CBS Sports: NFL 1983-NFC Final-San Francisco 49ers @ Washington Redskins

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Source: This piece was originally posted at The New Democrat Plus

This is one of the best NFC Final’s of all-time for lots of reasons. The 49ers and Redskins are not just the two best franchises in the NFC in the 1980s as far as all the games and championships they won and their two head coaches Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs. But they were the two best franchises in the NFL in the 1980s, as far as wins, championships and head coaches. And yet they only met in the NFC Playoffs once that decade, which is this game. The Redskins tended to play the Chicago Bears, or the Los Angeles Rams in the 80s. The 49ers played the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings multiple times each.

This was also a great game because of these two teams. Both teams very good on both sides of the ball. The 49ers had a better all around defense as far as defending the run and pass. The Redskins were great against the run and had a great pass rush and tackled very well. But if the quarterback had time, they were a very vulnerable in the secondary. Because they didn’t have much speed or a great cover corner back there. Darryl Green was a rookie and not a great player yet. Both teams were great on offense with great quarterbacks, passing games and running games.

This was also a great game because of the contrast in it. The Redskins passed and ran very well, but they were a power run team first with John Riggins and then they would run Joe Washington outside. And go deep to either Art Monk or Charlie Brown outside. And hit Clint Didier and Joe Washington for shorter and medium routes. They could throw the ball everywhere and had so many weapons. The 49ers were a pass first team, again with multiple weapons at receiver, TE and running back. And then could run with Wendell Tyler and Roger Craig. Two great all around football teams who played the game differently. Which made for a great NFC Final.

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NFL Films-CBS Sports: NFL 1983-Super Bowl 18-Los Angeles Raiders vs. Washington Redskins: Highlights

 

Source: This piece was originally posted at The New Democrat Plus

On paper at least and the personal of both teams, Super Bowl 18 is definitely one of the best games you could ever have for a Super Bowl. Maybe only Super Bowl 13 with the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers was a better matchup on paper and in talent and in coaching. Tom Flores, who was the Los Angeles Raiders head coach, really should be in the Hall of Fame. He had a great record in the 1980s and only Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs won more and they’re both in the Hall of Fame. This game should’ve been a 31-24, 28-24, 35-31 24-21, 21-17 type of game with the game going down to the last possession of the game.

But the Raiders looked as prepared and executed as well as any team has ever played in the Super Bowl. On offense, defense and special teams. They had the Redskins down cold and made all the big plays in the game. When the Redskins would try something interesting or different to catch the Raiders off guard like the infamous screen pass late in the first half with the Raiders up 14-3, the Raiders pick off the pass for a touchdown. And and take a 21-3 lead into the first half, instead of it being a close game. And the Redskins looked like they had the momentum back in the second half and march down the field for a touchdown, to make it 21-9, the Raiders block the extra point.

The Raiders not only blocked the Redskins extra point attempt in the second half, but they march down the field for their own touchdown to take their biggest lead of the game at 28-9 midway through the third quarter. Tom Flores could go into the Hall of Fame from his Super Bowl 18 coaching job alone. The Redskins just looked sluggish and unprepared. They went into this game with one game plan and either didn’t figure out early enough that wasn’t going to work, or didn’t know how to adjust. Which was strange considering Joe Gibbs is the master of adjustments and retooling.

NFL Films-CBS Sports: NFL 1983-Super Bowl 18-Los Angeles Raiders vs Washington Redskins: Highlights

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NFL Films: NFL 1983-Week 7-MNF-Washington Redskins @ Green Bay Packers: Highlights

Source: FRS Daily Press Plus– Redskins @ Packers

Source: The New Democrat Plus

The Green Bay Packers were the definition of mediocrity in the 1980s. And it wasn’t that they were always average or middle of the road. But they would have great streaks and look like they’re returning as a contender and championship team that they were when they dominated the 1960s. And they would follow that up with really bad streaks and lose to bad teams and look like 5-11 or 4-12 team. They had two winning seasons in the 1980s. 1982 and 89 and 3-4 8-8 seasons, which is the definition of a mediocre team. They would play their best games against good teams, like the Redskins especially in prime time and at Lambeau Field. And then they would lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or Detroit Lions. Or some other team that was pretty bad back then.

The Redskins, defending Super Bowl champions in 1983, 5-1 at this point with a five winning streak after losing to the Dallas Cowboys week 1. Looking to get back to the Super Bowl and repeat and had the team to do it. And of course only the San Francisco 49ers won more games and Super Bowls than the Redskins in the 1980s. So this was a matchup of one of the premier teams of the NFL in the Redskins who were great in 1983 and had a great decade in the 1980s. Against a Packers team that couldn’t figure out if they were pretty good and back as a contender and champion in the NFC Central. Or were they 4-12, 5-11 team, sharing last place with the Lions and Buccaneers. And they generally settled for mediocrity instead.

NFL Films: NFL 1983-Week 7 MNF- Washington Redskins @ Green Bay Packers: Highlights

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CBS Sports: NFL 1983-Week 15-Washington Redskins @ Dallas Cowboys: Full Game

 

Source: CBS Sports- John Riggins runs over Dallas

Source: This piece was originally posted at The New Democrat Plus

If I’m a network TV sports executive and I got Monday Night Football on my network, I think this would be the dream matchup to have to open the new Monday Night Football season. Because the Cowboys-Redskins at this point in the NFL, you’re talking about the best current rivalry in the NFL. The two best teams in the National Football Conference, if not the NFL. They hate each other and yet respect each other. NFC East, which can be said about each team in that division, but even more so with the Cowboys-Redskins rivalry. So back then you were always talking about great football games, because both teams were good every year, both teams were very physical on both sides of the ball and they literally hated, but respected each other.

Now how about this game. The two teams from the 1982 NFC Final. The Redskins not only won the NFC, but dominated the Miami Dolphins on both sides of the ball in Super Bowl 17 to win their first Super Bowl. Tom Landry, the first or second best head coach in the NFL at this point. Only Don Shula might have been better at this point. Joe Gibbs, the best young head coach in the NFL at this point and already considered a genius at least on offense. Going into 83, the Redskins looked like the favorites to not only get back to the Super Bowl, but win their second straight. The Cowboys lost the last three NFC Finals with Danny White as their quarterback and looking to not only get back, but get back to the Super Bowl. And they still had a very good team.

So this was like a week one Super Bowl, in prime time, on ABC and ABC Sports had the best football show back then. The NFL and perhaps college football as well. Frank Gifford calling the game with Don Meredith as the lead analyst, which he was great at and had a great sense of humor as well. Howard Cosell, providing the comedic fans point of view for this game. And he was also pretty knowledgable about football and certainly knew what he was talking about. The game played at the nation’s capital in Washington at RFK Stadium. The stadium rocking and crazy like it always was, especially in prime time and for rival games like against the Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles. This was the perfect way to kick off an NFL season.
CBS Sports: NFL 1983-Week15-Dallas Cowboys @ Washington Redskins: Full Game

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The Onion: ‘John Elway Casually Mentions To Peyton Manning How Great it Was Going Out on Top’

Source:The New Democrat 

I’m going to be serious for a minutes, all right fine maybe two minutes just to say that Peyton Manning even if he is the best regular season quarterback of all-time, which would be like being the best team of all-time that didn’t win the Super Bowl in the NFL, Peyton who I respect as a great quarterback, is simply overrated. Peyton Manning is a fan favorite of the stats and now generation. People who judge athletes by their numbers and the fact that they are playing now, must mean they are better than players who played before simply because of that.

If you judge players especially quarterbacks by how well they play in the playoffs and their record in the playoffs and not how many times they threw for four-thousand yards and thirty touchdown passes, Peyton would be pretty far down on the greatest quarterbacks list. Even if he is the best regular season quarterback of all-time. And keep in mind, all of Peyton’s personal success as a quarterback as far as stats has not come in the passing age, which was the 1980s and the 1990s. But the Roger Goddell age where the NFL has simply decided that offense is more important than defense for financial reasons. And have made it very difficult for defenses because of the rules to be successful.

I mean how many great quarterbacks do you know of have losing records in the playoffs and are headed to the Hall of Fame if they are not already there? Peyton Manning would be one, can you name any others. Tom Brady could easily tell Peyton, “look, you have better numbers, but I have the numbers that count the most. I’ve won twice as many playoff games that you have and have won 2/3 of my playoff games. I’ve played in five Super Bowls, won three of them and have a winning record in them. But you look better on SportsCenter, YouTube, social networks and so-forth. So congratulations, but I’ll keep my victories and championships”. I doubt Brady has ever said that, but he could and would be right about that.

Is Peyton Manning one of the best quarterbacks of all-time and lets say that is top ten if not twenty, dumb question and he’s probably somewhere around ten for me, if not further back. And of course he’s a top two or three quarterbacks of his era. Only behind Tom Brady and Brett Favre, because of what Brady and Favre accomplished both in the regular season and playoffs. But I’m getting tired of hearing Peyton mentioned as the greatest quarterback of all-time and I’m not that comfortable about him as the greatest regular season QB of all-time. Simply because of the era he played in. And he’s certainly not the best quarterback of all-time and neither is Tom Brady.

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Lyle Denniston: Is The First Amendment on The Side of a Pro Football Team’s Name?

Source:The New Democrat

I’ve sort of gone out of my way to avoid getting into this debate because I quite frankly find it stupid. It’s now 2014 and Americans and the U.S. Government has just discovered that the Redskins is a racist name. Even though the franchise has been around since what, 1933 or 32. Give me a break, if Redskins was a racist name, which is what Nigger would be for people of African descent, that it would’ve been thrown out a long time ago. Saying the Redskins is a racist name, is like calling Bill Maher towards Muslims because he criticizes Islam, even though Muslim is not a race, but Muslims are followers of the Islāmic religion. It’s not even worth considering.

But that is just the practical argument. How about this little thing called the First Amendment that protects all Americans right to free speech and allows for people to call themselves essentially whatever the hell they want to and that includes organizations. But even if you say the federal trademark law about profiting from names that some Americans may tend to find offensive, again where was this 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years ago. Why is the name Redskins offensive in 2012-13 when this controversy started and not again decades ago. This is really nothing more than pop culture correctness at its worst.

The Redskins are now getting the Bill Maher treatment from the Far-Left and being labeled as racists. Not by Bill Maher who I imagine is on the side of the Redskins here for First Amendment protections. But a man who just back in September was considered a hero on the Far-Left, is now considered to be a “White Devil” or something. But if you put all of this aside, the fact that Congress is not very good at writing laws and people wonder why they are so unpopular, because even when they do pass laws, they don’t write them very well, but lets the trademark law is constitutional for a second. The fact that they didn’t define what is racially offensive in a name, means the Redskins at the very least will probably, win on a technicality.

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CBS Sports: NFL 1976-NFC Final-Los Angeles Rams @ Minnesota Vikings: 3rd Quarter

Source:The New Democrat 

1976 was probably the Rams best opportunity to beat the Vikings in the NFC Final. This was an aging Vikings team that no longer had that dominant defense that they had before, with all of their great defenders in their early or mid thirties and even older than that. The Rams were still a fairly young, but veteran team, that Chuck Knox put together in Los Angeles. That had probably one of the top four defenses in the NFL, that also had one of the better running games in the NFL as well.

But Chuck Knox was called Ground Chuck for a great reason. He ran the ball probably 35-40 times a game and at least sixty-percent of the time, or more. And didn’t utilize his other weapons on offense in the passing game. And unless you’re blowing away the defense consistently in the running game and getting big plays from that and big runs and scoring touchdowns, which the Rams didn’t do much in this game, you’re going to struggle against tough defenses. That the Vikings still had in 76, that also were good and balanced on offense.

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ABC Sports: NFL 1976-MNF-Pittsburgh Steelers @ Minnesota Vikings

Source:The New Democrat

1976 was the Vikings last Super Bowl season, meaning their last trip to the Super Bowl. An aging team that was no longer dominant on defense, at least as dominant as they were in the past. And became more of an offensive oriented team, especially in the passing game, with a great all around running back in Chuck Foreman. That also had a very good, but veteran and aging defense.

The Steelers in 1976, had the best all around defense at least pre-1978 rule changes in during a fourteen game schedule. And they had to be, with all the injuries that they had on offense. Their whole backfield including quarterback Terry Bradshaw was beat up in 1976. So they had to be dominant on defense, because their offense wasn’t much help for them in 76.

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NFL Films: ‘VHS NFL The 80’s Era of Excellence’

Source:NFL Films– a look at the Denver Broncos, I believe against the Cleveland Browns during the 1986 AFC Championship.

“This video is not owned by me and I do not hold the copyright. It is not intended for sale in any way. I have posted it here for nostalgia purposes only.”

From VHS Sports

The 1980s National Football League was an era of cookie-cutter stadiums, concrete hard Astroturf fields, dome stadiums especially for teams who played in cold weather cities, like Minneapolis. And it was basically the birth of the passing age in the NFL. The illegal contact rule and the new blocking rules of 1978 and new offensive-minded head coaches like Bill Walsh, Tom Flores, Joe Gibbs, Dan Reeves, Don Coryell, Joe Walton, Sam Wyche, really opened up offensive football and the league has only continued to move in that direction ever since.

The 1980s was an era where the dominate Steel Curtain Pittsburgh Steelers were no more and where the Los Angeles Raiders who probably should’ve taken over for the Steelers as the new dominant team in the NFL, didn’t quite live up to that. Even though all in all they had a pretty good decade winning two Super Bowls, but 1986 or so were no longer a championship contender in the NFL and became a franchise just trying to make the AFC Playoffs every year. And what happened was the San Francisco 49ers took that mantle instead from the Raiders and became great team on offense and defense throughout the decade.

But what is great about football, it is not what I call arenaball, what is called arena football, as much as Roger Goodell might want to change that and turn the NFL into a total offensive league, there is still two sides of the game, offense and defense. And there were still great defensive teams and players in the 1980s. Like with Chicago Bears 46 defense led by Buddy Ryan, who took that to Philadelphia as the Eagles new head coach. And in New York with their elephant two-deep defense that the Giants played led by head coach Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick.

The 1980s was an era for the NFL where the great teams of the 1970s like the Steelers, Raiders and Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings took a step back and needed to regroup and come back in the 1990s as championship contenders again. And where new teams like the San Francisco 49ers, Redskins, New York Giants, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns stepped up and either became champions or at least championship contenders. And a decade where the NFL just became more popular and more balanced. Where offenses and defenses were now treated equally under the rules.

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NFL Films: NFL 1991-Washington Redskins Highlights

Source:The New Democrat 

What I remember about the 1991 Redskins as a fifteen and sixteen year old, is how dominant they were. They didn’t win games, but they simply beat teams on both sides of the ball. Probably the most physical defense that they’ve ever had. Which is saying something, because they were always big and strong on defense under Joe Gibbs in the 1980s. But if you watch the 1991 Redskins, you see them simply hammering the opposition on defense game after game. The Lions, Falcons and Eagles games come to mind very quickly.

What I remember about the 91 Redskins is all of those blowouts that they won. They scored 485 points and only gave up 224, which meant they more than double points that they gave up. You do that by winning a lot of blowouts. They had probably the best running game in the league that year with the best offensive line. And then add quarterback Mark Rypien who was pretty good and accurate when he had a running game and pass protection and throw in The Posse as his receivers. Art Monk, Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders, someone was always open for Ryp to throw the ball to.

Not saying that the 91 Redskins are the best Redskins team ever, but they were the most dominant and perhaps the most complete. Really no weakness’ on either side of the ball. But they played a fairly weak schedule, including the Falcons twice, the Lions twice. And then the AFC Central where the only winning team in that division was the Houston Oilers. I rather have Joe Theisman as my QB and John Riggins running the ball, with Dave Butz and Darryl Grant in the middle of my defense. With Dexter Manley as one defensive end to go with Charles Mann. But the 91 Redskins are about as dominant a Super Bowl champion that has ever played.

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