Sports Then and Now

The Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins will renew their rivalry on Sunday for the 169^th time as both teams look to close out the 2018 season with a victory.

Since they first met on October 21, 1934 when the Redskins were still playing in Boston, the Eagles and Redskins have played many memorable games. As division rivals, they typically play twice a year, which has created great drama and familiarity for both the franchises and the fans. They have met one time in the playoffs, with the Redskins ending the Buddy Ryan era in Philadelphia with a 20-6 win over the Eagles during the 1990 season.

The Redskins hold the all-time series lead 85-77-6, but interestingly enough, the Eagles actually have out-scored the Redskins 3,535 points to 3,336.

I had the great pleasure of witnessing two of the most exciting games in the series, both played at the old RFK Stadium in Washington.

The first was during the 1981 season and the second was in 1989. Both games included some fantastic individual plays and exciting endings that resulted in the team that had seemingly been in control for most of the game making a fatal mistake that cost them the win.

December 6, 1981 – Week 14 – Philadelphia Eagles (9-4) at Washington Redskins (5-8)

After reaching the Super Bowl during the 1980 season, the Philadelphia Eagles started the 1981 campaign with six straight wins and seemed poised for another championship run. However, they entered the week 14 game at Washington having lost two straight games and three of their last five.

Conversely, in their first season under the leadership of Joe Gibbs, the Redskins opened the 1981 campaign with five straight losses. After climbing to 5-6 on the season with an overtime win over the New York Giants, they stumbled with consecutive losses to enter the game against the Eagles with a 5-8 record and trying to avoid a losing campaign. Read the rest of this entry →

Ahead of the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Wednesday, Native River has been confirmed as a late entry to make up the list of 11 runners.

Last year’s Gold Cup winner joins a tough-looking field, who’ll all be looking to taste success come Boxing Day.

The likes of old rival Might Bite, Waiting Patiently, Politologue and Thistlecrack will all be chomping at the bit to get one over on Native River, thus making it one of the most eagerly anticipated races of the year.

Trainer Colin Tizzard has enjoyed a number of major victories with Native River, including wins at the Worcester Novices Chase, Mildmay Novices Chase, Welsh Grand National, Hennessy Gold Cup, Denman Chase and the Gold Cup.

The eight-year-old has had a strong year and if he could fashion another victory at Kempton – as hard as that’ll be – it’ll put Native River in serious contention for a second successive Gold Cup. Read the rest of this entry →