Speaker 1: Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: Greetings and Welcoming side Special Teams, the podcast where we
Speaker 1: take a look back at special teams and specific years
Speaker 1: of sports and what made those teams so memorable. Jason
Speaker 1: Smith and Mike Harmon from Fox Sports Radio, we are
Speaker 1: your genial hosts as we're gonna do something special. As
Speaker 1: we're in a time going on where the coronavirus pandemic
Speaker 1: has shut sports down for a good period of time,
Speaker 1: we're looking back at some what some special teams did
Speaker 1: during some years in which there was either no games
Speaker 1: played or we had big interruptions, and there were large
Speaker 1: swaths of time where there were no games played. Last
Speaker 1: week we look back at Major League Baseball strike which
Speaker 1: cost Major League Baseball over fifty games for a team,
Speaker 1: and the lockout which there was no World Series. This episode,
Speaker 1: we look back at the NFL strikes of nine eight,
Speaker 1: two and seven. And if you thought, if you listen
Speaker 1: to last week's podcast and you thought major League Baseball,
Speaker 1: especially in nine eight one, did some lacky things, well,
Speaker 1: let me tell you exactly what the NFL strike was
Speaker 1: all about. Because Mike, at this point I was used
Speaker 1: to it. I mean, I was eleven years old, but
Speaker 1: I had just seen a baseball strike and I kind
Speaker 1: of understood, Okay, the players wanted something. They wanted to
Speaker 1: be treated better, and the owners didn't want to treat them. Well,
Speaker 1: that's kind of what I thought of when I was
Speaker 1: ten years old, not knowing the business aspect of it.
Speaker 1: And then the NFL strike comes up, and I'm thinking
Speaker 1: the same thing. The players want to be treated better
Speaker 1: and the owners don't want to do it for him.
Speaker 1: So I was always a players guy during strikes as
Speaker 1: a kid, just as I didn't understand the machinations of everything.
Speaker 1: So again I'm here going, okay, now we're not gonna
Speaker 1: have football games because the owners and in the league
Speaker 1: doesn't well, don't want the players to have more than
Speaker 1: what they have right now. Well, sure, and watching television
Speaker 1: or listening to whatever you were around the house. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was about the working man, right. That was the
Speaker 1: theme of a lot of sitcoms when we were growing up,
Speaker 1: was how they were getting screwed by the man. Uh
Speaker 1: So it was easy to identify. And here from the
Speaker 1: NFL perspective, you don't recognize how much revenue is generated
Speaker 1: on a weekly basis when you're ten or eleven or
Speaker 1: eight years older, you know, and rolling through you're you're
Speaker 1: thinking about, I just want my guys beating the hell
Speaker 1: out of each other on a Sunday, my team to
Speaker 1: win jets uh, and and that you were just excited
Speaker 1: for each of those weeks done fold because we didn't
Speaker 1: have it multiple days. I mean, you had some Monday
Speaker 1: night football actually, because you didn't have the rest of
Speaker 1: the rest of the mechanics that we do now. So
Speaker 1: I mean Sunday really was held to that sacred spot
Speaker 1: and you had no idea what is being fought over
Speaker 1: because it would always be couched in in big rhetoric
Speaker 1: of you know, how you get into larger union strife,
Speaker 1: whether it's these pro athletes or any other business in America.
Speaker 1: So in the players, what they mainly wanted was a
Speaker 1: bigger percentage of gross revenues, which is what players want
Speaker 1: all the time now. Every time you hear a CBA negotiations,
Speaker 1: a you guys have a lot of money, you got
Speaker 1: to give us more money, and the owners go on,
Speaker 1: we don't have any money, we can't do this for you.
Speaker 1: So even back in two this is what they were
Speaker 1: fighting about and same thing for the NFL now whenever
Speaker 1: they get into cb A situations a fifty seven day strike.
Speaker 1: What this meant was the NFL season was going to
Speaker 1: be nine games long. Alright, so nine games in the playoffs, right,
Speaker 1: But they decided to make a special sixteen team playoff tournament.
Speaker 1: Not not we're gonna play this that playoff teams, No, No,
Speaker 1: they put in sixteen teams, eight from each con from
Speaker 1: So this is before expansion, so by this is like
Speaker 1: the NBA, where everybody made the playoffs. Division standings were ignored.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter if you played in the A f
Speaker 1: C East an f C West. Eight teams the top
Speaker 1: eight from each conference were seated one through eight, best
Speaker 1: record to worst, as they wanted to make sure the
Speaker 1: best teams got in just because over half the season
Speaker 1: was playing. Now, this last part, I understand wanting to
Speaker 1: put the teams in with the best record because you
Speaker 1: had some teams sitting at you know, five and four
Speaker 1: leading their division. It's okay, you're really not that good,
Speaker 1: but you know, you don't just get in just because
Speaker 1: you win a division after playing half a season. They
Speaker 1: wanted to make sure the best six team teams got in.
Speaker 1: I don't know that they needed sixteen teams. For some reason,
Speaker 1: they decided sixteen was a big number, and so they
Speaker 1: wound up letting in teams with losing records into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But this was their thing. They wanted to get everybody in.
Speaker 1: So it was a very, very weird situation. So they
Speaker 1: seeded all the teams one through eight, and one played
Speaker 1: eight in the first round of two played seven, and
Speaker 1: three played six, and four played five. And there's all
Speaker 1: kinds of games going on the weekend. It was like
Speaker 1: a normal NFL week, and I remember watching game after
Speaker 1: game after game, going, boy, this is kind of cool
Speaker 1: with all these playoff games going on. I'm ready for
Speaker 1: the n c Double A tournament. Now let's go bracketology
Speaker 1: two style, there's no question. But what's interesting, though, is
Speaker 1: I think you'd also have people proposing in this day
Speaker 1: and age, can we just simulate those last games of
Speaker 1: the regular season so we just get the sixteen. Hey,
Speaker 1: but at least they did better than baseball. Everybody had
Speaker 1: played the same number of Damn, it's a little easier
Speaker 1: in football. There's only a lot less games going on.
Speaker 1: I know it's not in the wink to the insane
Speaker 1: effort of trying to do the schedule as it did.
Speaker 1: You played a hundred and four, you played a hundred
Speaker 1: twelve as same thing. Let's go so before we get
Speaker 1: to the special teams that really stood out here, Uh,
Speaker 1: this is just some things that went on during the
Speaker 1: players strike and some changes that came to the NFL. Now,
Speaker 1: eight eighty two was the first year sacks became an
Speaker 1: official statistic in the National football This is why the
Speaker 1: all time sack record is meaningless because they just started
Speaker 1: keeping it in eighty two, and you had guys that
Speaker 1: probably had thirty forty sacks in a season, but doesn't
Speaker 1: matter because we didn't start keeping until so it's kind
Speaker 1: of meaningless and also, you know, cheapened by the whole
Speaker 1: straight hand far thing. And for the for the first time,
Speaker 1: many uh East Coast games were in a four pm
Speaker 1: Eastern time window. Now, for years and years and years,
Speaker 1: you and I have woken up and it's always been
Speaker 1: we have the early games, you have the late games.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't always the case. Usually every game at
Speaker 1: that time was one o'clock local time, regardless as to
Speaker 1: who was home. So you had you were you had
Speaker 1: a home game, you were one o'clock. If you were
Speaker 1: on the East coast to West coast, whatever home team
Speaker 1: you were in, you played at one o'clock. Now you
Speaker 1: had East Coast games late, so you got to see
Speaker 1: better games later on in the day. And I remember
Speaker 1: how weird that was, seeing boy the Jets. It's dark out.
Speaker 1: They gotta turn the lights on. It's seven o'clock that
Speaker 1: Jets are playing. I don't understand this. And my grandmother
Speaker 1: was always yelling, cause I live with my grandparents gone.
Speaker 1: When can I have dinner? My grandfather go after the game.
Speaker 1: There's two more minutes left, that's gonna be half an hour.
Speaker 1: We'll eat down here, bring our food down to the basement.
Speaker 1: That was the best because I got to eat in
Speaker 1: the basement and watch the end of Jets games, because
Speaker 1: you know, they would play at four o'clock and and
Speaker 1: sometimes go all the way untill seven, seven thirty seven.
Speaker 1: And my grandmother's like, Jason's gotta get ready for school,
Speaker 1: He's gotta take a bath, he's gotta finish his all
Speaker 1: for the game will be over soon, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: Take a bath. Oh yeah, filth those days, you know,
Speaker 1: And I don't know why, because all the other times
Speaker 1: I would take showers, but for some reason, on Sunday nights,
Speaker 1: my grandmother wanted me to take a bath. I don't
Speaker 1: know why. I'm like, I'll just take show ease your
Speaker 1: lead baths free. I'll just I'll just gonna take a shower. No, no,
Speaker 1: take a bath Sunday. I could shower all the other days,
Speaker 1: but Sunday was a bad I don't know why Sunday
Speaker 1: was a bath day. I really don't get it. So
Speaker 1: that was kind of a fun little tweak now of
Speaker 1: the countant. Can you imagine not playing the way you're
Speaker 1: playing at one o'clock no matter what, We're missing all
Speaker 1: these great games and not being able to move things
Speaker 1: for TV. So that was the first time that happened. Now,
Speaker 1: during the strike, they decided to have to all Star games. Right, well,
Speaker 1: the strike is going on to a f C NFC
Speaker 1: All Star games, and one was in Washington, one was
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. Now, not many star players came to
Speaker 1: play in this. In these two games, it was away
Speaker 1: for the NFL to say, well, with some kind of
Speaker 1: football out of here, so we'll have an All Star
Speaker 1: game and people able to play One of the stars
Speaker 1: who played was John Riggins, who went on to be
Speaker 1: Super Bowl m v P later on, and he actually
Speaker 1: said during a postgame interview, well, I'll do anything for money,
Speaker 1: because you know, these guys aren't getting paid. And he said,
Speaker 1: I'll I'll do I'll do it. You're paying me, Ylcolm,
Speaker 1: I'll do anything for money. So this is what it
Speaker 1: was like at the time. We're trying to feed a
Speaker 1: football you know, a country that's just starting to become
Speaker 1: football reliant, football crazy. Let's have a couple of All
Speaker 1: Star games. We can't get good players. Oh, you'll pay
Speaker 1: me a couple of guys will show up at least. Look,
Speaker 1: here's what I mean. In the Pro Bowl, the the
Speaker 1: winner only got five grand. Well five grand I want
Speaker 1: to know what they're paying for these All Stars. I
Speaker 1: know five grande and eighty two has got to be like,
Speaker 1: you know, fifteen grand now, Uh, we gotta wait, I
Speaker 1: gotta calculate that one. So while that happened on the
Speaker 1: field during the strike, I mean, how insane is that
Speaker 1: during a strike, we're gonna have games. Wait I thought
Speaker 1: we were striking. No, No, we're gonna have games. You
Speaker 1: know what You're I'm too bad off. I gotta stop
Speaker 1: you because I got the answer. Oh uh yeah, it's
Speaker 1: worth about thirteen thousand three. Oh. I was really close
Speaker 1: with that, and you're a lot closer than I would
Speaker 1: have expected. Good for you, and I am not good
Speaker 1: at math. That is also that was fantastic spitballing right there.
Speaker 1: So while the league is trying to figure out things
Speaker 1: with these two a f C NFC All Star games,
Speaker 1: what did the television stations do? NBC aired CFL game,
Speaker 1: They aired Canadian Football League games before they decided no
Speaker 1: one's watching these things and they just stopped airing them.
Speaker 1: So it's like, so if you were buying into the
Speaker 1: Montreal Alouettes or the Saskatchewan rough Riders or the other
Speaker 1: rough Riders team, or the Edmonton Eskimos or the BC
Speaker 1: Lions or whoever was, and then they just you know,
Speaker 1: it's not where we're staying to air these games anymore. Well,
Speaker 1: how am I going to see the CFL games moved
Speaker 1: to Canada? No? Uh? Now, now you just slap it
Speaker 1: on another network. Uh. Some stations replayed Super Bowls on Sunday.
Speaker 1: That doesn't sound familiar at all, No, not at all. Hey, look,
Speaker 1: that's been going on with coronavirus. Right, we're seeing old
Speaker 1: old Super Bowls on television. They also aired Division three
Speaker 1: football games Division three, not Division one, Chicago games Division three.
Speaker 1: Here's the Maroons getting after it in looking this up
Speaker 1: right and saying, oh my god, what kind of Division
Speaker 1: three football games did they do? And I looked for
Speaker 1: audio of this and I couldn't find it. Pat summer
Speaker 1: All in John Madden. Okay, Madden and summer All did
Speaker 1: play by play of Baldwin Wallace versus Wittenberg. Oh, we
Speaker 1: gotta put out a bounty for that, be dub versus Wittenberg. Okay,
Speaker 1: summer All Wallace. How do you think that conversation went
Speaker 1: when Summer All Madden are going, you know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: take some time off wait for the strike. And oh no,
Speaker 1: you're contracting you're doing Baldwin Wallace Whittenberg. What we're going?
Speaker 1: Where to do? What? Division three football? Yeah? Not making
Speaker 1: that trip. I'm calling my agent. Then the agent says, uh,
Speaker 1: it's sort of in your contract. You gotta do a
Speaker 1: game every Sunday so they can send you to Division three.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, um, you know what your next contract? What
Speaker 1: do you mean I'm fired, I'm uh guess up the
Speaker 1: Madden Cruiser get efforts. Yeah, something about it later. Wait,
Speaker 1: I can't say murders you wrote. I I really that
Speaker 1: that you think about what what stations did to try
Speaker 1: to figure things out. Now, Luckily, when we live in
Speaker 1: this area now, in where there's thousands of other things
Speaker 1: to do, you know we're not be holding on. I
Speaker 1: gotta watch Baldwin Wallace Whittenberg. What's the point? Spread got Whittenberg?
Speaker 1: Is Wittenberg? The college was Wittenberg the name of the coach?
Speaker 1: Or is that the quarterback? I'll take Wittenberg taking the
Speaker 1: jumper that Lorenzo Charles dunks. That's what I'm gonna have.
Speaker 1: So that was what happened during the NFL. You thought
Speaker 1: I was lying what I said. You like a Major
Speaker 1: League baseball did? This is even more insane. Air comes
Speaker 1: Baldwin Wallace. Wallace, Oh that's not the quarterback. Let me
Speaker 1: cross that off. Baldwin's not there. Well, here's a handoff, boll.
Speaker 1: I like the intensity of this kid. He's just about
Speaker 1: three steps slower than law Taylor. Three step slower. So
Speaker 1: wait for that truck to come down. I wonder if
Speaker 1: Pat Summer all said, I'm gonna say even less words
Speaker 1: doing this. I'm gonna say a hundred words during this broadcast.
Speaker 1: I'll parse it out till the end of the game.
Speaker 1: But I'm only going to say a hundred words, and
Speaker 1: you can't make first down tackle. Wait, wait, second down tackle. Uh.
Speaker 1: So this is where we were at. But finally the
Speaker 1: players came back to play and we had the playoffs
Speaker 1: coming up. Next, we take a look at three of
Speaker 1: the most special of all of these teams as we
Speaker 1: steam forward here on Special Teams, looking back at the
Speaker 1: infamous NFL stray. Continuing on here on Special Teams are
Speaker 1: NFL Strikes edition of fifty seven. Day strike has settled.
Speaker 1: The NFL has a sixteen team tournament to determine the
Speaker 1: playoff teams, in which some teams with losing records get
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. The Detroit Lions actually found a way
Speaker 1: to sneak into the playoffs. They were only four and five.
Speaker 1: But three teams specifically made big leaps this year even
Speaker 1: though they fell short of the Super Bowl. The first
Speaker 1: one is the Jets. The Jets had a fantastic year.
Speaker 1: They finished six and three. They upset the number one
Speaker 1: team in the a f C, the Los Angeles Raiders.
Speaker 1: They make it to the a f C Championship game,
Speaker 1: but of course lose the mud ball, very famous game
Speaker 1: to the Dolphins fourteen to nothing. And for my entire life,
Speaker 1: I will believe the Jets when they say all week
Speaker 1: long that field in Miami was suppo was to be covered.
Speaker 1: Miami had like torrential rain all week long, and the
Speaker 1: Dolphins never covered the football field, which they're supposed to do,
Speaker 1: and you're supposed to keep the field nice. But they
Speaker 1: decided not to cover the field because the Dolphins hallmark
Speaker 1: was their great defense. The Jets hallmark was a high
Speaker 1: flying offense. They were deep and running back deep at
Speaker 1: wide receiver. They moved the football up and down the field,
Speaker 1: and it was a mud bowl. You look at the
Speaker 1: field and you go, oh, my goodness, how does the
Speaker 1: NFL allow this game to happen? Sparely? The NFL didn't
Speaker 1: care that the Dolphins didn't cover the field, so they
Speaker 1: played this in mud. They could still be playing this game,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty forty years later, and the Jets would
Speaker 1: still have zero points. They didn't come close to scoring
Speaker 1: a point in this game. X Jet would he Bennett
Speaker 1: runs for a touchdown. A J Dewey has three interceptions,
Speaker 1: including one he returns for a touchdown. The Jets were
Speaker 1: never gonna win this game. They're never gonna do it,
Speaker 1: and this is a great team. This was Free McNeil
Speaker 1: leading the NFL and rushing the sack exchange Wesley Walker.
Speaker 1: But Richard Todd throws five bleeping interceptions in this game.
Speaker 1: He was absolutely terrible. But it didn't matter because the
Speaker 1: Jets couldn't do anything, and the Dolphins win and they
Speaker 1: wind up moving on in the playoffs. But this was
Speaker 1: my first taste of, oh, my goodness, my football team
Speaker 1: can be good, because the Jets have been terrible my
Speaker 1: entire life. But now, oh my good the Jets are good.
Speaker 1: They're almost in the Super Bowl. So now but now
Speaker 1: I'm I'm hook line and sinker in on the Jets
Speaker 1: for the rest of my life, which you know, in
Speaker 1: retrospect was probably not the best thing for me. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is also a great reminder of how different the
Speaker 1: NFL is now than it was in nine two, because
Speaker 1: there's no chance in hell this is ever allowed unless
Speaker 1: you're gonna try to go play a game in Mexico.
Speaker 1: High where the field is a quagmire. I mean, you
Speaker 1: still have some rules and regulations to the way they
Speaker 1: do that. I mean like they I like the the
Speaker 1: bravado of We're gonna do these international competitions, which gotta
Speaker 1: make sure that the field is actually playable, right, I
Speaker 1: mean they did not do their due diligence and had
Speaker 1: to come back to the state side. But whenever you
Speaker 1: see and and a lot of these stadium you know,
Speaker 1: stad uh, there's still problems because if the building is old,
Speaker 1: drainage isn't as great, but you still have the effort
Speaker 1: some level of management, right whereas here it was whatever. No,
Speaker 1: I know, that's the act sune where the NFL was man.
Speaker 1: So the Dolphins, sorry, I know, fat Dolphins wind up
Speaker 1: going to the Super Bowl this year. Hey hooray the
Speaker 1: Dolphin went um. Meanwhile, another special team was the Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers, who made the playoffs for the first time
Speaker 1: since Vince Lombardi was their head coach in Maine seventy two. Now,
Speaker 1: this team was fun because this Packers team, they were
Speaker 1: always a team that was on late and it was
Speaker 1: I felt like the Packers were always down three or
Speaker 1: seven late in the game. All they did was throw
Speaker 1: the football. Right. This was Lynn Dicky a quarterback, John Jefferson,
Speaker 1: James Lofton, Paul Coffin was the tight end, and all
Speaker 1: they did was throw the football. And you're talking about
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame caliber wide receivers in Lowthon and Jefferson
Speaker 1: was so good with both the Packers and the San
Speaker 1: Diego Chargers. But this Packers seems suddenly, Hey, all they
Speaker 1: did was was go up and down the field, and
Speaker 1: they were so much fun. And it was boy, look
Speaker 1: at look at green Bay, look a look at something. Hey,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's seeing one of those great heritage teams
Speaker 1: be good again after not being good for a long time.
Speaker 1: And the Packers making the playoffs is a really big deal.
Speaker 1: They wind up losing the second game they play. They
Speaker 1: beat St. Louis, they lose to the Cowboys thirty seven
Speaker 1: twenty six. But this was, man, You know, the Packers
Speaker 1: are a lot of fun. Let's let's let's spend some
Speaker 1: time going back and seeing a team that built the NFL,
Speaker 1: you know, twelve or thirteen years ago. Well you got
Speaker 1: Eddie Lee, Ivory, Harlan Hucklebe, Oh yeah, Harlan Hucklebee hitting
Speaker 1: a couple of attempts in there. You just wanted to
Speaker 1: say Harlan huckle Well, because if I remember right, Brent
Speaker 1: Musburger would I think it was Brent Musberger who would
Speaker 1: always say Huckleberry and they would call him, you call
Speaker 1: Harlan Huckleberry because we try to say Huckleby, we would
Speaker 1: call him Huckleberry. I'm pretty sure it was Fred Musburger.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty have to go and huckleberry. You were looking
Speaker 1: live Mbo Field, Babe, I'll be your Huckleberry. You don't
Speaker 1: have to double daremy start going in all my Toby
Speaker 1: Keith discography as we go. But James Lofton one of
Speaker 1: those guys and underappreciated receiver. I think Packers had a
Speaker 1: couple of those, right because STERLINGK. Sharp. I mean, we
Speaker 1: know Shannon through his work and you know in the
Speaker 1: media and obviously a Hall of Fame career, but Sterling
Speaker 1: Sharp was a beast for them later on, uh in
Speaker 1: the decade. But James James Lofton was is a guy
Speaker 1: that you know both as a player and then as
Speaker 1: a commentator. I just lists eat up every word that
Speaker 1: guy's got. He and John Jefferson together on that squads
Speaker 1: a Bears fan. As a Bears fan, you know, I
Speaker 1: had an early hatred of them. You appreciated, you know,
Speaker 1: the skill level of the guys that they were running
Speaker 1: again and against. And you know, obviously Lynn Dickey being
Speaker 1: one of those legends. I actually had a helmet that's
Speaker 1: signed by a bunch of old time greats and Lynn
Speaker 1: Dickey's on there. Oh nice. Well, I remember Lofton too,
Speaker 1: you know, at the end of his career, was one
Speaker 1: of the most important players of the Buffalo Bills, the
Speaker 1: teams that went to a bunch of Super Bowls, and
Speaker 1: he was he was there, one of their big stars
Speaker 1: on the team that wound up going to the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: losing the famous game of the Giants. And maybe this
Speaker 1: is this is ten years later and James Lofton is
Speaker 1: is still a really big player in the NFL at
Speaker 1: wide receiver. I mean, this team started out, they were loaded.
Speaker 1: They were a lot of fun, although I gotta say
Speaker 1: not as much fun as the San Diego Chargers. This
Speaker 1: year turned out to be the last playoff appearance for
Speaker 1: Dan Fouts, Charlie Joyner, and Kellen Winslow. Now for my money,
Speaker 1: these Chargers. I mean I know that I was young
Speaker 1: watching them, but they were the best team to never
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl. They were so loaded on offense
Speaker 1: for so long. West Chandler was All Pro this year,
Speaker 1: James Brooks at running back. You know, they had had
Speaker 1: John Jefferson already. It was just their defense was never
Speaker 1: good enough, and they thought, we're gonna keep throwing the
Speaker 1: football and outscore you. And they lost in that that
Speaker 1: a f C Championship game to the Bengals when it
Speaker 1: was minus fifty degrees out and and you know, they
Speaker 1: couldn't do do their thing there. And it was always, boy,
Speaker 1: they were so talented, they never had the defense. And
Speaker 1: it was the beginning of the teams that you would say,
Speaker 1: they can't win in the cold. They can't go on
Speaker 1: the road and win in the playoffs. They have to
Speaker 1: be able to play at home when the weather is
Speaker 1: nice and they can throw the football up and down
Speaker 1: the field. That was like the first time you heard
Speaker 1: of teams and okay, they're a weather specific team. When
Speaker 1: the weather is nice, they're great, But you go on
Speaker 1: the road is tough. Because later on, when Dan Marino
Speaker 1: became quarterback in the Dolphins, that was the big thing. Uh,
Speaker 1: you want to get the Dolphins on the road late
Speaker 1: in the season, it's tougher to throw the football around
Speaker 1: And really that's kind of a misnomer now, but that
Speaker 1: was the beginning of that thought process back then. Well
Speaker 1: but what's really funny though, is that Dan Marino was
Speaker 1: a big endorser and distributor of Isotoner gloves. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: couldn't throw the ball and had some issues cold weather.
Speaker 1: So you know, hey, it's kind of funny the way
Speaker 1: that all works together. Uh, never did find a pair.
Speaker 1: I want to get a pair from one of the
Speaker 1: linemen that he gave them to. I think you can
Speaker 1: get isotoners on eBay. I think you'd get a pair
Speaker 1: of those. No, no, no no, but I want a pair
Speaker 1: that was given to one of his teammates. Oh well,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be tough, that's what I want. I remember
Speaker 1: his commercial was watching You Can Do the Ice Tones,
Speaker 1: and he would pick up a key like they was
Speaker 1: sitting on the table because that was the thing you
Speaker 1: would have gloves on and it was so hard to
Speaker 1: pick up tiny objects, it was like, but isotners were
Speaker 1: so next level. All they're just tight gloves and you look,
Speaker 1: you could pick up a key and it was wow,
Speaker 1: you could pick up a key with that. Oh my goodness, Wow,
Speaker 1: Look at those is triers. They weren't big bulky mittens.
Speaker 1: Getting back to what what that Charger team was. Man,
Speaker 1: you know Kellen Winslow. Uh, what what's the word we use?
Speaker 1: Mercurial is how we describe players in the media. That's him,
Speaker 1: Charlie Joyner another underrated guy I think in the annals
Speaker 1: of receiver history and Dan Fausts and just winging the
Speaker 1: ball around. I mean, they were always fun to watch
Speaker 1: in one of those late games, right because you know,
Speaker 1: the afternoon windows is that stuff started to come into
Speaker 1: into the forefront of things. I mean that they were
Speaker 1: always just fun to watch because it was a different
Speaker 1: style of football than you were used to watching as
Speaker 1: as a Bears fan. And you appreciated the brilliance of
Speaker 1: of Walter Payton and being a one man gang oftentimes
Speaker 1: him and whomever the fullback was at the moment. But
Speaker 1: to watch a passing attack and I've still been watching
Speaker 1: this and I go back watch a T two tape,
Speaker 1: uh and say that I've still only had two or
Speaker 1: three seasons in my Bears fan indom where I had
Speaker 1: any semblance of a down field passing game. So I
Speaker 1: still look back fondly on those eighty two Churchers, you know.
Speaker 1: And just real quick on that Green Bay game, I
Speaker 1: told you they lost to Dallas. H Dallas makes it
Speaker 1: to the NFC Championship game in Green Bay falls just short.
Speaker 1: You thought Green Bay was gonna be great. They didn't
Speaker 1: make the playoffs again until and for the Cowboys, who
Speaker 1: would lose to the Redskins in the NFC title Game.
Speaker 1: It was the last win in Tom Landry's career in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. In fact, it would be their last playoff
Speaker 1: win until you had a team. You know, the Steelers
Speaker 1: and the Cowboys were the teams of the seventies and okay,
Speaker 1: you're called the eighties, and it was no, that's it
Speaker 1: for the Cowboys. You're done eight two, that's it. You're
Speaker 1: gonna go nine more years for you make the playoffs.
Speaker 1: And this is when you have to wait a while
Speaker 1: until Aikman and Irvin and and Emmett Smith wind up
Speaker 1: getting drafted. And that was a big guff of emptiness
Speaker 1: for the Dallas Cowboys in the eighties. Uh So, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna end something fun for you, buddy, because I
Speaker 1: know you relived a whole like two decades worth of
Speaker 1: sucking there in the last in the last couple of minutes,
Speaker 1: I mean, Emery moorehead two was the leading receiver for
Speaker 1: the Bears, three hundred sixty three yards. Uh So the
Speaker 1: Redskins win the Super Bowl. This is John Reggans in
Speaker 1: the big fourth and one run to the end zone.
Speaker 1: You've seen in NFL films a hundred times. They win
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl over the Dolphins. And and you know,
Speaker 1: the NFL gets back to normal the next year. But
Speaker 1: to end in a fun way for you, buddy, because
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two, even though it wasn't a great year
Speaker 1: for the Bears, actually did turn out to be a
Speaker 1: great year for the Bears. After the nineteen eight one season,
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears fired head coach Neil Armstrong, I mean
Speaker 1: lands on the moon in nineteen sixty nine and gets
Speaker 1: fired in nineteen eight one. But it was Neil with
Speaker 1: two else Neil Armstrong, and he is hired to replace him,
Speaker 1: Mike Ditka, whose first year with the Bears didn't go great,
Speaker 1: but of course then and within three years built the
Speaker 1: Bears into one of the most famous Super Bowl champions
Speaker 1: of all time. So see, buddy, it ended fine for you.
Speaker 1: It did. We we get into the off season, did
Speaker 1: cut and as Permanent came to town, I may have
Speaker 1: emulated that and started shooting my gun really fast. You
Speaker 1: don't need to talk like that. You can still talk normal.
Speaker 1: You don't gotta talk. You gotta talk like you're trying
Speaker 1: to do half simple witch and half normal Mike Harmon voice. No,
Speaker 1: but if you if you're gonna talk about Ditka, then
Speaker 1: you have to speak and the reverence often portrayed in
Speaker 1: talking about Mike Ditka And just for that, I might
Speaker 1: have to ship you in a couple of beef sandwiches.
Speaker 1: So that was the two NFL strike. Told you it
Speaker 1: was insane. Uh, Coming up next the NFL strike. Now
Speaker 1: it wasn't nearly as long, but yeah, we got some
Speaker 1: stuff where you gotta here. This is Special Teams with
Speaker 1: Jason Smith and Mike Harmon. So now we head to
Speaker 1: nine eight seven as we take a look back at
Speaker 1: some of the years in which sports was interrupted and
Speaker 1: there were no games. As we get to the night
Speaker 1: seven NFL strike, where players wanted a better free agent policy,
Speaker 1: which is why they went on strike, but in the
Speaker 1: end only one week of games got canceled. For three
Speaker 1: weeks during this strike, the NFL did games with replacement
Speaker 1: teams and scab players. Right now, everybody's ever seen the
Speaker 1: movie The Replacements. That's what this is based on. Because
Speaker 1: in the NFL didn't want to have missed games. They
Speaker 1: were mad at the players, so they said, hey, anybody
Speaker 1: who wants to come be scabbed players and cross the
Speaker 1: picket line and come play, We'll have our doors open
Speaker 1: for you. And plenty of owners put pressure on star
Speaker 1: players and say, listen, I'm paying you a lot of money.
Speaker 1: I need you to come play football. And one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why the strike didn't go very long is
Speaker 1: because every team had players crossed the picket lines. Now,
Speaker 1: some of them, I can't believe some of them. Who
Speaker 1: did it be because you had Steve Large and crossed
Speaker 1: the picket line. Mark Gasinoa the Jets crossed the picket line,
Speaker 1: and his relationship with the Jets was never the same.
Speaker 1: Joe Montana across the picket line. You think about boy,
Speaker 1: Joe Montana, Yeah, Joe Montana across the picket line. Many
Speaker 1: players were pissed at these players, because hey, we're striking
Speaker 1: for something and you're going into play. Some players would
Speaker 1: stand outside the stadiums on days of games and practices
Speaker 1: and try to stop players from going in, being scab
Speaker 1: workers to go in and and and practice. They wanted
Speaker 1: them to not do that and show some solidarity. But
Speaker 1: these were players mostly who were saying, I'm never gonna
Speaker 1: get a chance to play in the NFL again, but
Speaker 1: you want me to play here, I'll get to go
Speaker 1: put on a uniform and get paid for a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. Sure, I'll go play. I'm not surprised at
Speaker 1: the players who took that chance. I am stunned at
Speaker 1: all the star players and all the big players different
Speaker 1: teams who wund a crossing the picket line. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think part of it. It goes back to people
Speaker 1: that are at the peak of their career wondering if
Speaker 1: a law lust year is is that huge? You and
Speaker 1: I have talked a lot during the pandemic and other
Speaker 1: labor questions and sports and and others about leverage right
Speaker 1: and who's got it and and where people might be
Speaker 1: leveraged to a point where they can't stay out and
Speaker 1: and stay away from from the game. Because remember, it's
Speaker 1: not only just their playing contract. A lot of these guys,
Speaker 1: when you start talking about names like Montana and and
Speaker 1: these others, I mean, there's also endorsement deals and others
Speaker 1: that are you know, contingent upon you being you, not
Speaker 1: you standing with a sign outside a stadium. Well, this
Speaker 1: is the one time to where where After this, it
Speaker 1: was every player in every sport realized, Okay, if we're
Speaker 1: gonna strike and get anything, everybody's got to stay out.
Speaker 1: Nobody can cross the picket line. Because that crushed the
Speaker 1: strike us star players coming coming over to play, and
Speaker 1: it was okay, we're still playing games, We're not getting anywhere,
Speaker 1: let's all go back to play. I mean it was.
Speaker 1: It was a really big deal to have play. I mean,
Speaker 1: and I can't imagine that some of these guys actually
Speaker 1: went back into the locker rooms and had great relationships
Speaker 1: with their teammates. And like I said, these are star players, right.
Speaker 1: Mark Gaston was the best defensive lineman, sorry, how he long?
Speaker 1: He's the best defensive lineman in in the a f C.
Speaker 1: Joe Montana one was gonna go down as that that
Speaker 1: worst the second or third best quarterback of all time,
Speaker 1: you know, large and one of the top wide receivers
Speaker 1: ever to play this game. It was. It really surprised me,
Speaker 1: especially in retrospect, that these guys all said, yep, I
Speaker 1: gotta go and I I gotta keep getting paid or
Speaker 1: I owe it to the owners, because that's what I
Speaker 1: remember mostly is that the owners really pressure the players,
Speaker 1: saying I'm paying you and I need you to do
Speaker 1: a lot for I need you to do this, you
Speaker 1: owe me. And I remember that was the whole big
Speaker 1: thing with Mark Gastineau and and and Leon Hessu was
Speaker 1: the on team was there as a big meeting saying hey,
Speaker 1: I made you, I'm paying you a lot of cash
Speaker 1: here and I need you to show me the way
Speaker 1: and try to do it. And the owners knew they
Speaker 1: could break the players. And that's exactly what happened. And
Speaker 1: so we didn't get, you know, hardly any missed time.
Speaker 1: They wound up moving the schedule a little bit, so
Speaker 1: there's only one missed game, so it didn't really affect
Speaker 1: the season all that much. Before we get to some
Speaker 1: special teams from this year, one other player who crossed
Speaker 1: the picket line to go play it was a guy
Speaker 1: who was painting houses. At that time, he was a
Speaker 1: quarterback and they asked him, Hey, do you want to
Speaker 1: come play and be a backup, maybe get in some games,
Speaker 1: And so Sean Payton said yes and he went to
Speaker 1: play quarterback for the Bears. That Sean Payton Bears played
Speaker 1: for the Bears during the strike. In uh, the team
Speaker 1: it hurt the most who was supposed to do Some
Speaker 1: pretty special teams were the New York Giants. I remember
Speaker 1: the Giants were the defending Super Bowl champions, right they were.
Speaker 1: They had won in eighties six. It was Phil Simms
Speaker 1: two out of twenty five against the Broncos, Film mc
Speaker 1: conky catching the big tip pass, and the Giants were
Speaker 1: supposed to be a pretty good team. However, because they
Speaker 1: hounded all the strike games in the final standings, the
Speaker 1: Giants didn't put together a good team. And that was
Speaker 1: what a lot of what that's what some teams decided
Speaker 1: was screw it, We're not gonna put together a good team.
Speaker 1: Are these games even really gonna count? The owners were
Speaker 1: just hoping they would use these games to get the
Speaker 1: players to come back and play. Some teams went to
Speaker 1: the wall and put together as good a team as
Speaker 1: they possibly could, some just didn't care. The Giants were
Speaker 1: one of those teams, and as a result, they lost
Speaker 1: all three strike games, so they didn't make the playoffs.
Speaker 1: They finished in last place in the NFC East, and
Speaker 1: they couldn't defend their Super Bowl title. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of weird that they decided to count the games, but
Speaker 1: they did, and because of that, the Giants finished six
Speaker 1: and nine. Where had they won two of those games
Speaker 1: and won one more, they would have made the playoffs
Speaker 1: because you had the Vikings getting in at eight and
Speaker 1: seven that year as the five seed overall in the NFC,
Speaker 1: So that just absolutely crushed the New York Giants that year.
Speaker 1: Uh So your teams in the playoffs in the a
Speaker 1: f C East, the division champions were the Indianapolis Colts,
Speaker 1: Cleveland Browns win the Central Broncos win the West. Your
Speaker 1: wild card teams are the Houston Oilers and the Seattle Seahawks.
Speaker 1: In the NFC, I mean the Cleveland, Cleveland and Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: I mean, back then, Indianapolis was really Indianapolis. They weren't
Speaker 1: even any good in tech mobile. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: a bad a f C East, but this Colts team
Speaker 1: wasn't really that good your you know, your quarterbacks when
Speaker 1: when you're playing the regular season, where Jack Trudeau, Gary
Speaker 1: Hgo Wooman, Shawn Salisbury. I mean, but you had Eric Dickerson,
Speaker 1: which is a big deal, him coming over from the Rams,
Speaker 1: and we have a you know, one of the best
Speaker 1: running backs in the NFL, and you know they really
Speaker 1: wanted to ride him. But this was not a great
Speaker 1: Colts team. But they drafted Cornelius Bennett, who went on
Speaker 1: to a great career with the Buffalo Bills. But this
Speaker 1: is this is the Colts having a moment in the
Speaker 1: sun here finishing nine and six and and going to
Speaker 1: the playoffs in the a f C. In the NFC,
Speaker 1: you had the forty Niners who were great thirteen and two.
Speaker 1: The Bears win the NFC Central all right, The Redskins
Speaker 1: win the NFC East of year. Wild cards are the
Speaker 1: Vikings and the Saints. The Saints finishing twelve and three.
Speaker 1: And this was a loaded playoff in the NFC this
Speaker 1: year because here are the Bears who were still living
Speaker 1: off the eight five Bears. You know, okay, maybe we'll
Speaker 1: do it in eighty six, but now here there are
Speaker 1: an eighty seven. Their run is coming to an end,
Speaker 1: but still division champions back in all those years ago.
Speaker 1: Man very interesting way this this shook out the Bears
Speaker 1: over the past vikings in the second place, back when
Speaker 1: they were still in a division with the Buccaneers. And
Speaker 1: think about that, the Buccaneers were in the Central so
Speaker 1: and they were creamsicles. They lose to the Redskins for
Speaker 1: the second straight year in the playoffs. The Redskins go
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl this year, where they face the
Speaker 1: Denver Broncos. Now, this is the year in which you've
Speaker 1: seen plenty of times Timmy Smith running crazy the Broncos,
Speaker 1: scoring thirty five points in the second quarter of the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. They dismantled the Broncos forty two ten. The
Speaker 1: Broncos had led this game tend nothing at one point um.
Speaker 1: But Washington wins the Super Bowl. And this is why
Speaker 1: they were special, not just because they wound up winning
Speaker 1: the NFC is winning the Super Bowl. Was they did it.
Speaker 1: The really smart way was when they struck this year,
Speaker 1: when when when the NFL team struck, the Redskins signed
Speaker 1: a bunch of players who were all just familiar with
Speaker 1: Joe Gibbs's system. Washington and Philadelphia were the only teams
Speaker 1: without anyone crossing the picket line. So the Redskins played
Speaker 1: all three of their games without any regular players, but
Speaker 1: they signed players who are familiar with Gibbs as system
Speaker 1: just in case if the games count. This was a
Speaker 1: smart way to do it, unlike some other teams who
Speaker 1: did it. So they went all three of their games
Speaker 1: in the strike season and went went with the replacement players,
Speaker 1: including they beat the Cowboys, who had a lot of
Speaker 1: stars playing by that point. By the second third week
Speaker 1: of the strike, players are crossing the picket line like crazy.
Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna come back. We're gonna come back.
Speaker 1: The Cowboys had a lot of their players playing, and
Speaker 1: the Redskins still won that game. They win the NFC
Speaker 1: East by four games over the Cowboys, and they go
Speaker 1: on to win the Super Bowl. This was Doug Williams.
Speaker 1: It was It was a shocking moment. It was a
Speaker 1: great moment in in in sports history, because here was
Speaker 1: a team everybody thought was gonna win the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: in the Broncos with John Elway, and here was Joe
Speaker 1: Gibbs and Doug Williams who had knocked around the league
Speaker 1: for a long time, and and and Timmy Smith is
Speaker 1: an unknown running back and the Redskins just absolutely blitz
Speaker 1: them in the Super Bowl to win. But you look
Speaker 1: back and what really made the season four him? Well, hey,
Speaker 1: winning those three strike games and they go on and
Speaker 1: they win the NFC East to win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Timmy Smith who had a hundred twenty six rushing yards
Speaker 1: uh in the regular season. Uh. You look at the
Speaker 1: way it shakes out. One of the great storylines in
Speaker 1: the background was just how putting these teams together. I
Speaker 1: found some old quotes from your buddy Gil brandt. Oh boys,
Speaker 1: Brand loves me. He's still waiting for you to tell
Speaker 1: them about the system. I'm sure draft of analysis that uh,
Speaker 1: and how you ranked players. But you talked about how
Speaker 1: the players had considered themselves a bit of a cult
Speaker 1: and they'd get together and in one circumstance body used
Speaker 1: car for five bucks between them, so they had transportation
Speaker 1: and they were self reliant and everything, just trying to
Speaker 1: keep it together. But this was a line that I
Speaker 1: thought was pretty interesting. It was refreshing. There were so
Speaker 1: many interesting, refreshing things that happened that year, just because
Speaker 1: it wasn't business as normal. Right, You had a bunch
Speaker 1: of different talent evaluation, trying to get guys back together.
Speaker 1: I think by they they said by the end, and
Speaker 1: they had already had nearly twenty of players had crossed,
Speaker 1: So it fractured, especially when you had all those big names.
Speaker 1: So certainly not your normal way to to get through
Speaker 1: a season. And and what's funny is, as we've done
Speaker 1: these podcasts between the baseball strikes and two football stoppages
Speaker 1: here that each one to try to navigate it, you
Speaker 1: had to have some really interesting meetings between the owners,
Speaker 1: players and then certainly within the the owners to try
Speaker 1: to fit in the commissioner and try to figure out
Speaker 1: a structure. So there it is. There is your nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties seven strike season, and do you want to finish
Speaker 1: with an uptick? Note here in nineties seven, during this
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Bills finished seven and eight. Now they were
Speaker 1: doormats for a long time, like they were great with O. J.
Speaker 1: Simpson the seventies and then the Bills. They still had
Speaker 1: some pretty good players. Joe Ferguson was a good quarterback
Speaker 1: and Joe Cribbs was fantastic. But you know, Buffalo certainly
Speaker 1: had their had their down periods. But in nineteen eight seven,
Speaker 1: they decided we're gonna make a change at head coach
Speaker 1: and Marv Levy comes. In his first year as Buffalo
Speaker 1: Bills head coach. The Bills finished seven and eight. Okay,
Speaker 1: not bad because they were four and twelve the year
Speaker 1: before that, two and fourteen the two years before that,
Speaker 1: both years before that, so they go too and fourteen,
Speaker 1: two and fourteen, four and twelve. Hey, here comes Marv
Speaker 1: Levy and the seven and eight after taking over his
Speaker 1: first full year in seven. Well, this is when the
Speaker 1: Bills go and they win the a f C East,
Speaker 1: They win the a FC East again, they win it again,
Speaker 1: they win it again, then they're a wild card, then
Speaker 1: they win it again. Then they went I mean, this
Speaker 1: was an incredible run which involved four straight Super Bowls
Speaker 1: for the Buffalo Bills. But this really started the next
Speaker 1: era in the a f C. Marv Leavy comes in,
Speaker 1: it takes him a season and a half to get
Speaker 1: things going, and then suddenly here are the Bills an
Speaker 1: eight eight. The Bills went twelve and four, and suddenly
Speaker 1: they're a big power now in the a f C.
Speaker 1: So the birth of the Bills. Closing out seven Jason Smith,
Speaker 1: Mike Harmon. We are your hosts here on Special Teams.
Speaker 1: You have an idea for a future Special Teams episode,
Speaker 1: hit us up on Twitter at how About a Fresca.
Speaker 1: Mike is at Swollen Dome. We will have a new
Speaker 1: episode next week for you. In the meantime, catch us
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday on Fox Sports Radio tent p into
Speaker 1: two am on the East Coast, seven to eleven on
Speaker 1: the West Coast. Have a great week. Before you go,
Speaker 1: rate and review the show. Whether you're listening on I
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Speaker 1: will love you forever and ever and ever. Special Teams
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