Interesting to look at Butkus' career from 1965 to 1973. His rookie season was probably him at his best 1965 just dominated that year, we talked about this in the top 100 QB's thread a bit but that 65 Bears team was a good one, I think they finished 9-5 with Rudy Bukich having a pretty swell one hit wonder season, Ditka in his prime busting chops at TE, Gale Sayers torching the league in his rookie season and Halas at head coach. They scored a victory over the Packers that year but there were no playoffs or anything yet they finished 3rd in their division and that was it.

The 67 Bears season is another interesting one to look at. Everybody knows this was Lombardi's last run in Green Bay with an aging squad that hobbled their way to a Super Bowl II victory. That must have driven George Halas mad watching his rival Lombardi going out like that. I never really registered that the 1967 season was also Halas' final season as a head coach. A 2-5 start doomed their season but they finished strong going 5-1-1 in their last 7 games to finish 7-6-1. Bears lost both games to Lombardi's Packers that year, the one that looks like a banger was the rematch in November, Bears had like 58 yards passing and lost 17-13.

After that it was downhill for the Bears for the rest of Butkus career, Halas retired after 67 then they were a pretty bad team with Jim Dooly and Abe Hibron.

71 Bears collapse is notable, I don't think I've ever seen it brought up anywhere. They had a bad ass defense that year for the first 9 games, got off to a 5-2 start, big win over George Allen Redskins put them at 6-3 then they proceeded to lose all of their final 5 games to fall to a 6-8 finish. The defense kind of fell apart in the last 5 games and offense only scored 2 touchdowns combined in those 5 games. This did end up being one of Butkus' best years they looked like a real contender at one point that year because of that defense then just collapsed big time.

Also just realized that 1965 Bears season Butkus rookie season(his best) was their last with George Allen as defensive coordinator before he left to take head coach of LA Rams in 1966. So that Bears vs Redskins 1971 defensive standoff looks really interesting, Bears won like 16-15 or some low score like that(seen that earlier today). That was that Bears team last win before they finished with that 0-5 run. At the time they beat Allen’s Redskins they went 6-3 and were trailing the Vikings by only one game in the Central.

I’m stuck on this 71 Bears team now, looks like this was a one man show with Butkus trying to will this team to a winning season almost on his own. They went through 3 quarterbacks that season and all were pretty bad. I think this was one of the years Gale Sayers tried to bounce back from that knee injury and it didn’t work out he only played 2 games averaged 2.9 yards a carry, Bears leading rusher finished with like 400 yards. They finished 25th out of 26 in offense. Butkus had one of his best years with little to no help on defense, 2 rookies starting in the secondary.

With that considered that 6-3 start looks even more impressive that Butkus was the driving force for that. They did beat some great teams in that run too, beat the Vikings(11-3 that year top defense with average 9 points allowed per game), beat the Cowboys on Halloween week 7 when both teams were 4-2, Dallas wouldn’t lose another game went on to 11-3 and won Super Bowl that year. Then the big win over Washington who was 6-1-1 at the time and finished as a playoff team.

After that they suffered a pretty demoralizing 28-3 loss to the Lions, then to get hammered into the ground 34-3 by Csonka and that Dolphins o-line I’m sure this was what cut the heart out of that team.

The Washington game though with George Allen coaching against his former team, all field goals just defense until the end Chicago came back from 15-3 deficit to tie it up 15-15 and Butkus himself caught the extra point conversion after the kick was botched to win the game. 16-15, what a game on paper box score id like to see it.

Been a rough week for uncles here in Bakerland. Monday I had an uncle diagnosed with brain cancer. Tuesday I learned another uncle, who had been in declining health for a long time, was on his death bed. He passed away yesterday. This was a Football Uncle. So I'm going to pay a little tribute to him while tying it in to our beloved old school football...

This uncle is the grandfather of my 90s wrestling fan cousin and father of the financial guy who went to Great American Bash 99. He was big in the local rec council. Coached football for years and was one of the 2 or 3 Founding Fathers of the local lacrosse program. He was a stern, no nonsense fellow when I was a child, though he did mellow out after his first wife, my mom's sister, passed away in 1990. He remarried a short time later. I liked his second wife. But him getting married so soon after my aunt died only got him more heat with my mom, who never cared much for him to begin with. I'm just glad he had retired from coaching (though he and his wife still had ties to the program and occasionally worked the concession stand) by the time I started playing because I guarantee you his coaching style would have been that of the old school, slave-driving, hardass type. Anyway...

His biggest claim to fame among my immediate family was dunking my poor brother's head into a pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream one Thanksgiving. This was his idea of a joke! And everybody other than my poor brother for obvious reasons, and myself because I thought he had finally snapped for good, got a jolly great kick out of this rare lighthearted moment from my stern, normally humorless uncle.

Another claim to fame of his is predicting the Cowboys 90s dynasty. Pretty sure the Cowboys were his team in between the Colts leaving and Ravens arriving. If only because one of his sons married a girl from Dallas. That marriage did not work out. Anyway, this must have been during the 1990 season when America's Team was on the upswing after two miserable campaigns, but not quite there yet. My uncle was like "watch out for these Cowboys. They're gonna be really good in a few years." Of course he was right. But I was just licking my chops, waiting for my Cowboys hating father to dispute his statement. I'm pretty sure my dad had always been a Cowboys hater, but it really ramped up after they "screwed Tom Landry" who my dad had at least respected. But much to my surprise, my old man meekly agreed. Nowadays I think it might have been because my uncle just wasn't the sort of chap one could argue with. It was his way or the highway. I have to reiterate he really did mellow out by the mid-late 90s.

And now for his biggest claim to fame with me personally....During the late 80s I would watch football with him in their basement on the weekends we visited. When I got bored with the game I would pour over their excellent encyclopedia set (the mythology sections were my favorite). Others would come and go, wandering up and down the stairs, but he and I were the mainstays. One day my brother, 90s wrestling fan cousin, and his sister (the one who had a crush on Aldo Montoya) were running up and down the stairs, shouting, raising a ruckus, and generally behaving like maniacs the way most youths do. My uncle, surlier than ever over having his precious football interrupted, exploded at them- "GET OUT! AND DON'T YOU DARE COME DOWN THOSE STAIRS AGAIN!" My relatives quietly sulked away in shame as, again, he wasn't somebody you argued with. I got up and meekly started to follow when my uncle blurted out something like "HEY! You don't have to go. You're quiet and know how to behave. You can stay." I felt like such a big shot in that moment 

Memorable Games I Watched With My Uncle

1. Super Bowl XXII 1/31/88- It's the Super Bowl so it's gotta be #1, but this game was memorable for all the wrong reasons. It was only my 2nd Super Bowl and first Super Bowl party. There must have been 15-20 people gathered in my aunt & uncle's basement for the big game. Uncle was actually pretty chill for once, actually behaving like a normal human being. Even allowing people to speak! Every other person gathered there, even "Deadskins" haters like my dad, were rooting for Washington because Elway had nuclear heat here in Baltimore, with some even claiming his refusal to play for the Colts is what caused the beloved franchise to leave. And then there was me...

Ever the heel, I was a diehard Broncos backer. Watching "The Drive" at my grandmother's hooked me on the blue & orange. Elway was my guy. Yes, even above Neil Lomax. Outnumbered 15-1 or whatever, I raged against the machine, rooting for Elway and his Denver Broncos. First quarter was pretty sweet. I was feeling good, loving life, talking about as much smack as any under 10 ever has. Then the 2nd Quarter happened   Probably the longest 45 minutes of my life up to that point. It was like a nightmare that just kept getting worse. And I took SO MUCH guff. It was like being on the wrong end of a Hulk Hogan comeback. We drove home at halftime because school night. I was razzed by my father and brother that entire 15-20 minute drive home. Think my mom tried intervening on my behalf, but to no avail. I cannot confirm shedding tears that night, but it's entirely possible. Football was serious business to kiddie me!

2. Packers vs. Lions 11/27/86- This one is memorable in a good way. It was a wild Thanksgiving day shootout between two mediocre teams which saw obscure Packers WR Walter Stanley have the game of his life. Dude was like Gale Sayers on this day. I had been watching football since the start of the '86 season, but this is actually the first game I definitively remember watching. Like I can pinpoint this one. Both teams broke 40. Lions kicker Eddie Murray shared a name with the Orioles all star first basemen. Stanley scored three touchdowns, including a late punt return TD for the win. This game got Stanley over huge with my brother and I. He was still referencing Walter Stanley until the day he died. We thought he was a Football God. Walter Stanley and Neil Lomax: the undisputed Gods of Football to 1986 us  This game also turned us into Packer fans. We loved the Don Majkowski season and, while the Packers were never my favorite team, or even Top 3, I often rooted for Green Bay, and considered myself a Packers fan until they beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl that one time. How rude! This game, coupled with one of those books I mentioned earlier, tricked me into thinking the Packers & Lions played each other every Thanksgiving. Which....they totally should have. 

3. Raiders vs. 49ers 9/29/91?- Not gonna lie. For the longest time I thought I might have dreamt up this game. It just seemed fake. All I remembered is the Raiders were involved, Jeff Jaeger was their kicker, and it was the rare game where all the points were scored on field goals. So I combed through a bunch of late 80s-early 90s Raiders scores in an attempt to track down this semi-mythical "field goal game." Thank you, internet. Yet this Great Search only complicated matters by proving more fruitful than expected when it yielded FOUR Raiders games from 87-91 with the only scoring coming on field goals- 1 in 87, 2 in 88 during back to back weeks, and 1 in 91. Who knew the late 80s-early 90s Raiders were so bad on offense? Or so good on defense? After a little more digging I was able to narrow it down to this game because one of the Bahr brothers was kicking for the Raiders in 87-88 and I distinctly remembered Washington Huskies legend Jeff Jaeger kicking for the Raiders in "the field goal game." So it's gotta be this one....right? Fwiw the Raiders upset the mighty Niners 12-6 with Jaeger kicking 4 FG to Mike Cofer's 2.

4. Texas A&M vs. Texas- 11/26/87- Not NFL, but whatever. This was another Thanksgiving game. All I really remember about this one is the pre-game. It was at Texas A&M's stadium. They had this great big bonfire going and all this pageantry and hoopla and the announcers banging on about TRADITION and HISTORIC RIVALRIES and it was basically everything I loved about college football even though I was already an A&M hater for reasons I forget. I didn't watch the actual game   Maybe just the first quarter? But that pre-game always stuck with me. Remember this game starting late in the day and I know we left long before it was over because we had to be at Mr. Charlie's in time to watch the FIRST SURVIVOR SERIES! What a time to be alive.

EDIT: Whoops. Just remembered I actually watched the first half of Super Bowl XXI (1/25/87- Giants/Broncos) at my uncle's as well. It was my first Super Bowl! But somehow less memorable than a Texas A&M pre-game? Weird, but true. Maybe business didn't pick up until the second half? Yeah, that must be it. Wasn't it 10-9 at halftime? Neither side had any real bragging rights yet. Did Elway catch a pass in this game or was it the following Super Bowl? That was sweet. What a legend.

EDIT #2: Also watched the Broncos/Browns "Fumble Game" there as well. This was the AFC Championship Game on 1/17/88. Yet, DESPITE MY BRONCOS WINNING, Jeff Jaeger and a 3 field goal game came to mind before this very memorable, very important game. My mind is weird. 

RIP Uncle and thanks for the memories

This showed up in my Youtube feed. Probably because I listened to the Oilers fight song entirely too many times last weekend. Got a kick out of the overly dramatic narrator and now I want to hear him read the back of Intellivision boxes. Sorry if this traumatizes you Neo Zeed

EDIT: Dang. The No Fun League blocked it. You can still click the link though. 

Oct 21, 2023 23:56:25 GMT Baker said:

This showed up in my Youtube feed. Probably because I listened to the Oilers fight song entirely too many times last weekend. Got a kick out of the overly dramatic narrator and now I want to hear him read the back of Intellivision boxes. Sorry if this traumatizes you Neo Zeed

EDIT: Dang. The No Fun League blocked it. You can still click the link though. 

Lived in real time, getting mad that the Chronicle completely shat all over them every week when they were struggling and then wanting to write a letter to John McClain to call him out for jumping back on the bandwagon when they won 11 in a row after all the shit he talked. One thing I wanted for X-Mas that year the Warren Moon Oilers helmet/uniform they sold at Academy me and my brother were so happy we got them. I wish I could find those pics. Still remember the feeling after they beat San Fran on Christmas, the hype and buzz going into the playoff game, arguing and fighting with all the shithead kids on the bus betting me they would choke. That was MY fucking team and they were fuckkng bad fucking ass. Go watch the games on YouTube and see how awesome thay defense was. Real football.

He barely touched on it in that video but the early season loss to the Chargers is the one that wakes me up in the middle of the night in cold sweats. It was such an intriguing and underrated one on one matchup Moon and Seau head to head mana a mano on the field. There was a Moon td pass in the back of the end zone that was clear as day a touchdown, but refs ruled it incomplete and it cost them the game. The win would have put them 13-3, #1 seed in the AFC, Jeff Hostetler Raiders in the Astrodome in that divisional.

Had a blast rewatching the games on YouTube. They were one of the hardest hitting defense there had to have ever been. Some of the hits they were laying on people were nauseating. They massacred Boomer in the finale vs the Jets, outhit Pittsburg in their own house, they had a fight stat graphic keeping tally of all the fights when they played the Glanville Falcons.

Something that I don’t think has ever been brought up in any documentaries is infamous urban legend surrounding Jeff Alms suicide death on 59 overpass, he was gay and his lover was going down on him while they were driving caused the wreck that killed his friend(no seatbelt). The urban legend was that his friend bit Alms dick off when they wrecked and had it still in his mouth when they found his body beneath the overpass(Alm shot himself with a shotgun that he had in the car right there on 59). I have no clue if that is true or not but just to give you an idea what all was going on with that team that year.

Oct 22, 2023 14:01:27 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Lived in real time, getting mad that the Chronicle completely shat all over them every week when they were struggling and then wanting to write a letter to John McClain to call him out for jumping back on the bandwagon when they won 11 in a row after all the shit he talked.

Every big city paper must have a guy like that. For the Baltimore Sun it was Mike Preston. Remember my diehard Ravens fan friends and relatives hated that guy because he was....the opposite of a homer. Turns out he's still around, but nobody actually reads the Sun anymore.

Oct 22, 2023 18:21:20 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Something that I don’t think has ever been brought up in any documentaries is infamous urban legend surrounding Jeff Alms suicide death on 59 overpass, he was gay and his lover was going down on him while they were driving caused the wreck that killed his friend(no seatbelt). The urban legend was that his friend bit Alms dick off when they wrecked and had it still in his mouth when they found his body beneath the overpass(Alm shot himself with a shotgun that he had in the car right there on 59). I have no clue if that is true or not but just to give you an idea what all was going on with that team that year.

lol never heard this one before. I vaguely remembered the name Jeff Alm, but not the incident.

I did discover some interesting tidbits while going down a late 80s-early 90s Oilers rabbit hole the other night. Two players from the 1993 Oilers were allegedly gay. Saw some speculation that Alm was one of them, and further speculation that his passenger was also his lover, but the dick biting rumor is new to me. 

Oct 23, 2023 0:33:29 GMT Baker said:

Oct 22, 2023 14:01:27 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Lived in real time, getting mad that the Chronicle completely shat all over them every week when they were struggling and then wanting to write a letter to John McClain to call him out for jumping back on the bandwagon when they won 11 in a row after all the shit he talked.

Every big city paper must have a guy like that. For the Baltimore Sun it was Mike Preston. Remember my diehard Ravens fan friends and relatives hated that guy because he was....the opposite of a homer. Turns out he's still around, but nobody actually reads the Sun anymore.

Oct 22, 2023 18:21:20 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Something that I don’t think has ever been brought up in any documentaries is infamous urban legend surrounding Jeff Alms suicide death on 59 overpass, he was gay and his lover was going down on him while they were driving caused the wreck that killed his friend(no seatbelt). The urban legend was that his friend bit Alms dick off when they wrecked and had it still in his mouth when they found his body beneath the overpass(Alm shot himself with a shotgun that he had in the car right there on 59). I have no clue if that is true or not but just to give you an idea what all was going on with that team that year.

lol never heard this one before. I vaguely remembered the name Jeff Alm, but not the incident.

I did discover some interesting tidbits while going down a late 80s-early 90s Oilers rabbit hole the other night. Two players from the 1993 Oilers were allegedly gay. Saw some speculation that Alm was one of them, and further speculation that his passenger was also his lover, but the dick biting rumor is new to me. 

It’s no wonder people stopped reading The Sun after that fake news homeless serial killer debacle.

There was no allegedly with Alm it was for sure he was gay. I don’t remember where I read this but something happened with Bum Phillips(who was radio broadcaster the last few years of the team) was told Alm’s lover(who was always with him) was his really really really good friend, classic Bum response: “That’s a few too many reallys for me” 😂.

The dick biting urban legend in my digging nobody ever proves if that was true or false either way. Nobody has ever been able to find an autopsy report or anything but I’m assuming it had to be true for it to even become a thing.

Not NFL, but close enough, and definitely Old School. Last night I came across a 6 part Youtube series chronicling the History of the Wishbone Offense. You better believe I instantly watched the whole thing. This is what entertainment looks like...

And now I'm watching Super Sunday for the 1001st time...

Nov 5, 2023 0:22:36 GMT Baker said:

Not NFL, but close enough, and definitely Old School. Last night I came across a 6 part Youtube series chronicling the History of the Wishbone Offense. You better believe I instantly watched the whole thing. This is what entertainment looks like...

Awesome I want to watch this soon as I get a chance. I took a side job back in 2011 covering the local high school football team for the newspaper. I had no interest in college or high school football ever and just figured it would be a nice way to make some extra money to pay off a vehicle I was paying on back then. The school is smaller but just big enough to play full 11 on 11, but it was a smaller division school where most kids played ironman ball both offense and defense and the coach ran the wishbone every play. They may have thrown the ball 2-3 times a game, they had games where they threw maybe 1-2 times the whole game. I completely fucking fell in love with it every friday night, beautiful intimate stadiums/atmosphere carved into east texas forrests, hot coffee and wishbone ironman football every friday night. They ended up going on a deep playoff run my second year and I was getting $80 checks in the mail every 2 weeks into the next February from other papers around Texas running my game stories. Great times. That was real football and was great experience following that team those years. 

That Super Sunday video stops at 87 that doesn't work for me bro, I need the 91 tape, what effort WHAT EFFORT! Fuck it though its a Super Sunday morning for sure lets go

Nov 5, 2023 14:16:45 GMT Neo Zeed said:

That Super Sunday video stops at 87 that doesn't work for me bro, I need the 91 tape, what effort WHAT EFFORT! Fuck it though its a Super Sunday morning for sure lets go

Super Sunday stopping at 87 is right and proper. That's when my copy stopped as well. Perhaps that's the most popular version? Your 91 edition might be a rare collectors item.

After watching it for the 1001st time the other night I can safely declare it a 10/10 epic of the cinema. I was so into it that I even watched the stupid Super Bowl III part (we'd skip that one about half the time back in the day).

Music sublime. Hank Stram a national treasure. Great heels in Namath and "The Hammer." My new avatar. It has everything you want. Including so many memorable lines I feel obligated to list a few of my favorites...

Lamar Hunt's "Super Ball/Super Bawl" spiel
"CRANK UP THAT DIESEL! AWWWMM AWWWMMM"
"Keep matriculating the ball down the field"
"65 toss power trap"
"It's no longer n-n-normal"
"It takes Max McGee an hour and twenty five minutes to run a hundred yard dash"
"Shula had to call off the dogs."
and the immortal "HE'S GOT TO BE THE SICKEST MAN IN AMERICA"

And that's just scratching the surface. You'd be surprised by how many of these we managed to slip into every day conversations.

Great story about covering that local high school team Neo Zeed

I never played organized football (more on that in a minute) but I had a few friends who did and would occasionally check out their games. Also watched my high school team play from time to time. And everybody from pee wee on up to high school ran a version of the triple option here in MD. Passing was extremely rare. Like you might see 5 a game on a good day.

I was about as big a college football fan as an NFL fan up to the mid-late 90s. But during those first few years of fandom I actually hated watching wishbone/triple option teams. They were so boring! And even as a dumb kid I could tell the "running teams" just by how they lined up. I'd get so sad when I tuned in on a Saturday afternoon only to get a boring running team. And there were A LOT of them in those days! Oklahoma/Nebraska and Army/Navy games were THE WORST. If kiddie me had had insomnia, those games could have cured it.

But by the mid 90s I had smartened up, stopped hating, and learned to love the old school option offense. I credit two things for this change of heart- Bill Walsh College Football on the Sega Genesis where I killed it with the triple option, and Nebraska Cornhuskers legend Tommie Frazier. Watching "Touchdown" Tommie run the option was like watching a master artist at work. Far from being "boring," I now saw the option as a thing of beauty. And nobody created more masterpieces than Tommie Frazier.

After finally getting hooked on the option I desperately wanted to see an NFL team run the wishbone offense. Figured the Bucs were the best bet when they had the inside-outside 1-2 punch of Alstott & Dunn. If only they had drafted a running quarterback and just went for it they’d have instantly become my new favorite team. Alas, it was not to be.

OK, so I never played organized football, opting instead to play stupid soccer from 1st Grade-Sophomore Year, but my friends and I would "throw the pig" practically every day after school from September-January, 1st Grade-Senior Year. In the 80s we'd play two hand touch in the alley. Early 90s it was touch in the street, tackle if you made it to the grass. Then came my own creation "Russian Football" (worth a Storytime of its own lol). And by the mid 90s it was tackle at this or that local park*. It's this era I'm going to cover in a minute.

*Just a not-so-quick aside: Some time in the mid 2010s my brother told me he thought playing tackle football for years with no pads or helmets was the craziest thing he/we ever did. I was taken aback by this because A) It seemed totally normal to me in the 80s & 90s and B) He did a A LOT of crazy things. But he remained steadfast in this belief.

For the record he broke his collarbone in a 1989 tackle football game at my obscure school librarian cousin's birthday party when a fat kid landed on him. Years later he suffered another shoulder injury which would plague him for the rest of his life. He also claimed to have got multiple concussions playing tackle football. The eldest of The Three Brothers broke his arm at least twice in these 'friendly' games of padless tackle football. Another friend named Adam got knocked loopy when Rick and my brother Midnight Expressed him. I don't think he ever played football with us again. And I suffered a LEGIT concussion of my own playing football in '88. But that was honestly a freak accident. I was walking or running backwards, tripped, and the back of my head hit sidewalk. OUCH! I saw stars like a cartoon character, immediately felt queasy, went inside, and passed out on the couch. When I woke up I was in my neighbor's (Mr. Charlie the wrestling fan) van on the way to the hospital. My brother squealed. My mom was too freaked out to drive. And my dad was away on his yearly camping trip with his dad friends. The doctor was a small man with glasses, a beard, and a common surname. Anyway...

I was the best quarterback in the neighborhood. Had a big arm. Now I'm tempted to grab a pig (do I still have one?), head up to the local park, and heave chuck a few just to see how far my old ass with a sore elbow can throw nowadays. May actually do this at some point this week. Will report if so.

Anyway, we usually played 2 on 2, 3 on 3, or 4 on 4 up to the mid 90s when we would often get 20 people (give or take) together for big ol' games at one of two local parks, especially during snow days. But all this pickup football was pass-pass-pass. Running was extremely rare. But I was so option-obsessed by the mid 90s, and such a Tommie Frazier fanboy, that I had to find a way to incorporate my new favorite style of football. And here's how I did it...

After school my "school friends" would get together for some 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 football action at this or that local park. We'd use a real narrow field to give the defense SOME chance. Matt The IRS Fan was always my teammate. We were two peas in a pod who basically shared the same brain. Real George & Jerry style chemistry. Our opponents were almost always Matt's seldom mentioned Falcons-loving, wrestling-hating brother who did at least respect Mr. Perfect, and this guy named Chuck (who is a different Chuck than Chuck The Shawn Michaels/AWF Fan). Sometimes we'd get a 5th & 6th. Usually this guy Mike and one of my JV soccer teammates with an all time great nickname in "The Barbarian Chicken." But these additions were rare. It was usually just Matt and I against His Brother and Chuck.

Oh, and sometimes if Chuck couldn't/didn't want to play, we would just play Smear The Queer in Matt's backyard instead. This game was pretty brutal. If you know, you know. Tired of getting pounded as 'The Queer,' and also just goofing off for the sake of goofing off, one day I adapted this herky jerky "crazy legs" running style. And suddenly Matt and his brother couldn't tackle me! I had just goofed my way into a goldmine.

So Matt and I were always teammates in these 'proper' games of 2 on 2 (or 3 on 3) football. Only now I wanted to run-run-run instead of pass-pass-pass as had always been done before. So I had Matt line up behind me and I'd signal right/left/straight behind my back with my thumb. Which, I'm sorry, but I have to give myself the Barry Horowitz pat on the back because that's brilliant. We ran the option on 90+% of plays. And we were damn good at it. We killed with the option and my new 'crazy legs' running style worked a charm. Sure, we sucked at defense (I couldn’t cover a cripple), but defense is boring anyway. The quicker they score, the quicker I can get back to running the option! That was the closest I ever got to being "Touchdown" Tommie Frazier and I loved it.

Man, now I just want to tell pickup football game stories all night week long. 

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

1993 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.

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

My story is similar only with my "1993" coming a few years earlier. Basically pick any year from 86-91.

Nov 8, 2023 0:48:27 GMT Neo Zeed said:

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.

Now I want to do this to try determining the peak(s) and valley(s) of my NFL fandom while dropping some highlights along the way. Gonna be long. Might have to break it up into a 2 part post. EDIT: Oh yeah. This is gonna be real long. I'll have to break it up into several parts. Like 5 or 6....or maybe even more. 

1986- Gotta be a Top 3 season. Maybe even #1. Just because everything was exciting and new. Not sure if I watched from the beginning of the season, or picked it up after the World Series, but I got hooked real quick. And if I hadn't already been hooked, "The Drive" would have done the trick for sure. John Elway's Broncos were my first football love. Shame about the Super Bowl, though I weirdly didn't hate the Giants for stomping a mudhole in my Broncos.

Colts started out 0-13. My dad and practically everyone else in Baltimore were over the moon at the prospect of Indianapolis becoming the first team to go 0-16. Alas, the Colts won their final 3 games in a sign of things to come in '87. The Jets got off to a 10-1 start and had HYPE before collapsing down the stretch by losing their last 5. They still eeked into the playoffs, beat a flukey Chiefs team, and then lost to the Browns when the last straight ahead kicker Mark Moseley ended them with a field goal in OT. Got some football cards and at least one football book which covered the '85 season. Probably started getting those gumball football helmets as well. Plus WALTER STANLEY~!

-One thing about these first few years is the jobber teams would actually have more appeal for me than the good teams you saw every week simply because you didn't get to see the bottom feeders on tv outside of 20 second halftime clips unless they happened to play the Redskins (our "local" team). The scrub teams basically had this exotic appeal for me since they were so rarely on tv. I would keep track of all the teams I got to watch (did the same for Baseball). Pretty sure the lowly Bucs were the last team I saw in a proper game. Also distinctly remember the network flipping over from a blowout to the end of a close Chargers/Raiders game and sweating over whether or not to credit it as my first Chargers game since I only got to see the final few minutes. This was serious business to late 80s me!

1987- The Strike didn't really effect much since we only missed out on one week of football. I didn't really care whether it was Ed Ruppert or Jay Schroeder under center. I just wanted muh football. This was the year I fell in love with the Saints. After 20 years of non-winning seasons, they were lovable losers no longer, posting the second best record in football at 12-3. Unfortunately the best record in football belonged to their division rival 49ers and my beloved Saints got blown out a Vikings team with a mediocre record in the Wild Card Game. I missed the first half due to my cousin's bowling birthday party and thought my lack of loyalty might have contributed to the Saints losing   Plus my dad was a Vikings fan dating back to the Tarkenton days so he rode me mercilessly that day week. Guess it was payback for me getting into the Colts and their star RB Eric Dickerson that year. I had Dickerson's Staring Lineup figure! My brother opted for *sigh* Jim McMahon. Barf! Anyway, the Colts turned it around after getting Dickerson in a blockbuster 3 team trade by going 9-6 and making the playoffs out of a tough AFC East. We're just gonna ignore this year's Super Bowl, k? 

Fun Fact: All five AFC teams were 5-5. That's gotta be a record. Also, while researching something completely unrelated, I just discovered the Chargers started out 8-1 before collapsing down the stretch and failing to make the playoffs at 8-7. Didn't remember that at all. 

Got some more football books including that NFL's Greatest Moments book I put over in some earlier posts. This was also the year they hyped the heck out of commentator Merlin Olsen starring in Aaron's Way. "Stay tuned after the game for clips of Merlin Olsen in Aaron's Way! Airing right here on NBC after the season." Alas, Aaron's Way would be a flop with only 13 episodes airing. I only watched the first one iirc. Or more like half the first episode before I got bored. 

1988- I was still super into it. Still getting books and likely cards as well. Pretty sure this was the year I got an NFL Hall of Fame book which only increased my already strong interest in NFL History. Something that had been kickstarted by those glorious NFL Films episodes which aired prior to the games at noon. This year also had the Bears/Eagles Fog Bowl playoff game. But what really sticks with me 35 years later is the Bengals big run with Boomer, Ickey, and the No Huddle Offense. That was such a fun team. Shame about the Super Bowl being another punch to the gut. I was now 0-3 in SB's. Oh, pretty sure this was the year we started playing the original Tecmo Bowl at my friend Matt Not The IRS Fan's house. It was either this year or the next. 

1989- This year was all about Don "Magic Man" Majkowski bringing the Pack back. Shame they missed the playoffs at 10-6 due to a stupid tiebreaker. Likely the year I got the 100 Greatest books and my first game changing Zander Hollander NFL Complete Handbook as well. We also had a subscription to Sports Illustrated. This is the year I became a big time NFL stat nerd and first came up with my own QB Rating system. I would study those Complete Handbooks the way I would later study PWI. Dang. This is also the year I got all those Team History books from the library. So, yeah, I was super obsessed with football this year. Pretty sure this is the year I got SUPER SUNDAY as well. Perhaps on Christmas? Yes, that sounds right. On the field, the 49ers were now my most hated team in all of sports after giving the Broncos their third, and biggest, Super Bowl whipping in four years. Stupid Niners were the Bulls/Yankees/Duke of this era. SF seemed unstoppable at this point. I thought they were destined to win Super Bowls for eternity. 

1990- We moved to a new neighborhood a few months before the season started, but it was not detrimental to my still thriving football fandom. Made some new football fan friends, most notably the cool older kid across the street who basically served as mentor/big brother/neighborhood welcoming committee. He was an Oilers fan who also loved the admittedly very popular Bo Jackson.

Actually feel like this year, not 91 as previously imagined, marked the end of my peak fandom era. This year was a 3 horse race between the 13-3 Bills, 13-3 Giants, and 14-2 49ers coming off back to back championships. The mighty Niners were the flashy glamor boys in the midst of a dynasty with the widely considered GOAT Joe Montana leading their fancy West Coast offense. The Bills had been steadily improving for years and now had HYPE as...basically 49ers lite with their No Huddle Offense. And then you had the gritty, smashmouth, ball control, defense-minded, Giants. Few really thought the Giants could compete with those two offensive juggernauts. Plus people dismissed them as "boring." Obviously, with me being me, I was all about Big Blue this year. And THEY DID IT! They pulled off the impossible miracle of BEATING SAN FRANCISCO in the NFC Championship. All it took was GRIT and 5 field goals from Matt bah gawd Bahr. Then they DID IT AGAIN by edging Buffalo when Ray Finkle Scott Norwood Bill Bucknered an admittedly tough field goal. After five years of suffering, the team I wanted to win finally won the Super Bowl. All was right with the world...

EDIT: Just remembered this year would forever be immortalized in Tecmo Super Bowl. What a year. What an era! 

Verdict- It's really hard to rank these years from favorite to least. They all ruled! Best I can do is call it a 5 way tie for #1 and declare this stretch the undisputed peak period of my fandom. I was just so into it all. Watched every game I could. Usually with my dad. Plus my brother until he inevitably got bored. He just wasn't quite as into it as I was. The best were those rare occasions (only once or twice a year) when we were off on Tuesday so I got to stay up late watching THE ENTIRE Monday Night Football game. 

Next Time: 91-93 or maybe 95 or even 2000. I dunno. Depends on how into it I get. 

Love that post, was hoping more posters would chime in with the hills and valleys of their days as NFL fans. Texans new rookie QB CJ Stroud has saved the sport for me I was about ready to give up on it, the kid had me up on the roof trying to fix my antenna.

Roone Arledge. Why that name always be popping into my head?

I made a playlist a while back on YouTube with all the NFL prime time highlights for every 2004 Texans game, I had it going this past Saturday to get hyped for the Texans playoff eliminator and it was a fun throwback. The thing about the current success of the Texans this year is that they turned inward towards the little bit of our own team culture that we do have with the hiring of Demeco Ryans as head coach, listening to Andre Johnson in getting rid of Jack Easterby, so here you have guys from that 2003-2006 era completely saving the team.

Not going to find many Texans fans that have the nostalgia love for that era like I do. Genuinely loved the 2004 team even later in the season when they were out of it still was so excited every week for their games, Andre, Carr, Dominick Davis, felt like that trio had a big future, Glenn and Sharper on defense were a blast to watch, Sharper was a gladiator here for those 3 years, Glenn from A&M from Humble same north Houston suburb my youngest brother was born.

The 2004 team was awesome because that feeling was still fresh that this was brand new team, football back in Houston after those dark years 97-2001, almost every game that year they put up a fight, pulled off some big wins, swept the Titans for the first wins over them in each stadium(ours and theirs), fucked up the Jaguars season, played the Drew Brees/Antonio Gates/Ladanian Tomlinson Chargers, had to face Prime Manning twice the year he broke Marino’s record, vs Favre on prime time, Andre Johnson having his breakout season, the shoot out vs the Vikings/Moss, yeah fun season.

Looking at a team that played a pretty crazy tough schedule you don't ever hear about, the 1991 Pittsburgh Steelers. Still had Chuck Noll in his last year as Steelers head coach a job he took in like 1969. This is a defense that had Hardy Nickerson and Greg Lloyd, with Rod Woodson, all 3 of them were 26 years old. With Neil Odonnell and Bubby Brister at QB this team was going nowhere. But they played both Super Bowl teams that year, blown out by both Washington and Buffalo. Played one of the all time great defenses in Philly. Played in Denver(Elway took them to AFCCG that year, one of the best defenses under Wade Phillips). In Dallas against a Cowboys team that made it to the second round of the playoffs that year. Then 2 games against 11-5 Oilers team that was loaded, 2 games against Belichick in his first year as head coach(Belichick vs Noll I & II), and a game against a still pretty tough Giants team. They finished 7-9 through all that and Noll retired after the season, setting up the Cower era to start in 92.

Also got to wonder how the Raiders history would have changed had Madden stuck around into the 90's the way Noll and Shula did.

You know its that time of year when Mrs. Ella Mae Weatherwax telling motherfuckers to take a blimp ride. I'm aiming to make it through the first 18 today as my background noise for cleaning this house up, getting that laundry done, maybe play a game of Madden or work on that fan fiction!

So my mom has become something of a football fan in her old age. She probably watches it more than my dad and I nowadays. I ribbed her yesterday by asking if she was gonna watch the Ravens vs. Lions 3rd place game today. She was too clever to fall for it. But that got me to thinking about the old school 3rd place game. Remember reading about it back in the day. It was also known as the Playoff Bowl, Bert Bell Benefit Bowl, and Runner-Up Bowl. It was around for 10 years. Vince Lombardi was not a fan. Just one of those weird historical curiosities. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playoff_Bowl

Along those same lines is the College All Star Game when the Super Bowl/NFL Champions would play a team of college stars. This one lasted from 1934-76 and drew some huge crowds to Chicago's Soldier Field. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_College_All-Star_Game

As a Steelers fan, I like that the Playoff Bowl played a big role in why the Steelers always kept their logo on one side of the helmet (with them painting the helmets black, instead of yellow for the game, and it stood out the logo was only on one side, leading to them keeping it that way).

The College All Stars vs NFL/Super Bowl champ was a unique thing too. While people now always debate if the worst in NFL team could beat the best college team (as though the best college team doesn't have like 7 guys at the most going to the NFL, while the worst NFL team has 53 guys that made it to the NFL), I could see it being more of a challenge for the Super Bowl champion to face all of college football's best players.

The last of those games ending on a crazy note, with what looking like a typhoon hitting the field.😂

Feb 5, 2024 15:26:37 GMT Leper Messiah said:

As a Steelers fan, I like that the Playoff Bowl played a big role in why the Steelers always kept their logo on one side of the helmet (with them painting the helmets black, instead of yellow for the game, and it stood out the logo was only on one side, leading to them keeping it that way).

Nice little tidbit I was not aware of. And I was a big time Steelers fan throughout the 2000s into the 2010s! Too bad I got rid of all my Steelers merch years ago. Had I known I'd have passed it down to all the Steelers fans right here on PW.

Seen a nice video on Youtube this morning making a case for the 2008 season being the craziest year in NFL history. I have to agree that it was up there, similar to the 1999 season just an oddball year. In the video they didn't even mention the hurricane the fucked up the Texans that year forced them to play on the road, wrecked the stadium did permanent damage to the mechanical roof. Same hurricane made it so far up into Arkansas that it blew a huge oak tree down in my back yard in Searcy Arkansas(it hit Arkansas the same night I won my belt, ate dinner after that fight in the dark since power went out then got home that night to see huge tree down with powerlines down in the back yard).

I was so heavy into the MMA training and fighting that Summer/Fall that I really missed most of that year of the NFL, was so out of tune with what was going on that offseason and the first half of regular season wasn't watching or paying attention at all honestly. Interestingly coincidentally this was the least I cared about the NFL since that 1999 season. Similar to that 99 season I got back into it later in the season(around the time the Texans made their Monday Night Football debut against the Jaguars, that was an awesome game/night I wish I could find that full game, one of my favorite Texans games). By the time I got back into it going into the playoffs I thought it was an odd/interesting playoffs, that Super Bowl was amazing.

Also have had JJ Watt highlight vids going, man what a blessing he was to get him on my favorite team. That was just incredible to live through. Watching some of the clips again the speed he had to close the distance on guys I do believe he was better than Bruce Smith or Reggie White at his peak. And that's really saying something from me because those were my 2 favorites to watch growing up. Think of the difference in talent surrounding those guys compared to the c-d level guys that Watt played with. Then look at how he's used his platform to stand up for my team and hometown, then factor in that he was drafted here by Wade Phillips the son of Bum Phillips, pure magic.

Neo Zeed what do you know about the 1984 draft? I didn't know much before a video on it showed up in my Youtube feed today. That draft was wild. The USFL poached a bunch of top college stars months before the NFL draft leading to a depleted talent pool for NFL teams to choose from. Then the NFL held a supplemental draft for the rights to USFL players just in case that league went under. Which, of course, it did. That supplemental draft was a huge deal nobody has ever really talked much about. 

Even as a kid I thought the Pats drafting WR Irving Fryar from Nebraska (who only threw like 10 times a game) was a weird #1 choice. Fryar was a good player, but wideouts didn't typically go #1, and it wasn't until today that I learned why he was the top pick. Steve Young to the Bengals would have been the top pick had he not signed with the USFL. Future Houston Oiler Mike Rozier was another consensus Top 5 pick until he signed with a USFL team. Assuming Young stayed USFL and Rozier went NFL, the Nebraska Cornhuskers would have produced the Top 3 picks. They "only" produced the Top 2 picks in real life- Fryar and another Oiler in Dean Steinkuhler or however you spell it. Reggie White was another hot prospect who signed with the USFL. I didn't know he was such a big name coming out of college. Anyway, here is the video...

I dove really deep into this draft as research for my old AFL revision history, until then I never fully realized how much of a disruption the USFL really was to 2 or 3 of those drafts, basically ruined the 84 and 85 NFL drafts. I don’t think we will ever see another startup league attack the NFL draft like that. Would have been interesting to see how the 80’s played out in the NFL without the USFL existing, they did have a major impact on the league.