Buddy Ryan
November 23, 1989: The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys, 27-0 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas. This became known as the Bounty Bowl.
The Eagles, and in particular their fans, have hated the Cowboys since a 1967 game when Cowboy linebacker Lee Roy Jordan knocked out a number of teeth (the number depends on who's telling the story) of Eagle running back Timmy Brown. For the next 20 years, the Cowboys under head coach Tom Landry usually beat the Eagles, although Dick Vermeil guided the Eagles to victory over the Cowboys in the 1980 NFC Championship Game.
In 1989, Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys, fired Landry simply because he wanted his own man in as head coach, and hired Jimmy Johnson, his University of Arkansas roommate who had guided the University of Miami to the 1987 National Championship.
The Eagles were coached by James David "Buddy" Ryan, who had been the defensive line coach for the New York Jets when they won Super Bowl III in 1969, and for the Minnesota Vikings when they reached but lost Super Bowl XI in 1977; and the defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears when they won Super Bowl XX in 1986.
During the 1987 NFL players' strike, the Cowboys played with a number of players that crossed picket lines, and routed an Eagles squad filled with replacement players, 41-22. Ryan, believing that the Cowboys had run up the score, responded in kind in the rematch, 2 weeks later, 37-20.
The blood between Ryan and Johnson was still bad as they faced each other on CBS on Thanksgiving 1989, at Texas Stadium. The Eagles came in at 7-4, while a young, rebuilding Cowboys team was just 1-10.
The game was scoreless after the 1st quarter. In the 2nd quarter, Randall Cunningham threw a touchdown pass to Cris Carter, and Roger Ruzek kicked a field goal, and the Eagles led at the half, 9-0. The Eagles scored 2 touchdowns in the 3rd quarter, as Cunningham again threw to Carter, and Keith Byars ran one in. Ruzek added a field goal at the start of the 4th quarter, and the Eagles, won, 27-0.
After the game, Johnson whined to a CBS reporter that Ryan had "taken out a bounty" on rookie quarterback Troy Aikman and placekicker Luis Zendejas. He said, "I have absolutely no respect for the way they played the game. I would have said something to Buddy, but he wouldn't stand on the field long enough. He put his big, fat rear end into the dressing room."
Zendejas spoke of having seen "Buddy call guys out and give them $100" for what the kicker called a weekly Big Hit award but what Ryan called a "Big Play award."
Ryan denied the bounty accusation, saying that it would have been in the Eagles' best interests to keep Zendejas in the game, because he was in a slump. Ryan also joked about Johnson's accusations about the shape he was in: "I resent that. I've been on a diet, I lost a couple of pounds, and I thought I was looking good."
Two weeks later, they played again at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, and the media called it "Bounty Bowl II." NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue attended, watching to make sure there was no funny business. If there was, it was from the Eagles' fans, not their players. The Eagles won, 20-10, and their fans threw snowballs, hitting Johnson and he was escorted off the field by Philadelphia police.
In the long run, the Cowboys were better off: The Cowboys ended up winning 6 NFC Eastern Division titles in the 1990s, including going to 3 Super Bowls and winning all of them; while the Eagles, from 1988 to 1996, reached the Playoffs 6 times, but only won 1 Division title, and did not reach a Super Bowl. In 7 seasons as an NFL head coach, 5 with the Eagles and 2 with the Arizona Cardinals, Ryan went 0-3 in Playoff games.
Ryan is to Eagles fans what Billy Martin is to New York Yankees fans: Loved for his combative nature and his winning, but he didn't win nearly as much as his legend suggests he did, and was far from the "genius" as which he's remembered.
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November 23, 1989, being Thanksgiving Day, was a Thursday. The Eagles may actually have been lucky to have been in the Dallas-Fort Worth "Metroplex" that day, because Philadelphia and the rest of the Northeastern U.S. were hit by a rare Turkey Day blizzard. I have a separate entry for this event.
There was 1 other game in the NFL. The Detroit Lions beat the Cleveland Browns, 13-10 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.
There was 1 game in college football that day: Number 17 West Virginia beat Syracuse, 24-17 at the Carrier Dome (now the JMA Wireless Dome) in Syracuse, New York.
Baseball was out of season. No games were played in the NBA. There was 1 game in the NHL: The St. Louis Blues beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.
