TIL Jim McMahon wore a Bears jersey to the White House after winning a Super Bowl with the Packers. Then he retired. That's a next level heel move from a career heel.

So how bad was the Charles Martin Cheapshot that it managed to babyface Jim McMahon to my parents and me (my brother loved Jerk McMahon for some reason)? Remember watching this live. Still has to be one of the dirtiest plays in NFL history. Also learned today the Packers were a real dirty team under Forrest Gregg. Those mid-late 80s Bears/Packers games looked brutal in terms of dirty play from GB. And also brutal in that the Bears were great while the Packers sucked. The 80s were weird, man. Anyway, here is the cheapshot of the century...



To make matters worse, this cheapshot exacerbated McMahon's pre-existing shoulder injury. Now McMahon was overrated even in his prime, but he never reached even that level of mediocrity after the Martin hit. As for Martin, he was kicked out of that game and suspended for two more, making him the first player in NFL history to be suspended for multiple games due to an on-field incident.

I'm still holding out hope that both of the Texans 2004 games against the Titans and the 2004 Texans vs Vikings games will surface on Youtube one day(the Texans vs Packers game from that season would be nice too). Three of my favorite games in franchise history all missing from my hard drive collection. My hopes got a boost today when I found 2 games from the 2004 season that just recently seen the light of day for the first time, the Texans vs Raiders and Texans vs Bears games from 2004 were just uploaded to Youtube last month. I just finished the Bears game and it was a fun watch, future Texans head coach Lovie Smith in his first year as Bears HC, both teams 5-8, Texans beat them pretty handily 24-5 in what was the coldest game of the 2004 season up to that point, 8 degrees. The Raiders game was earlier in the year when Jerry Rice was still a starter(before they traded him to the Seahawks where he finished that season) so thats a notable game, I believe the one and only time we ever played against the pre-Brady GOAT.

Another notable Texans game that I forgot I had on my hard drive, the 2006 Texans at Cowboys rematch from the 2002 inaugural game, the one and only Texans game they ever played in the old historic Texas Stadium where KVE beat Flair for the strap. Its a straight beat down where Dallas was trying to run up the score in the end but still cool to see them in that stadium, which no longer exists. 

Andre Johnson and Jerry Rice on the same field/game, yeah this is a cool one.

Jamie Sharper came to Houston and played his ass off those 3 years 2002-2004, coming off of that 2000 Ravens defense as a free agent he really put it in here those years and is still one of my favorite Texans to this day. I believe he led the NFL in tackles all 3 of those years. This play right here

YES, that Texans vs Raiders 2004 game was a great one, Andre Johnson goes one on one with Charles Woodson and leaves him in the dust in one play late. Hall of Famer vs Hall Of Famer.

The Raiders tried to pick on rookie Dunta Robinson, who was actually pretty damn good, and got 2 picks in this game. He gets a pick in one of the last plays and Andre Johnson decapitates one of the Raiders o-lineman knocking him out of his helmet and cleats with a block on the run back. Savage play

Thinking about it though I think the commentator is mistaken that can't be Andre in there on defense? 

But what a win that was at the time, first time we ever won back to back games. Really fun watch ended up being way more interesting than I thought it would be. 

Having a blast going through Texans history like I usually do every few offseasons, scanning to see if any new old stuff has surfaced. Quite a bit of stuff from 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 seasons has been uploaded in the last few months. I had fun going back to revisit a few 2004 games last weekend or so. Now I'm seeing about 5 or 6 fresh games uploaded from 2006, the first Gary Kubiak season the rookie season of Demeco Ryans our current head coach. I watched the game vs the Titans from 2006 with Vince Young first homecoming game since winning the National Championship for Texas, playing in his hometown Houston vs rookie Demeco Ryans who has a great game. This was a fun watch, nice game that came down to the wire in the end. Good stuff. Have to be honest and admit that I overlooked Demeco during his prime years he just wasn't one of my guys even though I was always aware of him and that he was beloved by most Texans fans those days. Watching this game today really stood out that he really was something special and it's like storybook or movie that he's the one about to push this team into the future being taken seriously finally.

Went down the rabbit hole and somehow ended up looking closely at the 2005 Denver Broncos for some reason. I guess after looking closely at the 2004 Texans their final game vs the 2-13 Browns they just gave up and laid down to them, Carr was sacked 6 times, the whole game was a preview of how bad they would be in 2005. Was thinking 2005 was the year they should have cleaned house, signed a QB to compete with Carr in 2005, fire Capers and the OC Chris Palmer maybe hire Gary Kubiak a year sooner to give him a jump start on building the team. In hindsight it was like they tanked the 2005 season on purpose and it was a wasted year that really set the franchise growth back several more years.

But Kubiak was in his final year as OC in Denver in 2005 and man that team was good looking back now. This was the year the Patriots were defending 2 time SB Champs and this Broncos team was what stopped them from a 3peat, whooped them pretty good in the regular season and in Denver in the AFC Divisional playoffs. They finished 13-3 had a top 5 offense and top 5 defense, hosted Pittsburgh in the 2005 AFCCG and just got demolished in a loss(Pittsburgh went on to beat Seattle in Super Bowl XL). The next year 2006 Kubiak came to the Texans and they drafted Demeco Ryans in the second round.

Went digging through the 2004 archives on the Texans message board and found a post from 20 years ago with somebody predicting then that Carr was toast and that we should go after Kurt Warner(he had just been benched by the Giants so they could start rookie Eli). Man to think if we had a shot at Kurt Warner in 2005 the Cardinals got him, that would put Warner with Andre Johnson in his prime years 2008 and 2009 when he was dominating the NFL. Man.

Been watching a few Texans games from 2006 and 2007 that have just recently surfaced on Youtube for the first time, really makes me think deep about Andre Johnson's career. He has a great rookie year in 2003, excellent 2004 season, then you got to mark out his 2005 and 2006 seasons as wasted really, these were the Toast Carr years(whole offense was in crisis the 05 season with OC being fired early).

Seeing him early on healthy in the 2007 season and jesus he was a bad motherfucker by this point, playing with Matt Schaub and Sage Rosenfels. The highlights of Andre from this season are pretty ridiculous he reached the truly dominant phase of his career by 2007, but ended up missing significant time that year with injuries. So he had 3 years in his prime all lost, 2005-2006-2007, even though lost years he still led the NFL in some categories in 2006 if I remember correctly(receptions?) and 2007.

His apex is the 2008 and 2009 years where he led the NFL in receiving, played with a lot of Sage Rosenfels in 2008 then finally a full season with Schaub in 2009 with no run game whatsoever. Still elite in 2010 with Schaub at his peak, Arian Foster breaking out, dominant in 2011 but misses more time with injury, has rookie TJ Yates as his QB in his playoff debut that year. Balls out in 2012 and by this point really Schaub was toast as this season progressed, 2013 he was done historic pick six amount, 2014 Andre plays with Fitzpatrick and a bunch of other scrubs.

Somehow finishes retiring a top 10 all time receiver, that is truly fucking amazing when you really put a microscope on that career with what he had to work with and how many of his prime years were just really wasted by the circumstances around the team he played for. If you think what if he had a stable team with a QB in 2005-2006 and maybe the 2007 injury doesn't happen I think his legacy would be far far greater.  

Totally random thought, another big misconception of NFL history, story retelling/revision history being wrong, the Titans were not 1 yard short of winning the Super Bowl in 1999, it was 23-16, so if they got the TD they still needed an extra point to tie(then still had overtime) or a 2 point conversion to win it.

Watched The Four Falls of Buffalo on Disney+ last night because I like to relive my pain. I couldn't believe when I saw it was made in 2015! How am I just getting it now?! To be fair I kind of fell away from sports NBA/NFL/CFL after my kid was born as my TV was programmed to Treehouse after that.

Even though they glossed over a lot I think they showed the right things. I think it showed how it wasn't just one thing that got them to the dance those 4 years, and also not just one thing that lost it for them those 4 times. It was crazy how close that first game was. Heartbreaking. Scott Norwood tugged at my heartstrings all over again. It was strange reliving these moments again after so long, but it really renewed my love for the Bills and why I chose them as my team way back in the late 80's despite my dad being a Cowboys fan. Technically the Seahawks would have been a closer team for me to cheer for, but I was always an Argos fan too so why not Buffalo. I think the same spirit prevails now with the current roster. Egos and all. 

You seen this yet RT ? At any rate, if you haven't seen it it's worth a look and I noticed Disney+ and Netflix have been adding a lot of great sports docs. Looking forward to the 'Receiver' one coming out soon on Netflix.

I remember loving it when it came out, and found it so interesting to finally get their words on the 93 Super Bowl the 4th one they lost. I was rooting for them hard in that game as a 9 year old kid and never understood how or why they laid down so hard the way they did in that second half. They had Dallas beat in the first half, but looking at them going into the locker room for the halftime it was like they had already lost. I noticed it as a little kid in real time. Then rewatching it as an adult it was almost as if they were playing a worked game and were just told to lose so they showed out in the first half and knew it was over.

But it really makes a lot of sense that they just ran out of gas. With all the playoff games and that being their 4th Super Bowl they probably played more games by far than any other team those 4 years, more big pressure games, more Super Bowl spotlight than any of the 4 teams that beat them. Also a major life lesson about manifesting terrible shit happening in your life by giving up on yourself and not getting over past failures. They had Dallas beat in the first half and were so hung up on the last 3 Super Bowls it got in their head and they came out in second half and played like they wanted to lose on purpose. There is a pretty deep psychological lesson to be learned there I think. 

Never realized until today looking at an old NFL Record and Fact book that the 1985 Broncos were kinda screwed, finished 11-5 but missed the playoffs while the 8-8 Cleveland Browns made the playoffs because they won a weak ass 4 team AFC Central division. There has to be some kind of law in the NFL where a division winner that finishes without a winning record gets bypassed for the playoff spot. This robbed us of a potential Elway vs Marino showdown in their primes in the 1985 playoffs when both were like 23-24 years old that year.

Taking a closer look at the 1985 Broncos Elway threw a lot of interceptions that year and hadn't really developed into the killer he would be yet. He threw 5 interceptions in the season finale against KC that padded that INT stat. The Broncos were in first place in the AFC West for most of the season, but lost 2 overtime games to the Raiders in the end that cost them the division title and playoff spot.

Elway and Marino did play a pretty good game that season early on at Mile High, Marino pulled off the comeback with a big third quarter TD to win it. Would like to see that game as well as both of Denver's OT losses to the Raiders all 3 look like interesting games worth checking out.

NFL Throwback highlight of the 1985 Elway vs Marino showdown looks like a banger. Needed a rematch in those playoffs that 8-8 Browns team had no business in the playoffs. Also thinking about this and how that worked out with one of the big stars in the league left out of the postseason with an 11-5 record, it's crazy it took them 5 more years to figure out that they needed to even out the playoff field with another Wild Card team, they didn't add the 6th playoff team per conference until 1990. There were a few really good teams in those 5 years that were left out of the playoffs(89 Packers at 11-5 come to mind with Majkowski they were one of only 2 teams to beat San Fran that year, needed a rematch). 

I have a 1990 NFL record and fact book in my bathroom, I was looking at it the other morning scanning through the team vs team records at that time and it struck me just how young the Falcons, Saints, Bucs, and Seahawks were going into 1990. Almost every team had a winning record against them, the Colts were 10-0 against Atlanta. The Falcons and Saints were around the same age in 1990 that the Texans are now just to put it into perspective, Texans are playing their 23rd season this year, in 1990 the Saints were playing their 23rd and Atlanta their 24th, I dont think either had ever won a playoff game yet. Atlanta even in their early days were a thorn in the side of the 49ers going 15-15 against them from their start up until 83-84 when San Fran started to dominate the series.

2004 Texans vs Vikings highlight posted by NFL Throwback a couple weeks back: 

This game is a hidden gem, forgotten, perhaps never really known about to begin with. It wasn't aired anywhere on TV outside of Houston or Minnesota and I believe it took place the same day or same time as a Houston Astros playoff game so not a lot of people in Houston seen it either. They barely gave it any attention in any of the highlight shows at the tie either. It has to be one of the best games of that 2004 season and one of the more underrated/forgotten best regular season of that decade.

This is a game I have been waiting to surface in full on Youtube. It's one of my favorite Texans games ever in their 23 year existence. This was a duel between 2 of the GOAT receivers, 2 HOF'ers Randy Moss vs Andre Johnson. This game has to be one of Andre Johnson's all time best, taking place in his 2nd season, featuring 2-3 of his all time best catches of his career, he basically takes this game over to pull of that 21 point comeback completely bullying Minnesota's secondary at times.

Crazy to think this was 20 years ago now.

Minnesota takes a 21-0 lead but Houston comes back to within 28-14 in the 4th quarter. David Carr throws 2 touchdown passes in the final 3 minutes to tie it up 28-28 and put it into overtime but Vikings take it with a walk off 50 yard bomb for the 34-28 win.

Moss had 5 catches for 90 yards and 2 touchdowns, Andre had 12 catches for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns. Carr had one of his best games of his career throwing for 372 yards and 3 touchdowns with 0 interceptions. This game took place in the middle of a really exciting and fun time to be a fan of the 3 year old baby-Texans because it felt like they were on the road to being a really fun young contender in the NFL, this loss was in the middle of a 5 game stretch early in the season where the Texans won 4 out of 5 games to reach their first ever winning record(4-3), the very next week after this game they beat the Titans for the very first time. During this 5 game stretch Carr looked like he was turning the corner into legit QB, 64% completion percentage, 1,375 passing yards, 7 TDs 2ints, 4-1 record, 103.6 passer rating. Carr, Dominick Davis, and Andre Johnson looked like they were going to be an awesome trio for years to come like something special was just getting started, then the wheels fell off. But September-October 2004- fun times to be a Texans fan where the future was so unknown but seemed like it was going to be great.

Random obscure little fun fact of the day, Chad Stanley the Texans first Punter, punted for the Texans from 2002-2006(got plenty of playing time led the NFL in punts in 2002 and 2003 because of how bad the offense was) went to high school and played high school football in a tiny little one stoplight town about 12 minutes from where I live here in East Texas.

I feel like it would make for an interesting closer look to try to figure out why the AFC seemed so much weaker than the NFC from 84 to 96. I think one thing that has to be taken into consideration was just how much younger all of the key teams of the conference were, the 8 original AFC teams started in 1960 together so by the early 80's all of those teams were roughly the same age as the Houston Texans are now to put it into perspective(compared to the core NFC teams dating back to the 30's-40's-50's). Also something I always found interesting about the merger was that part of the deal was that the AFL teams had to pay NFL teams like $20 millions in reparations money over a period of time for damages they did to the league when they were at war in the 60's. Got to wonder if that was a factor if those teams were just worried about turning a profit while paying that off those years instead of paying big money stars(not to mention trying to recoup all the money they invested those formative years where the AFL was losing money).

But looking closer at 1988 NFL Record and Fact book this morning, it's crazy how the teams that were supposed to be the powerhouses of the AFC were all in crisis mode all at the same time, the Raiders, Dolphins(with the best QB in the league), talent loaded Oilers(head coached by a total clown, Jerry Glanville) that made the playoffs but seemed like they should have been way stronger, and the Broncos going through hangover of losing 86-87 Super Bowls. Out of that the Bills and Bengals emerged out of nowhere to be the powerhouses of the conference that season, but neither could keep their shit together the very next season in 1989.

Also taking a closer look at the 1988 season stumbled upon an interesting game that you never see mentioned. The Miami Dolphins hosting the Cleveland Browns later in the year. Miami was 6-10 that year and were on a 5 game losing streak with their attendance down around 45,000 for some of their games. But this Browns game drew a sold out crowd of over 61,000 for the return of Miami Hurricanes star Bernie Kosar. But Kosar goes down with an injury with Miami leading 31-17. Bring in Browns backup Don Strock, who was a longtime Dolphins backup, threw 2 touchdown passes in the 4th quarter to tie it up 31-31, Miami goes on to win it with a field goal to snap their losing streak.

Also from that same season they opened the season up with the rematch, Dolphins vs Bears. I think this game is a pretty good example of what Super Bowl XX would have looked like had Miami gotten to a rematch. Bears held Miami to like 44 rushing yards and Marino completed 9 passes, Bears dominated time of possession were leading 28-7 at the half and would win it 34-7.

1988 season is very interesting altogether, almost like a beginning of a new era coming off of that 1987 player strike that basically turned that whole season upside down. The league just seemed sharper, heavier, harder, faster in 1988 than previous seasons in that decade. Also a huge influx of elite defensive talent that would develop into dominating the league over the early 90's.

I remember the 85 Bears documentary made by ESPN 30 for 30 in it they blame their failure to defend their crown in 1986 on Ditka going with Doug Flutie at QB after Jim Mcmahon went down that year. One of the linebackers even burned Flutie mocking him for not being able to see over the line of scrimmage because of how short he was.

But as I'm stuck on this 1988 rabbit hole I noticed that Flutie went to the Patriots in 1988 to back up Eason. The Patriots took down a pretty damn tough Chicago Bears team that '88 season 30-7 with Flutie throwing 4 touchdowns to beat them. Flutie went 6-3 as a starter filling in for Eason and had New England on the verge of a playoff birth, but in the last 2 games they decide to yank him and put Eason back in. Eason plays terribly in both the last 2 games and they miss the playoffs at 9-7. From there the franchise completely fell apart, going 5-11 in 1989, then one of the worst teams of all time in 1990(1-15) and 1992(2-14) before Parcells arrived in 1993 to turn the team around.

Oct 15, 2024 1:28:41 GMT Neo Zeed said:

1988 season is very interesting altogether, almost like a beginning of a new era

One interesting thing I remember about the 1988 season from my Zander Hollander book chronicling that year is the NFL's old guard bottoming out with the Cowboys, Steelers, and Dolphins all finishing last place in their respective divisions. The Cowboys (3-13) had winning seasons every year from 66-85, Steelers (5-11) had winning seasons every year from 72-85, and the Dolphins (6-10) had only one losing season from 70-87. The Raiders (7-9) managed to avoid the AFC West cellar despite their second losing season in a row after having only one from 65-86. 

Funny thing about that Steelers team...those books were divided into sections on all 28 teams with the 12 or so best players on each team getting little blurbs. These players were listed in order of importance. The first player was usually the QB, with the occasional star RB getting top billing every so often. In all my years of getting those books I only remember one offensive lineman headlining- the Steelers Tunch Ilkin. And it was probably the 1989 edition (covering the 1988 season). Kiddie me was like "lol their best player is a blocker! lmao. What a bum team!" But it did make the memorably named Tunch Ilkin....memorable. One of the few Offensive Lineman I could have named in those days.