January 11, 1987: John Elway's 98-Yard Drive

January 11, 1987: The Cleveland Browns and their fans thought they were going to the Super Bowl. John Elway had other ideas.

The Browns had been founded in the All-America Football Conference in 1946, and won that league's championship all 4 seasons it ran. In 1950, they were admitted to the NFL, and won its Championship. They won it again in 1954, 1955 and 1964.

They hadn't won it since. They reached the NFL Championship Game in 1965, 1968 and 1969, but lost. They made the Playoffs in 1971, 1972, 1980, 1982 and 1985, but fell short of the Super Bowl, which had started with the 1966 season.

In 1986, coached by Marty Schottenheimer, and quarterbacked by local boy made good Bernie Kosar, they went 12-4, thrilling a metropolitan area that had been hammered by the decline of local industry over the last 20 years. With the Pittsburgh Steelers, their arch-rivals, having seen their 1970s dynasty get old and retire, the Browns became the new national darlings of blue-collar football fans.

The bleachers at the east end of Cleveland Municipal Stadium became known as the Dawg Pound, because players would go over to the fans there, and bark at them like dogs. Some of the fans barked back, and some even started wearing rubber dog masks, bringing chew-toy bones, and throwing dog biscuits on the field to celebrate touchdowns. They became the football equivalent of the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field Bleacher Bums.

The Browns won an overtime thriller with the New York Jets in the Divisional round of the Playoffs. They were ready to host the AFC Championship Game. All that stood between them and a berth in Super Bowl XXI was the Denver Broncos.

The Broncos had started in the American Football League in 1960, and struggled through their early years, including after they were merged into the NFL in 1970. They won the AFC Championship in 1977, but lost Super Bowl XII. They were usually in the Playoffs thereafter. In 1986, coached by Dan Reeves and quarterbacked by John Elway, they went 11-5, and beat the defending AFC Champion New England Patriots to get to the title game.

They say home field advantage is worth 3 points, and the Browns were favored by 3, so an even game was expected. It was 31 degrees at kickoff, 21 with the wind chill factor. The Browns were used to that kind of cold, with Municipal Stadium being right on Lake Erie. Sometimes, the entire city was referred to with the pejorative nickname "The Mistake On the Lake." Sometimes, it was just the stadium, often known as "Cavernous Cleveland Stadium," which seated nearly 86,000 at its peak. But, being at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, the Broncos were also used to very cold weather, so this didn't faze them.

The only score of the 1st quarter was a touchdown pass from Kosar to Herman Fontenot. In the 2nd quarter, Rich Karlis, the last notable barefoot kicker in the NFL, kicked a field goal to get the Broncos on the board. The Broncos added a touchdown, by Mark Moseley, formerly a Super Bowl winner with the Washington Redskins, kicked a field goal to have the game tied 10-10 at the half.

A Karlis field goal was the only scoring of the 3rd quarter. Early in the 4th, Moseley tied it back up. The Broncos had to punt. Kosar led the Browns to midfield, and threw a touchdown pass to Brian Brennan. It was Browns 20, Broncos 13.

The Browns kicked off, and the ball fell dead on the Broncos' 2-yard line. There were 5 minutes and 32 seconds left to play in regulation. That's a lot of time. But a field goal wouldn't help the Broncos. They needed a touchdown. And they needed 98 yards.

Broncos guard Keith Bishop said, "We got 'em right where we want 'em!" It was the beginning of what's known as "The Drive."

Elway threw a 5-yard pass to Sammy Winder. Winder rushed for 3 yards. Winder rushed for 2 yards. 1st down on the Bronco 12.

Winder rushed for 3 yards. Elway rushed for 11 yards. 1st down on the Bronco 26.

Elway threw a 22-yard pass to Steve Sewell. 1st down on the Bronco 48.

Elway threw a 12-yard pass to Sammy Watson. 1st down on the Brown 40. There was now 1:59 left, so the 2-minute warning kicked in. Still plenty of time.

Elway threw to Vance Johnson, incomplete. Dave Puzzuli sacked Elway for an 8-yard loss. There was 1:47 left, and it was 3rd & 18 on the Brown 48. A paid crowd of 79,973 was sure that the Broncos' luck was about to run out.

It wasn't. Elway threw a 20-yard pass to Mark Jackson. (No relation to the New York Knicks player of the same name, or to any other famous person named Jackson.) 1st down on the Brown 28. 1:19 to go.

Elway threw to Watson, incomplete. 1:10 left. Then he threw to Sewell, complete for 14 yards. 1st down on the Brown 14. 57 seconds to go.

Elway threw to Watson, incomplete. 42 seconds left. Then he ran for 9 yards. 3rd & 1 on the Brown 5. Elway looked for Jackson, and found him. Touchdown. Karlis kicked the extra point.

Elway had marched the Broncos 98 yards in 15 plays, taking 4 minutes and 51 seconds. The game was tied, 20-20.

The Drive was a slow death for Browns fans, but the game wasn't over. They still had a chance to win. There were 39 seconds left, and they only needed a field goal. But they couldn't advance the kickoff much, and the game went to overtime.

The Browns won the toss. Under the rules of the time, they could have kicked a field goal -- and Moseley had once kicked a 54-yarder -- and won the game without the Broncos ever touching the ball. But they couldn't get into Denver territory, and had to punt. With 9:12 left in the 1st overtime, Karlis attempted a 33-yard field goal, and it was good. Denver 23, Cleveland 20.

It remains the closest the Browns have ever come to reaching the Super Bowl. The following season, the same 2 teams met in the AFC Championship Game again, in Denver. This time, the Browns were driving for a potentially tying touchdown, when Earnest Byner, who'd had a monster game to that point, fumbled near the goal line, and the Broncos recovered. A safety made the final score 38-33 in Denver's favor. They met each other in the AFC title game again 2 years later, again in Denver. That one wasn't so close: The Broncos won, 37-21.

The Browns fell apart after that, making the Playoffs again in 1994, but were moved out of Cleveland in 1995. As the Baltimore Ravens, they went on to win the Super Bowl in the 2000 and 2012 seasons. An expansion franchise was given the Browns' names, trademarks and history, and began play in 1999. That team made the Playoffs in 2002, but, plagued by horrible management, didn't do so again until 2020.

The Broncos beat the Browns in 3 AFC Championship Games in 4 seasons -- and lost the Super Bowl every time. They finally won one in the 1997 season, and again in 1998, Elway's last 2 seasons. With Elway as general manager, they reached the Super Bowl again in the 2013 season, losing it; and again in the 2015 season, winning it.

The Browns are still looking for their 1st NFL Championship since 1964.

In 2019, a poll ranked this game 11th on a list of the 100 Greatest Games of the NFL's 1st 100 years.

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The 2010 film Hot Tub Time Machine features 4 friends, in an outdoor hot tub at a Colorado ski resort, getting zapped back to 1986. One of them is so discombobulated by the trip that he throws up on a squirrel. He and one of the others, both Bronco fans, use their knowledge of the future to bet on the outcomes of various plays in a football game. It works until the last play: What was, in the original timeline, a touchdown pass by Elway, doesn't happen, because the same squirrel had run from the ski resort all the way to Mile High Stadium, and interfered with the receiver, and the Broncos lost.

The film never specifies the game, or what else changes, but it would be a lot. Instead of going 11-5, the 1986 Broncos go 10-6. Instead of winning the AFC West, they only get a Wild Card berth in the Playoffs. Instead of their 1st Playoff game being a Divisional Playoff at home to the New England Patriots, it's a Wild Card game away to the New York Jets. Maybe they lose, and don't even get to that title game in Cleveland. They never reach the Super Bowl with Elway. Without Elway to later become general manager, they never sign Peyton Manning, and don't win one with him, either.

Without Elway to worry about, the Browns win the AFC Championship, and the Super Bowl. They make it back the next season, but lose to the Washington Redskins. They make it back 2 years later, but lose to the San Francisco 49ers, but, who cares, they've got one.

It gets bigger. By losing that Super Bowl to the Browns, the New York Giants don't have the experience of winning one. They also lose their next Super Bowl, 4 years later -- to the Buffalo Bills. The Bills end up winning their rematch with the Dallas Cowboys 3 years later (remember, they were leading 13-6 at the half), so they now have 2. Having never won one, the Giants don't win a Super Bowl until 2008. Lawrence Taylor ends up as the only Giant of his generation to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

That includes head coach Bill Parcells: He is not thought of as a genius, and isn't hired to rebuild the Patriots, and then the Jets. His defensive coordinator, Bill Belichick, is also not thought of as a genius, and never becomes an NFL head coach. They end up coaching together at Army, and their biggest achievement is beating Navy a few times.

The Patriots get moved to Baltimore (as they very nearly were), where they are renamed the Ravens, while the Browns (Belichick's 1st head coaching job) get moved to Boston where they are given the Patriots' name and history, and it's the Ravens who win Super Bowl XXXVI, instead of XXXV, while the new Browns start in 1999. The Ravens also win Super Bowl XLVII, on schedule, because enough time has passed for history to reassert itself.

The new Patriots? Without Belichick, without even Drew Bledsoe, since Parcells wasn't there to see that he got drafted, they suffer for a few years under quarterback Ryan Leaf. They get Tom Brady, but, without Belichick to teach him everything he knows (and you may interpret that any way you want), he never gets anywhere, and, like Tim Tebow, he ends up as a college football color commentator. And, to this day, the Patriots -- old or new -- have never won a Super Bowl.

So the Carolina Panthers win a Super Bowl, and the Philadelphia Eagles win one 13 years sooner than they actually did. The Pittsburgh Steelers win 2 more, on top of the 2 that they won in this period, including the one that the Atlanta Falcons choked away, giving them a record 8. The Indianapolis Colts win 1 more, the Seattle Seahawks go back-to-back, and the Broncos finally win one, quarterbacked by Andrew Luck. The Eagles' 2nd Super Bowl win is over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Kansas City Chiefs, then the Chiefs get to 3 straight Super Bowls, and win them back-to-back by beating Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.

All because a man who wasn't supposed to be in a hot tub in 1986 puked on a squirrel. Hot Tub Time Machine is Back to the Future Part II, but in reverse: Instead of a bad guy running with a good guy's idea to use time travel to "bet on the winner, and you'll never lose," after the good guy is talked out of it by an older and wiser good guy, a good guy tries it, but is thwarted because of the problem of a friend, and loses. And, in each film, the results are disastrous -- for the characters, if not for the teams.

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January 11, 1987 was a Sunday. The NFC Championship Game was also played that day, and the New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins, 17-0 at Giants Stadium. Two weeks later, at the Rose Bowl, the Giants beat the Broncos to win Super Bowl XXI, 39-20.

Baseball was out of season. There were 3 games played in the NBA that day:

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 103-91 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 111-109 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Utah Jazz, 127-111 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 8-3 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers and the Washington Capitals played to a tie, 2-2 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat their arch-rivals, the Detroit Red Wings, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat their arch-rivals, the Calgary Flames, 5-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

Also, English soccer star Jamie Vardy was born on this day.