Sports Then and Now

During the 1950s, the Detroit Lions were the elite team in the National Football League as they won three NFL championships between the years 1952 and 1957.

But following their 1957 NFL title, the Lions traded quarterback Bobby Layne to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who was so angry about the transaction that he allegedly said that the Lions would not win for 50 years.

For the next 25 years, the Lions did not win as they made the playoffs only twice in 1970 and 1982, with the latter coming because the NFL expanded the playoffs to 16 teams following the strike-shortened season.

But in 1983, Detroit fans were hopeful as the Lions won their first division title since the 1957 season as they won the NFC Central Division title despite a 9-7 record.

The Lions were coached by Monte Clark, who was in his sixth season as the Detroit head coach, after a seven-year stint as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in which the team won three NFC West titles.

Detroit won the NFC Central in 1983 because of their stingy defense which allowed the second fewest points during the regular season and all-pro running back Billy Sims, who had gained over 1,000 yards for the third time since he was taken as the #1 overall pick of the 1980 Draft.

The Lions’ opponent in their 1983 NFC Divisional Playoff would be the San Francisco 49ers, who were two years removed from their Super Bowl championship season.

The 49ers struggled in their defense of their Super Bowl title as they went 3-6 in the 1982 season and failed to make the expanded playoffs because of their 28th ranked rushing offense.

Needing to bolster the running game to help quarterback Joe Montana, the 49ers used their first round pick in the NFL Draft to select Nebraska’s Roger Craig and acquired Wendell Tyler from the Los Angeles Rams. Read the rest of this entry →

When the Green Bay Packers and the Atlanta Falcons met in week 13 of the 1983 NFL season, it seemed almost a guarantee that the game would be a high-scoring affair that would be decided in the final seconds.

The Packers entered the game with a 6-6 record, thanks to their offense which had averaged 27 points per game up to this point.

The offense was led by quarterback Lynn Dickey, who would finish the season with 4,458 passing yards, and a receiving corps that featured John Jefferson and all-Pro James Lofton.

Despite their high-octane offense, the Packers had one of the worst defenses, which had given up 332 points through the 12 games and had a hard time maintaining leads the offense had given them.

When Green Bay traveled to Atlanta, they must have felt they were looking into a mirror as the Falcons also had a high-scoring offense and suspect defense.

The Falcons had a 5-7 record under first-year head coach Dan Henning with an offense that featured quarterback Steve Bartkowski, running back William Andrews, and wide receiver Billy “White Shoes” Johnson who would go to be named the NFL Comeback Player of the Year for 1983. Read the rest of this entry →

Four games into the season, Tony Romo is playing like a pendulum. Good in one game, bad in another. Romo has even played good and bad in the same game, some ending in victory and others in defeat.

The results of this swing game have left the Dallas Cowboys in mediocrity. The Cowboys are 2-2 after the first quarter of the season. Romo has thrown for 1,273 yards on the young season. His seven touchdown passes have been offset by five costly interceptions.

Tony Romo ponders the situation in a recent home loss to Detroit in which Dallas surrendered a 24-point lead.

A closer look at Romo’s play suggests that Dallas could easily be 4-0 and in first place in the NFC East Division or 0-4 and in last place in the division. That is how much the fortunes of an NFL team can be altered by the play of its’ quarterback. This concept is magnified when you are the quarterback of the Cowboys, a five-time Super Bowl Champion which has an NFL record tying eight trips to the big game among its’ legacy.

Like other glamour positions in professional sports, Romo occupies a catbirds seat. Playing quarterback for Dallas comes with more expectations than that of quarterbacking a lot of other NFL teams. Romo follows a Cowboys’ quarterback roll call that reads Eddie LeBaron, the late Don Meredith, Craig Morton, Roger Staubach, Danny White, and Troy Aikman. Both Staubach and Aikman are in Dallas’ Ring of Honor and each are also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Any such honors for Romo are not even close at this time. In his fifth full season as Dallas’ starter and ninth overall, Romo needs to focus on getting better and playing more consistently good in order for the Cowboys to become a great team. While he has led Dallas to their two wins this season while playing with a broken rib, staying healthy would also help. Romo has battled injury in three of the last four seasons dating back to 2008 when he missed three full games with a fractured right pinkie on his throwing hand. In 2010, Romo missed 10 games with a broken left clavicle.

Romo’s play in 2011 has sent the Cowboys on a roller coaster ride. There have been peaks with some of them being maintained for multiple quarters and even most of a game which have factored into wins. There was the adrenaline rush Romo felt of leading Dallas to the comeback in the fourth quarter and overtime in the win at San Francisco. Then, there was Romo’s big pass play to Dez Bryant that set up the game-winning field goal against Washington. Read the rest of this entry →

Reggie White (#92), Jerome Brown (#99) and Mike Pitts (#74) were part of the dominating defense of the Eagles during the late 1980s.

A new NFL Network special looks back at a time 20 years ago when the Philadelphia Eagles also had a team that many believed had the talent to win a Super Bowl. However, while three of their division rivals were able to win titles in the early 1990s, the Eagles were left to contemplate what could have been.

The documentary focuses on two of the defensive stars from the Eagles teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jerome Brown and Reggie White. Both players were key components of one of the dominant defenses of the era and both players passed away far too early (as did fellow Eagles from that era Todd Bell and Andre Waters).

Between 1988 and 1992, the Eagles posted a 52-28 regular season record and joined the San Francisco 49ers as the only teams in the NFL to post double digit victory totals in all five seasons. However, while the 49ers claimed two Super Bowl titles during that stretch and the other three were won by the Eagles’ NFC East rivals the Giants, Redskins and Cowboys, the Eagles were left waiting for a next year that never came.

Under the guidance of head coach Buddy Ryan, defense was the calling card of the Eagles during that era. Utilizing the 4-6 defense that had helped the Chicago Bears win a Super Bowl, Ryan turned the Eagles into an intimidating, ball-hawking defense that regularly created big plays on the defensive end of the game.

While the unit had many talented players, the unquestioned leader of the defense was defensive end Reggie White. The “Minister of Defense” was a defensive juggernaut and regularly punished any quarterback or running back that dared get in his way.

During his eight seasons with the Eagles between 1985 and 1992, White registered 124 sacks in 121 games, including an amazing 21 sacks in just 12 games during the strike-shortened 1987 campaign. He also forced 18 fumbles and recovered 12.

When Philadelphia made defensive tackle Jerome Brown their first pick (ninth overall) in the 1987 draft, it provided White with a rush partner that forced opposing offenses to worry about the rush from both the inside and outside.

By 1988, their third season under Ryan, the Eagles had gelled as a team and were ready to make a run at the playoffs. Read the rest of this entry →

During the 2003 season, the week 5 meeting with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was an emotional game for Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy as it marked the first time he returned to Tampa Bay since his removal as the Buccaneers’ head coach.

Dungy was hired as the Buccaneers head coach before the 1996 season and in his second season lead Tampa Bay to its first winning season in 15 years.

Combining his efforts with defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, Dungy created the “Tampa 2” defense to lead Tampa Bay a 56-46 record in six seasons and four playoff appearances, including a trip to the 1999 NFC Championship Game.

But back-to-back playoff losses to the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2000 and 2001 NFC Wild Card Game plus the inability to produce a more explosive offense, Dungy was fired after the 2001 season.

Dungy’s replacement, former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, took over the reins in Tampa Bay and took the Bucs to the Super Bowl in his first season, which they won 48-21 over the Oakland Raiders.

Meanwhile, Dungy moved to Indianapolis to become the Colts’ head coach and join forces with quarterback Peyton Manning, an All-Pro quarterback who unfortunately had a reputation of not winning the big game as he was 0-2 in his postseason career before Dungy’s arrival.

In their first season together, Manning and Dungy helped the Colts a 10-6 record and a playoff berth, only to be humiliated by the New York Jets 41-0 in the AFC Wild Card round.

While it was not a playoff game, the stakes of the game were high for Manning and Dungy to see if they could lead their team to a win over the defending Super Bowl champions on the road on Monday Night Football.

But for most of the game, it looked like another big game loss for Manning and Dungy.

On the first play of the Bucs’ second possession of the game, quarterback Brad Johnson fired a pass for Keenan McCardell, who made the catch at the Indianapolis 30, and then outran the Colts defenders for a 74-yard touchdown that gave Tampa Bay a 7-0 lead.

McCardell would score another touchdown on the Bucs’ next drive on would have been the strangest play of the game if not for the finish.

On a first-and-ten from the Tampa 33, Johnson made a poor throw that was picked off by Colts safety Mike Doss at his own 41-yard-line.

Doss returned it 16 yards to the Bucs’ 43-yard-line until he was hit and fumbled the ball, which McCardell recovered on a bounce and ran 57 yards for the touchdown to increase the Tampa lead to 14-0 in the first quarter. Read the rest of this entry →

The Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys have been one of the National Football League’s best rivalries for decades. In fact, some pro football pundits might rank the matchup as the second best rivalry in the game behind the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears, who just met for the 183^rd time on Sunday. Regardless of ranking, there is no doubt that the Redskins and Cowboys battle each other harder than any other opponent they play, just like any rivalry. Even when the scoring might not be much to talk about.

Such was the case on Monday when the two teams played each other to

Dallas rookie kicker Dan Bailey boots one of his six field goals in a win over Washington on Monday night (Matthew Emmons/US Presswire).

another dramatic finish, a mark of the longstanding series, especially in recent years. Including Monday, nine of the 13 games since 2005 have been decided by seven points or less. In the process, the games have been decided in the late stages of the fourth quarter and even within the last two minutes.

Monday night was more of the same. With Tony Romo ailing due to a broken rib and rendered ineffective for much of the game, Dallas escaped with an 18-16 win over Washington in its’ home opener at Cowboys Stadium. Rookie kicker Dan Bailey kicked a 40-yard field goal with 1:52 left to provide the final margin. Bailey accounted for all of Dallas’ points on the night by going 6-for-6 which tied a Cowboys’ rookie record for most field games made in a game. Romo finished 22-for-36 for 255 yards and had one interception.

While the game lacked touchdowns and big play offense, it was still a back-and-forth game. Both offenses stalled in the first half as the two teams split six field goals for a 9-9 halftime tie. Romo took several hits in the first half alone which tested his threshold of pain. While his punctured lung from a week ago had mostly healed, he had to take two pain-killing injections for the rib to get through the game. Once again Romo’s toughness and perseverance showed when it mattered most.

In the span of two weeks, Romo has gone from goat on the young season, to a successful clutch performer for America’s Team. After opening the season with a fourth quarter meltdown against the Jets in New York, where his fumble and interception aided the Jets comeback victory, Romo has come nearly full circle.

Romo’s performance in rallying Dallas from a 24-14 fourth-quarter deficit at San Francisco last week with a broken rib and a punctured lung followed by last nights’ gutty performance have cast Romo in a new and better light than in the past. That of a leader who is determined and focused. Up until now, Romo is best known for botching the hold of a snap on a possible game-winning field goal attempt in a playoff loss at Seattle following the 2006 season. Yet, Romo could still use an entire season of success to stake his claim to being an upper-echelon NFL quarterback. The season is still young.

As are the Cowboys, especially on the offensive line. Right tackle Tyron Smith, left guard Bill Nagy, and center Phil Costa are all rookies or second-year players with all three in their first year as starters. That unit is still a work in progress and needs time to become cohesive. Gone from the front wall is five-time pro-bowl center Andre Gurode who was released in training camp. Read the rest of this entry →