December 11, 1977: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Win On Their 27th Try

December 11, 1977: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers win a regular-season football game. This had never happened before.

The Bucs were an NFL expansion team, beginning play in the 1976 season. They and the Seattle Seahawks entered the League that season, the 1st new teams in the NFL since its 1970 merger with the American Football League. Like most expansion teams in sports, both teams were expected to struggle.

But John McKay, who had coached the University of Southern California to 9 Conference Championships and 4 National Championships, was named head coach by team owner Hugh Culverhouse. Lee Roy Selmon, star defensive end from the University of Oklahoma, the top defensive player in the country the season before, was their 1st draft pick. They'd also drafted Lee Roy's brother, Oklahoma linebacker Dewey Selmon.

And their 1st starting quarterback was going to be Steve Spurrier, Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Florida in 1966. Spurrier had been a bust in the pros, but some observers thought that playing in Florida again would revitalize his career. So most football fans didn't expect them to struggle as much as they did. They did win the 3rd of their 4 exhibition games, 17-3 over the Atlanta Falcons.

Officially, the longest losing streak in NFL history was, and still is, 29 games, set by the Chicago Cardinals from October 25, 1942 to October 14, 1945. However, in the 1944 season, due to the manpower drain of World War II, they merged with the Pittsburgh Steelers. They were listed in League standings as "Card-Pitt," but were nicknamed the "Carpets," because teams walked all over them. The teams were separated for 1945.

So, for a single team, the longest losing streak in NFL history before 1976 was 17, by the Dayton Triangles, over the 1927, '28 and '29 seasons. The Triangles folded after the '29 season, so, in a manner of speaking, their losing streak continues to this day. The Washington Redskins matched that 17-game losing streak in 1960 and '61.

The Buccaneers debuted on September 12, 1976, against the Houston Oilers at the Astrodome. It was a wipeout: The Oilers, a team on the rise, beat them 20-0. The next game was their home debut: In front of 39,558 people at Tampa Stadium -- leaving it half-empty -- they lost to the San Diego Chargers, 23-0.

They came close to winning their next game, falling 14-9 at home to the Buffalo Bills. Three weeks later, with their fellow expansion team, the Seahawks, also still winless, coming to Tampa, predictions that neither team could win were voiced. There would be no tie: The Seahawks won, 13-10. They finished the season 2-12. The next week, at home, the Buccaneers held the 2-time recent Super Bowl-winning Miami Dolphins to a 23-20 win.

But as the losses piled up, McKay took the same tack as Casey Stengel did when managing another expansion team, the 1962 New York Mets: He became a quote machine, entertaining the media:

* "We've determined that we can't win at home and we can't win on the road. What we need is a neutral site."

* Well, we didn't block well, but we made up for it by not tackling well, either."

* "We can't stop a pass or a run. Otherwise, we're in great shape."

* When asked, "What do think of your team's execution?" he said, "I'm in favor of it."

On December 12, the Buccaneers lost to the New England Patriots, 31-14 at Tampa Stadium. They had finished 0-14. It was the 1st winless season in the NFL since the 1960 Dallas Cowboys went 0-11-1. It was the first all-loss season in the NFL since 1944, when both the "Card-Pitt" team and the Brooklyn Tigers went 0-10. Without the manpower drain of World War II, the previous all-loss NFL season was by the Cincinnati Reds, who lost their 1st 8 games of the 1934 season, and then folded.

For the 1977 season, McKay made Tampa native and former Chicago Bear Gary Huff his starting quarterback, and drafted one of his last USC players, running back Ricky Bell. But they still kept losing. There was progress, as 5 of their 1st 7 games were lost by 10 points or less. Their 2nd game was nearly a shocker, as they held the defending NFC Champion Minnesota Vikings to a 9-3 win.

Still, they had trouble scoring. Of those 1st 26 games, they scored fewer than 10 points in 17 of them; they failed to score a touchdown in 14 of them; and they were shut out in 11 of them. On December 4, they lost 10-0 at home to the Bears, falling to 0-12 on the season, and 0-26 all-time.

It got so bad that they were worked into pop culture. On an episode of the sitcom What's Happening!! that aired on ABC on November 10, Dwayne (Haywood Nelson) keeps winning in football predictions. Rerun (Fred Berry) wants to win the approval of his brother-in-law, Ike, a compulsive gambler, so he asks Dwayne to pick the Monday Night Football game.

Dwayne's pick is "Tampa Bay 10, Oakland 7." This pick doesn't make any sense: The Raiders are the defending World Champions, and the Buccaneers haven't won a game yet. (In real life, the Bucs did not play the Raiders that season.) But Dwayne says his system is foolproof.

So Rerun gives Ike the pick. Ike calls his bookie, and bets $500 -- about $2,460 in 2022 money. Rerun yells at him: "I told you to bet big, not crazy!" Now, Rerun knows that if Dwayne's pick isn't foolproof, he's in trouble. Sure enough, the Raiders win, 47-0. Ike tells Rerun he's going to work at his store until that $500 is paid off.

Rerun and Raj (Ernest Thomas) demand to know how Dwayne's "foolproof system" works. Dwayne gives them the convoluted way he picks the score. As for which team wins? Helmets: He picks the team that he thinks has the better-looking helmets. I have to admit: The orange and white Tampa Bay helmets, with a pirate known as "Bucco Bruce" on the side, did look better than the silver and black Oakland helmets, which also had a pirate logo.

And on NBC, in his "Carnac the Magnificent" sketch for The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson said this:

Answer: The Titanic and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Question: Name two disasters that were accompanied by band music.

At the time, if you asked an NFL fan what team would give the Bucs their first regular-season win ever, the likeliest answer would have been the New Orleans Saints, a team that had been perennially snakebit since their 1967 debut, and had never had a winning season. (They wouldn't have one until 1987, wouldn't make the Playoffs until that season, wouldn't win a Playoff game until 2000, and wouldn't reach a Super Bowl until the 2009 season, winning Super Bowl XLIV.)

So it wasn't a total surprise that, on December 11, 1977, at the Superdome in New Orleans, the Buccaneers beat the Saints, 33-14, finally winning in their 27th regular-season game. Dave Green kicked a field goal in each of the 1st 2 quarters. Huff threw a touchdown pass to Morris Owens to make it 13-0 Tampa Bay at the half.

In the 3rd quarter, Mike Washington intercepted a pass from Archie Manning -- Peyton and Eli's father -- and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown. In the 4th quarter, Richard Wood intercepted Manning, and returned it 10 yards for a touchdown. It was 26-0 Tampa Bay. Had that turned out to be the final score, it would have been poetic justice: A reverse of 0-26.

Manning ran for a touchdown to put New Orleans on the board, but on the Saints' next drive, he got sacked deep in his own territory, fumbling, and Greg Johnson recovered the ball in the end zone for another Buccaneer touchdown. Manning threw a late touchdown pass to John Gilliam, but the Saints would get no closer than 33-14.

The big surprise was the margin of victory. The Bucs had only scored as many as 20 points twice before that, topping out at 23 in another loss to Seattle earlier in '77.

The following week, the last game of the regular season, the Bucs gave their home fans their 1st win, beating the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 17-7, to finish the season at 2-12. In 1978, they improved to 5-11. In 1979, they finished 10-6, winning the NFC Central Division, and advancing to the NFC Championship Game, where they lost to the Los Angeles Rams. After a losing season in 1980, they won the Division again in 1981, before falling apart again.

It would take until 1997 -- the season when they dropped Bucco Bruce for their pirate flag helmet design, and their "creamsicle" uniforms for their red and "pewter" version -- for the Bucs to stop being a joke franchise and make the Playoffs again, beginning a run of success that included winning Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003. They have also won Super Bowl LV in 2021.

The longest losing streak in the NFL since the '76-'77 Bucs is 20, by the 2020 and '21 Jacksonville Jaguars. Although the 2008 Detroit Lions and the 2017 Cleveland Browns both went 0-16, neither threatened the Bucs' 0-26 mark.

*

December 11, 1977 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-14 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The New York Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills, 14-10 at Shea Stadium.

* The New England Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins, 14-10 at Schaefer Stadium (later Sullivan Stadium and Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Baltimore Colts, 13-10 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Cleveland Browns, 19-15 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers, 21-10 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 34-31 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 17-9 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 23-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* In a rematch of the previous season's Super Bowl, the Oakland Raiders beat the Minnesota Vikings, 35-13 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* The day before, Washington Redskins lost to the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 26-20 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* Also the day before, the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-10 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys beat the San Francisco 49ers, 42-35 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

There was 1 college football game played, the Mirage Bowl at Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Grambling State beat Temple, 35-23.

There were 3 NBA games played that day:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Washington Bullets, 106-95 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Buffalo Braves, 124-119 in overtime at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 43 points and had 19 rebounds.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Houston Rockets, 116-84 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 8-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Cleveland Barons, 11-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Tom Bladon had a hat trick.

* The Washington Capitals beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Atlanta Flames beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 8-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

And there were 3 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* This was the season of an experiment where Soviet and Czech All-Star teams played in the WHA. The Czechoslovakia team played 8 games, and won only 1, This was not it: They lost to the Quebec Nordiques, 8-4 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Indianapolis Racers, 7-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Houston Aeros beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

November 26, 1989: Flipper Anderson Has 336 Receiving Yards

November 26, 1989: The Los Angeles Rams beat the New Orleans Saints, 20-17 at the Superdome in New Orleans. Mike Lansford kicks a field goal to win the game in overtime. Jim Everett of the Rams passes for 454 yards, a record 336 of them to Flipper Anderson.

Willie Lee Anderson Jr. was born in 1965 in Philadelphia, and grew up across the Delaware River in Paulsboro, Gloucester County, New Jersey. He got his nickname from his first baby sitter: "She said that when my mother dropped me off, I would cry like a dolphin. She started calling me 'Flipper,'" after the TV show of the same name about a dolphin.

He went across the country to UCLA, where he caught passes from future Hall-of-Famer Troy Aikman. But the Miami Dolphins weren't interested in him. The Rams were, and drafted him in the 2nd round. This was easily the best game of his career, although 40 of those receiving yards came in overtime. So he got 296 yards in regulation.

The 1st big receiving-yards game in NFL history came in 1945, when the Rams were in their last season in Cleveland, on their way to the NFL Championship, and Bob Waterfield threw to Jim Benton for 303 yards. That record stood for 40 years. In 1985, Stephone Paige caught 309 yards worth of passes from Todd Blackledge. Anderson broke that record, which still stands, but Paige still held the record for receiving yards in regulation.

Until 2013, when Calvin Johnson caught 329 yards worth of passes from Matthew Stafford, to help the Detroit Lions beat the Dallas Cowboys. That now stands as the regulation record, but he couldn't quite break the overall record set by Anderson.

That game was Anderson's best as a pro. But it is not the game for which he is most remembered. Six weeks later, the Rams went into the Meadowlands for an NFC Divisional Playoff against the New York Giants, and Everett burned the G-Men with a 30-yard pass to Anderson just 1:06 into overtime to win it for the Rams. In the New York Tri-State Area, it is known as "The Flipper Anderson Game."

Anderson remained with the Rams until 1994, their last season in Los Angeles before beginning their 21-season exile in St. Louis. He played for the Indianapolis Colts in 1995, and the Washington Redskins in 1996, before closing his career with the Denver Broncos in 1997, winning Super Bowl XXXII in his last game.

He now lives in the suburbs of Atlanta, and is a high school basketball referee. I wonder how many fans yell at him, "Hey, ref! You sure you're officiating in the right sport?"

*

November 26, 1989 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played:

* The New York Jets beat the Atlanta Falcons, 27-7 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Chicago Bears, 38-14 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Miami Dolphins, 34-14 at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-7 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the San Diego Chargers, 10-6 at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 20-19 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Oilers, 34-0 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Seattle Seahawks, 41-14 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Phoenix Cardinals, 14-13 at Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.

* The Los Angeles Raiders beat the New England Patriots, 24-21 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Three days earlier, on Thanksgiving, the Detroit Lions beat the Cleveland Browns, 13-10 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* Also on Thanksgiving, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys, 27-0 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the New York Giants lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 34-24 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

There were 3 games in the NBA that day:

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Chicago Bulls, 120-96 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Ron Harper scored 36 points.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 132-112 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Detroit Lions, 102-82 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Quebec Nordiques, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Los Angeles Kings and the Vancouver Canucks played to a tie, 3-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

November 19, 1984: The San Juanico Disaster

November 19, 1984: A series of explosions at the Pemex Petroleum Storage Facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec, in Mexico City, ignites a major fire and kills about 500 people. Yet another story of how fossil-fuel companies don't care about people, only profit.

Known as the San Juanico Disaster, the explosions ignited liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at a "tank farm." In addition to the deaths, over 5,000 people suffered severe burns. It remains the deadliest industrial accident involving fires and/or explosions from hazardous materials in a process or storage plant since the Oppau explosion in Germany in 1921.

As bad as it was, it would be overshadowed by an earthquake that struck Mexico City 10 months later, which killed about 10 times as many people.

*

November 19, 1984 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Pittsburgh Steelers came in at 6-5, while the New Orleans Saints were 5-6. And they were playing at the Superdome in New Orleans. The Steelers were favored by only 1 point. So a Saints win would not have been a big deal.

That morning, I walked into the kitchen, and saw my father having breakfast. He was listening to Don Imus on New York radio station WNBC, and Imus said this: "If the Saints beat Pittsburgh, I will eat Mr. T's shorts." Well, the Saints won, 27-24. The next morning, guys were calling Imus up, asking him things like whether they should send him ketchup for the shorts worn by the Rocky III and The A-Team actor.

There was 1 game played in the NBA: The Indiana Pacers beat the Chicago Bulls, 137-120. Rookie Michael Jordan of the Bulls led all scorers with 34 points.

And there were 2 games played in the NHL. In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-4 at the Montreal Forum. And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Calgary Flames, 5-4 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

November 8, 1970: Sixty-Three Yards

November 8, 1970: The New Orleans Saints are playing the Detroit Lions at Tulane Stadium, and trail 17-16 with time for one more play.

The early Saints were terrible: They had debuted in 1967, and were 13-34-2 in their brief history, including 1-5-1 that season. Tom Fears, the Hall of Fame receiver for the Los Angeles Rams who had been named their 1st head coach, had just been fired, and this was their 1st game under J.D. Roberts, who finished out that season and lasted just 2 more.

At this point, the NFL had the goalposts on the goal line. And the record for the longest field goal was 56 yards, by Bert Rechichar of the Baltimore Colts in 1953. In the 17 years since, no one had even attempted a field goal longer than that. It was the kind of stunt that could only be done at the end of the 1st half or the end of the game, for fear of giving the opposition great field position.

The Saints were on their own 44-yard line. Their quarterback was Billy Kilmer. Two years later, Kilmer would take the Washington Redskins to the NFC Championship and Super Bowl VII. But, at this point, he was best remembered as a single-wing quarterback at UCLA, and not a great passer. The idea of Kilmer flinging the ball 55 yards for a touchdown did not fill Roberts with confidence.

But they had a placekicker named Tom Dempsey. Despite being born with no right hand and half of a right foot, requiring him to wear a special shoe, he had kicked a 55-yarder the year before. He thought he could make it from 62 yards, and convinced Roberts to let him try a field goal from a distance far beyond that from which anyone had yet had the guts to try. Not even in the freewheeling, recently wrapped-up AFL.

This was in New Orleans, a city below sea level. It was on real grass, not artificial turf, and this was the middle of the season, so the field was in bad shape. (Tulane Stadium would get artificial turf the next season.) There was no kicking tee: In the NFL, that's only legal for kickoffs. There was game-winning pressure. Years later, a scientist hired by ESPN determined that the flat front of Dempsey's half-shoe may actually have made the kick less likely to be good. His only advantage was a slight wind behind him.

What's more, he decided he'd actually have a better chance if the placement were an additional yard back, 8 yards instead of the legally-mandated minimum of 7, making the kick 63 yards.

Dempsey faced the enclosed north end of Tulane Stadium's semicircle. Jackie Burkett snapped the ball, and it was low. Holder Joe Scarpati had trouble with it, but set it down properly. Dempsey sent the ball straight on, and it flew, and flew, and flew...

And it perfectly split the uprights, good by a full 3 yards. Final score: Saints 19, Lions 17.

There is surviving videotape of the kick, but it's in bad shape. You're better off looking at NFL Films' version. Unfortunately, both are from the press box on the west side of the stadium, so the view is sideways. There appears to be no surviving footage that shows the kick straight-on, either from the front or the rear.

"I was more concerned about kicking it straight, because I felt I could handle the distance," Dempsey said. "I hit it sweet."

The stunning kick was the highlight of not just the Saints' season -- they wouldn't win another game, finishing 2-11-1 -- but, arguably, their entire history, until their Super Bowl season of 2009-10.

The next season, 1971, Dempsey was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, and he led the NFL in field goal percentage, 70.4 percent, kicking a 54-yarder. He spent 4 seasons with them, the 1st 3 with those awful white helmets with green wings, before they went back to the traditional white (or silver) wings with green helmets for 1974. He spent the 1975 and 1976 seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, 1977 with the Houston Oilers, and 1978 and 1979 with the Buffalo Bills, before retiring.

In 1974, the NFL moved the goal posts from the goal line to the end line, at the back of the end zone. From that point onward, a 63-yard field goal would be made not at your own 37, but your own 47. In 1977, the NFL added the "Tom Dempsey Rule": "Any shoe that is worn by a player with an artificial limb on his kicking leg must have a kicking surface that conforms to that of a normal kicking shoe." Dempsey was still active, so he was "grandfathered in," and allowed to continue using his flat-fronted shoe.

He finished his career making 252 out of 282 extra points, or 89.4 percent; and 159 of 258 field goals, or 61.6 percent. (Maybe 63 would have been appropriate, but he wasn't quite that good.) He tried 39 field goals from 50 yards or longer, and made 12 of them, an astounding percentage for the time.

He was elected to the Saints' team Hall of Fame. He has never been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio -- only 2 pure kickers, as opposed to pre-1970 kickers who also played other positions, have been: Jan Stenerud, and another Saint, Morten Andersen -- but the shoe he wore for the record-setting kick is on display there.

Dempsey's record stood alone until October 25, 1998, when Jason Elam of the Denver Broncos tied it. It was tied again on September 12, 2011, by Sebastian Janikowski of the Oakland Raiders. Both of these kicks came in the mile-high air of Denver. On September 28, 2008, at the end of a 1st half, Janikowski was sent in for the most ridiculous field goal attempt ever: 76 yards, on grass, into the wind, at the Oakland Coliseum, just 43 feet above sea level. It was 18 yards short (58 yards), and wide right.

On September 9, 2012, David Akers, then with the San Francisco 49ers, hit a 63-yarder against the Green Bay Packers. Green Bay is 581 feet above sea level.

On December 8, 2013, 43 years after Dempsey set the record, Matt Prater of the Broncos broke it, kicking a 64-yard field goal to end a half against the Tennessee Titans. This, too, was in Denver. I remind you that Dempsey kicked his 63-yarder below sea level.

On October 7, 2018, in Charlotte, North Carolina, 761 feet above sea level, Graham Gano did something no kicker had done since Dempsey: Kick a game-winning field goal 63 yards or more. He did so to give the Carolina Panthers a 33-31 win against the New York Giants. Afterward, he told the media that he always wanted to kick one that far to win a game, just like Dempsey had. Dempsey heard about it, and sent him an autographed kicking tee.

Following his career, Dempsey returned to New Orleans, worked as a salesman for an oil company, and then Saints owner Tom Benson, who owned a string of car dealerships, hired him to run one.

In 2013, he revealed he was suffering from dementia. He was eventually taken to a senior residence in New Orleans, and he was 1 of 15 residents who tested positive for the coronavirus. He died on April 4, 2020, at the age of 73.

On September 26, 2021, Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens, at Ford Field in Detroit, 656 feet above sea level, kicked a 66-yard field goal, for a new record. It was well above sea level, on turf, indoors. But, like Dempsey, it was a game-winner. Also like Dempsey, it gave his team a 19-17 win over the Lions.

Before kicking tees were outlawed by the NCAA, 3 college players had kicked 67-yard field goals. The national high school record is 69 yards.

*

November 8, 1970 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played on that historic day:

* The New York Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys, 23-20 at Yankee Stadium.

* The New York Jets lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-17 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Miami Dolphins, 24-17 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Washington Redskins, 19-10 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Buffalo Bills, 43-14 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Chicago Bears, 37-16 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Patriots, 31-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Oilers, 24-9 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Denver Broncos, 24-21 at San Diego Stadium.

* The Atlanta Falcons and the Los Angeles Rams played to a tie 10-10 at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

* And the Oakland Raiders beat the Cleveland Browns, 23-20 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* The next day, on Monday Night Football, the Baltimore Colts beat the Green Bay Packers, 13-10 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

There were 4 games played that day in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the expansion Portland Trail Blazers, 125-113 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Jim Barnett scored 40 points for the Blazers, but Captain Willis Reed had 28 points and 26 rebounds for the defending NBA Champion Knickerbockers.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the expansion Cleveland Cavaliers, 111-105 at the Cleveland Arena.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Phoenix Suns, 125-105 at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 124-105 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Jerry West scored 41 points. Wilt Chamberlain scored 20 and had 24 rebounds.

There were 4 games played in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets beat the Denver Rockets, 114-104 at the Island Garden in Hempstead. The Rockets became the Denver Nuggets in 1974.

* The Memphis Pros beat the Pittsburgh Condors, 105-96 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Carolina Cougars beat the Miami Floridians, 122-115 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

* The Utah Stars beat the Indiana Pacers, 111-103 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum). The Stars ended up dethroning the Pacers as ABA Champions that season.

And there were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-1 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the expansion Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 3-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Minnesota North Stars and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 3-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

November 6, 1989: An "Honor Killing" On American Soil

November 6, 1989: She called herself Tina Isa. "Tina" was short for the name her father gave her, "Palestina." That should have been the first sign that her story was going to come to a horrible end.

She was born in Brazil in 1972. Her mother, Maria, was a Brazilian Catholic; her father, Zein Isa, a Jordanian Muslim who called himself a "Palestinian." They moved to St. Louis, and she became an American citizen. Like most children who had no say in becoming immigrants, she wanted to fit in with her new country, and so got good grades, and made the honor roll. But she also listened to hip-hop, and liked talking about boys with her girl friends.

Her parents didn't like that. They wouldn't let her go out for school sports teams. They wouldn't let her go on school trips. They wouldn't let her get a job. They wouldn't let her date. Her father decided that he would choose a husband for her, and that he would be a man like himself: A "Palestinian" from the West Bank.

She disobeyed. She started dating a non-Muslim boy, and got a job at a nearby Wendy's. On November 6, 1989, this 17-year-old girl, on the surface like so many other 17-year-old girls in America, walked into her house, and her father called her a "bitch" and a "she-devil." He accused her of "fornication." He said, "You are going to die tonight." And he pulled a knife on her.

She begged her mother for help. Her mother did help -- her father, that is. The mother held her down, and the father stabbed her in the chest, over and over again, saying, "Die! Die quickly!" Which, having no choice in the matter, she did.

In his culture, it was called an "honor killing." In our culture, it is called "cold-blooded murder." In our law, it is called "murder in the first degree." And there is no honor in murdering your own child. Especially when her only provable "crimes" involved acting her age.

What Zein Isa did not know was that the FBI had bugged the house, because he was part of a jihadist terrorist cell they were investigating. The parents were both arrested the next day. They were convicted of murder, and, on December 20, 1991, they were sentenced to death. Zein died in prison from diabetes in 1997, before his sentence could be carried out. Maria's sentence was commuted to life in prison. She died in 2014, at age 70, still in prison where she belonged.

*

November 6, 1989 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. On ABC Monday Night Football, the San Francisco 49ers beat the New Orleans Saints, 31-13 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. This NFC Western Division game had originally been scheduled for New Orleans, but when the San Francisco Giants reached the National League Championship Series, it was switched with the October 8 game between the teams, to avoid a scheduling conflict.

This was also the Niners' 1st game at Candlestick since October 1, due to 2 intended road games, the switch, and the earthquake that struck during the World Series, forcing a home game to be moved from Candlestick to Stanford Stadium in nearby Palo Alto, California.

There was 1 game in the NBA: The New York Knicks lost to the Orlando Magic, 118-110 at the Orlando Arena. This was only the 2nd regular-season game ever for the expansion Magic: Two days earlier, on November 4, they beat the New Jersey Nets at home, 111-106.

And there were 4 games in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Montreal Canadiens and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 3-3 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Minnesota North Stars, 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* And the Calgary Flames beat their arch-rivals, the Edmonton Oilers, 5-1 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

August 3, 1975: The Superdome Opens

August 3, 1975: The Louisiana Superdome opens in downtown New Orleans. Trumpeter Al Hirt and clarinetist Pete Fountain, both based in that city known as the birthplace of jazz, perform at the opening concert.

The "Big Mushroom" was designed to take the place of Tulane Stadium, on the campus of Tulane University, as the home of the school's football team, and of the NFL's New Orleans Saints, and of 2 of college football's most popular games, the Sugar Bowl and the historically black schools' Bayou Classic. On the very day of the Superdome's dedication, Tulane Stadium was condemned. It was demolished in 1979.

Between August 28 and September 14, 1975, the Superdome continued to celebrate its grand opening, with appearances by Bob Hope, Telly Savalas, Dorothy Lamour, Karen Valentine, and Raquel Welch. The Allman Brothers, The Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie, The Charlie Daniels Band, The O'Jays, The Isley Brothers, The Temptations, Donald Byrd and the Blackbyrds, and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus also performed. On October 3, Johnny Cash led a concert that included his wife June Carter, Waylon Jennings and his wife Jessi Colter, and Merle Haggard.

The 1st football game in the Superdome was on August 6, an exhibition game in which the Saints lost to the Houston Oilers, 13-7. Their 1st regular-season game in the building was on September 28, a 21-0 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Tulane's dome debut was better, a 14-3 win over the University of Mississippi.

On November 29, the Bayou Classic was played there for the 1st time. The Grambling State University Tigers defeated the Southern University Jaguars, 33-20. And on December 31, New Year's Eve, the Sugar Bowl was first held there. Alabama beat Penn State, 13-6. 'Bama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant was not wearing his famous houndstooth hat. When asked why, he said, "My mama told me never to wear a hat indoors." He had never coached a game under a dome before.

With the closing (but not, as of this writing, the demolition) of the Astrodome in Houston, the Superdome is the oldest actively used domed stadium in the United States. It has hosted the Super Bowl more times than any other venue:

1. 1978, Super Bowl XII: Dallas Cowboys 27, Denver Broncos 10.

2. 1981, Super Bowl XV: Oakland Raiders 27, Philadelphia Eagles 10.

3. 1986, Super Bowl XX: Chicago Bears 46, New England Patriots 10.

4. 1990, Super Bowl XXIV: San Francisco 49ers 55, Denver Broncos 10.

5. 1997, Super Bowl XXXI: Green Bay Packers 35, New England Patriots 21.

6. 2002, Super Bowl XXXVI: New England Patriots 20, St. Louis Rams 17.

7. 2013, Super Bowl XLVII: Baltimore Ravens 34, San Francisco 49ers 31.

It is scheduled to host for an 8th time, Super Bowl LIX, to conclude the 2024 NFL season. (UPDATE: The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 40-22.)

It has hosted 6 NCAA Final Fours:

1. 1982, North Carolina over Georgetown.

2. 1987, Indiana over Syracuse.

3. 1993, North Carolina over Michigan.

4. 2003, Syracuse over Kansas.

5. 2012, Kentucky over Kansas.

6. 2022, Kansas over North Carolina.

The NBA's New Orleans Jazz played there from 1975 until their 1979 move to Salt Lake City, as the Utah Jazz. Muhammad Ali regained the Heavyweight Championship of the World from Leon Spinks there in 1978, and Sugar Ray Leonard regained the Welterweight Championship from Roberto Duran there in 1980.

It also hosted some preseason baseball games: Minnesota vs. Houston in 1976; the New York Yankees vs. Baltimore in 1980; the Yankees vs. the New York Mets, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in 1981; the Yankees vs. Montreal and Texas in 1982; the Yankees vs. Montreal and Toronto in 1983; Philadelphia vs. St. Louis in 1984; San Francisco vs. Oakland in 1989; Los Angeles vs. Oakland in 1991; the Mets vs. Oakland in 1993; the Yankees vs. Boston in 1994; and the Chicago Cubs vs. Minnesota in 1999.

Baseball doesn't look right in the Superdome, does it?

The Class AAA New Orleans Pelicans played their home games there in 1977. New Orleans tried to get the Oakland Athletics to move there in 1979, and the Pittsburgh Pirates for 1982, but were unsuccessful.

It has also hosted a Mass by Pope John Paul II in 1987, and the 1988 Republican National Convention, which nominated George H.W. Bush for President.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina nearly ruined New Orleans, including causing serious damage to the Superdome. It was used as a shelter for those who had lost their homes, with disastrous results. The Saints split their home games that season between Tiger Stadium on the Louisiana State campus in Baton Rouge and the Alamodome in San Antonio; Tulane used 5 different smaller college stadiums in Louisiana; the Bayou Classic was moved to what's now named NRG Stadium in Houston; and the Sugar Bowl to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The Superdome reopened the following September 25.

Current seating capacity is 73,208. The post-Katrina renovation of 2005-06 was designed solely to make it usable again. Another renovation was undertaken in 2011, to do some modernization -- which also ended the building's baseball capability. There has been talk of a new domed stadium to replace it, but no plans are underway.

Naming rights were sold in 2011, making it the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The 2017 move of the Saints' arch-rivals, the Atlanta Falcons, to the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium confused matters, and Mercedes-Benz allowed their naming rights on the Superdome to lapse. In 2021, it became the Caesars Superdome, with the rights bought by the Caesars casino company.

The New Orleans Arena opened next-door in 1999. Since 2014, it has been named the Smoothie King Center. Since 2002, it has been home to the NBA team known as the New Orleans Hornets until 2013, and the New Orleans Pelicans ever since.

*

August 3, 1975 was a Sunday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees split a doubleheader with the Cleveland Indians at Shea Stadium, where they groundshared with the Mets while Yankee Stadium was being renovated. The Yankees won the opener, 12-1. George "Doc" Medich went the distance as the winning pitcher. Bobby Bonds, in perhaps his best game in his lone season as a Yankee, went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

The Indians won the nightcap, 3-2. Larry Gura went 7 strong innings, but Dick Tidrow blew the game in the 8th inning. Rico Carty, who always seemed to hit the Yankees well, went 4-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Frank Robinson, in his 1st season as Major League Baseball's 1st black manager, was not yet retired as a player, but did not put himself into either game.

* The New York Mets were swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 and 4-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The 1st game went 15 innings, when ex-Met Duffy Dyer hit a home run off Bob Apodaca, who pitched 4 innings in relief of Tom Seaver. Willie Stargell went 1-for-5 with 2 walks in the 1st game, and did not play in the 2nd game.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 5-4 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Tommy Hutton singled Mike Schmidt home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. Schmidt went 3-for-5 with a home run. Tug McGraw was the winning pitcher, in relief of Steve Carlton.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4 with a walk, but Denny Doyle, Rick Burleson and Cecil Cooper hit home runs.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Robin Yount went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3.

* A doubleheader between arch-rivals was split at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Chicago Cubs won the 1st game, 6-3. The St. Louis Cardinals won the 2nd game, 7-4.

* The Minnesota Twins swept a doubleheader from the Chicago White Sox, 7-4 and 12-9 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Over the 2 games, Rod Carew went 3-for-7 with 2 walks and 3 RBIs.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-0 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Paul Splittorff allowed only 1 hit, a single by Claudell Washington in the 1st inning. George Brett went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3.

* The California Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 6-4 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Nolan Ryan started for the Angels, but pitched only 5 innings. The Angels' bullpen blew the lead, but they scored 2 runs in the top of the 9th to win it.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 5-1 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Pete Rose went 0-for-4. Johnny Bench did not play.

* And a doubleheader was split at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The San Francisco Giants won the 1st game, 5-4. The Houston Astros won the 2nd game, 10-9.

May 15, 1993: San Antonio's Texas-Sized White Elephant

May 15, 1993: The Alamodome opens in San Antonio. The 64,000-seat facility was intended to be a larger home for the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, and to attract an NFL franchise.

It had been built because San Antonio, from the 1980s onward, has been one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in America. And the existing Alamo Stadium, built in 1940 and seating 18,000 (with an additional 14,000 temporary seats), proved unsuitable for use by the San Antonio Wings of the World Football League in 1974 and 1975, and the San Antonio Gunslingers of the United States Football League in 1984 and 1985. So the Alamodome was an improvement, and predictions that the NFL was coming seemed pretty good.

Well, in 1993, the NFL gave its 1995 expansion teams to Charlotte and Jacksonville. In 1994, the 2 Los Angeles teams moved, the Rams to St. Louis and the Raiders back to Oakland. In 1995, the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore. In 1996, the Houston Oilers began the process of moving to Nashville. In 2002, Houston got a new team. And, that same year, the Spurs moved into a modern arena, after winning their 2nd NBA Championship at the Alamodome.

The Houston Oilers played 2 preseason exhibition games there in 1993 and 1994. The Dallas Cowboys were the opponent for 1 of those 1993 games. They played each other in the 1995 preseason. The New Orleans Saints, having played a preseason game there against the Minnesota Vikings in 2001, played 3 "home games" there in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina left the Superdome unusable for that season.

The NCAA has hosted the Final Four there in 1998, 2004, 2008 and 2018, and will again in 2025; and the Women's Final Four in 2002, 2010 and 2021. The Canadian Football League's brief U.S. experiment put the San Antonio Texans there for the 1995 season.

The stadium has hosted the annual Alamo Bowl ever since. It's hosted the Big 12 Conference Championship Game in 1997, 1999 and 2007; and the Conference USA Championship Game in 2021, and it is scheduled to do so again in 2022. And, on the TV show Coach, fictional Minnesota State won the 1993 National Championship there.

The University of Texas at San Antonio, a school in the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision (FCS, what used to be known as "Division I-AA"), began playing there in 2011. It's been home to the Arena Football League's San Antonio Talons from 2012 to 2014, and the Alliance of American Football's San Antonio Commanders in 2019.

Setup for UTSA football

Mexico's national soccer team played 2 games there in 2004, another in 2014, and was beaten by the U.S. team in 2015, to date the only game the U.S. men's team has played there. The U.S. women's team also played a game there in 2015. Mexico played there again in 2017. Several Mexican club teams have played there.

The International Hockey League's San Antonio Dragons played a few home games there in the 1996-97 and 1997-98 season. Baseball has even been played there, Spring Training games by the Texas Rangers from 2013 to 2017, although the artificial turf field is bad, and the right field fence is only 272 feet from home plate. So, if San Antonio ever gets a Major League Baseball team, they will not be playing in the Alamodome.

The building remains a "white elephant." It’s beginning to look like the NFL will never put a team there, either moved or expansion. As I said, MLB isn't going to play there. And the current plan for a proposed Major League Soccer expansion team is for them to use a smaller, soccer-specific stadium.

(UPDATE: The United Football League's San Antonio Brahmas began play there in 2023.)

*

May 15, 1993 was a Saturday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. Mélido Pérez outpitched Al Leiter. Mike Stanley went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Don Mattingly was injured, and did not play. Paul Molitor went 0-for-4.

* The New York Mets lost to the Montreal Expos, 2-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Chris Nabholz outpitched Bret Saberhagen.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Greg Maddux outpitched David West. Mark Lemke hit a home run for the Braves, and Darren Daulton hit one of the Phils. This result would be reversed in the National League Championship Series.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 14-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-5 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Greg Vaughn hit 2 home runs. Robin Yount, in his last season, went 0-for-2 with a walk.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-4 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Florida Marlins beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Ryan Bowen pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-4 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Rafael Palmeiro hit a home run in the bottom of the 11th to win it, driving Iván Rodríguez in ahead of him. The former was eventually proven to be a steroid cheat, and the latter has long been suspected of it.

* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 3-0 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Trevor Wilson (4 hits over 7 1/3rd innings), Dave Righetti (2/3rds) and Rod Beck (1) combined for a 4-hit shutout.

* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). George Brett, in his last season, went 1-for-4.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-3 with a walk.

There were 3 games in the NBA Playoffs:

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 96-90 at The Coliseum outside Cleveland in Richfield, Ohio. Michael Jordan scored 32 points.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 97-79 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns, 111-96 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

There was 1 game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

And the FA Cup Final was played at the old Wembley Stadium in London. North London team Arsenal and Yorkshire team Sheffield Wednesday played to a 1-1 draw. A replay was scheduled for the following Thursday, and Arsenal won it, 2-1. The rules were changed, so that, if the game ends in a draw, there would be extra time; if still level, penalty kicks.

April 17, 1999: The Strangest NFL Draft

April 17, 1999: The NFL Draft is held in New York, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden -- formerly known as the Felt Forum, and now as the Hulu Theater.

The Draft has had some sour moments. New York Jets fans, especially when the Draft is held in New York, tend to go, and their reactions to their team's 1st round pick is usually vociferous. Like the nursery rhyme about the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead, when it's good, it's very, very good; but when it's bad, it's horrid.

But Jet fans have nothing on fans of the Philadelphia Eagles. As NFL Films co-founder, producer and writer Steve Sabol (a Philadelphia area native) put it, to be read by John Facenda, the local news anchor who was the voice of NFL Films from 1967 until his death in 1984, put it, "In Philadelphia, a fan learns to boo before he can walk."

In 1998, the Heisman Trophy was won by Ricky Williams of the University of Texas, who had broken the NCAA's career record for rushing yardage. That record lasted for just 1 year, broken by Ron Dayne of Wisconsin, who would play for the New York Giants.

Williams seemed to push all the right buttons. He was big. He was strong. He was very fast. He was from one of college football's marquee schools. He had excelled in one of college football's toughest leagues, the Big 12 Conference. He had come through in high-profile games. He seemed nice. He seemed smart. He was respectful of the game's history: When Doak Walker, often regarded as the greatest Texas-born player, was dying, Ricky visited him in the hospital, and, for one game, switched from his usual Number 34 to Walker's legendary 37. And, at the time, there were no red flags.

He should have been the top pick in the NFL Draft. Except that 1999 was the year the restored Cleveland Browns were beginning play, and they had the top pick. They made it known that they would be picking a quarterback. That turned out to be Tim Couch of the University of Kentucky. He turned out to be a bust, partly because he wasn't that good, partly because the Browns handled him badly. But that's a story for another time.

The 2nd pick belonged to the Eagles, 3-13 the season before. Their quarterbacks were Rodney Peete (decent but injury-prone), Bobby Hoying (a reasonable backup, but shouldn't have been a starter) and Koy Detmer (not even the best quarterback in his own family, and his brother Ty wasn't so hot as a pro, either).

Drafting a seemingly good quarterback is not a cure-all, especially for his rookie year. In the previous year's Draft, the Indianapolis Colts had the 1st pick, the San Diego Chargers the 2nd. The top 2 picks were going to be Peyton Manning of Tennessee and Ryan Leaf of Washington State, and pretty much everybody was thinking that you couldn't go wrong with either one. The Colts picked Manning, and he had a rough rookie year, but became a Hall-of-Famer. The Chargers picked Leaf, and it was a disaster even beyond his rookie year.

But the Eagles also needed to boost their running game. Their 2 best running backs were Duce Staley (good, but not great) and Charlie Garner (occasionally good, at best). Furthermore, given that they were 3-13, the Eagles could have gone with the cliché of drafting "the best available athlete." At the time, it wasn't hard to believe that this was Ricky Williams.

Angelo Cataldi, then as now the morning show host for all-sports radio station WIP (then 610 AM, now 94.1 FM), knowing that the Browns were likely drafting Couch, promoted the idea of the Eagles drafting Williams. He arranged for a group of Eagles fans to attend the Draft at The Garden. Some of them even wore Eagle jerseys with Williams' name and Number 34 on them, presumably paid for out of their own pockets, not out of WIP's bank account. (UPDATE: Cataldi retired in 2023.)

At the Draft, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced, "With the 2nd pick, the Philadelphia Eagles select... Donovan McNabb... " The rest of his words could not be heard, as the Eagle fans in attendance overwhelmed it with boos.

They had been betrayed by team management, and not for the 1st time. Or so they believed. And they booed their lungs out. Why?

Well, from previous bad drafts and bad free agent signings, to the financial difficulties of former owner Leonard Tose and the cheapness of former owner Norman Braman, Eagle fans were used to the organization not doing right by them. New owner Jeffrey Lurie had promised better. So far, he hadn't delivered. Drafting McNabb instead of Williams seemed like another crack in the promise.

The team that can run the ball the best controls the clock. The team that controls the clock usually wins the game. And, as former Eagle cornerback Herman Edwards, then an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, would later say as head coach of the New York Jets, "You play to win the game!"

And, as I said, the Eagles needed to boost their running game, possibly more than they needed a good quarterback. This was largely due to the fact that, from 1995 to 1997, they had put their faith in a different Ricky W: Ricky Watters had helped the San Francisco 49ers win a Super Bowl, and the Eagles signed him as a free agent, but he didn't work out for them, appearing to take a nonchalant attitude, which is anathema to Philadelphia fans. And, as I also said, Williams seemed like "the best available athlete."

McNabb came out of Syracuse University. In 1997, he got them to 9-4. Their wins included these over opponents that were then nationally ranked in the Top 25: The Kickoff Classic at the Meadowlands against Number 24 Wisconsin, and home to Number 17 West Virginia. But he also lost at home to North Carolina State, and away to Oklahoma and Number 22 Virginia Tech.

In 1998, he got them to 8-4. They won away to Number 13 Michigan, and home to Number 16 Virginia Tech (with Michael Vick as a senior). However, they again lost to North Carolina State and West Virginia, this time away in both cases; and lost at home to Number 10 Tennessee.

In both seasons, he led the Orangemen to the Championship of the Big East Conference. But the Big East was never seen as an elite football league. In basketball, yes; in football, no. In both seasons, he got them to a major bowl game: The 1997 Fiesta Bowl against Number 10 Kansas State (actually played on New Year's Eve that season) and the 1999 Orange Bowl against Number 7 Florida (played on New Year's Day). However, they lost both games. In both seasons, he got them to a Top 25 ranking: 20th in 1997 and 24th in 1998.

In other words, he looked like a good college quarterback. But there were other choices, aside from the already-drafted Couch. With the 3rd pick, the Cincinnati Bengals drafted Akili Smith, who had led Oregon to an 8-4 season. With the 11th pick, the Minnesota Vikings drafted Daunte Culpeper, who had led Central Florida to 9-2. With the 12th pick, the Chicago Bears drafted Cade McNown, who had led UCLA to 10-2, the Pac-10 title, and victory in the Rose Bowl. In the 2nd round, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted Shaun King, who had led Tulane to an undefeated 12-0 season and the Number 7 ranking in the country (albeit against, at best, what college basketball fans would call a mid-major schedule).

In other words, McNabb had a good college football career, but was he clearly the best quarterback in that Draft? The best, maybe. Clearly the best, no.

And, as I said, Williams seemed to have all the prerequisites: Good guy, great player, filled a need for the Eagles. And he was available. But they didn't take him. And their fans booed.

They shouldn't have. The Eagles needed a quarterback. When the Detroit Lions chose Rodney Peete in the 6th round out of USC in 1989, there was nothing wrong with wanting a healthy Peete on your team. But he got hurt in his 1st preseason, and this began a string of injuries. By the time the Eagles got him in 1995, having a healthy Peete was pretty much a lost cause. And, as I said, neither Bobby Hoying nor Koy Detmer was going to be the answer.

The best college running backs often turn out to be pro busts -- figuratively or, through injury, literally. Eagles fans found that out when they won 2 games late in the 1968 season, costing them the chance to draft the eventually felonious O.J. Simpson, and instead got Leroy Keyes, who fell well short of expectations.

The Eagles had won their last NFL Championship in 1960. Just between then and 1998, and just among Heisman Trophy winners: Ernie Davis never played a pro down due to a fatal illness, Steve Owens lasted just 5 seasons and rushed for less than 2,500 yards, John Cappelletti lasted 10 years and rushed for less than 3,000, Archie Griffin lasted 7 years and rushed for less than 3,000, Charles White lasted 9 years and rushed for just over 3,000, and Rashaan Salaam lasted 4 years and rushed for less than 1,800. Since then, the aforementioned Ron Dayne lasted for 8 years and rushed for less than 4,000.

In addition to those, Billy Sims and Bo Jackson, both Heisman winners, looked like they were headed for the Hall of Fame. But Sims wrecked his knee in his 5th season, and Jackson hurt his hip in his 4th, and neither ever played again. Ki-Jana Carter was the 1st pick in the 1995 NFL Draft, but wrecked his knee in a preseason game in his rookie year. played in just 59 games over a span of 10 seasons, and rushed for just 1,144 yards.

So drafting a running back in the 1st round, even a great college running back like Ricky Williams, wasn't necessarily a great idea.

And what about other teams? They made this Draft even stranger. The Browns didn't draft Williams, either. Once they drafted Couch, and the Eagles drafted McNabb, the Bengals could have drafted Williams. Here's where it gets really strange: The New Orleans Saints offered the Bengals 9 draft picks for their pick, so they could draft Williams. Nine of them. The Bengals turned them down, and drafted Akili Smith.

The 4th pick belonged to the Colts. The Saints tried to make a deal with them, too, but they wouldn't budge. But they also didn't pick Williams. They drafted a different running back, Edgerrin James of the University of Miami. And while Couch and Smith were both busts, James was not: He went to the Hall of Fame.

Finally, the Saints got the Washington Redskins to agree to a deal: The 5th pick in that Draft, in exchange for the Saints' entire 1999 Draft except for the 2nd round, and their 1st and 3rd round picks for 2000. As the next team up, the team "on the clock," the Saints drafted Williams. The Redskins did some more maneuvering, and packaged 3 of the picks they got from the Saints to send to the Bears for a pick they ended up using on University of Georgia cornerback Champ Bailey, who made the Hall of Fame.

Incidentally, the Saints' general manager at the time was Bill Kuharich, son of Joe Kuharich, who, as Eagles head coach and general manager in 1964, made what is generally regarded as the worst trade in Eagles history: Sending Sonny Jurgensen to the Washington Redskins for Norm Snead.

Jurgensen was a carouser, and the moralistic Joe Kuharich hated that. Snead was a straight arrow. With the Redskins, Jurgensen continued his Hall of Fame career, throwing the most touchdown passes of any quarterback in the 1960s. The quarterback with the most interceptions in that decade? You may have guessed: Snead.

Anyway, what all this means is that 5 teams passed on drafting Ricky Williams: First the Browns, then the Eagles, then the Bengals, then the Colts, and lastly the Redskins. As we will soon see, the Browns and Bengals might have been better off if they'd taken him. Between what we will soon see, and what we have already seen, the Eagles and Colts might not have been.

Bears legend Mike Ditka was the Saints' head coach at the time, and they went just 3-13 in 1999. Williams rushed for 884 yards. Ditka was fired, and replaced with Jim Haslett. It was a huge improvement, as they went 10-6, and, each for the 1st time in franchise history, won their Division (at the time, the NFC West) and won a Playoff game. Williams rushed for 1,000 yards even, despite missing half the season due to injury. And then they slid back down to 7-9 in 2001, despite Williams rushing for 1,245 yards. He was getting personal success, but not much team success.

He didn't fit in. His Saints teammate Joe Horn said, "Ricky's just a different guy. People he wanted to deal with, he did. And people he wanted to have nothing to do with, he didn't. No one could understand that. I don't think guys in the locker room could grasp that he wanted to be himself. You know, quiet."

He was traded to the Miami Dolphins for 4 draft picks, and 2002 turned out to be his best NFL season. He rushed for a League-leading 1,853 yards. He rushed for another 1,372 yards in 2003. In those seasons, the Dolphins went 9-7 and 10-6, but didn't make the Playoffs either time. Still, it looked like the Saints had blown it, both in getting him and in getting rid of him.

And then, in the run-up to the 2004 season, he was suspended for testing positive for marijuana. On August 2, he announced his retirement.

It's become a meme in the years since: ESPN's Stephen A. Smith telling NFL players to "Stay off the weed!" Or, as he pronounces it, "the weeeeeeee-duh!" Physically speaking, Ricky Williams was as gifted as any running back in NFL history. Emotionally speaking, he was at the other extreme, eventually being diagnosed with clinical depression and social anxiety disorder. He chose smoking pot over playing football -- including the money that could be made from it, but also the risks of playing it, and the sacrifices he would have to make to do so.

The Dolphins seemed to prove his point, that they needed him more than he needed them, going 4-12 in 2004. Williams patched things up with them, served his mandatory 4-game drug-test suspension, and rushed for 743 yards in 12 games. The Dolphins went 9-7 in 2005, and just missed the Playoffs again. And then, in early 2006, Williams was suspended for the entire upcoming season, for violating the NFL's drug policy for a 2nd time.

The Canadian Football League had a less stringent drug policy, and Williams signed with the Toronto Argonauts. But his season with the Argos was stricken with injuries: A broken bone in his arm and a damaged Achilles tendon limited him to 11 games and 526 yards. The CFL instituted what's become known as "The Ricky Williams Rule": No longer would a player under suspension by the NFL be eligible to be signed by a CFL team, although a "grandfather clause" meant that Williams himself could stay.

He didn't: After claiming that yoga had helped him to stop using marijuana, he entered into negotiations with Commissioner Tagliabue, and was granted reinstatement. He returned on November 26, 2007, playing for the Dolphins against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football. But it would be the only game he played that season, as he suffered a shoulder injury in the game.

He played all 16 games of the 2008 season, rushing for 659 yards, and helping the Dolphins win the AFC East. He played all 16 games of the 2009 season, rushing for 1,121 yards, making him only the 7th player in NFL history to rush for at least 1,000 at age 32 or later, but the Dolphins only went 7-9. In 2010, he rushed for 673 yards, and the Dolphins went 10-6, but missed the Playoffs.

His contract with the Dolphins had run out, and he signed with the Baltimore Ravens for 2011. He played in every game, rushed for 444 yards, and on January 1, 2012, he joined the 10,000 Yards Club. The Ravens went 12-4, won the AFC North, and advanced to the AFC Championship Game.

But, a month later, Williams announced his retirement, for good this time. He was not quite 35, with 10,009 rushing yards, 342 receptions for 2,606 yards, and 74 touchdowns.

He has since become a certified yoga instructor, and an advocate for medical marijuana. Apparently, the former hasn't actually turned him off from the latter; but, together, they have helped him deal with his mental health difficulties.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame, but not the Pro Football Hall of Fame, for which he has been eligible since 2017. Through the 2021 season, there are 31 players with at least 10,000 rushing yards. The only ones eligible but not yet in are Fred Taylor, Steven Jackson, Corey Dillon, Warrick Dunn, Ricky Watters, Jamal Lewis, Thomas Jones, Tiki Barber, Eddie George, Ottis Anderson... and Ricky Williams.

Two of those players, Williams and Lewis, have had drug issues. The rest haven't. Based on statistics, it appears that 12,000 yards -- or, more precisely, 12,074 -- is the actual threshold: Every player with at least that many is in, except for the not-yet-eligible Frank Gore and Adrian Peterson. So maybe it's not the drug issue that's holding Williams back, since there are never-suspended players with more rushing yards who aren't in Canton.

Nevertheless, Williams was a headache for 2 different NFL franchises, New Orleans and Miami. Neither team has elected him to their team hall of fame. If you ask the average Dolphin fan to name his all-time team, his running backs are going to be those on the 1972-73 Super Bowl teams, Larry Csonka and either Jim Kiick or Mercury Morris. (A little ironic, since Morris had to overcome a more severe drug problem than Williams, and did.)

Even in the 22 years since Williams arrived in the NFL, or in the 17 years since he was first suspended, America's understanding of mental health issues has improved. It is entirely possible that the same issues would have reared their heads had he been drafted by the Eagles instead of the Saints.

And that would have been very bad for his mental health. Can you imagine Eagle fans reacting to Ricky Williams' drug and psych issues? They would have tried to destroy him. And, away from the more laid-back atmospheres in Louisiana and South Florida, it would have been much worse for him. Instead of accepting him, Eagle fans would have compounded the problem.

Now, imagine that the Eagles drafted the top quarterback available the next year. Because they still would have needed one. Who would that have been? There were 12 quarterbacks drafted. The 1st was Chad Pennington, who had a decent career with Miami and the Jets. Of the 11 after him, the best was... Tom Brady, taken in the 6th round by the New England Patriots. And we'll never know for sure if he would have won even one single solitary NFL game without being the perpetrator, or at least the beneficiary, of cheating.

And, given how close the Eagles were to winning the Super Bowl with McNabb but without Williams, would they have been any better the other way around? With Pennington as quarterback and Williams in the backfield? It's unlikely.

Because the quarterback they did draft turned out to be pretty good. Suppose you rooted for a struggling NFL team. And suppose I told you that they were going to draft a quarterback who gave his college back-to-back seasons of a Conference Championship and a bid to a New Year's Day bowl game. And that he would lead your team to the Playoffs in only his 2nd season, and that this would be the 1st of 8 trips to the Playoffs -- without any guarantee as to how any of those berths would turn out. Would you like your chances? Would you take this? I think most fans would.

Certainly, McNabb's pro career could have been better. He was 10-8 in Playoff games, 1-4 in NFC Championship Games including 2 losses at home, and 0-1 in Super Bowls. And, so far, voters for the Pro Football Hall of Fame have not seen fit to elect him.

But Donovan McNabb turned out to be, if not the greatest, then the most statistically successful quarterback in Eagles history, at least through the 2021 season. He joined Fran Tarkenton, John Elway and Steve Young as only the 4th quarterback in NFL history to have 30,000 passing yards, 200 touchdown passes, 3,000 rushing yards and 20 touchdown runs. He made 6 Pro Bowls. He won 5 NFC East titles.

In 2004, he set a record (since broken) with 24 consecutive pass attempts completed. That same year, he became the 1st quarterback ever to finish a season with at least 30 touchdown passes and fewer than 10 interceptions.

As I said, he went 10-8 in Playoff games with the Eagles. But look at it another way: In 11 seasons with Donovan McNabb as their starting quarterback, the Eagles won 10 postseason games; in 78 seasons with all other starting quarterbacks (1933 to 1998, and 2010 to 2021), they have won just 13. In fact, until Nick Foles came along, it was 9 postseason wins in 73 years without McNabb.

The Eagles reached 5 NFC Championship Games with him. They only reached 1 Super Bowl, and lost it -- but that was to the Patriots, so how do we know it was on the up-and-up? We don't. With the Pats, we presume they're guilty until they're proven innocent.

You can say that other Eagles quarterbacks -- Norm Van Brocklin, Sonny Jurgensen, Ron Jaworski, Randall Cunningham, Nick Foles and Carson Wentz -- were better than Donovan McNabb. Certainly, some of those were more talented. But results matter. Van Brocklin was only in Philadelphia for 3 seasons; Foles, 2. Long-term, McNabb is the Eagles' best quarterback ever.

So the people booing his selection at the 1999 NFL Draft owe him an apology. Yes, Ricky Williams looked like the better pick at the time. But he wasn't. McNabb was.

*

April 17, 1999 was a Saturday. Football was in the off-season. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Andy Pettitte had a 5-hit shutout going after 6 innings. But Don Zimmer, filling in as manager while Joe Torre was treated for cancer, replaced him with Jeff Nelson, who blew it in the 7th inning. Derek Jeter went 1-for-3 with 2 walks.

* The New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Roger Cedeño went 3-for-4. Rickey Henderson was with the Mets that season, but did not get into this game.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 8-5 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Florida Marlins, 2-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-4 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. Cal Ripken went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* A doubleheader was split at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland. The Cleveland Indians won the opener, 5-1. The Minnesota Twins won the nightcap, 13-8, as the Indians' relief pitcher collapsed in the 11th inning. His name was Michael Jackson. In that inning, he was bad, and he was dangerous, and the Twins didn't stop 'til they got enough.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-6 at Cinergy Field (formerly known as Riverfront Stadium) in Cincinnati. Warren Morris singled Abraham Núñez home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-5 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Houston Astros, 8-5 at the Astrodome in Houston. Mark McGwire went 0-for-3 with 2 walks.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 8-5 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. Barry Bonds went 1-for-5.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 7-3 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium). Tony Gwynn went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the team then known as the Anaheim Angels, 4-3 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). David Segui hit a home run in the top of the 10th inning. Ken Griffey Jr. also homered, going 1-for-1 with 2 RBIs... and 4 walks.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 11-3 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum).

There were 5 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Toronto Raptors, 93-90 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 90-82 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 102-94 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 109-93 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

* And the Sacramento Kings beat the Denver Nuggets, 119-97 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

And there were 10 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Nashville Predators, 4-1 at the Nashville Arena (now the Bridgestone Arena).

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens beat their arch-rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre) in Montreal.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 2-1 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston. Hal Gill scored the winning goal with 14 seconds left in overtime. (No shootouts until 2005-06, so this would have been a tie if he hadn't scored.)

* The Ottawa Senators and the Carolina Hurricanes played to a tie, 1-1 at the Greensboro Coliseum.

* The Florida Panthers beat their arch-rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-2 at the National Car Rental Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* In another "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Blackhawks beat their arch-rivals, the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Dallas Stars, 2-0 at the AmericaWest Arena (now the Footprint Center) in Phoenix.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat their arch-rivals, the Calgary Flames, 3-2 at the Skyreach Center (as the Northlands Coliseum was then known) in Edmonton.

* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the San Jose Sharks played to a tie, 3-3 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).

* And the New York Rangers, the Philadelphia Flyers, the St. Louis Blues, the Los Angeles Kings, the Vancouver Canucks, the Washington Capitals, the Colorado Avalanche and the Atlanta Thrashers were not scheduled.