Sports Then and Now

One of the NFL’s most bitter rivalries was taken up a notch in the 1991 NFL Playoffs when the Atlanta Falcons visit the Louisiana Superdome to take on their NFC West division rival, the New Orleans Saints.

The Saints won their first division title in 1991 with an 11-5 record for the team’s third playoff appearance and fourth winning season in five years, all under the helm of head coach Jim Mora.

The Saints were lead by their defense, the famed “Dome Patrol”, a linebacking corps that consisted of Rickey Jackson, Sam Mills, Vaughn Johnson, and Pat Swilling, which allowed the fewest points and forced the most turnovers in 1991.

The Saints had failed to win a game in their first two playoff appearances, but were favored to beat their division rivals from Atlanta.

The Falcons went 10-6 in 1991 for their first winning season and playoff appearance in a full 16-game season since 1980 (Atlanta made the playoffs in 1982 with a 5-4 in a strike-shortened season).

The Falcons were lead by head coach Jerry Glanville who was in his second season as head coach from the Falcons after coaching the Houston Oilers for four seasons and leading them to three straight playoff appearances.

Glanville’s Falcons reflected his personality; a brash, outspoken team that featured classic trash talkers such as wide receiver Andre Rison and cornerback Deion Sanders. Read the rest of this entry →

Many Jets fans will tell you that they are the unluckiest franchise in the National Football League because the Jets always find a way to lose in the most important games.

Another chapter to the Jets’ star-crossed history was added in their 2004 AFC Divisional Playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers when kicker Doug Brien missed not one but two field goals in the final two minutes of regulation that could have won the game for New York, but ended up losing the game in overtime.

In 2004, the Jets finished with a 10-6 record to earn a wild card berth, the team’s third playoff appearance in four years under head coach Herm Edwards.

In the Wild Card Round, the Jets pulled out a 20-17 overtime victory over the San Diego Chargers when Brien made a 28-yard field goal with five seconds left in the first overtime period to give New York an upset victory and sent them to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers in the AFC Divisional Playoffs.

The Steelers had the best record in the NFL during the 2004 season, a 15-1 record thanks to the league’s best defense and best rushing game lead by Jerome Bettis.

The biggest surprise of this season was the fact that the Steelers were able to go 15-1 with a rookie quarterback.

The Steelers used their pick in the first round to select quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was designated to be their quarterback of the future and sit on the bench for the 2004 season.

But when incumbent starting quarterback Tommy Maddox was knocked out of the second game of the season with an elbow injury in a loss to the Baltimore Ravens, Roethlisberger was forced to step in and take the reins as the starting quarterback.

Roethlisberger started 13 games and won all 13 of them, which included a 34-20 win against the New England Patriots that ended their 21-game winning streak, and a 17-6 win against the Jets. Read the rest of this entry →

One of the most memorable moments in the 2009 NFL season was the Indianapolis Colts scoring a last-second touchdown to pull out a 35-34 victory against the New England Patriots after the Patriots were stopped on 4th-and-2 at their own 28-yard-line, despite holding a six-point lead  with about two minutes to play.

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s decision to go for the first down in this game was reminiscent of former Cowboys head coach Barry Switzer’s gamble to go for a first down in his team’s own territory with the game tied in the final minutes of a December showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The former Oklahoma head coach became head coach of the Cowboys following the departure of Jimmy Johnson after the 1993 season.

Johnson had led the Cowboys from a 1-15 season in his first year in Dallas to two straight Super Bowl titles, behind the famed “Triplets”; quarterback Troy Aikman, wide receiver Michael Irvin, and running back Emmitt Smith.

In Switzer’s first season, the Cowboys finished with a 12-4 record but were knocked off by the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.

In 1995, the Cowboys jumped out to an 8-1 start before being humiliated by the 49ers 38-20 in Dallas, leading owner Jerry Jones to come out and say that the team was outcoached.

The Cowboys would win the next two games before dropping another home game, this time against the Washington Redskins, as they entered their late-season showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Under first-year head coach Ray Rhodes, the Eagles had complied a 8-5 record entering this game,  but had gone 7-2 ever since Rhodes had benched starting quarterback Randall Cunningham and replaced with veteran backup Rodney Peete.

Still, Rhodes played the “no respect” card for the Eagles as they hosted the Cowboys on a 13-degree afternoon in Veterans stadium, with a wind chill of minus seven degrees. Read the rest of this entry →

In week 3 of the 1997 NFL season, the New York Jets traveled to Foxboro to face the defending AFC champion New England Patriots in a primetime Sunday night match-up.

This was perhaps the most anticipated game of the early season as Jets head coach Bill Parcells returned to Foxboro for the first time since he left the Patriots following their run to Super Bowl XXXI.

In the two weeks between the Patriots’ win in the AFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl, speculation ran wild that Parcells would leave the Patriots because he was unhappy that he did not have more say on personnel matters.

Five days after losing to the Packers 35-21 in Super Bowl XXXI, Parcells resigned as head coach of the Patriots after four seasons.

In his press conference, Parcells famously said “If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries”.

Parcells would then go on to become head coach of the New York Jets, replacing Rich Kotite who had complied a 4-28 record in two seasons, including a 1-15 record in 1996.

The Jets had actually been 4-32 ever since the infamous “Fake Spike” game where Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino faked that he was going to spike the ball and then threw a game-winning touchdown pass to hand the Jets a 28-24 defeat in a game was first place for the AFC East. Read the rest of this entry →

Beginning in 1933, the Green Bay Packers would play two or three home games in Milwaukee in an effort to draw extra revenue.

In 1955, the team almost moved to Milwaukee permanently unless the team built a new stadium in Green Bay to replace City Stadium which was seen by the NFL as too small and too inadequate.

Two years later, Lambeau Field opened in Green Bay but the team continued to play a few of its eight home games in Milwaukee at County Stadium, which was originally for the city baseball’s team at the time, the Milwaukee Braves.

But on October 12, 1994, Packers president Bob Harlan announced that starting with the 1995 season, the team would play all of its home games at Lambeau Field.

Two months later, the Packers played their final home game in Milwaukee against the Atlanta Falcons in a critical game for both teams and their chances for the postseason.

The Packers entered the game with a 7-7 record and needing to win their final two games of the season to make the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

Green Bay was in the third year of the Brett Favre era, as he became the team’s starting quarterback back in the fourth game of the 1992 season, the first season with Mike Holmgren as head coach.

The Packers finished that season with a  9-7 record, just missing the playoffs, but made it to the playoffs in 1993 with a 9-7 record where Green Bay defeated the Detroit Lions 28-24 in their NFC Wild Card game before being eliminated by the eventual world champion Dallas Cowboys the following round. Read the rest of this entry →

The Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants renewed their bitter rivalry in a pivotal game for the NFC East title in week 12 of the 1988 NFL season.

The Giants entered the game with a 7-4 record and tied for first place in the division, thanks to quarterback Phil Simms and their stellar defense, lead by All-Pro linebacker Lawrence Taylor.

Meanwhile, the Eagles entered the game one back of the Giants, with a 6-5 record.

Like the Giants, the Eagles had a great defense; the “Gang Green” defense constructed by head coach Buddy Ryan and featured a lineup that included defensive tackle Jerome Brown, linebacker Seth Joyner, rookie cornerback Eric Allen, and sack master Reggie White at defensive end.

But the biggest star on the Eagles was quarterback Randall Cunningham, perhaps the most exciting player thanks to his rocket arm and scrambling ability.

The Eagles met the Giants earlier in the 1988 season on a Monday night in Philadelphia when Cunningham pulled off a play for the ages.

On a play at the Giants’ five-yard-line, Cunningham scrambled right where he was met by Giants linebacker Carl Banks who hit him on the legs, appearing to be knocking Cunningham to the ground. Read the rest of this entry →