Sports Then and Now

Could this be the year that the Buffalo Bills return to the Super Bowl?

The Super Bowl matchup has been set. Maybe not in the minds of NFL management, but in the stars, in destiny, in all the places that matter.

It will be a Detroit versus Buffalo Super Bowl. You’ve heard of the “Dawning of the Age of Aquarius?” This is the dawning of the Age of the Incredulous!

Both teams have not only been shut out of the playoffs for more than a decade but have also been shut out of hope, expectations, respect for nearly that long.

But something happened in the alignment of the universe over the off-season. Perhaps the Lock Out had something to do with it. Perhaps it was something completely unrelated. But this year, if  you’re intuitive, psychic, clairvoyant, you can already sense it. You don’t suspect. It isn’t a hunch. It is a future fact as certain as the rising and setting of the sun and the changing of the seasons, yet as unsettling to the natural order as Global Warming.

For three consecutive weeks, these teams whose defeats are assumed, whose prospects are failure until proven successful, whose prospects have been as star-crossed as Romeo and Juliet, are suddenly clicking. These teams that have in the past frequently played a good game, come back from a deep deficit, only to fall behind again at the last minute of regulation time, or lose a sudden death shoot out, are suddenly coming back and staying ahead. They are suddenly assuming victory and playing as if they will and must win, as if failure is not only not an option, it isn’t even a plot line. Read the rest of this entry →

With a 3-0 start, the Buffalo Bills seem to be pointing in the right direction to start the 2011 season.

Considering that each team has posted only one winning season since 2000, dual 3-0 starts by the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions has the NFL turned upside down and fans in both cities celebrating like it is 1980 all over again.

Indeed, it was 31 years ago that both franchises started the season with perfect records during the first month of the season to become the darlings of the NFL.

The NFL was a little different back in 1980 as both teams relied on rookie running backs to spark their team. The Bills featured former Auburn Tiger Joe Cribbs while the Lions had a budding star in former Heisman Trophy winner Billy Simms.

Of course as we fast forward to 2011 the focus is no longer on the running game, though solid runners have helped both teams to their early starts.

The focus in today’s NFL is on the passing game and the Bills and Lions rely on Ryan Fitzpatrick and Matt Stafford much more than the 1980 squads relied on their starting quarterbacks Joe Ferguson and Gary Danielson.

Entering the 1980 season, both the Lions and Bills were coming off four straight losing seasons.

Following a 2-14 campaign in 1979, the Lions drafted Sims with the first pick in the NFL draft. Under third year head coach Monte Clark, the team won their first four games in dominating fashion. They outscored the Los Angeles Rams 41-20 and then combined an explosive offense with a dominating defense to allow their opponents seven points each in the next three games as they outscored the Packers, Cardinals and Vikings 76-21.

Unfortunately, the Lions couldn’t maintain the momentum and finished just out of the playoffs with a 9-7 record. However, the winning season was their first since 1972 and started a four year stretch in which the Lions posted a 30-27 record and twice advanced to the playoffs. Read the rest of this entry →

Before he came to New England, Sam Cunningham was one of college football's significant players

It was September 12, 1970 that a man who would soon be a vital part of the Boston sports scene helped change the course of college football history. USC had a big fullback by the name of Sam Cunningham. When opposing players saw him in street clothes they thought he must be an offensive lineman because of his 6’3” 225 lb frame (yes, times have changed). But he was in the Trojan backfield and the night of 9/12, USC visited Alabama to face an all-white Crimson Tide team. Cunningham ran over and around the Tide, piling up 135 yards rushing as his team won 42-21. Legend has it that Alabama coach Bear Bryant made the decision to integrate his team based on Cunningham’s performance.

There’s some urban legend mixed in with this story. In truth, Bryant had already signed an African-American player to come on board the following year, but Cunningham’s performance didn’t hurt the coach’s effort to achieve more complete racial integration. It was a rare case where an athlete’s on-field performance takes on social significance and after three years of success at Southern Cal, Cunningham was drafted in the first round by the Patriots prior to the 1973 season.

It was the start of a good 10-year run for player and team, though it got off to a rough start. Cunningham rushed for 516 yards in his rookie year and was the leader of a mostly pedestrian backfield on a team that went 5-9. The following year Cunningham, gave way to Mack Herron as the team’s leading rusher, something that would occasionally take place in his career, given the importance of the fullback as a blocker. Something worked in ’74, because the Patriots got off to a 7-4 start before losing their final three games and missing the playoffs. Before we think that this collapse was akin to the ’74 Red Sox saga we looked at last week, bear in mind that New England played the AFC’s three great powers, Miami, Pittsburgh and Oakland in the season’s final three weeks.

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Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Emmitt Smith, the National Football League’s all-time leader in rushing, now has company on the same page in the Dallas Cowboys’ history books. The page noting courage and toughness while playing injured. Present day Dallas quarterback Tony Romo is his new neighbor.

Dallas' Tony Romo passes the ball as he is about to be tackled by the 49ers Aldon Smith (99) and Justin Smith (94) last Sunday in San Francisco (AP/Tony Avelar).

Romo’s heroic performance of playing with a fractured rib in leading Dallas to a 27-24 come-from-behind overtime win at San Francisco last Sunday placed Romo in the same conversation as Smith in this category. Along the way, it answered questions about Romo’s toughness, both mentally and physically.

In compiling a legendary 15-year career as an NFL running back – 13 of which were in Dallas – Smith’s epic game of playing with a separated right shoulder while leading the Cowboys to a division-clinching win over the arch rival New York Giants at Giants Stadium on Jan. 2, 1994 is widely recognized as his signature performance. This showed his love, heart, and passion for the game in addition to his courage and toughness. It also demonstrated his commitment to the Cowboys and that he played more than for the money, especially in a year where he saw the Cowboys open 0-2 in his absence due to a contract dispute.

After sustaining the injury following a 46-yard run with two minutes left in the first half, Smith persevered physically by refusing to come out of the regular season finale. The Cowboys needed to win the game to lock up home field advantage in the NFC playoffs.

Running against a defense featuring Lawrence Taylor, who had one sack in the game, Smith resorted to sheer guts and willpower in rushing for 168 yards on 32 carries and adding 61 yards on 10 catches, one which went for a touchdown. Smith did much of this with one arm throughout the second half. Of Smith’s 229 yards from scrimmage in the game, 78 came after the injury. Read the rest of this entry →

The Big East may be losing, and gaining, some schools for College Football.

The Big East, and Big 12, have been at it for a couple of weeks. However, not only the conferences are working towards aligning their respective “divisions”  differently, the schools are. Here’s the Big East Merry Go Round:

Pittsburgh and Syracuse want out. The Big East for College Football has fallen to the cellar of any College Football Conference Ranking. The conference just can’t win the big games. Did you see Connecticut last year? They won the Big East, but then got run over by Oklahoma 48-20. There’s no way for a Big East team to win a BCS game right now, it’s impossible.

I’m questioning and pondering why Pitt and ‘Cuse want out. They plan on moving over to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), but every fan knows that they can’t win their either. Sure, recent NFL Players have come out of Pittsburgh, Lesean McCoy, Larry Fitzgerald, and you can even go back with Dan Marino, Mike Ditka and Tony Dorsett. It’s the truth, the University of Pittsburgh has a stellar football program, the thing is, they can barely win in the Big East, and I can’t imagine them tearing up the ACC like they plan on doing. Fine, Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Virginia are all easy teams to beat, but North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Clemson will wallop the Panthers. All I have to say about Pitt, is there is just no point in switching Conferences.

Syracuse, has a little different story. The Orangemen were a prominent team way back when, but they have struggled at the Carrier Dome, and every field, for recent years. The Orange, have turned it around a little bit, but still haven’t found any formula for winning games, and the Big East in general. ‘Cuse hadn’t had a winning season since 2001 after their 8-5 campaign last year, and haven’t reached a BCS Bowl since 1998! We’ll see if the Orange can turn it around, or Syracuse will find themselves being the pushover in the ACC.

Possible Contenders: There has been rumors flying in all directions about the Big East, but this is true: If anyone in the Big East leaves, the Big East will replace them. Possible schools to fill the gap are Army, Navy, Air Force, Temple, Villanova and East Carolina. Notre Dame, Memphis, Houston, Central Florida and Southern Methodist are all longshots, but are definitely still in the running. Even add Connecticut to the “I want out” list, as the defending Big East Champs may want to follow the leaders. Read the rest of this entry →

When it comes to the rivalry between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles, the “miracle” wins seem to always go to the Eagles such as their 27 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to knock off the Giants in 2010.

But in the second week of the 2006 season, the Giants had their own “miracle” win against the Eagles as they overcame a 17-point 4th quarter deficit to defeat the Eagles.

New York was coming off an 11-5 season in which they won the NFC East Division only to be eliminated by the Carolina Panthers 23-0 in their NFC Wild Card Game at the Meadowlands.

In that game, Giants quarterback Eli Manning was intercepted three times and threw for only 113 yards.

Coming off that poor performance, Manning needed to come back strong in the 2006 season, which was his third in the NFL.

Thankfully for Manning, he had running back Tiki Barber and wide receiver Plaxico Burress at his disposal as well as head coach Tom Coughlin, who was also heading into his third season in New York.

The Giants’ 2005 NFC East title snapped the Eagles’ four-year reign as NFC East Champions as Philadelphia seemed too affected by a Super Bowl hangover in 2005 as they went 6-10 during the season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

The Eagles and quarterback Donovan McNabb were hoping for a bounce-back season in 2006.

Philadelphia got off to a good start as they won their season opener 24-10 over the Houston Texans while the Giants dropped their opener, a 26-21 home loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

After their playoff debacle and Opening Day loss, Manning and the Giants were dire straits of a victory in Philadelphia.

The Giants got the ball to start to the game and were able to get in the end zone on the seventh play of the drive when Manning found Amani Toomer for a 37-yard touchdown to put New York ahead 7-0 just 3:25 into the game.

The Eagles answered the Giants’ touchdown with a touchdown of their own as Brian Westbrook scored on a 12-yard run to end an 11-play, 92-yard drive that tied the game at 7 midway through the first quarter. Read the rest of this entry →