Some notes from Week 16 of the NFL and related history. On Christmas day 1971, an overtime field goal by a left footed kicker eliminated the Kansas City Chiefs in a game played in Kansas City. 40 years to the day after that game, again on a Saturday, this time on December 24th, an overtime field goal by a left footed kicker eliminates the Chiefs in a game played in Kansas City. In 1971 Garo Yepremian’s field goal in the 2nd overtime period ko’d the Chiefs in a divisional playoff game. This year Sebastian Janikowski’s overtime field goal eliminated the Chiefs from playoff contention in the next to last week.
Janet Leigh’s character goes to an isolated motel in Orson Welles’ 1958 film, “Touch of Evil.” I believe it was two years later that Leigh’s character is again in an otherwise empty motel in “Psycho.”
Andy B
Kansas City Chiefs
Happy holidays to all. Beano Cook, best known as a college football expert, has a colorful blog, Beano-Cook.com It is written monthly with this month’s topic being “Things I really don’t want for Christmas.” Cook displays the wit that got him national exposure as he made the transition from Sports Information Director and network publicist to a commentator on the award winning ABC College Scoreboard Show of the 1980’s.
Andy B Sports and More interviewed Mr.Cook and next week’s edition will feature part 1 of that interview. Beano’s January blog is called “New year’s resolutions I will not keep.” Many of us can relate to that one. As 2011 draws to an end, something Beano wrote in his August 2011 blog on regrets stands out. He wrote “One thing I don’t regret and advise as often as I can, regardless of advisee’s receptiveness: if you still have your parents, tell them you love them. Someday you might want to and they may not be here.”
In last week’s Lions/Raiders game in Oakland, the Raiders scored a touchdown with 7 minutes and 47 seconds left to take a 26-14 lead when inexplicably Oakland coach, Hue Jackson decided to kick the extra point instead of attempting a 2 point conversion. Being ahead by 12 or 13 points at that point in the game is essentially the same but being ahead by 14 is a big difference. The Lions rallied to win 28-27 and of course if Oakland had gone for 2 and made it, and the same events transpired the game would have gone into overtime. Maybe it was historic fate.
In the last Lions’ championship year of 1957, they overcame a 27-7 deficit in the Bay Area and defeated the SF 49ers in a Western Conference playoff game which put the Lions in the NFL Championship Game. Detroit crushed The Cleveland Browns (59-14) in that game. The Browns had a rookie running back named Jim Brown,who won the NFL rushing title as a rookie and in 8 of his 9 seasons. The Lions likely will make their first playoff appearance since 1999.
Finally, next week we will look back at some of the people who died in 2011. Al Davis, the Raiders owner passed on in 2011 and he modeled the “Silver and black” image of the Raiders after the great Detroit Lions teams of the 1950’s (Detroit won NFL Titles in 1952,1953 and 1957 and lost in the championship game in 1954).
Andy B
Beano Cook
Two of the great figures in sports media, Bob Costas interviewed by Robert Lipsyte engaged in a lively, humorous, informative discussion at The New York Times Center on December 7th. Lipsyte as the interviewer opened the program with details of The ” Two Bobs’ ” history with each other which included a fourteen year period when they did not speak. After the discussion ended I wanted another as these two eloquent figures are a much needed light in contrast with the darkness of sports media today.
They certainly did not always agree starting with Costas’ response to Lipsyte’s claim that Costas was too generous in his praise of Mickey Mantle after “#7 ” died in 1995.Among the other sport’s figures discussed were Mantle’s friend, Roger Maris, Joe Paterno and Howard Cosell.Both men agreed that Maris, who played on seven pennant winners with the Yankees and Cardinals from 1960-1968, should be in The Baseball Hall of Fame.Costas eloquently stated that Paterno’s failure to act in the Penn State sex scandal tipped the all time scale against Paterno.While Lipsyte is a big Cosell supporter, Costas though respecting Cosell’s presence and impact at a time of “stark sport’s issues” took a negative stand against the sport’s broadcasting giant. The topics were intense and timely; violence in football, Costas’ inside information about his interview with former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky and assessments of Cosell, Jim Mc Kay and sport’s journalism past and present.Most intriguing was that with one as skilled and challenging as Lipsyte asking the questions, Costas, who makes this difficult forum look easy, had to bring his “A game” and he did.Costas was entertaining doing Cosell immitations and remarking how little space Lipsyte’s picture was given on the program cover compared to his own.Injecting his wry sense of humor, Costas called that unfair.He closed the program with a wonderful recollection of how reticent actor, Jack Palance was on Costas’ “Later” show only to tell a great story as they walked off having finished taping. It was a great ending to an outstanding event, well worth my long trek even on a rainy night.
Robert Lipsyte and Bob Costas
When the NFL plays a full slate of games on Saturday December 24th, it will be the third time that has happened. The NFL does not want a full schedule on Christmas Day and this is the third time the regular season was still going on Christmas Day.
In 1971, the league had two divisional round games on Christmas day, eventual champion Dallas winning at Minnesota while eventual runner-up Miami won in the second overtime quarter at Kansas City.
The next time Christmas fell on a Sunday, 1977, the league scheduled around it and had 2 games on Saturday and two on Monday. For the record, another six quarter game saw Oakland beat the Baltimore Colts and Denver beat Pittsburgh. Then on Monday, Dallas which went on to win its second title that year beat Chicago before Minnesota won in the mud at Los Angeles against the Rams when Los Angeles had a football team.
In both 1983 and 1988, the next two times Christmas fell on a Sunday, there was one wild card game on Saturday and one on Monday. In 1983, Seattle won at home vs Denver while on Monday, the Rams beat Dallas.In 1988 on Saturday December 24th, The Houston Oilers now the Tennessee Titans, beat the Cleveland Browns, the old ones and a franchise that did become the Baltimore Ravens. On Monday December 26th, Minnesota won at home vs the Los Angeles Rams.
The two previous years with full slates on Saturday December 24th were 1994 and 2005.
Andy B
Merry Christmas
