Speaker 1: Welcome to Special Teams, a production of My Heart Radio
Speaker 1: Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
Speaker 1: Mike Harmon. Every week we look back at a specific
Speaker 1: year in sports and some of the special teams that
Speaker 1: made up that year. We're kind of on a weather
Speaker 1: run right now. We had the Freezer Bowl that we
Speaker 1: talked about previously on the podcast, the coldest game in
Speaker 1: National Football League history, a f C champions game between
Speaker 1: the Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals, won by the Bengals. Uh. Today, well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do the Mud Bowl. One of the games
Speaker 1: that is so incredibly, very near and dear to my heart,
Speaker 1: the very famous two a f C Championship game him
Speaker 1: between the Dolphins and the Jets, won by the Dolphins
Speaker 1: fourteen nothing on a field filled with mud. It was ugly,
Speaker 1: it was brutal. I mean, it was fun to run
Speaker 1: around and slide and if you were seven years old.
Speaker 1: But the Dolphins go to the Super Bowl winning this
Speaker 1: game a field that is absolutely filled with mud. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna try to not go crazy during
Speaker 1: a lot of this because boy, this game is almost
Speaker 1: forty years old and I can still remember it like
Speaker 1: it was yesterday. Yeah, but this is a game that
Speaker 1: would have been, you know, probably one of your first
Speaker 1: real sports memories for one of your teams, right as
Speaker 1: young Jason Smith getting after it watching himself some playoff football,
Speaker 1: you know, thinking, hey, my team's got a legit shot here,
Speaker 1: Richard Todd's gonna lead my team to greatness and to
Speaker 1: watch the quagmire that the field became absolutely amazing. But
Speaker 1: I mean, we all have those pieces of nostalgia and
Speaker 1: look at thus mean that it's the result was always good, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, one of my favorite teams of all time
Speaker 1: growing up in Chicago's the eighty three White Socks win
Speaker 1: and ugly was the mantra. And then they went out
Speaker 1: and got absolutely worked by the Baltimore Orioles and in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, you know, and that's just the way it goes. So,
Speaker 1: you know, but you won't take away greg Lozinski hitting
Speaker 1: the ball on the roof, Carlton Fist being the human
Speaker 1: rain delay, and that starting rotation with Banister and brick
Speaker 1: Burns and Richard Dotson. Uh. You had Dewey Lamar Hoyd
Speaker 1: as your young winner and of course Rookie of the
Speaker 1: Year Ron Kittle Okay, should we just do the white socks?
Speaker 1: At some point you can get it all out? I mean, really,
Speaker 1: can we just do the three white socks? But I
Speaker 1: just thought, I just thought, I try to relate to
Speaker 1: the people that, you know what, nostalgia and that moment
Speaker 1: of awe doesn't always have to be, you know, the
Speaker 1: greatest ending. You know, a loss can somehow still have
Speaker 1: its effect on you. Yeah, well, obviously you'll find out
Speaker 1: over the next half hour plus here. Uh So this
Speaker 1: was the NFL playoffs during the strike. Yere If remember
Speaker 1: we talked about the eight two strike in a previous podcast.
Speaker 1: UH teams were seated one through eight in each conference.
Speaker 1: Miami was the number two seed. The Jets were the
Speaker 1: number six seed. Miami wins to get to the a
Speaker 1: f C Championship Game. They host the Jets, who beat
Speaker 1: the Bengals and the Raiders to get here. Now getting here.
Speaker 1: If you remember, if you listen to a previous Special
Speaker 1: Teams podcast, Don Shula, head coach of the Miami Dolphins,
Speaker 1: was so incensed the Patriots allowed the snow plow on
Speaker 1: the field UH to beat them three nothing in the
Speaker 1: game earlier. Remember he was so upset. Oh, I can't
Speaker 1: believe they allowed it. Annie actually talked to the NFL
Speaker 1: about disallowing the victory to the Patriots. So it was cheating.
Speaker 1: It was cheating, and Don Shula was always on the
Speaker 1: up and up, always on the up and up. Well,
Speaker 1: there were torrential rings this week in Miami. And here's
Speaker 1: the deal. The Jets had a high flying, well balanced offense.
Speaker 1: Right they had the leading rusher in the NFL and
Speaker 1: Freeman McNeil. That had wide receiver Wesley Walker who was
Speaker 1: a Pro bowler. Richard Todd was ranked third in the
Speaker 1: a f C in passing. They played well in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: they slept most of the sack exchange. On defense. I
Speaker 1: mean this, I remember thinking, we're going to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: We are loaded. Everything is good. The offense is good.
Speaker 1: Richard Todd is when I still liked him, because obviously
Speaker 1: after this game I didn't. But then they were loaded.
Speaker 1: This was it for the Jets. And the Jets were
Speaker 1: built on offense and the Dolphins were built on defense
Speaker 1: and running the football. I mean, Bob baum Howard was
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl defensive tackle. This was the killer Bees defense
Speaker 1: that the that the Dolphins had with Glenn and Lyle
Speaker 1: Blackwood and Bomb Howard and Miami leading the NFL and
Speaker 1: fewest yards allowed, fewest passing yards allowed. Believe it or not.
Speaker 1: In nine games in the regular season, Miami allowed a
Speaker 1: thousand and twenty seven passing yards. In nine games, they
Speaker 1: allowed just over a thousand yards passing. That is some
Speaker 1: kind of defense. They were so good across the board.
Speaker 1: Their offense was run heavy Andrew Franklin and Tony Nathan
Speaker 1: at running back. David Woodley was just okay, but he
Speaker 1: was a mobile quarterback. Uh. They're passing attack was dead
Speaker 1: last and their rushing attack was third. So what's the
Speaker 1: best way to win this game? Boy? If only the
Speaker 1: field could be really muddy. So no coverage of the
Speaker 1: field happened. The field was not covered with a tarp,
Speaker 1: which is against NFL rules. And the Jets and and
Speaker 1: many NFL UH people go down and saying, well, Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins didn't cover the field. They're supposed to cover the
Speaker 1: field because it needs to be in good playing condition. Well,
Speaker 1: how do you slow down an offense You make the
Speaker 1: field really wet and full of mud. This tells me
Speaker 1: the Dolphins knew they weren't gonna be able to beat
Speaker 1: the Jets straight up. So let's have the field be
Speaker 1: all muddy. And this was the great equalizer. If our
Speaker 1: offense stinks throwing the football, guess what. Your offense is
Speaker 1: gonna stay throwing the football too. So if we don't
Speaker 1: cover the field, it rains for five days. Hey, good
Speaker 1: luck trying to move the football up and down the field. See,
Speaker 1: I'm already worked up night. I'm already worked up on
Speaker 1: this again, this thirty eight years go. I'm already worked
Speaker 1: up about it. Yeah. But as you and I have
Speaker 1: talked about so many years on our Fox Sports radio show,
Speaker 1: you can't fall to good strategy. So if you this
Speaker 1: was gonna be the great equalizer, mother nature came on
Speaker 1: your side to, uh say, hey, you know, let's vanquished
Speaker 1: the Jets. Sorry, Uh, you know what, that's just the
Speaker 1: way it's gonna go. I mean to your point that
Speaker 1: the thousand yards you know, passing yardage against is really
Speaker 1: just patently absurd. Now, part of it is you go
Speaker 1: back and look at the the NFL during during that period,
Speaker 1: it was still three yards in a cloud of dust
Speaker 1: for many teams. But that that is just impressive overall.
Speaker 1: I mean, just going back and and looking at some
Speaker 1: of the data, and fortunately, through the power of the
Speaker 1: inner webs, there's still some videotape that you can find
Speaker 1: here through the uh well clipped off stuff from NFL films.
Speaker 1: Thanks but the giving us a little bit of a
Speaker 1: look see into how these teams stacked up. Now, the
Speaker 1: funny thing is, this mud Bowl was not what you
Speaker 1: would think it is. If you didn't see the game,
Speaker 1: you would look and see highlights this and go, the
Speaker 1: field really doesn't look that muddy. The players don't really
Speaker 1: look that muddy. In fact, the outside parts of the
Speaker 1: field look okay. Even the inside parts of the field
Speaker 1: don't look that muddy. But the issue was you can
Speaker 1: run straight ahead, and when you try to do that,
Speaker 1: you can do okay, But can you cut back when
Speaker 1: the field is as muddy as it is. You couldn't
Speaker 1: do it in the middle of the field. And certainly
Speaker 1: you've seen other mud games where players jerseys you can't
Speaker 1: even tell who they are. This was about the heavy rain.
Speaker 1: This is about the slickness of the field. And really
Speaker 1: we did not see a lot of teams being able
Speaker 1: to hold onto the football. We didn't see a lot
Speaker 1: of offense. We saw one incredibly great play that, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I will see in my head every day the rest
Speaker 1: of my life. But really, the surprising thing to me
Speaker 1: is that when you look at the field, he's saying,
Speaker 1: it really doesn't look that bad like you expect it
Speaker 1: to look a lot work. But still the teams that
Speaker 1: they just couldn't stay upright, They couldn't hold onto the football,
Speaker 1: they couldn't make plays outside. And that's one thing I
Speaker 1: was always helping is that, well, eventually they're gonna run
Speaker 1: a play outside, right, someone's gonna do something. But no,
Speaker 1: everything was still in the middle of the field and
Speaker 1: the team. Neither team could move the ball up and
Speaker 1: down and be able to do anything more than anything
Speaker 1: straight ahead, whether it was a run play or a pass. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you talk about the play you've alluded to
Speaker 1: several times. I mean the footing certainly had something to
Speaker 1: do with how that worked too. I mean, the the
Speaker 1: overhead looks like all right, uh, the unnatural green, no
Speaker 1: question about that. On the grass, but you got the
Speaker 1: patches right. You can see It's not that it's necessarily
Speaker 1: giant puddles, but it's just enough as guys try to
Speaker 1: make their their cuts. It's it's just not working and
Speaker 1: trying to get to the edge. It was gonna be
Speaker 1: a no go. You watched the receivers in some of
Speaker 1: the clips as you go back, just tiptoeing their route
Speaker 1: knowing that their legs are gonna slide out from under them.
Speaker 1: Not exactly a way to run a height, high octane
Speaker 1: passing offense for Richard Todd and company. And you know,
Speaker 1: one funny thing about this before you get to the
Speaker 1: game is like I talked about, you know this staying
Speaker 1: with me for years. It was like in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight, two thousand nine something like that, Don Shula
Speaker 1: did an interview in in New York radio for something
Speaker 1: I forget why he did it, and the person of
Speaker 1: the interview with I think was Marty Lyons, who was
Speaker 1: a former Jet defensive lineman who played in this game.
Speaker 1: And one of the things he did, of course, was
Speaker 1: bring up the mudball and don't Jula And don't Jula
Speaker 1: is like it was thirty years ago. Let it go,
Speaker 1: Let it go. He started laughing, just saying let it go.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, no, the losses stay with you. The
Speaker 1: games like this stay with you. Yeah. No, And obviously,
Speaker 1: if you're the coach Uh, you know, you got away
Speaker 1: with one here and when when you want to bring
Speaker 1: up integrity and legacies and all of that, and certainly
Speaker 1: we do it on the show and across sports Chok
Speaker 1: radio and sports television, when whenever we talk about the Patriots,
Speaker 1: you you have to talk about the asterisks, double asterisks
Speaker 1: and different spots along the way. Don Shula doesn't get
Speaker 1: a pass for this one. And the Dolphins management, for
Speaker 1: all the great things you can say about them, this
Speaker 1: one still becomes the well, let's at least have a debate.
Speaker 1: Should they play regardless of weather? Right? Should they shouldn't
Speaker 1: be incumbent upon them to to put the tarp out?
Speaker 1: You know which side of yacht. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: growing up in Chicago, I said, you know, rain, sleet, snow, fog,
Speaker 1: that's all part of Chicago Bears lore. So I just
Speaker 1: kind of shrugged my shoulders and say, play on. But
Speaker 1: when the guys had the push brooms out before the
Speaker 1: game to try to get some extra water off, maybe
Speaker 1: we could have taken better care of the field. So
Speaker 1: we've set the stage for you for the mud and
Speaker 1: the rain, and coming up next we'll break it all
Speaker 1: down and the play that will live for her in
Speaker 1: NFL history. This is special teams. So the Jets and
Speaker 1: Dolphins were set for AFC Championship game amidst the rain
Speaker 1: and the mud in Miami, and you knew right away
Speaker 1: this was gonna be a really ugly game. Okay, first possession,
Speaker 1: Richard Todd, Jets quarterback who I had such a love
Speaker 1: hate relationship with because when he was on he was great,
Speaker 1: and when he was off he was terrible. He throws
Speaker 1: into double coverage, he gets picked off. All right, It's like,
Speaker 1: oh boy, here we are starting already. Next play, Miami
Speaker 1: gives the football back. David Woodley gets picked off. This
Speaker 1: is how the game went. This was how both of
Speaker 1: the game went. Second quarter, David Woodley, quarterback of the Dolphins,
Speaker 1: had a seventeen yard gain on a run that was
Speaker 1: the longest run the day by either team. That's all
Speaker 1: you need to know. The team's traded turnovers in the
Speaker 1: first half. Miami could have scored near halftime, but after
Speaker 1: a block punt, Woodley got picked off again. It was
Speaker 1: just a crazy day and and maybe no better footage
Speaker 1: to be seen in this game, because I still remember
Speaker 1: this as much as a j Dewey. Who we're gonna
Speaker 1: get to is that the Jets punter was a guy
Speaker 1: named Chuck Ramsey. And you've seen punter's punt with their
Speaker 1: cleats on, and you've seen barefooted kickers, Right, Chuck Ramsey
Speaker 1: punted wearing a sock. Well, you know, I guess there
Speaker 1: everybody has their thing, but he was he would punk
Speaker 1: wearing a sock. And to watch him walk around this
Speaker 1: field with a mud filled sock, I'm like, it's like
Speaker 1: when you were if you go out and play outside
Speaker 1: and your socks get all filled with snow and stuff
Speaker 1: and you come inside going, oh my god, it's just
Speaker 1: flopping around on the carpet. I can't wait to get
Speaker 1: him off. This guy's punting wearing a sock. He would
Speaker 1: get That's the worst feeling in the world. Wet socks.
Speaker 1: Then you're gonna get You're gonna get sick, or you're
Speaker 1: gonna get a rash or Yeah no, it's not good.
Speaker 1: It's bad, bad job by him. But you know what,
Speaker 1: if he was comfortable with it, you know, all power
Speaker 1: to him. I mean that's what it was. You watch
Speaker 1: players slip around in the first half, you watch players
Speaker 1: have trouble holding onto the football and the mud bowl,
Speaker 1: and its legend was just beginning to grow. Right. We
Speaker 1: get to the third quarter of a scoreless game, and
Speaker 1: I admit watching this game. Look, I'm I'm I'm not
Speaker 1: even a teenager yet, and I know this is not
Speaker 1: gonna end well for the Jets. I know because they
Speaker 1: can't do anything. This is playing into the Dolphins hands,
Speaker 1: who were good defensively. This was our great offense and
Speaker 1: they couldn't do anything. The Dolphins finally dent the scoreboard
Speaker 1: in the third quarter after a couple of ridiculous things.
Speaker 1: The Dolphins have the football. Tony Nathan Good, running back
Speaker 1: in the Dolphins, fumbled, but he was ruled down to
Speaker 1: the Dolphins keep the football. Then Woodley completes the path
Speaker 1: to Duriel Harris, which, okay, they're getting close to field
Speaker 1: goal range. But then Darryl Ray, Jets defensive back, argues
Speaker 1: about the completion so much he gets a fifteen yard penalty.
Speaker 1: Argues with the right, I'm gonna give you another fifteen
Speaker 1: yards to get close to the end zone. What are
Speaker 1: you doing? Why are you argue? He argues so much
Speaker 1: he gets a fifteen yard penalty that puts the ball
Speaker 1: on the seven yard line. And on the next play,
Speaker 1: would he Bennett ex Jet former Jet? Would he Bennett
Speaker 1: goes in from seven yards out? Miami's up seven nothing.
Speaker 1: And I tell you, Mike, at this point, I knew
Speaker 1: the game was over. I saw we're never gonna score.
Speaker 1: It said they could be playing the game now forty
Speaker 1: years later, the Jets would still have no points. But
Speaker 1: I knew seven nothing the game was over. Well, and
Speaker 1: that was the thing is as you go back and
Speaker 1: watch as much highlights as you can and go through
Speaker 1: the box score, like you're you're not getting any long
Speaker 1: protracted drives. I mean, the numbers are anemic, to say
Speaker 1: the least. When you look at you mentioned Nathan seven,
Speaker 1: Garry's twenty four yards, not like you're, you know, making
Speaker 1: any big plays, big cuts because on contact, your your
Speaker 1: feet are coming out from under you. And you saw
Speaker 1: that on every run. It's like a just secure the
Speaker 1: ball and go down and live to see another play.
Speaker 1: And yes, seven seven points certainly seemed insurmountable at that point, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: It's seven nothing going to the fourth quarter. But okay,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe there's some hope. Maybe you're thinking, maybe
Speaker 1: maybe the Jets have not been able to hold onto
Speaker 1: the football all day. Richard Todd would wind up throwing
Speaker 1: five interceptions in this game. Okay, wood Lee through three,
Speaker 1: Todd through five, teams were fumbling. It was it was crazy.
Speaker 1: The Dolphins fumbled the ball three times. It's still seven nothing,
Speaker 1: and then the play happens that again, I will be
Speaker 1: seeing in my head for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: The Jets trying to move the football down the field
Speaker 1: and a J. Dewey, who already has two interceptions. This
Speaker 1: a J. Dewey pick and pick six that clinches the
Speaker 1: game for the Dolphins at fourteen nothing. The worst part
Speaker 1: of this play was, as you see this developed, you
Speaker 1: know what's gonna end awful for the Jets. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: a screen pass where he's trying to get it out
Speaker 1: to Bruce Harper and Richard Todd just locks in on
Speaker 1: Harper where the entire Dolphins defense is crashing the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage and Todd do no matter what. A J.
Speaker 1: Dewey is in his face and he still tries to
Speaker 1: throw it up in the air. A J. Dewey leaps up,
Speaker 1: kind of deflects it comes down with it runs into
Speaker 1: the end zone. I see him running with the ball
Speaker 1: in his left hand, looking at his teammates, going, come
Speaker 1: celebrate with me, Come celebrate with me. It's fourteen nothing,
Speaker 1: and then I know, really the game is over. But
Speaker 1: even if Dewey doesn't catch it. I mean, let's say
Speaker 1: it goes over A. J. Dewey's head, which it didn't.
Speaker 1: If Dewey doesn't catch it, Ernest Roan would have because
Speaker 1: he comes all the way and he's right on on
Speaker 1: Bruce Harper, the running back as well, so he's gonna
Speaker 1: catch it and go in for a touchdown. This play
Speaker 1: is so bad and I can't it over how Richard
Speaker 1: Todd through the football. I mean, this is where you're
Speaker 1: look and go, oh, this is not working. I'm gonna either,
Speaker 1: you know, fall down or try to run up the
Speaker 1: middle of the field and get something because this play
Speaker 1: is clearly not working. But nope, I'm gonna throw the
Speaker 1: football anyway. Yeah. I've watched that from several angles, Uh,
Speaker 1: every camera angle, every opportunity, rubbing my eyes and trying
Speaker 1: to figure out exactly what the hell he saw. Uh,
Speaker 1: you saw Marvin Powell the right tackle fift Yer guy
Speaker 1: out of USC Uh do we pretty much just thrown
Speaker 1: him to the ground because his feet came out from under,
Speaker 1: which is why he's wide open to to leap into
Speaker 1: the well in in front of Richard Todd's pass. Uh
Speaker 1: you mentioned on the outside. Even if that ball doesn't
Speaker 1: get intercepted, it's still a miserable decision. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: just there's nothing there. There's two defenders, one receiver, oh,
Speaker 1: and A J. Dewey in between them. So I it's
Speaker 1: mind boggling. It's one of those things you and I
Speaker 1: text back and forth on football Sundays when there's a
Speaker 1: play like that. I believe you have reference A J.
Speaker 1: Dewey so many times, so many time. If we played
Speaker 1: a drinking game training you and I. I mentioned some
Speaker 1: bad decisions and balls picked up the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 1: Uh wow, that would just be obliteration. But just a
Speaker 1: horrid decision on what was a series of bad decisions.
Speaker 1: And look, a couple of the interceptions their tip balls,
Speaker 1: but unfortunately, unfortunately they count against you. It's not like
Speaker 1: they don't know the balls tipped down over, down, over
Speaker 1: down over. No. But but at the point being right,
Speaker 1: not that well thrown balls. And we do this every
Speaker 1: week as well, like it goes on the quarterback gotta
Speaker 1: throw a better ball. The guy's open, he hits his hands,
Speaker 1: Yes he should catch it, but you know what slippery
Speaker 1: wet football, bad footing, trying to keep your footing, the
Speaker 1: concentration of that, not to mention you're about to get
Speaker 1: blown up because this guy has now stretched you out.
Speaker 1: All of that means the ball is coming off your
Speaker 1: fingers and going up in the air for the waiting
Speaker 1: defensive back to come flying in. And I just saw
Speaker 1: in this game as well, you know, And the one
Speaker 1: solace I have is that if a j Dewey doesn't
Speaker 1: make that play, it doesn't matter because the Jets don't score.
Speaker 1: So it's you know, the game has a signature play.
Speaker 1: It's one of the biggest signature plays in NFL history,
Speaker 1: So it's got that. So but the only thing I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to see it. What else are they gonna
Speaker 1: show from this game? If it's just Richard Todd incomplete,
Speaker 1: here's the muddy field, here's how bad the conditions were.
Speaker 1: The Dolphins win seven nothing, and that would have been
Speaker 1: in but I knew the Jets weren't going to score anyway.
Speaker 1: It was just one of those. It was just fruitless
Speaker 1: to why. It's like running the air conditioner with the
Speaker 1: door open, all right, no matter what you do, if
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get the room cooler, right, That was
Speaker 1: what the Jets did, and the Jets didn't threaten. They
Speaker 1: lose fourteen nothing. The Dolphins go to the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: and here are the numbers that are gonna wow you.
Speaker 1: This is the mud Bowl. Okay. The Jets had ten
Speaker 1: first downs in the entire game. Miami had thirteen. Richard
Speaker 1: Todd was fifteen out of thirty seven for a hundred
Speaker 1: and three yards and five picks. David David Woodley, the
Speaker 1: winning quarterback, through for eighty seven yards and three interceptions.
Speaker 1: That's how bad it was. A j Dewey was for
Speaker 1: not look this game. This is like I bet he
Speaker 1: you know, I would watch it every day. He lined
Speaker 1: up at six different positions. He was all over the field. Look,
Speaker 1: Miami's defense was incredible. When you put make the field
Speaker 1: like the of course, this is how it's gonna go.
Speaker 1: The team's combined for nine turnovers and nineteen punts. I mean,
Speaker 1: really that nine turnovers in this game. You take it,
Speaker 1: you take it over. Here's one time where the Dolphins
Speaker 1: are able to get down the field and then the A. J.
Speaker 1: Dewey play happens. This was so difficult to watch. It
Speaker 1: was so difficult to see and and look as you
Speaker 1: mentioned that, you know, the water being squeegeed off the field,
Speaker 1: and and how rough it was. I just keep going
Speaker 1: back of all the worst losses in Jets history, I
Speaker 1: go back, this is one of the top two. This
Speaker 1: or the eighty six. Lots of the browns though those
Speaker 1: are really really bad losses, but this is the one
Speaker 1: I think of, and go, man, I get what they
Speaker 1: say when athletes and coaches, everybody, you know, the winds
Speaker 1: you forget about. Boy, those losses stay with you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those losses with you forever now. But you like you're
Speaker 1: mentioning stats, right. Freeman McNeil seventeen carries forty six yards
Speaker 1: augustin eak and Dirking three carries six yards between the
Speaker 1: Richard Todd scrambling for his life, four for ten, uh
Speaker 1: Tony Night and seven for twenty four. As you said before, uh,
Speaker 1: Andrew Franklin thirteen for forty four, and then Woody Benett
Speaker 1: ex Jet thirteen carries twenty four yards in a touchdown.
Speaker 1: David Woodley was your leading rusher with eight for forty six.
Speaker 1: So I mean just how tough yardage was to come
Speaker 1: by footing. We talked about all the turnovers. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's just not scoring opportunities. And then to give the
Speaker 1: ball away signature play the game of his life for
Speaker 1: a j Dewey made it, made a life out of it.
Speaker 1: I would show that all the time. I remember this
Speaker 1: play I made right here. Hey, hey, is it muddy out?
Speaker 1: Is it muddy out? Speaking of mud? How about we
Speaker 1: watch this play? Hey, who wants a bowl of cereal ball? Hey?
Speaker 1: Remember the mud bowl? Let's watch this play. That's what
Speaker 1: I would do my entire life. I think my backyard
Speaker 1: would always be a little bit wet, and I want
Speaker 1: to go throw the old football around. Hey, footing is
Speaker 1: a little soft here. You know, it's like it was raining,
Speaker 1: but I know it didn't rain. It's like, well, I
Speaker 1: like to keep it here because it's the memories of
Speaker 1: my greatest physical triumph. And I think I've got the
Speaker 1: screen shot that I'm gonna put on a T shirt
Speaker 1: and wear around you. He's got the backyard all lined
Speaker 1: like it's a football field. Go out and let's recreate
Speaker 1: it for a little while. And let's do that. Let's say, well,
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the yard is the forty
Speaker 1: yard line. So the Dolphins win the mud ball fourteen
Speaker 1: to nothing in a game that just crushed young Jason Smith.
Speaker 1: But the drama for both of these teams was only
Speaker 1: just beginning. Following the mud Bawl. We have that coming
Speaker 1: up next right here on special teams. So with A. J.
Speaker 1: Dewey the hero, the Dolphins were onto the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: The Jets were onto what could have been if the
Speaker 1: field was in nice sunny shape. You know, you cover
Speaker 1: the field and everybody's running up and down and we
Speaker 1: get a football game that was so good. But the
Speaker 1: drama for both teams were just beginning. Jets head coach
Speaker 1: Walt Michaels resigned under quote pressure, uh, two weeks after
Speaker 1: this game was over, which sounds crazy, right. The guy
Speaker 1: got to the a f C Championship game and if
Speaker 1: the field was just kept in good condition, maybe he's
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl. But instead, Walt Michaels resigns under pressure.
Speaker 1: Now why because he didn't have big fans enough in
Speaker 1: ownership in leon Hess. Now, if you remember me telling you.
Speaker 1: The Jets beat the Bengals on the Raiders to get
Speaker 1: to the a f C Championship game. Well, at time
Speaker 1: of the Raider game, somebody called the locker room pretending
Speaker 1: to be team owner Leon Hess, telling Walt Michaels to
Speaker 1: benchmark Gastineau, who was the Jets best defensive lineman, right,
Speaker 1: I want you to bench cast he's not playing well.
Speaker 1: Walt Michaels hung up on him. What was this all about?
Speaker 1: After the game, he blamed Al Davis for doing it right,
Speaker 1: are turned out it was from a bar in New
Speaker 1: Jersey and somehow somebody was able to call the Jets
Speaker 1: locker room at half time of the game and say, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm Gas, Hey bench casting over. This is Leon Hes
Speaker 1: bench caston O for the second half. Oh okay, Mr Hess,
Speaker 1: you got it. Hey, Mark, you're sitting Why? Uh? The
Speaker 1: owner just called? How you get through to the locker
Speaker 1: room and pretend you're the owner? I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but it happened only the Jets, right, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: you know, crazy after this unbelievable. I mean, really, you
Speaker 1: can make you make a phone call from a bar
Speaker 1: in New Jersey. Hey, I bet all this money against
Speaker 1: the Jets, but maybe they've bench Gaston. Let me see
Speaker 1: if I get that. How do you get the phone
Speaker 1: number in the Jets law g room? I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't understand how you get an inside job man. So
Speaker 1: Leon Hess wasn't a big fan of that story getting
Speaker 1: out and Michael's talking about it. Also, after the game
Speaker 1: was over, Walt Michaels, all the way until his death
Speaker 1: a year ago, blamed Don Shula for not having the
Speaker 1: field in in in good shape. And you know what,
Speaker 1: I kind of get that because for Walt Michaels, this
Speaker 1: was his chance of the Super Bowl. This is one
Speaker 1: chance and of course I'm sure he thought about this
Speaker 1: game every day the rest of his life. But those
Speaker 1: things and blaming Don Jula didn't sit well with Leon Hess.
Speaker 1: So he decided, I'm gonna push out Walt Michael's and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hire Joe Walton, who was a Jets offensive coordinator. Now,
Speaker 1: actually Walton was highly sought after after that offseason. He
Speaker 1: turned out to be a terrible head coach, and Walt
Speaker 1: Michaels went on to the New Jersey Generals in the USFL,
Speaker 1: and he had great records both years so he leaves,
Speaker 1: goes to the USFL coaches does well, the Jets wind
Speaker 1: up with Joe Walton, who other people wanted. And I
Speaker 1: would love to see it with another team, but instead
Speaker 1: that to the Jets wind up with. This is Jets
Speaker 1: football at its finest. Fake he was yeh, but he
Speaker 1: was only four games under five during his ten years.
Speaker 1: Only four games under That's all it was. But that's
Speaker 1: Jets football. Fake phone calls to a locker room firing
Speaker 1: head coaches to go to ANFC championship games. Oh, I
Speaker 1: don't like being outspoken about a field. It's all muddy. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Didn't you want to win the game? Leon?
Speaker 1: Hes did do what? No? No, no, I really don't
Speaker 1: like the way you acted. So I'm getting rid of
Speaker 1: you and bringing the offensive coordinator. That's how the Jets
Speaker 1: football team work. Now, it's next next level, right and uh?
Speaker 1: He he was the the General's head coach who was
Speaker 1: eventually fired by Donald Trump. Yeah, exactly, You're fired after
Speaker 1: the team emerged with the Houston Gamblers. And that's what
Speaker 1: Trump dead. You know. I like firing people. I like
Speaker 1: your fired. You're fine. I wish I could get a
Speaker 1: show or I could fire people for a living and
Speaker 1: then become president. Okay, that's what Maybe that was the
Speaker 1: beginning of it. So that's where the Jets went. Now
Speaker 1: for the Dolphins, they went on to lose the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl to the Washington Redskins. The John Riggins fourth in
Speaker 1: one run that's been immortalized forever um the first pass
Speaker 1: of the Super Bowl, David Woodley threw a seventy six
Speaker 1: yard touchdown to Jimmy Cephalo and that was it. Woodley
Speaker 1: was four out of fourteen for nineties seven yards in
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl on the day the entire game, four
Speaker 1: out of fourteen, Miami only had a hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: six yards of total offense. So clearly the Dolphins saw,
Speaker 1: all right, how far did we get with this great
Speaker 1: defense in a running game? Well, we fell victim to
Speaker 1: a team it was a little bit better on offense,
Speaker 1: still had a pretty good defense. And look, even though
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl was still close, they needed that John
Speaker 1: Riggins run to make it twenty seven seventeen. Uh, Miami's
Speaker 1: offense was that played a Cephalo and Fulton Walker returning
Speaker 1: the kickoff for a touchdown, which we hadn't seen in
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl before, so here's fullon Walker. That was
Speaker 1: the entire offense for the Miami Dolphins. So the Dolphins figured,
Speaker 1: we need a quarterback. The Jets new after that debaccle
Speaker 1: by Richard Todd they needed a quarterback. And thus in
Speaker 1: the NFL Draft, the New York Jets decide, well, we
Speaker 1: need a quarterback. Here, Dan Marino's on the board. No,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take Ken O'Brien out of Cal Davis. And
Speaker 1: of course Dan Marino fall to the Dolphins. He has
Speaker 1: a Hall of Fame career and and everything goes where
Speaker 1: it is. But he were both teams needed quarter new
Speaker 1: coming off the a f C title game. We both
Speaker 1: have to replace our quarterbacks. They do it and of
Speaker 1: course the Dolphins do it the right way and the
Speaker 1: Jets doing a way, which was okay because Kenn O'Brien
Speaker 1: was okay for a few years. But boy, just you know,
Speaker 1: like other teams just passing on Dan Marino. Just so
Speaker 1: interesting though that part of the evaluation process was the
Speaker 1: Mud Bowl. Yeah, in terms of deciding that he needed
Speaker 1: to move on, We're just gonna go straight on decision
Speaker 1: making the execution. Look, it is what it is, but
Speaker 1: your decision making and throwing the pass here and here
Speaker 1: and into leaping a J. Dewey means we've got to
Speaker 1: move on. And that's where me. Yeah, but said Richard
Speaker 1: Todd really was terrible. I mean I turned the page
Speaker 1: on him. Sometimes in sports, you can if something can
Speaker 1: happen so bad in the game, where you play so bad,
Speaker 1: you fail. So it's really hard to come back in
Speaker 1: the locker room back of that. It's really hard to
Speaker 1: come back and say, no, this is still our guy.
Speaker 1: And I think that was the case of the Jets. Boy.
Speaker 1: You know, Richard Todd was good, but he was you know,
Speaker 1: in big games, he wasn't very good. And and this
Speaker 1: was like, okay, how can you come back after this?
Speaker 1: Five interceptions three to a J. Dewey. We couldn't score,
Speaker 1: we couldn't get on the board. I mean, it's really hard.
Speaker 1: The Jets knew we need a quarterback, and the very
Speaker 1: famous class of eight three was there. The Jets just
Speaker 1: picked a guy who was okay for a few years.
Speaker 1: You know, where you miss out on the Hall of
Speaker 1: Famer in Dan Marino. And you know, and that's the
Speaker 1: real oddity of this eight three draft is that the
Speaker 1: last two teams picking in the first round of seven
Speaker 1: and twenty eight were the Dolphins and the Redskins. And
Speaker 1: who were the last two picks of the first round?
Speaker 1: Dan Marino Hall of Aimer Darryl Green Hall of Famer,
Speaker 1: two of the best players at their position ever wind
Speaker 1: up going back to back the last two picks of
Speaker 1: the first round in the three draft, and at the
Speaker 1: moment they were probably salty for the fact that they
Speaker 1: had gone to better teams. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure Dan
Speaker 1: Marina would have rather gone number one overall. But still
Speaker 1: I think it turned out okay for him. And see
Speaker 1: it seems to have worked. And he got a delivery
Speaker 1: of books from a friend of ours on his birthday
Speaker 1: in the year. Uh. You gotta listen to our show
Speaker 1: on Fox Sports Radio to really know what that's all about. Uh,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you got Ken O'Brien there you Alright, So
Speaker 1: how about some where are they now from this momentous
Speaker 1: game in NFL history? Alright, let's start off, Bobby Jackson. Look,
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys are now hitting retirement in
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, and as you mentioned, unfortunately
Speaker 1: some passings along the way. But here's here's a few
Speaker 1: that I think you'll enjoy. Bobby Jackson retired after a
Speaker 1: long career as a regional marketing manager for Madell's Sporting Goods. No,
Speaker 1: I thought he was assistant to the regional managers. All right,
Speaker 1: See it comes back to mos a dual salam uh.
Speaker 1: He retired police officer and then he was a football
Speaker 1: coach in his area. Wesley Walker pe Teacher Park View
Speaker 1: Elementary in King's Park, New York. He was so good,
Speaker 1: Wesley Walking. He was blind in one eye and he
Speaker 1: was still that good he was. He was fantastic, Wesley Walker.
Speaker 1: He had a hell of a career. I remember wanting
Speaker 1: to use him in strata matic football. Richard Todd Boy,
Speaker 1: managing director with JP Morgan Investment, Securities and banking Bankers.
Speaker 1: Not to talk to JP Morgan, got it right there, JP. No,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm sure he's I'm sure he's a fine banking
Speaker 1: investment manager. On the Dolphins side, I got a couple
Speaker 1: of guys that got into the restaurant business. Bom Bob
Speaker 1: baum Hower. He's got a chain of restaurants across Alabama
Speaker 1: and Kimbo Camper He's got a bar and grilled down
Speaker 1: in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and finally A. J. Dewey. He
Speaker 1: works for Caesar's Entertainment lives in Fort Lauderdale. Oh boy,
Speaker 1: hey A J. J. Yes, I'm here. Hey you want
Speaker 1: to you want to talk about the the interception in
Speaker 1: the mudball. I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm read anything you want.
Speaker 1: I gotta think there's a lot of that glad handing.
Speaker 1: Want to hear it's kind of like a Rocky Balboa. Yeah,
Speaker 1: kid was all mad at him, but like he walks
Speaker 1: up to the tables and he's got that suit coade on.
Speaker 1: Story about the time of fun against what was this
Speaker 1: Spider Spider Rika Spider Rica. Yeah, you want to hear
Speaker 1: about the Spider Rico fight. Yeah, I'll think about Spider Rico.
Speaker 1: He's gonna tell you about the interception. Great, thanks A J.
Speaker 1: So there, you're not salty at all about this one.
Speaker 1: You're nineteen eight e two a f C championship in
Speaker 1: two season in one by the Miami Dolphins. Part of
Speaker 1: our weather run here on special teams coming up next week. Boy,
Speaker 1: Let's see, we've done cold, We've done mud. How about
Speaker 1: some snow? How about some snowballs? We'll have that coming
Speaker 1: up next week. I'm Jason Smith. He is Mike Harmon.
Speaker 1: You can hear our show on Fox Sports Radio Monday
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