Speaker 1: Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Greetings and welcome inside the latest edition of the Special
Speaker 1: Teams podcast, where we take a look at a very
Speaker 1: special year in sports history for one team because they
Speaker 1: win it all and because they get so close to me,
Speaker 1: because they don't put it all, but they're relevant, their
Speaker 1: teams who remember, and we relive that special season for them. However,
Speaker 1: a bit of a twist on this week's podcast, considering
Speaker 1: it is the you Old Tide season after all, So
Speaker 1: we're going to look back at some of the special
Speaker 1: teams who had big games on Christmas Day in sports history.
Speaker 1: And we can still call it the holiday, holiday, holiday
Speaker 1: and holiday, but these games were on Christmas Day. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna relive some of the big games on Christmas
Speaker 1: Day and some of the big teams that had big
Speaker 1: games on Christmas Day. Well, because let's face it, over
Speaker 1: the course of our lives, you know, you've got a
Speaker 1: lot of family time. Presents get unwrapped. Maybe you go
Speaker 1: to services, maybe a gluttonize with some big meals along
Speaker 1: the way. Maybe maybe you're a Turkey family, maybe a
Speaker 1: Prime rib family. Maybe you're just going out to the
Speaker 1: whatever restaurant down the street is open as you roll through.
Speaker 1: But eventually you get tired of looking at your family, uh,
Speaker 1: and you want to either enjoy a game with them
Speaker 1: because then you're just talking about the game because you
Speaker 1: don't want to go deep into those family discussions again, right,
Speaker 1: what Uncle Billy's doing? I could I could always tell
Speaker 1: when my family was annoying my grandfather more because the
Speaker 1: volume of the game slowly went up. Like the beginning,
Speaker 1: if the volume was low and we were watching, he
Speaker 1: was fine talking to other people. But as the game
Speaker 1: went on and he was done talking with everybody, the
Speaker 1: volume would go up until finally it was so loud.
Speaker 1: Oh god, he's done talking to anybody. He just wants
Speaker 1: to watch whatever game is on telem that's just a
Speaker 1: you can go hide in the game. So it's always
Speaker 1: a all right, what's on? Is there a great replay on?
Speaker 1: But this this is over the course of like, you know,
Speaker 1: two hours. This is not like you whoa you just
Speaker 1: jump from thirty to hang on? Hang on? Are we
Speaker 1: really done talking about things? All right? So we're gonna
Speaker 1: take a look back. We're gonna at very first here
Speaker 1: in the show. We're gonna look back at the National
Speaker 1: Football League and one very special team that played two
Speaker 1: big games on Christmas Day. The NFL has not had
Speaker 1: a huge run of memorable games on Christmas Day because
Speaker 1: they didn't play on Christmas Day for a very long
Speaker 1: period of time. But very first team we're gonna look
Speaker 1: back at our the Miami Dolphins, because they played the
Speaker 1: very first Christmas Day game because it was a playoff
Speaker 1: day in the National Football League in ninety one. The
Speaker 1: league decided in seventy one, Hey, we're gonna play games
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day. Okay, great two playoff games earlier in
Speaker 1: the day. The Cowboys beat the Vikings twenty to twelve.
Speaker 1: Then four o'clock Eastern playoff game between the Chiefs and
Speaker 1: the Dolphins, and the the stats in this game don't
Speaker 1: really matter, just the fact it was the first NFL
Speaker 1: game on Christmas Day. But it was about the length
Speaker 1: of the game that made things special. This game went
Speaker 1: to double overtime and gar are your Premian who was
Speaker 1: known for one of the greatest football follies of all
Speaker 1: time with you know, kicking the field goal in the
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl and knocking the ball up in
Speaker 1: the air. The game was tied at twenty four and
Speaker 1: your premier and kicked the game winning field goal with
Speaker 1: seven twenty left in double overtime. Alright, so the game
Speaker 1: is over at this point. It was the longest NFL
Speaker 1: game ever. It clocked in at three hours and twenty
Speaker 1: one minutes, which is an average NFL game in one.
Speaker 1: It was a long time, and there was such an
Speaker 1: outcry that it cut into Christmas Day. It prompted the
Speaker 1: NFL to not schedule another Christmas Day game until nine.
Speaker 1: You had a Kansas legislature go through and propose a
Speaker 1: bill to ban Christmas Day games for the NFL. That's
Speaker 1: how big a deal this one. Glad you said Christmas
Speaker 1: Day games because it's Sally, you said they're gonna ban
Speaker 1: Christmas Day. I'd love to know how many letters calls
Speaker 1: to the big switchboard operators whatever it was, or someone
Speaker 1: complaining to an owner directly who had some sway saying
Speaker 1: that this kind of worked against Christmas dinner. Here, come
Speaker 1: on now, I mean four, you're eating Christmas dinner at
Speaker 1: two o'clock. I mean, waits till that late Christmas? Not everybody,
Speaker 1: but but you can. You can watch the game or
Speaker 1: not watch the game. You know, it's it's a playoff game. Hey,
Speaker 1: this is nineteen seventy one. This is a big deal. Well,
Speaker 1: there were only three stations back then. It was NBCCBS.
Speaker 1: The point it's like, you know you this wasn't looking
Speaker 1: for a very special edition of Murder. You could wheeld
Speaker 1: the TV into the into the living room and dining room,
Speaker 1: but not everybody had fourteen TVs. Like I to do
Speaker 1: in the seventies and eighties was eat my dinner downstairs
Speaker 1: in front of the TV. When the Jets were actually
Speaker 1: had to teat while you were relegated to the basement.
Speaker 1: That was always the best part. Was was on a
Speaker 1: holiday or when the when the Jets were playing late
Speaker 1: and it was like seven o'clock because they were playing
Speaker 1: a four o'clock game, and I my grandmother was awesome.
Speaker 1: I'd go upstairs, get my big play to spaghetti. Whatever
Speaker 1: we g is usually spahetti on Sunday, spaghetti, glass of milk,
Speaker 1: whatever had, I got to bring it downstairs and eat
Speaker 1: downstairs and watch the game with my grandfather, which was
Speaker 1: that was the greatest thing in the world. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm getting to eat down I don't have to sit
Speaker 1: at the dinner table I could eat downstairs. I mean,
Speaker 1: now I'm in my forties and I eat wherever the
Speaker 1: hell I want to, so that that bit of regular
Speaker 1: it's kind of gone by the wayside a little bit,
Speaker 1: but still back then it was a treat. This would
Speaker 1: have been a treat for me. Oh, I get to
Speaker 1: eat Christmas dinner and watching it I watched, sure, absolutely
Speaker 1: everybody would celebrate it. Instead it goes uh in in
Speaker 1: the moth balls for quite some time. So that's the
Speaker 1: first big Christmas Day game the Dolphins play in it,
Speaker 1: and then the NFL doesn't have one for another seventeen years.
Speaker 1: But then in nine the Dolphins played another very memorable
Speaker 1: Christmas Day game, more so because of what it meant
Speaker 1: for head coach Don Shula than what happened on the field.
Speaker 1: The Lions played the Dolphins. Both teams were nine and
Speaker 1: five coming into this game. In and that year, I
Speaker 1: had Barry Sanders in Fantasy, but more importantly, I also
Speaker 1: had Bernie Parmelely in Fantasy. Like that, Bernie Parmeley was
Speaker 1: Fantasy relevant, and I remember how nervous I was about
Speaker 1: this game, having to my two running backs playing in
Speaker 1: the same game, and Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders, and Bernie
Speaker 1: Sanders said, how are we gonna pay for this? I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that college and everybody pay everybody.
Speaker 1: Barry Sanders had a bad game, but Bernie Parmly had
Speaker 1: three touchdowns and I was so excited, you know me
Speaker 1: Jets fan Dolphins. I'm like, oh, the Dolphins are winning,
Speaker 1: but hey, I need every one of those Bernie Parmley touchdowns.
Speaker 1: A brilliant is that? A guy who had seventeen for
Speaker 1: his career, seventeen rushing touchdowns and that was the year
Speaker 1: to have Bernie Parmly fantasy? What was it? What was
Speaker 1: nub What do the end of the year? What do
Speaker 1: you want to add? Six rushing touchdowns eight hundred sixty
Speaker 1: eight yards in ninety four and then in ninety five
Speaker 1: nine touchdowns eight hundred seventy eight yards. A little bit
Speaker 1: of work in the passing game. You know about forty
Speaker 1: catches in each of those years with one receiving touchdown.
Speaker 1: But yes, from a rushing perspective, he would go on
Speaker 1: from ninety six to ninety nine with zero rushing touchdowns,
Speaker 1: very few attempts to Those are the only two years
Speaker 1: where he really was the bell cow uh in the
Speaker 1: Miami offense. And now I said nine to five. I
Speaker 1: think both teams were nine and six going into this
Speaker 1: having having playoff holps. But this is not about both
Speaker 1: teams having playoff holps for me having Bernie Parmly, even
Speaker 1: though I tried to make it about but you're celebrating
Speaker 1: Bernie Parmly and his entire catalog. It's okay. But this
Speaker 1: was the day that Don Shula broke the NFL record
Speaker 1: for regular season victories, win number three hundred and nineteen
Speaker 1: of his NFL career. I mean, Don Shula was Bill
Speaker 1: Belichick before Bill Belichick. He didn't win as many Super
Speaker 1: Bowl titles, but he was a coach who started out
Speaker 1: coaching the Colts. I mean in the in the salad
Speaker 1: days of the NFL, when the Super Bowl first started.
Speaker 1: I don't forget. He coached the Colts, you know, and
Speaker 1: they lost to the Jets. They won the next year,
Speaker 1: and then he reinvents his team as a team that
Speaker 1: wins super Bowls in the seventies, achieves perfection behind a
Speaker 1: great defense and a great running game, and then he
Speaker 1: morphs into the air raid attack that he had with
Speaker 1: Dan Marino in the nineteen eighties into nineteen nineties, Don
Speaker 1: Shula was Bill Belichick, and you know, if you're old
Speaker 1: enough to remember his, boy, Don Shula would just find
Speaker 1: a way whatever players he had, he would move his
Speaker 1: system around to what fit. And that was a guy
Speaker 1: that look I at. Nineteen wins is three nineteen wins.
Speaker 1: You always had to get by Don Shula. You always
Speaker 1: had to get by him in the A f C.
Speaker 1: And I'd look up. I'd look up at Don Shula
Speaker 1: for most of my life. Then I look at at
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick's. That tells you what my sports life roun
Speaker 1: for you right there, when you when you get down
Speaker 1: to it and you think about where the game is
Speaker 1: now as a pass happy event, but also just that
Speaker 1: you have less than ten players in eighteen finished with
Speaker 1: a thousand rushing yards foren and beyond, we're probably looking
Speaker 1: at those numbers being about the same. You're not gonna
Speaker 1: suddenly have a resurgence. You know, they win the game.
Speaker 1: And it's not that it was the game that Don
Speaker 1: Shula broke the overall record, but it's kind of like baseball,
Speaker 1: where it was the records are really about the regular
Speaker 1: season because the postseason can't really count now he had
Speaker 1: broken the record for overall wins in but it was
Speaker 1: next year where he got win number three nineteen the
Speaker 1: regular season. In fact, Don Shula opened up a bunch
Speaker 1: of steakhouses across the country and they were Shula three
Speaker 1: nineteen because you know, he always called them that because
Speaker 1: of that. That was you know, that was that what
Speaker 1: that win meant to him, you know, doing that for
Speaker 1: the Miami Dolphins. And you know when it comes to
Speaker 1: Don Shula, you know, everybody seems to have a story
Speaker 1: about him. You want my Don Chula story, real face hit.
Speaker 1: This is this is also then lamenting the fact that
Speaker 1: he existed in your division. All No, this is this
Speaker 1: is great because this was me interviewing Bubba Smith back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three. I want to say, for
Speaker 1: a TV show on Fox of Fox Sports one now
Speaker 1: called the Sports List, it was like, I love the eighties,
Speaker 1: but for sports and we look back it was best
Speaker 1: Super Bowls, best shortstops, you know, best NBA Finals games.
Speaker 1: Where it was a list of the top ten best
Speaker 1: things of all time. So Bubba Smith comes in to
Speaker 1: do an interview. We're talking about best Super Bowls and
Speaker 1: Bubba Smith played on that Colts team that Don Shula
Speaker 1: coached that lost to the Jets and Super Bowl three.
Speaker 1: So he comes and he sits down, and I'm talking
Speaker 1: to Bubba Smith doing the pre interview stuff with him
Speaker 1: and East why I saw my Jets fan. He Jets
Speaker 1: fan and like he saw red. And he started telling
Speaker 1: me about how Super Bowl three was fixed and he
Speaker 1: knew it was fixed and he wanted to prove all
Speaker 1: of his life that the game was fixed. He said,
Speaker 1: I got into a cab after the game was over,
Speaker 1: and even the cab driver said to me, all the
Speaker 1: smart money was on the Jets. Everybody knew. He was
Speaker 1: really mad. He said. He went to the party after
Speaker 1: the game was over and other players were dancing. He
Speaker 1: was really mad. He told me got thrown out of
Speaker 1: the Dolphins post of the Colts post super Bowl party
Speaker 1: because he was really mad they lost the game. And
Speaker 1: I said, well, I said, whoa. I said, nobody said
Speaker 1: this about anything. It happened to me, because well, let
Speaker 1: me tell you what happened at halftime. For some reason,
Speaker 1: Don Shula put us in this different and these are
Speaker 1: this is Bubba Smith telling the story, and this this
Speaker 1: is me recalling it for him because he passed away.
Speaker 1: He said they had us do something different defensively that
Speaker 1: wasn't working. And I went to him a halftime and
Speaker 1: I said, put me here, put me back here, and
Speaker 1: I will dominate. Get in the backfield and stop the
Speaker 1: Jets what they're doing. And he wouldn't do it all.
Speaker 1: He said that he was shut up in play your position,
Speaker 1: and so he was really mad about that, and he
Speaker 1: wanted to prove the rest of his life that the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl was fixed. When we won the next year,
Speaker 1: I didn't feel the same because I felt like we
Speaker 1: should have had two. And I joked around with him
Speaker 1: and I said, well, after all, you're telling me right
Speaker 1: here I go kind of telling my life is a lie.
Speaker 1: And he looked at me. He said, well, your life
Speaker 1: is a lie. What do I have to look back
Speaker 1: at that? Yeah? I had the Christmas game in in
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven Bears at Packers. So you know, you said,
Speaker 1: let me it's just quick, because you know, you get
Speaker 1: excited that your team's playing on Christmas again. At some
Speaker 1: point you're done with family stories for the nine thousand time.
Speaker 1: Going through the photo albums, everybody's glutton eyes, some are drunk,
Speaker 1: whatever the case. Is, and then you watch Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: eviscerate your squad throwing five touchdown passes against Josh McCown
Speaker 1: and Khalil Bell in the backfield. Josh McCown who wasn't
Speaker 1: nearly at the end of his NFL career, yes, coaching
Speaker 1: high school football and still going. But yeah, Rogers five touchdowns,
Speaker 1: so it became one of us. All Right, I just
Speaker 1: don't want to go back to the story, so we're
Speaker 1: gonna grin and just deal with however bad this gets
Speaker 1: the only lost by four teen, but it was an eternity.
Speaker 1: Normally in the podcast, this is where we look back
Speaker 1: at the year that was, but I mean it's we're
Speaker 1: not looking back at the beginning of Christmas. It was okay,
Speaker 1: well we can do a little Jesus was born and
Speaker 1: they took him out of the manger on Christmas Day.
Speaker 1: There you had seventeen games between nine and two thousand seventeen.
Speaker 1: They actually moved the regular season by a week in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six because they didn't want to go on
Speaker 1: Christmas weekend. So a little bit there. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: there are four teams that are undefeated on Christmas Day.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Philadelphia Pittsburgh. Wow, well they boot Santa Claus,
Speaker 1: so they should do well on christ there they like
Speaker 1: to fight on Christmas Day. It's a small sample size,
Speaker 1: but two and oh Philly two and O Pittsburgh two
Speaker 1: and are one and no Chargers and one of no Jets.
Speaker 1: I know, I feel so happy about Yeah, yeah, there
Speaker 1: it is. There's your best statins where I can get them. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that's it. So, oh, there you go. There's the Special
Speaker 1: Teams Miami Dolphins Christmas. What about the NBA? We actually
Speaker 1: got two teams coming your way next on the podcast
Speaker 1: that did Special Things on It is Special Teams with
Speaker 1: Jason Smith and Mike Harmon from Fox Sports Radio, as
Speaker 1: we take you through a very special edition of our
Speaker 1: Special Teams podcast today. This is a Christmas Day edition.
Speaker 1: As we get near the holidays, you want to look
Speaker 1: back at some of the special teams that did good
Speaker 1: things on Christmas Day. Well, that's what we're doing here
Speaker 1: for you today. We talked about the Miami Dolphins what
Speaker 1: they did on Christmas Day. The NFL, they didn't play
Speaker 1: for a long time. Christmas Day is now owned by
Speaker 1: the National Basketball Association. For many people, it's the real
Speaker 1: official beginning of the NBA season with NFL and full
Speaker 1: swing when the NBA tips off in October. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: takes a long time for the NBA to get to
Speaker 1: the limelight. Now the past few years with all the
Speaker 1: stars going on, basically they have Opening Night almost every
Speaker 1: night during the week, all Lebron is playing, the Clippers
Speaker 1: are playing, Janice is playing. But Christmas Day, for the
Speaker 1: longest time was the big first day of the year
Speaker 1: on the NBA calendar, and we have two teams that
Speaker 1: did special things, the Heat and the Lakers. Let's first
Speaker 1: go back to two thousand and four where the Lakers
Speaker 1: squared off against the Heat in a much ballyhooed Christmas
Speaker 1: Day game because this was Shack versus Kobe for the
Speaker 1: first time. The Lakers were coming off losing the NBA
Speaker 1: Finals to the Detroit Pistons. Shack finds his way out,
Speaker 1: gives traded to the Miami Heat. We knew Shack and
Speaker 1: Kobe didn't like each other. What was gonna happen as
Speaker 1: they faced off for the very first time as adversaries.
Speaker 1: They did shake hands before the game. A video tribute
Speaker 1: for Shaquille O'Neal was played, but he said he didn't
Speaker 1: watch it. This was Shack being really mad at the Lakers,
Speaker 1: met at Jerry Bus for not giving him the maximum
Speaker 1: extension that he wanted a year before, still mad about
Speaker 1: what they did to Phil Jackson because Phil Jackson was
Speaker 1: dismissed after they lost to the Pistons in the finals.
Speaker 1: Kobe is getting the blame for Shack leaving. He was
Speaker 1: more beloved, you know, Kobe was the harder worker. And
Speaker 1: now it kind of went in the reverse because Shaq
Speaker 1: is coming in as the villain and the Lakers, who
Speaker 1: always had embraced Kobe kind of an arms length because
Speaker 1: they loved Shack so much. Now I had to say, okay,
Speaker 1: Kobe's our guy. And this was a really great game.
Speaker 1: Shack fouled out in the fourth quarter. Kobe foul him
Speaker 1: out by driving on him and fouling him out. You know,
Speaker 1: Shaq had that big quote before the game when they
Speaker 1: asked him what was gonna happen if you know Kobe
Speaker 1: drove the lane on you, and Shack said, well, what
Speaker 1: happens when a corvette runs into a brick wall. So
Speaker 1: that was a very big thing from shock Um. Shack
Speaker 1: had twenty four and eleven rebounds. Kobe had forty two,
Speaker 1: but he missed a three at the buzzer and overtime.
Speaker 1: Dwyane Wade was the one who had the big game
Speaker 1: twenty nine points and ten assists. And this game was
Speaker 1: the first one that really jump started the NBA on
Speaker 1: Christmas Day tradition because they played on Christmas Day where
Speaker 1: but this was where wait a minute, we have a
Speaker 1: marquee matchup to look forward to in the NBA realized,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, we can own Christmas Day. This is
Speaker 1: pretty cool. That's it. Going into the history of it
Speaker 1: and as we do and and looking at old box
Speaker 1: scores and some great highlights and and write ups, and
Speaker 1: they've been playing on Christmas Day as as early as
Speaker 1: but the evolution we talked about the NFL a little
Speaker 1: earlier in the podcast and how they kind of danced
Speaker 1: around it, didn't quite want to embrace it. There was
Speaker 1: blowback for the NBA over time, it became a tradition.
Speaker 1: But when you had Kobe and Shack, I mean, everybody
Speaker 1: just wanted to watch how they'd interact with one another,
Speaker 1: not exactly the best of you know, handshakes, depth, whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it, A little mean mug and
Speaker 1: going on and look, I'm still the big brother kind
Speaker 1: of feeling from Shaquille O'Neal and the fact that they
Speaker 1: followed him out on Christmas Day. Man, come on, that
Speaker 1: Kobe fouled him out, well, but but I mean that
Speaker 1: they called six falls on them. How often when you
Speaker 1: watch it, and and dear listener, when you watch an
Speaker 1: NBA game, you go, yeah, this guy should have been
Speaker 1: gone to the third quarter star rules as it goes,
Speaker 1: But not on Christmas Day. Back in two thousand four, No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: not so fast. So that's the first special teams game
Speaker 1: between the Heat and the Lakers. Now we fast forward
Speaker 1: to two thousand and ten, a much different Lakers team,
Speaker 1: a much different Heat team. This is a Lakers team
Speaker 1: that had now been led specifically by Kobe Bryant for
Speaker 1: a while, and they had won a couple of championships.
Speaker 1: Now this was how long can this run happen? Phil
Speaker 1: Jackson was back as Lakers head coach. He was a
Speaker 1: very different vibe as the Lakers navig aided most of
Speaker 1: the odds until you got to the late part of
Speaker 1: the odds with boy, when is his team going to
Speaker 1: get better? They had a couple of really down years.
Speaker 1: But now they went to back to back final, back
Speaker 1: to back to back finals, and they won. It was
Speaker 1: a very big deal and now the Lakers were suddenly, hey,
Speaker 1: wud beat the Magic, beat the Celtics. Everything is good. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: for the Miami Heat, this was their first year with
Speaker 1: Lebron James. How things were going. It was rough going
Speaker 1: at first for the Miami Heat because they didn't win
Speaker 1: as much as they expected. Dwayne Wade was very upset.
Speaker 1: Everybody hates us. I can't believe it, but everybody wanted
Speaker 1: to see this Christmas Day game between the Heat and
Speaker 1: the Lakers. The Lebron backlash at this point was about
Speaker 1: at its highest level because the Heat weren't playing great
Speaker 1: and many people were very unhappy that Lebron James decided
Speaker 1: to do this basically say oh, look, you took the
Speaker 1: NBA away from all the other teams by saying, hey,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna team up here and play. Many fans
Speaker 1: thought it wasn't fair, but at the same time it
Speaker 1: was can't guys go play wherever they want to? But
Speaker 1: the point is the backlash for Lebron James was about
Speaker 1: at its highest on Christmas Day so much so that
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody who wasn't a Heat fan that
Speaker 1: wasn't rooting for the Lakers. How many people it aren't
Speaker 1: Lakers fans route for the Lakers and games. This is
Speaker 1: where you hate watched on both sides if you were
Speaker 1: not a fan of either. Lebron had a triple double
Speaker 1: in the game, and just like the first best Christmas
Speaker 1: Day game that we talked about, Heat won that one,
Speaker 1: one oh four, one oh two. As I said, Kobe
Speaker 1: missing a three at the buzzer, the Heat pull away
Speaker 1: to win this one nine six to eighty, and that's
Speaker 1: where you kind of realized maybe the Heat are gonna
Speaker 1: kind of get it together at some point. Obviously they did.
Speaker 1: They went all the way to the NBA Finals. The Lakers, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: as back to back champions. This is when they got
Speaker 1: ushered out of the playoffs very shockingly by Dirk Novitsky
Speaker 1: in the Dallas Mavericks. This is whoa look at what
Speaker 1: the Mavericks just did to the Lakers. How the hell
Speaker 1: did this happen? Lakers have been a three five, What
Speaker 1: the hell just happened to them? This was a very
Speaker 1: shocking finish for them, and then the Mavericks would go
Speaker 1: on to the NBA Finals where they took on the Heat.
Speaker 1: We talked about this u in a previous podcast as well.
Speaker 1: If you want to hear about the Meet the Heatles season,
Speaker 1: you can find that as well. And special Teams, well,
Speaker 1: one of the the great runs that four year period
Speaker 1: that they played together. But here was the coming out
Speaker 1: party and an absolute thumping of this Lakers squad. I mean,
Speaker 1: you saw Kobe Bryant struggling just six of sixteen in
Speaker 1: the game, never really was able to put his imprint
Speaker 1: upon it. They looked for other scores, Paul Gasol who
Speaker 1: had a fantastic NBA run that ended in but certainly
Speaker 1: this was the time for Lebron James to take that
Speaker 1: next step. So there's the Heat and the Lakers. Christmas
Speaker 1: Day Special Teams coming up next, a pot pourri of
Speaker 1: special teams to celebrate certain teams had great performances on
Speaker 1: December twenty will also do a little bit of where
Speaker 1: are they now? Not for Christmas Day. Christmas Day is
Speaker 1: always on the twenty five, but some things that we
Speaker 1: used to have on Christmas Day that we don't have anymore.
Speaker 1: That's coming up next, right, here show teams Jason Smith
Speaker 1: and Mike Army. Happy Holidays. Hopefully you're enjoying this look
Speaker 1: back at big performances on Christmas Day's past. A very
Speaker 1: bit of a wrinkle here. In our Special Teams podcast
Speaker 1: that we have going on here, we talked about the
Speaker 1: Heat and the Lakers, the Miami Dolphins. A little potpourri
Speaker 1: we have for you right now. I love, I love
Speaker 1: just saying potpourri. The first game we'll look back at
Speaker 1: special Teams the two thousand three Hawaii Ball, which featured
Speaker 1: Hawaii and Houston. This game was a one of those
Speaker 1: typical West Coast shootout type games. Hawaii beats Houston forty
Speaker 1: eight and overtime. Timmy Chang had a big game equipment.
Speaker 1: This is back when when Hawaii would go through Timmy
Speaker 1: Chang and Nick Rolovich and every guy would come in
Speaker 1: and throw for like five yards in every single game.
Speaker 1: Colt Brennan look at one quarterback after the next, and
Speaker 1: then they'd come to the NFL. See, I'd love to
Speaker 1: see those guys playing in today's NFL. They were about
Speaker 1: ten years too fast, uh, Timmy changing through for four
Speaker 1: seventy five and five touchdowns. The big Game for Houston
Speaker 1: was six week Fantasy Superstar about nine years ago. Jackie
Speaker 1: Battle Kansas City Chiefs, right, who ran for a hundred
Speaker 1: twenty four yards and three touchdowns. There were that six
Speaker 1: weeks when Jackie Butt. Look at Jackie Battle, gotta get
Speaker 1: him in fat I remember doing all those waiver wire
Speaker 1: pickup shows. Yeah, Jackie Battle, you gotta stick with him.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just because this game was this is
Speaker 1: a very famous game. He could find the end of
Speaker 1: it on YouTube in which the team's fought at midfield
Speaker 1: after the game and one player, i mean there were shouting,
Speaker 1: punches were being thrown in. One player through his helmet
Speaker 1: at at somebody. You can say, I'm just gonna throw
Speaker 1: my helmet at you. And one on Houston went all
Speaker 1: Miles Garrett on a player on who White, taking off
Speaker 1: his helmet and swinging over the top at him. You
Speaker 1: do this at the college level. I mean there's been
Speaker 1: a couple of fights, but at the end of the
Speaker 1: college football season, some wide receivers and cornerbacks game like
Speaker 1: nothing compared to what bedlam, right. I mean, you got
Speaker 1: Dave Barnett who was just like this is just sad,
Speaker 1: Like there's just no other way to describe it, like
Speaker 1: you're not calling it like it's a wrestling match. Just
Speaker 1: sitting behind the microphone, going, my god, what am I watching?
Speaker 1: Is this is? This is gonna be a load of
Speaker 1: stuff to unload. Hunt classic game, right, triple ot all
Speaker 1: of the greatness and the pageantry that his college football,
Speaker 1: and then that in two thousand to the Las Vegas
Speaker 1: Bowl u c l A beating New Mexico State. Okay,
Speaker 1: you still winning a bowl game is very noteworthy now
Speaker 1: because they don't do that that often. But now they're not.
Speaker 1: Why we're looking back, But Katie Nida was the first
Speaker 1: woman to play in D one college football. She kicked
Speaker 1: an extra point after a touchdown for New Mexico State,
Speaker 1: but it got blocked. She also went on to kick
Speaker 1: two extra points first North Texas State the next year.
Speaker 1: But this was the first time we saw a woman
Speaker 1: play in D one college football. This has now become
Speaker 1: a topic of conversation. Now you're you're going ahead seventeen
Speaker 1: years because Carly Lloyd wants to try out for the NFL.
Speaker 1: She went and had that big kicking audition with the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Eagles in the summer of twenty and Eventually we're
Speaker 1: gonna see a woman kick in the NFL. I firmly
Speaker 1: believe it because we're in an age now where look,
Speaker 1: players don't care what your sexual orientation is. They don't
Speaker 1: care anything. Can you play well? Players now are coming
Speaker 1: up the younger players. They don't care about things that
Speaker 1: so many older people cared about. If a woman can
Speaker 1: kick a fifty five yard field goal with the kind
Speaker 1: of accuracy that Justin Tucker has, doesn't matter. They will
Speaker 1: find a place for on the team. And I can
Speaker 1: see a player winning a job kicking in preseason. A Wow,
Speaker 1: this woman kicks sixty yard field goals like it's nothing.
Speaker 1: Of course she's gonna kick for But what do we
Speaker 1: do week to week? We watch abject failures trotted out
Speaker 1: by number of numerous teams, and without going deep into
Speaker 1: the ten roster of bad kickers, because there are ample,
Speaker 1: including some some future Hall of famers who are going
Speaker 1: through terrible years. I mean Adam Vinetaria has been awful
Speaker 1: for much of The Patriots have a new kicker every week,
Speaker 1: right appendectomy signed a guy off the street, Mrs A
Speaker 1: p A t done that. It's like a TV show.
Speaker 1: And this week our special guest star. Is it's The Bachelor, right, No,
Speaker 1: it's the seventies TV show. It's it's one of those
Speaker 1: positions that seemingly it's throwaway. Right, We've always joked about
Speaker 1: it in fantasy. Oh, they should elimit. It's like, No,
Speaker 1: it's it's a very important facet of the game. And
Speaker 1: as the NFL has most games decided by seven or
Speaker 1: fewer points, it is become even more of a specialty. Yes,
Speaker 1: people can kick further, but not necessarily with the same accuracy.
Speaker 1: So yes, if if a woman like Katie did to
Speaker 1: or whoever else comes through, Carly Lloyd, whomever, if you
Speaker 1: can kick accurately, you're gonna get a shot. So there's
Speaker 1: your special teams on Christmas Day? What about Where are
Speaker 1: they now? Are some things we used to see on
Speaker 1: Christmas A couple of them that we don't have anymore?
Speaker 1: Where are they now? Where is the National Hockey League
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day? They have not played on Christmas Day
Speaker 1: since nineteen seventy one. They did not want to mess
Speaker 1: around with the holiday. Remember, the majority of the NFL
Speaker 1: is also Canadian and Boxing Day NHL Boxing Day on
Speaker 1: Canada is so they've decided we're not gonna play. They
Speaker 1: haven't played since nineteen seventy one. But honestly, the NHL
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day sort of makes sense, right. I mean
Speaker 1: we're talking about lacing them up, getting out there, putting
Speaker 1: the parkers on and hanging out. Now. They do a
Speaker 1: good job on New Year's Day, a lot of fast,
Speaker 1: expantas plastic. But yes, it doesn't make much sense. And
Speaker 1: again you're looking for all the action, uh, in sporting
Speaker 1: events that you can along the way. The last game,
Speaker 1: UH nineteen one got a great quote from Butch Goring,
Speaker 1: played in that last game, Stanley Cup champions sixteen years
Speaker 1: in the league, told NHL dot Com this quote. It's
Speaker 1: time when you're really not in the mood to play hoffs.
Speaker 1: He works for the Islanders. Uh, you grew up as kids,
Speaker 1: even Boxing Day in Canada, it's time to relax and
Speaker 1: enjoy what you did the night before, recovering from what
Speaker 1: you did the night before. When you grow up with
Speaker 1: that concept, it's tough to get yourself. What what what do
Speaker 1: you mean? What am I doing Christmas? I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: hammered on Christmas Eve. It's Christmas Day on Boxing Day? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's basically what you said. I mean because
Speaker 1: remember the NHL also now has the moratorium on transaction
Speaker 1: during that week to try to be more family oriented,
Speaker 1: not to have guys bouncing around. Ah, you just got
Speaker 1: cut on Christmas. Even Christmas GM was in the middle
Speaker 1: of he got a piece of pie eated likes and
Speaker 1: you know what that last defenseman called, he's done. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we need you to go to Binghamton. You've been cutting now.
Speaker 1: I know one thing you miss a lot. We haven't
Speaker 1: seen since two thousand and three. Yeah, the Blue Gray game,
Speaker 1: you know, for the degenerates out there. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: no question about it. It was a big deal. Sixty
Speaker 1: four games played Christmas Day all the time, and we
Speaker 1: got excited about it. Always had a side and you
Speaker 1: had some activity all the way through. There was a
Speaker 1: game all the way through two thousand one. It was
Speaker 1: playing annually. They missed two thousand two because Kelly Tires said,
Speaker 1: we're not sponsoring. Well, we don't have a sponsored So
Speaker 1: they did it one last time in Montgomery. But some
Speaker 1: notables to have played in it, Howie Long when at Villanova,
Speaker 1: Joe Morris, uh Len Dawson bart Star, Jerry Rice was
Speaker 1: the game MVP with a hundred one yards two touchdowns.
Speaker 1: So back when, and that was also back when you
Speaker 1: didn't see college football all star games. It was kind
Speaker 1: of fun scene, right, a lot of these guys you
Speaker 1: read it, you'd read about in the Sunday morning paper,
Speaker 1: you look at box scores, maybe there'd be a write
Speaker 1: up of guys in other conferences. Right. Growing up in Chicago, yeah,
Speaker 1: we had a lot of Big ten coverage on the
Speaker 1: local newscasts, but it's not like yet a twenty four
Speaker 1: hour cable channel dedicated to the network like you do now.
Speaker 1: And certainly you didn't have this great scope of what
Speaker 1: Jerry Rice was doing at Mississippi Valley State or any
Speaker 1: of those type of schools. So you'd see the name going,
Speaker 1: wait minute, this guy's catching he's doing what is this
Speaker 1: a week week basis? He's doing what And you see
Speaker 1: the you know, the national leaders, and we're all these
Speaker 1: players from these colleges like, all right, find them on
Speaker 1: the map. For one, if they didn't have the state
Speaker 1: or directional it's also big for them too because it
Speaker 1: was Hey, it's like now having a good Senior Bowl. Hey,
Speaker 1: they had a good Blue Gray game. Yeah, back then,
Speaker 1: I mean, that was a big part of showing up
Speaker 1: and having your opportunity to showcase your talent against other
Speaker 1: seniors because I I used always root for the blue.
Speaker 1: Blue is a better color than gray, so I'd vote
Speaker 1: for the blue. Alright, games Gray thirty three Blue, two ties. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how it goes, two ties as you go run
Speaker 1: for the losers, all right, So you want one more
Speaker 1: good little random note from the NBA. The Charlotte Hornets
Speaker 1: slash Bobcats and the Memphis Grizzlies slash Vancouver Grizzlies have
Speaker 1: never played on Christmas Day, the only two teams to
Speaker 1: never at least get one invite to the dance. We'll
Speaker 1: have to reinvite the Vancouver Grizzlies to the league, move
Speaker 1: remove the franchise and then invite them on Christmas Day.
Speaker 1: This big country reeves come along with it and Sharif
Speaker 1: ab do a raheem. Yes, well you have to have Sharifa.
Speaker 1: So there it is. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is our Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike
Speaker 1: Rmon Christmas Day edition of the Special Teams podcast, where
Speaker 1: we look back at what some special teams did on
Speaker 1: the holiday. Just something a little bit different for you.
Speaker 1: As we get to the Uld Tide season, you hit
Speaker 1: us up on Twitter at how about a Fresco? Mike
Speaker 1: is at Swollen Dome. Our show on Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: has heard Monday through Friday seven pm to eleven pm Pacific,
Speaker 1: ten pm to two am on the East Coast. You
Speaker 1: want to hit us up, let us know what team
Speaker 1: you would like us to cover four Special Teams enjoy
Speaker 1: everything between now and the end of two thousand and nineteen.
Speaker 1: Before you go, rate and review the show. Whether you're
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Speaker 1: Um Special Teams is a production of I heart Radio.
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