November 19, 1978: The Miracle at the Meadowlands

November 19, 1978: What may just be the all-time National Football League blooper occurs. In the Delaware Valley -- Eastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and Northern Delaware -- it is known as the Miracle at the Meadowlands. (Not "the Miracle of... " or "the Miracle in... ") In the adjoining Tri-State Area -- New York City, Long Island, the Lower Hudson Valley, North and Central Jersey, and Fairfield and New Haven Counties in Connecticut -- it is called other things, less printable ones.

Imagine you're the quarterback of the New York Giants. You're playing in front of 70,318 fans, on your home field, Giants Stadium, at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey. You're leading your arch-rival -- or the closest divisional opponent, the team you should consider your arch-rival -- the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-12, with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation. If you win this game, you have a shot at making the Playoffs, and you'll also be effectively knocking your rivals out of Playoff contention.

So what do you do? Easy: You snap the ball, step back, kneel down on the artificial turf, and let the clock run out. You don't run the kind of play that would risk losing the ball and giving the other team a chance to win. After all, as a man who would later coach the Jets in the same stadium would say, "You play to win the game!"

Yes, that's what you would do, if you were the quarterback of the Giants that day. Certainly, that's what Giants coach John McVay wanted his quarterback to do.

Ah, but on this day, the quarterback was Joe Pisarcik, and he thought, "I've got the great Larry Csonka in the backfield. I think I'll hand off to him." The Zonk, who had helped the Miami Dolphins win 2 Super Bowls, told Pisarcik in the huddle, "Don't give me the ball."

What did Pisarcik do? He tried to give Csonka the ball, when he was not expecting it.

As Merrill Reese, then in only his 2nd season as a broadcaster for the Eagles, put it:

Under 30 seconds in the game. The Giants can just run out the clock, and there is nothing the Eagles can do about it.

And Pisarcik (pause) fumbles the football! It's picked up by Herman Edwards! 15! 10! 5! Touchdown, Eagles! I don't believe it! I don't believe it!

I do not believe what has occurred here, ladies and gentlemen. As Pisarcik came forward, he fumbled the football, Charlie Johnson hit him, and Herman Edwards picked up and ran for a touchdown! The Eagles take the lead, 18-17, in front of a shocked crowd at the Meadowlands!

Reese pronounced it "MED-il-unz" instead of the usual "MED-oh-lands." I think he can be excused, as nobody saw this coming.

The extra point made the final score 19-17 to the Eagles. The Eagles made the Playoffs for the 1st time in 18 years. The win gave them the confidence to win the NFC East the next year, and the NFC Championship the year after that, making their 1st Super Bowl.

The Giants missed the Playoffs for the 15th season in a row, and team owner Wellington Mara, tired of losing, cleaned house. He fired McVay, and he fired the general manager, Andy Robustelli, once a Hall of Fame defensive end for the Giants.

As the new head coach, he hired Ray Perkins. As the new GM, he hired George Young. Perkins only coached the Giants for 3 seasons, as his dream job opened up: Replacing his mentor, Paul "Bear" Bryant as head coach of the University of Alabama. That dream turned out to be a rude awakening. But his replacement as Giants head coach was one of his assistants, Bill Parcells. Together, Parcells and Young undertook the rebuilding process that would result in the 2 Super Bowl wins in the 1986-87 and 1990-91 seasons.

But there were 4 reasons why the Miracle at the Meadowlands was the dumbest play in NFL history -- at least until Pete Carroll told Russell Wilson to throw a pass near the end of Super Bowl XLIX, 36 seasons later: 1. McVay told Pisarcik to fall on the ball. Pisarcik violated orders.

2. Csonka himself told Pisarcik, "Don't give me the ball!" He turned down the advice of a future Hall-of-Famer. 3. Pisarcik fumbled the ball twice. He had a chance to fall on the ball after fumbling. Had he done so, it would have been a silly footnote in the year the Giants ended a 15-year Playoff drought. 4. He practically gave the ball to the one player on the Eagles in a position to pick it up and score a touchdown. Think about it: If any player but Edwards had gotten to it, he most likely would have just jumped on the ball to secure it. The Eagles would have been in field goal range, but 3 points wouldn't have helped. Ron Jaworski was a good quarterback, nicknamed "the Polish Rifle" before becoming an ESPN analyst nicknamed "Jaws," with a good receiver in Harold Carmichael, but there's no guarantee he would have gotten the ball in the end zone. But Edwards was a smart guy, who was in the perfect position to take advantage of the mistakes, and it was touchdown, Eagles; victory Eagles. It's fair to say that Pisarcik made 3 people famous on the play: Himself, Edwards, and Reese, whose voice became familiar to NFL Films viewers all over the country, not just in the Delaware Valley.

Oh, and that Jets coach of 2002, who reminded us to do what it takes to win? "Hello! You play to win the game!" It was Herman Edwards.

*

November 19, 1978 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played on the day:

* The New York Jets lost to the New England Patriots, 19-17 at Shea Stadium.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Colts, 45-24 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Redskins, 27-17 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 7-6 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Buffalo Bills, 31-10 at Tampa Stadium.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the New Orleans Saints, 27-7 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Atlanta Falcons, 13-7 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 13-7 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 13-10 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Green Bay Packers, 16-3 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Detroit Lions, 29-17 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, 31-28 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

And the next day, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Houston Oilers beat the Miami Dolphins, 35-30 at the Astrodome in Houston, which turned out to be a showcase game for Oilers running back Earl Campbell.

There were 2 games played in the NBA that day. The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls, 104-95 at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. And the Seattle SuperSonics beat their arch-rivals, the Portland Trail Blazers, 88-85 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 4 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Atlanta Flames, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden. The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Boston Bruins beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the Boston Garden. And the Buffalo Sabres beat the Minnesota North Stars, 9-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

And on this day in this last season for the World Hockey Association, there were 2 games. The Winnipeg Jets beat the Indianapolis Racers, 5-2 at the Winnipeg Arena. And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 6-3 at the Northlands Coliseum.

October 30, 2002: Herman Edwards Plays to Win the Game

October 30, 2002: New York Jets coach Herman Edwards holds his usual midweek press conference at the team's headquarters at the time, Weeb Ewbank Hall, on the campus of Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island, New York, across the street from the Nassau Coliseum.

The Jets had gotten off to a 2-5 start. Teams that get off to a 2-5 start usually don't make the Playoffs. Judy Battista of The New York Times asked him, "Do you have to talk to your team about not giving up on the season?"

Herm's answer became legend. He said, "This is what's great about sports. This is what the greatest thing about sports is." And he leaned into the microphone, and said, "You play to win the game!" He pulled himself upright, pauses, waved his hands, and said, "Hello? You play to win the game! You don't play it just to play it! That's the great thing about sports: You play to win! And I don't care if you don't have any wins. You go play to win. When you start telling me it doesn't matter, then retire! Get out! 'Cause it matters!"

At this point, he seemed to be on the verge of tears. And if the season had continued the way it had been going, with a final total that is frequently familiar to Jet fans, then Herm, once a very good cornerback who helped the Philadelphia Eagles reach Super Bowl XV, and whose fumble recovery beat the New York Giants in a 1978 game that became known as "The Miracle of the Meadowlands," would have gone down in history as a coach who melted down and couldn't handle the pressure of New York.

But a funny thing happened on the way to a nervous breakdown: Herm's rant worked. In their next game, the Jets clobbered the San Diego Chargers, starting a 4-game winning streak, and allowing them to finish 9-7, and make the Playoffs with a home game. Then they beat the Indianapolis Colts in the Wild Card round of the Playoffs, before going to Oakland and losing to the Raiders.

So instead of being a guy who couldn't handle coaching in New York, Herm became known as a coaching genius and a master motivator. It didn't last long, but he'll always be remembered for this success, not for his failures. He later served as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs and Arizona State, and an NFL studio pundit.

This was also the day that rap legend Jam Master Jay was murdered. I have a separate entry for that event.

*

October 30, 2002 was a Wednesday. Baseball season had ended 3 days earlier, with the team then known as the Anaheim Angels beating the San Francisco Giants, in Game 7 of the World Series. Football was in midweek.

Every NBA team then in operation, except for the Sacramento Kings, played that night:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Detroit Pistons, 86-77 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, New York.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 105-94 at the Continental Airlines Arena in the Meadowlands. Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson scored 34 points for the Hawks, but it wasn't enough.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 98-95 at the First Union Center (now the Wachovia Center) in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Boston Celtics, 99-96 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Miami Heat, 100-86 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 119-108 at The Pyramid in Memphis.

* The New Orleans Hornets make their debut, after 14 seasons as the original Charlotte Hornets. Ironically, it's against the last team to represent New Orleans in the NBA, the Utah Jazz, who left in 1979. The Hornets win, 100-75 at the New Orleans Arena (now named the Smoothie King Center). Karl Malone scores 20 points for the visitors, and John Stockton 14. But Baron Davis of the Hornets leads all scorers with 21 points, while Courtney Alexander scores 19 off the bench.

In 2004, Charlotte got a new NBA team, the Charlotte Bobcats. In 2013, the NBA made a deal but which the New Orleans franchise gave up the Hornets name, and became the New Orleans Pelicans. In 2014, the Bobcats reclaimed their city's old name, and became the Charlotte Hornets.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Washington Wizards, 74-68 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Houston Rockets, 91-82 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis. Steve Francis scored 39 points for the Rockets, but it wasn't enough. It was the NBA debut for Yao Ming. I have a separate entry for that event.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets, 83-77 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 98-96 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-98 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named The Arena in Oakland). Antawn Jamison scored 36 points.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 102-90 at the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Phoenix Suns, 86-73 at the KeyArena in Seattle.

There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-0 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-2 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Washington Capitals, 7-2 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington. The Bruin goals came from 7 different scorers: P.J. Axelsson, Rob Zamuner, Jozef Stümpel, Brian Rolston, Bryan Berard, Joe Thornton and Glenn Murray.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-1 at the Corel Center (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Nashville Predators, 7-0 at the Savvis Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis. Like the Bruins, the Blues got 7 goals from 7 different players on this night: Reed Lowe, Al MacInnis, Keith Tkachuk, Pavol Demitra, Petr Čajánek, Shjon Podein and Dallas Drake.

* And the Florida Panthers beat the Dallas Stars, 3-2 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Valeri Bure scored the winning goal with 1:39 left in overtime. Bure was the younger, less successful brother of Hall-of-Famer Pavel Bure, but he's probably better remembered for his wife, actress Candace Cameron Bure. Attendance at this game: 18,532, matching the title of the sitcom starring his wife: Full House.