALLAS COWBOYS

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Super Bowl XII, Cowboys 27-10 over the Denver Broncos…very painful game…didn’t get to watch it…long story …and LIVED in Denver at the time…I’m still upset at my Mom for that!! TV with a blown picture tube and couldn’t go to a friend’s house to watch th……sigh…deep breaths Jef. Remember how many of us played this game over and over on electric football?

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This team was known for several firsts:

  • The 2nd Super Bowl champion to finish #1 offensively and defensively. *Updated as the ’72 Dolphins were 1st.*
  • The first Super Bowl where the participants faced each other during the season.
  • Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett were the first pair of Heisman winners in the backfield of an NFL champion.
  • The Cowboys were the first dome team to win a Super Bowl. Lets face it… Dallas played in a dome with a hole in the roof. It was a cheap way to not have air conditioning at Texas Stadium.
  • It was the first time since the AFL NFL merger where a quarterback faced his former team in the championship game (Craig Morton)
  • Super Bowl XII was the first played in a dome. The first NFL championship game played indoors was actually 1934.

Everyone talks about Dallas and the great train heist that was the Herschel Walker trade… what about the deal to get Tony Dorsett??Seattle traded their #1 pick to Dallas for several picks in 1977. The Cowboys landed Tony D. and Seattle got some substitute teachers and their cars washed. Overnight the Cowboys returned to the league’s elite because they were down in 1974 where they missed the playoffs. Dorsett became the anchor for the Cowboys rushing for 1,000 yards in 8 of the next 9 seasons.

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This game ruined the legacy of the Orange Crush defense because they were special…after 7 turnovers they still only gave up 27 points.

*How did Butch Johnson’s touchdown not be ruled an incomplete pass?*

 

Enough of that Cowboy haterism….Did you know that this was the only Super Bowl champion to finish the season #1 on offense and #1 on defense in the same year?? To say that the Dallas Cowboys weren’t the best team in football is to deny what was Tom Landry’s best team ever. Pittsburgh was run over in Denver in the 1977 AFC Divisional playoff 34-21, so Steeler fans you gotta stay quiet with this one and they got handled in that game. Randy White, Ed “Too Tall” Jones mixed in with Larry Cole and Harvey Martin were the sickest pass rush in football. Unofficially Martin recorded 26 sacks in just 14 games.

Yet this team had a supernova at OLB with “Hollywood” Henderson. He was easily the fastest linebacker in football blitzing or covering speedy backs on flares and seem routes. He blanketed from sideline to sideline with an athleticism that would come to define the position over the next decade. He flashed everywhere on the football field.

In ’77 he was a defensive anomaly that struck with lethal scores from long distances. Illustrated by his 79 yard pick six against Tampa and returning kicks for TDs on reverses. He was the emerging star on a defense that grew from the “Dirty Dozen” 1975 NFL Draft. This was the year Landry had 12 rookies that now were 3rd year veterans in their physical prime.

Hollywood years later showing off his XII ring to a kid wh was pulling for Denver. LOL

Drew Pearson was in his 5th, while rookie Tony Hill was doing his thing at receiver spelling Golden Richards. Coupled with Hall of Famers: Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett at RB…they made you hate them with their air of invincibility if you weren’t a Cowboy fan. It was at this point when NFL Films dubbed them “America’s Team” that has stuck to this day…whether or not it bothered you or other players and teams. For one year this was about as powerful a champion as you can find.

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Sour grapes? Maybe but Dallas’ pass rush was ridiculous. Craig Morton should have been the MVP for all the Halloween candy he passed out in interceptions that day. Yet Randy White and the late Harvey Martin earned the honor of the only Co-MVPs in Super Bowl history. Amazingly that gave the Cowboys 2 Super Bowl MVPs wearing the number 54 (Chuck Howley in V). We should have seen the loss coming, for both teams had identical 12-2 records and Dallas beat Denver in the last game of the regular season. So you couldn’t say it was a fluke.

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Dallas’ 2nd best team of the 70’s was the team that lost in the chance to repeat in Super Bowl XIII to the Steelers, but this team in 1977, was solid at every position, and spectacular at others, and Staubach quarterbacked them to their second Super Bowl win.

With the Cowboys one of the NFL’s youngest teams, Tom Landry seemed destined to win more Super Bowls.

SUPER BOWL XI CHAMPION 1976 OAKLAND RAIDERS

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Al Davis said he wanted a ring so nice that he wanted a Raider to be able to meet the Queen of England and not feel he had to take it off. Mission accomplished!! One of the unique features to every Raider championship ring is that Al Davis uses the AFL logo “A” and not the AFC “Block A” on the side. This was the bauble for winning Super Bowl XI on January 9, 1977 over the Minnesota Vikings 32-14.

They finally clutched the prize, Madden, Stabler, Biletnikoff, Tatum, Hendricks, Matuszak, Sistrunk, Villapiano, Atkinson and Raider Nation.  What is strange is how the Raiders could have totally written sports history.  They played in 5 other conference championships before winning the Super Bowl in 1976.

That’s without talking about the “job” they got in the Immaculate Reception in the 1972 AFC Divisional playoff that would have put them in a SIXTH. I cornered Franco Harris in 1991 & again in 2018 and tried to get him to exact the ball hit Fuqua and not Tatum and he wouldn’t do it!! sigh…yet I digress  After playing in Super Bowl II, the Raiders could have been in Super Bowls 3,4,5, 8-10, & 12. So this was the culmination of pushing to be the best over all those years.

Yet stop and think about how history could have been written had they won those games.

  1. We wouldn’t have had Joe Namath’s guarantee in Super Bowl III
  2. The Raiders would have played the Vikings in Super Bowl IV, who was the original AFL team to be in Minnesota, until the NFL undercut the AFL by giving the owners of that territory an NFL franchise. This is ironically how the AFL got to Oakland in the first place.
  3. They would have stopped Johnny U. and the Colts from making the “Blunder Bowl” or Super Bowl V and could have been going for a threepeat. Had they won in 69 and 70 it would have made them the last AFL Champion as well as the first AFC Champion.
  4. They would have stopped the Dolphins from being a dynasty by keeping them from winning back to back Super Bowls. By the way, remember the undefeated 1972 Dolphins and their record 18 game winning streak?  Who did they lose to? The Raiders in early 1973 in a game played at Berkeley because the A’s were in the World Series. Footnote this with it was the Raiders who in the ’74 Divisional playoff, the “Sea of Hands” play stopped the Dolphins from going to 3 Super Bowls in a row…so this isn’t far-fetched folks.
  5. They would have stopped the Steelers dynasty from taking off (Super Bowls IX & X) and would have been crowned team of the 70’s by this time easily. Don’t start Steeler fans because these were some battles with the Raiders.
  6. They would have stopped the Broncos miracle ’77 season keeping them out of Super Bowl XII.

Stabler & Rockford Files star Hal Garner as Super Bowl XI was ending.

As for the team that always threw deep, I find it ironic that the Super Bowl XI MVP was a supposedly slow, couldn’t get deep, that left the NFL as the leading playoff touchdown in receptions and yards before he left in 1977 and that is Fred Biletnikoff.  My man was busy cookin’ the best that the NFL had to offer at CB.

It was understood when the game was on the line they went to the diminutive route runner from Florida St. Fred Biletnikoff had only 4 catches in Super Bowl XI, yet those catches set up 3 Super Bowl scores, and was the focus of why the Raiders blew out the Vikings in Super Bowl XI.

super-bowl-logo-1976He was a tremendous performer and the predecessor of Lester Hayes’ use of stickum in 1980.   He was the all time post season reception leader and yardage when he retired. Who broke his record? Cliff Branch…the man he showed the ropes on being an NFL receiver.  Jerry Rice eventually broke these records but you have to appreciate how things became the way they are.

Now Raider fans, you guys have to let go of the Immaculate Reception as I had to after several beers with Franco.  You did get jobbed and that ’75 AFC Championship Game icy field in Pittsburgh was fair when you guys played head games with the Chiefs and others about leaving the water on all night, hence the wet field. It’s just gamesmanship.

Well the idea the refs were out to get you guys disappeared in the ’76 divisional playoffs with the Sugar Bear Hamilton roughing the passer call on Stabler.  That call was among the worst ever!! Remember that call?? In the AFC Divisional playoff in 1976 you were losing to the Patriots 21-17 and were about to have to face a 4th and 17 with 1:38  left. Just seconds away from being upset when the flag came in…

So Stabler scored the winning touchdown with :10 seconds left and you were off to the AFC Championship. Big beneficiary of a very bad call. Hamilton hit Stabler under the arm… however when it came to hitting the ’76 Raiders set the bar there for hits coming from the secondary:

OK then you guys got robbed in Denver on Lytle’s fumble in the 1977 AFC Championship game….ok maybe there is somethin’ to it.  The tuck rule with Tom Brady and the Patriots in 2001…damn you guys are on to something!! Just keep in mind you have had your share of calls also.

superbowlxi3Thanks for reading and please share the article.

SUPER BOWL X RUNNER UP 1975 DALLAS COWBOYS

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Heading into Super Bowl VI, Cowboy coach Tom Landry referred to the Miami Dolphins defense as “a bunch of no named guys.” The Dolphins and the sporting press spun Landry’s comment into the nickname “The No Name Defense”, that they would forever be known for. Yet little did he know he would return with an equally set of anonymous guys to the title game four years later.

1975.Dallas-Cowboys-Roger-Staubach-Super-Bowl-Ring-0002Don’t get us wrong there were known players on the Cowboy’s roster, they were aging and on the downside of their careers. Quarterback Roger Staubach had come of age in the 1975 playoffs and was in his prime. He took the Cowboys to Super Bowl X after engineering a miracle in Minnesota. A play that came to be known as The Hail Mary. However it was holdovers from the 1960’s defenses which included Middle Linebacker Lee Roy Jordan #55, Outside Linebacker Dave Edwards #52, DT Jethro Pugh #75, and future Hall of Fame CB Mel Renfro, that lent familiarity to long time fans.

1975.Dallas-Cowboys-Roger-Staubach-Super-Bowl-Ring-0003The 1974 season saw the Cowboys say goodbye to Hall of Fame Defensive Tackle Bob Lilly, Hall of Fame receiver Bob Hayes, and longtime CB Cornell Green. To replenish the cupboard, Gil Brandt, Tex Shramm and Tom Landry loaded the roster with new players. An amazing 12 rookies made the team and became known as “The Dirty Dozen”. Yet none were stars or household names. Well at least not at the time.

The plain truth is the basis for a team that made the Super Bowl 3 times in 4 years, and 3 more NFC Championships games in the ensuing 4 years after came from this draft. Long time MLB Bob Breunig, Hall of Fame DT Randy White, OLB Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson, DE Ed “Too Tall” Jones, S Randy Hughes, OLineman Herbert Scott, Pat Donovan, and Burton Lawless became mainstays from this team. Had the bounce of the ball gone differently in Super Bowl X and/or Super Bowl XIII this group would have been remembered in many ways close to the Steelers 1974 draft class.

1975.Dallas-Cowboys-Roger-Staubach-Super-Bowl-Ring-0001Just think about it… had the Cowboys won Super Bowl X or XIII the tally would have been 3 wins by both Dallas and Pittsburgh. Dallas sends more players to the Hall of Fame and fewer Steelers would have been enshrined.

Speaking of Tom Landry’s no-name bunch: Roger Staubach, Tackle Rayfield Wright and Safety Cliff Harris were the only Pro Bowl selections. In fact, the ’75 Cowboys are one of 3 of the first 42 Super Bowl participants to have the fewest pro bowl players with 3. When you think of the ’75 Cowboys who were the runners?? Calvin Hill, Dwayne Thomas, Walt Garrison?? All were gone from the team and Tony Dorsett was 2 years away.

The Cowboys had offseason acquisition Preston Pearson who had appeared in Super Bowls with both his previous teams. The Steelers of 1974 and Baltimore Colts all the way back in III when they lost to the Jets. He teamed with FB Robert Newhouse for a steady ground attack that would in time need to be improved but provided balance in ’75.

super-bowl-logo-1975Staubach’s taking the Cowboys to Super Bowl X was similar to John Elway taking the Broncos to the title game with “The Drive”. He capitalized on the momentum from the Viking playoff win and drove his team to the title game. He was the lone marquee name and took Super Bowl X down to the final play before falling 21-17.

The greatest of the first ten of these games stamped the Cowboys as a team to watch as the late 70’s beckoned.

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Thanksgiving Day 1980: Shortest Overtime in NFL History – Bears vs Lions

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Once upon a time there was a championship team in Detroit. However that was back in the mid 1950s. For the next 25 years the Lions were one of the NFL’s bottom feeders. They made the playoffs only 1 time between 1957 and 1979.

Enter Billy Sims.

The 1978 Heisman Trophy winner was the Lions 1980 #1 draft pick. Billy Sims

The 1978 Heisman Trophy winner was the Lions 1980 #1 draft pick. Billy Sims

The Lions struck gold in drafting the former Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma. He hit the NFL running and the excitement the team generated had the entire Motor City abuzz.

After a 5-1 start, the Lions fell back to earth losing 4 of their next 6 games. Detroit’s mid-season swoon had begun with a 24-7 loss in Chicago. The Bears had been to the playoffs in 1979 but they came into Thanksgiving having lost 4 of their last 5 games. With the Lions 7-5 and the Bears 4-8, each team entered desperate to keep their playoff hopes alive.

So as the rest of America settled into turkey and stuffing, the Lions and Bears hit the field in the Silverdome. Would Detroit establish themselves as the team to beat in the NFC Central?? Or would the Bears right the ship and save their season??

In spectacular fashion the Bears had scored on back to back plays and overtime lasted all of :16 seconds. Thanksgiving dinners were ruined all over the state of Michigan. Athough the Bears swept the Lions they would finish 7-9 and miss the playoffs. The Lions were home for the postseason where 9-7 was not enough to get in either. The Minnesota Vikings stole the division on a Hail Mary.

Dave Williams scored 1 of his career 8 touchdowns in spectacular fashion in the shortest overtime in NFL history. If you’re going to be known for one thing, have it happen when all of America is watching.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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SUPER BOWL X CHAMPIONS 1975 PITTSBURGH STEELERS

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At what point do you begin to erase an earlier label that was given to you as a player?  Can you totally overcome a negative stigma associated with that label?  At what point does a team peak with its full talent on display??

Just think that only a year and a half earlier, the Steelers were 3-1-1 at midseason, and mired in a quarterback controversy between “Jefferson St” Joe Gilliam and Terry Bradshaw. Pittsburgh won with defense and a running attack in spite of the quarterback. After alternating between the ineffective Gilliam and Bradshaw, Noll finally gave the nod to Bradshaw.

Many speculated Pittsburgh wasn’t ready for a black quarterback. Did you know the 1974 Steelers were the only Super Bowl champion that completed less than 50% of their passes?? Gilliam went 4-1-1 in his starts completing 45.3% of his passes (96 of 212) for 1,242 yards 4TDs and 8 interceptions. Bradshaw finished completing 45.3% of his throws (67 of 148) for 785 yards 7 TDs with 8 interceptions. Terry, having gone 5-2, was sacked more and threw interceptions at a higher rate than Gilliam. So he really never beat him out. Terry Hanratty started the 14th game.

superbowlxblack2After an upset victory in Super Bowl IX established them as league champion, the confident Steelers rolled through the next year with Terry Bradshaw at the helm. The Steelers were led by their famous front four known as the “Steel Curtain”, their powerful running game, and Bradshaw received some credit for being the quarterback of the champs.  Yet the respect afforded the Steelers QB was begrudging and not to the level of previous winners like Unitas, Staubach, Greise, Dawson, Starr, or even Fran Tarkenton who hadn’t won one yet appeared in Super Bowls twice.

The 1975 season began with a first time champion who was one of the youngest teams in football.  They were just developing as a team having come through the ’74 season with 8 rookies on the roster.  They hadn’t hit their peak as a team. Even Bradshaw was just shaking off the bad play that had him labeled as “Lil Abner” and a “dumb” quarterback.

He hadn’t lived up to his billing as the number 1 player in the 1970 draft until now, but with a pair of second year receivers in Swann and Stallworth, they were developing to complement the running game.  The strength of this team was its defense and punishing ground attack.  Franco Harris again rushed for 1000 yards and the Steelers went 12-2 in the regular season. The Steelers were beginning to become bigger than life with Joe Greene, LC Greenwood, Ernie Holmes, Jack Lambert and company.

Bradshaw had improved as a quarterback in 1975 as he emerged as a leader. He completed 57.7% (165 of 286) for 2,055 yards 18 TDs to just 9 picks. Yet his moment finally came in a Super Bowl performance that put him on the level of the quarterbacks who were treated with more acclaim. His stats were good but it was the way he stood strong in the pocket to deliver the game clinching 64 yard touchdown to Lynn Swann in Super Bowl X while being knocked out.

Swann’s “Levitating Leap” 53 yard pass reception in X was the lasting highlight of a great game.

You could see he knew was going to get clocked as he side stepped Cowboy linebacker DD Lewis and gathered himself to throw deep. Much like present Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is thought of now. He was carried to his first Super Bowl by his teammates. In his second, he validated himself among the great quarterbacks by making the play to win the game.

I disagree with the assessment in the video as its a retrospectively blurring the facts. It was after his 1975 season and his heroic throw to Swann that became legend.

Super Bowl X validated the career of Terry Bradshaw and he didn’t have to look over his shoulder the rest of his career. Two more championship triumphs were to follow and this ring commemorated the Steelers becoming a dynasty. Bradshaw would go on to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame, however the contributions of “Jefferson St” Joe Gilliam shouldn’t be forgotten.

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This article is dedicated in the memory of Joe Giliam.

The patch worn by each team in Super Bowl X.

SUPER BOWL IX RUNNER UP 1974 MINNESOTA VIKINGS

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Super Bowl IX!  Although the Vikings lost to Pittsburgh 16-6, this team outlasted the Rams 14-10 in the NFC Championship Game to get there.  This was the second of 3 Super Bowl appearances in a 4 year span after drafting Chuck Foreman, from The [[_]], and acquiring Fran Tarkenton in a trade from the Giants. vikingix

This was the Purple People Eaters at their best.  John Gilliam was a tremendous deep threat, Carl Eller, Jim Marshall, Alan Page (NFL MVP in ’71), and Gary Larsen were still the best front four in football and were in the midst of a division dominance that ruled the NFC Central for the better part of 8 years.

They didn’t win the Super Bowl but still had a hell of a run and should have more Hall of Famers off of that team:  Jim Marshall and Chuck Foreman. Foreman was as dominant a RB in the mid 70s as any.  He carried the Vikings to 3 Super Bowls in 4 years and was a leading receiver out of the backfield.  He was Marshall Faulk, Thurman Thomas, and Marcus Allen before they were and in a bigger body. One game that ruined his legacy was in of all places Buffalo to end the 1975 season.  super-bowl-logo-1974

In the same game where Fran Tarkenton threw for his 291st career touchdown pass to move ahead of Johnny Unitas, Chuck Foreman and OJ Simpson were putting on a clinic and were both after the NFL all time touchdown records for a season.  Well Chuck got 4 to OJ’s 3 but OJ finished with 23TDs to Chuck’s 22 to set the record.

Problem was Chuck had to leave the game after getting hit in the face with a snowball when he scored his 4th touchdown in the 4th quarter…had he scored a 5th he would have tied OJ for the single season touchdown record of 23 that would be later broken by John Riggins (24 in 1983) and an all time record may have garnered him some votes.

Yet Bud Grant’s team was aging having made their 3rd title appearance in 6 years. They were in the middle of a historic run when you look back on it. Those title losses could have reshaped history. Had they won Super Bowl IV against KC, it would have made the Jets win in the season before, a total fluke. The score would have been NFL3 to AFL1 in Super Bowl competition.

They would have kept Don Shula’s Dolphins from becoming a dynasty in VIII and would have stopped an emerging Steeler team in IX. However once they fell to the Steelers, you had to wonder if it was in their psyche to underplay in championship competition.

They had to look at Super Bowl IX and feel they gave one away.

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