I got ESPN+ and really the only thing on there I’m into right now is the NFL’s Greatest Games episodes. I found one for Super Bowl XXXIV, I had no idea they made one for this game. I’m watching it now and it’s got me in the mood to finally go down this rabbit hole. The 1999 NFL season is so fascinating to me, I’m kind of obsessed with it. So I wanted to start this thread and take a linear journey through this season. I’m going to put the spotlight on the teams, players, games of this season. Feel free to post whatever.

I have the 2000 NFL record and fact book which has all game recaps and stats for the 1999 season, also I plan to watch games that are on YouTube. Maybe after this we can put a similar spotlight on other classic NFL seasons.

I’ll start this off with a question. Going into 1999, who were the favorites to win it all? The big thing about 99 is the turnover, teams that were on top in 98 finished on bottom in 99, nobody expected the Rams to win it all.

Aug 1, 2021 19:56:21 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I got ESPN+ and really the only thing on there I’m into right now is the NFL’s Greatest Games episodes. I found one for Super Bowl XXXIV, I had no idea they made one for this game. I’m watching it now and it’s got me in the mood to finally go down this rabbit hole. The 1999 NFL season is so fascinating to me, I’m kind of obsessed with it. So I wanted to start this thread and take a linear journey through this season. I’m going to put the spotlight on the teams, players, games of this season. Feel free to post whatever.

I have the 2000 NFL record and fact book which has all game recaps and stats for the 1999 season, also I plan to watch games that are on YouTube. Maybe after this we can put a similar spotlight on other classic NFL seasons.

I’ll start this off with a question. Going into 1999, who were the favorites to win it all? The big thing about 99 is the turnover, teams that were on top in 98 finished on bottom in 99, nobody expected the Rams to win it all.

1999, I'd say the Packers, Chiefs, and Vikings were considered the top favorites for a title that year.  The Falcons playoff/Super Bowl appearance seemed to be all fluke.  And the Broncos were going into the season without their #1 star for the first time in 17 years.

Aug 1, 2021 20:25:02 GMT CM Punk'd said:

Aug 1, 2021 19:56:21 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I got ESPN+ and really the only thing on there I’m into right now is the NFL’s Greatest Games episodes. I found one for Super Bowl XXXIV, I had no idea they made one for this game. I’m watching it now and it’s got me in the mood to finally go down this rabbit hole. The 1999 NFL season is so fascinating to me, I’m kind of obsessed with it. So I wanted to start this thread and take a linear journey through this season. I’m going to put the spotlight on the teams, players, games of this season. Feel free to post whatever.

I have the 2000 NFL record and fact book which has all game recaps and stats for the 1999 season, also I plan to watch games that are on YouTube. Maybe after this we can put a similar spotlight on other classic NFL seasons.

I’ll start this off with a question. Going into 1999, who were the favorites to win it all? The big thing about 99 is the turnover, teams that were on top in 98 finished on bottom in 99, nobody expected the Rams to win it all.

1999, I'd say the Packers, Chiefs, and Vikings were considered the top favorites for a title that year.  The Falcons playoff/Super Bowl appearance seemed to be all fluke.  And the Broncos were going into the season without their #1 star for the first time in 17 years.

I really have no frame of reference for this question, I didn’t watch NFL at all In 98, not even the playoffs. I barely even watched any of Super Bowl XXXIII. My interest in NFL faded in 1997, just hearing the words Tennessee Oilers was so fucking weird I can’t even explain it what it was like for somebody that grew up in Houston loving that team. I always remember my moms reaction when she first heard it on TV, “Do they even have any oil in Tennessee?!”😂

Aug 1, 2021 20:25:02 GMT CM Punk'd said:

Aug 1, 2021 19:56:21 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I got ESPN+ and really the only thing on there I’m into right now is the NFL’s Greatest Games episodes. I found one for Super Bowl XXXIV, I had no idea they made one for this game. I’m watching it now and it’s got me in the mood to finally go down this rabbit hole. The 1999 NFL season is so fascinating to me, I’m kind of obsessed with it. So I wanted to start this thread and take a linear journey through this season. I’m going to put the spotlight on the teams, players, games of this season. Feel free to post whatever.

I have the 2000 NFL record and fact book which has all game recaps and stats for the 1999 season, also I plan to watch games that are on YouTube. Maybe after this we can put a similar spotlight on other classic NFL seasons.

I’ll start this off with a question. Going into 1999, who were the favorites to win it all? The big thing about 99 is the turnover, teams that were on top in 98 finished on bottom in 99, nobody expected the Rams to win it all.

1999, I'd say the Packers, Chiefs, and Vikings were considered the top favorites for a title that year.  The Falcons playoff/Super Bowl appearance seemed to be all fluke.  And the Broncos were going into the season without their #1 star for the first time in 17 years.

I don’t know what the expectations were going into 99, I’m curious to know why the Chiefs would be favorites going in? Looking at them closer they were coming off of a 7-9 season that brought an end to Marty Schottenhiemers tenure. Defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham took over, they were going in with Elvis Grback who hadn’t played a full season yet. Interesting that this was Derrick Thomas’ final season I actually thought he died in 99. Also they had old man Warren Moon as a backup. I remember watching the Pro Bowl in February 2000 and they still did the QB Challenge competition, Moon was in it wearing Chiefs uniform and for me being out of the loop it was like what the fuck?! 😂 Not only was he STILL playing but for KC was kinda crazy. He looked really weird in KC uni.

But looking at the AFC going into 99 and it seemed wide the fuck open. Broncos were going without Elway but I guess with Terrell Davis coming off the 2,000 yard season they still had to be the favorites, I mean they won without Elway when he was hurt in 98 and he was old anyways. I’m assuming the Jets and Dolphins had to be 2 of the favorites, Parcells had the Jets in the AFCCG in 98 and Jimmy Johnson’s Dolphins got better every year since he took over in 96. The Jaguars were the only first place team from 98 that stayed good in 99 but did anybody really take them seriously going into 99?

With the NFC you had the usual suspects, Bret Favre with the Packers but they were going in with Ray Rhodes since Holmgren left for Seattle, also Reggie White retired I believe. San Fran was going in with Steve Young, the Vikings were coming off of the 15-1 season and I’m sure everybody had them penciled in(I remember Randy Moss was on the cover of all the football video games that year). Dallas still had the triplets if I’m not mistaken, Atlanta the defending NFC Champs. Tampa had gotten really good in 97 but missed the playoffs in 98 and struggled at QB with Dilfer.

One team I get the sense everyone had high hopes for in the NFC was Arizona, Jake Plummer emerged as a new star quarterback in 98 and they upset Dallas in the playoffs.

Interesting stuff. I’ll try to find any preseason articles I can

Aug 1, 2021 19:56:21 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I have the 2000 NFL record and fact book which has all game recaps and stats for the 1999 season

I’ll start this off with a question. Going into 1999, who were the favorites to win it all? The big thing about 99 is the turnover, teams that were on top in 98 finished on bottom in 99, nobody expected the Rams to win it all.

Still loving these old school football threads. I deeply regret getting rid of all my old sports books. Every year I'd get these thick, informative little books written by a guy named Zander Hollander for MLB, NBA, and NFL. But I'd always get rid of the old ones after picking up the new one for the latest season. Oh well. Pretty sure I went off them by the mid 90s in favor of PWI anyway. It was part of the process in gravitating away from real sports and going in even harder on a particular fake sport.

The 1999 NFL game that stuck with me the most for all those years is the Ravens season opener against the Rams. The Ravens had been a mediocre team for their three year history while the Rams were perennial cellar dwellers. So likely nobody outside of Baltimore and....wherever the Rams were playing that year cared much. It's memorable because the Ravens got LIT UP by an unknown QB named Kurt Warner. Iirc he threw for 336 yards and multiple touchdown passes. Remember thinking the Ravens were going to be REALLY bad or these upstart Rams were going to be REALLY good. Turns out the Rams would win the Super Bowl a few months later.

I'm guessing the Vikings had to be the odds on favorite after their record setting 1998 offensive campaign. The Packers were also always going to be a threat with the Gunslinger Brett Favre under center. Pretty sure everybody outside of Georgia knew the Falcons were a fluke. They weren't going to catch anybody off guard in 1999.

AFC is tougher. Broncos were bound to take a step back after the retirement of 5 time Super Bowl QB, the GOAT, Saint John of Denver, who went out like a King with back to back Super Bowl championships. Weren't the Jets 12-4 in '98? If so, they'd have been a trendy pick what with Coach Parcells and Vinnie looking like a former #1 overall pick by coming off one of his two best seasons. Drawing a blank on the late 90s Chiefs. Guessing they had Bono as QB? Or was this still the Grbac Era?

Aug 1, 2021 21:24:26 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I always remember my moms reaction when she first heard it on TV, “Do they even have any oil in Tennessee?!”😂

This was commonly heard in Maryland as well. Likely said it a few times myself.

Whoops. I missed Neo Zeed 's latest post while typing out my last one. That's what I get for taking so long.

Just found a neat 1999 NFL preview from ESPN www.espn.com/nfl/preview99/index.html

Here are their preseason Power Rankings, how the team did in 1999, and my commentary....

10. Bills: 11-5. Wild Card. Lost WC game to Titans in what I think was the Music City Miracle. I thought all this happened a year or two earlier.
9. Seahawks: 9-7. AFC West Champions. Lost in Wild Card round to Dolphins. I didn't remember them getting good again for like 3 more years.
8. 49ers: 4-12. Last place in NFC West. I always forget about the Jeff Garcia Era where they got good again for a minute. 4-12 is more like it.
7. Packers: 8-8. Missed playoffs. Bit of a shocker as I remember the Favre Era Packers being a perennial playoff team.
6. Dolphins: 9-7. Wild Card. Beat Seahawks in WC round. Then got blown out by the Jags. The J. Johnson Era Dolphins were forgettable and boring.
5. Falcons: 5-11. The universe righted itself after the Football Gods went a little crazy in '98.
4. Broncos: 6-10. No Elway = No Wins. Sad.
3. Jets: 8-8. Missed playoffs. Making them the 2nd biggest fluke of '98 behind only the Falcons.
2. Vikings: 10-6. Wild Card. Beat Cowboys before losing to the Rams. 
1. JAGS!: 14-2. Best record in NFL. AFC Central(!) Champs. Beat Dolphins before losing to Titans. Jags actually being good is another thing I often forget.

12. Titans- 13-3. AFC Champs. Lost to Rams in Super Bowl.
25. Rams: 13-3. NFC West & Super Bowl Champions.

Oh NICE!!

Awesome find Bake you’re the man💕

1. Jacksonville Jaguars (11-5)
Explosive offense is Taylor-made for success, and new coordinator Capers should help the defense Dom-inate. But Mark Brunell (left) must stay healthy for the Jags to reach Atlanta in late January.

2. Vikings (15-1) For the Vikes, trying to block out the events of Jan. 17 is like trying to forget "The Blair Witch Project."

3. Jets (12-4) Jets fans now holding round-the-clock vigil, praying for health of Vinny Testaverde.

4. Broncos (14-2) No, Shanahan didn't push the panic button too early. This machine needs a little Griese.

5. Falcons (14-2) If they quit dancing the "Dirty Bird," we'll stop with the Eugene Robinson jokes.

6. Dolphins (10-6) No truth to the rumor Jimmy Johnson will field roster of 53 running backs.

7. Packers (11-5) Brett Favre has joined that round-the-clock vigil, praying for health of his receivers.

8. 49ers (12-4) The running game looks suspect, but then again so does most of the NFC West.

9. Seahawks (8-8) Holmgren changing all this team's bad habits -- like missing the playoffs every year since 1988.

10. Bills (10-6) Despite his magical '98 season, Doug Flutie can't stop looking back over his shoulder.

11. Bucs (8-8) This is the year that will determine if Trent Dilfer can be the quarterback Mel Kiper Jr. thought he would.

12. Titans (8-8) New name, new uniforms, new stadium. Make the playoffs or they'll add new coach to that list.

13. Cowboys (10-6) Somebody's gotta win the NFC East. Don't they? Right? Anyone?

14. Raiders (8-8) Can someone please explain why a .500 team was given the NFL's toughest schedule?

15. Giants (8-8) Commission of scientists still investigating their offensive explosion during preseason.

16. Cardinals (9-7) Yes, we remember what they did in the playoffs. But have you seen their offseason moves and '99 schedule?

17. Patriots (9-7) Pete Carroll still haunted by recurring nightmare where he's trapped in belly of giant Tuna.

18. Steelers (7-9) It's hard to believe this team was one play away from the Super Bowl just 20 months ago.

19. Chiefs (7-9) While we're talking about dramatic falls, K.C.'s drop was huge. And it might get worse before it gets better.

20. Redskins (6-10) No matter how good they look in preseason, we're not falling into the trap of ranking them high again.

21. Colts (3-13) Good news: they might be the NFL's most improved team. Bad news: they still play in the NFL's toughest division.

22. Ravens (6-10) Scott Mitchell? Tony Banks? Brian Billick trying to drive his first car on retreads.

23. Saints (6-10) Next year, Ditka will want to trade all the rest of his picks for a quarterback.

24. Chargers (5-11) Still working to convince Ryan Leaf that Siberia is the ideal site for rehab.

25. Rams (4-12) If Trent Green had not gotten hurt, they'd probably be five spots higher.

26. Lions (5-11) Bobby Ross still expecting Barry Sanders to report any day now.

27. Browns (NR) They've got more talent than a typical expansion team, and the NFL's most rabid fan base.

28. Bears (4-12) Explain to us again why they released Erik Kramer.

29. Panthers (4-12) George Seifert's record winning percentage will come down in a hurry.

30. Bengals (3-13) Continuing to solidify their status as the worst-run organization in the NFL.

31. Eagles (3-13) And you thought Eagles fans were booing loudly on draft day

^Got a kick out of those write ups. They’re actually similar in tone to my guy, the aforementioned Zander Hollander.

Might as well start off with some of the things that happened prior to the season. The big one for me is that the city of Houston beat out LA for the NFL’s 32nd franchise. There’s a big backstory behind how we got it, supposedly the LA ownership was a huge mess and Bob McNair put some major money down for Houston that the NFL couldn’t resist. One story I always heard was that Titans owner Bud Adams put a stipulation when it came time to vote on Houston, the only way he would vote in favor of it was that the city of Houston wasn’t allowed to use the Oilers name or colors. Honestly at that time I don’t think Houston wanted the Oilers name or colors, but absence makes the heart grow fonder and people have a ton of nostalgia for the Oilers now.

The thing is Houston wasn’t allowed to have the Oilers back but Bud Adams didn’t want it either, when they repackaged themselves as the Titans in 99 they retired the Oilers name, something that had never been done before. The Titans didn’t want any part of the Oilers lineage and the state of Tennessee didn’t want it at the time either. This is why it trips me out when they wear Oiler throwbacks or you see Titans fans wearing Oilers gear, nobody in Tennessee was going to those Tennessee Oilers games in 97-98, they played to empty stadiums.

Then there is Cleveland, who got their team back in 1999. I found the list of players available to them in their expansion draft here www.nfl.info/nflmedia/news/1999news/ClevelandExpDraft11599.htm

Very interesting. On that list is quarterback Kurt Warner. Also this is the year the Saints traded their entire draft for Ricky Williams. I found out that they first offered this to the Browns but GM at the time Dwight Clark turned it down for Tim Couch. Whoops 😬

So how does the future change of Cleveland takes Kurt Warner in the expansion draft and then takes all of New Orleans draft picks?

Aug 2, 2021 12:56:34 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Very interesting. On that list is quarterback Kurt Warner. Also this is the year the Saints traded their entire draft for Ricky Williams. I found out that they first offered this to the Browns but GM at the time Dwight Clark turned it down for Tim Couch. Whoops 😬

So how does the future change of Cleveland takes Kurt Warner in the expansion draft and then takes all of New Orleans draft picks?

The AFC North would have been the strongest division in football for the next decade. 

A few months ago I found the same list for the Texans 2002 Expansion draft and I'd be embarrassed to admit how much time I spent looking into the players on that draft. I haven't had much time to dig into these names on the Browns 1999 expansion draft but after a quick glance it looks pretty similar. I have to say I think the whole expansion draft system that the NFL went with for the Browns and Texans was extremely flawed. Case in point you can look at how neither the Browns nor Texans have really contributed anything to the overall lore of NFL history for the past 20-22 years since they joined the league. Neither team has really made any type of overall impact on the league, neither has made any type of threat at even making it to a conference Championship game in 2 decades now. And you can trace that back to their expansion drafts, which doomed both teams from the start.

The big thing about the Browns and Texans expansion drafts was that when the team drafted a player they also drafted their contract. So every team was forced to list 5 players for the draft and they all tried to strategically use this to dump off overpaid veterans that they didn't want to pay. With the Texans expansion draft in 2002 you had maybe 3 guys that were available that would have been impact players to build a team around, the rest were either A= big name guys who were way too old to play anymore and ended up retiring without even playing a down in 2002, or B= guys who never started a game and would struggle to even make a roster anywhere in the league.

Looking at the Browns expansion draft some quick notes I noticed:

The big one is that the Rams made Kurt Warner available. This is crazy. I believe he had only thrown 4 passes in the NFL at this point but man it's wild how close NFL history could have been completely rewritten with one little move here.

The big names I notice, first off is Reggie White. I'm still not sure how this worked, I know with the Texans expansion draft a few years later Bruce Matthews was available but they didn't take him and he ended up retiring before the 2002 season. So I'm wondering if Houston did take him would Bruce have played another year? Same here with Reggie White, but I do know that Reggie's retirement was short lived he came back in 2000 to play for the Carolina Panthers. He wasn't the monster that he was in his prime in 2000 but he did start all 16 games.

Similar to the Texans expansion draft there are a bunch of quality names there but all of them were WAAAAAY past their prime and most of them didn't even play again after this draft took place(or if they did it was only a few games). Moose Johnston was there, the fullback from Dallas. They passed on him and he played one more season for Dallas in 1999 but he only played in 1 more game. Other names like Cris Dishman, Kevin Glover, Will Wolford, Aundray Bruce, Desmond Howard, etc. These guys were all done.

Larry Izzo was available from Miami, they passed on him and he went on to play for 10 years(3 time Pro Bowler) and was a part of the Patriots team that won 3 Super Bowls from 2001 to 2004.

Just to give you an idea of the kind of garbage that teams got away with dumping on the 1999/2002 Expansion Drafts, the Saints put Heath Shuler as one of their 5 players. Shuler threw for 2 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in his 9 starts for New Orleans in 1997 and wasn't even in the league in 1998.

One interesting name that caught my eye was defensive lineman Marcus "The Darkness" Jones from Tampa. They passed on him and he ended up having some decent years in 99 and 2000, he had 7 sacks in 1999 for Tampa and 13 sacks in 2000. Whats interesting is that Marcus Jones was also made available again in the Texans 2002 Expansion Draft but he retired after the 2001 season. He went on to get into MMA and fought on the UFC Ultimate Fighter, he fought and beat a guy that I knew on the show Mike Wessel from Arkansas.

The Also-Rans....

Lets take a closer look at the dregs of the NFL in the 1999 NFL season. Quite a few of these teams that finished at or near the bottom of the league were top dogs in 1998. Since the expansion Cleveland Browns finished with the league's worst record at 2-14 might as well begin with them.

Lets start off with their head coach Chris Palmer. I know this name because he would go on to be the Houston Texans offensive coordinator for their first few seasons. I got to wonder what exactly this dude ever did to become a head coach in the NFL or even an offensive coordinator. His resume reminds me of Bill O'Brien actually. He came up as a positions coach in college, then he was a Wide Receiver/QB coach for Donald Trump's New Jersey Generals in the USFL in 1984-1985. Then he had a 4 year stint as a head coach in college before landing the job as receivers coach for the Houston Oilers Run N' Shoot offense under Jack Pardee from 90-92. Bill Parcells hired him on as a receivers coach and QB coach for the Patriots from 1993 to their AFC Championship season 1996. This got him the offensive coordinator for Tom Coughlin's Jaguars in 1997-1998. Their offense finished 3rd in 1997 and 8th in 1998.

What stands out to me is that he was still coaching Jacksonville's offense in 1998. Typically I always thought that when there is an expansion team the NFL gives that team a "Free Season" the year before they launch. I know the Texans had a free season in 2001 for Dom Capers to put together a coaching staff and a scout team to get ready for that next year's offseason/draft etc. Did they not do this for the 1999 Browns?

Chris Palmer's offense with the Browns finished dead last in the NFL in 1999 and 2000 and he was fired after just 2 years in Cleveland following the 2000 season. At that point he joined Dom Capers staff with the expansion Texans in 2001-2002 and their offense was just atrocious during his time here from 2002 to when he was fired in the middle of the 2005 season. Definitely a big part of his offense failing was the lack of talent on 2 expansion teams but I got to believe looking at his resume the guy was never qualified for a head coaching or offensive coordinator job. Looking at what he's done after his time in Houston and Cleveland certainly backs up this theory.

I got to wonder who else they had as an option to be the Browns first head coach? Jon Gruden was on the market in 1998, hindsight 20/20 he was a better choice but looking at his resume I could see why they went with Palmer for his success as an OC in Jacksonville. I wonder if they ever thought about bringing back Marty Schottenhiemer? Or Bill Belichick? You could probably spin off an entire fan fiction project off of this thread and rebook the Browns where they get Jon Gruden and Kurt Warner in 1999 and take the Ricky Williams trade and take guys like Javon Kearse and Joey Porter. This team was botched right from the start, even moreso than the Texans were 3 years later. But yet, this team still finished 9-7 three years later and made the playoffs and had Pittsburgh on the ropes in that AFC Wild Card playoff game in Pittsburgh, they were winning 24-7 before ultimately losing by a field goal 36-33. They wouldn't make the playoffs again until last year if I'm not mistaken, but the Texans had to wait a decade before they made the playoffs at all. So go figure.

Taking a look at the Browns first roster, Tim Couch didn't play that badly his rookie year. He went 2-12 as a starter for 2,447 yards, 15 touchdowns 13 interceptions with a rating of 73.2. I actually don't think Couch was nearly as bad as he was made out to be. The Browns fans chewed him up and spit him out(of the entire NFL) after 5 years but he wasn't really bad, he was just an average quarterback that played on an expansion team with no real talent on offense. He certainly didn't have much around him this first year, they had no running game at all and 2 rookies starting at receiver. He did have veteran Lomas Brown blocking for his blindside at left tackle, Brown was a pro bowler with the Lions and had a few solid seasons with Arizona before being picked up by Cleveland. He missed 6 games due to injury and they let him go to New York to play for the Giants in 2000 where he was a full time starter on the NFC Championship winning team that year(he also was on the Tampa roster that won Super Bowl XXXVII in 2002 but I don't think he started any games that year).

Some other notables on this expansion Browns roster, running back Rashaan Salaam, a first round pick by the Chicago Bears in 1995. He was the Heisman Trophy winner in 1994(ran for 2,055 rushing yards and 24 touchdowns for Colorado) and had a lot of hype coming into the NFL. He ran for over 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns his rookie year in Chicago but he fumbled a lot, stayed injured, and even failed some drug tests for smoking the herb. Chicago tried to trade him to Miami in 1998 but he failed a physical and they had to veto the trade. He only played in 2 games for the Browns in 1999 and only had 1 carry for 2 yards. I see that he bounced around the NFL practice squads in 1999 for the Raiders and Packers but not sure if that was before or after his stint with Cleveland. He played a little in the XFL season in 2001 but got injured. He tried to make a comeback in 2002 and was picked up by San Francisco but got cut in training camp. From there he went to the CFL for a season. I seen on his Wiki that he committed suicide in 2016. Sad stuff.

Another Heisman Trophy winner they had on the roster was 1990 winner Ty Detmer, who started 2 games at quarterback. He started their season opener in the 43-0 loss to Pittsburgh, he went 6 of 13 for 52 yards and an interception.

The big 300+ defensive tackle Jerry Ball, former Pro Bowl/All Pro from the Lions was on the Browns roster for the first 3 games but he ended up in Minnesota, not sure if it was a trade or what.

Looking closer at the Browns game by game performance in 1999, they appear on paper to be one of the worst teams in NFL history. They had 6 games where they were held to single digit points. They gave up 437 points on defense and ranked dead last in the NFL in offense. They got off to an 0-7 start.

One of the most interesting games of the 1999 season happened on Halloween 1999, it was a showdown between the 2 most hyped picks in that year's draft, the #1 pick Tim Couch for the Browns and the Saints running back Ricky Williams who they traded all their draft picks for(the Browns turned down this trade to take Couch). Looking at the play by play this looked like a great game even though these were the 2 worst teams in the NFL that year(New Orleans was 1-5, Cleveland was 0-7 going in). Tim Couch's second touchdown pass of the game put the Browns up 14-10 in the 3rd quarter. The Browns stuffed Ricky Williams for a goal line stand to hold New Orleans to a field goal and keep the lead at 14-13 at the end of the third quarter. Ricky Williams lost 2 fumbles on back to back drives on the Saints next 2 possessions in the fourth quarter. New Orleans' defense shuts Cleveland down and they rebound by driving down for the go ahead field goal to take a 16-14 lead with :26 left in the game. Then Tim Couch wins it with a 56 yard touchdown pass with 2 seconds left, giving Cleveland their first victory 21-16. Couch went 11 of 19 for 193 yards and 3 touchdown passes for a 132.2 rating. Ricky Williams ran the ball 40 times for 179 yards.

Two weeks later the Browns got revenge for their loss to Pittsburgh in their home opener by taking them down 16-15 in Pittsburgh. After that they finished the year on a 6 game losing streak to finish 2-14. For as bad as they were they did play one of the toughest schedules in the NFL that year, they had 2 games each against Tennessee and Jacksonville(the 2 best teams in the AFC), as well as 2 games against the Baltimore Ravens, who had one of the best defenses in the NFL that year. They also played the 13-3 Colts in their season finale, and they were destroyed 34-3 in St. Louis by the Super Bowl Champ Rams in week 7. 

Browns @ Saints Halloween '99
Highlights

The division with the biggest turnover from 1998 to 1999 was the NFC West. The 2 best teams in the division from 1998, Atlanta and San Francisco, finished in the bottom while 1998's worst teams(St. Louis and Carolina) finished at the top. So the entire division turned over like a Texas lake in the Spring, but the one constant was the New Orleans Saints, who stayed terrible in Mike Ditka's final year as head coach in 1999.

The 1999 New Orleans Saints finished with the 2nd worst record in the NFL in 1999 with a 3-13 finish. The only team with a worst record was the expansion Cleveland Browns and since Cleveland took them down on Halloween(and had a considerably tougher schedule) I think you could build a strong case that this was the worst team in the NFL in 1999. These were dark times for the Saints franchise. I remember moving to Northeast Texas in 1995 and we lived where the only TV channels you could pick up with an antenna were from Shreveport Louisiana and I used to hate getting all psyched for football on Sunday morning, getting all amped up through the pregame shows, then the game we were stuck with was always the Saints. The Superdome was dark and dreary and quiet during this era, and the teams were usually just drab to watch. And it's something odd to me how people just jump on bandwagon teams here in East Texas, like back in the late 90's you NEVER seen anyone wearing any Saints gear or saying they were fans. After they won the Super Bowl its like Saints mania, and after living here for a while it's interesting seeing people sway from team to team around here, like in 1999-2000 everybody here was all about the Titans, that shifted to the Cowboys, the Saints, now you see everybody on the Chiefs bandwagon(Mahomes was from this area). 

So the Jim Mora era came to an end in 1996 and they brought in the legendary Bears head coach Mike Ditka out of retirement to take over in 1997. Ditka was a dinosaur at this point, his head coaching experience goes back to Tom Landry's Dallas Cowboys teams of the 1970's. I think you could make a strong case that Ditka rode Buddy Ryan's coat tails to the Super Bowl season in 1985 and that he also played a big part in why the Chicago Bears never repeated as Champs in the 80's. After back to back 6-10 finishes in 1997 and 1998 Ditka shocks the world by trading the Saints entire 1999 draft and their top picks in the 2000 draft to move up from 12th to 5th to take Texas Heisman Trophy runner Ricky Williams. This was just an awful trade in hindsight, even though I've always been a fan of Ricky Williams no way he was worth all those picks. Ditka mortgaged the Saints future to try to save his job, he could have taken some solid players in that draft with those picks.

I think Ditka hoped that Ricky Williams would be the second coming of Earl Campbell, who dominated the NFL his first 3 years after winning the Heisman at Texas. Instead, Ricky Williams struggled in his rookie year, he missed 4 games and only ran for 884 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Saints started the season off playing with some heart but eventually they just lost their will. They won their opener 19-10 against the Panthers before losing 4 consecutive games that all came down to the wire, those losses seemingly cut the heart right out of this team and they laid down the rest of the way.

It started in week 2 against the 49ers they led 21-14 going into the 4th quarter until a Steve Young touchdown pass tied it up at 21-21. The 49ers won it with a walk off pick six in the final minute of the game to take the victory 28-21.

The next week in Chicago they led the Bears 10-0 until the final 1:48 of the game. Bears QB Shane Matthews threw a touchdown pass to cut the lead to 10-7, then won it with 7 seconds left in the game with a 7 yard touchdown pass to win it 14-10.

Then in their 3rd game at home against the defending NFC Champ Atlanta Falcons they led 17-14 going into the 4th quarter. Former Saints legend kicker Morten Anderson killed them with 2 field goals in the 4th quarter to win it for Atlanta 20-17, dropping New Orleans to a 1-3 record.

The straw that broke the camel's back must have been the next week's home loss to the 4-1 Titans. New Orleans was leading 13-7 until Tennessee fought back in the fourth quarter to take a 17-13 lead with 2:58 left to play. The Saints got the ball back with decent field position and plenty of time to go for the win but a pick six on their first play of their next possession sealed the Titans win, dropping the Saints to 1-4.

After the loss to the Titans I think Ditka just lost that team and the wheels fell off. They got demolished by the Giants 31-3 the next week for their 5th loss. Then after that was when they were defeated by the expansion Browns with the last minute touchdown pass by Tim Couch. In that game Ricky Williams lost some fumbles and got stuffed at the goal line and I think it was clear then that the trade was a terrible idea. From there it was just one humiliating loss after another. They did defeat the 49ers 24-6 in week but this was a 49ers team that was having some major issues at quarterback since losing Steve Young earlier that year, they had Steve Stenstrom starting at this point. They suffered 5 straight blowout losses after that win over San Fran before they took down the playoff bound Dallas Cowboys 31-24 in their home finale in what has to be their highlight of the 1999 season.

The win over the Cowboys was the breakout of a young rookie Jake Delhomme, who was 3rd-4th on the depth chart behind Billy Joe Hobert, Billy Joe Tolliver, and Danny Wuerffel that whole season. Delhomme threw for 278 passing yards and 2 touchdowns along with a rushing touchdown that tied the game up at 24-24 in the fourth quarter. The Saints won it on a 58 yard fumble recovery for a touchdown to win their 3rd game of the year 31-24. The next week they finished the season with a blowout loss to the Panthers in Carolina.

Really looking at this season it's remarkable that Mike Ditka finished the year without getting fired. It seems like the loss to Cleveland would have gotten any other coach fired at that point with how their season was shaping up.

Some interesting roster notes, the Saints didn't have much offensive firepower other than rookie Ricky Williams. They were thin on Receivers and had 2 quarterbacks named Billy Joe. They did have a decent looking offensive line with the star of the team being Willie Roaf, plus Kyle Turley and then center Jerry Fontenot, who played for Ditka with the Bears from 1989 to 1992.

From First to Worst

The Super Bowl teams from 1998 fell pretty hard in 1999. The Denver Broncos finished 6-10 at last place in the AFC West. Looking at the Denver Broncos in 1999 it’s one of those teams that makes me appreciate the 1990-1993 Buffalo Bills run. Something I didn’t realize about that teams run was something that was said in the Four Falls Of Buffalo, how much of a toll it took on that team by the second half of their 4th Super Bowl that team was just out of gas after all those big regular season games, all the playoff games, all the AFC Championship Games, then the 4 Super Bowls, there was just nothing left after the first half of Super Bowl XXVIII(where they were leading Dallas). So just to think about what it was like for Denver and how dominant they were from 1996 to their Super Bowl run in 97(as a Wild Card team) and their reign on top in 98, by 1999 that team had just run out of whatever they had.

The big deal for the defending back to back Champs was the retirement of Elway. Got to wonder how much better this team would have fared if he stuck around to go for the Threepeat?

So they lose Elway in the off-season then they also lose Terrell Davis to what was eventually a career ending knee injury after 4 games. Looking back at it they really ran Davis into the ground, he ran the ball almost 400 times in his 1998 season(where he rushed for 2,008 yards and 21 touchdowns). So even in his 4 starts Davis didn’t do much for the Broncos and appeared to be shot. The Broncos got off to a 0-4 start before losing TD.

Things went from bad to worse in their 5th game when they lost Shannon Sharpe for the year to an injury. I watched the 99 Broncos team yearbook and on there it said they lost 8 starters that year to injuries. After Davis went down Olandis Gary ran for 1,159 yards in 12 games. I remember this ended up becoming a theme that the Broncos patented “zone blocking” rushing system was so good that you could plug any running back in and he would put up monster numbers. First it was Olandis Gary in 1999, then Mike Anderson ran for 1,400+ in 2000, then Clinton Portis torched the league for 1,500+ in 2002, and after they traded Portis in 2004 they had Reuben Droughns run for over 1,000 that year. This was a system I got to see a lot when Broncos offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak brought it to the Houston Texans in 2006 when he took over. Here we got to see Steve Slaton put up big numbers as a rookie in 2008 then undrafted Arian Foster led the NFL rushing in that system in 2010(and would end up having nearly identical career trajectory as Terrell Davis in Denver).

So Denver still had the 11th ranked defense but they ride Brian Griese on offense to a 6-10 finish, which considering the injuries/retirements and the 0-4 start that was not that bad. They finished on a 6-6 run and most of those 6 losses were very close games. The loss to New England they came back from a 24-13 deficit and had a chance to win it in the end but they missed a 59 yard field goal attempt in the end to lose it 24-23. The next week they lost 23-20 on a last second field goal by Gary Anderson. They lost to the Seahawks by a field goal, then lost 16-10 to Kansas City due to an 80 yard punt return for a touchdown in the final minutes of the game.

Perhaps their toughest game came in week 14 against the 11-1 Jaguars on the road in Jacksonville. Denver hung with them and tied it up at 24-24 in the final 2 minutes but the Jags would end up taking it 27-24 on a field goal as time expired. So this team was still competitive in 1999 even though they finished 6-10, they were just a few plays away from being a 10-6 or even 11-5 team back in the playoffs.

Broncos at Jaguars 1999 highlights

Headed back to the NFC West and staying in the theme of "First to Worst" lets take a look at the Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers of 1999.

The Atlanta Falcons were coming off of a blowout loss to the Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII in January of 1999. There are a lot of questions to be raised about their amazing 1998 season. Like, what happened? Why did this team have such an amazing one-off season out of nowhere? They had the 2 Legit 2 Quit season in 1991 where they won a playoff game, then the rest of Jerry Glanville's years they were like a laughing stock of the NFL with the worst defense in the league in 92-93. June Jones takes over in 1994, they lose Deion to the 49ers, and they bring in Jeff George at quarterback. After a 7-9 finish in 94 they actually put together a great team for the 1995 season, everything clicks and they roll into the playoffs with a 9-7 record(they lose in the Frozen Tundra to Favre in the Wild Card). Then the wheels fall off this franchise the very next year, 1996 Jeff George clashes with June Jones and the team falls apart at the seams to finish 3-13. This leads to June Jones being fired and they bring in former Broncos/Giants head coach Dan Reeves for 1997.

I guess you should have seen the Falcons 98 success coming because in 1997 they quietly became a really good team down the stretch. After a 1-7 start they finished on a 6-2 run including a 5 game win streak. So in 1998 this carries over, after a 5-2 start they rattle off 9 consecutive wins to steal the division away from the 49ers and finish with a 14-2 record. In the playoffs they beat the 49ers in the divisional round before taking down the 15-1 Vikings in the NFC Championship Game. Then they run into a juggernaut in Super Bowl XXXIII and lose to Elway's Broncos 34-19. The star of the 98 Falcons "Dirty Bird" team was runner Jamal Anderson, who ran the ball 410 times for 1,846 yards and 14 touchdowns. Anderson was similar to his Super Bowl counterpart Terrell Davis in that his team rode him too hard that year and he was shot going into 1999 because of it. NFL running backs are like vehicles, they only have so many miles on them, if you run them into the ground and overwork them they are not going to run the same.

So much like Denver, the lynchpin of Atlanta's offense Jamal Anderson goes down with what turns out to be a career ending knee injury in week 2. Anderson made a comeback in 2000 and ran for over 1,000 yards but he got hurt again in 2001 and was out of the NFL after that. To make matters worse for the 1999 Falcons, their starting quarterback Chris Chandler stayed hurt for most of the year. They ended up relying on backups Tony Graziani and Danny Kannell.

So Atlanta's Super Bowl hangover hits them pretty hard. After losing Jamal Anderson in their second game they play the St. Louis Rams in game 3 and this was the game where the torch was passed to the new kings of the NFC West. The Rams scored at will in each of their first 4 possessions to take a 28-0 lead into the half in what was really St. Louis coming out party for the 1999 run. After putting together scoring drives of 70 and 78 yards on their first possessions to take a quick 14-0 lead Chris Chandler threw an interception on the very first play of Atlanta's next possession. The very next play Kurt Warner hit Isaac Bruce for a 46 yard touchdown pass to go up 21-0. The loss sent Atlanta to 0-3.

The Falcons finished 5-11 but man they had a really tough schedule. They played the Rams twice, the Jaguars, the Titans, as well as playoff teams in Minnesota, Dallas, and Tampa, not to mention 2 games against a tough Panthers team and a game against one of the best defenses in the NFL in Baltimore. So with that schedule and all the injuries you got to give Reeves a bit of a pass for this collapse. Their biggest win was on Halloween where they beat the Panthers 27-20 in Atlanta. They sacked Panthers QB Steve Beuerlien 6 times and intercepted him 3 times in that game. Other than that they swept the sorry ass Saints in 1999(including the Morten Anderson game where he killed them in his old stadium in the Superdome with a pair of 4th quarter FG's) and those were their only 3 wins in their first 14 games. They got off to a 3-11 start but they finished strong with a pair of home wins in their last 2 games, a dominant win over the Cardinals and a shootout victory over the next team I want to cover, their NFC West rivals the 49ers....

Unlike the sharp rise and fall of the Atlanta Falcons from 1998 to 1999 the 49ers is one you should have really seen coming. It was a bit more gradual. 1999 was really the end of an era for the 49ers in so many ways. 1999 was their first losing season since 1980(unless you count the 1982 strike season, which you shouldn't). This was a real true dynasty/powerhouse that won 4 Super Bowls in the 80's but still stayed on top of the NFC West all through the 90's, winning the division title 6 times in 9 years from 1990 to 1998. Their decline was gradual ever since they won the Super Bowl in 1994, the very next year they were upset at home by Bret Favre's Green Bay Packers in the playoffs. The next year 1996 their grip on the NFC West started slipping when the 2nd year Carolina Panthers stole the division. After getting back on top in 1997 they lost it again to Atlanta in 1998. Head coach George Seifert moved on in 1996 and they hired Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach Steve Mariucci in 1997.

Its interesting to look at the head coaches in the NFC West division in 1999. You had Mariucci as the youngest in San Francisco, then you had the old dinosaurs in Dick Vermiel in St. Louis, Mike Ditka in New Orleans, Dan Reeves in Atlanta, and former 49ers head coach George Seifert coming out of retirement to take on the Panthers starting in 99. You had 9 Super Bowl appearances between those 4 head coaches so Mariucci had his work cut out for him coaching in this division in 1999.

So with the 49ers in 1999 you had another team that was snake bit by another major injury that killed their season. This one was a career ending concussion suffered by quarterback Steve Young in their 3rd game against the Cardinals. The 49ers held on to beat the Cardinals without Young and went on to win their next game with Jeff Garcia, defeating the eventual AFC Champ Titans 24-22 in a close game that came down to a failed 2 point conversion attempt in the final minutes. Steve Young's numbers aren't remarkable in his 3 games he played in 1999, he did lead a 4th quarter comeback win over the Saints in week 2. But Young went 45 of 84 for 53.6% with 446 yards, 3 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Even though his numbers are unremarkable you got to wonder how their season would have changed and what impact this team would have had on the league had Young stayed healthy in 1999.



After Jeff Garcia's win over the Titans in week 4 the 49ers offense went into crisis mode and they lost 8 consecutive games. At one point the 49ers had to rely on 3rd string QB Steve Stenstrom, who went 0-3 as a starter with 0 touchdowns and 4 interceptions on the year. Jeff Garcia played really well in the win over the Titans, going 21 of 33 for 243 yards and 2 touchdown passes, but he really struggled in his next 4 starts, throwing only 1 touchdown and 5 interceptions. Garcia rebounded nicely in the last 5 games of the season, completing 66% of his passes for 1,441 yards with 8 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.

For their running game the 49ers had the infamous Lawrence Phillips, who missed the block on the hit that ended Steve Young's career(Phillips later had a 68 yard touchdown run in the final minutes of that same game). If you've never heard of Phillips story you should look it up or watch the HBO documentary it's sad stuff, but he was on this 99 San Fran team for 8 games and his missed block had a big impact on the entire NFL season that year. The real rusher for this 49ers team was Charlie Garner, who ran for 1,229 yards in 1999.

Jerry Rice was still the top dog in San Francisco in 1999 but he appeared to be on the decline. He had only 67 receptions for 830 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns despite starting all 16 games that year. That next season in 2000 they de-emphasized Rice in their offense and focused on the young Terrell Owens as the go-to guy, which led to Rice leaving the 49ers to go to Oakland for a few solid seasons with the Raiders.

The 49ers had the 2nd worst defense in the NFL in 1999, and it's odd looking at the talent they had that they were THAT bad. They had Bryant Young and Junior Bryant on the interior defensive line(Bryant Young won NFL Comeback Player of the Year with 11 sacks), plus they still had Ken Norton Jr. at linebacker and Tim Mcdonald at safety. One interesting roster note about the 49ers defense was that they had the legendary Charles Haley on the roster. Haley played for the 49ers from 1986 to 1991, winning 2 Super Bowls with them in 88-89. He left for the Dallas Cowboys and had a major impact on their 3 Super Bowl wins in 92-93 and 1995. Haley retired following the 1996 season with Dallas and did not play in 1997 or 1998 regular season. The 49ers brought Haley out of retirement for the 1998 NFC Wild Card game against the Packers. I guess they wanted to pull out all stops after Green Bay eliminated them 3 straight years from the playoffs(95-96-97) so they brought Haley back for that game. But they kept him on the roster for the 1999 season. Haley had 2 sacks in the win over Arizona and another sack in their win over Atlanta in week 13.

So after a 3-1 start to the 1999 season the 49ers collapse and lose 8 straight. They get revenge on Atlanta with a win over them in week 13 but going into that game both teams were 3-9. They end up losing out from there to finish 4-12. The final game of the season the Falcons and 49ers squared off in what looks like the best game of either team's season. The two top dogs from the 1998 NFC West finished in the cellar of the division in 1999 but they finished the season with a great game against each other. Both teams went in at 4-11. The Falcons took a 24-7 lead early in the 3rd quarter and went up 31-7 after Chris Chandler's 3rd touchdown pass. Jeff Garcia fought hard to bring San Francisco back, leading them on a 70 yard drive for a score and 2 point conversion to cut the deficit to 31-15 going into the 4th quarter. Morten Anderson hit a field goal to extend Atlanta's lead to 34-15 but Garcia led San Fran on drives of 70 and 85 yards late in the 4th quarter to cut their lead to 34-29. By the time San Fran got the ball back there was only 20 seconds left, Garcia was able to move San Fran to mid field to go for a game winning shot at the end zone but it fell incomplete. Garcia went 26 of 34 for 373 yards and 2 touchdowns, Jerry Rice had 6 catches for 143 yards. Chris Chandler of Atlanta threw for 306 yards and 3 touchdown passes.

49ers at Falcons Week 17 1999 highlights

Wrapping up our look at the also-rans, let’s take a look first at the ultimate losers of the 1990’s the Cincinnati Bengals, who capped off a decade of destitute with one of their worst seasons. I feel like the Bengals ineptitude in the 90’s decade deserves a closer look. They were the top team in the NFL in 1988 when they won the AFC Championship. They had the 49ers on the ropes in Super Bowl XXIII before Montana killed them on the final drive. The next year Boomer Esiason puts up numbers that were just as good if not better than his 1988 MVP season, they have the 4th ranked offense and the 7th ranked defense, they go 5-1 in their division but somehow finish 8-8 and miss the playoffs.

1990 they finish 9-7 and beat the Oilers in the Wild Card before falling to the Raiders in Bo Jackson’s last game. Not a bad start to the decade right?

1991 was when things started to fall apart. Owner Paul Brown died in August and his son Mike Brown took over, dooming the franchise for the next 30 years. They had the worst defense in the NFL and got off to an 0-8 start. They eventually benched Boomer to go with the young Erik Wilhelm. They finish 3-13 and the tone is set for the rest of the decade right here. They fire Sam Wyche and replace him with Don Shula’s son David Shula, who might have been one of the worst head coaches ever.

1992 they draft David Klingler in the first round and spend years grooming him to be the next Boomer Esiason and he turns out to be a massive waste. They start off the season 2-0 but eventually fold and finish 5-11. Boomer goes 4-7 as a starter before passing the torch to Klingler.

1993 they use their 5th overall pick to take defensive end John Copeland, who plays with them until 2000 but never makes any impact on their defense. They have one of their worst seasons in 93 and get off to a 0-10 start and finish 3-13, Klingler finishes with a 66 passer rating.

1994 they pass on Marshall Faulk to take Dan Wilkinson with the first pick. They get off to an 0-8 start and the plug is pulled finally on the Klingler experiment after he goes 0-7. They finish 3-13 again.

1995 they draft Ki Jana Carter with the 1st pick and he turns out to be a massive bust that stays injured. They show some promise this season though with quarterback Jeff Blake looking good and a really nice pair of receivers in Carl Pickens and Darnay Scott. They finish 7-9 and look like they could become a contender in the future.

1996 they finally pull the plug on Dave Shula after a 1-6 start. Bruce Coslet their longtime offensive coordinator and mastermind behind their offensive explosion in the 1988 season takes over as interim and they finish winning 7 of their last 9 games to go 8-8. This wins Coslet the head coaching job and the Bengals appear to be one of the young teams to look out for in 1997

1997 whatever hope there was is lost as they come out flat again for a 1-7 start. Jeff Blake collapses and they put in Boomer Esiason, who they brought back that year as a backup, for the last 5 games. Boomer goes 4-1 and plays amazing, they finish 7-9.

Things hit rock bottom again in 1998 as they go 3-13 with Neil O’Donnell and Paul Justin at quarterback. This leads to them taking Akili Smith with the 3rd overall pick in the 1999 draft, and he turns out to be a mammoth bust. They stick with Bruce Coslet in 1999 and they get off to a 1-10 start. The star of the team was runner Corey Dillon who was one of the best running backs in the NFL, a great player that spent his prime years wasted with this shithole franchise. He made the pro bowl in 1999 with 1,200 rushing yards.

They plugged Akili Smith in as the starter after the 0-4 start and he throws 2 touchdowns in their first win of the season over the Browns. Over his next 3 games he looks terrible and throws 0 touchdowns and 4 picks. After the 1-10 start the Bengals had a 3 game win streak including back to back wins where they scored 44 points in both games. The win over San Fran Jeff Blake passed for 334 yards and 4 touchdowns. Then the next week they beat Cleveland again 44-28 with Corey Dillon running for 192 yards and 3 touchdowns. They would lose both of their last 2 games to finish 4-12 to finish the decade as the worst team in the NFL in the 90’s.




It’s crazy and sad to think that the Bengals have still never won a playoff game in the 30 years since Mike Brown took over the team from his father in 1991. They made the playoffs 7 times in that span and lost every game, going 0-7. For me I see so many parallels with the Houston Texans in modern times, I think the Bengals moves in the first few years of the 90’s shaped that team’s future and I feel like the Texans have done the same thing and are headed down the same path. The Texans right now are in an eerily similar spot as the 1992 Bengals were in, looking down the barrel of a long line of long term losing.

Trying to wrap up our examination of the bottom barrel teams of 1999, I figured I would bunch together the Bears, Eagles, Steelers, and Cardinals. These were bad teams in 1999 but they weren’t quite as bad as the previous teams we covered, there was no spectacular collapse from the previous season like Denver, Atlanta, and San Francisco. These weren’t the worst teams that year, they were bad but they weren’t on the same level of bad as New Orleans, Cincinnati, or the expansion Browns. These teams were just kind of… there.

Might as well start with the Bears. You could probably make a whole thread to cover their ineptitude at the Quarterback position after the great Sid Luckman dominated the 1940’s. The lineage of Chicago Bears quarterbacks since Luckman plays out like a curse. Luckman’s successor Johnny Lujack was a star from 1949 to 1951 but he retired abruptly after only 4 years following the 1951 season to take a job as an assistant coach at Notre Dame. The great George Blanda appeared to be the next to take the job going into the 50’s but after a few years as the starter he eventually lost the job to Ed Brown and Zeke Bartkowski before being cut in 1959. The next year Blanda took over for the Houston Oilers in the AFL and led them to the first 2 AFL titles, putting up monster numbers in the 1961 season. They went from Ed Brown to Billy Wade, who started for their Championship 1963 season(which was the product of George Allen’s zone coverage defense which was way ahead of its time).

The late 60’s early 70’s seen the Bears fall into the dregs of the NFL where they wasted away the careers of Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers with subpar quarterbacks like Rudy Bukich, Jack Concannon, and Bobby Douglas. Through the rest of the 70’s into the early 80’s Chicago relied on names like Gary Huff, Bob Avellini, Mike Phipps, and Vince Evans as they wasted away the prime years of another all time great; Walter Payton.

Jim McMahon was the lone bright spot in all of that, he came along in 1982 and helped guide the offense to a victory in Super Bowl XX. McMahon was a perfect fit for that team and he won most of the games he started during his tenure in Chicago, but his career was plagued with injuries for the rest of the decade and they squandered one of the best defenses ever with Mike Tomcszack and a young unpolished Jim Harbaugh. The Jim Harbaugh era faded into the mid-90’s where Erik Kramer had one of the best passing seasons in 1995 that any Bears quarterback had had since Sid Luckman in 1943. Kramer threw for 3,838 yards, 29 touchdowns and 10 interceptions to lead the Bears to a 9-7 record in 1995. The Bears QB curse struck him down after a 1-3 start in 1996 he was lost for the season with an injury.

Kramer’s decline and injury in 96 led to what has to be one of the worst trades I’ve ever heard of that doesn’t get talked about much. In 1997 the Bears traded a 1st round pick for Seahawks draft bust Rick Mirer. The closest modern day comparison for this would be today’s Panthers reclamation project with Sam Darnold. Mirer was awful for Chicago in 97, he never threw a single touchdown pass and had 6 interceptions in going 0-3 before Chicago pulled the plug. The next offseason 1998 Mirer requested a trade and he was gone, Chicago fell to 4-12 that year and coach Dave Wandstedt was fired.

They brought in Dick Jauron for 1999 but lacked a franchise quarterback. Shane Matthews, Cade Mcnown, and Jim Miller all split starting time for the Bears in 1999 and between the 3 of them they threw 22 interceptions. They got off to a 3-5 start but victories over San Diego, Green Bay, and Detroit had them in the hunt for a Wild Card spot at 6-8. They never scored a touchdown in their final 2 games and lost both to finish 6-10.

Nothing really stands out about the 99 Bears except wide receiver Marcus Robinson, who caught 84 passes for 1,400 yards, a pretty remarkable “one hit wonder” season because he never did anything before or after this season.

That QB lineage didn’t get any better from there. Jim Miller took over by 2001 and this went from him to Rex Grossman to Jay Cutler to the abomination that was their 2017 draft day trade to move up and take Mitch Trubisky.

If Houston went all Bengals on this team, we might see the second time fans abandon a team, and move.

When you look at the 1999 Philadelphia Eagles the most interesting thing to me is the coaching staff. This was Andy Reid’s first season as a head coach and on his staff almost all of his assistants went on to become head coaches. Brad Childress and Leslie Frazier coached the Vikings, Steve Spagnuolo coached the Rams and Giants, Pat Shurmur coached the Browns and Giants, John Harbaugh is the Ravens head coach today and won a Super Bowl with them in 2012, Ron Rivera took the Panthers to a Super Bowl in 2015 and is the Washington Football Team coach today, Sean McDermott is the Bills head coach today. The new Houston Texans head coach David Culley was also on this 1999 Eagles staff as a receivers coach.

Then there is Doug Pederson, who was the starting quarterback for the first part of the season. Pederson would end up doing something that Andy Reid could never do when he took the Eagles to a Super Bowl victory as head coach in 2017. Pederson was a career backup, 1999 was really his only shot at being a starter in the NFL. He went 2-7 and threw 7 touchdowns and 9 interceptions before they plugged rookie Donavan Mcnabb in to take over.

Philly would get off to a 3-11 start in 1999 but there was light at the end of the tunnel as Donovan Mcnabb would win their last 2 games to finish strong at 5-11. The very next year Reid had Philly as one of the best teams in the NFC, they would end up making it to 4 straight NFC Championship Games from 2001-2004 but only won it in 04(they lost Super Bowl XXXIX).

Andy would never win a Super Bowl with Mcnabb, he ended up finally getting his ring 20 years later with Pat Mahomes in Kansas City. On that Chiefs staff that won the Super Bowl was Eric Bieniemy, who played his last season as a running back for Andy’s 1999 Eagles has been the Chiefs offensive coordinator for the past 4 years.

When we get to the Steelers and Cardinals we have 2 teams that collapsed in spectacular fashion. With the 1999 Pittsburgh Steelers I feel like we have one of the more underrated single season collapses of the 90's decade. This was a team that made it to the AFC Championship in 1997(where they suffered one of several home playoff losses during Cowher's era). The next year in 98 they got off to a 6-3 start before finishing on a 1-6 run to fall to 7-9. They repeated this in 1999 after getting off to a 5-3 start before going 1-7 in the last 8 games to finish with an abysmal 6-10 record. It's amazing that they would stick with Bill Cowher after not only back to back losing seasons in 98-99 but free-falling collapses in back to back years like that. I know there are some Steelers fans on this board so I'll ask was there any talk back then of firing Cowher?

The Steelers hired Kevin Gilbride as offensive coordinator going into the 1999 season. I know Gilbride very well because of his time with the Oilers and I am not a fan of his. He was coming off of a terrible 2 year stretch as head coach of the Chargers before Pittsburgh hired him in 1999. Pittsburgh's offense finished 17th in 1999 under Gilbride. Kordell Stewart started 11 games at quarterback and went 5-6, throwing for 1,464 yards with 6 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. Jerome Bettis was still rolling in 1999, he started all 16 games and ran the ball 299 times for 1,091 yards and 7 touchdowns. The Steelers were thin on receivers with 23 year old Hines Ward only catching 61 passes for 638 yards and 7 touchdowns. They had Alan Faneca at guard playing in only his 2nd season. Hall Of Fame center Dermonti Dawson was lost to injury for the year after 7 games, he would end up dealing with injuries for most of the following 2000 season before retiring so he was in the final days of his career and I'm sure that had a major impact on Pittsburgh's offense in 1999.

Pittsburgh's defense finished 12th in the NFL in 1999. Jason Gildon was the leader with 8.5 sacks and I remember Levon Kirkland was always really good too. I had to check and I didn't realize they let Rod Woodson go after the 1996 season, he went to San Francisco in 1997 and ended up in Baltimore in 1998. Not sure how or why they lost Woodson, either trade or free agency but he seems like a guy that should have been a Steeler for life.

So Pittsburgh gets off to a great start by squashing the expansion Browns in Cleveland in their very first game back in the NFL, they tore them up 43-0 on Primetime Sunday Night Football on ESPN. The next week they beat the Ravens 23-20 in Baltimore to get off to a 2-0 start. Then they go on a 3 game losing streak, including back to back losses at home to Seattle and Jacksonville before losing to the Bills in Buffalo to fall to 2-3. They rebound with a 3 game win streak but all 3 wins are over the 3 worst teams in the NFL, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Cincinnati. This puts them at 5-3 but they suffer what has to be 2 of the worst losses that this Steeler team had to endure in the 90's, getting beat 16-15 by the expansion Browns in Pittsburgh then losing 27-20 to the 1-10 Bengals at home two weeks later. The home loss to the Bungles wasn't nearly as close as the score suggests either, at one point Cincinnati led 24-3. I'm not sure if Kordell Stewart was benched or injured but at one point in the second quarter 37 year old Mike Tomczack took over and threw for 2 touchdowns to trim the deficit.

So Pittsburgh suffers some hard times in a 1-7 collapse in their final 8 games and finishes 6-10. What is interesting to me is that Pittsburgh stuck with Kordell Stewart and Bill Cowher even after abysmal showings in 1998 and 1999. They end up having another pseudo collapse in 2000, after a 5-3 start they finish on a 4-4 run to go 9-7 and miss the playoffs for the 3rd consecutive year. Pittsburgh's patience pays off though as Stewart and Cowher would lead Pittsburgh back to the AFC Championship after another dominant season in 2001.

I think the Rooney mindset has to factor into why Stewart and Cowher were kept around for so long. It's happening again with Roethlisberger and Tomlin. Maybe they just view success in terms of the looooong haul?

Because of the undercurrent of blue collar racism, all I've ever heard is blame pinned on Kordell. I've never really heard a bad word spoken about the REVERED Cowher. In fact, people have talked consistently about wishing he'd come to replace Tomlin (who's also the wrong skin color according to many fans in Pittsburgh).

I'm guessing some of the fan POV is revisionist history after Cowher finally won them their sixth ring? Easy to look back and forgive or more likely forget. Even easier just to not look back.

For as much as I love this city and area, it's brimming with fuckwits.

One of the things that always intrigued me with the Arizona/Phoenix Cardinals franchise history was how obsessed their city/state is with the Dallas Cowboys, even over their own hometown team. The Cardinals moved from St. Louis to Phoenix in 1988. Their very first home game in Phoenix in 1988 was against the Cowboys, with 67,139 people showing up to see the Cowboys beat the Cardinals 17-14 in what turned out to be Tom Landry's final season with Dallas. That was the biggest crowd to show up for a Cardinal home game in their first season but their attendance stayed strong, most games hovered between 60,000-65,000 with the exception of their finale against the Packers where only 44,859 showed up to see a meaningless game between 2 losing teams.

The novelty of having a hometown NFL team wore off on Phoenix immediately after their first season. In 1989 attendance dropped drastically, they never topped 50,000 through their first 7 games, the closest they came was when the Cowboys came to town they drew a crowd of 49,657 and this was the Cowboys team that finished 1-15 that year. The Cardinals games against the Falcons, Buccaneers, and Redskins(Cowboys arch rival) seen Sun Devil Stadium at half capacity with crowds in the low 30,000's. Their attendance continued to drop in their 3rd season in 1990 but as the Cowboys got better in 1991 they broke the attendance record set in their first game in Phoenix with a crowd of 68,814 showing up to see Dallas beat the Cardinals 17-9. Their very next 2 games at home that year seen record low crowds of 26,043(Patriots) and 29,804(Falcons). In 1992 the Cowboys broke the record for Sun Devil Stadium with 72,439 in November when the Cowboys where the hottest team in the NFL(on their way to a Super Bowl title).

That record was broken in the Cardinals home opener in 1993 when 73,025 packed into Sun Devil to see the Cards take on the Cowboys in week 3, the Cowboys were the defending Super Bowl Champs on their way to a repeat. The rest of the Cards home games struggled to break 40,000. The next year in 1994 they hired Buddy Ryan as head coach and changed their name from the Phoenix Cardinals to the Arizona Cardinals. I guess Buddy Ryan was a big draw because the Cardinals had their best year in attendance in 1994 since their inaugural 1988 season. The Cards drew over 60,000 for each of their first 6 home games and hovered over 50,000 for their last 2 even after they were out of playoff contention. Of course their biggest crowd of the 1994 season was week 8 when 71,023 showed up to see the back to back Super Bowl Champ Cowboys.

The Buddy Ryan hype died in 1995 as Arizona went back to being a cellar dweller and their attendance dropped back to normal levels. their biggest crowd was the last game of the season when 72,394 showed up for the Cowboys game. After the Buddy Ryan tenure fell flat Arizona really could give a shit less about their football team. It's really amazing to me looking at it closer how little this region cared about their NFL team for so long. All Arizona really was was a pit stop for the Cowboys, who were super popular in the region. Other teams that were popular nationwide like Pittsburgh, Green Bay, etc also were probably more popular there than the Cardinals were. When I look at this and look at the stipulations and the way the NFL set up the Houston Texans in 1999 I get the feeling that this was what Bud Adams and Jerry Jones had in mind for the Texans in Houston.

All of the Cowboys fans in Arizona were rewarded for their loyalty when the Cowboys won Super Bowl XXX in Sun Devil Stadium following the 1995 season, which most likely even further entrenched that territory as Cowboys country. I never fully realized it until writing this and looking at the numbers but Super Bowl XXX was essentially a home game for the Dallas Cowboys, even though it was played in Arizona. 

In 1996-1997 the Cardinals attendance seemingly hit an all time low as most games hovered between 20,000-40,000 except the Cowboys games or the occasional Steelers or Packers game. Things looked like they could change with the rise of quarterback Jake "The Snake" Plummer in 1998. Plummer didn't put up any crazy statistics in yards or touchdown passes in 1998 but he became a bit of a star in the NFL that year because he had 5 fourth quarter comeback victories and 7 game winning drives. He appeared to be the next John Elway. After a 6-7 start the Cardinals won their last 3 games in dramatic fashion. The Cardinals final home game of 1998 seen them draw an unusual crowd of 71,670 against the last place San Diego Chargers, the biggest crowd they ever drew by far in a non-Cowboys game. The fans packed into Sun Devil to see the Cards make the playoffs for the first time since they moved to Arizona. In the playoffs the Cardinals went on the road and took down the Cowboys in the Wild Card Playoffs in Dallas.

So going into 1999 it appeared that the Arizona Cardinals had established an identity of their own for the first time in the decade that they had set up in Arizona. They had the star quarterback in Jake The Snake, they had the playoff win over the Cowboys, the team that was more popular in their own home state.

Then 1999 happened...

The Cardinals got off to a 1-3 start in their first 4 games, with Jake Plummer throwing 2 touchdown passes and a whopping 12 interceptions in his first 4 games. Arizona got humbled on their big primetime showcase on Monday Night Football in the 24-10 loss to the 49ers in front of a home crowd of 72,100 in week 3. The Cardinals got off to a 2-6 start but they did put together a 4 game win streak to get to 6-6 and stay in the playoff hunt for the final NFC Wild Card spot. They lost all of their last 4 games to finish 6-10. Whatever magic they created in the end of 1998 and with the playoff win over the Cowboys was gone, things went back to normal in Arizona for the next 10 years.

The Cardinals finished 30th out of 31 teams in offense. Jake Plummer finished with a 3-8 record as a starter with 2,111 yards 9 touchdown passes and god damn 24 interceptions. They had no rushing game at all with Adrian Murrell topping out at 553 yards in 12 starts with an average per carry of 2.9 yards. They had a decent trio of receivers in Frank Sanders, Rob Moore, and David Boston but none of them had over 1,000 yards receiving that year. So I figure the core of their offensive woes was their offensive line.

On defense the Cardinals had some talent, including Simeon Rice, who had 16.5 sacks that year. They also had Aeneas Williams who was one of the better corners in the NFL and a pro bowler in 1999. They also had Pat Tillman, who had 2 interceptions that year and Eric Swann(who only played 9 games but had 4 sacks). Even with that talent the Cards finished 27th in defense in 1999.

So the Cardinals went back to being the Cowboys' pit stop after their decline in 1999. When the league got together 2 years later to realign the divisions in 2002 they broke the Cardinals away from the Cowboys and moved them from the NFC East to the NFC West division. Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill threw a major fit about it and protested the move because he was losing his cash cow in the yearly Cowboys game that brought in all his money every year. Looking back at it all now it was probably a move that was best for the Cardinals franchise even though they lost the money from those sold out Cowboys home games. It makes sense why Dallas was so popular there because they were popular there long before the Cardinals moved there in 1988, they were a team that played more primetime games on Monday Night Football than anyone else and it was a team that resonated there with Phoenix/Arizona as their football team to root for during those years. So the Cardinals moving from St. Louis to Arizona in the heart of Cowboys country in 1988 pretty much set themselves up to play second fiddle to a team that didn't even live there. They had a chance to catch on in 1988-1990 when Dallas was in that transition after Tom Landry was fired but they failed to do so. 

Lets take a closer look at three 8-8 AFC teams that were on the outside of the AFC playoff picture looking in, the Ravens, Jets, and Patriots...

The Ravens played their 4 season in Baltimore in 1999 after moving from Cleveland and changing their name from the Browns. This was their first season with Brian Billick as head coach and he had Marvin Lewis as defensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio as linebackers coach, and Rex Ryan as defensive line coach. Its interesting to think that this team was one year away from dominating the NFL with one of the greatest single season defensive performances in NFL history in 2000. What is interesting is that they were there in 1999, they finished 6th in the NFL in fewest points allowed, 2nd in fewest total yards allowed, 6th in fewest passing yards allowed, and 2nd in fewest rushing yards allowed. And the thing about that is I'm willing to bet most if not all of the teams that ranked better than Baltimore in those categories did it by playing much easier competition that season.

Baltimore finished in the top of the defensive rankings while playing the Titans twice, Jaguars twice, and opening the season against The Greatest Show on Turf against the Rams. Almost all of the elements of their legendary 2000 defensive performance were there in 1999. Tony Siragusa and Michael McCrary dominated the right side of the defensive line(McCrary made the Pro Bowl in 99 with 11.5 sacks). Peter Boulware, Ray Lewis, and Jamie Sharper comprised the linebacker corps, with Chris McAlister, Duane Starks, and Hall Of Famer Rod Woodson in the secondary(Woodson made the Pro Bowl in 99 with 7 interceptions). The only key member of the 2000 Ravens defense that I notice wasn't there in 1999 was defensive tackle 350 pound Sam Adams, who they acquired from Seattle in the offseason before their Super Bowl run that year(and he made the Pro Bowl in 2000 for the first time).

The Ravens got smoked 27-10 by the Rams on opening day in 1999 in an interesting clash between the next 2 NFL Champions. They would end up losing a close game to Pittsburgh in week 2 before taking down Cleveland and Atlanta to even it up at 2-2. One of the early season games that looks really intriguing to me on paper is their clash with the Titans in their 5th game. This looks like a good defensive slugfest and a preview of their epic battles that next year in 2000. In this first meeting in 1999 the Ravens took a 9-7 lead early in the 3rd quarter. Neil O'Donnell(subbing for Steve Mcnair) hit Yancy Thigpen for a 27 yard score to go ahead 14-9. The Ravens later put the Titans on their own 2 yard line where Ray Lewis tackled Rodney Thomas in the end zone for a safety to cut the deficit to 14-11. Both defenses shut the rest of the game down as neither team was able to cross mid-field for the rest of the game, the Titans held on to win it, sending Baltimore to 2-3.

The Ravens would lose 2 more in a row to fall to 2-5 before blowing out the expansion Browns 41-9 to get to 3-5 at the halfway mark. The next game on their trek that stands out to me is the road game in Jacksonville against the 7-1 Jaguars. This was another great defensive performance by the Ravens as they held the best team in the AFC without a touchdown on their home turf. The Ravens held Jacksonville to just 47 rushing yards and 85 passing yards for a total of 132 yards all day. Baltimore sacked Jaguars quarterback Mark Brunell 6 times. Jamie Sharper(one of my favorites from the early Texans days) led the effort with 2 sacks, 6 solo tackles, and 2 tackles for loss on the day. The Ravens offense was dead in the water and scored their only points with a field goal 10 seconds before the end of the first half to tie the game at 3-3. The Jags were able to add another field goal in the third quarter and hold on to win it 6-3. The loss put the Ravens at 3-6 on the season at that point.

Baltimore would get stronger through the course of the season and it appears that the close game against Jacksonville gave the team some confidence as they would go on to win 5 of their last 7 games in 1999. They beat the Bengals 34-31 on a last second field goal the following week before hosting the Jaguars the following week.

So they played the best team in the AFC(during the regular season) twice in a three week span. The rematch in Baltimore the Ravens were 4-6 going in while Jacksonville was on a roll at 9-1. The Ravens had Jacksonville at 16-7 going into the fourth quarter but the Jaguars fought back with a 69 yard drive to open the 4th quarter to cut the deficit to 16-14. Just 2 plays later Tony Brackens intercepted Tony Banks and ran it back for a touchdown to give the Jaguars the lead. Jacksonville got the 2 point conversion to take a 22-16 lead. Banks rebounded from the pick six to retake the lead with a touchdown pass later in the 4th to put Baltimore back on top 23-22. Mark Brunell cut up the Ravens secondary to put together a 78 yard drive in the final minutes, taking the game with a 4 yard touchdown run by James Stewart up the middle. The Jags would hold on to win it 30-22.

The second loss to Jacksonville dropped Baltimore to 4-7 but they would go on a 4 game tear after that, demolishing the 9-2 Titans the very next week 41-14 in a game where the Ravens defense sacked Steve Mcnair 4 times and intercepted him twice.

The next week they beat Pittsburgh 31-24 in a game where Tony Banks hit Quadry Ismail on 3 long strikes(54, 59, and 76 yards) and Priest Holmes ran for 130 rushing yards. The Ravens sacked Steeler quarterback Mike Tomczack 5 times.

the next week they held the lowly Saints to just 11 rushing yards all day intercepted Saints quarterbacks 4 times to win 31-8. The win evened the Ravens record up at 7-7.

The week after that they sacked Jeff Blake 7 times and picked him off twice to shut the Bengals out 22-0, improving their record to 8-7, sealing their first non-losing season since moving to Baltimore in 1996. The big stat over those 4 wins is that they sacked the opposing quarterbacks a total of 18 times in those 4 games. 

The Ravens win streak came to an end in their final game on the road against the Patriots when their offense collapsed. The Ravens gave up 7 sacks and 2 interceptions to lose their finale 20-3 to finish with an 8-8 record.

So really looking at the Ravens improvement down the stretch in 1999 we should have seen their success in 2000 coming. The 2 big additions that really made the difference for Baltimore from 1999 to 2000 was the addition of tight end Shannon Sharpe and running back Jamal Lewis to their offense in 2000. They had no real running game for most of 1999 with Errict Rhett carrying the load for most of the season(ran for 852 yards). They didn't really realize what they had in Priest Holmes, he didn't even play until the 12th game, where he carried the ball 9 times for 100 yards. The next week was when he had the 130 yards against Pittsburgh then he finished the last game against New England with 95 yards. They use their 5th overall pick in the 2000 draft to take Jamal Lewis, who runs the ball 309 times for 1,364 rushing yards his rookie year, carrying Baltimore's offense on his shoulders for their Super Bowl run. Shannon Sharpe would end up leading the Ravens in all receiving in 2000 and had Championship experience in Denver. So those 2 additions ended up really putting this team over and making such a huge difference in just 1 year.

Then you have the Jets and Patriots, two teams that were linked together pretty closely at this point in NFL history and two teams who both finished at the bottom of the AFC East(one of the toughest divisions in the NFL in 1999) with identical 8-8 records. Bill Parcells took the Patriots over in 1993 when they were the worst team in the NFL. It's remarkable to look back on how he built the Pats into a Super Bowl team within 3 years. After the Patriots won the AFC Championship in 1996 and lost to Green Bay in Super Bowl XXXI Parcells walked away from New England to return to his New York roots to take on the challenge of building the Jets into a contender. The Patriots hired Pete Carroll to take Parcells place in 1997. Pete Carroll had been with the Jets from 1990 to 1994 as a defensive coordinator then head coach in 1994 before taking defensive coordinator job with the 49ers in 1995-1996

So Pete Carroll inherits an AFC Championship winning team in 1997 and they finish 10-6 and win a Wild Card playoff game before losing to Pittsburgh in the second round. In 1998 Carroll loses his star runner Curtis Martin, who follows Parcells to the Jets. Parcells beats Carroll and his former team in both regular season games in 1998, knocking the Patriots to 9-7. Carroll's Patriots are one and done in the 1998 playoffs while Parcells takes the Jets to the AFC Championship Game(where they lost to the Broncos).

The Jets and Patriots end up facing off against each other on opening day in 1999 and it ends up being one of the most interesting games of the season. It was in this game that Jets quarterback Vinnie Testaverde gets lost for the season with an injury that has a major impact on the Jets entire season. Vinnie's first and only touchdown pass of the season puts the Jets up 7-3 in the first quarter. Drew Bledsoe answers with a touchdown pass to put New England on top in the second quarter 10-7. Tom Tupa takes over for the Jets and connects with Keyshawn Johnson to retake the lead 14-10, then a botched punt snap goes out of the back of the end zone to give the Jets a safety and a 16-7 lead going into the half. The Patriots open up the second half with 17 points to go up 27-16 but Tupa throws his second touchdown pass in the end of the third quarter to trim the deficit to 27-22. Jets linebacker Bryan Cox returns an interception 27 yards for a touchdown to put the Jets up 28-27 but the Patriots end up winning it with a last second Adam Vinatieri field goal for the 30-28 victory.

That game set the tone for both the Jets and Patriots first half of 1999. The Patriots would go on to a 4-0 start and would be sitting at 6-2 at the halfway mark. The Jets on the other hand would struggle without Vinny Testaverde. They would go with Rick Mirer as his replacement and Mirer solidifies himself as pure garbage in his 6 starts.

Rick Mirer is a guy I remember being super hyped coming out of college into the NFL in 1993. He wore Joe Montana's same number at Notre Dame and many believed he was the second coming of Montana when the Seahawks took him with their first pick in that draft. He ended up playing like shit for 4 years for the Seahawks before he was traded to the Chicago Bears. I covered this trade in the Bears writeup already but I still can't get over how many opportunities Mirer got in the NFL, compared to say a guy like Andre Ware who showed flashes of potential in his limited opportunities as a 3rd string QB for the Lions. Ware was out of the league so fast, yet Mirer gets a 4 year ride as a starter and then after bombing that a team gives up a 1st round draft pick to trade for him. After going 0 touchdowns and 6 interceptions in an 0-3 career with the Bears Mirer still managed to have a job in the NFL in 1998 and the Jets gave him another shot in 1999. Mirer went 2-4 for the Jets after Vinnie went down with the injury, he threw 5 touchdown passes and 9 interceptions and was sacked 22 times. What's remarkable with Mirer's failure in 1999 was the talent and coaching he had around him. You can say a lot about what little he had around him in Seattle and Chicago those years but when you can't play with Curtis Martin, Keyshawn Johnson, and an offense that Bill Parcells and Charlie Weiss took to the AFC Championship the year before that really says a lot about how bad he sucked.

So after their head to head meeting on opening day the Patriots go 6-2 while the Jets go 2-6. The two teams meet up again in a rematch in New England in week 10. This time Parcells benches Rick Mirer and goes with Ray Lucas, a quarterback Parcells drafted in 1996 in New England and took with him to New York. Ray Lucas throws 2 touchdown passes and Curtis Martin runs for a 36 yard touchdown to give the Jets a 21-3 halftime lead. Another field goal in the fourth quarter puts the Jets up 24-3. Drew Bledsoe throws a pair of touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to close the gap to 24-17 but the Jets hold on to give the Patriots a crushing loss that seemingly sent them on a downward spiral for the rest of the 1999 season.

After the victory over the Patriots the Jets would go 6-2 for the last half while New England would collapse and go 2-6, with both teams finishing with 8-8 records.

For the Jets Ray Lucas would end up going 6-3 as a starter with 14 touchdown passes and 6 interceptions with 3 game winning drives. Curtis Martin finished the year 2nd in the NFL in rushing yards with 1,464 yards. Keyshawn Johnson finished with 89 catches for 1,170 yards. On defense the Jets had 2 guys that would go on to be favorites of mine on the early years of the Houston Texans, cornerbacks Aaron Glenn and Marcus Coleman. Glenn had 3 interceptions and Coleman had 6 in 1999 for the Jets. Along with Glenn and Coleman on that 99 Jets secondary was Broncos great safety Steve Atwater, who I had no idea played for the Jets but he was there for them starting at Safety for 11 games in 1999. This Jets defense was coordinated by Bill Belichick and several of these players would follow him to New England for that 2001 Patriots Super Bowl run, including Bryan Cox, Anthony Pleasant, and Roman Phifer(starting safety Victor Green would go to play for him in 2002 but left the next year).

For the Patriots historic 1999 collapse it really revolves around Drew Bledsoe. Bledsoe's first 8 games he threw for 2,314 yards with 13 touchdowns and 4 interceptions and a rating of 97.9. He was on track to having one of his best years until the Jets rematch. Bledsoe collapsed big time in the Patriots 2-6 finish he threw for 1,671 yards 6 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions with a rating of 52.9 in those last 8 games. The Patriots and Drew Bledsoe's collapse in 1999 has got to rate as one of the greatest single season collapses any team or player has ever had.

Bledsoe's supporting cast on the 99 Patriots offense was running backs Kevin Faulk and Terry Allen(896 yards), receivers Terry Glenn(1,147 yards), Troy Brown, and Shawn Jefferson. They also had tight end Ben Coates and one of the more underrated and forgotten greats from the 90's decade in left tackle Bruce Armstrong, who anchored the Patriots offensive line for all 16 games in 1999(he would finish his career in 2000, just missing out on a ring). The Pats defense ranked 7th in the NFL in 1999 with several key factors that would stick around for the Patriots Super Bowl runs in 2001-2004 including Ty Law and Lawyer Milloy, as well as linebackers Teddy Bruschi and Willie Mcginnest.

It's really amazing how intrinsically linked the Jets and Patriots are at this point in NFL history and how this link would reshape football going into the 2000's. The Patriots collapse in 1999 would lead to the firing of head coach Pete Carroll, who would go on to take the job coaching the USC Trojans in college football. Meanwhile Bill Parcells would clash with Jets ownership and retire following 1999. Bill Belichick was announced to take Parcells' place as Jets head coach but he resigned after just 1 day and later took the job as New England Patriots head coach. The rest is history. The Patriots team that would win the Super Bowl in 2001 was really like a combination of this 1999 Jets and 1999 Patriots defenses together into 1 unit. If I'm not mistaken, it was in a game against the Jets in 2001 when Drew Bledsoe was knocked out of the game, giving Tom Brady his shot to take over. Wow

Just got caught up on this. Great stuff filled with a lot of interesting tidbits. For example, I had no idea the Cowboys were so big in Arizona. Makes sense though. I may not comment much, but know that I am reading.

We already looked at the Denver Broncos descent from first to worst in 1999. Lets examine how the rest of the AFC West did that year, lets take a closer look at the Raiders, Chargers, Chiefs, and Seahawks. Something that I didn't realize until after writing about the 99 Broncos is that according to Pro Football Reference they had the toughest schedule in the NFL in 1999. Part of the reason for that is because the rest of their division was actually pretty competitive that year.

For the Raiders of Oakland California they were in their second season under Jon Gruden, who was just 36 years old(the youngest head coach in the NFL). The Raiders were coming off of an 8-8 season in Gruden's rookie year as head coach in '98 and they were still a quintessential .500 team in 1999 in his sophomore year. They were never able to go on any win streaks of more than 2 games at a time yet they never went on any losing streaks of more than 2 games either that year. They ranked 8th in offense and 16th in defense and I get the impression that the biggest star they had that year was second year 23 year old cornerback Charles Woodson, who was named All Pro that year. Gruden brought in former Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Rich Gannon to start as his quarterback going into 1999. Gannon split most of his time with Elvis Grbac with the Chiefs in 1997-1998 and the 2 would square off in some pretty interesting showdowns in 1999. 

The Raiders finished 4th in the AFC West that season with a 3-5 record in their division. They split games with the Seahawks, Chargers, and Chiefs but were swept by the Broncos. The second Raiders vs Broncos game that season in Denver was an overtime loss for the Raiders where they overcame a 15-0 deficit and took a 21-18 lead after a 44 yard field goal in the final 1:21. Broncos quarterback Brian Griese moved Denver into range for a game tying 53 yard field goal in the final minute to send it into overtime tied at 21-21. In OT the Raiders lost a fumble in Denver territory on their first possession, setting up a 24 yard Olandis Gary touchdown run to win it for the Broncos on their first play of the drive.

That loss sent the Raiders to 5-5 and they never got any momentum going for the rest of the year, losing 4 of their last 7 to finish 8-8. The week after the overtime loss to Denver they gave up a 34-20 fourth quarter lead at home against Kansas City to lose 37-34. They did win 2 of their last 3 games and they did so by putting up a lot of points. They dominated the playoff bound Tampa Bucs(Gruden's future team, and a preview of Super Bowl XXXVII three years later) to the tune of 45-0. They did it all on the ground with Napolean Kaufman running for 122 yards and 2 touchdowns and Tyrone Wheatley running for 111 yards and 2 scores of his own. In their season finale they overcame a 17-0 deficit to beat the Chiefs in overtime 41-38 to even up their record at 8-8.

Rich Gannon made the Pro Bowl in 1999 by throwing for 3,840 yards 24 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. The legendary Tim Brown also made the Pro Bowl with 90 receptions and 1,344 yards, which is remarkable considering he was 33 years old playing in his 12th season. With all the legends of the 90's that were either retiring, injured, or declining in 1999 Tim Brown was one of the few that was still keeping it going that season. The Raiders had 2 really good offensive linemen in 1999 with Steve Wisniewski(one of the best guards of the decade) and Lincoln Kennedy. On defense the names that stand out are defensive tackles Russell Maryland, Darrell Russell(Pro Bowler in 1999 with 9.5 sacks), middle linebacker Greg Biekert, and opposite of Charles Woodson at cornerback was former Philadelphia Eagles All Pro Eric Allen.

This Raider team would have been fun to watch had they been able to get into the 1999 AFC playoffs. They had a strong chance to get in if not for the 4th quarter collapse to the Chiefs and then the 4th quarter collapse against the Chargers in the second to last game.

For the Chargers they were coming off of the terrible Kevin Gilbride tenure that produced a 4-12 finish in 1997 and a 5-11 finish in 1998 before he was fired. Gilbride also drafted Ryan Leaf. The Chargers got rid of Gilbride and hired Mike Riley to take over in 1999. This is a strange hire considering Riley had never coached in the NFL in any capacity before 1999. Most of Riley's head coaching experience was with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the CFL in the 80's. He coached Oregon State in college for 2 seasons before getting the Chargers job. He was out of San Diego after 3 years and only coached 1 more year in the NFL as an assistant with the Saints in 2002. I know him mostly because he was the head coach of the San Antonio Commanders in the failed AAF league back in 2019.

So Mike Riley takes over a horrible Chargers team and their draft bust quarterback Ryan Leaf goes down with a season ending injury on like the first day of training camp. I feel like this was a blessing for this team. The Chargers come out to start the season at a surprising 4-1 and Mike Riley takes down Mike Holmgren's Seahawks in their 4th win. After that though they go on a 6 game losing streak to fall to 4-7. They end up winning 4 of their last 5 games to finish 8-8.

The Chargers were terrible on offense in 99, ranking 28th in the league. The aging 36 year old Jim Harbaugh started 12 games and went 6-6, throwing 10 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Former Bears cast off Erik Kramer would start 4 games and threw only 2 touchdown passes with 10 interceptions in going 2-2 as a starter during that stretch. They had absolutely no running game, their leading rusher was Jermaine Fazande with 365 yards. None of their receivers had over 1,000 yards either.

The driving force for this 1999 Chargers team was their defense, which ranked 10th in the NFL, which is quite an accomplishment since I'm sure the poor fuckers were on the field for most of their games since their offense was so bad. And really the driving force for this defense was the legend Junior Seau, who really didn't have much talent around him on this squad. Seau missed 2 games but still made the Pro Bowl in 1999. The only other real name I recognize on this defense, Rodney Harrison, was lost for the year to injury after 6 games. The Chargers defense had 5 games where they allowed 10 points or less in 1999. They were at their best in the last 5 games of the season where they only allowed a total of 4 touchdowns.

So the Chargers start on a 4-1 run and finish on a 4-1 run but the 6 game losing streak between those runs killed their season. They still managed to go 5-3 in their division including a 2 game sweep against Mike Holmgren's Seahawks, who won the AFC West that year. The Chargers looked like they were really playing at a high level around that defense in their final 5 games. The win on the road against Seattle in week 14 was a big one. They won it 19-16 on a field goal in the final minutes. Then the win over the Raiders two weeks later was a crushing blow to Oakland's season. The Raiders took a 20-13 lead into the fourth quarter in that game but the Chargers were able to take a 23-20 lead with 11:45 left to play. The Raiders drove into field goal range but a big sack on 3rd down knocked them back, they would miss a 44 yard potential game tying field goal with 3:46 left to play, giving San Diego the win.

So Mike Riley comes out of nowhere in 1999 and appears to have the Chargers looking really good. He scores some big wins over some big names, including a sweep over Holmgren's Seahawks and a win over Mike Shannahan's Broncos in Mile High in the season finale. It was all for naught though as Riley's Chargers would collapse the next year when they got Ryan Leaf back, they got off to an 0-11 start in 2000 and finished 1-15. Riley's NFL coaching days were over after he was fired following a 5-11 finish in 2001.

Still I get the sense that this was one of Junior Seau's great lost years where he fought his ass off for a team that was going nowhere. In the week 5 win over the Lions Seau had 2 sacks, 7 solo tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and pass defended. In the big win in Seattle late in the season Seau had 9 solo tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and 2 passes defended.

The AFC West in 1999 really came down to the wire with 2 teams at the end, the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks. The Chiefs were beginning a new era in 1999 playing their first season without former head coach Marty Schottenhiemer, who led them to the playoffs 8 times and led them to winning seasons every year from 1989 to 1997. Marty's teams suffered some heartbreaking losses in the playoffs during that tenure, including the 1993 AFC Championship loss in Buffalo where Montana was knocked out of the game with a concussion, the 1995 one and done loss to the Colts, and the 1997 AFC Championship loss at home to Denver. Marty's last year in 1998 seen the Chiefs finish 7-9.

The Chiefs defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham took over as head coach in 1999. Cunningham had been the Chiefs DC from 1995 to 1998. The Chiefs got off to a 5-2 start in 1999 but lost control of the AFC West after a 3 game losing streak in the middle of the season. They got it back together to win 4 in a row to get to 9-5, setting up a critical week 16 showdown with the 8-6 Seahawks in Seattle with the AFC West title and the spot in the playoffs on the line. In that game Seattle jumped out to a 17-0 lead and would hold on to win it 23-14. KC would end up losing to the Raiders in OT in their finale to fall to 9-7 on the season.

Overall in the AFC West the Chiefs would go 4-4 against division opponents. They swept the Broncos but got swept by the Seahawks and split with the Chargers and Raiders. The Chiefs defense finished 13th in the NFL but their offense finished 8th. Elvis Grbac started all 16 games and threw the ball 499 times, throwing for 3,389 yards 22 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. The Chiefs had the legendary Warren Moon on the roster but he was 43 years old still hanging on, he only threw 3 passes all season.

Tony Gonzalez made the Pro Bowl and All Pro in 1999 in what turned out to be his breakout season(his 3rd year). Gonzalez led the Chiefs in receiving with 76 receptions, 849 yards and 11 touchdowns. Since they really had no running game or much other weaponry in their receiver corps(Andre Rison started 14 games but didn't put up any real stats) Gonzalez pretty much carried the Chiefs offense on his back in 1999. They did still have a great offensive line in 1999 and that was what I'm sure anchored that 8th ranked unit. They had Dave Szott at left guard, and Tim Grunhard and Will Shields both made the Pro Bowl.

The Chiefs also had a lot of veteran talent on defense that year. Derrick Thomas started all 16 games playing in his 11th and final season before dying in a tragic car accident in 2000. Thomas did appear to be on the decline as he only had 7 sacks all year, his fewest of any of his seasons that he played. The Chiefs also had Chester McGlockton and Leslie O'Neal on the d-line and James Hasty made the Pro Bowl at cornerback. The Chiefs also had one of the better players from the old Houston Oilers of the 90's in cornerback Cris Dishman, who had a great season with 5 interceptions. Dishman had a great game in the comeback win over the Raiders in week 12 in Oakland. He had a 47 yard interception return for a touchdown that put KC up 20-13 in the third quarter. The Raiders jumped out to a 34-20 lead after that but the Chiefs fought back in the 4th quarter after a 73 yard touchdown pass from Grback to Tony Gonzalez. Dishman tied the game up with 6:24 left to play with a 40 yard fumble recovery run in for a touchdown. KC would win it on a 44 yard field goal as time expired for the 37-34 win.

Then you have the Seattle Seahawks, the team that would win the AFC West. Mike Holmgren would walk away from what he built in Green Bay with the Packers following the 1998 season to take on the challenge of rebooting the Seahawks, and he was able to lead them to a division title and a playoff birth in his first year at the helm. Holmgren took over a Seahawks team that was pretty young on offense in 1999, only 2 starters were over the age of 30. Ricky Watters was a pretty underrated 90's running back with the 49ers and Eagles, he would end up running for 1,210 yards in 1999, his 5th 1,000 yard season of the decade(he began his career in '92 with San Francisco).

The Seahawks had future Hall Of Famer Walter Jones at left tackle and he made the Pro Bowl for the first time in 1999 playing in his 3rd year in the NFL. At quarterback Holmgren went with young unsung Jon Kitna, who was also playing in his 3rd season. On defense the Seahawks were anchored by 2 veteran defensive lineman, Michael Sinclair and Cortez Kennedy. Kennedy made the Pro Bowl along with linebacker Chad Brown. Cornerback Shawn Springs was decent for the era and was what they got with the 1st round pick they got in return from Chicago in the Rick Mirer trade. Springs led Seattle in interceptions in 1999 with 5. Seattle's defense was the heart of the 1999 team as they allowed only an average of 18.6 points per game, ranking 8th in the NFL.

Seattle came out in 1999 looking like one of the best teams in the entire AFC with an 8-2 start. During that stretch Jon Kitna played great, he had a 90.8 rating with 1,888 yards 16 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. After the 8-2 start Kitna kind of collapsed in the final 7 games. Seattle finished losing 5 of their last 6 games with Kitna having a 63.9 rating during that stretch, he threw 7 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. So Seattle lost 5 of their last 6 but the one game they were able to win was the crucial victory over Kansas City in week 16 that sealed the division title and the playoff birth with a 9-7 record. Seattle finished with a 4-4 record in the division by sweeping Kansas City and splitting with Oakland and Denver, but they were swept by the San Diego.

So with that we get to the first 1999 playoff team with this Seattle Seahawks squad. They end up hosting Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Wild Card round in what turned out to be their final game ever at the Kingdome. An 85 yard kickoff return in the 3rd quarter gave Seattle a 17-10 lead but Jimmy Johnson's Miami Dolphins ended up coming back to beat them in the 4th quarter 20-17.

So that's the AFC West in 1999. Its interesting how these 4 teams were log-jammed at 8-8/9-7 and really it was anybody's division for the taking. The team that ended up winning it kind of backed into a division title and backed into the playoffs on a stretch where they lost 5 of their last 6 games and their starting quarterback collapsed during the course of the season. Really looking at the way the season played out with these teams with how Kansas City and Seattle started out dominating the AFC, both teams fell apart down the stretch and it appears like San Diego's defense got red hot there at the end of the season, they were probably the best team in the division in the end.

But it's an interesting division because none of these 4 teams were really all that good. Even though the 4 top teams finished 8-8 or 9-7 they all kind of padded their records by beating each other. Denver finished last with a 6-10 record but went 4-4 in their division and could have easily taken another AFC West title in 1999 if not for all the injuries and the 0-4 start(they finished going 6-6, with 4 of those wins against the AFC West). Its also notable that the Raiders had the worst record within the AFC West in 1999(3-5) but had the best record against non-division opponents(5-3) while San Diego had the best record within the division(5-3) were the opposite and struggled the most against non-division teams(3-5). When you really break it down and look at how the AFC West fared against the top teams in the NFL they went 2-7 against the 5 AFC playoff teams in the regular season. Miami went 4-0 against the AFC West in 1999 including the Wild Card win in Seattle. Indy, Jacksonville, and Tennessee went a combined 4-0 against the AFC West, the only 2 losses by any of the AFC playoff teams against the West was Buffalo, who went 0-2.

Meanwhile the AFC West never played a game against half of the NFC playoff teams, the Rams, Redskins, and Cowboys never played an AFC West opponent due to the scheduling formula in 1999. The only really good NFC teams that the AFC West faced in 1999 was Tampa and Minnesota, who went a combined 5-3 against the division. So here you have a division comprised of young teams or teams in transition where the playing field was really level and it was just up for grabs, which just about sums up the story of the entire 1999 NFL season. For me I actually have always been critical of the 2002 division realignment, I'm not a fan of Seattle breaking away from this AFC West to join the NFC. I thought they were just fine where they were, I miss that 5 team division alignment.

Having such a blast writing this, I’m thinking about using it as an outline for a book about the 1999 season, my first attempt at writing a book and actually getting it published. It’s amazing to me how well preserved the website article Baker posted still is for being 21-22 years old, all the links still work and there’s a lot of great stuff there once you start clicking. This season is far more interesting than I ever realized, it really shaped the NFL for the next 2 decades. I got a day off tomorrow and hope to cover the teams that were involved in the crazy last minute race for the last NFC wild card spot between Green Bay, New York Giants, and Dallas(Carolina gets their own spotlight, I’m fascinated by them).

So the NFC in 1999 was really top heavy and set up in tiers that were pretty definitive. You had the St. Louis Rams that ran away with the #1 seed as the clear cut best in the regular season. Then below that tier you had the Vikings, Redskins, and Buccaneers who were on another level than the rest of the conference during the regular season. Below that you had a tier that consisted of 5 teams that scrapped it out for the final 2 NFC Wild Card spots until the bitter end of the 1999 season. Those 5 teams were the Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, and Carolina Panthers. With this next chapter lets take a closer look at 3 of the teams that were involved in one of the craziest Wild Card races in NFL history, one that came down to the final week.

For the New York Giants they were a team that was in first place in the NFC East with a 5-3 record at the halfway point. They were one of several teams that just let the bottom drop out on their season in the second half, losing 6 of their last 8 games to miss the playoffs with a 7-9 finish. The Giants played their final season with the iconic "Giants" helmet emblem in 1999 and it was their 3rd season with Jim Fassel as head coach. They had John Fox at defensive coordinator and a young Sean Payton as quarterbacks coach. After looking like they would run away with the NFC East crown they collapsed in spectacular fashion. Kerry Collins took over for Kent Graham in the second half of the season and he didn't look good, he threw only 8 touchdowns with 11 interceptions in going 2-5 as a starter during their late season collapse.

One of the names on this 1999 Giants squad that I recognize is running back Gary Brown. Brown came out of nowhere and played such a huge part in the 1993 Houston Oilers 11 game win streak. In a season when the Run N' Shoot was dead and Warren Moon struggled, that 93 Oilers team(one of my favorite teams ever) dominated the regular season with Buddy Ryan's 46 defense and Gary Brown running for 1,002 yards in just 8 starts(averaged 5.1 yards per carry). Gary Brown struggled with injuries in his next 2 years in Houston in 94-95 and appeared to be a one hit wonder after missing the entire 1996 season. He followed former Oilers offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride to the San Diego Chargers in 1997 where he had a career rebirth, running 245 times for 945 yards. The Giants brought him in to carry their offense in 1998 and he had his best season of his career, running for 1,063 yards averaging 4.3 yards per carry. Gary Brown would suffer a devastating motorcycle crash in June of 1999 that would eventually end his career. He never fully recovered and only played 2 games in 1999 before retiring. The Giants would end up ranking 25th in the league in rushing yards.

The Giants defense finished in the top 10 of the NFL in 1997 and 1998 but for some reason fell off in 1999, finishing 23rd. They still had Michael Strahan and Jessie Armstead, who both made the Pro Bowl in 1999. Jason Sehorn missed the entire 1998 season with a knee injury that lingered into the 1999 season and caused him to miss 6 games.

Despite their collapse the Giants were still in the hunt for one of those Wild Card spots. After the 5-3 spot they lost to the Colts and Redskins to drop to 5-5, then the loss that appears to have cut the heart out of their season was the home loss to the 4-6 Cardinals in week 12. New York carried a 10-6 lead into the second half before Jake "The Snake" Plummer threw back to back touchdown passes to put the Cards up 20-10 early in the 4th quarter. Kerry Collins led the Giants on an 88 yard scoring drive to cut the deficit to 20-17 with 8:51 left to play. The Giants botched the ensuing kickoff out of bounds to set the Cards up at their 40 yard line, then Jake Plummer took Arizona downfield for another score to go up 27-17. Kerry Collins threw back to back interceptions in the Giants next 2 possessions, the second was returned 44 yards by Eric Swann to put Arizona on top 34-17. The Giants were able to score garbage time points but lost 34-24. The loss put the Giants at 5-6 and was a pretty good signal that this team was toast.

The Giants would smoke the Jets 41-28 in a duel between the NYC teams and then would defeat the Bills in Buffalo 19-17 to get back to 7-6 and in the drivers seat of the NFC playoff race. The next week the Giants got ran over by the 11-2 Rams in a game where Kurt Warner threw for 319 yards and 2 touchdowns while Marshall Faulk had 165 total yards from scrimmage. The Rams ran back 2 Kerry Collins interceptions for touchdowns and were leading 31-3 at one point in the fourth quarter before giving up a garbage time score that put the final at 31-10. The next week the Giants suffered another embarrassing loss that eliminated them from playoff contention when they laid down to the Vikings and were defeated 34-17 in a preview of the next season's NFC Championship Game.

One of the other 5 NFC teams that scrambled for the final Wild Card spot was the Green Bay Packers, where were playing their first season without Mike Holmgren after he left to take over rebuilding the Seahawks. His replacement at head coach is an odd one looking back, they hired former Eagles head coach Ray Rhodes. Rhodes seems like such an odd choice since he was coming off of a disaster 1998 season in Philadelphia where they finished 3-13. He did serve as Packers defensive coordinator in 1992-1993 so I guess his connections with the team got him the gig. An interesting name on Rhodes coaching staff for the 1999 Packers was quarterbacks coach Mike McCarthy, who would end up taking Green Bay to a Super Bowl title as head coach in 2010(he currently coaches the Dallas Cowboys).

The Packers lost the legendary Reggie White to retirement following the 1998 season. The defense would end up finishing 20th in the NFL without him rushing opposing passers. They still had Santana Dotson and Gilbert Brown, as well as Leroy Butler and a young future Pro Bowl/All Pro Darren Sharper in his 3rd season. Other future stars on this roster include a rookie Donald Driver, who was playing in his first of 14 seasons for Green Bay. They also had Matt Hasselbeck at backup quarterback and a young Corey Bradford, who I always remember for being one of the original Houston Texans(really the only real offensive weapon on that 2002 inaugural expansion season).

The Packers heart and soul Brett Favre had an up and down season. On one hand he threw for 4,091 yards, 22 touchdowns, and had 3 game winning drives/4th quarter comeback victories. On the other hand he threw a whopping 23 interceptions. Favre appeared to be on the decline in 1999 with his lowest rating(74.7) since 1993. Favre had a couple of really bad performances in this season, including the week 5 loss to Denver in an Elway-less rematch of Super Bowl XXXII, he threw completed just 7 of 23 passes for just 120 yards with 0 touchdowns and 3 interceptions in a 31-10 loss. In a showdown against his former coach Mike Holmgren's Seahawks 2 weeks later Favre threw 4 interceptions in a 27-7 loss. The Packers would end up losing 2 in a row after being defeated by their former head coach, including a 27-13 loss to the Cowboys in Dallas that would end up coming back to bite them in the ass in the end of the season. In all, Favre ended up going 1-8 against the Cowboys in the 1990's(his lone victory coming in the regular season in 1997).

The loss to Dallas capped a 3 game losing streak that put Green Bay at 4-5. The Packers season played out like a roller coaster ride, they rallied for a 3 game win streak to get to 7-5 before losing 3 in a row to fall to 7-8 going into the final week.

The final week of the 1999 NFL season featured one of the craziest tie breaking scenarios in NFL history. The Packers, Cowboys, and Panthers all found themselves in the hunt for the final NFC Wild Card spot. The Packers needed to win their game against Arizona and they needed the Giants to defeat the Cowboys that night. Winning against Arizona wasn't enough though since their tie breaker with the Panthers came down to point differential. Both the Packers and Panthers played their final game in the 12 PM time slot and both teams fought to try to outscore the other in order to win the point differential tie breaker and get into the playoffs. So here you had 2 separate games going on at the same time with 2 teams trying to outscore each other.

At one point the Panthers appeared to be overtaking the Packers, at 3:11 PM Carolina took a 31-0 lead over the Saints after a 40 yard touchdown pass. Just 1 minute later at 3:12 PM the Cardinals scored against the Packers after a 6 yard touchdown pass from Jake Plummer to Frank Sanders trimmed the Packers lead to 21-10. At this point the Panthers led the Packers in net point differential by 5 points. Four minutes later at 3:15 PM the Packers returned the kickoff for an 88 yard touchdown to retake the point differential lead over the Panthers by 5 points. At 3:45 PM the Panthers retook the point differential lead over Green Bay after taking a 45-7 lead over the Saints. At 3:51 PM the Cardinals threatened to put Green Bay's playoff hopes to bed after driving into the red zone but Green Bay made the save with an interception at the goal line. Favre led Green Bay 99 yards using a no huddle offense to retake the point differential at 4 PM with a 32 yard touchdown pass to go up 42-17 over Arizona. At 4:17 PM both the Packers and Panthers had their eyes on each other's scores and were actively fighting to win the point differential with scores in the final seconds of both games. The Panthers drove down to the red zone with seconds left in their game against New Orleans so Green Bay fought to keep their lead by going no huddle in the final seconds of their game against Arizona, scoring with just 49 seconds left to go up 49-24 against the Cardinals. The score sealed the tie breaker for Green Bay over Carolina and capped one of the wildest hours in NFL history.

The Packers win gave them an 8-8 finish but with all the hooplah to win the tie breaker over Carolina, their season still depended on the Giants defeating Dallas that night...

For the team of the 1990's the Dallas Cowboys its interesting to think about their trajectory from 1989's 1-15 season to their 1999 season a decade later. They made the Herschel Walker trade and built a dynasty that won 3 Super Bowl titles. After winning 2 in a row in 1992-1993 they lost Jimmy Johnson but would win a 3rd title in 1995 with Barry Switzer. They parted ways with Switzer after a 6-10 season in 1997 and would end up losing a home playoff game to the Cardinals in the 1998 Wild Card game with new head coach Chan Gailey. So for the "Team Of The 90's" the mystique had worn off for their last 3 years of the decade.

They did get off to a great start to the 1999 season though. The Cowboys season opener against Washington was for sure one of the best games of the entire 1999 NFL season. This was the game where Cowboys offensive lineman Larry Allen launched one of the Redskins defenders like 15 yards with one of his best highlight reel blocks of his career. The Cowboys took a 14-3 lead after back to back Troy Aikman touchdown passes. The Redskins fought back with 32 points, taking a 35-14 lead in the third quarter after a 50 yard Brad Johnson touchdown pass. The Cowboys rallied back with 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter(including 2 Troy Aikman touchdown passes in the final 4 minutes) to tie the game up and send it into overtime at 35-35. Dallas would win it early in overtime after a 76 yard bomb from Aikman to Rocket Ismail for the 41-35 win. This was in my opinion the NFL Game Of The Year for the 1999 season and one of my favorite Redskins vs Cowboys games in their storied rivalry. The two teams combined for 1,045 total yards of offense. Troy Aikman threw for 362 yards and 5 touchdown passes, both Emmitt Smith and Redskins back Stephen Davis ran for an identical 109 rushing yards. Michael Irvin had 5 receptions for 122 yards and 2 touchdowns while Rocket Ismail caught 8 passes for 149 yards and the game winning walk off touchdown.

The Cowboys would beat the defending NFC Champion Falcons in week 2 before avenging their embarrassing 1998 playoff loss to Arizona with a 35-7 victory to start the season 3-0. The Cowboys appeared to be looking to close out their decade with another Super Bowl run but their season started to fall apart with their loss against the Eagles in week 4. The Cowboys would suffer their first loss of the season in a 13-10 defeat in Philly but they would end up losing Michael Irvin to a career ending injury. After the 3-0 start Dallas would end up losing 5 of their next 7 games to drop to 5-5. After losing to the hapless Saints to fall to 7-8 Dallas' entire season came down to the wire in their finale against the Giants in a do or die game to make the final Wild Card spot. The Giants laid down to Dallas in the season finale. Troy Aikman's 90 yard touchdown pass gave Dallas a 23-3 lead going into the 4th quarter and the Cowboys would hold on for the 26-18 victory. The Cowboys victory eliminated the Packers from playoff contention since they had a head to head victory over them to give them the tie breaker.

The Cowboys would go 5-3 in their division in 1999 including a 2 game sweep over the NFC East Champion Washington Redskins. Emmitt Smith would have one of his best years in 1999 with 1,397 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns in 15 games. The Cowboys offense finished 11th in the NFL even though Troy Aikman put up some pedestrian numbers in his 14 starts, throwing for just 2,964 yards 17 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. The Cowboys offensive line began to deteriorate in 1997-98 but they put it back together for 1999 with Larry Allen earning All Pro honors. They brought back Mark Stepnoski to play center and right tackle Erik Williams made the Pro Bowl in 1999. The Cowboys defense finished 5th in the NFL in 1999 and the big reason is most likely their secondary, with Deion Sanders having a pro bowl season with a supporting cast starring Darren Woodson and George Teague.

The win over the Giants in the season finale gave the Cowboys an 8-8 finish and the final spot in the NFC playoffs but they were no match in Minnesota against the Vikings in the Wild Card round. The Cowboys took a 10-3 lead after a 5 yard touchdown run by Emmitt Smith in the first quarter. The Vikings would torch Dallas with 24 unanswered points, including 3 Jeff George touchdown passes to end the Cowboys 90's decade with a 27-10 loss. The 90's Cowboys fell off hard going into the next decade, suffering 3 consecutive 5-11 seasons in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Dallas didn't win any playoff games in the 2000's decade until the 2009 Wild Card round victory over the Eagles(they were defeated 34-3 by Favre and the Vikings in the next round). The Cowboys have a grand total of 3 playoff wins in the last 21 years(fewer than the Houston Texans, who have 4 playoff wins since entering the league as an expansion team in 2002).

One of the most interesting teams of the 1999 NFL season to me has always been that season's Carolina Panthers. I really can't even fully explain why I'm so fascinated by this team. They didn't make the playoffs in 1999, they didn't even finish with a winning record, they were a .500 team at 8-8. There were no real big superstar players other than Hall Of Famer Kevin Greene, who was playing his final season of his career in 1999 at the age of 37. So why exactly have I always found the 1999 Panthers squad so intriguing? I don't know honestly, but there is just something about this team's season they had in 1999 that I am enamored with. Maybe that is one of the reasons why I wanted to write this so I could do some soul searching to figure it out.

The Panthers were only playing their 5th season in the NFL in 1999 after launching alongside their cousins the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995. That was a pretty sweet time to launch an expansion team because just 2 years prior the NFL opened up "unrestricted free agency", which cleared the way for unsigned veterans with at least 5 years experience to be free to sign with whoever they wanted. By the time Jacksonville and Carolina started building their first rosters in the 1995 off-season unrestricted free agency had really taken off. This gave the Panthers and Jaguars an almost unfair advantage compared to expansion teams before and after them since both teams loaded up with some really good free agent talent right at the start. It was because of this that both teams made it all the way to the NFC/AFC Conference Championships in only their second seasons in 1996.

At first it appeared that the Panthers were the stronger built team compared to Jacksonville in the beginning because Carolina actually won their division with a 12-4 record in 1996(while Jacksonville was a 9-7 team that barely made the Wild Card spot). It turned out that Jacksonville was built to last for the rest of the 90's while Carolina's success was short lived. The Jaguars stayed in the playoffs every year of the 90's after that AFC Conference Championship appearance in 1996 and by 1999 they were built to be the best team in the NFL(in the regular season at least).

The Panthers on the other hand started to fall apart immediately after their 1996 NFC Championship run. In 1997 quarterback Kerry Collins threw 11 touchdowns and 21 interceptions and they finished with a 7-9 record. In 1998 things went from bad to worse. Leader of the team Sam Mills retired after 1997 and they let cornerback Tyrone Poole go to Indy(he would eventually play a big factor in New England's Super Bowl season in 2003 when they defeated Carolina in Super Bowl XXXVIII). Prior to the 1998 season they also sacrificed their 1999 and 2000 first round draft picks to sign Sean Gilbert, who ended up being a non factor for them for 5 forgettable seasons. After an 0-4 start to the 1998 season quarterback Kerry Collins practically benched himself by walking into Dom Capers office and telling him that he had lost his passion for the game. Capers would eventually cut Collins in the middle of the season. Carolina's 1998 season would turn out to be a huge disaster after an 0-7 start. They would go on to finish with a 4-12 record. Head coach Dom Capers was fired and would go on to be defensive coordinator for the Jaguars in 1999(and 2 years after that he was hired to coach the new expansion Houston Texans).

Enter George Siefert, the former San Francisco 49ers head coach that took over after Bill Walsh retired following the 1988 season. Siefert never really got much credit as a head coach because of the dream team of talent he inherited to work with on those 49ers squads. His 49ers went 14-2 and dominated the 1989 season before blowing out Denver 55-10 to win Super Bowl XXIV his rookie year as a head coach. Siefert failed to "Three-peat" in 1990 and missed the playoffs in 1991 after losing Joe Montana for good and passing the torch to Steve Young. The 49ers finished 14-2 again in 1992 but would go on to lose the 92 and 93 NFC Championship Games to Dallas in back to back years. Finally Siefert got the 49ers back on top in 1994 by taking them to his 2nd Super Bowl title with a victory in Super Bowl XXIX. That 49ers team was loaded to the hilt with an All Star cast of big money free agents. Siefert's 49ers would get upset at home by Green Bay in the 1995 playoffs and would be eliminated by Green Bay a second consecutive season in 1996 before he retired.

So George Siefert never quite filled the shoes of the legendary Bill Walsh in San Francisco. Even though he won 2 Super Bowls and a record .755 win percentage from 1989 to 1996 I get the sense that people expected the 49ers to do more during his reign. I also get the sense even now when his name is brought up that he was an overrated head coach that was carried by the All Star talented rosters he had to work with in San Fran.

But I don't think Siefert gets nearly enough credit for what this 1999 Panthers team did. He comes out of retirement to take on one of the biggest train wrecks in the NFL. The ESPN power rankings had Carolina down at the bottom 3 of the NFL going into the 1999 NFL season. Their star quarterback walked out on the team and they had really no name talent on offense. They had a career backup quarterback in Steve Beuerlien, an always injured running back in Tim Biakabatuka, and no real firepower at receiver since none of the weapons at that position had ever had a 1,000 yard receiving season at that point. The Panthers offensive line going into 1999 was expected to be among the worst in the league, with Pro Football Weekly giving the unit a D+ rating in their preseason preview. On defense the Panthers didn't have much going for them either. Kevin Greene was pushing 40 years old. Siefert was reunited with cornerback Eric Davis, who played the first 6 years for Siefert's 49ers from 1990 to 1995(he was All Pro in 1995). But still, this was a defense that was ranked dead last in the NFL in 1998. So looking at their roster moves from 1998 going into 1999 it appeared that the Panthers were going to be even worse going into 1999.

After the Panthers got off to an 0-2 start to the 99 season it appeared that the experts preseason predictions would come true. They lost 19-10 in New Orleans to Mike Ditka's Saints on opening day before losing 22-20 to their cousins the Jaguars in week 2. The Panthers took a 14-6 lead at the half of what was only their second regular season meeting since both team's inceptions(the Jaguars defeated Carolina 24-14 in their first meeting in 1996). The Jaguars fought back in the second half and took a 22-14 lead with less than 2 minutes to play. Steve Beuerlien led Carolina on a 70 yard drive in the final minute to score on a 1 yard touchdown pass to Wesley Walls but the game tying 2 point conversion pass fell incomplete on the next play, securing the victory for the Jaguars and an 0-2 start for the Panthers.

The Panthers defeated Cincinnati 27-3 to score their first win of the season but they would fall to the Redskins the following week to drop to 1-3. The Panthers vs Redskins week 4 meeting turned out to be one of the best games of the 1999 season. Carolina went up 21-0 in the first quarter after 3 straight Tim Biakabatuka touchdowns(a 60 yarder, a 1 yarder, and a 45 yarder). The Redskins fought back in the second quarter with a Stephen Davis score and 3 Brad Johnson touchdown passes to take a 28-24 lead into halftime. Brad Johnson threw his 4th touchdown in the third quarter to put Washington up 35-24. The Panthers put up a pair of field goals and a Steve Beuerlien touchdown pass with less than 8 minutes to play gave Carolina a 36-35 lead. Brad Johnson would lead Washington from their own 19 yard line into range for the game winning field goal with :10 seconds left for the 38-36 win. Tim Biakabatuka had 142 yards and 3 touchdowns, Muhsin Muhammad had 8 catches for 151 yards, Steve Beuerlien threw for 334 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception while Redskins quarterback Brad Johnson threw for 337 yards and 4 touchdowns.

The week after the heartbreaking last second loss to Washington Siefert took the Panthers into San Francisco to take down his former team with a 31-29 victory over the 49ers. After that the Panthers would drop 3 of their next 4 games to fall to 3-6. The 35-10 loss to the Rams in week 10 seemed to be a turning point for this Panthers squad. After that loss the Panthers would flip the switch and were one of the hottest teams in the NFL for the last 7 weeks, winning 5 of those 7 with one of the best offenses in the NFL. In those 5 wins the Panthers averaged 36.8 points per game. The crazy part of the Panthers run during those last 7 games was how great Steve Beuerlien played. The first 9 games for the Panthers Beuerlien completed 58.6% of his passes for 2,383 yards with 14 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions for a rating of 81.0. Perhaps it was the constant threat of being benched for youngster Jeff Lewis(who was being groomed to take over the starting QB role) but whatever it was something flipped some kind of switch for the 34 year old Steve Beuerlien during those last 7 games because he lit up the NFL and was the hottest quarterback in the league during that stretch.

When you step back and look at it Steve Beuerlien's 1999 season was a real anomaly and one of the all time great forgotten "One Hit Wonder" seasons in modern times. What really makes it stand out is when you consider what Beuerlien did before and after the 1999 season in his career. He was drafted in the 4th round by the Raiders in 1987. Mike Shannahan went with him as his starting quarterback to start the 1988 season but he only started 8 games as they phased him out for Jay Schroaeder going into 1989. Beuerlien would hold out for a new contract and would miss the entire 1990 season before finding his way to Dallas to backup Troy Aikman in 1991. After Aikman was lost for the season in week 12 Steve Beuerlien would come in and win all of Dallas' last 4 games and was the starter for Dallas' victory over the Bears in the 1991 NFC Wild Card game. The next year Beuerlien rode the bench the entire year and won a ring as a backup for the 1992 Cowboys Super Bowl run. He would spin off of that to get a shot as a starting quarterback for the Pheonix Cardinals in 1993. As a starter for 14 games for the Cards in '93 Beuerlien went 6-8 and completed 61.7% of his passes for 3,164 yards with 18 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. The following season Buddy Ryan took over the Arizona Cardinals as head coach and clashed with Steve Beuerlien from the start, eventually calling him out in public by saying he was the worst quarterback he had ever coached. Beuerlien went 3-4 as a starter for the 94 Cardinals and threw just 5 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.

Steve Beuerlien got another shot to be a franchise quarterback when the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars signed him in the 1995 offseason. He started the very first Jaguars regular season game in a 10-3 home loss to the Oilers on opening day '95. He also started the very first win in Jaguars franchise history when they defeated the Oilers in the Astrodome 17-16 later that season. Eventually inconsistent play and nagging injuries brought an end to Beuerlien's opportunity with Jacksonville and he lost the starting job to Mark Brunnell. After going 1-5 with 4 touchdown passes and 7 interceptions with the Jags in 1995 it appeared that Beuerlien's days as a starting quarterback in the NFL were over. He would sign on to backup Kerry Collins for the Panthers in 1996.

Beuerlien held the clip board and filled in on occasion for the Panthers in 1996 and 1997 before Kerry Collins benched himself following the 0-4 start in 1998. Panthers head coach Dom Capers cut Collins and went all in with Steve Beuerlien as the starter the rest of the way. Beuerlien would end up completing 62.9% of his passes for 2,613 yards with 17 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, going 4-8 with a passer rating of 88.2. Those were decent numbers but nothing there would ever suggest that he would end up having the dream season that he did in 1999. He would end up finishing 1st in the NFL in passing yards with 4,436 yards and 36 touchdown passes. So just think about that for a second, Beuerlien with a cast of no namers around him and a D+ offensive line that let him get sacked 50 times threw for more passing yards in 1999 than Marino, Manning, Favre, and even MVP Kurt Warner. Beuerlien's 4,436 passing yards and 36 touchdown passes remain franchise records for the Carolina Panthers still to this day 22 years later.

Steve Beuerlien vs Kurt Warner Head to Head Comparison for final 7 games of 1999

Quarterback	Completion Percentage	Passing Yards	Touchdown Passes	Interceptions	Passer Rating
Kurt Warner	60.9	1,905	15	7	98.4
Steve Beuerlein	61.9	2,053	22	3	111.8

The signature win and moment for this 1999 Panthers squad has to be their week 14 victory over the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau. At that point the Panthers were at 5-7 and both teams were scrapping it out to stay in the playoff picture. This was a revenge game of sorts for Panthers coach George Siefert who had his final 2 seasons in San Francisco brought to an end by Favre's Packers in the playoffs. Beuerlein and Favre had a shootout going back and forth with each other with Beuerlein's 3rd touchdown pass putting Carolina up 24-21 going into the 4th quarter. Both teams traded field goals in the 4th quarter with Carolina holding on to a 27-24 lead into the final minutes of the game. The Packers took a 31-24 lead with a 1 yard touchdown run by William Henderson, setting up a dramatic 70 yard drive by the Panthers in the end. Beuerlien led Carolina on a 13 play trek down the field in the final 4 minutes, completing 8 passes to keep the drive alive including a 6 yard completion on 3rd and 5 at mid-field. Beuerlein also completed an 18 yard pass on 4th and 1 to move Carolina into scoring range. It all came down to a 4th and goal with :05 left on the clock. Beuerlein stunned a 3 man pass rush by Green Bay with a quarterback draw for the game winning touchdown, salvaging the Panthers season with a 33-31 victory. Beuerlein threw for 373 yards and 3 touchdown passes along with the game winning walk off touchdown run in the end.

The next week Steve Beuerlein threw for 368 yards and 4 touchdowns to help the Panthers sweep the 49ers with a 41-24 victory to even up their record at 7-7. The loss that really cut the heart out of the Panthers 1999 season took place in week 16 when they were defeated 30-20 in Pittsburgh by a weak Steelers team that was in free fall mode. This was really a game the Panthers should have won but it really killed their season. The next week they needed a miracle to get into the playoffs, they needed to outscore the Packers in net conference point differential and also needed the Cowboys to lose to the Giants. Neither happened, despite dropping 45 points on the Saints in their finale the Packers maintained their lead in point differential. In the end it didn't even matter since the Cowboys would defeat the Giants to take the 6th seed spot in the NFC playoffs.

So with that you have the 1999 Panthers finish at 8-8. I still think this was one of the more underrated coaching performances considering the talent and circumstances that George Seifert walked into with this team that year. I'm not sure how much credit he deserves for their offense being so good(since he was a defense guy) but the Panthers finished 4th in the NFL in 1999 in offense with Steve Beuerlein and Tim Biakabatuka and a bunch of unproven and unsung players. Muhsin Muhammad would end up having a long successful 14 year career but his 1999 performance with 96 receptions for 1,253 receiving yards would be only 1 of 3 seasons he had with over 1,000 receiving yards. Patrick Jeffers had over 1,000 yards receiving in 1999 but it was his one and only time, he would be out of the league by 2002. So the 1999 Panthers offense is pretty remarkable considering the names they had on this roster. They did have one of my all time favorites in Eric Metcalf but he was way past his prime by 1999 and barely registered any stats even as a return man(his specialty).

One thing I am left wondering though is just how far this Panthers team could have made it in the 1999 NFC playoffs. Had they been able to get in they would have had to face the Vikings in Minnesota in the first round in what I'm sure would have been a high scoring shoot out. If they could have got past Minnesota they would have had to face the St. Louis Rams for a 3rd time that year. This is where the "What If" gets interesting. St. Louis defeated Carolina both times in the regular season, the first of which was an ugly 35-10 blowout, but the rematch three weeks later in Carolina was a closer game. The Rams jumped out 21-0 after 3 consecutive Kurt Warner touchdown passes but Beuerlein closed the gap to 21-14 with a pair of touchdown passes. The Rams went up 24-14 with a field goal early in the fourth quarter but the Panthers hung with them after a 71 yard touchdown pass by Beuerlein on the very first play of Carolina's next possession, cutting St. Louis lead to 24-21. The Panthers held St. Louis' offense in the second half of that game. After a missed field goal the Panthers had a chance to take the game but Beuerlein threw an interception that was ran back 53 yards for a touchdown that ended the competitive phase of the game. The Rams would add another field goal to win it 34-21.

So how would a third meeting between the Rams and Panthers have played out in the 99 playoffs? History tells us that the Rams had a pretty good chance, since the 1970 merger 14 out of 20 times the team that won two regular-season games went on to win the playoff game(including the Titans sweeping the Jaguars that 1999 season). But there have been times when the team that swept their division rival in the regular season just couldn't beat them in that 3rd game in the playoffs. The 1983 Seahawks defeated the Raiders twice in the regular season but lost to them in the AFC Championship Game. The 1989 Run N' Shoot Oilers swept the underdog Pittsburgh Steelers in the regular season before losing to them in the Wild Card round at home in the Astrodome. The 1992 Chiefs swept the Chargers before being knocked off in the playoffs, as did the 1994 Vikings against the Bears, and the aforementioned 1998 Cowboys getting stunned at home by the Jake Plummer Cardinals. So it's not impossible to think that this Panthers squad could have upset the Greatest Show On Turf in a third meeting. I actually think there was a strong chance that it could have happened.

So that's my obsession with this 8-8 Panthers team that didn't even make the playoffs. There is just something oddly fascinating about this squad to me. They played some really great games that season and ended up being better than anybody thought they would be, with a squad of old or unproven players that didn't have any right to being as good as they ended up being that year. And yet they still didn't even make the playoffs or even have a winning season. I think it was a brilliant head coaching performance by Seifert that is understandably underrated because of how bad the Panthers were over the next 2 years(the 1-15 season in 2001 got Seifert fired). But still this team stands as something of an anomaly, especially Steve Beuerlein's performance that year.