The 1993 NFL Season: 30 Years Later

We're doing another deep dive into another past NFL season. If you remember a couple Summers ago I went all in on a closer look at the 1999 season: 

The 1999 NFL Season: A Football Odyssey 

This time we're going back 30 years for the anniversary of the 1993 season. This was a critical year in the history of the NFL and a year similar to the 1999 season in that it was one single year where a lot of events happened that ended up shaping the NFL we have today in 2023. Now that we are in the dog days of the 2023 NFL season I figured it would be the perfect time to dig back 30 years ago to 1993, one of the most fascinating past seasons in NFL history. So strap up strap in and lets take a look at the games, players, teams, stories, everything.... 

I got a day off with little manny in daycare, it's 30 fucking degrees on November 1st, lets fucking do this.

What the hell is going on around here?(The beginning of Unrestricted Free Agency)

Got to start this off looking at the biggest thing about the 1993 season, the first year they instituted the Unrestricted Free Agency system that we all know and love today every February-March. Stop for a minute and think about how huge this was, how massive of a change on the whole sport this was that shaped the NFL we all have known for the last 30 years.

Before the 1993 season there was no Unrestricted Free Agency. NFL teams basically owned the players they drafted unless they wanted to trade them or if they retired. So if a player's rookie contract expired he had to renegotiate a new deal with the team that drafted him, he couldn't go to another team.

Through a series of events through the 2 player strikes in the 80's(1982 and 1987) the players union started to break this down to get more freedom. By 1989 the NFL started "Plan B" free agency:

"(Plan B) allows each team to retain limited rights to 37 players each season. A protected player is unable to sign with other teams without giving his old team the first chance to sign him or forcing his new club to compensate his old club if he goes elsewhere."

Plan B got shot down through a lawsuit in court won by the players that fought against it. The NFL opened up the books starting with 1993 free agency for veterans of at least 5 years who's rookie contract was up. The compromise by the Players Union was the institution of the Salary Cap starting the next year in 1994. These 2 changes really create a distinct pivot point in NFL history where they was a clear end of an era and the beginning of a new one perhaps all in the same year in 1993.

To turn this back and connect it with my 1999 project linked in the OP, I feel like now looking at it all that 1999 season being as wide open and fun as it was, I believe that was the end result of these 2 changes(Unrestricted Free Agency and the Salary Cap) put in the NFL in 93-94, it took 4-5 years for those two changes to really have it's effect and 1999 being as wide open as it was, was the end result.

Dude this start of Unrestricted Free Agency just turned the whole league upside down. After little to no player movement all of a sudden guys were going everywhere that offseason. We all know the big one was Reggie White going to the Green Bay Packers for a huge deal, turning that whole franchise around. Here are some other notable moves from that first class of 1993 Unrestricted Free Agency:

Jets made the biggest moves, trading for Boomer Esiason, signing Giants great Leonard Marshall, then Ronnie Lott from the 49ers. Also signed solid former Raiders NT/DT Bill Pickel.

The Packers also signed Bill Maas, former Raiders d-line.

Cardinals head coach Joe Bugel was former Redskins assistant coach reunited with Gary Clark, Washington receiver that played major role in their 1991 Super Bowl run.

Buccaneers signed former Steelers linebacker Hardy Nickerson, one of the best linebackers of the era and huge impact on turning that franchise around in the mid-90's.

Eagles signed former Giants great TE Mark Bavaro.

Raiders signed former Giants QB Jeff Hostetler.

Bucs also signed Martin Mayhew, defensive back that had a great season on that 1991 Redskins defense.

Vikings signed Jim Mcmahon as their starting QB former Eagles and Bears Super Bowl XX QB in 85

Bengals signed QB Jay Schroeder formerly of the Raiders/Redskins.

The Buccaneers also signed Anthony Munoz from the Bengals reuniting him with head coach Sam Wyche, he ended up retiring in training camp.

The Bears signed Ironhead Heyward from the Saints FB.

The Cardinals signed quarterback Steve Bueurlien former Cowboys backup.

Falcons signed QB Bobby Hebert from the Saints their division rival.

Eagles signed defensive back Erik Mcmillan from the Jets.

Lions signed Bill Fralic OL from the Falcons.

Rams signed Shane Conlan linebacker from the Bills.

Cardinals signed Chuck Cecil from the Packers, easily one of the hardest hitters in NFL history(at one time the NFL forced him to wear a padded helmet?).

Packers signed former All Pro Eagles DE Reggie White in April.

49ers signed defensive back Tim Mcdonald solid safety from the Cardinals.

Steelers signed former Rams linebacker Kevin Greene, Hall of Famer, WCW legend.

Browns head coach Bill Belichick signs Vinnie Testaverde former Bucs 1st round QB AND former Bucs great WR Mark Carrier.

Raiders sign former Bills and Packers WR one of the all time leading receivers James Lofton.

Times Making Changes(The 1993 Offseason)

Not sure if Marcus Allen was an UNRESTRICTED free agent I think he was just a free agent with no ties to the Raiders by 1993 when he signed with Kansas City. They signed him pretty late in the offseason in June. 

Joe Montana going to the Chiefs was actually a trade with San Francisco. I'll get more into this later when I cover the 93 Cardinals but they were actually the leading team that had the best offer on the table for Montana in trade talks. The 49ers took a lesser offer from the Chiefs as like a favor for Montana to send him to a contender and not a losing team like the Cardinals.

So think of the butterfly effects of all of this, these two signings that offseason with Montana and Marcus Allen going to the Chiefs in the AFC, of all the events in both of these players lives and careers that led to them being able to switch teams that one offseason 30 years ago, Allen's falling out with the Raiders a team he won a ring for, and Montana escaping being traded to Phoenix to end up in Kansas City to wreck the 1993 AFC playoffs and send a franchise packing to Tennessee.

So those were the biggest trades that offseason, Montana from SF to the Chiefs, Boomer from the Bengals to Jets, also the Vikings traded Rich Gannon to the Skins but Gannon was kind of a nobody/backup at that point early in his career(would end up as 2002 NFL MVP a decade later?). 

For coaching changes this was the first year after Joe Gibbs retired from the Redskins, passing the team along to longtime defensive coordinator Richie Petitbon. Former Cowboys defensive coordinator from their 1992 Super Bowl run Dave Wannstedt took over the Chicago Bears coaching job. Broncos promoted defensive coordinator Wade Phillips to head coach to replace Dan Reeves, who moved to take on the New York Giants head coaching job.

The biggest coaching change was Bill Parcells coming out of retirement to take over by far the worst team in the NFL the New England Patriots. I think he was instrumental in changing their uniforms to the modern ones we have today that offseason. Two huge changes/happenings here that shaped the NFL for decades as far as that dynasty and how everything ended up. 

I find it odd that the Giants were looking for a head coach that year and Parcells was looking to make a comeback but took over the Patriots instead. Hindsight 20/20 seems like a missed opportunity to not have Parcells back in New York with the Giants for the rest of the 90's instead he had oddball runs with the Patriots and Jets. 

Parcells made the move in the 93 NFL draft that April among all this free agent movement with the #1 pick taking Drew Bledsoe to build this team around going forward with their fancy new uniforms. The Seahawks took Rick Mirer at #2 and he had a lot of hype in college as like the next Joe Montana(they wore the same number at Notre Dame). The Cardinals took Garrison Hearst at #3. 

Looking back at the 93 draft this is where the Saints got Willie Roaf at #8, the Rams took Jerome Bettis at #10, the Giants got Michael Strahan in the second round, the Chargers got Natron Means the very next pick, while Will Shields(KC) and John Lynch(TB) were drafted in the 3rd. 

The Saints also took one of the all time great fullbacks Lorenzo Neal in the 4th round, he played over 200 games into the 2008 season. Several other very good players taken throughout the draft, Broncos kicker Jason Elam, Vikings RB Robert Smith, Dana Stubblefield, George Teague, Brock Marion, also the Packers drafted future Jaguars star QB Mark Brunell in the 5th round, while future starters Elvis Grback and Trent Green were taken deep into the 8th(final) round. 

Two big changes ahead of the 1993 NFL season was the additional bye week, giving every team 2 weeks off spread out through the season(one of the only times in NFL history), also the rule change that allowed for QB's to be able to throw the ball away when they are out of the pocket. There was no 2 point conversion yet(they didn't put that in until the next season 1994), defenses could still literally kill receivers coming across the middle of the field and maim defenseless quarterbacks. Scoring was actually down to historic lows in 91 and 92 despite the flashy players and offensive systems like the Run N Shoot, Barry Sanders, et al. 

When the league opened up the offensive side of the game in 1978 they changed the pass interference rules, they made it legal for offensive lineman to use their opened hands, and they added 2 more regular season games(from 14 games to 16 games), you really seen offensive stats and records like never before. But for some reason we seen a bottleneck effect of offense in 91-92-93 where scoring and yardage came to a screeching halt. 

Amount of teams to score more than 350 points in the 16 game era:

1978: 6
1979: 9
1980: 10
1981: 9
1982: Strike(only 9 games)
1983: 14
1984: 11
1985: 12
1986: 13
1987: Strike(only 12 games, 3 with scabs)
1988: 9
1989: 11
1990: 9
1991: 5
1992: 6
1993: 4
1994: 8
1995: 13
1996: 9
1997: 11
1998: 10
1999: 11.......

2013: 20

2020(last season of 16 game era): 23 

So what happened? Was it because the defenses of the NFL were that good that year? or maybe the offenses were that bad? A combo of both? It will be interesting to look closer to see why scoring was down so low that year in 1993.  

The Worst Of The Worst(Bengals, Redskins, Colts, & Rams)

Is it just me or did it seem like there was an unusual amount of jobber teams scumming it in the NFL in the 93 season? One of the big things I remember about 93 is it seemed like there were a lot of games where the worst teams played each other to an abysmal final score of single digits, teams that were 1-11 or 2-12 playing each other to 7-2 or 9-6 final scores was like a calling card of the 93 season.

There were a lot of REALLY bad teams in the NFL in 1993. You had the usual suspects from that era like New England, Indy, Tampa Bay, routinely some of the sorriest teams in NFL history back then, but then you added to it with some teams that were really good in those years from 89-92 that just let the bottom fall out in 93, Washington, the Rams, The Bengals.

The worst of the bunch and perhaps one of the worst teams in NFL history has got to be that 93 Bengals team under head coach David Shula's second season. They started 0-10, at one point they were 1-12 before they won 2 of their last 3 games to finish 3-13. I think maybe this was the worst of all the bad Bengals teams of the 90's, they were just a complete doormat for the NFL that year. This was the 3rd year after legendary founder Paul Brown died and left the team to his son Mike Brown(in 1991). Mike Brown being faced with never getting out of his father's shadow found a kindred spirit in Don Shula's son David Shula, who was promoted from receivers coordinator to head coach as the youngest coach in NFL history in 1992(after they fired Sam Wyche following a bad 3-13 1991 campaign). After a 2-0 start in 92 Shula's Bengals laid down for a 5-11 finish and when it was over Boomer Esiason was requesting a trade out of town. Boomer had no interest in riding the bench as the backup for Cincy's rookie 1st round pick in the 92 draft David Klingler so they shipped him to the Jets.

With Klingler failing as a starting QB the Bengals finished dead last at 28th in the NFL in offense. To be fair Klingler didn't have much help other than a young Carl Pickens and a few holdovers on the offensive line from the 88 Super Bowl team. The 93 Bengals only scored over 20 points one time all season, Klingler went 3-10 as a starter with 6 touchdowns 9 ints and less than 2,000 yards. Shula and the Bengals botched their 1st overall pick they got from being this bad in 93, then Shula stuck with Klingler as the starter through an 0-7 start in 1994. The Bengals stuck with Shula all the way until 1996 before finally pulling the plug.

The next worst team in 93 would have to be the Indianapolis Colts, who really went nowhere after moving from Baltimore a decade earlier, the big trading for Eric Dickerson and drafting Jeff George in the 80's. Here they were the end result was one of the worst teams in the league in 1993 by far. The Colts hit their all time low in the 1-15 season in 1991 that was historically one of the all time worst teams in NFL history. They had to have had a spark of hope when they hired former Baltimore Colts great head coach Ted Marchibroda in 1992. Marchibroda led the Colts to a surprising 9-7 turnaround in his first year in 92(they missed the playoffs). In 93 it appeared that they would carryover that momentum after a 2-1 start. The Colts big win would be their week 4 victory over Bill Belichick's Browns in a teacher vs student matchup(Belichick got started on Marchibroda's Colts staff in the late 70's). The Colts would end up dominating Cleveland to a 23-10 victory.

After that win over Cleveland gave Indy a 2-1 start they lost 3 in a row where the defense gave up a ton of points. Steve Emtman the Colts #1 overall draft pick d-lineman in 92 was lost for another season ending injury after the 5th game. After an ugly 9-6 win over the Patriots put them at 3-4 the Colts season seemingly turned on the loss to Washington the following week. Washington jumped out to a 30-10 lead but Jeff George was able to close the gap to 30-24 in the 4th quarter. That was really the last game where the 93 Colts showed any life, they would go on to lose 7 of their last 8 games(their lone win another ugly single digit 9-6 touchdownless win over the Jets) to finish 4-12. Interesting fact the Colts 4 wins, 3 of them were all by the score of 9-6.

To me the Redskins in 93 were another one of the worst teams I can remember ever watching. How the mighty had fallen, just 2 years removed from being one of the all time great teams on that 1991 Super Bowl run. They were still dangerous in 1992 despite all the injuries, their defense was still top tier and they made it to the second round of the 92 playoffs(where they put up a tough fight against San Fran). Joe Gibbs retired following the 92 season and defensive coordinator Richie Petitbon was promoted to head coach.

As bad as this Skins were they still had that anomaly victory over defending Super Bowl Champ Dallas Cowboys on the opening week Monday night game. Dallas was without Emmitt Smith(holding out) and Washington dominated Dallas to a 35-16 win. Rypien threw 3 touchdowns in the win but would be lost to injury the very next week in a loss to the Cardinals. Even without Rypien the Skins put up a tough fight in a 34-31 loss to the Randall Cunningham Eagles in their 3rd game. After a tough loss to the Dolphins dropped them to 1-3 I feel like this team much like those Colts just collectively gave up on the season.

They got manhandled 41-6 by the Giants, then another bad blowout to the Cardinals the following week where it was clear that this Redskins team was really bad. They were able to rough out some ugly wins over bad teams to get to a 4-12 finish. Petitbon was released after the season to make way for the hiring of Dallas offensive coordinator Norv Turner. Rypien after having a dream season in 1991 finishing with a Super Bowl MVP, fell off REALLY hard in 1992. After going 3-7 with 4 touchdown passes vs 10 interceptions and a 66. rating in 1993, just like that Rypien's days in Washington were over, as were his days as a starting NFL quarterback. He spent 1994 backing up Vinnie Testaverde in Cleveland before riding the bench as Tony Banks backup in St. Louis in 1995. 

I think the big underrated aspect about Washington's sharp decline was the case of Jim Lachey, their star tackle that dominated the line in 1991. Many thought Lachey would go on to be a Hall Of Famer and premier player at his position for the full 90's decade but he suffered a bad injury that sidelined him in 1992. Lachey was lost for the season with another injury in the 1993 preseason, when he finally came back in 1994 he was a shell of his 1991 prime form and never really reached that potential everybody thought he had. He missed a few more games to injury in 1994 before being lost for good 3 games into the 1995 season. Lachey was a guy that ended up forgotten, while at one time many thought he would be an all time great. After watching through the 1991 Skins season game by game on Youtube recently I really truly feel like Lachey should have been 1991 NFL MVP. The performance he put in that year and against the guys he was playing against week to week was really amazing. I don't think the guy gave up a single sack all year playing HOFers every week. 

This bad 1993 season is interesting looking back at it now 30 years later. This was definitely a nightmare season where the glory days of the Redskins were over, and these fans had no idea that the misery was only just beginning for them for the next 3 decades.

And then there were the Chuck Knox LA Rams. Knox was one of the best NFL coaches during his days with the Rams in the 70's, the franchise tried to recapture that success when they brought him back in 1992(both Chuck Knox and Ted Marchibroda, throwback coaches from the 1970's brought back in 1992, both entered their 2nd season of their comeback in 93, both of their teams being among the bottom of the NFL). Knox's Rams were really bad in 1992 and they stayed pretty bad in 1993. After a road win over the Oilers in the Astrodome put the Rams at 2-2 they would end up losing 9 of their last 12 to finish 5-11. They finished in the bottom 5 of the NFL in offense and defense. Jim Everett, once one of the best passers in the league, had fallen pretty far and split half the season with TJ Rubley.

The Rams played one of their final seasons in LA(Anaheim actually) in 1993, their ensuing 1994 season would be their last before moving to St. Louis in 1995. The LA Rams did have the NFL's leading rusher in 1993 in Jerome Bettis, who bulldozed the NFL as a rookie to lead the league with 1,429 rushing yards, averaging 4.9 yards a carry during what has to be one of the hardest single seasons to be a ball carrier in NFL history. A star was born. Damn Bettis looked good in a Rams jersey/helmet, but they fumbled him away to Pittsburgh shortly after moving to St. Louis and the rest is history.

I always pop for a Neo Zeed old school NFL thread. Hadn't no sold this. It's just that I initially dismissed '93 as a pretty blah season after a quick perusal of the standings and playoffs. Upon further review, two things did come to mind. Checked the other day and both did indeed occur in '93. Damn, I'm good. I'll get to those in my next post. But first I have to touch on Nobi comments that stood out...

Nov 1, 2023 16:02:47 GMT Neo Zeed said:

What the hell is going on around here?(The beginning of Unrestricted Free Agency)

Got to start this off looking at the biggest thing about the 1993 season, the first year they instituted the Unrestricted Free Agency system that we all know 
Jets made the biggest moves, trading for Boomer Esiason, signing Giants great Leonard Marshall, then Ronnie Lott from the 49ers. Also signed solid former Raiders NT/DT Bill Pickel.

The Bears signed Ironhead Heyward from the Saints FB.

Falcons signed QB Bobby Hebert from the Saints their division rival.

Cardinals signed Chuck Cecil from the Packers, easily one of the hardest hitters in NFL history(at one time the NFL forced him to wear a padded helmet?).

Packers signed former All Pro Eagles DE Reggie White in April.

Steelers signed former Rams linebacker Kevin Greene, Hall of Famer, WCW legend.

The free agency stuff is interesting. Definitely changed the game. 

I forgot about the Jets going all in with a bunch of olds. Matt The IRS Fan's pal Joey was all about the Jets that year. Didn't pan out though. Because Jets.

Heyward never did much in New Orleans. It's even fair to call him a bust. But he was still one of my guys. Never underestimate the power of a badass nickname.

Don't get me started out on Bobby "Sellout" Hebert defecting to the stupid Falcons. What a punch to the gut that was. It's basically the 1993 version of Razor & Diesel selling out to WCW in 1996. Only worse, because I actually liked Hebert. This bit of showboating after a TD pass in a tragic Week 8 Saints loss to the Falcons (which I had always misremembered as a playoff game) turned him into public enemy #1 with me...



More on the Saints in my next post...

Chuck Cecil was a brute. Never heard the padded helmet story tho. EDIT: The helmet story is true. 

Reggie White has to be the biggest of those early free agent signings. When the Packers became dominant a few years later the narrative went something like "Green Bay was an NFL wasteland where nobody wanted to....until Reggie White signed, opening the door for other players." 

Popped for that Kevin Greene: "WCW legend" blurb.

Nov 1, 2023 16:10:38 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Times Making Changes(The 1993 Offseason)

Not sure if Marcus Allen was an UNRESTRICTED free agent I think he was just a free agent with no ties to the Raiders by 1993 when he signed with Kansas City. They signed him pretty late in the offseason in June. 

Joe Montana going to the Chiefs was actually a trade with San Francisco. I'll get more into this later when I cover the 93 Cardinals but they were actually the leading team that had the best offer on the table for Montana in trade talks. The 49ers took a lesser offer from the Chiefs as like a favor for Montana to send him to a contender and not a losing team like the Cardinals.

the Vikings traded Rich Gannon to the Skins but Gannon was kind of a nobody/backup at that point early in his career(would end up as 2002 NFL MVP a decade later?). 

For coaching changes this was the first year after Joe Gibbs retired from the Redskins

Bill Parcells coming out of retirement to take over by far the worst team in the NFL the New England Patriots. I think he was instrumental in changing their uniforms to the modern ones we have today that offseason. 

The Cardinals took Garrison Hearst at #3. 
the Rams took Jerome Bettis at #10

while future starters Elvis Grback and Trent Green were taken deep into the 8th(final) round. 

Scoring was actually down to historic lows in 91 and 92 despite the flashy players and offensive systems like the Run N Shoot, Barry Sanders, et al. 

Amount of teams to score more than 350 points in the 16 game era:

1978: 6
1979: 9
1980: 10
1981: 9
1982: Strike(only 9 games)
1983: 14
1984: 11
1985: 12
1986: 13
1987: Strike(only 12 games, 3 with scabs)
1988: 9
1989: 11
1990: 9
1991: 5
1992: 6
1993: 4
1994: 8
1995: 13
1996: 9
1997: 11
1998: 10
1999: 11.......

2013: 20

2020(last season of 16 game era): 23 

Chiefs leapfrogged the Bills to become the scariest team in the AFC to 1993 me (though still behind the dreaded Cowboys & 49ers in the wider NFL). KC already had a strong defense. Now they had the Jordan of football in childhood dream killer Joe Montana. I breathed a sigh of relief when they got bounced in the AFC playoffs. Forgot Allen ended up on that team as well. They were like a supersized version of the Jets.

Gannon had one of the weirdest careers in NFL history. One worthy of a thread in its own right. He was midcard at best for over a decade before magically transforming into, well, Joe Montana in his mid 30s when most players start winding down. 

I'd have put all my money on Gibbs retiring after winning the Super Bowl over the Bills. That's how I "remembered" it. Good thing I never made that bet. 

So Parcells is to blame for the Patriots uniform downgrade? I was not aware of that and now I like Parcells a little less.

Garrison Hearst was one of my guys in college. He was a beast at Georgia. I was a low key Cardinals fan during the 80s & 90s. Practically every year I'd think "THIS is the year the Cards turn it around!" Only it never happened. They got Hearst this year but he didn't really pan out til he went to San Fran. Then a few years later they got Buddy Ryan (who was a jerk, but a winner) and another Baker college boy in Jake "The Snake" Plummer. 

Don't remember the 'Montana to Arizona' rumors. Now I wonder whether I would I have rooted for Montana or turned on the Cardinals?

Bettis would be another one of my guys in the early-mid 2000s with the Steelers. He was also a beast in one of the early Maddens.

Was the 8th Round the final one of the 1993 draft? I know they were going all the way til 12 the first few years I followed football. Didn't know they slowly trimmed off those late rounds. Assumed they just went from 12 to 7 one year.

Interesting stuff about the scoring decline. I have no sweeping theories. Took a quick look at some player stats the other day and even the individual player numbers were down across the board. Elway led the league in passing yards with only 4030 (2nd lowest ypg to lead the league since 1978) while Sanders rushed for what has to be a career low at "only" a shade over 1100. 
====================
It's wild how the Colts had the #1 & #2 pick in the same draft and had neither player pan out. 

Everybody looks good in a classic Rams uniform! With all due respect to the Chargers, 80s Bucs, and Houston Oilers, that classic Rams uni is as good as it gets.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 1993 SEASON

My Saints (you better believe I was rocking a puffy black & gold Saints Starter jacket by this point) started out 5-0 which I believe made them the last undefeated team. So I was feeling good about life. Then they collapsed to finish 8-8 and miss the playoffs. This marked the end of their solid stretch which began with the miraculous 1987 season. They wouldn't have another winning season until 2000. By that point I'd lost all interest in NO and had long since moved on. 

Leon Lett's Thanksgiving Day Boner



Made it just in the nick of time. Caught this all timer of a boner at my grandmother's house when we dropped her off from my Mensa Uncle's Thanksgiving day festivities. Luckily my mom was a lingerer. Oh, it sucked when I'd be stuck at the store for hours while she putt putted around, or desperately wanted to catch some weekend WWF tv only be detained by her infuriating slow pokery, but this is one time where my mom's lingering paid off. 

Leon Lett had already been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Shame (great book series btw) with his Super Bowl boner 10 months earlier when Don Beebe chased down a showboating Lett. If you know, you know. But even that was relatively minor in the grand scheme of things considering the Cowboys still won in a blowout. Sure, we were all "LOL Leon Lett" but it was more along the lines of Abner's Boner than one which live in infamy like Merkle's Boner or Buckner's Boner.

But to have ANOTHER boner of epic proportions only 10 months later AND have this one cost his team the game turned Leon Lett into the butt of many a joke. The poor Bills* were finally off the hook. Football had a new whipping boy...

My 1b favorite Sports Talk Radio show spent a lot of time mocking two players- Bobby Bonilla & Leon Lett. This show was WILD. I don't remember the names of the hosts. I think it was just a pair of local yappers on Stan "The Fan" Charles short-lived sports talk radio station. These guys were weirdly obsessed with high school basketball. But these guys were CHARACTERS. They were basically morning zoo goofballs riffing on sports for two hours and I couldn't get enough. I don't even think they had real commercials. Or at least some of their 'commercials' were just skits. One was for local plumber "Phil McCracken" (I didn't get the joke until years later).

Another memorable segment was the "Bobby Bonilla money update" where they'd compare Bonilla's salary to that of normal people while Pink Floyd's Money played in the background. The gist of it basically being "Bobby Bonilla is the poster boy for out of control contracts and player greed." It got even worse during The Strike. 

And finally came the Leon Lett bashing. It was a riff on the "Don't Do Drugs" and "Don't Drive Drunk" commercials which were prevalent at the time and went something like this...

"The average human being only uses 10% of their brain. The average football player uses 15% of their brain. And then there is Leon Lett. Leon Lett...has no brain. Don't grow up to be a Leon Lett."

*The Bills got a bad rap. They were the whipping boy of practically everyone in the early 90s as they became synonymous with losing. Sure, I started out as a Bills hater. Couldn't stand 'em. I don't even remember why nowadays. But they slowly grew on me over time if only because I thought they were ill-treated by the media. They were the 2nd best team in the league 4 years in a row! No other team has EVER made 4 straight Super Bowls!! If casuals and late night talk show hacks (though admittedly still better than the assclowns they have nowadays) dug below surface level they'd know the REAL losers were bums like the Bucs & Cards. They're the ones who should have been the punchline of every "LOL u suck" joke, not the poor perpetual bridesmaid Bills. 

Next Time?: Popularity Contests and 1993 NFL Storylines....if there is any interest

Just getting started into this project has already unlocked some deep memory nostalgia. For instance I suddenly remembered the day we went to my elementary school fall festival that October 93, then went and caught a movie at the theater after we left. The movie? Demolition Man.

Absolutely bonkers that this was all 30 years ago now. This was one NFL season where I followed the league probably more closely than any other in my lifetime as an NFL fan. I was pretty young, like 9, but I went football crazy after the Rypien Super Bowl. Got my little hands on NFL's Greatest Games vol. 1 and 2 and Super Sunday VHS tapes, had a pin up poster with all 28 teams helmets divided by conference/division in my room. I got full boxes of Pro Set football cards from like 1990 that Christmas '92. I Got REALLY into the 92 NFL season(especially those playoffs, the 92 NFL playoffs lit a lifetime obsession with tournaments/brackets) so when 93 season came around I was fully immersed in it. I would watch the Jack Pardee Show on Houston public access TV(?) on Saturday mornings. Sunday mornings I would have the newspaper spread out across the living room floor reading anything NFL related, making lists, keeping track of stats in my notebook. I would LOVE watching Monday Night Football that year, starting with the 2 hour ESPN pre-game special. Watching I think Ron Jaworski break down plays the way he would was so fucking bad ass. I wish I could find videos of those segments.

Funny story that I remember from that year in school, hanging with my friends at the library. I used to amaze everybody with my ability to write down the results; winner/loser, score and appropriate roman numeral for every Super Bowl just from memory. Kids would gather around, somebody would take the paper home to ask their parents if I got it right. Sometimes I would get the Bengals/49ers-Raiders/Eagles game switched around but eventually always got it perfect. There were only 27-28 Super Bowls to remember and I had Super Sunday VHS tape literally watched the tape so much it broke and the VCR ate it. It was a daily watch.

The funny story is that one day I remember sitting with my friends and after I wrote out the 28 Super Bowls it was like a longer piece of paper and there was room for like 10-15 more future Super Bowls(so we're talking 94 to 2004 or so) we could predict as 9 year olds in 1993. I distinctly remember telling my buds that the teams that sucked right now would probably be the ones that win a bunch of Super Bowls in the future, at that time no team sucked harder than the Patriots so I'm positive I remember penciling in no less than 3 Patriots Super Bowls in those future slots, possibly a Buccaneers, Seahawks, Colts SB wins too. I wish I kept that paper to look at it now.

I just can't get over how Redskins fans must have felt after that 35-16 demolition of the Cowboys on opening week taking down the Super Bowl Champions. So much for the theory that just anybody could have ran behind that o-line, here they were smack in the middle of their prime in the middle of 92-93 without Emmitt getting spanked with a backup RB in there. Watching the game now look at the separation Art Monk was able to get on Darren Woodson for that score. Rypien was fucking fired up, 3 touchdown passes. Jesus what a high point, followed IMMEDIATELY by 3 full decades of total bullshit. Utterly fascinating game.

Edit: Also just seen that the Bengals vs Colts game from early in the season that ended 9-6 win via last second FG by Indy, was the first Bengals game to NOT sell out in something like 45 games. 

Got to double back to the LA Rams game against the Pittsburgh Steelers early this season. Interesting game where Kevin Greene playing in his first year with Pittsburgh against his old team the Rams, where he was held without a sack by a great performance by Jackie Slater. Also this was Jerome Bettis' very first NFL touchdown, scored AGAINST the Steelers. The Rams dominated Pittsburgh to a 27-0 victory.

Ok so I'm just now realizing something about 1993 that may have contributed to the low scoring. There were a lot of big injuries across the league on the offensive side of the ball, Barry Sanders missed the last 5 games, Jim Lachey the key anchor on Washington's o-line was lost for the year in preseason, Randall Cunningham had another early season ending injury, Steelers running back Barry Foster was lost for most of the year.

What a low scoring season in the NFL, it's crazy, watching highlights of games and the narrators joking every week that the scores look like lotto numbers, or Boomer on Primetime mentioned blackjack in one score like every team in the NFL was trying to get the closest to 21 without going over in 1993.

And the savage fucking violent crown of the helmet hits, jesus. Noted in several videos I've watched that these hits were technically illegal in 1993, they made it a rule by then that you couldn't hit like that but the referees just weren't throwing the flags for them(and they were happening a lot, like in every game). Very violent season 1993 was, maybe one of the most ever.

Nov 4, 2023 1:09:02 GMT Neo Zeed said:

This was one NFL season where I followed the league probably more closely than any other in my lifetime as an NFL fan. I was pretty young, like 9, but I went football crazy after the Rypien Super Bowl. Got my little hands on NFL's Greatest Games vol. 1 and 2 and Super Sunday VHS tapes, had a pin up poster with all 28 teams helmets divided by conference/division in my room. I got full boxes of Pro Set football cards from like 1990 that Christmas '92. I Got REALLY into the 92 NFL season(especially those playoffs, the 92 NFL playoffs lit a lifetime obsession with tournaments/brackets) so when 93 season came around I was fully immersed in it. I would watch the Jack Pardee Show on Houston public access TV(?) on Saturday mornings. Sunday mornings I would have the newspaper spread out across the living room floor reading anything NFL related, making lists, keeping track of stats in my notebook. I would LOVE watching Monday Night Football that year

Funny story that I remember from that year in school, hanging with my friends at the library. I used to amaze everybody with my ability to write down the results; winner/loser, score and appropriate roman numeral for every Super Bowl just from memory. Kids would gather around, somebody would take the paper home to ask their parents if I got it right. Sometimes I would get the Bengals/49ers-Raiders/Eagles game switched around but eventually always got it perfect. There were only 27-28 Super Bowls to remember and I had Super Sunday VHS tape literally watched the tape so much it broke and the VCR ate it. It was a daily watch.

The funny story is that one day I remember sitting with my friends and after I wrote out the 28 Super Bowls it was like a longer piece of paper and there was room for like 10-15 more future Super Bowls(so we're talking 94 to 2004 or so) we could predict as 9 year olds in 1993. I distinctly remember telling my buds that the teams that sucked right now would probably be the ones that win a bunch of Super Bowls in the future, at that time no team sucked harder than the Patriots so I'm positive I remember penciling in no less than 3 Patriots Super Bowls in those future slots, possibly a Buccaneers, Seahawks, Colts SB wins too. I wish I kept that paper to look at it now.

This post is everything. We'd have been friends for sure. My story is similar only with my "1993" coming a few years earlier. Basically pick any year from 86-91.

Super Sunday is an all timer for sure. I watched it nearly as much as you while my brother is probably your equal. The soundtrack alone makes it a 10/10. When you were gone we had a "Sports Documentary" countdown where I think I had Super Sunday at #2 (Why Not? is still the GOAT).

Did you have gumball machine football helmets? We LOVED these things and would play all sorts of little games with them.



Did the football card thing as well, though admittedly not to the extent of baseball carding. 

For tournament/bracket love I have to credit Wrestlemania IV and March Madness 1988 (Danny and the Miracles, baby!) over the NFL.

We got some Redskins talk shows here through the DC stations but, not being a 'Skins fan, I never got into them the way you did with the Jack Pardee Show. 

Stats out of the newspaper, God, yes. Though, again, I went even crazier with it during baseball (and even basketball) season. Those Zander Hollander books I'm always bringing up were an NFL stat gold mine though. I even invented my own QB rating system! That I would continually tweak for like a quarter century before finally losing interest. I would legit give up limbs to have all my old notebooks back. 

You were better than me when it came to rattling off the Super Bowls. I'd always get confused after V. Never could keep all those Steelers/Raiders/Dolphins/Cowboys/Vikings SB's from the 70s straight.

Better than me at predicting Super Bowls as well. I probably would have went with more Cowboys, 49ers, Bills for another decade. In my defense, that era did seem endless and inescapable! 

Nov 4, 2023 1:50:18 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I just can't get over how Redskins fans must have felt after that 35-16 demolition of the Cowboys on opening week taking down the Super Bowl Champions. So much for the theory that just anybody could have ran behind that o-line, here they were smack in the middle of their prime in the middle of 92-93 without Emmitt getting spanked with a backup RB in there. 

Oh wow. Forgot this was the year the Cowboys started 0-2 without Emmitt. That was the talk of the NFL world with every newspaper headline and pundit screaming "ARE THE COWBOYS DONE?!?!" If only they had been!

Nov 5, 2023 0:18:15 GMT Baker said:

Nov 4, 2023 1:09:02 GMT Neo Zeed said:

This was one NFL season where I followed the league probably more closely than any other in my lifetime as an NFL fan. I was pretty young, like 9, but I went football crazy after the Rypien Super Bowl. Got my little hands on NFL's Greatest Games vol. 1 and 2 and Super Sunday VHS tapes, had a pin up poster with all 28 teams helmets divided by conference/division in my room. I got full boxes of Pro Set football cards from like 1990 that Christmas '92. I Got REALLY into the 92 NFL season(especially those playoffs, the 92 NFL playoffs lit a lifetime obsession with tournaments/brackets) so when 93 season came around I was fully immersed in it. I would watch the Jack Pardee Show on Houston public access TV(?) on Saturday mornings. Sunday mornings I would have the newspaper spread out across the living room floor reading anything NFL related, making lists, keeping track of stats in my notebook. I would LOVE watching Monday Night Football that year

Funny story that I remember from that year in school, hanging with my friends at the library. I used to amaze everybody with my ability to write down the results; winner/loser, score and appropriate roman numeral for every Super Bowl just from memory. Kids would gather around, somebody would take the paper home to ask their parents if I got it right. Sometimes I would get the Bengals/49ers-Raiders/Eagles game switched around but eventually always got it perfect. There were only 27-28 Super Bowls to remember and I had Super Sunday VHS tape literally watched the tape so much it broke and the VCR ate it. It was a daily watch.

The funny story is that one day I remember sitting with my friends and after I wrote out the 28 Super Bowls it was like a longer piece of paper and there was room for like 10-15 more future Super Bowls(so we're talking 94 to 2004 or so) we could predict as 9 year olds in 1993. I distinctly remember telling my buds that the teams that sucked right now would probably be the ones that win a bunch of Super Bowls in the future, at that time no team sucked harder than the Patriots so I'm positive I remember penciling in no less than 3 Patriots Super Bowls in those future slots, possibly a Buccaneers, Seahawks, Colts SB wins too. I wish I kept that paper to look at it now.

This post is everything. We'd have been friends for sure. My story is similar only with my "1993" coming a few years earlier. Basically pick any year from 86-91.

Super Sunday is an all timer for sure. I watched it nearly as much as you while my brother is probably your equal. The soundtrack alone makes it a 10/10. When you were gone we had a "Sports Documentary" countdown where I think I had Super Sunday at #2 (Why Not? is still the GOAT).

Did you have gumball machine football helmets? We LOVED these things and would play all sorts of little games with them.



Did the football card thing as well, though admittedly not to the extent of baseball carding. 

For tournament/bracket love I have to credit Wrestlemania IV and March Madness 1988 (Danny and the Miracles, baby!) over the NFL.

We got some Redskins talk shows here through the DC stations but, not being a 'Skins fan, I never got into them the way you did with the Jack Pardee Show. 

Stats out of the newspaper, God, yes. Though, again, I went even crazier with it during baseball (and even basketball) season. Those Zander Hollander books I'm always bringing up were an NFL stat gold mine though. I even invented my own QB rating system! That I would continually tweak for like a quarter century before finally losing interest. I would legit give up limbs to have all my old notebooks back. 

You were better than me when it came to rattling off the Super Bowls. I'd always get confused after V. Never could keep all those Steelers/Raiders/Dolphins/Cowboys/Vikings SB's from the 70s straight.

Better than me at predicting Super Bowls as well. I probably would have went with more Cowboys, 49ers, Bills for another decade. In my defense, that era did seem endless and inescapable! 

Nov 4, 2023 1:50:18 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I just can't get over how Redskins fans must have felt after that 35-16 demolition of the Cowboys on opening week taking down the Super Bowl Champions. So much for the theory that just anybody could have ran behind that o-line, here they were smack in the middle of their prime in the middle of 92-93 without Emmitt getting spanked with a backup RB in there. 

Oh wow. Forgot this was the year the Cowboys started 0-2 without Emmitt. That was the talk of the NFL world with every newspaper headline and pundit screaming "ARE THE COWBOYS DONE?!?!" If only they had been!

I just wasn't as into it starting with 1994. The Oilers losing to the Chiefs in the 93 playoffs was my first sports punch to the stomach and probably still the most significant one 30 years later. Time heals nothing. Then tuning in to watch the Oilers opening day 94 game to see Cody Carlson playing QB with Moon just gone for good. I was still really into it in 94 but definitely not like I was for the 93 season. As the decade went on I guess I kinda lost interest very gradually year by year until just kinda deciding the NFL was kinda lame by 98. The 99 playoffs got me back into it, REALLY loved the Titans/Ravens rivalry in 2000, was crazy into the 2001 season leaguewide(that was a fun season) then getting another Houston team in 2002 was big for my fandom. I was obsessed again.

I would say the one year where I had Dish with NFL Network 2004 that was another season like 1993 where I was really in tune with every team and just watched a ton of games no matter what team it was. The 2005-2007 Redskins were a fun b-team to root for while the Texans were growing up, then it was that chase to finally see my hometown team turn the corner and take the diapers off to win some division titles and playoff games. The 2010-2011-2012 Texans was good times, JJ Watt in 2014 was the best single player single season performance I ever seen since I started watching NFL, don't know if I ever loved the sport as much as I did watching him that year. Rodgers winning MVP on bloated inflated due to rules changes passing stats that year still pisses me off. 

I'm due for a rewatch of Super Sunday, the tape I had back in the day ended with an epic Super Bowl XXV highlight clip but for some reason all the ones I find on Youtube stop at the Broncos/49ers blowout or maybe the one the year prior so they must be earlier versions. I have it recorded to one of those 6 hour VHS tapes but it's on a tape that was never labeled so will have to do some work to find it. 

Ah yes those fucking helmets! Jack Nicholson crazy head nod gif! 

Nov 4, 2023 3:16:09 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Ok so I'm just now realizing something about 1993 that may have contributed to the low scoring. There were a lot of big injuries across the league on the offensive side of the ball, Barry Sanders missed the last 5 games, Jim Lachey the key anchor on Washington's o-line was lost for the year in preseason, Randall Cunningham had another early season ending injury, Steelers running back Barry Foster was lost for most of the year.

Missed a big one, Dan Marino torn achilles out for the season with Miami at like 8-2, they miss the playoffs with 9-7 finish. 

So we meet again.... and for the last time(Tampa Bay Buccaneers & Atlanta Falcons)

One thing I didn't want to do with this project was to spend too much time covering the bad teams early on, burning myself out before we get to the teams that were actually worth talking about. I was guilty of doing that with the 1999 project but that's the interesting thing to look at sometimes, the bad teams present some what if's and some backstories that haven't been covered to death. Take for instance the rivalry between Sam Wyche and Jerry Glanville. If you are of a certain age or know anything about NFL history I'm sure you're at least aware of their rivalry when Glanville was Oilers head coach and Wyche was Bengals head coach from 1986 to 1989. In 1988 the Bengals vs Oilers was one of the best rivalries in the league, with 2 heated games that year. Had the Oilers not lost to Buffalo 17-10 in the second round of the playoffs it would have been an Oilers vs Bengals AFC Championship Game in 1988(Cincy lost the Super Bowl to San Fran that year).

In 1989 the Bengals vs Oilers rivalry got out of hand with the 60 point blowout to end the season. Wyche ripped Glanville after the game. After Houston was bounced from the Wild Card playoffs that year Glanville was fired. He would go on to take over the Atlanta Falcons in 1990, changing their classic uniforms and helmets to an all black design to match his all black dress style.

Usually the stories about the Glanville vs Wyche rivalry stops with that big blowout in 1989. Little is written about where that rivalry went after that, that Glanville got huge payback with the Falcons in 1990 when they smashed Cincy 38-17 that year(Atlanta struggled that year but the Bengals were 5-2 going into that game). The following season 1991 Glanville had Atlanta in the playoffs while Wyche finished 3-13 and was fired from the Bengals. Wyche went on to take over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting in 1992. The Bucs team that Wyche took over that year had the reputation as usually the worst team in the NFL. Tampa starting as an expansion team in 1976 is known for being one of the worst teams ever, going 0-14, then getting off to an 0-12 start in 1977 before winning their first games there at the end of the year to finish 2-12(the coachs of the teams they beat, Don Coryell of St. Louis Cardinals and Hank Stram of the Saints, were both fired). Tampa had some good years in there in 1979 and 1981, making the NFC Championship in '79 and losing in the playoffs in '81. In 82 the strike season they finished 5-4 and made the 8 team NFC playoff tournament(again losing in the first round).

After that it was a decade of double digit losing seasons. They lost 108 games total in 9 years from 1983 to 1991. Wyche in his first season as Bucs head coach in 1992 would add to it with a 5-11 finish. Wyche's Bucs squared off against Glanville's Falcons that 92 season with Atlanta going in at 5-8 and Tampa sitting at 4-9, Glanville would stomp Wyche's Bucs 35-7. Tampa would finish out with their 10th consecutive double digit loss season while the Falcons would be a huge disappointment in 92 finishing dead last in the NFL in defense(which was supposed to be Glanville's specialty) and missing the playoffs(the inaugural season of their new Georgia Dome) at 6-10. So that win over Wyche's Bucs was Atlanta's last of that season.

Neither team would improve their stature in the NFL much at all the next year in 1993. It would turn out to be Jerry Glanville's final season as head coach anywhere in the NFL as Atlanta would finish dead last again with the worst defense in the NFL with another 6-10 season. In a season where it seemed like anyone rarely ever scored over 21 points in a game, the Falcons gave up over 30 in each of their first 4 en route to their 0-4 start. An 0-6 shutout loss to the Bears put the Falcons at 0-5 to start the 93 season. Then in week 6 the Falcons had some new life added to the team, enter Deion Sanders... 

Deion joined the 0-5 Falcons for their sixth game of 93 against the Rams at home on October 14th. He played his 95th and final game of the 93 MLB season with the Atlanta Braves on October 2nd just 12 days earlier. With Neon Deion in the lineup the Falcons would win 5 of their next 6 games, 6 of their next 8, including big wins over the 49ers and Cowboys. The win over the Cowboys was in a game where Bernie Kosar was replacing an injured Troy Aikman for Dallas. Deion caught a 70 yard touchdown pass on offense for Atlanta in a 27-14 rout. After a tough win over Bill Belichick's Browns the Falcons had a lot of hope at 5-6. Whatever hope they had to make the playoffs hit a brick wall when Atlanta was outhit in a loss to the Oilers the next week dropping them to 5-7(they kept a graphic on screen keeping track of all the fights in the game). 

Atlanta's win over the 49ers on December 11th has to be one of the signature games of the 93 season. Deion vs Jerry Rice at their apex, 49ers were 9-3, Atlanta was fighting to stay alive in the wild card race at 5-7. San Fran took a 24-7 lead into the 4th quarter when Atlanta free agent acquisition QB Bobby Hebert(stolen from their rival Saints in the first class of unrestricted free agent signings that offseason) threw 2 touchdown passes. The Falcons tied it with a field goal then won it with another for a 27-24 victory. Deion had 2 interceptions, Rice had 6 catches for 105 yards but no TDs. 

That was a huge win for Atlanta, to pull to 6-7 after an 0-5 start is pretty great. Seems like that had to have been an all time high beating Dallas and San Fran, but it wasn't meant to be. This team collapsed and lost all 3 of their remaining games to finish 6-10, and they lost to some bad teams. They got dominated 30-17 by the 3-10 Redskins in a game where it seemed like Skins head coach Ritchie Petitbon had his old defense playing their hearts out, Monte Coleman finished the game with an interception, a fumble recovery for a touchdown, and 2 sacks. Coleman played for Petitbon for a long time and I think this game was like their last hurrah. Washington had 7 sacks. Atlanta was pretty much eliminated with this loss dropping them to 6-8. Then I think they just gave up, losing to the 2-12 Bengals, then 6-9 Cardinals to finish with a 6-10 record. 

So this team got pretty hot there at one point. How you go from beating Dallas and San Fran to getting smashed by Washington and Cincinnati is crazy, but that's the NFL. Deion was one of my favorite players and seeing him in Atlanta gear going at it with Rice is the NFL I knew. I think I actually had a poster of them together that I got out of a magazine. This is one of my favorite things about the 1993 season, Deion vs Rice. 

I never fully realized how Deion was also part time like Bo Jackson with the baseball priority(but it's not really held against him the same way). I'm assuming since much like BO didn't join his team until October that he missed training camp? Deion was too busy playing baseball while this team got off to an 0-5 start that doomed their season. Look at the immediate impact he had on that team when he joined them that October finally, he finished with 7 interceptions in just 10 games, he played receiver on offense sometimes, he had some big kick returns, Deion was fucking bad ass in 1993. Must see TV. 

One of Atlanta's big losses happened after Deion joined the team when Glanville squared off against his old foe Sam Wyche and his Tampa Bucs one final time. The game happened at the Georgia Dome on Halloween day 1993, with Atlanta at 2-5 and Tampa at 1-5. Tampa jumped out to a 17-0 lead and led 31-3 at one point by the 3rd quarter. The Falcons fought back in the fourth quarter to close the gap to 31-24, giving Wyche the last laugh in the final showdown with Glanville. 

The road win over the Falcons in Atlanta put Wyche's Bucs at 2-5 but they would stumble to another 5-11 finish. This was a team that really lost a lot that offseason with free agency taking Vinny Testaverde and Mark Carrier away. They went with Craig Erickson at QB, he had over 3,000 yards but threw 21 interceptions in his 15 starts. Erickson had little to no help with a lot of injuries at RB and WR positions for the 93 Bucs. Bucs linebacker Hardy Nickerson was a savage in 1993, he was voted first team All Pro and Pro Bowl and had some votes for Defensive Player Of The Year(finished 6th in voting, but got some votes). Nickerson led the NFL in 1993 with 214 tackles, which is a crazy high number showing that he was a one man wrecking crew playing for a shit team that year. 

Even though Wyche would get another couple of years in Tampa, Glanville was gone from the NFL after 1993, and this rivalry and the state of their teams this season shows that these were two outdated old dogs from a bygone era fighting it out one last time that year. 
 

Deion was 3rd in votes for Defensive Player Of The Year for 93 with 9 votes, Hardy Nickerson got 4 votes, Rod Woodson ran away with it with 24 votes.

A tale of two draft picks(New England Patriots & Seattle Seahawks)

This past April 2023 we seen 2 quarterbacks taken #1 and #2 in the NFL Draft when the Panthers selected Bryce Young at 1 and the Texans took CJ Stroud at 2. The two of them played each other head to head in their 2023 rookie seasons just a couple of weeks back when the Panthers defeated the Texans 15-13 in Carolina. The Panthers got the win but so far it's been their only one of the season, they are 1-7 with Bryce Young having 1,560 passing yards 8 td passes and 7 interceptions. Meawhile Stroud has the Texans at 4-4 a fringe Wild Card team with him having thrown for 2,270 yards 14 touchdown passes and only 1 interception. With a passer rating of 102.9 Stroud seems like Houston got the better man at #2, he's running away with Rookie Of The Year and if he keeps playing like he did last week in the 39-37 victory over Tampa he could be in the conversation for MVP at the end of his 1st year in the league.

So far seems like the Texans got the better man at #2, but we've seen before how things change. Time and pressure changes everything. It was the same story 30 years ago when the New England Patriots took Drew Bledsoe with the #1 pick in the 1993 draft, then the Seattle Seahawks took Rick Mirer #2. Mirer had a lot of hype coming out of Notre Dame, and he seemed to have had the better rookie season out of the 2. The two top picks in the 1993 draft played each other not once but twice in their rookie seasons, since both teams were 2-14 in 1992 the NFL had a thing back then where really bad teams would play each other twice for some reason, maybe for parity? Either way the two rookie 1/2 picks that year squared off when New England and Seattle faced each other twice, with Mirer's Seahawks winning both games. 

The first Bledsoe vs Mirer showdown took place in New England week 3. Seattle was able to hold onto a 17-0 third quarter lead to win it 17-14. Both teams were winless going into the game so the victory put Seattle at 1-2 and New England at 0-3. Mirer was sacked 4 times and knocked out of the game at some point after going 12-16 for 1 touchdown/1 interception. Bledsoe threw the ball 44 times, completing 20 for 238 yards threw 2 interceptions but also almost brought them back in the 4th quarter. Seahawks runner Chris Warren ran 36 times for 174 yards and 1 touchdown. 

The rematch a few weeks later Bledsoe was out, the Patriots started Scott Secules and his finishing with a 33. passer rating should tell you all you need to know about this being one of the ugliest games of the 1993 season. The Seahawks held onto a 3-0 lead going into the half. New England's defense held Warren to just 26 rushing yards and intercepted Mirer twice, kicking 3 field goals to take a 9-3 lead in the 4th quarter. Mirer was able to connect with Brian Blades for the game winning score to give Seattle the 10-9 victory. The win gave the Seahawks a 4-3 record and dropped New England to 1-6. 

After Mirer's Seahawks went 2-0 vs the Patriots it appeared that maybe Parcells picked the wrong guy with that #1 pick. But after that promising 4-3 start the Seahawks and their young rookie quarterback had a pretty brutal 2 week road trek to play 2 really tough teams that year, back to back road losses to Denver and Houston dropped Seattle to 4-6.  Another ugly victory, this time a 22-5 win over the Bill Belichick Browns(Mirer's TD pass to John Williams was the lone offensive touchdown in the game, only field goals, defensive scores, and 2 safeties! Browns QB Todd Philcox had a 17. rating). The win put Seattle at 5-5, still alive going into their 2nd bye week with 4 of their last 6 games set to be at home in the Kingdome fans had to have been optimistic about this team.

It ended up being false hope if there was any, they would lose 4 in a row after the second bye week and 5 of their last 6 overall to finish 6-10. If not for Jerome Bettis Mirer would have probably ran away with Rookie Of The Year(he did win 93 UPI Rookie Of The Year for some odd reason), despite his stats that year looking pretty rough by today's standards, his 2,833 yards, 12 tds vs 17 ints don't really tell the full story of the potential Mirer was thought to have after that 93 rookie year. 

I do remember all of the comparison with Mirer to Montana since he wore the same #3 jersey number at Notre Dame. I believe there was a football card or poster or something with them on it together, then even Bill Walsh made the comparison in the lead up to that 93 NFL draft. I never realized how great Mirer was in college until doing the research now, he went 29-7-1 as a starter. His 18 touchdown passes and 9 rushing tds in 1991 was next level stuff for the time. Also didn't realize until now that Mirer played with Jerome Bettis at Notre Dame.

One thing I never realized or appreciated until this deep dive into Seattle's 1993 season, that Rick Mirer actually played against Joe Montana's Chiefs in week 14 in Seattle. In the showdown of Notre Dame QB's this Seahawks team was in way over their heads. The Chiefs were 8-3 going in while Seattle at 5-6 was fighting to save their season, this had to have been a huge game for them. Derrick Thomas ran a fumble recovery back 86 yards for a touchdown to put KC up 17-3 in the second quarter. Marcus Allen's 3rd touchdown of the game put KC up 31-6 in the third quarter. Montana went 20 of 30 for 239 with 0 tds or ints, while Mirer was sacked 3 times and threw 2 ints, going 18 of 30 for 287. KC would hold on to a 31-16 win to drop Seattle to 5-7. 

One thing you got to give Mirer was that he did start all 16 games that season, and then just look closer at the murderer's row of a schedule that the 1993 Seahawks played. It has to rank up there among the toughest schedules ever considering they played 9 games against playoff teams. Their entire division was ridiculously tough that year, Raiders, Broncos, and Chiefs were all playoff teams. Chiefs were AFFCG team with Montana/Marcus Allen/Derrick Thomas. The Chargers team they played twice that year didn't make the playoffs but were very tough 8-8 team. They played against Bill Belichick, Bill Parcells(2X), Montana(2X), Elway(2X), Barry Sanders, Buddy Ryan's 4-6 defense, all in the same season. And coming off of a 2-14 season the year before for them to go 6-10 against all that has to be considered a moral victory at least for Tom Flores' 1993 Seahawks(with a rookie quarterback). 

Mirer didn't come close to living up to the potential everybody thought he had. I'll just copy and past my thoughts on his career from the 1999 project I did in 2021: 

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.

When it comes to sucking, there was nothing and nobody that sucked as hard as the New England Patriots when I got into NFL football in 91-92. I've always had a theory that the stench of that 46-10 Super Bowl XX crushing at the hands of the Bears was such a definitive beat down in such a high profile game that it left a psychological bruise on that franchise that I feel stuck with them until they changed the uniforms in 1993. But my theory is proven wrong by the fact that they were still very good in 1986, they had one of the top offenses in the NFL and made it back to the playoffs. They were still good into 1988 the year Doug Flutie won 6 games for them as a backup, then was benched at the end of the season where they collapsed and missed the playoffs.

The decline of the Patriots didn't really hit fully until 1989, then when Rod Rust took over for Raymond Berry as HC in 1990 they became historically one of the most god awful teams in NFL history. I truly and honestly feel like the 90 and 92 Patriots were the worst team in NFL history, even worse than the 2008 Lions despite the fact that they won at least 1-2 games. They were technically at their worst in 1990 when they went 1-15, finishing dead last at 28th in offense and second to last at 27th in defense. They won their second game 16-14 over a Colts team that was almost as bad as they were, then they would lose 14 in a row. The Pats changed coaches to Dick Macpherson and he pulled them to a spirited 6-10 finish with some big wins in 1991, but in 1992 I feel like they were even worse than the 1990 team(despited the fact that they didn't finish as low on offensive/defensive rankings and won 1 more game). The 92 Pats started 0-9 before winning back to back over the Jets and Colts before losing their last 5 for a 2-14 finish. They were held without a touchdown in 6 games. This team was bad bad. 

Then Bill Parcells comes out of retirement to take over the worst team in the league in 1993. They come out with a new head coach, a 2 time Super Bowl Champion, a rookie quarterback Drew Bledsoe, and some flashy new uniforms. The Patriots were reborn in 1993. 

The thing was they were still really really really bad through the first 3/4's of the 1993 season. I feel like these two teams the Patriots and Seahawks were almost solely responsible for the league wide drop in scoring. These two teams were owners of the ugliest games of the season, like New England's 7-2 win over the Bengals in a matchup of 1-11 teams. New England would end up winning all of their last 4 games to give a preview of the success that Parcells was bringing in the following seasons. They ran over the Colts the week after the Bengals win in a game where Bledsoe threw a total of 11 passes in a 38-0 shutout. The big win for New England was the season finale over the Scott Mitchell led Dolphins, who were fighting for the final AFC Wild Card playoff spot at 9-6 going in. Bledsoe had his best game of the year with 4 touchdown passes and 329 yards in a thrilling 33-29 overtime finish. 

Thirty years later and really you could say that both Rick Mirer and Drew Bledsoe will go down as footnotes in NFL history. Neither guy really amounted to much. Something I never caught about Mirer's brief and terrible little time with the Jets in 1999, he played for Bill Parcells that year the guy that chose Bledsoe over him in that 93 draft with that #1 pick. While Mirer was a huge flop Bledsoe had a decent career, leading the Patriots to an AFC Championship in 1996 in his 3rd season(Parcells last in New England). But his legacy will always be more about the events that led to his backup Tom Brady taking the Patriots to the greatest dynasty in NFL history after he went down with that injury in 2001. 
 

1993 core memories unlocked:



The fucking Colts, Bengals, Seahawks, Patriots pencils would try to give them away nobody would even take them. God these teams were bad that year. 

And the Bruce Smith vs Bruce Armstrong pics are some of my favorite NFL pics, I love the contrast of those two going at it when Armstrong wears the older Pats unis, beautiful photos, the one I posted in that post above with the newer Pats uni is stunning photo, love it. Two heavyweights the best in the league at their positions literally going at it hand to hand combat at the line of scrimmage. Armstrong is on the list of all time great o-linemen I would have put in the Hall Of Fame over recent inductee Tony Boselli. Armstrong made the pro bowl in the Patriots 1-15 1990 season, missed half of 92 with an injury, then returned to start all 16 games for 1993(he would start every game for the Pats for the next 8 years, retiring after the 2000 season and just missing out on that 2001 ring). To me he's like a Hardy Nickerson/Tampa situation where he was arguably the best guy at his position in the NFL that 93 year playing on a team with no talent around him. Armstrong's prime years were wasted during these down years in New England from 1990 to 1993 I believe he was among the top 2-3 at his position in the NFL those years, just didn't get the recognition because of how bad that team was. Tony Boselli's claim to fame is the 1 big performance vs 1996 Bruce Smith while Bruce Armstrong had a few of those games vs 90-93 prime Bruce Smith. 

The Falling and the Fallen(Philadelphia Eagles, Phoenix Cardinals, New Orleans Saints, & Chicago Bears)

As we move to the mid-card teams of the 1993 NFC conference we reach a pack of 4 teams that had pretty bleak remainder of the 90's decade ahead of them. Think about how strong 3 of these teams were from 1988 to 1992, the Bears, Eagles, and Saints, three powerhouses of the NFC that factored into that conference being way stronger than the AFC during the 80's/first 3 years of the 90's.

So as we reach this point of this project I've figured out another element of the 1993 season that makes it stand out. Look at how much stronger the NFC was than the AFC from 1984 to 1992. NFC dominated the AFC in Super Bowls going 9-0 during those 9 years and all but 2 of those were massive blowouts. The strength of the NFC over the AFC became a major thing in the NFL by 89. In that 1989 season the Broncos were the only team with double digit wins, it was probably the most out of balance playoff bracket with teams on the NFC side that didn't make it out of the wild card round that probably would have ran the table in the AFC side. Denver won the 89 AFC title and got crushed 55-10 by San Francisco. At this point it was clear the league was out of balance, that one conference was loaded with more talent and better teams than the other.

The Bills of 1990 seemed to be the team to change this but they would lose Super Bowl XXV by the missed field goal. Buffalo dominated the AFC pretty easily in 91 and won a 3rd consecutive AFC title in 92 but they were massacred in both Super Bowls to keep the NFC Super Bowl streak going at 9 in a row.

So the thing I've noticed about the structure of the NFL in 1993 that was different from previous seasons was that the NFC was far weaker than before. This was a season where the NFC was as big of a mess as the AFC, and it really starts with this being the first real season where the NFC East lost it's power.

The NFC East division(which back then was Giants, Redskins, Cowboys, Eagles, and Cardinals) was the toughest division in the sport in the late 80's and early 90's. NFC East teams won 5 out of 9 Super Bowls from the NFC's reign from 1984 to 1992, including winning 3 in a row from 1990(Giants) to 1991(Redskins) to 1992(Cowboys). The Philadelphia Eagles were a force during that time as well even though they were never able to advance in the playoffs. So you had 4 of the best teams in the NFL all in the same NFC East division from 1986 to 1992. Then there were the poor Cardinals who had to play half of their schedule against them every year(division teams play each other twice a year).

But by 1993 the NFC Easts reign of power was over. The Redskins glory days were dead and gone with the retirement of Joe Gibbs after the 92 season they were one of the worst teams in the NFL in 93. The Giants had been struggling for 2 years ever since Parcells retired following Super Bowl XXV. They ended up having a surprisingly great season in 1993 under Dan Reeves but still were just not the same mystique that the team from the 80's had when they won Super Bowls XXI and XXV(and killed Joe Montana in 1990). The Eagles had loaded up with some talented free agents for 1993 but after losing Reggie White to unrestricted free agency in the offseason, this team's glory days were also over. Their quarterback Randall Cunningham was about to go through a career collapse. The NFC East division that the 93 Cowboys won was just nowhere near as tough as they used to be, not as tough as the division was in 91-92 even.



We brought it up when we started this thread but the key what if for me for this 1993 season was the story out there about the Phoenix Cardinals being the front runner with the best offer to San Francisco to trade for Joe Montana. San Fran supposedly took a lesser offer from Kansas City as a favor to Montana(and perhaps they didn't want him in the same conference as them) to keep him from playing for a bad team, to give him a chance to play for a contender. Think about what if the 49ers would have taken that offer from Phoenix all that it would have changed. The Cardinals had only been in Phoenix for 5 years after the move from St. Louis in 1988. The Cards were coached by Joe Bugel the former offensive line guru architect behind the Skins Hogs(also was o-line coach for the Earl Campbell Oilers before that). Bugel was in his 4th season as Cardinals head coach after having gone 5-11 in 1990, then back to back 4-12 finishes in 1991 and 1992. So you can see why San Fran sending Montana to KC(a perennial playoff team every year) would be considered a favor to him. 

The Cardinals under Joe Bugel's tenure were in a crisis at the quarterback position. Timm Rosenbach was the man that was supposed to be the savior of the franchise when Phoenix took him in the 1989 supplemental draft. After sitting out most of his 1989 rookie season Rosenbach started all 16 games for the Cardinals in 1990. He struggled early on but by the end of the season had developed into a fast, mobile young playmaker. It's totally forgotten about now how much hype Timm Rosenbach had going into the 1991 season. The Cardinals really had a lot of hope that he would emerge as the franchise quarterback for the team in the 90's. In Madden 92 for the Sega Genesis(which was released in August 1991 before the start of the regular season) Rosenbach is the 3rd highest rated quarterback in the entire game, even over Elway and Montana. It all went down the shitter for Joe Bugel when Rosenbach was lost for the year with an injury in the 1991 preseason. When Rosenbach came back in 1992 he looked bad(0 tds and 6 ints in an 0-3 run), he ended up retiring because he didn't want to get hit by Reggie White and LT anymore. 

So the 93 season was the Cardinals first real season where they had moved on from Timm Rosenbach. They tried to trade for Joe Montana but lost out and had to settle for Steve Beuerlien, a promising young QB that had 2 solid years with the Raiders in 88-89 before sitting out the entire 1990 season over a contract dispute. He came in and went 4-0 for the Cowboys in their 1991 playoff run when Aikman went down, but he rode the bench for the entire 1992 Super Bowl season. 

But think about the changes to history if the Cardinals got Montana. Think of what it would have done for that whole franchise. Their attendance was poor in Phoenix since moving there in 1988. We covered it in our 1999 project the whole scenario with how the Cowboys were Arizona's NFL team during the height of Tom Landry's Americas Team glory days. So when the Cowboys division rival moved there in 1988 it didn't go over like the team had wanted when they left St. Louis. The Cardinals biggest crowds in Phoenix from 1988 to 1993 were all Cowboys games, and the stadium would mostly be filled with Cowboys fans that had been fans of the team long before the Cardinals moved to their hometown. The first time the Cardinals were really embraced by Phoenix and appeared to have a legit fanbase was the following 1994 season when they signed Buddy Ryan as head coach. They had their best year at the box office that 94 season because of Buddy Ryan so just imagine what getting Joe Montana in 1993 would have done for this franchise. You would have seen the Cardinals brand suddenly all over the Sega NFL games and in those commercials, it would have been a huge deal for the whole aura of that franchise, perhaps even fostered an entire new generation of Cardinals fans from scratch. 

But without Montana Joe Bugel had his best season as Cardinals head coach, finishing with a 7-9 finish. The thing about this 93 Cardinals is that they finished in the top 10 in both offense and defense, and that 8 out of their 9 losses that year were by a touchdown or less(including 3 of those being by a field goal or less). Got to believe with Montana they take at least a few of those and at least make the playoffs as a wild card. Beuerlien threw for over 3,100 yards with 18 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions and was sacked 29 times. Had Montana gone to Phoenix in 93 he would have at least been protected well on his left side, where the Cardinals had Louis Sharpe at left tackle. Sharpe is an underrated tackle that played his entire 13 year career with the Cardinals, playing at a Pro Bowl/2nd team All Pro level from 87 to 90. Sharpe was 33 years old by 93 but started all 16 games that season.

Joe Bugel also got one of his former Hogs from the Redskins Mark May, who played left guard for 11 games that year. For receivers I like the Cardinals duo of Ricky Proehl and another former Redskins Gary Clark(who was one of the best receivers in the NFL in 91-92). Both finished with over 800 receiving yards but Clark would miss 6 games with injuries. These Cards also had a prime Larry Centers, some of the best hands ever out of the backfield as a fullback finished with 66 catches for over 600 yards that year. Phoenix's weakness was the injuries to May and Clark and having 2 rookie running backs, Garrison Hearst was lost for the year after 6 games but Ronald Moore had over 1,000 yards. 

The Cardinals had one of the great defenses in the NFL in 1993 finishing 7th in fewest points allowed with 269. Fritz Shurmer was the DC and would go on to take over the Packers defense that won the 96 NFL title. Jim Johnson was an assistant on that same staff and would go on to take over the Eagles defense that went to 4 consecutive NFCCG's in 2001-02-03-04. Nobody on the 93 Cardinals defense had any impressive individual stats but they did produce the single most vicious hit I have ever witnessed when Chuck Cecil caught the Redskins runner Ron Middleton coming across the middle of the field, to me the signature play of the entire 1993 NFL season. 

Bugel was fired after the end of the season and the Cardinals brought in Buddy Ryan for 1994(also changing their name from Phoenix to the Arizona Cardinals). Ryan brought a lot of hype to the Cards in 94 but he quickly wore out his welcome by 1995. Despite a glimmer of hope in the Jake Plummer 1998 season this franchise was going nowhere...

Elsewhere in the NFC East the Eagles witnessed the end of their days as a serious contender much like Washington did. The Buddy Ryan era from 1986 to 1990 didn't produce any real success but that team was still bad ass. The 91 team with Rich Kotite as head coach seen their hopes go up in flames with an early season ending injury to Randall Cunningham(after having an MVP worthy season in 1990). They missed the playoffs with a 10-6 record that season with one of the historically greatest defensive seasons of all time. Randall returned in 1992 to lead Philly to an 11-5 playoff season but he didn't look as much of a phenom as he did in '90. After losing Reggie White to free agency the Eagles signed Mark Bavaro at tight end and brought in William "The Refridgerator" Perry from the Bears to play defensive tackle. Randall Cunningham would go down in the 4th game with Philadelphia 4-0, he was done for the year. They finished going 4-8 without him with Bubby Brister and Ken O'Brien at QB for an 8-8 finish. 

I got to believe that even without Randall this team with all the talent on the roster in 93 way underperformed with that 8-8 finish. They had Herschel Walker and Mark Bavaro playing full seasons, Bavaro one of my all time favorites played all 16 games finished with 43 catches for 481 yards and 6 touchdowns in what I believe was one of his last seasons. That had to suck for Giants fans to see him in an Eagles uniform. Herschel Walker also played all 16 games and averaged over 4 yards a carry finishing with over 700 rushing yards, with 75 receptions for another 600+ yards(he was shut down in the red zone all year finishing with only 4 total touchdowns). The Eagles defense in 93 still had Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner, and Eric Allen. They also picked up Keith Millard, the former Vikings DT that won 89 DPOY(finished 3rd in MVP votes) with 18 sacks before injuries killed his career in 1990-91. Millard came back and struggled in 92 playing for 2 teams but he would play 6 games for the Eagles in 93 where he finished with 6 sacks before ultimately calling it a career. 

With all that the Eagles finished 19th in defense and 17th in offense. This team went 1-8 after the 4-0 start, then finally got their shit together to win the last 3 for a respectable 8-8 finish. They went 0-4 in the games that Ken O'Brien started for them. Despite this the Eagles retained Rich Kotite for the 94 season where they finished even worse at 7-9. Ray Rhodes took over in 1995 and took them to a Wild Card win but Randall's career in Philly was over that year after he was benched. By 1998 this team one of the worst in the NFL at 3-13, leading to the Andy Reid/Mcnabb era. 

Another dual factor for the decline of the NFC power in 1993 was the decline of the Bears and Saints. The Saints' Dome Patrol linebacker corp was split up when Pat Swilling was signed to the Detroit Lions(they even unretired Joe Schmidt's number 56 for him). Swilling was the key piece to the Dome Patrol, he was 1st team All Pro in 91 and 92, his 17 sacks in 1991 got him DPOY. Much like the Eagles and Redskins the 1993 season was the end of some glory days for the Saints. The franchise was mostly terrible from the time they launched as an expansion team in the late 60's up until the 12-3 finish in 1987. The Saints were one of the best teams in the NFL from 1987 to 1992, they finished 11-5 in 1991 then 12-4 in 1992. Despite all the regular season success the Saints were 0-4 in the playoffs under Jim Mora, one and done every time. 

The 93 Saints opened the season going 5-0, at one point they were 6-2 in 1st place in the NFC West. Then they lost 6 of their last 8 games to go 8-8 and miss the playoffs. After losing Bobby Hebert to free agency to the Falcons the Saints had a one-off season with 34 year old journeyman backup Wade Wilson starting 14 games for them in 1993, going 7-7 with 2,457 yards 12 tds 15 ints, but he did have 4 game winning drives that season(most in the NFL that year). The Saints had some big injuries in that 2-6 collapse including Sam Mills that missed 7 games. Renaldo Turnbull finished with 13 sacks while Rickey Jackson had 11.5, still though the Saints finished 22nd in points allowed, the bottom of the league. The following 1994 season they traded for Jim Everett from the Rams and the 7-9 finish would be the Saints first losing season in 8 years. By 1996 the Saints were one of the worst teams in the NFL at 3-13 in a year where Mora was fired mid-season. They brought in Mike Ditka in 1997 and hit rock bottom the last 3 years of the decade. 

While the Saints had Mike Ditka in their future the Chicago Bears heading into 1993 had him in their rear view mirror. The Bears moved on from Ditka after the 1992 season and hired the Cowboys defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt as new head coach for 1993. The Bears struggled to a 3-5 start as running back Neal Anderson looked to be about shot(averaging 3.2 yards per carry). Jim Harbaugh took a beating getting sacked 43 times in 15 starts, he finished with some pretty bad stats with just over 2,000 yards and only 7 touchdown passes vs 11 interceptions. After the 3-5 start the Bears would win 4 in a row with defense, including 3 road wins in a row.

The 93 Bears pulled their record to 7-5 but would lose out to fall to a 7-9 finish. The Bears averaged 14 points per game on offense and finished 24th in total points, but the defense was still tough. Richard Dent and Four Horsemen Steve Mongo Mcmichael were still bad ass on the Bears d-line in 93. Dent finished with 12.5 sacks while Mcmichael had 6. Trace Armstrong on the opposite end of Dent had 11.5 sacks while young Chris Zorich had his best year with 121 tackles and 7 sacks in his first full 16 game season as a starter. The 93 Bears' 230 points allowed was 3rd best in the NFL that year, they averaged only 14 points allowed per game and only gave up more than 20 points in 1 game all season. 

The Wannstedt era seemed promising with solid years in 94 and 95, but this Bears team would really fall apart through 96 and 97. The 1997 4-12 finish seen Chicago finish in the bottom 3 of the NFL in both offense and defense, while a repeat 4-12 finish in 1998 seen Wannstedt fired at seasons end.

Loaded up the Bears at Buccaneers game from late in the 93 season I think week 13, the Bears went into the game at 7-5 fighting for a playoff spot. Buccaneers at 4-9 season was already over. Such an interesting game. Jim Harbaugh for the Bears was so awful in 93, his game log looks like stat lines from the 1940's, I don't think he cracked 200 yards all season and had several double digit passing yard games.

Hardy Nickerson was such a beast in this game. I was able to pay close attention to the full 1st quarter and I believe he made every tackle for Tampa and forced a fumble to keep Tampa in the game. What an underrated season here by an underrated linebacker, this was a great game to see him on display. They mention on commentary how he played in a 3-4 in Pittsburgh and this was his first season playing in a 4-3 for Tampa really opened up the game for him.

Interesting coaching matchup as well, Wyche was still using a lot of trickery at the line, some no-huddle stuff he would do in Cincinnati made it challenging for the Bears defense. Bucs won the game 13-10 and kickstarted the Bears decline they would lose out the rest of their games and miss the playoffs at 7-9. This game encapsulates the 1993 season pretty well, bad quarterbacks and excellent defense, a throwback to 1970's NFL where a 10 point lead was pretty much game.

Livin' On The Edge(Miami Dolphins, NY Jets, Cleveland Browns, & San Diego Chargers)

As we move over to the fringe teams that missed the AFC playoffs in 1993, it's a different vibe than the 4 NFC teams we just covered. Those 4 fringe NFC teams from 1993 had a pretty drab rest of the decade ahead of them, while the Dolphins would go on to be one of the best AFC teams of 94 and were in the playoffs pretty much every year for the rest of the decade. The Jets were 5 years away from an AFCCG run with Bill Parcells as head coach, and the Chargers would make it to next year's 94 Super Bowl as AFC Champs after 2 big huge upsets in the playoffs. Then there were the 1993 Cleveland Browns. While they had a great season in 1994 and would upset the Parcells Patriots in the playoffs, by 1995 their owner Art Modell was done with the city of Cleveland. Whatever momentum Bill Belichick's Browns had going in their final season in Cleveland in 1995 was wiped by the controversy of the upcoming move to Baltimore set for 1996(Belichick would end up back working with Parcells in New England as assistant coach). 

It's interesting to do this thread for 1993 now with the 30 year anniversary season unfolding before our eyes in 2023. Bill Belichick is having a terrible season as head coach of the Patriots and there are a lot of grumblings that his time is done. Go back 30 years and he was in a pseudo-hot seat that season as well. The 93 season was Belichick's 3rd year as Browns head coach. They were one of the worst teams in the NFL his first year in 1991 with a 3-13 finish. Belichick improved Cleveland to 7-9 in 1992. I think there was a lot of both hype and pressure for Belichick in is 3rd season, the impression I get from his time in Cleveland was that he was just not liked much at all by either fans or the media. Belichick's seat just got hotter in Cleveland throughout the 93 season since this was the year where he traded away hometown fan favorite quarterback Bernie Kosar to the Cowboys after 6 games. 

Belichick's big free agency moves for Cleveland in the 93 offseason was to scoop up the Buccaneers QB/WR duo of Vinnie Testaverde and Mark Carrier. Carrier had some excellent seasons in Tampa and started all 16 games for the Browns his first season there in 93, but only caught 43 passes for 746 yards receiving and 4 touchdowns. Michael Jackson led the Browns with only 756 receiving yards and 8 td catches. A 23 year old Keenan Mcardell was on that same corp and caught 4 touchdowns in 6 games played. 

The Browns also made 2 key free agent signings on defense by picking up Giants linebacker Pepper Johnson, one of the key players in the Giants 1990 Super Bowl run(1st team All Pro that year), and also a big 330 pound prototypical Vince Wilfork motherfucker from back in the day named Jerry Ball from the Lions. Johnson and Ball joined a defense that had really good defensive back Eric Turner(5 ints in 93), the final season of Everson Walls(reunited with Belichick in a trade in 92) and 37 year old linebacker Clay Matthews. Defensive tackle Michael Dean Perry was one of the greats from this era had a pro bowl season in 93. Unfortunately for Belichick, his defense struggled in 1993 and finished (lower)middle of the pack in points allowed(17th), while his offense sputtered amidst a controversial mid-season quarterback change. 

The Browns opened the season 3-0 before dropping to 3-2 after losses to the Colts and Dolphins(Belichick vs Shula) where the offense was dead in the water. Vinnie Testaverde got his shot to run the offense in the loss to Miami in week 6, then got the starting job the next week against the Bengals. Vinnie threw 3 touchdown passes back to back to back to put Cleveland up 21-0, leading them to a 28-17 win and moving their record to 4-2. The next week was the Browns best game and biggest win of the year, perhaps one of the best games in the entire NFL in 1993, the showdown between the 4-2 Steelers vs 4-2 Browns in Cleveland Municipal Stadium October 24th 1993. 

Talk about an underrated classic showdown this is it. Look at the legends all on the field in this game. Belichick vs Cowher coaching showdown, Rod Woodson, Greg Lloyd, Kevin Greene all got after the quarterback. Dermonti Dawson head to head with Jerry Ball/Michael Dean Perry. Pepper Johnson, Everson Walls, Eric Turner, Clay Matthews all starting for Cleveland defense. Steelers still had a healthy Barry Foster and then there was Cleveland's Eric Metcalf, one of my all time favorite players. Metcalf had a 91 yard punt return for a touchdown early on in the game to put Cleveland up 14-0. Foster had back to back touchdown runs to tie it up 14-14 at the half. Cleveland held onto a 21-20 lead going into the 4th. The 4th quarter turned into a defensive duel, with Cleveland shutting down the NFL's top rusher from 92 holding Pitt to a field goal that put them up 23-21 with around 8 minutes left. Vinnie Testaverde got knocked out of the game on Cleveland's next drive, then Pittsburgh turned up the heat on Bernie Kosar to shut the Browns offense down. The Browns shut Foster down again on Pittsburgh's next drive to force a punt, which Eric Metcalf returned 75 yards down the right sideline for his 2nd punt return for a touchdown that turned municipal stadium into a madhouse. 

Metcalf's touchdown run would give Cleveland a 28-23 win and 1st place in the AFC Central with a 5-2 record at the bye week. That week they traded Bernie Kosar to the Dallas Cowboys and shook up the whole city of Cleveland. After the Kosar trade at the bye the Browns would fall apart, from 5-2 to a 2-7 collapse for a 7-9 finish. The thing about how Belichick managed this was that in the win over the Steelers that put them at 5-2 Testaverde was knocked out with a shoulder injury and they knew he was going to be out for several weeks when they traded Bernie Kosar. So they opted to go with Todd Philcox for the 4 weeks while Testaverde was out, shipping the Cleveland native hometown favorite Bernie to Dallas. The Browns went 0-4 with Philcox, Testaverde came in and saved him from going 0-5 with a comeback win over the Saints where he threw the game winning TD coming in off the bench. So Belichick basically sacrificed Cleveland's season with the Kosar trade. 

For the 1993 San Diego Chargers they were a team in the middle. Peter King of Sports Illustrated predicted them to win the AFC Championship in 93(and that they would face San Francisco in the Super Bowl, he was 1 year off). The 93 Chargers were an 8-8 team that was in the middle of being a division winning 11-5 team that made it to the second round of the AFC playoffs the year before in 1992 and an AFC Champion Super Bowl team the following 1994 season. So what happened in 1993? Junior Seau and Leslie O'Neal both played great all year, Seau was All Pro while O'Neal had 12 sacks and played all 16 games. Still this defense finished 12th in points allowed, upper middle of the pack in a 28 team league. They had Natrone Means(21 years old, surely one of the youngest starters in the league that year) and Marion Butts(underrated power runner from back then). Neither got close to 1,000 yards, though Anthony Miller did finish with 83 receptions for over 1,160 yards receiving. Ronnie Harmon the 3rd down back had 73 catches for 671 yards. I guess if this team had a big weakness it would be at QB with Stan Humpries and John Friesz. 

Friesz went 2-4 as a starter the weeks Humphries was hurt but he had the better rating, slightly higher completion percentage, and just as many game winning drives/4th quarter comebacks(2). I'd say the big contributing factor for the Chargers middle of the pack season was the strength of their schedule. San Diego played 10 games against playoff teams in 1993, going 4-6 against them. The Chargers got off to a 2-1 start with a big win over the Oilers in a pretty great head to head HOF showdown between Warren Moon vs Junior Seau. After that they lost 3 in a row to fall to 2-4, never scoring more than 18 points in any of those first 6 games. Then they came out and dropped 30 in back to back wins over the Raiders and Vikings to get to 4-4 at midseason. Then they lost 4 of their next 6 to fall to 6-8, with their 8th loss being a pretty devastating 28-24 loss to the Chiefs in a game where they gave up a 17-0 lead to Montana/Marcus Allen. The Chargers would beat the Dolphins and Bucs in blowouts to finish the season 8-8. 

From one 8-8 fringe playoff contender to the next we have the strange case of the 1993 New York Jets. I never realized until this project the scope of how the Boomer Esiason trade that year reunited Boomer with Jets head coach Bruce Coslet, his former offensive coordinator from 1986 to 1989 the peak of Boomer's career with the Bengals. So when Cincinnati decided to move on from Boomer to rookie David Klingler in 92 he wanted out, the trade was made to move him to Coslet's Jets in 93. This team has a lot of rabbit holes to go down, like the Jets 2nd overall pick of the 1990 draft running back Blair Thomas. Thomas didn't live up to his potential in 91 and had his 92 season cut down with injuries so 93 the pressure was on him. He would struggle again in 93 and finish with just over 200 total rushing yards, his career was basically over. 

The Jets defensive coordinator Pete Carroll put together a pretty rad defense in 1993. They finished 6th in the league in fewest points allowed. Ronnie Lott came in for his 12th season as an unrestricted free agent and played another really good season at 34 with 3 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries, he played all 16 games for the Jets that year. Two other free agent pickups that offseason were Leonard Marshall from the Giants and Bill Pickel from the Raiders. Meanwhile over on the offense Boomer had little to no help. With Blair Thomas being a bust they had little to no running game in 93, and only Rob Moore as a weapon(he had over 800 receiving yards but only 1 touchdown). The offensive line did protect Boomer with only 18 sacks, roughly half of the times Boomer was sacked in Cincinnati in 89-90. Boomer did take some hard shots in 93 and he did struggle but still finished in the top of the league in passing stats. He played a full 16 games and finished with 60% completion percentage with 3,421 yards 16 touchdowns vs 11 interceptions. 

The Jets got off to a 2-1 start before dropping 3 in a row to fall to 2-4. Then they put together a 5 game win streak where they looked like one of the best teams in the AFC. In that win streak the Jets defense never allowed more than 17 points. They would win 6 out of 7 games to get right in the mix of the AFC playoff hunt at 8-5 with the one game they did lose was 6-9 field goal fest loss to the Colts. In this stretch where NY won 6 out of 7 they produced some of the ugliest defensive games, the 10-6 win over the Giants, 17-12 over the Bengals, 6-0 over the Patriots, the 6-9 loss to the Colts was followed by a 3-0 win over the Redskins that kept them alive in the AFC at 8-5. 

The problem was the scheduling gods of the NFL cursed the 93 Jets, setting them up in their final 3 games of the season against the 3 best teams in the league, vs Dallas, at Buffalo, then at Houston back to back to back, and they lost all 3. The Jets still had a shot to make it if they could have beat Houston in the finale but it was a massacre, Boomer was destroyed and Houston won 24-0 to send the Jets packing at 8-8. 

Even though the Dolphins finished with a better record at 9-7 than their 8-8 rival Jets, the Jets actually swept Miami that year beating them both with and without Dan Marino in 1993. In fact the Jets 2 wins over Miami were the Dolphins only losses of their 9-2 start to that year. The 1993 Dolphins and Dan Marino's leg injury is one of the biggest what if's of the 90's to me. With Marino the Dolphins got off to a 4-1 start, they beat Buffalo IN Buffalo something they never did. Marino went down in the win over Cleveland then Scott Mitchell stepped in and kept them winning with victories over the Colts and Chiefs. Mitchell threw for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns in the win over KC(this performance got Mitchell the big free agent deal with the Lions the following offseason, both teams were 5-1 going into this game). 

Scott Mitchell got injured and the Dolphins traded for Steve Deberg from Tampa Bay(he was their week 1 opener starting QB). Deberg at 39 stepped in and kept Miami's win streak going with victories over New England and Dallas on the famous, fondly remembered Thanksgiving Day game, moving the Dolphins record to 9-2. So they won 5 in a row even after Dan Marino got hurt to get to 9-2, then lost all 5 of their final 5 games, including 2 more with Deberg before Mitchell returned to finish the season. The Dolphins were still in the playoff hunt in the finale against the Patriots when they lost an overtime thriller that ended their season at 9-7.

One has to wonder how this Dolphins team could have done with a healthy Dan Marino that year. I think Ace Ventura movie that came out that year predicted them to be in the Super Bowl. How would a healthy Marino have changed the 93 AFC playoffs? Clearly they would have been on track to lock down #1 seed, perhaps knocking Buffalo down to #3 in the Wild Card round and on the road. Could this have been Dan Marino's best shot at a Super Bowl? They beat the Cowboys on Thanksgiving day without him with Steve Deberg.... 

This weeks Patriots vs Chargers 6-0 game was a homage to the 1993 season, 30 year anniversary.

Dec 3, 2023 19:05:50 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Livin' On The Edge(Miami Dolphins, NY Jets, Cleveland Browns, & San Diego Chargers)

As we move over to the fringe teams that missed the AFC playoffs in 1993, it's a different vibe than the 4 NFC teams we just covered. Those 4 fringe NFC teams from 1993 had a pretty drab rest of the decade ahead of them, while the Dolphins would go on to be one of the best AFC teams of 94 and were in the playoffs pretty much every year for the rest of the decade. The Jets were 5 years away from an AFCCG run with Bill Parcells as head coach, and the Chargers would make it to next year's 94 Super Bowl as AFC Champs after 2 big huge upsets in the playoffs. Then there were the 1993 Cleveland Browns.

And I mean, let’s cut the bullshit this same 93 Browns team was 7 years away from winning a Super Bowl. The 96 Ravens weren’t an expansion team.

Moving into the playoff teams my next writeup is for the Giants/Vikings. I've gone down the 1993 Giants rabbit hole I never realized how good this team was, it was kind of erased by the blowout loss to 49ers. Up to that point I would have called this team the 3rd best team in the NFL that season behind Dallas and Buffalo. I'm watching the Vikings at Giants wild card playoff game to get a better feel for this team and this is straight up 1970's NFL game, in the wind, two very interesting teams in a game I do not remember anything about. LT chasing down Jim Mcmahon in 1993. I also want to watch the Giants loss to San Fran to see how this defense gave up 5 touchdowns to Ricky Watters.

But watching the game tonight random thought crosses my mind, how interesting is it that the Lions unretired Joe Schmidt's #56 for Pat Swilling but Chiefs weren't willing to do that for Montana out of respect for their guy? Or maybe it was Montana's decision to switch his number to 19 out of respect for Len Dawson? Either way I remember this was a big deal back then, to make the greatest QB in NFL history at the time switch his number is pretty bold, Montana in #16 is pretty iconic, but he looked good in 19 too. Imagine Tom Brady having to switch away from #12 to something else. 

Vikings at Giants 93 NFCWC game was an interesting watch. Freezing cold wind game in Giants Stadium. Vikings took a 10-3 lead at the half. Giants come out and abandon the passing game in the wind in the second half, back to back Rodney Hampton TDs puts them up 17-10. Jim Mcmahon gets knocked out of the game. Crowd chants for LT in his final game ever at Giants Stadium.

The 49ers massacre the next week is a bad one. I'm watching it now 30-3 in the third quarter, I think they finish 44-3 win. This game should have been way closer than this, Giants had a much better regular season 11-5 vs 49ers 10-6. Since San Fran won their division they got it at home despite having a worse record, something I've never been a fan of, especially since San Fran won a 4 team division like the ones we have today across the league.

This was a game of the NFL's best offense vs the best defense, in a season totally dominated by defenses across the league, how ironic that this ends with the #1 offense killing the #1 defense 44-3.

So cool seeing Rice and LT on the field in this game, I know they had played each other a lot prior to this game but for some reason it just stood out here when they were on the field at the same time. But the novelty of it fades quickly when you see how far LT had fallen by this point, just a shell of the beast he was in his prime. At one point Ricky Watters stiff arms him in the face pretty hard for a gain and it's like seeing an old boxer past his prime getting beat up.

Watching both games the Giants seemed to be missing something they had in that regular season, I'm assuming that loss to Dallas in the finale in the Emmitt Smith broken collarbone/separated shoulder game where they lost the division really cut the heart out of this team. The 205 points allowed was best in the NFL in 1993 that is close to some of the all time great defensive performances, I believe less than a touchdown more than the 85 Bears.

The 1993 season stands out for 1 reason. THE COMEBACK! I was stunned when the Bills beat Houston. Magical stuff.

Yep, those 92 playoffs happening in January 93 is notable for sure. To me that tournament made me a lifetime fan of football. Watched that full Oilers/Bills comeback game strapped into a hospital bed with pneumonia with an IV. Then to me the final four set up with Miami vs Buffalo/San Fran vs Dallas, it was as straightforward as whoever won those two games played in the Super Bowl. The helmets faced against each other looked beautiful in the newspaper and I was just fascinated with the whole concept of it, everything. Watched quite a bit of football that 92 season and all of the 92 playoffs and was hooked, then you had Michael Jackson in the Super Bowl come on I'm that fucking old.

I haven't been neglecting the most interesting active thread on PW. Just haven't had much to add. Until now...

The Bills/Oilers comeback game (which I associated with the 1992 season despite technically taking place in 1993) was the most memorable game of that year for me. It was also the biggest punch to the gut since I was a Bills hating Oilers fan who just wanted to see some new blood. The new blood thing still applies to this day. I've barely cared about football since, I dunno, 2014-15 or thereabouts. I'll catch a few minutes here and there but don't really get into it nowadays until the playoffs, and even that was non-existent from like 15-19. Anyway, point is even my detached self is getting tired of the Chiefs.

So I watched the first half of Williams/Oilers at home with my dad and a pair of Oilers fans in my brother and best friend Vogel. Us three youths were loving life at halftime with the Oilers up 28-3 (soon to be 35-3). This game was over. Finally a new team would represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. With the game a done deal, we went out in the street to throw the pig around as was the style at the time. A little while later my dad calls out to us "You guys might want to come back inside. Bills are coming back. It's 35-24 and they're on the march again." At first I thought he was messing with me/us. That was a very Dad thing to do. Nope. The truth was even worse. Bills really were coming back. It only got worse from there. Forget a mere punch to the gut. That game was more like a brick to the face.

Poor Neo Zeed. You were already in the hospital. I imagine watching that tragic affair only made you sicker.