Speaker 1: Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: Greetings and Welcome Inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
Speaker 1: Mike Harmon, a podcast where we look back at history
Speaker 1: at a team and what made them so special a
Speaker 1: very specific year in sports. We've been doing this for
Speaker 1: a while now and getting to play around with the
Speaker 1: material and the format a little bit is one of
Speaker 1: the more fun things we get to do. And one
Speaker 1: thing we're gonna do here now in the coming weeks
Speaker 1: is we're gonna look back at a couple of special
Speaker 1: teams each week. What we're gonna do is go back
Speaker 1: and re examine famous games in NFL college football, Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball history, the special teams that participated in them,
Speaker 1: and what became afterwards for both of those teams. Our
Speaker 1: sport tonight is the National Football League, and we are
Speaker 1: looking back at the Music City Miracle, one of the
Speaker 1: most famous plays in sports history. But we're gonna do
Speaker 1: it a little differently. You've seen it all from the
Speaker 1: Tennessee Titans point of view and NASA coming around and
Speaker 1: figuring out just how did that Pasco Right along the
Speaker 1: line from I check over to Diyson had it all?
Speaker 1: We've seen that but we're gonna get into what made
Speaker 1: that play possible. And when you look at it from
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Bill side of things, this play takes even
Speaker 1: more mythic proportions, right, madness all around. Right, Well, you
Speaker 1: know the play, you know the family, As you said,
Speaker 1: it's been broken down by everybody way smarter than us.
Speaker 1: I mean, Elon musks kid with all the mutant uh
Speaker 1: symbols and these hot hot hike, I mean, the ex
Speaker 1: exponents uh exponential growth for the child as we go.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of great theories on it.
Speaker 1: But you just remember the Buffalo Bills and the time
Speaker 1: in space and what this meant to the trajectory and
Speaker 1: and kind of bouncing football history in a whole other angle.
Speaker 1: So the two thousand Playoffs, the Music City Miracle which
Speaker 1: the Titans beat the Bills sixteen, is on our docket today.
Speaker 1: How before we get to the game, how did these
Speaker 1: teams arrive at this point? For the Buffalo Bills in
Speaker 1: the thousand season, Doug Flutie was entering his second year
Speaker 1: as starter after his Electric Folk Hero debut the year before.
Speaker 1: Flutie comes back from the CFL after being away for years.
Speaker 1: He is amazing. He is incredibly smart, he makes plays,
Speaker 1: he throws in lanes, and Flutie flakes were everywhere, and
Speaker 1: Doug Flutie was the cult icon in the National Football League.
Speaker 1: But Doug Flutie versus Rob Johnson wouldn't go away because
Speaker 1: they got Doug Flutie as a flyer. Rob Johnson is
Speaker 1: someone that the Buffalo bill said, Hey, we gotta go
Speaker 1: get him because when he was in relief of Mark
Speaker 1: Brunell a couple of years before with the Jacksonville Jaguars,
Speaker 1: he played pretty well. So after the nineties seven season,
Speaker 1: the Bills trade a first and fourth rounder and they
Speaker 1: signed Rob Johnson for five years and twenty five million dollars,
Speaker 1: which is a really big contract for a quarterback back then.
Speaker 1: So they were invested in him no matter what. And
Speaker 1: this is the crazy part, Mike that I remember is
Speaker 1: that as good as Flute he was, and you couldn't
Speaker 1: go anywhere without talking about Flute and and and how
Speaker 1: much he meant to the game and what a big
Speaker 1: story was. But still in Buffalo they wanted Rob Johnson
Speaker 1: to play. Yeah, it felt like every week Flute was
Speaker 1: playing for his job in Buffalo, when in the rest
Speaker 1: of the league. He was a superstar because, hey, the
Speaker 1: Bills made a big move for Rob Johnson. They looked
Speaker 1: pretty bad if he could win the starting job. Well,
Speaker 1: it wasn't winning with style, right, there's different levels. We
Speaker 1: live in Los Angeles right reside here. When the Lakers
Speaker 1: are good, there's gotta be some flare to it. Right.
Speaker 1: The whole campaign that the Clippers put together of you know,
Speaker 1: the mean streets versus the league lights or and all
Speaker 1: of those nonsensical billboard even though you went and got
Speaker 1: two of the top five players in the game, you
Speaker 1: know that. You know, we're street tough versus the Lakers. Man,
Speaker 1: it's high flying, it's showtime all around. In Buffalo. They
Speaker 1: wanted a little bit of that. That's what Rob Johnson
Speaker 1: was supposed to bring them, right. The guy with the
Speaker 1: big arm as opposed to Doug Flutie while we had
Speaker 1: the Hail Mary from his college days in the pros,
Speaker 1: you know, made some plays with his legs, extended drives,
Speaker 1: but wasn't a big explosive offensive threat. And people kept wondering, well,
Speaker 1: this is good. But with the big armed guy that
Speaker 1: we spent so much to get, perhaps it could be
Speaker 1: even that much more dominant, So when are we going
Speaker 1: to pull the trigger? So yeah, every week was that debate.
Speaker 1: You know, how how much and how well did he
Speaker 1: have to play to retain that job. So Flutie plays
Speaker 1: well in ninety nine, he goes ten and five and
Speaker 1: the Bills clinch a playoff spot. And now Flutie wasn't
Speaker 1: as great as he was his first year. But the
Speaker 1: big thing the Buffalo defense was really good. They allowed
Speaker 1: the second fewest points in the NFL low in franchise history,
Speaker 1: to nine. This is Ted Washington in the middle of
Speaker 1: that defense and Sam Cowart who was phenomenal, and the
Speaker 1: Bills had a really good young defense and thousand was
Speaker 1: their big coming out party. But they go ten and
Speaker 1: five and they have a meaningless final week game against Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: Now Indianapolis was terrific this year. They had won eleven
Speaker 1: games in a row. What happens, Well, with nothing to
Speaker 1: play for, the Bills decide, well, we're gonna start Rob
Speaker 1: Johnson this game and rest Doug Flutie. What happens Buffalo
Speaker 1: ends Indianapolis is eleven game win streak thirty one to six.
Speaker 1: Rob Johnson throws for two eighties, seven and two touchdowns. Okay,
Speaker 1: well that's nice. He had a nice final week game
Speaker 1: Week sixteen. Except Buffalo. After seeing this, the Bills bench
Speaker 1: Doug Flutie for Johnson for the playoffs. The players were stunned,
Speaker 1: they were pissed. I can't blame him. Wade Phillips, head
Speaker 1: coach of the Buffalo Bills, said afterward that Ralph Wilson,
Speaker 1: the owner, ordered him to make the chain. I mean,
Speaker 1: Flutie always won more than Rob Johnson. Right, Johnson got
Speaker 1: hurt when he got the job. Flutie came in and
Speaker 1: was great. Flutie was great in ninety nine. Then when
Speaker 1: you get into two thousand, a year after, Johnson was
Speaker 1: terrible again. I mean, it's like the Bills didn't know
Speaker 1: how good they had, and it's like, you know, they
Speaker 1: were football karma, saying, no, flute is really your guy.
Speaker 1: Every time Rob Johnson gets a chance, he gets hurt
Speaker 1: or he's ineffective, and Doug Flutie is the guy. And
Speaker 1: can you imagine making a change at quarterback solely because
Speaker 1: the guy you you picked finally had one good game
Speaker 1: and you go away from your starter the entire season.
Speaker 1: I can't believe there wasn't a mutiny for the Bills
Speaker 1: going into the game against the Titans. Well, just the
Speaker 1: fact that Wade Phillips, Hey, it was him, he ordered me,
Speaker 1: he ordered I didn't do it. Yeah, no, he I
Speaker 1: voted for Kodos like the you he gets. Certainly, Flutie
Speaker 1: was the locker room guy, right, Everybody rallied around him.
Speaker 1: They played well. Johnson was the hot shot guy. All
Speaker 1: these years later, Right, it's still the I don't understand
Speaker 1: and that I got screwed, and and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of negativity that flows out of it. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: we we see it in sports all the time, and
Speaker 1: look at look back to Philadelphia. Right, there's just always
Speaker 1: this weird dynamic has gone on these last couple of
Speaker 1: years with Carson Wentz. What happened when he went down
Speaker 1: and Nick Foles went in, everybody rallied around that guy.
Speaker 1: Doesn't make sense on a larger scale, no, because when
Speaker 1: starting played, Okay had his moments, but certainly nothing like
Speaker 1: the magic of that playoff run that earned him a
Speaker 1: statue outside the stadium. Same thing here with Doug Flutie.
Speaker 1: There was just something about him where you rally. So
Speaker 1: this always became a sticking point and today with social media,
Speaker 1: sports talk radio, sports television, uh, to the level that
Speaker 1: it is now. I mean, you'd be shunned if you
Speaker 1: you try to do this again. I mean, as an owner,
Speaker 1: this this is what it gets you to start turning
Speaker 1: over front office people, coaches, and players with great regularity
Speaker 1: because you're hearing it from all ends. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: something that, if it was now, would dominate sports talk
Speaker 1: radio every week. Can you believe that the bill still
Speaker 1: want to play Rock Johnson all Doug Fluti does his
Speaker 1: win and he has spark plug plays, and he runs
Speaker 1: for first downs on third and fifteen and makes clutch
Speaker 1: throws to the end zone on on fade patterns. I mean,
Speaker 1: it would be it wouldn't make sense that this would
Speaker 1: be going on. And we'll be talking about it all
Speaker 1: the time. But this is the drama the Bills carried
Speaker 1: with them into the wild card game against the Titans. Now,
Speaker 1: the Titans had a great year, all right. They cruised
Speaker 1: through the regular season. It was the first year they
Speaker 1: were the Titans. You know, they drafted Javon Curse, who
Speaker 1: turned into a superstar player for a few years. They
Speaker 1: went thirteen and three. Eddie George was a stud. This
Speaker 1: was one of those solid, all around quintessential heritage NFL
Speaker 1: teams that you would see going to Super Bowls in
Speaker 1: the seventies and eighties. Boy, they got a really good defense,
Speaker 1: they got a really good running game, they got a
Speaker 1: quarterback and makes play is They get everything they need.
Speaker 1: Jeff Fisher is is a young up and coming head coach.
Speaker 1: You know before he was, oh my god, Jeff Fisher. Seriously,
Speaker 1: this is when Jeff Fisher was, Oh Jeff Fisher. We
Speaker 1: gotta go get Jeff Fisher. And they go thirteen and three.
Speaker 1: But Jacksonville goes fourteen and two, so that relegates the
Speaker 1: Titans into the wild card game. Steve McNair, as great
Speaker 1: of a reputation as he had on the field as
Speaker 1: a playmaker, didn't have a great season. All right. The
Speaker 1: Titans didn't score a ton of points. He only threw
Speaker 1: twelve touchdowns, you know, when he ran for eight, which
Speaker 1: would put his total up, you know, respectable twenty. He
Speaker 1: also only played in eleven games because McNair was a
Speaker 1: guy that had tough time staying healthy and really the
Speaker 1: spark plug. And I can't believe I'm saying this because people.
Speaker 1: I remember what he was like with the Jets. But
Speaker 1: nil o'donald started five games when you thought his career
Speaker 1: was over all, right, what you go to the Jets
Speaker 1: and you fail, your career is done. But no, no, no,
Speaker 1: he comes in relief of McNair, starts five games, throws
Speaker 1: ten touchdowns in five games. All right, that's to lesson
Speaker 1: McNair in six less games. So o'donald was really good.
Speaker 1: The Marcus Mariota, Ryan Tannehill winging around kind of idea, right,
Speaker 1: But still McNair was the starter. He was beloved, and
Speaker 1: he was you know, and he still look he engineered
Speaker 1: them to a lot of wins. It was nice to
Speaker 1: have o'donald in relief. So when the wild card game comes,
Speaker 1: McNair is the quarterback. But it's not like this was
Speaker 1: a team that boy Tennessee put up a lot of points.
Speaker 1: You know, this was Tennessee is winning all around solid play,
Speaker 1: and now we're gonna see what can they do in
Speaker 1: the playoffs? How far can this take them? So the Titans,
Speaker 1: who were eight no at home and healthy, match up
Speaker 1: against the Bills and what turns into the Music City
Speaker 1: miracle Coming up next will relive the play, the game,
Speaker 1: and the crazy things that actually made it possible that
Speaker 1: I still can't believe twenty years later. That's coming up
Speaker 1: next right here on Special Teams. We're continuing on with
Speaker 1: Special Teams as we look back at the Music City Miracle.
Speaker 1: The special teams involved the Bills and the Tennessee Titans,
Speaker 1: and we'll get to the Music City Miracle play coming
Speaker 1: up in a couple of minutes. But this playoff game
Speaker 1: that was won by the Titans sixteen and what he's
Speaker 1: going down with one of the most famous plays in
Speaker 1: NFL history. In fact, you could probably say, outside of
Speaker 1: the Immaculate Reception, this is the next most famous play
Speaker 1: in NFL history. We've seen it a million times and
Speaker 1: we've broken it down, but this play, the big home
Speaker 1: run throwback and Frank why Chick just has some kind
Speaker 1: of place mythologically. But to say that this was a
Speaker 1: great game was a bit of a misconception because this game,
Speaker 1: like this was a terrible game. This is one of
Speaker 1: those games you watch and go, well, it's an NFL
Speaker 1: playoff aim on TV, so I'm gonna watch it. I mean,
Speaker 1: it really had everything was in that final Music City
Speaker 1: Miracle play. Oh no, absolutely, it was a lot of
Speaker 1: build up. At least you got the big finish to it,
Speaker 1: because I mean when when you're big plays earlier, I
Speaker 1: think I took a safety. Really, that's that's the guy
Speaker 1: you're fighting. Yeah, we got a safety. He takes the safety.
Speaker 1: And yes you celebrate because everybody stands up, does the
Speaker 1: I Dream a Genie dance and does all that with it.
Speaker 1: That you get a little bit excited there, but certainly
Speaker 1: it's it's not one that inspires great, great confidence overall
Speaker 1: as to what your offense is bringing to the table.
Speaker 1: And he got a scoreless first quarter and Buffalo doesn't
Speaker 1: get out of the gates. This game can be summarized
Speaker 1: with this sentence. Steve McNair through for seventy six yards
Speaker 1: in this game. Yeah, Rob Johnson threw for one thirty
Speaker 1: one and he actually had a worst game the McNair.
Speaker 1: You're talking about the two starting quarterbacks that combined in
Speaker 1: a playoff game to throw for two yards. All right, now, Johnson,
Speaker 1: like I said, he was worse. He was ten out
Speaker 1: of twenty two. He got sacked six times and he
Speaker 1: fumbled three times. What's the biggest shock is that, you know,
Speaker 1: this is how much from above this game with Ralph Wilson,
Speaker 1: because as bad as they struggled, Doug Flute was never
Speaker 1: put into the game. He doesn't get off the badch
Speaker 1: How do you not get in the game when Rob
Speaker 1: Johnson is this bad and and and you have no
Speaker 1: offense for three and a half, three and two thirds
Speaker 1: quarters in this game. And because Flutie had played so
Speaker 1: well during the year, that's the thing, right, It's not
Speaker 1: like he was hurt or that he'd been grossly ineffective
Speaker 1: to where you had a true competition even though you're
Speaker 1: making the playoffs and you're and you're pushing forward. I mean,
Speaker 1: he played well for you, and he's sitting there just
Speaker 1: on the on the bench. Hey, someone just hied his helmet.
Speaker 1: He's not getting in. I mean that that's I mean,
Speaker 1: I look at it now. So there's no way they
Speaker 1: wouldn't go to Flutie if was not bad. There's no
Speaker 1: way they wouldn't have done. You know, if that, if
Speaker 1: that was the decision to be made by Wade Phillips,
Speaker 1: there's there's no question about it. I mean that that's
Speaker 1: done at the end of the first quarter, if not before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's field goals, field goals, field goals. And
Speaker 1: this game comes down to the end, the final couple
Speaker 1: of minutes. Let's just say the final couple of minutes,
Speaker 1: because we had some drama before the Music City Miracle.
Speaker 1: Buffalo was down. Well that's the other thing, is that
Speaker 1: as badly as they played there in the game. Yeah, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: they were in the game. You're right, Buffalo as bad
Speaker 1: as they were, but their defense was really good. So
Speaker 1: was the Titans. And that's why, you know, I wanted
Speaker 1: to make sure we mentioned that the Bill's defense is
Speaker 1: really the hallmark of this team as much as it
Speaker 1: was Flute. He was, like I said, Ted Washington was
Speaker 1: a big dude man and you couldn't move him and
Speaker 1: coward and you had a lot of talent on on
Speaker 1: that Bill's defense, and they were really tough to score on.
Speaker 1: So the fact that this was that kind of game
Speaker 1: is really not that shocking. But when you can't put
Speaker 1: any offense on the board and your quarterback is getting
Speaker 1: sacked what they called Johnson robosack, you know, because you
Speaker 1: know he couldn't stop getting sacked. He was staying in
Speaker 1: the pocket and get hit. I mean, you have to
Speaker 1: make a move. You try to, you know, get a
Speaker 1: get up, some kind of spark on your offense, but
Speaker 1: they stick with Rob Johnson, and Johnson actually gets Buffalo
Speaker 1: the sixteen fifteen lead right there, down by two with
Speaker 1: a minute forty eight left to go. Right because you're
Speaker 1: you're talking field goals, field goals, field goals. Rob Johnson
Speaker 1: throws for a big first down without a shoe on
Speaker 1: to get Buffalo to the twenty four yard line, and
Speaker 1: now you're getting inside a minute. He had lost a
Speaker 1: shoe the play before, he couldn't put it back on.
Speaker 1: He throws for a big first down, and now with
Speaker 1: twenty seconds left, Buffalo's got the football at the twenty
Speaker 1: four yard line of the Titans. They're down by a
Speaker 1: field goal. Twenty seconds left, the Bills have no time outs.
Speaker 1: And this is where things get interesting. Why don't the
Speaker 1: Bills have any time outs? Well, because they burned one
Speaker 1: the previous drive on defense because they were all yelling
Speaker 1: at each other because the Titans had the lead and
Speaker 1: and they were trying to run the clock out, and
Speaker 1: the Bills lost their composure and they had to use
Speaker 1: the time out when they didn't have the ball. Just
Speaker 1: to hey, hey, guys, let's cooler heads prevail here. Let's
Speaker 1: make sure we stopped them. Now, it worked, they stopped
Speaker 1: there and got the ball back, but they had no
Speaker 1: timeouts because of this. So the Bills are now faced
Speaker 1: with twenty seconds left in the game. They have first
Speaker 1: down at the twenty four yard line. Now this is
Speaker 1: an eternity, right, and if this was now in the
Speaker 1: National Football League teams, it's all right. We got plenty
Speaker 1: of time. We can run a play anywhere we want to.
Speaker 1: We can throw the ball to either whatever we want
Speaker 1: to do and get inside the twenty, get inside the
Speaker 1: ten and run up, spike it and then come out
Speaker 1: and kick a field goal. I mean, twenty seconds is
Speaker 1: an eternity to do that. All you have to do
Speaker 1: is hope Rob Johnson doesn't get sacked. And you know,
Speaker 1: look Rob Johnson liked to get sacked. But still yeah,
Speaker 1: but still you would think they would now they would
Speaker 1: run a play easy a league. No, the Bills decide
Speaker 1: instead of that, we are going to kick the field
Speaker 1: goal with twenty seconds left, Whereas conventional wisdom now says,
Speaker 1: we'll run a play, we'll get up there, we'll let
Speaker 1: the clock tick down to two or three seconds because
Speaker 1: we have no time out, so it doesn't matter with
Speaker 1: a bad snap. We can't just call time out and
Speaker 1: try to kick the ball again on the next play.
Speaker 1: So we let it go down to two or three seconds,
Speaker 1: called time out, and we kicked the game winner on
Speaker 1: the final play. That's what every team would do, but
Speaker 1: the Bills didn't do it. Many of the coaches on
Speaker 1: the sideline wanted the Bills to call run another play,
Speaker 1: but Wade Phillips said, no, I want to send out
Speaker 1: Steve Christie to try to kick this field goal. And
Speaker 1: now there are few kickers that were that were as
Speaker 1: accurate as Steve Christie. Christie gets on the field makes
Speaker 1: it forty one yards out. Bills have the lead with
Speaker 1: twenty seconds left. Rob Johnson looks like a hero. All
Speaker 1: the Bills have to do is defend for sixteen seconds
Speaker 1: and things are gonna be great. But now you're seeing
Speaker 1: some of the things that played into the fact why
Speaker 1: the Music City Miracle was able to happen. Bad lock management,
Speaker 1: yelling at each other on defense. You go back and
Speaker 1: watch the video and it's laughable because we see that
Speaker 1: in games, and now it doesn't force you to call
Speaker 1: time out, might be a busted play, might be a
Speaker 1: little out of position, whatever, but your management is usually
Speaker 1: a little bit better than that. So then we get
Speaker 1: the Music City miracle and we get the home run
Speaker 1: throwback and Frank white check throws it back to Kevin
Speaker 1: Dyson who catches the lateral and goes seventy five yards
Speaker 1: for a touchdown. Uh. I remember when this happened, watching
Speaker 1: it live. I was producing uh sports for KBC here
Speaker 1: in l A. We were going on the air after
Speaker 1: the game was over and we had a big football
Speaker 1: show going on. We're saying to ourselves, I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: this is a terrible game. What the hell are we
Speaker 1: gonna talk about? We got this, we got field goals.
Speaker 1: It's you know, it's all right, but we can talk
Speaker 1: about it's a terrible game. But it's still the one
Speaker 1: point game, right right, but still but it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: you're looking for some kind of excitement. This has been
Speaker 1: a crappy game. And then the Music City miracle happens
Speaker 1: and Dyson goes in for a touchdown, and this all
Speaker 1: kinds of questions, is the play? Is the play legal?
Speaker 1: Are they gonna can they all go back and and
Speaker 1: and look at there was all these different things that
Speaker 1: we were wondering because it happens like, oh my god, really,
Speaker 1: just take one throwback to the other side and and
Speaker 1: Dicon goes all the way for a touchdown. Because that's
Speaker 1: what that's what it came to me, was that we've
Speaker 1: seen crazy plays before, and we've seen touch on. Look
Speaker 1: the Dolphins touchdown to beat the Patriots on the on
Speaker 1: the final play a couple of years ago. But you
Speaker 1: see a lot of change of directions and and and
Speaker 1: players moving, and then you get too many people on
Speaker 1: one side of the field, and there's a couple of
Speaker 1: blocks that are thrown. But this is after the play
Speaker 1: change direction two or three times. This was just here's
Speaker 1: a kick to white Check, who picks it up, throws
Speaker 1: it across the field, and there's nobody there because Bills
Speaker 1: have no one there and diceon. It's not like Dyson's
Speaker 1: gotta run and make this incredible uh play, or there's
Speaker 1: any more laterals. He's got a convoy all the way
Speaker 1: to the end zone. So I'm like, how did that happen?
Speaker 1: Did the Bills just think they were gonna go down
Speaker 1: the field like zombies and and just and and the Titans,
Speaker 1: we're gonna fall on the football. I mean, even if
Speaker 1: you're staying in your lane on the kickoff team, which
Speaker 1: is what you're supposed to do in a situation like this.
Speaker 1: Believe me, I was a kickoff team star in high school.
Speaker 1: And you've talked about it's really been on hands and everything.
Speaker 1: I always stayed in my lane. I did not know
Speaker 1: even if you stayed you're listening to LaVar Ball before
Speaker 1: you knew, you were listening to lay in yo lane.
Speaker 1: And even if you do that, you're gonna make a
Speaker 1: play on Dipe. But there's nothing even close to a
Speaker 1: play on Dison on this even close. No, He's able
Speaker 1: to stroll straight in and it's it all just becomes
Speaker 1: a You start arguing. He's like, well, we knew the
Speaker 1: play should have been disallowed. Was the only defense that
Speaker 1: you had for a lackluster effort to get after Dyson
Speaker 1: and make any type of play on this? Uh? Is, Well,
Speaker 1: it was an illegal pass, so it shouldn't account it.
Speaker 1: So we didn't run after him as hard as we
Speaker 1: should have or any anything of that nature. But yeah,
Speaker 1: caught with their pants down on special teams in a
Speaker 1: big way because white Check runs all the way to
Speaker 1: the right side of the field, and all the bills
Speaker 1: they broke containment, and it's do you really, Frank white
Speaker 1: Check is not gonna run by all of you into
Speaker 1: the end zone. Okay, if white Check's got the football,
Speaker 1: you just gotta wait. He'll run. He'll find you eventually.
Speaker 1: All right. The guy's a tight end, but they all
Speaker 1: broke contain was able to throw it all the way
Speaker 1: back to the other side of the field. Dyson goes
Speaker 1: in for a touchdown, and then they stopped because they
Speaker 1: had to look at it to see if the play
Speaker 1: was a lateral because if it was, obviously the Titans
Speaker 1: get penalized for the legal forward pass. And the referee
Speaker 1: who is gonna make this decision is Phil Luckett, who
Speaker 1: you know from all kinds of other controversies, the the
Speaker 1: the coin flip and Thanksgiving with the Steelers and the Lions,
Speaker 1: the Vinny Testa Verdi touchdown against the the Seahawks, in
Speaker 1: all kinds of Phil Lucket stuff that there were, and
Speaker 1: he was the referee in this game, and he really
Speaker 1: doesn't even have a role in it because as we
Speaker 1: see by replays that we've seen hundreds of times. It
Speaker 1: looks in every angle we've seen to be a clear lateral.
Speaker 1: Is one of those rare plays that it goes right
Speaker 1: along a plane and that's a legal play. It's been
Speaker 1: dissected so many different ways, right, and you wish you
Speaker 1: had more cameras. You wish you had this that the other.
Speaker 1: From all analysis, it works. It stands up one of
Speaker 1: the more controversial plays of recent memory and one that
Speaker 1: always gets replay conversations and people wringing their hands about
Speaker 1: the whole concept. Right, not not the result of this
Speaker 1: particular play, but what it means on a larger scale
Speaker 1: when we get deep into this for football, baseball, whatever
Speaker 1: it is. But play that is now one of the
Speaker 1: most famous, as you say on the metal stand for
Speaker 1: all of NFL history and legend making and career and
Speaker 1: franchise defining on so many levels. And the reason they're
Speaker 1: able to review this is because instant replay had come
Speaker 1: back to the NFL just this year. There were some
Speaker 1: miscalls and games that that fans are upset about. There
Speaker 1: was a big push for review. In fact, Jerry rice
Speaker 1: Is non fumble call in the wild card game between
Speaker 1: the Niners and the Packers that was the play that
Speaker 1: really convinced the NFL that all right, we gotta have
Speaker 1: replay now. So they have replay in for n And
Speaker 1: what Phil Luckett is looking at is he's looking at
Speaker 1: justice see if it is a lateral, it's called a lateral.
Speaker 1: And Dyson in pre in interviews afterwards said he thought
Speaker 1: about going out of bounds because they needed just a
Speaker 1: field goal to win the game, and there was all
Speaker 1: kinds of time left right because they kicked off with
Speaker 1: sixteen too much time on the lock. But for that's
Speaker 1: never been said ever. Rob Johnson never didn't even get
Speaker 1: But Dyson said, the only guy that had shot at
Speaker 1: me was Steve Christie, and we were blocking him. So
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna run into the end zone and that's
Speaker 1: that's what he did, and the Music City miracle happens,
Speaker 1: and the Titans win and they use this as a
Speaker 1: huge run to the super Bowl, and the Bills are
Speaker 1: going home saying what happened to us? But really it's
Speaker 1: it's you know, they didn't execute on the play, but
Speaker 1: it was everything leading up to it. There were three
Speaker 1: or four things they could have done that could have
Speaker 1: stopped this play from happening. Don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: using your time outs when you're yelling at each other
Speaker 1: on defense. Uh, you know, let the clock tick down,
Speaker 1: run another play, do something, because had they just run
Speaker 1: another play and let's say they spiked it with you know,
Speaker 1: eight seconds left or ten seconds left, Dyson's probably running
Speaker 1: out of bounds. Oh my god, if I don't get
Speaker 1: in the end, no no, no, no no, no, maybe he's
Speaker 1: he's okay this eight. I gotta get out. We gotta
Speaker 1: kick the game winning field goal to try to win.
Speaker 1: Just that psychology, all those things the Bills could have done,
Speaker 1: and instead they did none of them, and they allowed
Speaker 1: this play to happen. I mean, it's fascinating to look
Speaker 1: at it from the Bill's perspective. Buffalo, Yo, all of
Speaker 1: that disaster, all of those failures throughout the game. Yet wait,
Speaker 1: and the defense kept them in, made just enough plays
Speaker 1: except well, one fail. So the Titans go on to
Speaker 1: the super Bowl, the Bills go to the off season.
Speaker 1: What happened with both of these teams, Well, it was
Speaker 1: the end of an absolute error for one of them,
Speaker 1: and another one well, let's just say the fortunes of
Speaker 1: the NFL changed forever because the home run throwback went
Speaker 1: for a touchdown that's coming up next on special teams.
Speaker 1: So America is gasping at one of the most thrilling
Speaker 1: ends to a football game in NFL history. And as
Speaker 1: we said many times in the podcast, it's going down
Speaker 1: to one of the top two or three plays of
Speaker 1: all time. What did this game? What did this result
Speaker 1: mean for both teams? Well, for the Bills, it was
Speaker 1: really the end of the Bill's era. I mean, these
Speaker 1: teams that we watched go to the Super Bowl year
Speaker 1: after year after year in the early nineteen nineties. It
Speaker 1: was the last year for Bruce Smith, Andre Reid, and
Speaker 1: Thurman Thomas. At this point they were not quite spare parts,
Speaker 1: but these were the veterans that are that had seeded
Speaker 1: the way two younger players. Look, the Bills had gone
Speaker 1: to Antoine Smith at running back, and you know, these
Speaker 1: guys were done. They were all released after the season
Speaker 1: for salary cap reasons. So this really was the end
Speaker 1: of that era of the Bills up even though Jim
Speaker 1: Kelly had left a quarterback. You know a few years ago,
Speaker 1: Buffalo actually goes through one more year with both Doug
Speaker 1: Flutie and Rob Johnson the quarterback. I mean, how insane
Speaker 1: is this? They say, no, No, we're gonna go one
Speaker 1: more year with both of these guys. They finally commit
Speaker 1: to Rob Johnson and trade Flutie to San Diego after
Speaker 1: two thousand, Right, all right, finally Rob's our guy and
Speaker 1: we're gonna move on. Well. Rob Johnson with a concussion
Speaker 1: and a rib injury and a leg injury in two thousand,
Speaker 1: a broken collarbone in two thousand one. Could never stay healthy,
Speaker 1: couldn't keep the job, always held on to the football
Speaker 1: way too long, got sacked way too much, and the
Speaker 1: Bills eventually had to start completely over again. This shows
Speaker 1: you what happens when you're going a downward spiral when
Speaker 1: you picked the wrong quarterback. Because it was like, I
Speaker 1: feel like the Bills they had this in front of them,
Speaker 1: they fluty, what about john Tonana? But fluty na, what
Speaker 1: about all right? It's like the football God said, listen,
Speaker 1: we we've given the Bills all kinds of signs. They're
Speaker 1: not taking them now. They got to start over again,
Speaker 1: and it took the Bills a long time to get back.
Speaker 1: Took him a long time to get back to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: which they didn't do until a couple of years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's the curiosity of it, right, is you're
Speaker 1: always trying to figure out what's the how long is
Speaker 1: the tail on the back end? Right when you do
Speaker 1: your statistics and you see you know how you how
Speaker 1: you roll through? What what are you gonna get for fluty?
Speaker 1: How long does it ride? Well? But it's working, right.
Speaker 1: You want to make sure you've got the competent backup,
Speaker 1: but you don't want to create the controversy and problems
Speaker 1: and instead what you have here because you paid money,
Speaker 1: you feel compelled that he's got to be on the field,
Speaker 1: or at least that's the thought for management. So it
Speaker 1: just creates an unnecessary distraction in the locker room and
Speaker 1: problem on the field, as we see, because well he
Speaker 1: was never that guy. He was not the guy to
Speaker 1: lead them forward. And who's to say how long flute
Speaker 1: he's rain would have been. But certainly you do what
Speaker 1: they play, other players did when he was on the field,
Speaker 1: what he meant to that city, and you just tore
Speaker 1: that asunder. Now for the Titans, they go on to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl before losing to the Rams. With one
Speaker 1: of the other most top five most famous plays in
Speaker 1: the NFL history Mike Jones tackle on the final play
Speaker 1: of the game and the Titans fall a yard short
Speaker 1: of potentially going to overtime. The Rams win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: But if you're the Titans, you go, all right, well,
Speaker 1: we had one incredible play that went our way. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, Lady Luck kind of was, you know, drew
Speaker 1: us even at the end of the Super Bowl. But
Speaker 1: still that moment became so huge. It's still the big
Speaker 1: It's in team history, the Music City Miracle and that
Speaker 1: team and that Titans team of thousand is always going
Speaker 1: to be legendary. But here's where things get really interesting,
Speaker 1: because you know, we say once in a while there
Speaker 1: are flashpoints. So there are moments in the history of
Speaker 1: sports where if one result goes one way, just one
Speaker 1: play goes one way, then NFL history changes. And it's
Speaker 1: incredible to think that way. But you know, we we
Speaker 1: talked about this on our radio show earlier this year
Speaker 1: when Don Shula passed away, had the Jets one Super
Speaker 1: Bowl three, everything changes, you know, the a f L.
Speaker 1: If the Jets don't win, they don't merge with the NFL.
Speaker 1: Don Shula probably stays as head coach in Baltimore, doesn't
Speaker 1: go to Miami, and Miami maybe doesn't go undefeated win
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl back to back years, and maybe the
Speaker 1: Colts franchise doesn't move and maybe Elway plays there instead
Speaker 1: of Denver, and you know all these things happen. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then Shula was in the middle of it again
Speaker 1: with the fake Spike games. You know, will well, well,
Speaker 1: I promise you will do the fake Spike game in
Speaker 1: a future episode. Carroll and everything else. It's the same.
Speaker 1: It's the same idea. Yeah, I'm sorry, I I I
Speaker 1: get it. It's just you know, I need to be
Speaker 1: in the right frame of mind to do it, to
Speaker 1: go through. Understand. And that Kevin Diyson was also in
Speaker 1: both these plays. It's kind of exactly. You know, Dyson
Speaker 1: is the big hero and then he's one yard short
Speaker 1: at the end, but clearly he was one yard short
Speaker 1: or half the yard short, and it was boy, he
Speaker 1: went from I can't believe my fortune too, I can't
Speaker 1: believe my fortune. Yeah. But let's just say the Music
Speaker 1: City miracle goes the other way and the Buffalo Bills
Speaker 1: win the game. All right, Let's just say Phil Luckett
Speaker 1: decides dah looked like the ball in a little bit forward,
Speaker 1: so he all right, I'm gonna say that that's a
Speaker 1: forward pass. The Bills win the game. If that happens,
Speaker 1: NFL history changes because Rob Johnson wins a playoff game
Speaker 1: and he is cemented in as the Buffalo Bill started.
Speaker 1: I don't know how far they go in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: but he clearly is the starter. Buffalo commits to him
Speaker 1: and they move on from Doug Flutie then, and they
Speaker 1: trade him when Flutie has got a lot of value. Now,
Speaker 1: if they trade Flutie after that offseason, then the Chargers
Speaker 1: don't get him after two thousand So do the Chargers
Speaker 1: still draft Drew Brees after that? Or they have a
Speaker 1: different situation at quarterback because they don't have Flutie, because
Speaker 1: Flutie goes someplace else, and maybe Breeze is not a Charger,
Speaker 1: which means maybe then he doesn't wind up with the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Saints and that changes. Or maybe the Chargers decide, well,
Speaker 1: we didn't really solve our quarterback problem because we don't
Speaker 1: have Doug Flutie, so maybe we'll take Michael Vick with
Speaker 1: the first overall pick in the two thousand and one draft,
Speaker 1: and maybe then Ladanian Tomlinson winds up with another team,
Speaker 1: and all of these things push all these star players
Speaker 1: in a whole bunch of different directions. Now, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: things do happen a little bit, you know, alongside those lines,
Speaker 1: but still without Doug Flutie going to the Chargers a
Speaker 1: year eater, then maybe things change and Vic is on
Speaker 1: the Charges in LaDainian tomlinsons somewhere else and he's going
Speaker 1: to the Hall of Fame as somewhere as with another team,
Speaker 1: and you know, all those dominoes fall that way. But
Speaker 1: he never becomes a Jet, so you don't get to
Speaker 1: claim him as a Jet. Maybe the Jets trade up
Speaker 1: and get him early. We had him for his entire career. Wow,
Speaker 1: how about that? Maybe they do. But yeah, it just
Speaker 1: shows the it's a game of inches. We we joke
Speaker 1: about that on Sundays and we talk about the margin
Speaker 1: of victory. Right, It's most games are seven points are fewer.
Speaker 1: And the National Football League and here you're talking about
Speaker 1: three ft less than three ft change the fortunes of
Speaker 1: a lot of top picks and where they ended up
Speaker 1: with their careers, and be curious to throw this theory
Speaker 1: up at them. So through our Fox family, I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to uh start knocking on some doors. Hey,
Speaker 1: we talked about this. What do you think. I don't
Speaker 1: even think life would have been like if we If
Speaker 1: this is how it going down, well I still got
Speaker 1: one more for you, and it affects the current National
Speaker 1: Football League. Right, So Jeff Fisher is still up and
Speaker 1: coming head coach Jeff Fisher. They go to the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl and Jeff Fisher gets to stay with the Titans
Speaker 1: four years now. I mean he goes all you know,
Speaker 1: I mean he goes all the way through to as
Speaker 1: the Titans head coach. He never got to the levels
Speaker 1: that he got to go to the Super Bowl in
Speaker 1: that year. So let's just say he loses that playoff game.
Speaker 1: Jeff Fisher's resume doesn't look as great as it was, right,
Speaker 1: So does he really make it to his head coach
Speaker 1: of the Titans. Probably not, So the Titans hire somebody else.
Speaker 1: Jeff Fisher goes someplace else, and maybe Jeff Fisher is
Speaker 1: not coaching the Rams, who then replaced him with Sean
Speaker 1: McVeigh and he gets them to the super Bowl and
Speaker 1: turns the Rams into a super relevant team. So this
Speaker 1: is you're going back twenty years with one play. Maybe
Speaker 1: the Rams don't get to the super Bowl two years
Speaker 1: ago because of it. I mean about that, and it
Speaker 1: never becomes an issue on our show with Eric Dickerson
Speaker 1: where they've got a call for his ouster Jason Cole
Speaker 1: or any of our friends of the show. In terms
Speaker 1: of what it all meant with Jeff Fisher, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: because you know, going to a super Bowl, he generally
Speaker 1: buys you a couple of years. Sometimes you have owners
Speaker 1: that are a little quicker with the trigger finger, or
Speaker 1: or a guy leaves and doesn't get that legacy because
Speaker 1: he gets the better offer and bolts. But yeah, for
Speaker 1: Jeff Fisher, this bought him a lot of time. He
Speaker 1: was the guy that you know, was successfully moving teams
Speaker 1: and all that other stuff to buy him. And he
Speaker 1: was on the competition committee. You don't forget that. Always
Speaker 1: forget he was there. Yes, he was there. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: that helps. So let's play it out, because this tells
Speaker 1: you about Jeff Fisher is that they go thirteen and
Speaker 1: three this year and they go to the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: and lose. Well, they go thirteen and three the next year,
Speaker 1: but they lose in the first round of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Then they go seven and nine Jeff Fisher's first seven
Speaker 1: and nine year. Uh. Then they're eleven and five and
Speaker 1: twelve and four and things are still pretty good. But
Speaker 1: then in two thousand four, two thousand five, two thousand six,
Speaker 1: Fisher goes five at eleven four and twelve, eight and eight.
Speaker 1: At this point, does Fisher still keep his job? Because
Speaker 1: if that gets you bounce, if you don't have that
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, you're saying, well, we've been to the playoffs
Speaker 1: four times, but we haven't really gotten in very far,
Speaker 1: and we haven't been there in three years. And Vince
Speaker 1: Young is in now and he's the offensive rookie of
Speaker 1: the year, so maybe now is it time to make
Speaker 1: a change at head coach. And so then Jeff Fisher
Speaker 1: is out of their years earlier, which means, as I said,
Speaker 1: he gets a job someplace else, in someplace else, and
Speaker 1: maybe he doesn't end up with the Rams and then
Speaker 1: ending up with Sean mcvagh succeeding him. Yeah, Domino's fall,
Speaker 1: no question about it, because five at eleven, four and twelve,
Speaker 1: those two years you're done. You're done. That Super Bowl
Speaker 1: is already five years, six years in the rear view, mirror,
Speaker 1: and even though you got back to another a f
Speaker 1: C title game, you lost that one off at eleven
Speaker 1: and five season, and then a divisional game against the
Speaker 1: Patriots two thousand three after another twelve and four season.
Speaker 1: So I mean, you you had everything stats, you dominated
Speaker 1: the regular season. Then it couldn't get over. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't get anymore. Super Bowl bought him, but another
Speaker 1: four years beyond that, I mean, it's amazing. Alright, Mike,
Speaker 1: how'm a little where are they now from the Music
Speaker 1: City Miracle game? What do you got for us? All right,
Speaker 1: let's have a little bit of fun. You've got Jason Fisks,
Speaker 1: defensive tackle. He's an AP chemistry teacher in Vacaville, California. Really,
Speaker 1: I was terrible at AP chemistry. I was off. I'm like,
Speaker 1: just right sixty because I'll do enough work to pass,
Speaker 1: but I'm not gonna do any better than just let
Speaker 1: me through succeeds. Yeah, he was a Stanford grad. So
Speaker 1: smart guy went back to northern California getting it done.
Speaker 1: You got Dusty Ziegler, Benny. This takes two prongs. The
Speaker 1: first part decided, Hey, I'm gonna run for Republican and
Speaker 1: a Republican ticket for a county commission her seat in Georgia.
Speaker 1: And then after all of that process of being involved
Speaker 1: in that sphere, well he became an offensive line coach.
Speaker 1: So there you have Kurt Schultz, the safety. So he
Speaker 1: was good. He works for Merrill Lynch and since Kevin
Speaker 1: Dyson is the man on display, I mean in the
Speaker 1: hero and well the guy that you had to hug
Speaker 1: after being one yard short, he got his m s d.
Speaker 1: And then he works at a middle school where he
Speaker 1: is the principal grassling in Franklin, Tennessee. Wow, do you
Speaker 1: think the kids can up and go hey, Mr Dyson?
Speaker 1: They put their arm out like they're trying to cross
Speaker 1: the gold line. He came up with a great dance
Speaker 1: number for this assembly. What's this? The whole the whole
Speaker 1: motto for our year is don't be one yard short
Speaker 1: from by You know, I remember being the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: we finished one yard short. Don't let this happen to you.
Speaker 1: Uh So there it is our look back at the
Speaker 1: Music City Miracle all the dramas surrounding it. If you
Speaker 1: have an idea for a future episode of Special Team Today,
Speaker 1: drop us note. Let us know Twitter at how about
Speaker 1: a Fresca. Mike is at Swollen Dome, Jason Smith, Mike
Speaker 1: Harmon Our show heard on Fox Sports Radio Monday through Friday,
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Speaker 1: seven to eleven on the West Coast. We'll talk to
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