Sports Then and Now

Al Harris lifted the Green Bay Packers to an overtime victory in the 2003 Wild Card Playoffs with a game-winning interception and touchdown.

It is January, which means the NFL playoffs are set to begin.

In the next three weeks, twelve teams will play for the right to go to the Super Bowl.
With that in mind, I have complied a list of 50 of the most memorable moments in NFL postseason history.

Every one of these moments occurred in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) and does not include a single Super Bowl.

In essence, these are the 50 greatest moments that have occurred in NFL playoff games to decide what team advances to the Super Bowl.

Note: It is actually 52 moments, as I squeezed three games into the 50th moment.

Let the countdown begin.

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50. Mud Bowl
There have been three playoff games that have been nicknamed the “Mud Bowl”.

The first “Mud Bowl” occurred in the 1977 NFC Divisional Playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Los Angeles Rams.

A torrential rain storm turned the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum field into a mud bath nullifying the Rams’ home field advantage. Thanks to 101 rushing yards from running back Chuck Foreman, the Vikings knock off the Rams 14-7, to advance to the NFC Championship Game.

The second “Mud Bowl” was the 1982 AFC Championship Game between the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins in which the Dolphins defeated the Jets 14-0 thanks to 3 interceptions by Miami linebacker A.J. Duhe, including returning one interception for a 35-yard touchdown in the 4th quarter that sealed the victory for the Dolphins.

The final “Mud Bowl” came in the 1996 NFC Divisional Playoff between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers. The Packers jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to two punt returns by Desmond Howard, the first for a 71-yard touchdown and the second for 46 yards that set up a 4-yard touchdown pass from Brett Favre to Andre Rison as Green Bay would go on to win the game 35-14. Read the rest of this entry →