Speaker 1: Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
Speaker 1: Mike Harmon, a podcast where we look back at a
Speaker 1: specific year in sports and the special teams that did
Speaker 1: something really big that year. Today, we're continuing our run
Speaker 1: of big games from the eighties. Hey, We've got a
Speaker 1: lot of notes from from you saying, hey, let's go
Speaker 1: back before the es. How about some stuff in the
Speaker 1: eighties and seventies you ask, we provide. This episode, we
Speaker 1: look back at one of the forgotten classics, not so
Speaker 1: much for the way the game was played, but the
Speaker 1: circumstances surrounding it. The one A f C Championship game
Speaker 1: between the Cincinnati Bengals and the San Diego Chargers, better
Speaker 1: known as the Freezer Bowl, the coldest game in NFL history. Yes,
Speaker 1: the Ice Bowl was cold, the famous game with the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers winning over the Dallas Cowboys. However, this game,
Speaker 1: the air temperature was minus nine degrees fahrenheit. But when
Speaker 1: you add in the wind chill factor with you with
Speaker 1: a sustained twenty seven mile an hour wind, it comes
Speaker 1: in at thirty seven or thirty eight degrees below zero.
Speaker 1: They played Chicago and winners. Growing up, Yeah in Chicago,
Speaker 1: you go to the beach on days like that, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: no question. So minus thirty eight degrees fahrenheit was the
Speaker 1: temperature of this game, the coldest game in NFL history,
Speaker 1: factoring in wind chill January the Cincinnati Bengals in the
Speaker 1: San Diego Chargers. And this game gets lost, uh, sometimes
Speaker 1: because of what surrounded it, because the week before this, hey,
Speaker 1: how did the Chargers get to this game? Well, the game,
Speaker 1: widely regardless has the greatest game in modern NFL history,
Speaker 1: the win over the Miami Dolphins. Kellen Winslow coming off
Speaker 1: the field carried by his teammates. We've seen that done
Speaker 1: so many different ways, the hook and ladder touchdown for
Speaker 1: the first half for the Miami Dolphins, and later on
Speaker 1: today on this day, jan U Joe Montana would throw
Speaker 1: a touchdown pass to Dwight Clark in the back of
Speaker 1: the end zone that would also be known as the catch.
Speaker 1: So you can understand where this game got lost a
Speaker 1: little bit because you have the pageantry of one of
Speaker 1: the greatest games the week before, then you had one
Speaker 1: of the greatest games following this with one of the
Speaker 1: greatest endings. And while this game wasn't close on the field,
Speaker 1: certainly everything that goes around it, Uh, it makes it
Speaker 1: stand out. And when we talk about the Charge and
Speaker 1: the struggles they had in this game, it really stands out.
Speaker 1: Well you look at that the other game, the Miami
Speaker 1: San Diego game forty eight, as you said, I mean
Speaker 1: it also puts Don Strock and Von Schalman you know,
Speaker 1: to the wayside. So he was a lead singer motor head,
Speaker 1: right Van Shaman, he and let me kill mmr uh
Speaker 1: their moments of training vocals now and now again. Shaman
Speaker 1: was the lead singer of Accept, the Big Band from
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties. Yeah, that's right, that's right, training vocals
Speaker 1: supergroup as it were. But yeah, Jim Boston, sorry, go ahead, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you get the the greatness of those games surrounding it. Uh.
Speaker 1: It takes nothing away from people, uh freezing while watching
Speaker 1: your football game or which is one of the great
Speaker 1: rites of passage as as you float through, no question
Speaker 1: about it. So this game to give you a little
Speaker 1: background on both of these teams. The San Diego Chargers,
Speaker 1: this was the middle of their era of boy the
Speaker 1: high scoring, high flying, doing it away that we haven't
Speaker 1: seen anybody in the NFL do it this up and
Speaker 1: down the field on offense throwing the football as often
Speaker 1: as they did, and it was new and they were
Speaker 1: the only team that really did it like this in
Speaker 1: the NFL. And the question was always can you win
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl throwing the football like this? Right? That
Speaker 1: was the bad and I mean now it's you gotta
Speaker 1: throw the football to win the Super Bowl, but back
Speaker 1: then it was can you really win throwing the football
Speaker 1: this much? Don't you need to have a power running
Speaker 1: game where you hold onto the football and thing? Can
Speaker 1: you really win by going up and down the field
Speaker 1: with all these all this crazy wide open offense. There
Speaker 1: was a big discrepancy and big discussion about that, and
Speaker 1: the Chargers were the team that was going to render
Speaker 1: the verdict on this. If the Chargers can win the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, it could be done. But if they can't,
Speaker 1: then you know, high flying offenses still are don't have
Speaker 1: their place in the a f L, where the Chargers
Speaker 1: came from, where they had to sell tickets and guys
Speaker 1: throwing the football. That was one thing, But this is
Speaker 1: the National Football League and this, in retrospect was the
Speaker 1: best chance for the Chargers to prove their point and
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl. They come into this game. Dan
Speaker 1: Fouts is all world at quarterback at this point, Charlie Joyner,
Speaker 1: Kellen Winslow, West Chandler is terrific. J Brooks who led
Speaker 1: the NFL in total yards as a rookie, Chuck Munsey
Speaker 1: led the NFL and touchdowns. I mean, they were unstoppable.
Speaker 1: This team was so unstoppable, and maybe more importantly, they
Speaker 1: had lightning bolts on their pants, which really that's the
Speaker 1: way that was. That's the you know what, what's the
Speaker 1: old line? Uh, it's from Catch Me if you can.
Speaker 1: You know why? Why the why the Yankees have such
Speaker 1: an advantage. It's the uniforms. People just can't stop looking
Speaker 1: at the pin stripes. Well, I would wear if I could,
Speaker 1: and I like, I would wear tight pants that had
Speaker 1: lightning bolts up and down them if I could stop you.
Speaker 1: If you have any creativity in your soul whatsoever, and
Speaker 1: a couple of bucks in your pocket, you could make
Speaker 1: this hat. Listen, I'm not going on Pinterest to try
Speaker 1: to find something. I'm just not doing it right. If
Speaker 1: I can you give me this size, I'll have them
Speaker 1: for your next fight. You can't find it on eBay.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go. Look, man, I'm gonna upgrade those
Speaker 1: zoobaz pants you've been wearing for the last thirty years,
Speaker 1: and we'll get you those lightning bolts. If you want
Speaker 1: lightning bolts on your pants, man, I'll make sure that happens.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to the dark Web to find lightning
Speaker 1: bolts on pants. That's how I'm gonna do it. I
Speaker 1: don't think you need the dark Web. I don't think
Speaker 1: you need to open come. You might descrub your browser.
Speaker 1: I don't need to. Okay, Well all right then, well
Speaker 1: you know, challenge accepted. So for the next special teams,
Speaker 1: you gotta tell me where that is. Then I will
Speaker 1: find them lightning bolts on pants so or otherwise I'll
Speaker 1: just custom design them. Man. Oh well, put your name
Speaker 1: in the lightning bolts. Oh see, now if you can customize,
Speaker 1: and that would be pretty cool that I'd kind of like. Alright,
Speaker 1: Uh So this was Air Correel. This is them at
Speaker 1: their at their biggest peaked on Corriel who brought this
Speaker 1: offense in with him through to the NFL and the Chargers.
Speaker 1: Really they only were ten and six on the season,
Speaker 1: but you felt like they were always gonna win games
Speaker 1: in the final two minutes. They were, They were always
Speaker 1: up and down the field. They were fun to watch
Speaker 1: and and you always went to this game going, boy,
Speaker 1: if we don't have our a game going, they're gonna
Speaker 1: blow us out because of the way they like to
Speaker 1: play football. But I think that's one of the you
Speaker 1: meant and kind of how we look at this team
Speaker 1: in historical terms. Right, we had the fight over don
Speaker 1: kore Yell in the Hall of Fame. Oh yeah, right,
Speaker 1: and in the end they only won of his games, right,
Speaker 1: and and not to dismiss it, he's above five hundred, great,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't dominant, right when you talk about innovation
Speaker 1: and things that are setting everybody's hair on fire. For
Speaker 1: all the yardage, for all the spreading it out with
Speaker 1: the myriad weapons you had in this offense, and some
Speaker 1: of the great names from strata matic football history, no
Speaker 1: question about it. Where you wanted to march up and
Speaker 1: down the field, this was the team to do it.
Speaker 1: Who do you got I'm gonna be the Chargers. Questions
Speaker 1: had that won games in strata matic, not necessarily on
Speaker 1: the NFL Gridirons sixty nine and fifty six for his
Speaker 1: career with the Charges, seven and one in St. Louis
Speaker 1: before that. So that's why you always have this battle.
Speaker 1: I mean, they scored almost thirty points a game this year,
Speaker 1: twenty nine point nine four hundred seventy eight points and
Speaker 1: they were ten and six. But could this team that
Speaker 1: throws the football and plays on the West Coast in
Speaker 1: the sunshine, could their game travel? Because that's the other
Speaker 1: part of the equation was, hey, can you play this
Speaker 1: kind of offense in the playoffs in the cold weather?
Speaker 1: Can you win games like this? Those two those are
Speaker 1: the two number one and number two things people always
Speaker 1: ask can the Chargers do it? And they were gonna
Speaker 1: and there was no bigger challenge than this. You're talking
Speaker 1: about the coldest game in the history of the NFL.
Speaker 1: Congratulations Chargers. This is what you have to do in
Speaker 1: Cincinnati to get to the super Bowl. And oh, by
Speaker 1: the way, the Bengals, this is the year they put
Speaker 1: it all together. This was a really, really solid team, right.
Speaker 1: Dan Ross was a terrific tight end. Chris Collinsworth was
Speaker 1: a rookie. You could already tell he was going to
Speaker 1: be a star. And it's fun. I forgot how Collinsworth
Speaker 1: used to when he would line up. He used to
Speaker 1: just before the ball was snapped, he used to flail
Speaker 1: his arms back and forth. You always know it was him.
Speaker 1: He used to do that all the time, you know,
Speaker 1: for getting fed about guys with no motion. He would
Speaker 1: always do that as as as he would get ready
Speaker 1: for the snap. So that was always fun. But they
Speaker 1: had Pete Johnson who ran for a thousand yards and
Speaker 1: sixteen touchdowns. Anthony Monios is the greatest offensive lineman of
Speaker 1: all time. They really put it all together. Forest greg
Speaker 1: was the head coach who, oh, by the way, played
Speaker 1: in the Ice Bowl, so he had the unfortunate experience
Speaker 1: of having to play in the two Colden's games in
Speaker 1: NFL history. But it's funny. Forest Greg, though, is a
Speaker 1: guy that I always associated as the Packers coach right
Speaker 1: right exactly, even though he had more years in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: To me, he was always the Packers coach, just me.
Speaker 1: With all of this going on, the head of the
Speaker 1: snake of this team was quarterback Kenny Anderson. And there
Speaker 1: was no more shocking ascent than Kenny Anderson. This year
Speaker 1: in the NFL. He was the top rated passer in
Speaker 1: the league. He was the m v P. He was
Speaker 1: the come from behind are the comeback player of the year.
Speaker 1: He had always been a good, solid quarterback into the
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl a couple of times. Cincinnati was decent in
Speaker 1: the early nineteen seventies, early to mid nineteen seventy Cincinnati
Speaker 1: won a few games at playoff games. They had three
Speaker 1: ten win seasons, and then they were terrible. And when
Speaker 1: they were terrible, Anderson was terrible. I can't believe he
Speaker 1: stayed with them. I can't believe they kept him as
Speaker 1: a quarterback. He was awful in nineteen eighty awful, nine
Speaker 1: ten touchdowns, twenty two picks. He was how do you
Speaker 1: stay there quiet that point, he'd been in the legal while.
Speaker 1: How do you not say, okay, maybe time for a
Speaker 1: change in quarterback? And then he got all the way
Speaker 1: to the nineteen six I know, and he played. I
Speaker 1: mean it was unbelievable, like he had Like I get it.
Speaker 1: You have a couple of good years while you young,
Speaker 1: so you get the benefit of the data as you
Speaker 1: get older, but usually that's as a backup. And you know,
Speaker 1: this is where, Nope, he's still gonna be. Our starters
Speaker 1: are are you kidding me? And then in one he
Speaker 1: throws twenty nine touchdowns thirty eight hundred yards, all career highs.
Speaker 1: He never approached those numbers before that year or after
Speaker 1: that year. It's like he was efficient the following two years.
Speaker 1: Like if this was the two seventy one percent completion,
Speaker 1: if he was a baseball player, you would say, oh,
Speaker 1: that's the year that they were banging the trash can.
Speaker 1: And he knew exactly what was going on. He knew,
Speaker 1: he knew what the play was, he knew what kind
Speaker 1: of defense they were in because they banged the trash
Speaker 1: can like for the Astros. But that that was the
Speaker 1: meteoric rise of Kenny Anderson. If his if his career
Speaker 1: was a grand it would be flat flight flat flave,
Speaker 1: flat up, a little bit flat five, flat up, a
Speaker 1: litt bit flaight flight flight flight flat down, down, down, down, down, straight,
Speaker 1: all the way up to the top, straight, all the
Speaker 1: way down the bottom flat flight flight flight flight flight flat.
Speaker 1: That's Anderson. Yeah, that's the guy. That's the rumor that
Speaker 1: you got the big innovation that everybody's looking for. So
Speaker 1: the stock pops and then you failed to meet earnings
Speaker 1: the next quarter. Uh, and you go right back up
Speaker 1: the charts. Twenty nine touchdowns in eight one for his career.
Speaker 1: He was there from seventy one to eighty six, amazing.
Speaker 1: He grew more than twenty touchdowns once one one other
Speaker 1: time back in nineteen seventy five, nineteen, the year after,
Speaker 1: and that eleven, ten, sixteen, And he played most most years.
Speaker 1: He played in almost all games. So it wasn't like
Speaker 1: he was down in the you know, Jim McMahon era
Speaker 1: and guys like that that were contemporaries where you were
Speaker 1: gonna miss a bunch of games along the way. No,
Speaker 1: he played, uh and just didn't excel. How's that for
Speaker 1: being kind? No, that was good. You played and didn't excel.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate that. Just go out there. It's
Speaker 1: like Jennifer Anderston, Hey, we're gonna give you another script
Speaker 1: for romantic comedy. Is it gonna be good? It's gonna stink? Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: we'll keep giving him to you. You lead Jennifer Anderston alone,
Speaker 1: she's an American treasure. Did she go to Northwestern? No? Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: So I I have no tie to her other than
Speaker 1: just um my love of her. That's nice night. Thanks,
Speaker 1: for that and we had that water that was the
Speaker 1: billboard right by our exit for work for a while,
Speaker 1: so when I get stopped at that light, I could smile.
Speaker 1: So fortunately that sets the table completely for the Freezer Bowl.
Speaker 1: What happened next and what happened to the players following
Speaker 1: this game, coldest game in NFL history, the Freezer Bowl?
Speaker 1: Why did the Chargers have so many problems? We'll tell
Speaker 1: you coming up next January, Cincinnati Riverfront Stadium. Dick Enberg
Speaker 1: and Merlin Olson on the call. Minus nine degrees minus
Speaker 1: thirty eight degrees when you factor in the windshill factor.
Speaker 1: The Freezer Bowl, the coldest game in NFL history, was
Speaker 1: set to kick off, and the players knew right away
Speaker 1: this was gonna be unlike any game they ever played.
Speaker 1: Hank Bower, who had gone out for the Chargers to
Speaker 1: warm up before game, do a bit of running and
Speaker 1: come back in, actually told his teammates when he came
Speaker 1: back in, guys, listen, um, whatever layers you're wearing, take
Speaker 1: them off, because they're just gonna slow you down and
Speaker 1: it's not gonna help anyway, because it's just that cold out.
Speaker 1: And you can mentioned Merlin Olson, I mean father Murphy
Speaker 1: up in the booth, praying for some sunshine if it's warm,
Speaker 1: and it did he did, there was. The sun did
Speaker 1: peek in and out at times in the game, but
Speaker 1: it still didn't matter. It's not like it went from hey,
Speaker 1: minus thirty eight, now it's fifty degrees. No, it's minus
Speaker 1: thirty eight. Now it's minus thirty six and a half degrees. Uh.
Speaker 1: Both teams had trouble and both teams were were were
Speaker 1: intimidated by the cold. But you could tell there was
Speaker 1: one team there's a little bit more ready for it.
Speaker 1: It was Cincinnati. One team that was not, and that's
Speaker 1: the Chargers. Kenny Anderson, after in between every play, would
Speaker 1: put his hands right down his pants right where where's
Speaker 1: the warmest part of your body, right in the growing areas.
Speaker 1: That's where I'm gonna put my hands to warm up
Speaker 1: between every play, found advice. Fouts was wearing a white
Speaker 1: sweatshirt under his jersey and after every play he would
Speaker 1: pull the cuffs over his hands to keep him warm.
Speaker 1: He he had a tough time holding onto the football
Speaker 1: the entire game. And you're gonna see a big pattern
Speaker 1: with Dan Fouts and why the Charges weren't able to
Speaker 1: get to the Super Bowl and win. This game is
Speaker 1: really about Dan Fouts and a lack of planning. But
Speaker 1: right away you knew that Dan facts this was not
Speaker 1: going to be his day, all right. The first pass
Speaker 1: of the game, he threw He's got Kellen Winslow wide
Speaker 1: open in the flat it. Winslow is gonna catch it
Speaker 1: five yards and run for another ten yards in the
Speaker 1: first down, and Fouts there's nobody between him and he
Speaker 1: throws the ball and it flutters ten feet over Winslow's
Speaker 1: head into the sideline. Winslow barely jumps because he's not
Speaker 1: gonna catch it. And from that moment, uh, he maybe
Speaker 1: backed away from the TV and said, oh, Dan Fouts
Speaker 1: is gonna struggle. His third pass of the game, he
Speaker 1: tries to throw it up twenty yards down field, it
Speaker 1: flutters out of his hand, comes down, and it should
Speaker 1: have been picked off because there's two dbs there, but
Speaker 1: they wind the ball winds up going to the ground.
Speaker 1: And this was kind of the day for Fouts. It
Speaker 1: was so much that he had trouble throwing the football
Speaker 1: as much as it was gripping it, because the ball
Speaker 1: should never have fluttered the way it did coming out
Speaker 1: of his hand. In fact, even said after the game,
Speaker 1: I can't believe Kenny Anderson was able to throw spirals
Speaker 1: during the game. I couldn't throw them at all. But
Speaker 1: I have a big check mark in the column for
Speaker 1: warm weather team that likes to throw the football coming
Speaker 1: into the cold and can't do it. Check mark. That
Speaker 1: was the San Diego Chargers. Yeah, on that first play,
Speaker 1: you just see the ball flutter and start to rise
Speaker 1: Winslow as you described it, a little bit of a
Speaker 1: jump and the mean mug. Look he game Dan Fouts
Speaker 1: on that play right off the jump. All right, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have fun for the next two and a half
Speaker 1: to three hours because you already have a little bit
Speaker 1: of malcontentedness from your white house. And so you're trying
Speaker 1: to throw short and you're praying for yak you're playing,
Speaker 1: you're praying for the slip tackle and you know, the
Speaker 1: the big play that comes off a short pass that
Speaker 1: never comes. And that's the thing. When Fouts would throw short,
Speaker 1: when he would try to throw ten to twelve yards
Speaker 1: past the line of scrimmage, they did well because the
Speaker 1: Chargers moved the ball the whole day. It's not like, oh,
Speaker 1: every game with every every series was three downs upon
Speaker 1: they moved the ball well, but when they tried to
Speaker 1: go for chunk yardage, they either turned the ball over fouts,
Speaker 1: couldn't throw the football deep. It was incomplete. They would
Speaker 1: make a mistake mistakes and not being able to go
Speaker 1: down field killed the Chargers and they never adjusted. You
Speaker 1: think at halftime after a half of not throwing the football, well,
Speaker 1: they would say, all right, here's what we gotta do.
Speaker 1: We gotta go down ten yards at a time. But
Speaker 1: or or we gotta take what we can get from
Speaker 1: this defense, because clearly every time we try to get
Speaker 1: greedy and throw the ball downfield, we couldn't do it right.
Speaker 1: And this was the first half to a t for
Speaker 1: the Chargers. All right, the Bengals do a smart thing
Speaker 1: and the opening kickoff, they decided to take the wind
Speaker 1: at their backs in the first and third quarter because
Speaker 1: they want to put doubt in San Diego's mind. They
Speaker 1: want to get off to a fast start because San
Speaker 1: Diego's team, you can pile up a lot of points
Speaker 1: if we can make them have a scoreless first order,
Speaker 1: not be able to control the game. We put doubt
Speaker 1: in their minds. Maybe we get a score or two,
Speaker 1: we can control the game. And that turned out to
Speaker 1: be the best decision because normally, when you're choosing the wind,
Speaker 1: you wanted second and fourth quarter, but they chose first
Speaker 1: and third quarter because they wanted to get off to
Speaker 1: a big start, and it happened. James Brooks had a
Speaker 1: fumble after Cincinnati kicked the field goal, Anderson throws a
Speaker 1: touchdown past M. L. Harris. It's ten nothing Cincinnati in
Speaker 1: the first quarter. It's cold for both teams, but still
Speaker 1: Cincinnati was a little bit better being able to move
Speaker 1: down the field. And we get to the second quarter
Speaker 1: and it's ten nothing Bengals and you're wondering, is San
Speaker 1: Diego gonna get back in this or are they just
Speaker 1: gonna just fall over for the rest of the day. Well,
Speaker 1: and we know that the hits hurt a little bit
Speaker 1: more growing up in Chicago play football you were in
Speaker 1: New York. Right, If you're down a little bit and
Speaker 1: things aren't clicking, the the extra blow, it's gonna hurt
Speaker 1: a little more when it's cold and you're already miserable,
Speaker 1: and so that that want to sometimes gets beaten out
Speaker 1: of you pretty fast. And it's not that you're getting
Speaker 1: obliterated because I mean they're not getting blown out by
Speaker 1: any stretch. It's just more of the function of you know,
Speaker 1: you're not seeing that chunk yardage that you're normally gonna
Speaker 1: gonna use. And the rub routes were years from being
Speaker 1: really used effectively. Uh, think about the Chargers if they
Speaker 1: implemented some of that take that COREEL needed ground COREEL
Speaker 1: instead of aircraft. Now, two things, at least you know
Speaker 1: some some more. I think creativity on the I don't
Speaker 1: I don't work the intermediate all about those halftime adjustments, Jason,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's really what it's all about. Two big
Speaker 1: things for San Diego. In the first quarter, they get
Speaker 1: in position to kick a field goal and Ralph Bernershka,
Speaker 1: who was one of the better kickers in the NFL,
Speaker 1: uh comes out to kick. Look, he was a big
Speaker 1: hero and bernursca you know the week before when but
Speaker 1: when you're kicking in Miami's eighty eight degrees, hey, it's
Speaker 1: a little bit different. His thirty seven yard field goal
Speaker 1: gets about three feet off the ground and doesn't even
Speaker 1: reach the end zone. His ball had no chance and
Speaker 1: you can tell already in his head is I don't
Speaker 1: know that I can kick this ball today. I I
Speaker 1: really don't know. Now it's into the stiff wind in
Speaker 1: the first quarter, but I don't know that I can
Speaker 1: do it. Dan Fouts also makes an incredibly bad play
Speaker 1: another chance that san Diego has, because like I said,
Speaker 1: they drove the ball downfield. He tries to get greedy
Speaker 1: and he throws a jump ball into the end zone.
Speaker 1: That's a flutterball that gets picked off by Cincinnati and
Speaker 1: and San Diego walks off the field and you're saying,
Speaker 1: what the hell kind of throw is that? And it
Speaker 1: was a throw to the quarterback if he makes that.
Speaker 1: Now he sits on the bench because I'm throwing it
Speaker 1: up into the end zone and there's two defensive backs
Speaker 1: there and one of my guys, and this is this
Speaker 1: is a smart play. And instead of getting a chance
Speaker 1: to get more points, this was one of the first
Speaker 1: examples of here's Dan Fouts, here's the Chargers getting too
Speaker 1: greedy making a bad throw instead of trying to get
Speaker 1: down the field in a little bit different way. And
Speaker 1: so instead of being in the game, you're staring at
Speaker 1: attend nothing deficit and boy, it looks like a lot
Speaker 1: of points. Stop talking about Jake Cutler. I thought we
Speaker 1: were talking about the charge. Oh look at you. Wow, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know you talked about the last podcast. Jake Cutler
Speaker 1: is the most underrated, maybe the best quarterback I love
Speaker 1: and now you're just ripping Jay Cutler. No, I love
Speaker 1: Jake Cutler, but there were times where there was no conscience.
Speaker 1: I'm putting it. What should I said, Ryan Fitzpatrick. Maybe
Speaker 1: expectations are low. That guy's the biggest winner in football
Speaker 1: history for the longevity of the career that he's had
Speaker 1: and his ability to show off his kids math skills.
Speaker 1: Jay Cutler is a guy that people will take the digs.
Speaker 1: I just took the easy one for everybody that was
Speaker 1: thinking it as you're speaking. I I wear my jersey
Speaker 1: all the time, not quite not quite a T shirt?
Speaker 1: You do, I will? I do wear that jersey all
Speaker 1: the time. You never wear the jersey and the purple
Speaker 1: shorts at the same time, though, I mean dark bluin right, Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: dark blue and purple don't go together, is no? I
Speaker 1: mean that that's one if I'm hold up, you know
Speaker 1: in my lonely writer's Garrett where nobody sees me so
Speaker 1: at this point I'm think Cincinnati knows when Fouts tries
Speaker 1: to throw the football deep, he's not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to do it, and we're gonna be able to jump
Speaker 1: in front of passes, and we know we can't get
Speaker 1: him down field. But the big lightning strike, quick moment
Speaker 1: that the Chargers had, really the only one of the day,
Speaker 1: actually comes in the second quarter when they cut the
Speaker 1: score to ten seven. Now, the wind is at San
Speaker 1: Diego's back and they're touchdown of the day. They only
Speaker 1: scored one scored seven points. Dan Fouts. It looks like
Speaker 1: it's gonna be some kind of bootleg play, but what
Speaker 1: it really is is a play to free up Kellen
Speaker 1: Winslow on a tight end screen, and Fouts turns around
Speaker 1: almost directly into one of the Cincinnati Bengals defensive lineman.
Speaker 1: He just throws it blindly to where Winslow is supposedly
Speaker 1: going to be standing, hoping he's gonna catch it. Winslow
Speaker 1: catches it, and he rumbles down the sideline for a
Speaker 1: thirty three yard touchdown. This cuts the score to ten seven. Now,
Speaker 1: before we get further a little bit about Kellen Winslow,
Speaker 1: we know the kind of player he was the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame player you see highlights, but watching this game
Speaker 1: and specifically this play, he's someone who is so physically
Speaker 1: dominant and apparent you know where he is every mobile
Speaker 1: he's on the screen because he's so much bigger than
Speaker 1: everybody else. And this guy is a tight end and
Speaker 1: he he wasn't he wasn't skinny. He looked like a
Speaker 1: man playing against boys. Because this touchdown, when he catches
Speaker 1: the ball and runs, it's like one of those video
Speaker 1: games where you catch it and you're running and other
Speaker 1: player comes up to try to tackle you and you
Speaker 1: hit the stiff arm button and you knocked them down,
Speaker 1: you know, or like one of those touchdowns for one
Speaker 1: of those football movies where the really big team with
Speaker 1: all the big kids just blocks everybody out and the
Speaker 1: guy pushes everybody out of the way and gets to
Speaker 1: the end zone, I mean early in the game, before
Speaker 1: the big ragtag come back at the end and some
Speaker 1: kind of crazy thing happens. But that's what Kellen Winslow
Speaker 1: is like. So you just watch a few plays from
Speaker 1: this game, and it's easy to see why this guy
Speaker 1: was so dominant, why he was so good. He just
Speaker 1: looks like he's on a different level physically and in
Speaker 1: control of his body attically than anybody else on the field.
Speaker 1: It really was something to see. Well, Hall of Famer
Speaker 1: and why when his kid made the the NFL, the
Speaker 1: expectations were huge for him. And we know where things
Speaker 1: have gone sideways, uh through the years. But you know what,
Speaker 1: we watched these teams. You go back and you think
Speaker 1: of what receivers look like today, right, A bigger, stronger, faster,
Speaker 1: I mean, he was that prototype thirty years ago, right,
Speaker 1: and and would have fit right in to the way
Speaker 1: we run offenses now. Uh, and the big passing attacks.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you're you're just seeing that size differential, the
Speaker 1: ability to create space. All of that led to such
Speaker 1: a huge career. And again here you're you're trying to
Speaker 1: get just that separation, but you can't get the big
Speaker 1: play and the big pop and and mentioned the career
Speaker 1: record of Coreyell and everything else. Just's just how did
Speaker 1: with all this talent they never got over And I
Speaker 1: know our our show producer, Justin Frostberg as he listens
Speaker 1: to us Curson uh for for not you know, extolling
Speaker 1: all the virtues of the Chargers fun to watch, and
Speaker 1: then in big moments, just no matter how much talent
Speaker 1: you had, couldn't get over. At this point, the Chargers, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe we're back into it. Fouts. Everybody jumps on the
Speaker 1: field to congratulate him after this touchdown, and maybe this
Speaker 1: is their moment. Okay, they broke through the touchdown. The
Speaker 1: game is ten seven. Now we got Now we got
Speaker 1: something going on. Except that was it. Cincinnati dominates from
Speaker 1: that moment out. They drive right back down the field.
Speaker 1: Pete Johnson scores a touchdown to make it seventeen seven.
Speaker 1: Dan Fouts drives the Charges back down the field and
Speaker 1: again he throws a long wobbler to Charlie Joyner that's
Speaker 1: picked off by Cincinnati. And this is what I mean
Speaker 1: when I say that he couldn't grip the football, because
Speaker 1: this is what the wind at his back. He shouldn't
Speaker 1: be throwing a flutterball in the second quarter, but he
Speaker 1: escapes from the pressure and he just throws up in
Speaker 1: the ball just goes straight up in the air. You
Speaker 1: can tell the cin C DBS is saying he can't
Speaker 1: throw it that far. And it's not like he's trying
Speaker 1: to make a sixty yard throw. This is like a
Speaker 1: yard throw and Joiners kind of running downfield, going where's
Speaker 1: the ball? The Cincinnati dB stopped because they see it fluttering,
Speaker 1: and it's an easy pick at the five yard line
Speaker 1: for the Bengals. Another big chance that goes out the
Speaker 1: window for San Diego, and the combination of the weather
Speaker 1: and the turnovers and things are just going really horribly
Speaker 1: for the Chargers. And the other thing to notice about
Speaker 1: Fouts is this is that, as good as he was,
Speaker 1: Dan Fouts had the worst footwork of any quarterback I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. He would just take those little baby steps
Speaker 1: to drop back and pass. Sometimes he would take ten
Speaker 1: step drops. Sometimes there'd be eight, sometimes they'd be fifteen.
Speaker 1: And so it's really it's really hard to be able
Speaker 1: to to throw the football with the effort and and
Speaker 1: and the zip you need on every play when you're
Speaker 1: not really talking about the timing of Okay, this is
Speaker 1: seven steps and I'm throwing it. Granted it wasn't that
Speaker 1: wasn't all the way back in the time back then
Speaker 1: this is what quarterbacks did, but still a lot of
Speaker 1: it was three five seven step drops and and and
Speaker 1: if you even longer drop than that, okay, but wow,
Speaker 1: you really need to drop back ten yards to throw
Speaker 1: the football, and his footwork was so bad that he
Speaker 1: couldn't overcome the other things. Because sometimes quarterbacks footworks can
Speaker 1: save them when it comes to throwing a deep out
Speaker 1: or throwing a slant or throwing the ball down field.
Speaker 1: But found his footwork was so is that these baby
Speaker 1: steps all over the places. His body was never all
Speaker 1: the time facing one way or the other. You know,
Speaker 1: you you don't have momentum. And it's easy to see
Speaker 1: in this game why this was able to come back
Speaker 1: and hurt him and why the Charges don't go to
Speaker 1: the super Bowl just watching the the drop bags waiting
Speaker 1: for things to develop. You know, the interior lineman really
Speaker 1: had their work cut out for him, uh in this one,
Speaker 1: because the rush was coming up the gut and Fouch
Speaker 1: wasn't a guy getting to the outside extending plays. So
Speaker 1: the baby step drop backs, so trying to stop that
Speaker 1: motion and then put your full body into the throws.
Speaker 1: You know you're short arming some of it or relying
Speaker 1: fully on your arm strength and coming up short. And
Speaker 1: a Hall of Fame career, big big number and all
Speaker 1: that we've talked about as to what this offense did.
Speaker 1: But you know, in big moments, big games, game plan
Speaker 1: against them in here. No confidence against the wind either.
Speaker 1: That that's the other thing that comes in. Even with
Speaker 1: the wind at his back, didn't seem that happen. Like
Speaker 1: I said, Thrust, I don't think he could hold the
Speaker 1: football really well. And it's not like the Bengals were
Speaker 1: baby hands like you hands. It's not like the Bengals
Speaker 1: were playing great. I mean the Bengals were just playing
Speaker 1: good enough. They were capitalizing on the Chargers mistakes, which
Speaker 1: were many. And you know, that's what the third quarter
Speaker 1: looked like, because in the third quarter San Diego did
Speaker 1: to just they still tried to get down the field
Speaker 1: the same way a couple of running players throw the
Speaker 1: ball and then they would try to throw the ball
Speaker 1: deep and it wouldn't work. Uh, they could have used
Speaker 1: Brooks and then gotten down the field of Brooks and Munsey.
Speaker 1: They could have done that all day. They were they
Speaker 1: were they were running the ball well enough, and they
Speaker 1: were throwing the ball tended twelve yards down the field
Speaker 1: well enough. It's not like Fouts was ten for forty
Speaker 1: live on the day. He actually had a pretty and
Speaker 1: an okay completion percentage. But they just couldn't. They just
Speaker 1: couldn't get a right mix of how to get the
Speaker 1: ball downfield. Here's a perfect example, their first drive of
Speaker 1: the game, of the second of the of the second half. Alright,
Speaker 1: seventeen seven, let's get out there and get and get
Speaker 1: a score. Uh, getting down the field. First drive, their
Speaker 1: inside Cincinnati's forty yard line, Chuck Munsey just has the
Speaker 1: ball popped out and it's one of those clear, uh
Speaker 1: fundamental tackles where the helmet goes on the football and
Speaker 1: because it's so cold, it's very difficult. The ball pops out,
Speaker 1: Cincinnati recovers, they turn that into a field goal. The
Speaker 1: next big chance the Chargers have for points, big third
Speaker 1: down play from the twenty yard line. Dan Fouts dropping
Speaker 1: back kind of locks shoes with Doug Wilkerson. One of
Speaker 1: his offensive lineman falls down eleven yards behind the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage. So it's a field goal for Bernarska, who
Speaker 1: again misses horribly, doesn't reach the goal line again. And
Speaker 1: that's it. I mean, at that point you throw your
Speaker 1: arms up and say that's it. They got one more
Speaker 1: touchdown on the day that the Bengals did in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. That really cemented the game, Anderson throws a
Speaker 1: touchdown to Don Bass and seven is your final. The
Speaker 1: Bengals go on and the Chargers go back to what
Speaker 1: just happened to us in the cold? We could never
Speaker 1: figure it out? And now the Bengals are going to
Speaker 1: the super Bowl. When you build a team, you know
Speaker 1: you got eight at home, and you're playing in beautiful,
Speaker 1: sunny San Diego, right, the most beautiful, best city in
Speaker 1: the world by some of those magazines that rate all
Speaker 1: those different aspects. But you've got to account for the
Speaker 1: fact that eight of your games aren't played in San Diego,
Speaker 1: and then certainly in the playoffs, all bets are off.
Speaker 1: But you're built for one style of play man. How
Speaker 1: many times do we watch it from the college perspective
Speaker 1: of all right, you play in this conference and I'll
Speaker 1: take my beloved Big Ten for instance, or for all
Speaker 1: those years it was rough and tumble, right three yards
Speaker 1: in a cloud of dust, and then you go play
Speaker 1: some high flying SEC team in a bowl game, by
Speaker 1: the way, that's still have and they just got track
Speaker 1: athletes that are running circles around you. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think back to Northwestern playing USC right, played very well
Speaker 1: in in the Big Ten, Conference, they beat Notre name
Speaker 1: all of these things, the Miracle of the Purple to Pasadena,
Speaker 1: and then I watched Keyshawn Johnson make all the defense
Speaker 1: and backs, and everybody just looked like they were standing still. Granted,
Speaker 1: no Pat Fitzgerald in that game because he'd been injured.
Speaker 1: But I don't I don't think even Moses himself. Uh,
Speaker 1: Charlton Heston, Oh, I thought you been Moses. Well, Charlton Heston,
Speaker 1: Northwestern grad would have been able to close up that
Speaker 1: red Sea Hill. Moses former actor of the seventies and
Speaker 1: eighties and the nighttime soap operas. That's nice, nicely done.
Speaker 1: I think I'm out of guys whose last name is Moses, Haven, Moses, Billy, Moses. Well,
Speaker 1: we can bring in Moses Moreno. Yeah, but that's that's
Speaker 1: his first name. There's a lot of first names Moses. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I was going to try to go the last
Speaker 1: name Moses. I tried, you know, I just thought I'd
Speaker 1: try to keep the game going. But it's just that
Speaker 1: idea of you. You build your team to play one
Speaker 1: style and then unfortunately some signs, the styles and the
Speaker 1: elements don't work in your favor. Fouts's day was fifteen
Speaker 1: out of twenty eight for a hundred and eighty five yards,
Speaker 1: the touchdown to Winslow and the two interceptions that I
Speaker 1: told you about. They had four turnovers overall, which killed them.
Speaker 1: Chuck Munsey had three fumbles uh and James Brooks had
Speaker 1: a fumble as well. Not all of them lost obviously,
Speaker 1: but Muncey ran for a hundred yards. He still got
Speaker 1: eight yards receiving from West Chandler. They limited Kellen Winslow.
Speaker 1: That was really the only play he had all day.
Speaker 1: He only caught three passes total, and Charlie Joyner didn't
Speaker 1: affect the team nothing they did on offense. They were
Speaker 1: able to sustain enough to win. Meanwhile, for the Bengals,
Speaker 1: Kenny Anderson and efficient day fourteen out of twenty two
Speaker 1: for one sixty one and two touchdowns. It worked. Pete
Speaker 1: Johnson ran for eight yards and a touchdown and that's
Speaker 1: kind of all you needed, you know. Colins Worth only
Speaker 1: caught a couple of asses, didn't matter. They were able
Speaker 1: to finish their chances when they had them, while the
Speaker 1: Chargers fumbled through picks, couldn't get accustomed to the cold.
Speaker 1: And this is how the Bengals wind up in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl against the San Francisco forty Niners. But what
Speaker 1: was next for these teams coming off of the coldest
Speaker 1: game ever. Well, it's a big deal both physically mentally,
Speaker 1: and a huge train between these teams in later years.
Speaker 1: That's coming up next right here on special Teams. The
Speaker 1: aftermath of the Freezer Bowl, Well, let's just say that
Speaker 1: players are still feeling the effects of it today. Kenny
Speaker 1: Anderson said his right hand has never been the same
Speaker 1: since that day, and any time he gets really cold,
Speaker 1: he has a trouble feeling it. It's it's never been
Speaker 1: the same. Other players say the same thing about parts
Speaker 1: of their bodies. Kellen Winslow said one of his feet
Speaker 1: has never been the same following that game. It was
Speaker 1: was it frostbite? Was it some kind of of damage
Speaker 1: you did to your body? Because it was just that cold.
Speaker 1: You have to think that was it. After that day,
Speaker 1: anytime it gets cold, you see what happens to the
Speaker 1: parts of your body. You got Anderson, you had Winslow.
Speaker 1: A couple of the players said the same thing. Even
Speaker 1: the referees had a difficult time in this game. They
Speaker 1: kept going to the dryers on the sideline you know
Speaker 1: those big things. They used to have to pump out
Speaker 1: hot air to keep players warming on the sideicle of
Speaker 1: when it was cold games. So the referees, when they
Speaker 1: had a chance, they would run and stand right in
Speaker 1: front of those dryers. Now it's right, it's not two
Speaker 1: thousand twenties, so technology of hot dryers blowing out air
Speaker 1: isn't the best. And there were sparks that were coming
Speaker 1: out of the dryer once in a while. And a
Speaker 1: couple of referees at the end of the game, you know,
Speaker 1: when they were in the referee room changing, they looked
Speaker 1: at each other's close and go, hey, dude, your your
Speaker 1: shirt is burnt. Hey, your pants are burnt. Because they
Speaker 1: got so close that their clothes got burnt. But it
Speaker 1: was so cold they didn't feel it. They had they
Speaker 1: had the parts in their what they were wearing burned,
Speaker 1: and they didn't feel because it was still so called out. Well,
Speaker 1: it's like Cramer when he was putting his uh clothes
Speaker 1: in the pizza oven. Uh it burned him up. I mean,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? What do I know about
Speaker 1: cooking a shirt? But you know, we talked to Mike
Speaker 1: Pereira about this on our evening show on Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio every season about dealing with the elements and the
Speaker 1: different referees, because you're starting to take age into consideration, right,
Speaker 1: how many guys have been through the wars and and
Speaker 1: and where they're at physically. It's a it's a question
Speaker 1: that you ask in twenty going forward. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: dealing with COVID nineteen as well, the precautions taken for referees,
Speaker 1: just like we're looking at players, coaches, and staff, but
Speaker 1: also for the elements, you know, keeping warm. You know,
Speaker 1: this was a couple of years before ISOTNA gloves too,
Speaker 1: before Dan Marino started doing holiday commercials to give those out. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know what the glove technology was
Speaker 1: in nine in terms of being able to grip a
Speaker 1: football and do all those things. So we look at
Speaker 1: you know, simple technological games they're as well, but yeah,
Speaker 1: trying to get warm on the sidelines a much different
Speaker 1: animal thirty years later. Even the players at the end
Speaker 1: of the game, we're telling that the officials seven seven,
Speaker 1: they're going, dude, come on, just end the game. It's
Speaker 1: so bleep and cold. Just end the game. Just the game,
Speaker 1: Just end the game. It really was you see the
Speaker 1: fans in the stands. I don't know how they made
Speaker 1: it through the games, you know, by the way, just
Speaker 1: just was really funny. But well that that helps as well.
Speaker 1: What are you for it? Because you know there were
Speaker 1: home fans watching to win? You know, watch this game
Speaker 1: because you can see a replay of it on YouTube
Speaker 1: if you if you want to see it, and in
Speaker 1: and in going back and looking at some of the plays.
Speaker 1: Here the number of w l W banners that were
Speaker 1: up in Riverfront stated which was the Bengals radio network.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was amazing nowadays how many there was
Speaker 1: at least ten to fifteen w LW banners up that
Speaker 1: they showed in between plays and when big things are
Speaker 1: going on, here's banners up. We love winning and you
Speaker 1: know the Bengals colors. I'm like, you never see that now,
Speaker 1: like you know, the the Jets radio network. The people
Speaker 1: don't go seven we're gonna beat the Patriots seven. Today
Speaker 1: you don't see that. But back then that's all that
Speaker 1: want WW Like I I think, if I want to remember, right,
Speaker 1: there was I don't know if it was an urban
Speaker 1: legend or an urban myth back then, but that if
Speaker 1: you did a banner or held a sign at a
Speaker 1: baseball game or a football game, or a basketball game,
Speaker 1: hockey games, and you held the sign up, and it
Speaker 1: was about one of the broadcasters that the chances are
Speaker 1: you could get on television or and they would see it,
Speaker 1: because it's about when it's hey, it's a commercial for us, right,
Speaker 1: we're showing an ad for our radio station or TV station.
Speaker 1: So it's always hey, if you do it, you'll be
Speaker 1: able to get on TV. So maybe that's what they
Speaker 1: were thinking. But I'm like, boy, that's a lot of
Speaker 1: WW posters out there, and he's trying to get a
Speaker 1: little bit of run, right, a little bit of extra FaceTime,
Speaker 1: and everybody's trying to get themselves on. Were watching cardboard
Speaker 1: cutouts of people uh in the crowds of surprise, they're
Speaker 1: not holding up banners, flags, or other things with a
Speaker 1: corporate or personal message uh to you. So yeah, that
Speaker 1: curious as I watched the the replay as well of
Speaker 1: all of that signage in a stadium different times though,
Speaker 1: right from the national Games and what it met, the
Speaker 1: magnification of it now, the way we look at the
Speaker 1: televising of games and standardizing, I think to some degree,
Speaker 1: as well. I mean I just remember growing up, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'd rush home from school for Cubs broadcast
Speaker 1: White Sox fans south side of town. But hey, day
Speaker 1: baseball was day baseball. But watching that type of scenario, Uh,
Speaker 1: you had one producer whose obvious I was to look
Speaker 1: for the tourists that had come to Chicago, uh and
Speaker 1: enjoyed themselves in the bleachers. Nowadays, you're probably not getting
Speaker 1: away with some of the visuals that you get a
Speaker 1: nice long looks like don't put the camera back on
Speaker 1: the booth as they introduced the new inning. Nope, keeping
Speaker 1: it on the ladies uh, in in the crowd, particularly
Speaker 1: the bleacher creatures. Uh. And then certainly Harry Carey would
Speaker 1: have the not too well whomever they found, uh and
Speaker 1: usually holding up a banner or something, you know, showing
Speaker 1: love to the broadcast booths. So that was the other
Speaker 1: way to get on TV. To Jason Gamman, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a tailor as old as time. So what
Speaker 1: happened for these teams following well, they would actually get
Speaker 1: back together a couple of years later in a much
Speaker 1: different way. The Bengals go to the Super Bowl. They
Speaker 1: lose to the fort is the first of Montana's championships.
Speaker 1: And meanwhile, the Chargers stay the Chargers air correel, throw
Speaker 1: the football up and down the field, and then right
Speaker 1: before the season, what many Bengals fans will tell you
Speaker 1: was the greatest trade in franchise history happened, and what
Speaker 1: many Chargers fans would tell you was, what the hell
Speaker 1: were we doing so prior to the Phelps uh all,
Speaker 1: my Ken Phelps best at that ratio. Ever, Pete Johnson,
Speaker 1: then of the Bengals, one a new contract from Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: He had been a really good running back for the
Speaker 1: past few years for the Bengals. We talked about him
Speaker 1: in this game too. He had a touchdown. He was
Speaker 1: threatening to go to the USFL if he didn't get
Speaker 1: a new contract, so he had kind of had it
Speaker 1: with the Bengals. He's a thirty year old running back. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Chargers, things weren't going swimming lee for them with
Speaker 1: James Brooks, even though the first two years in the
Speaker 1: league he led the NFL and all purpose yardage, but
Speaker 1: for some reason it wasn't clicking and they decide, let's
Speaker 1: make a trade. So the Chargers trade the twenty five
Speaker 1: year old James Brooks for the thirty year old Pete Johnson, who,
Speaker 1: by the way, is coming off a four game suspension
Speaker 1: for cocaine usage. Uh so, I can't believe that this
Speaker 1: this is the trade. You got a thirty year old
Speaker 1: running back that wants a new contract, that's coming off
Speaker 1: a cocaine suspension, and the Chargers say, we're gonna give
Speaker 1: you one of the best all around players in the
Speaker 1: game who was twenty five years old. It doesn't make sense,
Speaker 1: but this is the trade that happened. How did the
Speaker 1: trade go from then on? Oh? My goodness. For James Brooks,
Speaker 1: he goes on and he becomes a Pro Bowl player.
Speaker 1: For many years, Brooks was fantastic. He played eight seasons
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati, and he was the same player he was
Speaker 1: with the San Diego Chargers, up amongst the league leaders
Speaker 1: all around yardage every single year. He was it. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: James Brooks is putting air into the tires of the
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Bengals, who, by the way, he helps them get
Speaker 1: back to the Super Bowl a few years later when
Speaker 1: he's at the end of his prime. Meanwhile, for Pete Johnson,
Speaker 1: he plays three games with the Chargers, not three seasons.
Speaker 1: Not three games for the Chargers, and then they got
Speaker 1: rid of him. He went and played the final thirteen
Speaker 1: games of the season with the Miami Dolphins and he
Speaker 1: retired after that. You want to look back at the
Speaker 1: annals of bad trades, worst trades ever. We talk a
Speaker 1: lot about baseball trades and what happened and with with
Speaker 1: teams and and you know, John Smaul, Doyle, Alexander or
Speaker 1: whatever trade want to talk about. But James Brooks for
Speaker 1: Pete Johnson NFL, that's up at the top. Well, don't forget.
Speaker 1: James Brooks also went on to create the Simpsons. That's true.
Speaker 1: That's true. Well, well he had to change his name
Speaker 1: to James L. Brooks then, but but he added the L.
Speaker 1: We had to bring in the middle initial. Uh, we're
Speaker 1: just kidding folks on case you didn't recognize just the
Speaker 1: brand of humor. But yeah, that that's gotta be about
Speaker 1: it as bad as it goes, especially for a franchise
Speaker 1: that would then become well they become one of the
Speaker 1: laughing stocks. Unfortunately, two teams in Ohio carried that banner
Speaker 1: for a lot of years, and your Jets, uh sorry
Speaker 1: for years, but for the for the Bangles, and and
Speaker 1: for the Chargers here this is this is where you're at.
Speaker 1: The Bengals actually get over on one uh for one time,
Speaker 1: and Charger fans are still looking for that elusive Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: James Brooks made the Pro Bowl with the Cincinnati Bengals
Speaker 1: four times after the trade. Four times he ran for
Speaker 1: a thousand yards three times still caught a lot of
Speaker 1: yards passing. This is back when running backs catching three
Speaker 1: to four hundred yards and passes was a lot. You know,
Speaker 1: this isn't Oh my goodness, he's at thousand yards. Say now,
Speaker 1: this is when catching thirty to forty passes a year
Speaker 1: was a very big deal. And James Brooks was that
Speaker 1: good a player. He stayed with the team through and
Speaker 1: even in his final year when he's thirty three years old,
Speaker 1: he ran for almost six hundred yards and a couple
Speaker 1: of touchdowns. He caught three fifty yards and passes. So
Speaker 1: when he was at the end, the guy was productive.
Speaker 1: And some of his big years with Cincinnati when he
Speaker 1: was thirty and thirty one years old, twelve hundred yards rushing,
Speaker 1: three hundred yards receiving. He was a star all the
Speaker 1: way through the rest of the eighties, and I know,
Speaker 1: the Chargers weren't winning the Super Bowl with him, but boy,
Speaker 1: you get five and this guy becomes the lynch pinner
Speaker 1: of your offense. Maybe you actually win one, maybe you
Speaker 1: win one before Dan Fouts retires, but never got the
Speaker 1: chance because this trade was made. And still you scratch
Speaker 1: and and go, boyfriend, at least one moment in time,
Speaker 1: the Bengals got over on another team. Yeah, I know
Speaker 1: that hasn't happened much in the history. And we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens in this this new world order with a
Speaker 1: a new gun slinger brought to the team here in
Speaker 1: and Joe Burrow. But you know, when when you look
Speaker 1: at the Chargers, just a lot of what ifs. There's
Speaker 1: been some great talents, uh that have come through that
Speaker 1: organization and little pieces that are missing. Right, we talked
Speaker 1: about this particular season with with Dan Fouts. Well, they
Speaker 1: got beat up by the Bengals earlier in the season, right,
Speaker 1: so he couldn't solve them in at home and he
Speaker 1: and he gets blown out on the road. Uh. So
Speaker 1: you have those kind of issues and you have the
Speaker 1: high flying attack, and it's it's always hard when things
Speaker 1: seem to be working. It's like all right, we're almost there,
Speaker 1: but being able to pull the plug because we normally
Speaker 1: see it the other way in sports, Right, where's the
Speaker 1: You don't get nearly enough time to work? And I
Speaker 1: mean that's certainly been one of the hallmarks of the
Speaker 1: Bengals organization outside of Marvin Lewis's run. Is all right,
Speaker 1: let's flip. That's the Browns, that's the Jets, that's a
Speaker 1: number of NFL teams of all right, it's been two years.
Speaker 1: We're not seeing the progress we want. Flip the coach,
Speaker 1: Flip the GM quarterback. I'll get one more year. By
Speaker 1: the way, it's his fourth offensive coordinator. Uh, and let's
Speaker 1: keep flipping, because you always gotta have a fall guy here.
Speaker 1: He ran with the high flying offense as much as
Speaker 1: you could, but this was their their best shot. So
Speaker 1: how about somewhere are they now from this game? Mr? Harmon,
Speaker 1: what do you got for us? Oh? We got a
Speaker 1: couple of good ones here, Willie Buchanan, Uh, doing virtual
Speaker 1: office systems. He was ahead of the game before we
Speaker 1: got to COVID nineteen and working remotely. Also some real
Speaker 1: estate work. You got Lynden King thirteen years in the
Speaker 1: league US. He was actually became a singer of a
Speaker 1: country after he finished the linebacker for many years in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. It was Wing and the Southern Steel.
Speaker 1: That's pretty good name. I like that. That's pretty good. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then they were down in uh, down in Tennessee,
Speaker 1: down in Nashville for a while West Chandler Uh, founder
Speaker 1: of w c t E w U c t E,
Speaker 1: but working on bio pharmaceuticals to help with CTE traumatic
Speaker 1: brain injuries. Uh et Centro. Uh. And then I got
Speaker 1: to two big ones for you to finish. Uh. We've
Speaker 1: got always Pat Pat Mcinally, you gotta show him love
Speaker 1: because in this broadcast they brought up his Wonderlick test. Then, oh,
Speaker 1: of course, because you can't bring up the wonder you
Speaker 1: can't bring up Pat mc and I without saying only
Speaker 1: player to get a perfect score in the Wonder. There's
Speaker 1: a little bit in the telecast where you get that.
Speaker 1: But the key is also he brought us the starting
Speaker 1: lineup action figures, his brain child. So they sold an
Speaker 1: estimated seven hundred million dollars worth of starting lineups. I
Speaker 1: still have a Frank Thomas and I'm Michael Jordan's sitting
Speaker 1: around here somewhere and at one point I had Wade Bobs. Wow.
Speaker 1: Beyond that, Uh, he's got a played college uh foundation
Speaker 1: that is trying to help economically challenge kids. Uh. They
Speaker 1: help with test preparations. So the A C T and
Speaker 1: S A T. So, so you certainly got that. And
Speaker 1: then I wanted to finish with one that is really
Speaker 1: big in the sporting year. Reggie Williams, linebacker. Fourteen years
Speaker 1: in the league. He became the executive director of what
Speaker 1: became the Walt Disney world Wide World. So he was
Speaker 1: the first black vice president for Walt Disney World Sports Recreation.
Speaker 1: Given the ability to create a vision of what that
Speaker 1: space has become, and if it weren't for him, the
Speaker 1: NBA season wouldn't have finished. You know, we have been
Speaker 1: no bubble. I came up with the bubble. Oh that
Speaker 1: was yeah, that was me. I was the bubble. But
Speaker 1: that whole thing, right, setting up the the fields and
Speaker 1: having that for the Braves for their you know, training,
Speaker 1: and having all of those courts and fields for different
Speaker 1: youth tournaments, all of that was part of his brain child.
Speaker 1: He retired from Walt Disney World back in two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: but it was his work and in researching for the podcast,
Speaker 1: you know, you come up with some fun stories. Some
Speaker 1: you know, you see players take tragic turns. We've certainly
Speaker 1: talked about a number of those throughout our run here
Speaker 1: on Special Teams and certainly on our show on Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio. But occasionally you run into all right, let's
Speaker 1: do somewhere are they now? And you know that guys
Speaker 1: have gone on to success, But here you have one
Speaker 1: that you know, hopefully he gets a couple of more nods.
Speaker 1: He certainly got some here for having this this base
Speaker 1: and vision to create that Disney Worldwide World of Sports complex.
Speaker 1: But in the bubble, I think I think they should
Speaker 1: probably pay a little more attention. Hey, let's go back
Speaker 1: to the architects of this uh and make sure they
Speaker 1: get their just do so there is your complete look
Speaker 1: in the Freezer Ball, the Chargers fall to the Bengals
Speaker 1: twenty seven to seven, and in the process the jury
Speaker 1: still out on can a warm weather team throw the
Speaker 1: football up and down the field and win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: It would be years until you figured out, all right,
Speaker 1: a team could do that without having to run it
Speaker 1: while being so electric. The Charger's best chance to get
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl in those legendary air Corial Teams
Speaker 1: was this day and it was the Cincinnati Bengals who
Speaker 1: came out on top. You want to hit us up
Speaker 1: for future Special Teams episodes? Hey on Twitter at how
Speaker 1: about a Fresca Mike at Swollen Dome? Who knows? Maybe
Speaker 1: your idea will make it into a future episode of
Speaker 1: Special Teams. Our show was heard Monday through Friday on
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Speaker 1: the weekend. We'll talk to you in a few days.
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