Speaker 1: Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome inside Special Teams, the podcast with me, Jason
Speaker 1: Smith and Mike Harmon, as we take a look back
Speaker 1: every week at big years in sports and big teams,
Speaker 1: the special Teams and what they were able to accomplish
Speaker 1: or not accomplish. We're taking you all the way back
Speaker 1: to December twelve two, where the Patriots played hosts of
Speaker 1: the Miami Dolphins in a game that would affectionately be
Speaker 1: known at least the Patriots fans. To everybody else that's hey,
Speaker 1: the first time the Patriots started that would be known
Speaker 1: as the Snowplow Game. The snow Plow Game. Number one
Speaker 1: song on December twel eater. Oh she's a man, that's
Speaker 1: just frightening. But the field and kick a field goal?
Speaker 1: Oh here he comes. Yeah, we'll get into the specifics
Speaker 1: of that one as we roll. But yeah, this game,
Speaker 1: going back and watching video clips, uh and and highly entertaining.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at the box score, it's
Speaker 1: an absolute abomination. But going back to two you mentioned it,
Speaker 1: it's it's one that if as you do any sort
Speaker 1: of research on the history of the New England Patriots,
Speaker 1: goes in there as the first asterisk game, and then
Speaker 1: the tuck rule comes in at number two, and slowly
Speaker 1: but surely, I think, over the course of the Spy
Speaker 1: history start adding other ones. Remember this from how about
Speaker 1: this one? From ninety? Oh? I'm sorry? It was Super
Speaker 1: Bowl twenty when they got house and the world righted
Speaker 1: itself for a day. I guess for everybody that's derisive
Speaker 1: and hateful towards the Patriots run the Patriots Dolphins a
Speaker 1: game known as a snowplow game because in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: a snow plow that was piloted by Mark Henderson, who
Speaker 1: was on work release from prison, came to clear out
Speaker 1: a spot for John Smith to kick a field goal
Speaker 1: that gave the Patriots the three nothing win over the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: But this game was about so much more than that play,
Speaker 1: and there's so much to go along with it that
Speaker 1: I can't wait to get you over this podcast because
Speaker 1: games that look football in the snow, football in the rain,
Speaker 1: football anywhere affected by the elements always becomes memorable. And
Speaker 1: this is one of those games. While we're starting here now,
Speaker 1: this is the year the NFL was disrupted by the
Speaker 1: players strike, So here we are in the middle of December.
Speaker 1: The Patriots come into this game at two and three,
Speaker 1: the Dolphins are four and one, and this is to
Speaker 1: see the Dolphins when they wind up going to Super
Speaker 1: Bowl this year, part of what will do a later
Speaker 1: special teams on. But the reason this became the snowplow Game,
Speaker 1: and it was such a big deal as because leading
Speaker 1: up to the game it had been rainy all week.
Speaker 1: So you got rain all week in New England, and
Speaker 1: then it gets incredibly cold and that coachs the field
Speaker 1: like a sheet of ice, all right, So you have
Speaker 1: rain for a bunch of days, then it gets so
Speaker 1: cold it coach the field like ice. Temperatures get to
Speaker 1: the low twenties thirty mile winds and then, of course,
Speaker 1: you know, to add insult to injury for this, a
Speaker 1: heavy snowfalls during the game. So you have what turns
Speaker 1: out to be this three nothing game where players had
Speaker 1: so much trouble uh staying up, throwing the football, moving downfield.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just the snow, it was the fact that
Speaker 1: you had snow on top of what was like a
Speaker 1: sheet of ice. So players have a tough time. If
Speaker 1: you even had a place where the field was cleared
Speaker 1: of snow. Players couldn't really stand you know. It was
Speaker 1: where we can run forward at a decent clip a
Speaker 1: little bit, but just try to cut and go to
Speaker 1: the side and cut back. You couldn't do it because
Speaker 1: of the ice and that layer under the snow. So
Speaker 1: you had ice and snow, which is something people forget.
Speaker 1: They's like, oh, it was a snow game. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of snow on the field. No, because of the
Speaker 1: ice on the field, that made it even more difficult
Speaker 1: for the team to try to move the ball up
Speaker 1: and down the field. Yeah, you watched the highlights and
Speaker 1: go back through. Everybody's trying to find their footing as
Speaker 1: they get into their formations, like here, let me get
Speaker 1: my cleats in a little bit, so I at least
Speaker 1: I'm not sliding as I take my first step. Uh.
Speaker 1: Just amazing each run tack on an extra five yards
Speaker 1: where you're carrying a couple of defenders. But yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a North South game. Uh, little little work to
Speaker 1: the outside and if you did, if you were able
Speaker 1: to navigate, that decided advantage right because you got a
Speaker 1: guy trying to find an angle to tackle you and
Speaker 1: you're bouncing off because he's he's gotten no footing by
Speaker 1: which to really stick you, So it's either push you
Speaker 1: out of bounds or wait for you to fall of
Speaker 1: your own volition. The players you need to know from
Speaker 1: this game. New England's quarterback at this point was Steve Grogan.
Speaker 1: They had Mosy to Tupu and Mark Van Egan at
Speaker 1: running back. John Smith, the kicker, who we have a
Speaker 1: lot on him, had just come back after missing all
Speaker 1: of the season because of a knee injury. So this
Speaker 1: was kind of a meandering Patriots team that was still
Speaker 1: a little bit of time away from the eight five
Speaker 1: team that wound up going to the Super Bowl and
Speaker 1: getting dumped on by the Bears. But this was at okay.
Speaker 1: Grogan was nearing the end, and the pain didn't have
Speaker 1: a lot of playmakers. And here's Van Egan over from
Speaker 1: the Raiders, all the big hey day he had in
Speaker 1: the seventies with the Raiders, uh, trying to get things done. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Dolphins, they were built on what most great teams
Speaker 1: were built on in the seventies and eighties in the NFL,
Speaker 1: A phenomenal defense and a great running game. I mean,
Speaker 1: this was the defense of the Killer Bees. Doug Betters,
Speaker 1: Kim Bokamper, Bob baum howerd who was an All Pro
Speaker 1: that year, Bob Bradzinski, Glenn and Lyle Blackwood. You know,
Speaker 1: these are all and of course A J. Dewey. Thankfully
Speaker 1: I don't have to talk about A. J. Dewey until
Speaker 1: another podcast. But this was how great their tia, This
Speaker 1: defense was fantastic, and they're running attack is one of
Speaker 1: the top running attacks in the NFL. You know, it
Speaker 1: was Andre Franklin who really got things done and was
Speaker 1: able to get up and down the field. He had
Speaker 1: a big year for them, Tony Nathan, Tommy Vigorito out
Speaker 1: of the backfield, they all found a way to make play.
Speaker 1: So this was a team that relied on a it's
Speaker 1: it's defense, be its running game, and only at the
Speaker 1: very end on its quarterback. Because this is pre Dan Marino,
Speaker 1: and this is David Woodley, who had a tough time
Speaker 1: making plays, you know, and and eventually wind up getting
Speaker 1: replaced by Marino. And this is this is one of
Speaker 1: those games he had a tough time making. Nine games
Speaker 1: started this year for one se yeah, one thousand eighty yards,
Speaker 1: five touchdowns, eight interceptions. Yeah, he did add two hundred
Speaker 1: seven yards and two touchdowns on the ground by completions
Speaker 1: in nine games. Again, when you've got a dual headed backfield, uh,
Speaker 1: and a strong defense, I guess that's where you where
Speaker 1: you leave it. But man, not exactly a prolific offense
Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form. Uh. And well, I
Speaker 1: guess when you add this game into the stats, when
Speaker 1: you do the averaging, it's really gonna pull things down
Speaker 1: in a hurry. Remember that, kids, basic math. You need
Speaker 1: a bigger sample size otherwise you have these wild swings. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I say that Bill. Look, David Woodley had had
Speaker 1: a lot of difficulty later on in life, and he
Speaker 1: passed away in early year. Uh. He had he had
Speaker 1: problems due to drinking. So it was you know, his
Speaker 1: was you know, had kind of had obviously had a
Speaker 1: tragic end to it. But you know, sticking from just
Speaker 1: the football aspect of it, because we're talking about this
Speaker 1: game and he was the quarterback here and he's the
Speaker 1: quarterback of another game. We're gonna get to talk about
Speaker 1: that he won. Uh, you know that he had trouble
Speaker 1: making plays. But we're not doing everything the Jets every
Speaker 1: it would be a lot of losses it will be
Speaker 1: a lot of losses. I mean people might. I'm not
Speaker 1: doing therapy sessions with you an hour at a time.
Speaker 1: Special team sinks, Bunny, I appreciate it. I mean I
Speaker 1: love you at all. But you know, so here was
Speaker 1: the game getting into the snowplow game. Way do we
Speaker 1: tell you how everything unfolded in things? Even if you
Speaker 1: know the game, you might not be aware of this.
Speaker 1: Many years later we continue on and kick things off
Speaker 1: in the snow and the ice. The snowplow game next
Speaker 1: on Special Teams. Before it was the snowplow game, it
Speaker 1: was just a game in the snow that was going
Speaker 1: to use snowplows. Before the Dolphins and Patriots kicked off,
Speaker 1: the coaches decided, this is Don Shulan ron Meyer pre game,
Speaker 1: they would allow the snowplows to clear the yard lines
Speaker 1: so teams could see where the football is in judge situations.
Speaker 1: Also make it easier on TV for fans to see, okay,
Speaker 1: this is where the ball is. Where the ball is,
Speaker 1: so every ten yards would be plowed. On occasion, you
Speaker 1: would see during commercial breaks, are coming back from commercial,
Speaker 1: here comes the snowplow on a yard line. The thirty
Speaker 1: yard line the forty yard line midfield. They would come
Speaker 1: out and try to push the snow to the side
Speaker 1: so at least they can see and you could judge
Speaker 1: down in distance. So this was agreed upon before the
Speaker 1: game by the coaches. Yes, we're gonna allow the snowplows
Speaker 1: on the field to clear it. Because in the end,
Speaker 1: if you want to argue that the snow plows should
Speaker 1: have been on the field, well you did kind of
Speaker 1: agree that you can have the snowplows on before the game,
Speaker 1: so you were gonna have this. But as far as
Speaker 1: the game goes up until the very end, it didn't matter.
Speaker 1: Players couldn't cut with any power. Uh. Some players said,
Speaker 1: we weren't really running. We were just kind of walking fast.
Speaker 1: Like keep picturing people in the mall, like like really
Speaker 1: old people going get my jazzer size in, get walking in.
Speaker 1: We're walking. Fact, we're not really running, We're just walking
Speaker 1: fast on the field. This is a quote for the
Speaker 1: players after the game, saying we're just walking fast here
Speaker 1: at this point. But yeah, I mean, go back to it,
Speaker 1: your your childhood. You're a New York kid. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna Chicago, boy. I mean, there were plenty of days
Speaker 1: walking to and from school that the you know, you
Speaker 1: were stepping with your walk like Babe Ruth used to
Speaker 1: run around basis very baby steps man, little ones where
Speaker 1: there's not a whole lot of thrust a lot of
Speaker 1: power because you're fearful of that next step or so
Speaker 1: it would seem perhaps me more so than the Babe
Speaker 1: as he rounded after each one of his round trippers.
Speaker 1: But you know, I remember I see I see streets
Speaker 1: and having to navigate, and remember wiping out a couple.
Speaker 1: I've got a nice vivid on my right leg where
Speaker 1: you can see where the uh of the gouging occurred
Speaker 1: when I hit a post after losing my footing. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I can. I can empathize with these guys as they
Speaker 1: dealt with this day because you know, again it wasn't
Speaker 1: just snow. There was a lot wererant to what was
Speaker 1: going on as just snow on the field, really know.
Speaker 1: So this game goes kind of as you expect. Teams
Speaker 1: are kind of slogging a little bit. You could see
Speaker 1: if you watch this game, players could go straight ahead.
Speaker 1: It was when you had to cut, you had no
Speaker 1: power and the cutting was kind of in slow motion.
Speaker 1: So the snow is coming and nobody can do anything.
Speaker 1: It looks like we may finally get points before halftime.
Speaker 1: The Patriots drive down in the Dolphins one yard line,
Speaker 1: but John Smith comes out for his first field goal
Speaker 1: of the day and the field goal gets blocked. It
Speaker 1: was doomed from the start because there was no way
Speaker 1: this was getting He couldn't get it up off the
Speaker 1: ground and you could tell that planting for kickers wasn't
Speaker 1: really gonna happen. Well, he's trying to figure out exactly
Speaker 1: his his approach, right, how am I seeing trying to
Speaker 1: measure it before the snap? All right, what do I do?
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be able to really get full thrust.
Speaker 1: And you're thinking, all right, well this could be the
Speaker 1: only points to getting no All right now now you're
Speaker 1: thinking of field goal is never gonna happen. Now, The
Speaker 1: only way is somehow the team gets in the end zone.
Speaker 1: In fact, in the third quarter, Vevan Shaman, who was
Speaker 1: the kicker for the Dolphins, he had a forty five
Speaker 1: yard field goal blocked, so it goes zero zero into
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. Now, I don't know how you even
Speaker 1: think if you're the Dolphins, we're gonna kick a forty
Speaker 1: five yard field goal. That's the winning mental. If you
Speaker 1: go for it on fourth, then you're not gonna kick
Speaker 1: a forty five yard field goal in this you see
Speaker 1: the snow on the field, you can't do it. That's
Speaker 1: Don Shula's will to win coming forward. I mean that
Speaker 1: excellence was the standard or something like that. Uh that,
Speaker 1: And really you've moved a little ball on the ball,
Speaker 1: a little bit on the ground over the course of
Speaker 1: the day. But I mean there's no passing, there's there's
Speaker 1: no semblance of anything. You're taking any shot to score
Speaker 1: points because let's face it, you're not expecting them to
Speaker 1: break off a big run at this point either, right, right,
Speaker 1: So you're just saying, all right, if we can steal one,
Speaker 1: if we can get one on the board, let's take
Speaker 1: our shot. Field position doesn't matter here. So finally, in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, New England puts together a drive strictly
Speaker 1: on the ground, right van Egen into Tupou carry the load,
Speaker 1: but they get forced into a fourth and ten from
Speaker 1: the sixteen yard line. The game is ending. Ron Meyer,
Speaker 1: the head coach, yells to a guy on the snowplow,
Speaker 1: Mark Henderson, who we know when later years. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: guy was on work release on running the snowplow at Foxborough.
Speaker 1: They yelled at him. He yells to him to get
Speaker 1: onto the field, and you see Steve Grogan who kind
Speaker 1: of yells, hey, go on the field and clear a
Speaker 1: spot for us to put the ball down to kick
Speaker 1: a field goal, because we can't put it down in
Speaker 1: the snow and and try to kick it. So Mark
Speaker 1: Henderson takes the snowplow on the field and you can
Speaker 1: see him going down the yard line and no one's
Speaker 1: saying anything because well, we see this right, the guy
Speaker 1: is going to clear the yard line. This ball is
Speaker 1: gonna be put down a few yards back in that
Speaker 1: he gets the middle of the field though, and he
Speaker 1: just swerves out right around where they're gonna put the
Speaker 1: ball down, and he swerves back in and goes off
Speaker 1: the field. Man if Shula was miked up his reaction,
Speaker 1: and and you know what looks later on. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna believe what some people actually had to say about
Speaker 1: him swerving on the field. It's gonna it's gonna pass understanding.
Speaker 1: But he goes out and he clears this spot where
Speaker 1: they would put the ball down for the field goal.
Speaker 1: And Sheila is in sense. Wait wait, wait, wait, you
Speaker 1: can't just do that and clear a spot for the
Speaker 1: field goal. But that's what happens. Well, he was trying
Speaker 1: to avoid the huddle, which was a long the yard mark.
Speaker 1: It's clearly he's almost hitting guys, almost hit a guy
Speaker 1: if he doesn't swerve out. So maybe that was his
Speaker 1: reason why I just swerve out, and you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't want to hit anybody. So he he gets the
Speaker 1: spot there, and Matt Kavanaugh is the holder, who would
Speaker 1: also be the holder in another very big weather game
Speaker 1: coming up down the line in special teams. Let me
Speaker 1: just kind of give you a little bit of foreshadowing there.
Speaker 1: Matt Kavanaugh comes back in a big way in a
Speaker 1: different game as well. So Matt Kavanaugh is the holder.
Speaker 1: John Smith is the kicker. It's from thirty three yards out,
Speaker 1: and watching this kick, you can tell John Smith didn't
Speaker 1: go to the ball with his normal steps, like he knew,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna step and it's gonna be really coold. I
Speaker 1: need to step on this part of the field because
Speaker 1: I gotta be able to plant and there's no snow.
Speaker 1: But he knows if I go in and swing my
Speaker 1: foot and kicking as hard as I can, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: slip and fall. So it's a really weird approach to
Speaker 1: the ball where he kind of oversteps a little bit,
Speaker 1: just to knowing that if I overstep, I can keep
Speaker 1: my balance a little bit more, and he kicks it
Speaker 1: from thirty three yards out. The fans go crazy. Finally
Speaker 1: the points in the game, and they lead the game
Speaker 1: three to nothing, all because Mark Henderson came out and
Speaker 1: he did that little swerve and he put a spot
Speaker 1: on the field. John Smith kicks the field goal and
Speaker 1: the Patriots are up three nothing at this point. It's
Speaker 1: not it's not one of those historical NFL games yet,
Speaker 1: but slowly it's taking on a life of its own
Speaker 1: because the Dolphins are just insane that this happened, and
Speaker 1: they got even more insane on the sideline after the
Speaker 1: play happened, because part of it is all, you can't
Speaker 1: do this, but he's not gonna make the field anyway.
Speaker 1: Oh man, dude just made the field goal. Uh an
Speaker 1: insurmountable lead at this juncture of the game. How did
Speaker 1: you let that happen? How did you let a guy
Speaker 1: swerve on the fielding clear a place for us to
Speaker 1: put the football down him to kick it. But that's
Speaker 1: what happened, and now the Patriots lead this game three
Speaker 1: to nothing. Also the oddity of John Smith kicking with
Speaker 1: his left foot, because you don't see an awful lot
Speaker 1: of that running around the National Football League either, So
Speaker 1: you know you've got a little bit of a tail
Speaker 1: to it as well. So he just needed to drive
Speaker 1: it as straight and hard as he could. There's not
Speaker 1: a lot of loft on it was on mine drive
Speaker 1: h that gets through, but it gets everybody excited. You've
Speaker 1: got some great pictures of him wearing a a jaunty
Speaker 1: little hat and his gortex coat on his John Gear tractor. Now,
Speaker 1: a lot of these things, you know if you're familiar
Speaker 1: with the Snowplow game. So this is where in the pod,
Speaker 1: this is the point in the podcast where I go, Okay,
Speaker 1: now here's some stuff you probably didn't know, right. You've
Speaker 1: seen that, You've seen the high like you've seen the play,
Speaker 1: the snow Plow play. You know Mark Henderson, Yes, he
Speaker 1: was on work release. He would say after the game,
Speaker 1: I knew I was gonna be in trouble. What are
Speaker 1: they gonna do? Put me in jail? I've already been there, boom.
Speaker 1: But here's where things maybe things you don't know about
Speaker 1: this game. The Dolphins nearly win this game. They're so
Speaker 1: men on the sideline. Patriots players said after the game,
Speaker 1: we could tell how pissed they were because this probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't have happened. And they start going down the field.
Speaker 1: They're throwing the football down the field. Not something that
Speaker 1: they could do the entire game, that no team could do.
Speaker 1: In fact, Steve Grogan's stats for this game, the Patriots quarterback,
Speaker 1: he was two out of five for thirteen yards for
Speaker 1: the game, two out of five for thirteen yards and
Speaker 1: a pick. That was Steve Grogan's numbers on the day.
Speaker 1: That's all. They threw the football five times. They ran
Speaker 1: they ran the football like ninety times, but they threw
Speaker 1: the football five times. But now to two p thirteen
Speaker 1: eight one Colins seven for eight teams. Oh yeah, that's
Speaker 1: all they did that, that's all that was their day.
Speaker 1: Forty three rushing attempts on the day, and they threw
Speaker 1: the ball third and threw the ball five times. But
Speaker 1: David Woodley in comparison through for seventy six yards in
Speaker 1: this game. It looked like a three yard game, especially
Speaker 1: at the end, because that's how they start going down
Speaker 1: the field. Now, there was enough time left, but the
Speaker 1: Dolphins were so met they're throwing the football. Duriel Harris
Speaker 1: catches a pass for seventeen yards, all right. A couple
Speaker 1: more plays later, Tony Nathan runs for a first down
Speaker 1: on fourth and one. Another pass to Duriel Harris gets
Speaker 1: the ball down to the twenty yard line, and you're thinking,
Speaker 1: the Dolphins are gonna do what nobody could do today.
Speaker 1: They're gonna throw the football down the field, get in
Speaker 1: the end zone and win. But in one on one coverage,
Speaker 1: Woodley throws two inside and the ball is picked off
Speaker 1: by Don Blackman. The Patriots have it. They nearly kill
Speaker 1: the clock, but because the Dolphins still had all of
Speaker 1: their time outs, they actually get the ball back for
Speaker 1: one final hail Mary that gets picked off of the
Speaker 1: goal line. The game is over and the Dolphins lose
Speaker 1: the game three nothing, and it becomes the snowplow game.
Speaker 1: But the Dolphins almost did it. They you know, they
Speaker 1: almost threw the ball down the field. And you can
Speaker 1: see this pass that that David Woodley throws is just
Speaker 1: a little bit too close there was no separation uh
Speaker 1: from the receiver of the dB and and and you
Speaker 1: get the pick by Don Blackman, and that clinches the game.
Speaker 1: But boy, for a second, the Dolphins almost had it.
Speaker 1: Great play. He goes outside shoulder, you got a shot right,
Speaker 1: instead throws it two inside uh and and a good play. Uh.
Speaker 1: In that sweet red jersey, you can you can see
Speaker 1: them a lot more in the snow, because there's no
Speaker 1: question about that. So after the game, Ron Meyer admits
Speaker 1: waving the snowplow on. It's okay, what are they gonna do?
Speaker 1: Fire me? Don Shula says that should never have happened.
Speaker 1: Now at the time, Sula had the image of and
Speaker 1: this would be blown to hell. Weeks later, Sula had
Speaker 1: the image of, Hey, we're not going to cheat and
Speaker 1: do anything to the field or anything else that we
Speaker 1: should be doing. We're not gonna do that, right. He
Speaker 1: went and talked to the referees after the game. The
Speaker 1: referees basically said to him, we can't control the removal
Speaker 1: of snow on the field. We we can't the protest.
Speaker 1: Come on, what are you gonna do? Make him put
Speaker 1: it back on? No, you gotta put the snow back
Speaker 1: on right in that spot that you cleared up because
Speaker 1: they agreed we're going to have the snowplow guy go
Speaker 1: on the field. It's not like the snowplow guy went
Speaker 1: on the field and he wasn't supposed to. And the
Speaker 1: referee said, well, this has been what you agreed to,
Speaker 1: so we we we can't just say all right, well
Speaker 1: what are we gonna do? You know, because Don Shula
Speaker 1: wanted to look at was it was something called the
Speaker 1: uh there was a rule the NFL had, and that's
Speaker 1: what he wanted to to point to and say, the
Speaker 1: Unfair Act clause is going to allow them to overturn
Speaker 1: the game. And the NFL, you know, he met with
Speaker 1: the NFL actually say, Unfair Act clause, this shouldn't happen.
Speaker 1: We gotta overturn this when at least make it a
Speaker 1: tie or something else, And the NFL said Unfair Act clause. Hum.
Speaker 1: Pete Rosel, who was the commissioner, had never reversed a
Speaker 1: game's result before, and even though he agreed with Don
Speaker 1: Shula that hey, this probably shouldn't have happened, He's not
Speaker 1: gonna suddenly make the game a tie or give the
Speaker 1: game to the Dolphins. So even though the Dolphins went
Speaker 1: all the way to the commissioner with this, they were
Speaker 1: gonna say, you know what, sorry, we we can't do it.
Speaker 1: We feel bad for you, you know which, which term
Speaker 1: would turn out to be a big theme for the NFL.
Speaker 1: Whenever the NFL would screw something up with a with
Speaker 1: a call by the officials, they would always be great apologizing, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm really sorry this happened. I mean, there's nothing I
Speaker 1: can do about it, but just once you know, we're
Speaker 1: really sorry about this. No, they always have been really
Speaker 1: good about giving you a good, uh good long three
Speaker 1: or four paragraph apology. Uh, talking about it in unusual
Speaker 1: circumstances and everything else, but yeah, saying beat it our
Speaker 1: unfair competitive advantage and like letter versus spirit of the law. Right,
Speaker 1: we agreed in principle that you can bring the snowplow out.
Speaker 1: We didn't exactly navigate the hey can he swerve off
Speaker 1: of the line. So the game was over, but the
Speaker 1: controversy was just beginning. Way, do we tell you a
Speaker 1: who wound up getting game balls for this game? Be
Speaker 1: what some Patriots players actually say in defending the use
Speaker 1: of the snow plow, and see where that snowplow is
Speaker 1: right now, that's coming up next right here on special
Speaker 1: Teams to talk about the aftermath of the snowplow game.
Speaker 1: We're actually gonna go back to the play and something
Speaker 1: really big that happened. If you're gonna scratch you in
Speaker 1: and go, the Patriots really said that. So right after
Speaker 1: the game is over, the you know, they award game
Speaker 1: balls to people, and you know, hey, you had a
Speaker 1: big game. You had a big game the Patriots. The
Speaker 1: Patriots give their game ball the linebacker Steve Nelson and
Speaker 1: to Mark Henderson, who cleared the spot for John Smith
Speaker 1: to kick the field goal. So hey, let's get let's
Speaker 1: get the guy on the snowplow in here. John Smith
Speaker 1: is like, don't I get a game ball? I was
Speaker 1: I put the only points on the board, I kicked
Speaker 1: the field goal. I don't get a game ball. No, No,
Speaker 1: we're gonna give it to the guy that cleared off. Okay,
Speaker 1: fair enough, So Mark Henderson gets a game ball. The guy,
Speaker 1: the guy that drove the snowplow over, he gets a
Speaker 1: game ball. Well, I'll tell you what, perhaps the best
Speaker 1: video of this whole whole game, other than the swerve
Speaker 1: to make the initial run because you can see the
Speaker 1: light bulb go on for many of the players on
Speaker 1: the Patriots that were on the field. Um is the
Speaker 1: post game, right, here's the oh, the agony of defeat,
Speaker 1: whatever else. And then you've got a crowd around Henderson
Speaker 1: like he just won the Super Bowl. Oh yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the where are you going? I'm going to well? Uh, Instead,
Speaker 1: he's just grinning like an idiot because he's got a
Speaker 1: hundred reporters and boom mikes and everything they could possibly
Speaker 1: throw at him. Uh. He is the man of the hour,
Speaker 1: without a doubt. So he gets the game ball and
Speaker 1: the Patriots win this game, and in subsequent years, as
Speaker 1: this game has become really famous, we told you don
Speaker 1: Shula tried to have the result of the game overturned.
Speaker 1: It didn't happen. Some Patriots players actually claimed that the
Speaker 1: snow plow potentially hurt them as Matt Kavanaugh, who was
Speaker 1: the holder, had to frantically scraped snow away from the
Speaker 1: spot to put the football down, Like, hey, he put
Speaker 1: the snow here, but there was snow on the spot. Okay,
Speaker 1: hang on for one second. What Matt kavanall had to
Speaker 1: do was there was a big spot where they're gonna
Speaker 1: put the football down, and they were like little what
Speaker 1: would you call like entrails of snow, like like when
Speaker 1: you shovel a walk and and sometimes to the end
Speaker 1: of the shovel where it is and and where you
Speaker 1: pick it up, there's a tiny bit of snow, like
Speaker 1: a little line behind. He had that stays behind. So
Speaker 1: all Matt Kavana had to do is brush it away
Speaker 1: with his hand. I mean, that's what we did. I'm brushing.
Speaker 1: It was like he frantically had to do this, and
Speaker 1: it really hurt us. Really, the snowplow hurt you. So
Speaker 1: all we had to do was brush the snow away
Speaker 1: and find a spot because there was a tiny bit
Speaker 1: of snow where he's gonna put the football down, so
Speaker 1: he had to some of that snow away, But then
Speaker 1: he had a clear spot to put the football down.
Speaker 1: The spillover, I guess you would say it wasn't dense.
Speaker 1: It was just I'm brushing away with my hand. He
Speaker 1: put the ball down and John Smith kicked the field goal.
Speaker 1: That's it, I mean, but it's good excuse making. I'm saying, Look,
Speaker 1: it actually increased the degree of difficulty. I mean that
Speaker 1: that's good, putting your head together, and everybody got, all right,
Speaker 1: what's my line, that's your line? Okay, good? Actually made
Speaker 1: it harder. We didn't get a competitive advantage. Sure, looking
Speaker 1: blankety blankety blank about that. Wow, look at you already,
Speaker 1: Matt year mad you know, forty years later. Wow. Wow,
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, trying to put myself in the
Speaker 1: mind of Kavanaugh and the victorious New England Patriots. Now
Speaker 1: John Hannah Patriots Guard, one of one of the greatest
Speaker 1: offensive linemans that we've seen. In his book, he alleges
Speaker 1: that Shula was also offered the use of the snow plow,
Speaker 1: but he declined. And you go down a rabbit hole,
Speaker 1: you know, seeing this and what people say about it
Speaker 1: on the internet, and you go all but he was
Speaker 1: told that had engine problems and they couldn't get it
Speaker 1: back out on the field. I mean, there's a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of crazy stuff here. Hey, I'd like that snowplow
Speaker 1: for von Shawn and we had engine problems. Man, can't
Speaker 1: get it on the field. So that story about the
Speaker 1: snowplow and what Shula would or wouldn't have you, This
Speaker 1: is what John Hannah talked about in his book, and
Speaker 1: I read a lot about Hannah talking about this game
Speaker 1: was really entertaining. Um, I don't know for a fact
Speaker 1: that would would that really have done it? Would would
Speaker 1: you really have been able to get the snowlow bad?
Speaker 1: I guess you would have to write if the coach
Speaker 1: really wanted to try, you did it here. You gotta
Speaker 1: put it on here for us, And I'd assume you
Speaker 1: would anyway. No, you would have to. There's absolutely it's
Speaker 1: gotta go both ways. I mean, if that was the
Speaker 1: agreement before the game. Otherwise it's gonna be like a
Speaker 1: Green Bay packer situation. I need ten volunteers, ten bucks
Speaker 1: an hour. I'll bring you hot chocolate and and and
Speaker 1: more marshmallows and let's go. So after this, this was
Speaker 1: the dolphins final loss until the Super Bowl. The Patriots
Speaker 1: would qualify as the seven. And remember this is the
Speaker 1: strike year, so this is where teams were seated one
Speaker 1: through eight in each conference, and they actually get the
Speaker 1: Dolphins in the playoffs. The Dolphins get a measure of
Speaker 1: revenge by beating the Patriots in the playoffs to thirteen.
Speaker 1: This game not played in the snow where they had
Speaker 1: the snowplow guys. So they actually got revenge Mr Plow
Speaker 1: that Mr Plow is a loser, and I think he
Speaker 1: is whoa, whoa, that was a lot that was in
Speaker 1: the know and he had the when he she sings
Speaker 1: in Spanish. So you better call on the plow King.
Speaker 1: That's right, the plow King and Mr Plow. I mean,
Speaker 1: come on, so oh good. There was a year in
Speaker 1: fantasy where one of whereas in the in the nineties
Speaker 1: where the guy running to leave his big Simpsons fan
Speaker 1: and he named his team Mr Plow. So we were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll do that. We named our team plow King, and
Speaker 1: of course we played each other in the playoffs. He
Speaker 1: was Mr Plow, we were Plow. Yeah, I mean that
Speaker 1: road itself. Yeah. We lost though, so Mr mr Plow
Speaker 1: was greater than the plow King. So happen that way.
Speaker 1: Uh So, the Patriots, as I said, to get in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, but they lose to the to the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: The Dolphins go on to lose to the Redskins in
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. This is the famous John Reggins and
Speaker 1: the fourth and one run. Uh As, the Redskins win
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. David Woodley in the Super Bowl, al right,
Speaker 1: now you saw the stats here, this looks like, you know,
Speaker 1: a five yard game compared with the Super Bowl. In
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, he was four out of four team
Speaker 1: throwing the football. A quarterback in the Super Bowl started
Speaker 1: played almost the entire game. Don Strock came in and
Speaker 1: through a couple of passes, which is kind of what
Speaker 1: what happened for the Dolphins in this season. Uh Willie
Speaker 1: would play, but sometimes Don Strock would relieve him. You
Speaker 1: had a quarterback play the entire game in the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl and complete four passes. One pass was early in
Speaker 1: the game of seventy five yard touchdown to Jimmy Cephalo.
Speaker 1: The only other play they had was a kickoff return
Speaker 1: for a touchdown. That was it. That was the Dolphins
Speaker 1: offense and the Super Bowl. The Redskins dominate the second
Speaker 1: half of the game and they wind up winning seventeen.
Speaker 1: The next year, the Dolphins knew we need more offense,
Speaker 1: and somehow Dan Marino falls to them all the way
Speaker 1: through in the draft and and the Dolphins. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: Dolphins become a hey, we're gonna go from being a
Speaker 1: great defense running the football to now it's gonna throw
Speaker 1: the football up and down the field. This is all
Speaker 1: part of Don Shula being the great head coach he was.
Speaker 1: To give him a lot of credit for, Hey, he
Speaker 1: won games a very certain way, and then in one
Speaker 1: year said Okay, now we're gonna do it a different way,
Speaker 1: and and and did it for the next fifteen seventeen years.
Speaker 1: But this was Look, David Woodley, you're talking about some
Speaker 1: games he had in which the Dolphins just couldn't get
Speaker 1: any offense going. So they make that move to Dan
Speaker 1: Marino and it becomes something different. Still, Marino couldn't win
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, but they knew they had to go
Speaker 1: from boy, we're having problem putting points on the board.
Speaker 1: We can't continue to rely on our defense and our
Speaker 1: running game. We gotta get a quarterback out there. And
Speaker 1: here they are with the next to last pick in
Speaker 1: the first round, and somehow they get a quarterback who
Speaker 1: goes down to one of the top five quarterbacks of
Speaker 1: all time. In fact, that draft the last two picks
Speaker 1: of the first round. The following year you had the
Speaker 1: Dolphin and the Redskins picking next to last and last.
Speaker 1: Those two picks were Dan Marino and Darryl Green. To
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame players to at the end of the
Speaker 1: first round the following year. How about that? It's a
Speaker 1: way it's crazy, the way it all works. I mean
Speaker 1: when you started it by talking about just how crazy
Speaker 1: a season it was. Right with the strike as it were,
Speaker 1: you had the big battle, uh with between the Raiders
Speaker 1: and the league, the trial and anti trust law that
Speaker 1: in terms of moving the team from Oakland, l A.
Speaker 1: So you had that fight that started things. Uh. The
Speaker 1: new time slots that we've enjoyed all these years came together,
Speaker 1: the one pm and four pm Eastern time, except at
Speaker 1: that point, if you were in Baltimore, you couldn't start
Speaker 1: earlier than two o'clock because of a Baltimore ordinance. How
Speaker 1: about that? Hm that that's that's insanity, but it is
Speaker 1: and it was a nice easy excuse for her sake
Speaker 1: to uh you know when they left. So blame that,
Speaker 1: blame the crazy crazy laws. But yeah, I mean we
Speaker 1: we always think about labor strife and it always seems
Speaker 1: to get resolved these days, right, but we always uh
Speaker 1: seem to find the eleventh hour situation in solution. Uh
Speaker 1: not's so back in uh So for Mark Henderson, he
Speaker 1: enjoyed a lot of fame after this, and he went
Speaker 1: on to continue to uh to do work release at
Speaker 1: at Schaefer Stadium, which is now Foxboro Stadium. He said,
Speaker 1: we do painting, We clean up the bathroom after games,
Speaker 1: all of these things. And you know, you know, talked
Speaker 1: a lot about this, did interviews talking about the snowplow.
Speaker 1: H You got him to sign some trading cards, to
Speaker 1: make some custom ones with him sitting on that John Deere. However,
Speaker 1: and that's the thing. The NFL banned snowplows in the
Speaker 1: off season, realizing, all right, we've kind of opened the
Speaker 1: door to something we probably shouldn't have. So they banned
Speaker 1: snow plows in the off season, saying, all right, we
Speaker 1: can't have this happen again. The banned snowplows. And that
Speaker 1: was basically the end of this story, except we like
Speaker 1: to do it. Where are they now? Right? All the time?
Speaker 1: Inn here we like to wear they're not talking about
Speaker 1: where players are. Well, I want to kick the normally
Speaker 1: you do where they now? I want to kick things off.
Speaker 1: Where are they now? Where is the snowplow? The snowplow
Speaker 1: from this game? The John Dear snowplow hangs in the
Speaker 1: Patriots Hall of Fame from a ceiling. You can go
Speaker 1: to the Page Hall of Fame and team there it is.
Speaker 1: They used to have it out where, but they don't
Speaker 1: want people sitting on it room, so now they hang
Speaker 1: it from the ceiling. There's a snowplow that that cleared
Speaker 1: the field for John Smith field goal. It is in
Speaker 1: the Patriots Hall of Fame. I'll tell you what. That
Speaker 1: little area around Gillette Stadium is fantastic, little shopping center.
Speaker 1: A couple of plays to get a nice fight to eat.
Speaker 1: Next time, I'll have to go look for Model three fourteen,
Speaker 1: the John Deer tractor. All right, So what about some
Speaker 1: of the other players from this game, my Carmen, where
Speaker 1: are they now? Well, Steve Nelson, who got one of
Speaker 1: those game balls, along with your man, Mr Henderson, business
Speaker 1: development executive for light House Computer Services Technology Group in Lincoln,
Speaker 1: Rhode Island. You've got Morris Bradshaw, director of alumni relations
Speaker 1: for your Las Vegas Raiders. Tony Collins had a had
Speaker 1: a good career, including uh some time in the Arena league,
Speaker 1: went through some personal struggles, some drug abuse, actually had
Speaker 1: a year suspension from the league. Ultimately had a suicide attempt,
Speaker 1: some some really rough stuff. I read an excerpt from
Speaker 1: his book, Uh that that's since come out um on
Speaker 1: his comeback. Uh. And he also runs a foundation in
Speaker 1: the Finger Lakes in New York called It's for the Kids,
Speaker 1: and he does a lot with collegiate scouting talking about
Speaker 1: the pitfalls and and different things you can take advantage of.
Speaker 1: So some good psychology and some real life experience being
Speaker 1: brought in there as well. So uh, good to see
Speaker 1: he's he's doing some good as well. Jimmy Cephalo broadcasting
Speaker 1: career with NBC for a long while, still to play
Speaker 1: by play and the voice of Dolphins radio. Uh. He
Speaker 1: and his wife do a bunch and with food, wine
Speaker 1: and travel. But the Cephalo family wine has been going
Speaker 1: for like a hundred fifty years about they do it
Speaker 1: pun up that look. And that's a growing thing, right
Speaker 1: our guy, Uh colleague get Fox that did Sunday shows
Speaker 1: with him a while, Will Blackman, super Bowl champion, got
Speaker 1: into wine, Charles Woodson into wine, Drew Bledsoe into wine. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's it's become a big thing among NFL players, uh
Speaker 1: in their post career. And I think that's a growth industry,
Speaker 1: especially you know as people look for you know, brand
Speaker 1: recognition is a huge thing as we know. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then we got Bob Baumhauer's the owner and CEO of
Speaker 1: a Loha hospitality in Alabama, fine dining and the Victory Grill.
Speaker 1: You gotta love that. I think you're gonna say a
Speaker 1: hospital in Oahu, Hawaii. No, no, no, no, it's Mobile Alabile, Alabama.
Speaker 1: All right. Then we're bringing a little bit of the
Speaker 1: Hawaiian Islands to you here in Alabama. Why not? So
Speaker 1: there was the snowplow game to be followed next week
Speaker 1: by a game that maybe had a little bit of
Speaker 1: mudd in it, followed by a game or two that
Speaker 1: maybe had some snowballs in it. Yeah, we're running through
Speaker 1: the nineties or some of the biggest bad weather games
Speaker 1: in NFL history. And I hope you enjoyed the snowplow
Speaker 1: game and learned some things here uh doing it. It
Speaker 1: was fun for us to go back and watch some
Speaker 1: of these highlights again, these games. I remember watching the
Speaker 1: game at home. I can't believe you're playing this game
Speaker 1: in the snow. If you have an idea for a
Speaker 1: future special teams, hit us up on Twitter at how
Speaker 1: about a Frescup? Mike is a swollen dome. Our radio
Speaker 1: show was heard every night on Fox Sports Radio. Tend
Speaker 1: be into two am on the East coast, seven to
Speaker 1: eleven on the West Coast. We'll talk to you next week.
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