The next season, the Lions began playing out in the suburbs, at the Silverdome in Pontiac. They move back into the city in 2002, at the new Ford Field.
But this milestone game is quickly forgotten by everyone outside Michigan. What happened that day at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas is still talked about.
The rivalry between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Commanders -- known from 1937 to 2019 as the Washington Redskins, and in the 2020 and '21 seasons as "The Washington Football Team" began in 1960, with the Cowboys' debut. The reason was personal. It wasn't based on proximity, that's for sure: The distance between the teams' respective stadiums is currently 1,367 miles. No, essentially, it is personal. And it's mostly Washington's fault.
But when Clint Murchison, leading the group that owned the Cowboys franchise, wanted entry into the NFL, a unanimous vote of the owners was required to admit them. The Redskins' owner, George Preston Marshall, refused. He also owned the team's radio network. (The NFL was already negotiating TV rights separately.) As the Southernmost team in the League at the time, he was marketing the 'Skins as the South's team. The Redskins were also the last NFL team that hadn't yet racially integrated. These facts are connected. Marshall didn't want to give up his Southern status.
So Murchison pulled a dirty trick: He bought the rights to the fight song, "Hail to the Redskins." He told Marshall that if he wanted the right to ever play the song at his games again, he would have to vote to admit the Cowboys. Certainly, as an oilman, Murchison could not be bought with mere money. (Marshall was rich, but not that rich.) Not wanting to lose the NFL's best-known fight song (even more than "Bear Down, Chicago Bears,"), Marshall caved.
In 1971, George Allen was named head coach of the Redskins. He knew that, in the newly-merged-and-realigned NFL, the Cowboys were well-positioned to dominate the NFC East -- in which, at least geographically, they didn't even belong. And, as a former coach of the Los Angeles Rams, he was already sick of the Cowboys for their success since 1966. So he made it his mission to beat the Cowboys, more than to win a title.
He made his players hate the Cowboys as much as he did. As Cowboy defensive end Harvey Martin said in an interview about the rivalry -- with some irony, given that the Cowboys played in the city where John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and that the Redskins' stadium was now named for JFK's assassinated brother, Robert F. Kennedy, "When you go to play the Redskins, you better have your guns on." The apotheosis of this was the Redskins' win over the Cowboys on New Year's Eve 1972, in the NFC Championship Game.
The biggest individual rivalry within the matchup was Allen vs. Cowboys head coach Tom Landry. Landry was always described as stoic, never using his face to betray his emotions. Allen was one of the most emotional head coaches in NFL history. In contrast, Landry and Joe Gibbs, who went on to coach the Redskins to 3 Super Bowl wins, 2 of them before Landry was finally forced out of the Cowboys' job, had a healthy respect for each other.
In the 1974 NFL Draft, the Cincinnati Bengals drafted Howard Clinton "Clint" Longley, a quarterback from Abilene Christian University in Texas (now an NCAA FCS school). Seeking a backup to his All-Pro quarterback, Roger Staubach, Landry had the Cowboys trade for Longley.
The Cowboys went into their game on Thanksgiving Day 1974 at 6-5, while the Redskins went in at 8-3. Two Sundays earlier, the Redskins had beaten the Cowboys, 28-21 at RFK Stadium. In the Turkey Day rematch, the Redskins led 16-3 in the 3rd quarter, and Staubach, who already looked like he was headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (and he was), left the game with an injury. Longley had to step in. Redskin fans were feeling very confident.
Before that quarter could end, Longley threw a touchdown pass to Billy Joe DuPree, and led another drive that ended with a touchdown run by Walt Garrison, giving them a 17-16 lead.
The Redskins retook the lead in the 4th quarter, on a run by, oddly enough, Duane Thomas, who had been a Super Bowl hero for the Cowboys 3 seasons earlier, but had worn out his welcome. But with 28 seconds left, no timeouts remaining, and the ball on the Cowboys' 44-yard line, Longley made up a play in the huddle, something Landry would not allow Staubach to do. (Years later, in his media career, Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who beat the Cowboys in 2 Super Bowls, proudly said that his head coach, Chuck Noll, allowed him to call his own plays, but Landry wouldn't let Staubach do that.)
Drew Pearson took off, and got through the Redskins' talented defensive backfield including Hall-of-Famer Ken Houston and All-Pros Brig Owens, Mike Bass and Pat Fischer. Longley threw long, and Pearson caught it, for a 56-yard touchdown. Efren Herrera kicked the extra point to win it: Cowboys 24, Redskins 23.
Having just made his professional debut, and having played just a quarter and a half, Longley threw for 203 yards -- 147 yards even without the last bomb. Like former Oakland Raiders All-Pro quarterback Daryle Lamonica, he became known as "The Mad Bomber." That nickname would also later be given to San Diego Chargers Hall-of-Famer Dan Fouts.
The Cowboys missed the Playoffs anyway, the only time they did so between 1966 and 1983. Longley started only 2 games in his career, the 1975 regular-season finale, to give Staubach a rest before the Playoffs; and a game in 1976. That start would not be for the Cowboys: In their 1976 training camp, after nearly 2 years of telling Cowboy management, and Staubach, that he, rather than Staubach, should be the starter, Longley sucker-punched Staubach. Longley was traded, that very day, to the Chargers, for draft picks, one of whom turned out to be Heisman Trophy-winning and eventual Hall-of-Fame running back Tony Dorsett.
Longley played 8 games with the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts in 1977, and was released. He was signed by the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals for 1978, but was cut in preseason camp. He played that season for the semi-pro Shreveport Steamer (no S on the end). He was not signed by anyone for the 1979 season. In 1980, he went back to Canada, signed by the Hamilton-Tiger Cats. They released him after 12 days.
Longley sat for an NFL Films interview with Steve Sabol about the Cowboys-Redskins rivalry in 1991, and talked about his sucker-punch of Staubach. Years after that, interviewed for an NFL Network special on "One-Shot Wonders," Sabol said that the last he'd heard of Longley, he was "selling carpet remnants out of the back of a van in Marfa, Texas," in the State's Big Bend region. As of November 28, 2022, all I can tell you about Longley's current situation is that he is listed as still being alive, at the age of 70.
*
November 28, 1974 was, like all Thanksgiving Days, a Thursday. This was also the day of the Elton John concert at Madison Square Garden where John Lennon made his last concert appearance, and I have a separate entry for this event.
The Cowboys' Drew Pearson had played at South River High School in New Jersey. Ironically, as a sophomore there, his quarterback was future Redskin Joe Theismann. South River played New Brunswick at Rutgers on Thanksgiving every year from 1919 to 1976, first at Neilson Field, and then at Rutgers Stadium. The schools no longer play each other, due to New Brunswick now having a much higher enrollment. My Alma Mater, East Brunswick, next-door to South River (and to New Brunswick), did not play on Thanksgiving in 1974.
Also, 1974 was the 1st year that the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association played State Playoffs, and this would end up breaking up several longstanding rivalries.
Baseball was in the off-season. In recent times, the NBA and the NHL avoid scheduling games on Thanksgiving, to avoid trying to compete with football for television viewers.
But there were 2 games in the NBA that day. The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 110-103 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Phoenix Suns, 88-85 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. And there was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The Kentucky Colonels beat the Virginia Squires, 108-95 at The Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.
There was 1 game in the NHL: The Buffalo Sabres beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. There were 4 games in the World Hockey Association:
* The Vancouver Blazers beat the Toronto Toros, 6-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Indianapolis Racers, 7-5 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* The Houston Aeros beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-0 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.
* And the Chicago Cougars beat the San Diego Mariners, 3-2 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).
No comments:
Post a Comment