September 23, 2020 • 36 mins
The Dolphins and Patriots met under frozen and snowy circumstances late in the 1982 season in a game immortalized due to a snowplow. Yes, you may know the story of Mark Henderson, who cleared a path for the Patriots field goal to beat Miami. But how about the Dolphins almost winning the game after the plow's appearance by doing the impossible? Don Shula trying to get the Commissioner to reverse the outcome? Then there's the people who got game balls after it was over, why some Patriots actually think the snowplow hurt them (Whaaaaaat?), plus the plow's final resting place.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello,
(00:20):
and welcome inside Special Teams, the podcast with me, Jason
Smith and Mike Harmon, as we take a look back
every week at big years in sports and big teams,
the special Teams and what they were able to accomplish
or not accomplish. We're taking you all the way back
to December twelve two, where the Patriots played hosts of
(00:40):
the Miami Dolphins in a game that would affectionately be
known at least the Patriots fans. To everybody else that's hey,
the first time the Patriots started that would be known
as the Snowplow Game. The snow Plow Game. Number one
song on December twel eater. Oh she's a man, that's
(01:03):
just frightening. But the field and kick a field goal?
Oh here he comes. Yeah, we'll get into the specifics
of that one as we roll. But yeah, this game,
going back and watching video clips, uh and and highly entertaining.
I mean, if you look at the box score, it's
an absolute abomination. But going back to two you mentioned it,
(01:28):
it's it's one that if as you do any sort
of research on the history of the New England Patriots,
goes in there as the first asterisk game, and then
the tuck rule comes in at number two, and slowly
but surely, I think, over the course of the Spy
history start adding other ones. Remember this from how about
(01:49):
this one? From ninety? Oh? I'm sorry? It was Super
Bowl twenty when they got house and the world righted
itself for a day. I guess for everybody that's derisive
and hateful towards the Patriots run the Patriots Dolphins a
game known as a snowplow game because in the fourth quarter,
a snow plow that was piloted by Mark Henderson, who
(02:14):
was on work release from prison, came to clear out
a spot for John Smith to kick a field goal
that gave the Patriots the three nothing win over the Dolphins.
But this game was about so much more than that play,
and there's so much to go along with it that
I can't wait to get you over this podcast because
games that look football in the snow, football in the rain,
(02:36):
football anywhere affected by the elements always becomes memorable. And
this is one of those games. While we're starting here now,
this is the year the NFL was disrupted by the
players strike, So here we are in the middle of December.
The Patriots come into this game at two and three,
the Dolphins are four and one, and this is to
see the Dolphins when they wind up going to Super
Bowl this year, part of what will do a later
(02:58):
special teams on. But the reason this became the snowplow Game,
and it was such a big deal as because leading
up to the game it had been rainy all week.
So you got rain all week in New England, and
then it gets incredibly cold and that coachs the field
like a sheet of ice, all right, So you have
rain for a bunch of days, then it gets so
(03:20):
cold it coach the field like ice. Temperatures get to
the low twenties thirty mile winds and then, of course,
you know, to add insult to injury for this, a
heavy snowfalls during the game. So you have what turns
out to be this three nothing game where players had
so much trouble uh staying up, throwing the football, moving downfield.
It wasn't just the snow, it was the fact that
(03:43):
you had snow on top of what was like a
sheet of ice. So players have a tough time. If
you even had a place where the field was cleared
of snow. Players couldn't really stand you know. It was
where we can run forward at a decent clip a
little bit, but just try to cut and go to
the side and cut back. You couldn't do it because
of the ice and that layer under the snow. So
(04:05):
you had ice and snow, which is something people forget.
They's like, oh, it was a snow game. There's a
lot of snow on the field. No, because of the
ice on the field, that made it even more difficult
for the team to try to move the ball up
and down the field. Yeah, you watched the highlights and
go back through. Everybody's trying to find their footing as
they get into their formations, like here, let me get
my cleats in a little bit, so I at least
(04:25):
I'm not sliding as I take my first step. Uh.
Just amazing each run tack on an extra five yards
where you're carrying a couple of defenders. But yeah, it
was a North South game. Uh, little little work to
the outside and if you did, if you were able
to navigate, that decided advantage right because you got a
guy trying to find an angle to tackle you and
(04:48):
you're bouncing off because he's he's gotten no footing by
which to really stick you, So it's either push you
out of bounds or wait for you to fall of
your own volition. The players you need to know from
this game. New England's quarterback at this point was Steve Grogan.
They had Mosy to Tupu and Mark Van Egan at
running back. John Smith, the kicker, who we have a
(05:08):
lot on him, had just come back after missing all
of the season because of a knee injury. So this
was kind of a meandering Patriots team that was still
a little bit of time away from the eight five
team that wound up going to the Super Bowl and
getting dumped on by the Bears. But this was at okay.
Grogan was nearing the end, and the pain didn't have
a lot of playmakers. And here's Van Egan over from
(05:30):
the Raiders, all the big hey day he had in
the seventies with the Raiders, uh, trying to get things done. Meanwhile,
the Dolphins, they were built on what most great teams
were built on in the seventies and eighties in the NFL,
A phenomenal defense and a great running game. I mean,
this was the defense of the Killer Bees. Doug Betters,
Kim Bokamper, Bob baum howerd who was an All Pro
(05:53):
that year, Bob Bradzinski, Glenn and Lyle Blackwood. You know,
these are all and of course A J. Dewey. Thankfully
I don't have to talk about A. J. Dewey until
another podcast. But this was how great their tia, This
defense was fantastic, and they're running attack is one of
the top running attacks in the NFL. You know, it
was Andre Franklin who really got things done and was
able to get up and down the field. He had
(06:14):
a big year for them, Tony Nathan, Tommy Vigorito out
of the backfield, they all found a way to make play.
So this was a team that relied on a it's
it's defense, be its running game, and only at the
very end on its quarterback. Because this is pre Dan Marino,
and this is David Woodley, who had a tough time
making plays, you know, and and eventually wind up getting
(06:36):
replaced by Marino. And this is this is one of
those games he had a tough time making. Nine games
started this year for one se yeah, one thousand eighty yards,
five touchdowns, eight interceptions. Yeah, he did add two hundred
(06:57):
seven yards and two touchdowns on the ground by completions
in nine games. Again, when you've got a dual headed backfield, uh,
and a strong defense, I guess that's where you where
you leave it. But man, not exactly a prolific offense
in any way, shape or form. Uh. And well, I
(07:19):
guess when you add this game into the stats, when
you do the averaging, it's really gonna pull things down
in a hurry. Remember that, kids, basic math. You need
a bigger sample size otherwise you have these wild swings. Yeah. Yeah,
and I say that Bill. Look, David Woodley had had
a lot of difficulty later on in life, and he
passed away in early year. Uh. He had he had
problems due to drinking. So it was you know, his
(07:42):
was you know, had kind of had obviously had a
tragic end to it. But you know, sticking from just
the football aspect of it, because we're talking about this
game and he was the quarterback here and he's the
quarterback of another game. We're gonna get to talk about
that he won. Uh, you know that he had trouble
making plays. But we're not doing everything the Jets every
it would be a lot of losses it will be
a lot of losses. I mean people might. I'm not
(08:04):
doing therapy sessions with you an hour at a time.
Special team sinks, Bunny, I appreciate it. I mean I
love you at all. But you know, so here was
the game getting into the snowplow game. Way do we
tell you how everything unfolded in things? Even if you
know the game, you might not be aware of this.
Many years later we continue on and kick things off
(08:26):
in the snow and the ice. The snowplow game next
on Special Teams. Before it was the snowplow game, it
(08:49):
was just a game in the snow that was going
to use snowplows. Before the Dolphins and Patriots kicked off,
the coaches decided, this is Don Shulan ron Meyer pre game,
they would allow the snowplows to clear the yard lines
so teams could see where the football is in judge situations.
Also make it easier on TV for fans to see, okay,
this is where the ball is. Where the ball is,
(09:11):
so every ten yards would be plowed. On occasion, you
would see during commercial breaks, are coming back from commercial,
here comes the snowplow on a yard line. The thirty
yard line the forty yard line midfield. They would come
out and try to push the snow to the side
so at least they can see and you could judge
down in distance. So this was agreed upon before the
game by the coaches. Yes, we're gonna allow the snowplows
(09:32):
on the field to clear it. Because in the end,
if you want to argue that the snow plows should
have been on the field, well you did kind of
agree that you can have the snowplows on before the game,
so you were gonna have this. But as far as
the game goes up until the very end, it didn't matter.
Players couldn't cut with any power. Uh. Some players said,
we weren't really running. We were just kind of walking fast.
(09:55):
Like keep picturing people in the mall, like like really
old people going get my jazzer size in, get walking in.
We're walking. Fact, we're not really running, We're just walking
fast on the field. This is a quote for the
players after the game, saying we're just walking fast here
at this point. But yeah, I mean, go back to it,
your your childhood. You're a New York kid. I'm I'm
gonna Chicago, boy. I mean, there were plenty of days
walking to and from school that the you know, you
(10:17):
were stepping with your walk like Babe Ruth used to
run around basis very baby steps man, little ones where
there's not a whole lot of thrust a lot of
power because you're fearful of that next step or so
it would seem perhaps me more so than the Babe
as he rounded after each one of his round trippers.
But you know, I remember I see I see streets
(10:39):
and having to navigate, and remember wiping out a couple.
I've got a nice vivid on my right leg where
you can see where the uh of the gouging occurred
when I hit a post after losing my footing. So yeah,
I can. I can empathize with these guys as they
dealt with this day because you know, again it wasn't
just snow. There was a lot wererant to what was
(11:00):
going on as just snow on the field, really know.
So this game goes kind of as you expect. Teams
are kind of slogging a little bit. You could see
if you watch this game, players could go straight ahead.
It was when you had to cut, you had no
power and the cutting was kind of in slow motion.
So the snow is coming and nobody can do anything.
(11:21):
It looks like we may finally get points before halftime.
The Patriots drive down in the Dolphins one yard line,
but John Smith comes out for his first field goal
of the day and the field goal gets blocked. It
was doomed from the start because there was no way
this was getting He couldn't get it up off the
ground and you could tell that planting for kickers wasn't
(11:41):
really gonna happen. Well, he's trying to figure out exactly
his his approach, right, how am I seeing trying to
measure it before the snap? All right, what do I do?
I'm not gonna be able to really get full thrust.
And you're thinking, all right, well this could be the
only points to getting no All right now now you're
thinking of field goal is never gonna happen. Now, The
only way is somehow the team gets in the end zone.
In fact, in the third quarter, Vevan Shaman, who was
(12:04):
the kicker for the Dolphins, he had a forty five
yard field goal blocked, so it goes zero zero into
the fourth quarter. Now, I don't know how you even
think if you're the Dolphins, we're gonna kick a forty
five yard field goal. That's the winning mental. If you
go for it on fourth, then you're not gonna kick
a forty five yard field goal in this you see
the snow on the field, you can't do it. That's
(12:25):
Don Shula's will to win coming forward. I mean that
excellence was the standard or something like that. Uh that,
And really you've moved a little ball on the ball,
a little bit on the ground over the course of
the day. But I mean there's no passing, there's there's
no semblance of anything. You're taking any shot to score
(12:45):
points because let's face it, you're not expecting them to
break off a big run at this point either, right, right,
So you're just saying, all right, if we can steal one,
if we can get one on the board, let's take
our shot. Field position doesn't matter here. So finally, in
the fourth quarter, New England puts together a drive strictly
on the ground, right van Egen into Tupou carry the load,
(13:07):
but they get forced into a fourth and ten from
the sixteen yard line. The game is ending. Ron Meyer,
the head coach, yells to a guy on the snowplow,
Mark Henderson, who we know when later years. Yeah, the
guy was on work release on running the snowplow at Foxborough.
They yelled at him. He yells to him to get
onto the field, and you see Steve Grogan who kind
(13:28):
of yells, hey, go on the field and clear a
spot for us to put the ball down to kick
a field goal, because we can't put it down in
the snow and and try to kick it. So Mark
Henderson takes the snowplow on the field and you can
see him going down the yard line and no one's
saying anything because well, we see this right, the guy
is going to clear the yard line. This ball is
gonna be put down a few yards back in that
(13:50):
he gets the middle of the field though, and he
just swerves out right around where they're gonna put the
ball down, and he swerves back in and goes off
the field. Man if Shula was miked up his reaction,
and and you know what looks later on. You're not
gonna believe what some people actually had to say about
him swerving on the field. It's gonna it's gonna pass understanding.
(14:12):
But he goes out and he clears this spot where
they would put the ball down for the field goal.
And Sheila is in sense. Wait wait, wait, wait, you
can't just do that and clear a spot for the
field goal. But that's what happens. Well, he was trying
to avoid the huddle, which was a long the yard mark.
It's clearly he's almost hitting guys, almost hit a guy
if he doesn't swerve out. So maybe that was his
reason why I just swerve out, and you know, I
(14:33):
didn't want to hit anybody. So he he gets the
spot there, and Matt Kavanaugh is the holder, who would
also be the holder in another very big weather game
coming up down the line in special teams. Let me
just kind of give you a little bit of foreshadowing there.
Matt Kavanaugh comes back in a big way in a
different game as well. So Matt Kavanaugh is the holder.
John Smith is the kicker. It's from thirty three yards out,
(14:54):
and watching this kick, you can tell John Smith didn't
go to the ball with his normal steps, like he knew,
I'm gonna step and it's gonna be really coold. I
need to step on this part of the field because
I gotta be able to plant and there's no snow.
But he knows if I go in and swing my
foot and kicking as hard as I can, I'm gonna
(15:15):
slip and fall. So it's a really weird approach to
the ball where he kind of oversteps a little bit,
just to knowing that if I overstep, I can keep
my balance a little bit more, and he kicks it
from thirty three yards out. The fans go crazy. Finally
the points in the game, and they lead the game
three to nothing, all because Mark Henderson came out and
he did that little swerve and he put a spot
(15:36):
on the field. John Smith kicks the field goal and
the Patriots are up three nothing at this point. It's
not it's not one of those historical NFL games yet,
but slowly it's taking on a life of its own
because the Dolphins are just insane that this happened, and
they got even more insane on the sideline after the
play happened, because part of it is all, you can't
(15:57):
do this, but he's not gonna make the field anyway.
Oh man, dude just made the field goal. Uh an
insurmountable lead at this juncture of the game. How did
you let that happen? How did you let a guy
swerve on the fielding clear a place for us to
put the football down him to kick it. But that's
what happened, and now the Patriots lead this game three
to nothing. Also the oddity of John Smith kicking with
(16:18):
his left foot, because you don't see an awful lot
of that running around the National Football League either, So
you know you've got a little bit of a tail
to it as well. So he just needed to drive
it as straight and hard as he could. There's not
a lot of loft on it was on mine drive
h that gets through, but it gets everybody excited. You've
(16:39):
got some great pictures of him wearing a a jaunty
little hat and his gortex coat on his John Gear tractor. Now,
a lot of these things, you know if you're familiar
with the Snowplow game. So this is where in the pod,
this is the point in the podcast where I go, Okay,
now here's some stuff you probably didn't know, right. You've
seen that, You've seen the high like you've seen the play,
(17:00):
the snow Plow play. You know Mark Henderson, Yes, he
was on work release. He would say after the game,
I knew I was gonna be in trouble. What are
they gonna do? Put me in jail? I've already been there, boom.
But here's where things maybe things you don't know about
this game. The Dolphins nearly win this game. They're so
men on the sideline. Patriots players said after the game,
we could tell how pissed they were because this probably
(17:22):
shouldn't have happened. And they start going down the field.
They're throwing the football down the field. Not something that
they could do the entire game, that no team could do.
In fact, Steve Grogan's stats for this game, the Patriots quarterback,
he was two out of five for thirteen yards for
the game, two out of five for thirteen yards and
a pick. That was Steve Grogan's numbers on the day.
(17:45):
That's all. They threw the football five times. They ran
they ran the football like ninety times, but they threw
the football five times. But now to two p thirteen
eight one Colins seven for eight teams. Oh yeah, that's
all they did that, that's all that was their day.
Forty three rushing attempts on the day, and they threw
(18:05):
the ball third and threw the ball five times. But
David Woodley in comparison through for seventy six yards in
this game. It looked like a three yard game, especially
at the end, because that's how they start going down
the field. Now, there was enough time left, but the
Dolphins were so met they're throwing the football. Duriel Harris
catches a pass for seventeen yards, all right. A couple
more plays later, Tony Nathan runs for a first down
(18:28):
on fourth and one. Another pass to Duriel Harris gets
the ball down to the twenty yard line, and you're thinking,
the Dolphins are gonna do what nobody could do today.
They're gonna throw the football down the field, get in
the end zone and win. But in one on one coverage,
Woodley throws two inside and the ball is picked off
by Don Blackman. The Patriots have it. They nearly kill
(18:50):
the clock, but because the Dolphins still had all of
their time outs, they actually get the ball back for
one final hail Mary that gets picked off of the
goal line. The game is over and the Dolphins lose
the game three nothing, and it becomes the snowplow game.
But the Dolphins almost did it. They you know, they
almost threw the ball down the field. And you can
see this pass that that David Woodley throws is just
(19:13):
a little bit too close there was no separation uh
from the receiver of the dB and and and you
get the pick by Don Blackman, and that clinches the game.
But boy, for a second, the Dolphins almost had it.
Great play. He goes outside shoulder, you got a shot right,
instead throws it two inside uh and and a good play. Uh.
(19:34):
In that sweet red jersey, you can you can see
them a lot more in the snow, because there's no
question about that. So after the game, Ron Meyer admits
waving the snowplow on. It's okay, what are they gonna do?
Fire me? Don Shula says that should never have happened.
Now at the time, Sula had the image of and
(19:55):
this would be blown to hell. Weeks later, Sula had
the image of, Hey, we're not going to cheat and
do anything to the field or anything else that we
should be doing. We're not gonna do that, right. He
went and talked to the referees after the game. The
referees basically said to him, we can't control the removal
of snow on the field. We we can't the protest.
Come on, what are you gonna do? Make him put
it back on? No, you gotta put the snow back
on right in that spot that you cleared up because
(20:17):
they agreed we're going to have the snowplow guy go
on the field. It's not like the snowplow guy went
on the field and he wasn't supposed to. And the
referee said, well, this has been what you agreed to,
so we we we can't just say all right, well
what are we gonna do? You know, because Don Shula
wanted to look at was it was something called the
uh there was a rule the NFL had, and that's
(20:38):
what he wanted to to point to and say, the
Unfair Act clause is going to allow them to overturn
the game. And the NFL, you know, he met with
the NFL actually say, Unfair Act clause, this shouldn't happen.
We gotta overturn this when at least make it a
tie or something else, And the NFL said Unfair Act clause. Hum.
Pete Rosel, who was the commissioner, had never reversed a
(20:59):
game's result before, and even though he agreed with Don
Shula that hey, this probably shouldn't have happened, He's not
gonna suddenly make the game a tie or give the
game to the Dolphins. So even though the Dolphins went
all the way to the commissioner with this, they were
gonna say, you know what, sorry, we we can't do it.
We feel bad for you, you know which, which term
would turn out to be a big theme for the NFL.
Whenever the NFL would screw something up with a with
(21:21):
a call by the officials, they would always be great apologizing, Oh,
I'm really sorry this happened. I mean, there's nothing I
can do about it, but just once you know, we're
really sorry about this. No, they always have been really
good about giving you a good, uh good long three
or four paragraph apology. Uh, talking about it in unusual
circumstances and everything else, but yeah, saying beat it our
(21:43):
unfair competitive advantage and like letter versus spirit of the law. Right,
we agreed in principle that you can bring the snowplow out.
We didn't exactly navigate the hey can he swerve off
of the line. So the game was over, but the
controversy was just beginning. Way, do we tell you a
(22:03):
who wound up getting game balls for this game? Be
what some Patriots players actually say in defending the use
of the snow plow, and see where that snowplow is
right now, that's coming up next right here on special
Teams to talk about the aftermath of the snowplow game.
(22:36):
We're actually gonna go back to the play and something
really big that happened. If you're gonna scratch you in
and go, the Patriots really said that. So right after
the game is over, the you know, they award game
balls to people, and you know, hey, you had a
big game. You had a big game the Patriots. The
Patriots give their game ball the linebacker Steve Nelson and
to Mark Henderson, who cleared the spot for John Smith
(22:57):
to kick the field goal. So hey, let's get let's
get the guy on the snowplow in here. John Smith
is like, don't I get a game ball? I was
I put the only points on the board, I kicked
the field goal. I don't get a game ball. No, No,
we're gonna give it to the guy that cleared off. Okay,
fair enough, So Mark Henderson gets a game ball. The guy,
the guy that drove the snowplow over, he gets a
game ball. Well, I'll tell you what, perhaps the best
(23:20):
video of this whole whole game, other than the swerve
to make the initial run because you can see the
light bulb go on for many of the players on
the Patriots that were on the field. Um is the
post game, right, here's the oh, the agony of defeat,
whatever else. And then you've got a crowd around Henderson
(23:40):
like he just won the Super Bowl. Oh yeah, that's
the where are you going? I'm going to well? Uh, Instead,
he's just grinning like an idiot because he's got a
hundred reporters and boom mikes and everything they could possibly
throw at him. Uh. He is the man of the hour,
without a doubt. So he gets the game ball and
the Patriots win this game, and in subsequent years, as
(24:02):
this game has become really famous, we told you don
Shula tried to have the result of the game overturned.
It didn't happen. Some Patriots players actually claimed that the
snow plow potentially hurt them as Matt Kavanaugh, who was
the holder, had to frantically scraped snow away from the
spot to put the football down, Like, hey, he put
the snow here, but there was snow on the spot. Okay,
(24:22):
hang on for one second. What Matt kavanall had to
do was there was a big spot where they're gonna
put the football down, and they were like little what
would you call like entrails of snow, like like when
you shovel a walk and and sometimes to the end
of the shovel where it is and and where you
pick it up, there's a tiny bit of snow, like
a little line behind. He had that stays behind. So
(24:43):
all Matt Kavana had to do is brush it away
with his hand. I mean, that's what we did. I'm brushing.
It was like he frantically had to do this, and
it really hurt us. Really, the snowplow hurt you. So
all we had to do was brush the snow away
and find a spot because there was a tiny bit
of snow where he's gonna put the football down, so
he had to some of that snow away, But then
he had a clear spot to put the football down.
(25:04):
The spillover, I guess you would say it wasn't dense.
It was just I'm brushing away with my hand. He
put the ball down and John Smith kicked the field goal.
That's it, I mean, but it's good excuse making. I'm saying, Look,
it actually increased the degree of difficulty. I mean that
that's good, putting your head together, and everybody got, all right,
what's my line, that's your line? Okay, good? Actually made
(25:26):
it harder. We didn't get a competitive advantage. Sure, looking
blankety blankety blank about that. Wow, look at you already,
Matt year mad you know, forty years later. Wow. Wow,
I'm just you know, trying to put myself in the
mind of Kavanaugh and the victorious New England Patriots. Now
John Hannah Patriots Guard, one of one of the greatest
offensive linemans that we've seen. In his book, he alleges
(25:51):
that Shula was also offered the use of the snow plow,
but he declined. And you go down a rabbit hole,
you know, seeing this and what people say about it
on the internet, and you go all but he was
told that had engine problems and they couldn't get it
back out on the field. I mean, there's a whole
bunch of crazy stuff here. Hey, I'd like that snowplow
for von Shawn and we had engine problems. Man, can't
get it on the field. So that story about the
(26:12):
snowplow and what Shula would or wouldn't have you, This
is what John Hannah talked about in his book, and
I read a lot about Hannah talking about this game
was really entertaining. Um, I don't know for a fact
that would would that really have done it? Would would
you really have been able to get the snowlow bad?
I guess you would have to write if the coach
really wanted to try, you did it here. You gotta
(26:33):
put it on here for us, And I'd assume you
would anyway. No, you would have to. There's absolutely it's
gotta go both ways. I mean, if that was the
agreement before the game. Otherwise it's gonna be like a
Green Bay packer situation. I need ten volunteers, ten bucks
an hour. I'll bring you hot chocolate and and and
more marshmallows and let's go. So after this, this was
(26:54):
the dolphins final loss until the Super Bowl. The Patriots
would qualify as the seven. And remember this is the
strike year, so this is where teams were seated one
through eight in each conference, and they actually get the
Dolphins in the playoffs. The Dolphins get a measure of
revenge by beating the Patriots in the playoffs to thirteen.
This game not played in the snow where they had
(27:16):
the snowplow guys. So they actually got revenge Mr Plow
that Mr Plow is a loser, and I think he
is whoa, whoa, that was a lot that was in
the know and he had the when he she sings
in Spanish. So you better call on the plow King.
That's right, the plow King and Mr Plow. I mean,
come on, so oh good. There was a year in
(27:37):
fantasy where one of whereas in the in the nineties
where the guy running to leave his big Simpsons fan
and he named his team Mr Plow. So we were like, yeah,
we'll do that. We named our team plow King, and
of course we played each other in the playoffs. He
was Mr Plow, we were Plow. Yeah, I mean that
road itself. Yeah. We lost though, so Mr mr Plow
(27:58):
was greater than the plow King. So happen that way.
Uh So, the Patriots, as I said, to get in
the playoffs, but they lose to the to the Dolphins.
The Dolphins go on to lose to the Redskins in
the Super Bowl. This is the famous John Reggins and
the fourth and one run. Uh As, the Redskins win
the Super Bowl. David Woodley in the Super Bowl, al right,
now you saw the stats here, this looks like, you know,
(28:18):
a five yard game compared with the Super Bowl. In
the Super Bowl, he was four out of four team
throwing the football. A quarterback in the Super Bowl started
played almost the entire game. Don Strock came in and
through a couple of passes, which is kind of what
what happened for the Dolphins in this season. Uh Willie
would play, but sometimes Don Strock would relieve him. You
(28:39):
had a quarterback play the entire game in the Super
Bowl and complete four passes. One pass was early in
the game of seventy five yard touchdown to Jimmy Cephalo.
The only other play they had was a kickoff return
for a touchdown. That was it. That was the Dolphins
offense and the Super Bowl. The Redskins dominate the second
half of the game and they wind up winning seventeen.
(29:00):
The next year, the Dolphins knew we need more offense,
and somehow Dan Marino falls to them all the way
through in the draft and and the Dolphins. Yeah, the
Dolphins become a hey, we're gonna go from being a
great defense running the football to now it's gonna throw
the football up and down the field. This is all
part of Don Shula being the great head coach he was.
To give him a lot of credit for, Hey, he
(29:21):
won games a very certain way, and then in one
year said Okay, now we're gonna do it a different way,
and and and did it for the next fifteen seventeen years.
But this was Look, David Woodley, you're talking about some
games he had in which the Dolphins just couldn't get
any offense going. So they make that move to Dan
Marino and it becomes something different. Still, Marino couldn't win
the Super Bowl, but they knew they had to go
(29:41):
from boy, we're having problem putting points on the board.
We can't continue to rely on our defense and our
running game. We gotta get a quarterback out there. And
here they are with the next to last pick in
the first round, and somehow they get a quarterback who
goes down to one of the top five quarterbacks of
all time. In fact, that draft the last two picks
of the first round. The following year you had the
Dolphin and the Redskins picking next to last and last.
(30:03):
Those two picks were Dan Marino and Darryl Green. To
Hall of Fame players to at the end of the
first round the following year. How about that? It's a
way it's crazy, the way it all works. I mean
when you started it by talking about just how crazy
a season it was. Right with the strike as it were,
you had the big battle, uh with between the Raiders
(30:25):
and the league, the trial and anti trust law that
in terms of moving the team from Oakland, l A.
So you had that fight that started things. Uh. The
new time slots that we've enjoyed all these years came together,
the one pm and four pm Eastern time, except at
that point, if you were in Baltimore, you couldn't start
(30:47):
earlier than two o'clock because of a Baltimore ordinance. How
about that? Hm that that's that's insanity, but it is
and it was a nice easy excuse for her sake
to uh you know when they left. So blame that,
blame the crazy crazy laws. But yeah, I mean we
we always think about labor strife and it always seems
(31:08):
to get resolved these days, right, but we always uh
seem to find the eleventh hour situation in solution. Uh
not's so back in uh So for Mark Henderson, he
enjoyed a lot of fame after this, and he went
on to continue to uh to do work release at
at Schaefer Stadium, which is now Foxboro Stadium. He said,
(31:29):
we do painting, We clean up the bathroom after games,
all of these things. And you know, you know, talked
a lot about this, did interviews talking about the snowplow.
H You got him to sign some trading cards, to
make some custom ones with him sitting on that John Deere. However,
and that's the thing. The NFL banned snowplows in the
off season, realizing, all right, we've kind of opened the
(31:51):
door to something we probably shouldn't have. So they banned
snow plows in the off season, saying, all right, we
can't have this happen again. The banned snowplows. And that
was basically the end of this story, except we like
to do it. Where are they now? Right? All the time?
Inn here we like to wear they're not talking about
where players are. Well, I want to kick the normally
you do where they now? I want to kick things off.
(32:12):
Where are they now? Where is the snowplow? The snowplow
from this game? The John Dear snowplow hangs in the
Patriots Hall of Fame from a ceiling. You can go
to the Page Hall of Fame and team there it is.
They used to have it out where, but they don't
want people sitting on it room, so now they hang
it from the ceiling. There's a snowplow that that cleared
the field for John Smith field goal. It is in
(32:33):
the Patriots Hall of Fame. I'll tell you what. That
little area around Gillette Stadium is fantastic, little shopping center.
A couple of plays to get a nice fight to eat.
Next time, I'll have to go look for Model three fourteen,
the John Deer tractor. All right, So what about some
of the other players from this game, my Carmen, where
are they now? Well, Steve Nelson, who got one of
those game balls, along with your man, Mr Henderson, business
(32:57):
development executive for light House Computer Services Technology Group in Lincoln,
Rhode Island. You've got Morris Bradshaw, director of alumni relations
for your Las Vegas Raiders. Tony Collins had a had
a good career, including uh some time in the Arena league,
(33:18):
went through some personal struggles, some drug abuse, actually had
a year suspension from the league. Ultimately had a suicide attempt,
some some really rough stuff. I read an excerpt from
his book, Uh that that's since come out um on
his comeback. Uh. And he also runs a foundation in
the Finger Lakes in New York called It's for the Kids,
(33:40):
and he does a lot with collegiate scouting talking about
the pitfalls and and different things you can take advantage of.
So some good psychology and some real life experience being
brought in there as well. So uh, good to see
he's he's doing some good as well. Jimmy Cephalo broadcasting
career with NBC for a long while, still to play
(34:03):
by play and the voice of Dolphins radio. Uh. He
and his wife do a bunch and with food, wine
and travel. But the Cephalo family wine has been going
for like a hundred fifty years about they do it
pun up that look. And that's a growing thing, right
our guy, Uh colleague get Fox that did Sunday shows
(34:23):
with him a while, Will Blackman, super Bowl champion, got
into wine, Charles Woodson into wine, Drew Bledsoe into wine. Uh.
It's it's become a big thing among NFL players, uh
in their post career. And I think that's a growth industry,
especially you know as people look for you know, brand
recognition is a huge thing as we know. Uh. And
(34:46):
then we got Bob Baumhauer's the owner and CEO of
a Loha hospitality in Alabama, fine dining and the Victory Grill.
You gotta love that. I think you're gonna say a
hospital in Oahu, Hawaii. No, no, no, no, it's Mobile Alabile, Alabama.
All right. Then we're bringing a little bit of the
(35:07):
Hawaiian Islands to you here in Alabama. Why not? So
there was the snowplow game to be followed next week
by a game that maybe had a little bit of
mudd in it, followed by a game or two that
maybe had some snowballs in it. Yeah, we're running through
the nineties or some of the biggest bad weather games
in NFL history. And I hope you enjoyed the snowplow
(35:30):
game and learned some things here uh doing it. It
was fun for us to go back and watch some
of these highlights again, these games. I remember watching the
game at home. I can't believe you're playing this game
in the snow. If you have an idea for a
future special teams, hit us up on Twitter at how
about a Frescup? Mike is a swollen dome. Our radio
show was heard every night on Fox Sports Radio. Tend
(35:51):
be into two am on the East coast, seven to
eleven on the West Coast. We'll talk to you next week.
Get ready to get dirty on Special Teams before you go,
rate and review the show. Whether you're listening on I
Heart Radio, I Heart Radio apps, Apple, whatever it is,
(36:14):
give us a rate, tell us you like it. We
will love you forever and ever and ever. Special Teams
is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
(36:35):
from my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello,
(00:20):
and welcome inside Special Teams, the podcast with me, Jason
Smith and Mike Harmon, as we take a look back
every week at big years in sports and big teams,
the special Teams and what they were able to accomplish
or not accomplish. We're taking you all the way back
to December twelve two, where the Patriots played hosts of
(00:40):
the Miami Dolphins in a game that would affectionately be
known at least the Patriots fans. To everybody else that's hey,
the first time the Patriots started that would be known
as the Snowplow Game. The snow Plow Game. Number one
song on December twel eater. Oh she's a man, that's
(01:03):
just frightening. But the field and kick a field goal?
Oh here he comes. Yeah, we'll get into the specifics
of that one as we roll. But yeah, this game,
going back and watching video clips, uh and and highly entertaining.
I mean, if you look at the box score, it's
an absolute abomination. But going back to two you mentioned it,
(01:28):
it's it's one that if as you do any sort
of research on the history of the New England Patriots,
goes in there as the first asterisk game, and then
the tuck rule comes in at number two, and slowly
but surely, I think, over the course of the Spy
history start adding other ones. Remember this from how about
(01:49):
this one? From ninety? Oh? I'm sorry? It was Super
Bowl twenty when they got house and the world righted
itself for a day. I guess for everybody that's derisive
and hateful towards the Patriots run the Patriots Dolphins a
game known as a snowplow game because in the fourth quarter,
a snow plow that was piloted by Mark Henderson, who
(02:14):
was on work release from prison, came to clear out
a spot for John Smith to kick a field goal
that gave the Patriots the three nothing win over the Dolphins.
But this game was about so much more than that play,
and there's so much to go along with it that
I can't wait to get you over this podcast because
games that look football in the snow, football in the rain,
(02:36):
football anywhere affected by the elements always becomes memorable. And
this is one of those games. While we're starting here now,
this is the year the NFL was disrupted by the
players strike, So here we are in the middle of December.
The Patriots come into this game at two and three,
the Dolphins are four and one, and this is to
see the Dolphins when they wind up going to Super
Bowl this year, part of what will do a later
(02:58):
special teams on. But the reason this became the snowplow Game,
and it was such a big deal as because leading
up to the game it had been rainy all week.
So you got rain all week in New England, and
then it gets incredibly cold and that coachs the field
like a sheet of ice, all right, So you have
rain for a bunch of days, then it gets so
(03:20):
cold it coach the field like ice. Temperatures get to
the low twenties thirty mile winds and then, of course,
you know, to add insult to injury for this, a
heavy snowfalls during the game. So you have what turns
out to be this three nothing game where players had
so much trouble uh staying up, throwing the football, moving downfield.
It wasn't just the snow, it was the fact that
(03:43):
you had snow on top of what was like a
sheet of ice. So players have a tough time. If
you even had a place where the field was cleared
of snow. Players couldn't really stand you know. It was
where we can run forward at a decent clip a
little bit, but just try to cut and go to
the side and cut back. You couldn't do it because
of the ice and that layer under the snow. So
(04:05):
you had ice and snow, which is something people forget.
They's like, oh, it was a snow game. There's a
lot of snow on the field. No, because of the
ice on the field, that made it even more difficult
for the team to try to move the ball up
and down the field. Yeah, you watched the highlights and
go back through. Everybody's trying to find their footing as
they get into their formations, like here, let me get
my cleats in a little bit, so I at least
(04:25):
I'm not sliding as I take my first step. Uh.
Just amazing each run tack on an extra five yards
where you're carrying a couple of defenders. But yeah, it
was a North South game. Uh, little little work to
the outside and if you did, if you were able
to navigate, that decided advantage right because you got a
guy trying to find an angle to tackle you and
(04:48):
you're bouncing off because he's he's gotten no footing by
which to really stick you, So it's either push you
out of bounds or wait for you to fall of
your own volition. The players you need to know from
this game. New England's quarterback at this point was Steve Grogan.
They had Mosy to Tupu and Mark Van Egan at
running back. John Smith, the kicker, who we have a
(05:08):
lot on him, had just come back after missing all
of the season because of a knee injury. So this
was kind of a meandering Patriots team that was still
a little bit of time away from the eight five
team that wound up going to the Super Bowl and
getting dumped on by the Bears. But this was at okay.
Grogan was nearing the end, and the pain didn't have
a lot of playmakers. And here's Van Egan over from
(05:30):
the Raiders, all the big hey day he had in
the seventies with the Raiders, uh, trying to get things done. Meanwhile,
the Dolphins, they were built on what most great teams
were built on in the seventies and eighties in the NFL,
A phenomenal defense and a great running game. I mean,
this was the defense of the Killer Bees. Doug Betters,
Kim Bokamper, Bob baum howerd who was an All Pro
(05:53):
that year, Bob Bradzinski, Glenn and Lyle Blackwood. You know,
these are all and of course A J. Dewey. Thankfully
I don't have to talk about A. J. Dewey until
another podcast. But this was how great their tia, This
defense was fantastic, and they're running attack is one of
the top running attacks in the NFL. You know, it
was Andre Franklin who really got things done and was
able to get up and down the field. He had
(06:14):
a big year for them, Tony Nathan, Tommy Vigorito out
of the backfield, they all found a way to make play.
So this was a team that relied on a it's
it's defense, be its running game, and only at the
very end on its quarterback. Because this is pre Dan Marino,
and this is David Woodley, who had a tough time
making plays, you know, and and eventually wind up getting
(06:36):
replaced by Marino. And this is this is one of
those games he had a tough time making. Nine games
started this year for one se yeah, one thousand eighty yards,
five touchdowns, eight interceptions. Yeah, he did add two hundred
(06:57):
seven yards and two touchdowns on the ground by completions
in nine games. Again, when you've got a dual headed backfield, uh,
and a strong defense, I guess that's where you where
you leave it. But man, not exactly a prolific offense
in any way, shape or form. Uh. And well, I
(07:19):
guess when you add this game into the stats, when
you do the averaging, it's really gonna pull things down
in a hurry. Remember that, kids, basic math. You need
a bigger sample size otherwise you have these wild swings. Yeah. Yeah,
and I say that Bill. Look, David Woodley had had
a lot of difficulty later on in life, and he
passed away in early year. Uh. He had he had
problems due to drinking. So it was you know, his
(07:42):
was you know, had kind of had obviously had a
tragic end to it. But you know, sticking from just
the football aspect of it, because we're talking about this
game and he was the quarterback here and he's the
quarterback of another game. We're gonna get to talk about
that he won. Uh, you know that he had trouble
making plays. But we're not doing everything the Jets every
it would be a lot of losses it will be
a lot of losses. I mean people might. I'm not
(08:04):
doing therapy sessions with you an hour at a time.
Special team sinks, Bunny, I appreciate it. I mean I
love you at all. But you know, so here was
the game getting into the snowplow game. Way do we
tell you how everything unfolded in things? Even if you
know the game, you might not be aware of this.
Many years later we continue on and kick things off
(08:26):
in the snow and the ice. The snowplow game next
on Special Teams. Before it was the snowplow game, it
(08:49):
was just a game in the snow that was going
to use snowplows. Before the Dolphins and Patriots kicked off,
the coaches decided, this is Don Shulan ron Meyer pre game,
they would allow the snowplows to clear the yard lines
so teams could see where the football is in judge situations.
Also make it easier on TV for fans to see, okay,
this is where the ball is. Where the ball is,
(09:11):
so every ten yards would be plowed. On occasion, you
would see during commercial breaks, are coming back from commercial,
here comes the snowplow on a yard line. The thirty
yard line the forty yard line midfield. They would come
out and try to push the snow to the side
so at least they can see and you could judge
down in distance. So this was agreed upon before the
game by the coaches. Yes, we're gonna allow the snowplows
(09:32):
on the field to clear it. Because in the end,
if you want to argue that the snow plows should
have been on the field, well you did kind of
agree that you can have the snowplows on before the game,
so you were gonna have this. But as far as
the game goes up until the very end, it didn't matter.
Players couldn't cut with any power. Uh. Some players said,
we weren't really running. We were just kind of walking fast.
(09:55):
Like keep picturing people in the mall, like like really
old people going get my jazzer size in, get walking in.
We're walking. Fact, we're not really running, We're just walking
fast on the field. This is a quote for the
players after the game, saying we're just walking fast here
at this point. But yeah, I mean, go back to it,
your your childhood. You're a New York kid. I'm I'm
gonna Chicago, boy. I mean, there were plenty of days
walking to and from school that the you know, you
(10:17):
were stepping with your walk like Babe Ruth used to
run around basis very baby steps man, little ones where
there's not a whole lot of thrust a lot of
power because you're fearful of that next step or so
it would seem perhaps me more so than the Babe
as he rounded after each one of his round trippers.
But you know, I remember I see I see streets
(10:39):
and having to navigate, and remember wiping out a couple.
I've got a nice vivid on my right leg where
you can see where the uh of the gouging occurred
when I hit a post after losing my footing. So yeah,
I can. I can empathize with these guys as they
dealt with this day because you know, again it wasn't
just snow. There was a lot wererant to what was
(11:00):
going on as just snow on the field, really know.
So this game goes kind of as you expect. Teams
are kind of slogging a little bit. You could see
if you watch this game, players could go straight ahead.
It was when you had to cut, you had no
power and the cutting was kind of in slow motion.
So the snow is coming and nobody can do anything.
(11:21):
It looks like we may finally get points before halftime.
The Patriots drive down in the Dolphins one yard line,
but John Smith comes out for his first field goal
of the day and the field goal gets blocked. It
was doomed from the start because there was no way
this was getting He couldn't get it up off the
ground and you could tell that planting for kickers wasn't
(11:41):
really gonna happen. Well, he's trying to figure out exactly
his his approach, right, how am I seeing trying to
measure it before the snap? All right, what do I do?
I'm not gonna be able to really get full thrust.
And you're thinking, all right, well this could be the
only points to getting no All right now now you're
thinking of field goal is never gonna happen. Now, The
only way is somehow the team gets in the end zone.
In fact, in the third quarter, Vevan Shaman, who was
(12:04):
the kicker for the Dolphins, he had a forty five
yard field goal blocked, so it goes zero zero into
the fourth quarter. Now, I don't know how you even
think if you're the Dolphins, we're gonna kick a forty
five yard field goal. That's the winning mental. If you
go for it on fourth, then you're not gonna kick
a forty five yard field goal in this you see
the snow on the field, you can't do it. That's
(12:25):
Don Shula's will to win coming forward. I mean that
excellence was the standard or something like that. Uh that,
And really you've moved a little ball on the ball,
a little bit on the ground over the course of
the day. But I mean there's no passing, there's there's
no semblance of anything. You're taking any shot to score
(12:45):
points because let's face it, you're not expecting them to
break off a big run at this point either, right, right,
So you're just saying, all right, if we can steal one,
if we can get one on the board, let's take
our shot. Field position doesn't matter here. So finally, in
the fourth quarter, New England puts together a drive strictly
on the ground, right van Egen into Tupou carry the load,
(13:07):
but they get forced into a fourth and ten from
the sixteen yard line. The game is ending. Ron Meyer,
the head coach, yells to a guy on the snowplow,
Mark Henderson, who we know when later years. Yeah, the
guy was on work release on running the snowplow at Foxborough.
They yelled at him. He yells to him to get
onto the field, and you see Steve Grogan who kind
(13:28):
of yells, hey, go on the field and clear a
spot for us to put the ball down to kick
a field goal, because we can't put it down in
the snow and and try to kick it. So Mark
Henderson takes the snowplow on the field and you can
see him going down the yard line and no one's
saying anything because well, we see this right, the guy
is going to clear the yard line. This ball is
gonna be put down a few yards back in that
(13:50):
he gets the middle of the field though, and he
just swerves out right around where they're gonna put the
ball down, and he swerves back in and goes off
the field. Man if Shula was miked up his reaction,
and and you know what looks later on. You're not
gonna believe what some people actually had to say about
him swerving on the field. It's gonna it's gonna pass understanding.
(14:12):
But he goes out and he clears this spot where
they would put the ball down for the field goal.
And Sheila is in sense. Wait wait, wait, wait, you
can't just do that and clear a spot for the
field goal. But that's what happens. Well, he was trying
to avoid the huddle, which was a long the yard mark.
It's clearly he's almost hitting guys, almost hit a guy
if he doesn't swerve out. So maybe that was his
reason why I just swerve out, and you know, I
(14:33):
didn't want to hit anybody. So he he gets the
spot there, and Matt Kavanaugh is the holder, who would
also be the holder in another very big weather game
coming up down the line in special teams. Let me
just kind of give you a little bit of foreshadowing there.
Matt Kavanaugh comes back in a big way in a
different game as well. So Matt Kavanaugh is the holder.
John Smith is the kicker. It's from thirty three yards out,
(14:54):
and watching this kick, you can tell John Smith didn't
go to the ball with his normal steps, like he knew,
I'm gonna step and it's gonna be really coold. I
need to step on this part of the field because
I gotta be able to plant and there's no snow.
But he knows if I go in and swing my
foot and kicking as hard as I can, I'm gonna
(15:15):
slip and fall. So it's a really weird approach to
the ball where he kind of oversteps a little bit,
just to knowing that if I overstep, I can keep
my balance a little bit more, and he kicks it
from thirty three yards out. The fans go crazy. Finally
the points in the game, and they lead the game
three to nothing, all because Mark Henderson came out and
he did that little swerve and he put a spot
(15:36):
on the field. John Smith kicks the field goal and
the Patriots are up three nothing at this point. It's
not it's not one of those historical NFL games yet,
but slowly it's taking on a life of its own
because the Dolphins are just insane that this happened, and
they got even more insane on the sideline after the
play happened, because part of it is all, you can't
(15:57):
do this, but he's not gonna make the field anyway.
Oh man, dude just made the field goal. Uh an
insurmountable lead at this juncture of the game. How did
you let that happen? How did you let a guy
swerve on the fielding clear a place for us to
put the football down him to kick it. But that's
what happened, and now the Patriots lead this game three
to nothing. Also the oddity of John Smith kicking with
(16:18):
his left foot, because you don't see an awful lot
of that running around the National Football League either, So
you know you've got a little bit of a tail
to it as well. So he just needed to drive
it as straight and hard as he could. There's not
a lot of loft on it was on mine drive
h that gets through, but it gets everybody excited. You've
(16:39):
got some great pictures of him wearing a a jaunty
little hat and his gortex coat on his John Gear tractor. Now,
a lot of these things, you know if you're familiar
with the Snowplow game. So this is where in the pod,
this is the point in the podcast where I go, Okay,
now here's some stuff you probably didn't know, right. You've
seen that, You've seen the high like you've seen the play,
(17:00):
the snow Plow play. You know Mark Henderson, Yes, he
was on work release. He would say after the game,
I knew I was gonna be in trouble. What are
they gonna do? Put me in jail? I've already been there, boom.
But here's where things maybe things you don't know about
this game. The Dolphins nearly win this game. They're so
men on the sideline. Patriots players said after the game,
we could tell how pissed they were because this probably
(17:22):
shouldn't have happened. And they start going down the field.
They're throwing the football down the field. Not something that
they could do the entire game, that no team could do.
In fact, Steve Grogan's stats for this game, the Patriots quarterback,
he was two out of five for thirteen yards for
the game, two out of five for thirteen yards and
a pick. That was Steve Grogan's numbers on the day.
(17:45):
That's all. They threw the football five times. They ran
they ran the football like ninety times, but they threw
the football five times. But now to two p thirteen
eight one Colins seven for eight teams. Oh yeah, that's
all they did that, that's all that was their day.
Forty three rushing attempts on the day, and they threw
(18:05):
the ball third and threw the ball five times. But
David Woodley in comparison through for seventy six yards in
this game. It looked like a three yard game, especially
at the end, because that's how they start going down
the field. Now, there was enough time left, but the
Dolphins were so met they're throwing the football. Duriel Harris
catches a pass for seventeen yards, all right. A couple
more plays later, Tony Nathan runs for a first down
(18:28):
on fourth and one. Another pass to Duriel Harris gets
the ball down to the twenty yard line, and you're thinking,
the Dolphins are gonna do what nobody could do today.
They're gonna throw the football down the field, get in
the end zone and win. But in one on one coverage,
Woodley throws two inside and the ball is picked off
by Don Blackman. The Patriots have it. They nearly kill
(18:50):
the clock, but because the Dolphins still had all of
their time outs, they actually get the ball back for
one final hail Mary that gets picked off of the
goal line. The game is over and the Dolphins lose
the game three nothing, and it becomes the snowplow game.
But the Dolphins almost did it. They you know, they
almost threw the ball down the field. And you can
see this pass that that David Woodley throws is just
(19:13):
a little bit too close there was no separation uh
from the receiver of the dB and and and you
get the pick by Don Blackman, and that clinches the game.
But boy, for a second, the Dolphins almost had it.
Great play. He goes outside shoulder, you got a shot right,
instead throws it two inside uh and and a good play. Uh.
(19:34):
In that sweet red jersey, you can you can see
them a lot more in the snow, because there's no
question about that. So after the game, Ron Meyer admits
waving the snowplow on. It's okay, what are they gonna do?
Fire me? Don Shula says that should never have happened.
Now at the time, Sula had the image of and
(19:55):
this would be blown to hell. Weeks later, Sula had
the image of, Hey, we're not going to cheat and
do anything to the field or anything else that we
should be doing. We're not gonna do that, right. He
went and talked to the referees after the game. The
referees basically said to him, we can't control the removal
of snow on the field. We we can't the protest.
Come on, what are you gonna do? Make him put
it back on? No, you gotta put the snow back
on right in that spot that you cleared up because
(20:17):
they agreed we're going to have the snowplow guy go
on the field. It's not like the snowplow guy went
on the field and he wasn't supposed to. And the
referee said, well, this has been what you agreed to,
so we we we can't just say all right, well
what are we gonna do? You know, because Don Shula
wanted to look at was it was something called the
uh there was a rule the NFL had, and that's
(20:38):
what he wanted to to point to and say, the
Unfair Act clause is going to allow them to overturn
the game. And the NFL, you know, he met with
the NFL actually say, Unfair Act clause, this shouldn't happen.
We gotta overturn this when at least make it a
tie or something else, And the NFL said Unfair Act clause. Hum.
Pete Rosel, who was the commissioner, had never reversed a
(20:59):
game's result before, and even though he agreed with Don
Shula that hey, this probably shouldn't have happened, He's not
gonna suddenly make the game a tie or give the
game to the Dolphins. So even though the Dolphins went
all the way to the commissioner with this, they were
gonna say, you know what, sorry, we we can't do it.
We feel bad for you, you know which, which term
would turn out to be a big theme for the NFL.
Whenever the NFL would screw something up with a with
(21:21):
a call by the officials, they would always be great apologizing, Oh,
I'm really sorry this happened. I mean, there's nothing I
can do about it, but just once you know, we're
really sorry about this. No, they always have been really
good about giving you a good, uh good long three
or four paragraph apology. Uh, talking about it in unusual
circumstances and everything else, but yeah, saying beat it our
(21:43):
unfair competitive advantage and like letter versus spirit of the law. Right,
we agreed in principle that you can bring the snowplow out.
We didn't exactly navigate the hey can he swerve off
of the line. So the game was over, but the
controversy was just beginning. Way, do we tell you a
(22:03):
who wound up getting game balls for this game? Be
what some Patriots players actually say in defending the use
of the snow plow, and see where that snowplow is
right now, that's coming up next right here on special
Teams to talk about the aftermath of the snowplow game.
(22:36):
We're actually gonna go back to the play and something
really big that happened. If you're gonna scratch you in
and go, the Patriots really said that. So right after
the game is over, the you know, they award game
balls to people, and you know, hey, you had a
big game. You had a big game the Patriots. The
Patriots give their game ball the linebacker Steve Nelson and
to Mark Henderson, who cleared the spot for John Smith
(22:57):
to kick the field goal. So hey, let's get let's
get the guy on the snowplow in here. John Smith
is like, don't I get a game ball? I was
I put the only points on the board, I kicked
the field goal. I don't get a game ball. No, No,
we're gonna give it to the guy that cleared off. Okay,
fair enough, So Mark Henderson gets a game ball. The guy,
the guy that drove the snowplow over, he gets a
game ball. Well, I'll tell you what, perhaps the best
(23:20):
video of this whole whole game, other than the swerve
to make the initial run because you can see the
light bulb go on for many of the players on
the Patriots that were on the field. Um is the
post game, right, here's the oh, the agony of defeat,
whatever else. And then you've got a crowd around Henderson
(23:40):
like he just won the Super Bowl. Oh yeah, that's
the where are you going? I'm going to well? Uh, Instead,
he's just grinning like an idiot because he's got a
hundred reporters and boom mikes and everything they could possibly
throw at him. Uh. He is the man of the hour,
without a doubt. So he gets the game ball and
the Patriots win this game, and in subsequent years, as
(24:02):
this game has become really famous, we told you don
Shula tried to have the result of the game overturned.
It didn't happen. Some Patriots players actually claimed that the
snow plow potentially hurt them as Matt Kavanaugh, who was
the holder, had to frantically scraped snow away from the
spot to put the football down, Like, hey, he put
the snow here, but there was snow on the spot. Okay,
(24:22):
hang on for one second. What Matt kavanall had to
do was there was a big spot where they're gonna
put the football down, and they were like little what
would you call like entrails of snow, like like when
you shovel a walk and and sometimes to the end
of the shovel where it is and and where you
pick it up, there's a tiny bit of snow, like
a little line behind. He had that stays behind. So
(24:43):
all Matt Kavana had to do is brush it away
with his hand. I mean, that's what we did. I'm brushing.
It was like he frantically had to do this, and
it really hurt us. Really, the snowplow hurt you. So
all we had to do was brush the snow away
and find a spot because there was a tiny bit
of snow where he's gonna put the football down, so
he had to some of that snow away, But then
he had a clear spot to put the football down.
(25:04):
The spillover, I guess you would say it wasn't dense.
It was just I'm brushing away with my hand. He
put the ball down and John Smith kicked the field goal.
That's it, I mean, but it's good excuse making. I'm saying, Look,
it actually increased the degree of difficulty. I mean that
that's good, putting your head together, and everybody got, all right,
what's my line, that's your line? Okay, good? Actually made
(25:26):
it harder. We didn't get a competitive advantage. Sure, looking
blankety blankety blank about that. Wow, look at you already,
Matt year mad you know, forty years later. Wow. Wow,
I'm just you know, trying to put myself in the
mind of Kavanaugh and the victorious New England Patriots. Now
John Hannah Patriots Guard, one of one of the greatest
offensive linemans that we've seen. In his book, he alleges
(25:51):
that Shula was also offered the use of the snow plow,
but he declined. And you go down a rabbit hole,
you know, seeing this and what people say about it
on the internet, and you go all but he was
told that had engine problems and they couldn't get it
back out on the field. I mean, there's a whole
bunch of crazy stuff here. Hey, I'd like that snowplow
for von Shawn and we had engine problems. Man, can't
get it on the field. So that story about the
(26:12):
snowplow and what Shula would or wouldn't have you, This
is what John Hannah talked about in his book, and
I read a lot about Hannah talking about this game
was really entertaining. Um, I don't know for a fact
that would would that really have done it? Would would
you really have been able to get the snowlow bad?
I guess you would have to write if the coach
really wanted to try, you did it here. You gotta
(26:33):
put it on here for us, And I'd assume you
would anyway. No, you would have to. There's absolutely it's
gotta go both ways. I mean, if that was the
agreement before the game. Otherwise it's gonna be like a
Green Bay packer situation. I need ten volunteers, ten bucks
an hour. I'll bring you hot chocolate and and and
more marshmallows and let's go. So after this, this was
(26:54):
the dolphins final loss until the Super Bowl. The Patriots
would qualify as the seven. And remember this is the
strike year, so this is where teams were seated one
through eight in each conference, and they actually get the
Dolphins in the playoffs. The Dolphins get a measure of
revenge by beating the Patriots in the playoffs to thirteen.
This game not played in the snow where they had
(27:16):
the snowplow guys. So they actually got revenge Mr Plow
that Mr Plow is a loser, and I think he
is whoa, whoa, that was a lot that was in
the know and he had the when he she sings
in Spanish. So you better call on the plow King.
That's right, the plow King and Mr Plow. I mean,
come on, so oh good. There was a year in
(27:37):
fantasy where one of whereas in the in the nineties
where the guy running to leave his big Simpsons fan
and he named his team Mr Plow. So we were like, yeah,
we'll do that. We named our team plow King, and
of course we played each other in the playoffs. He
was Mr Plow, we were Plow. Yeah, I mean that
road itself. Yeah. We lost though, so Mr mr Plow
(27:58):
was greater than the plow King. So happen that way.
Uh So, the Patriots, as I said, to get in
the playoffs, but they lose to the to the Dolphins.
The Dolphins go on to lose to the Redskins in
the Super Bowl. This is the famous John Reggins and
the fourth and one run. Uh As, the Redskins win
the Super Bowl. David Woodley in the Super Bowl, al right,
now you saw the stats here, this looks like, you know,
(28:18):
a five yard game compared with the Super Bowl. In
the Super Bowl, he was four out of four team
throwing the football. A quarterback in the Super Bowl started
played almost the entire game. Don Strock came in and
through a couple of passes, which is kind of what
what happened for the Dolphins in this season. Uh Willie
would play, but sometimes Don Strock would relieve him. You
(28:39):
had a quarterback play the entire game in the Super
Bowl and complete four passes. One pass was early in
the game of seventy five yard touchdown to Jimmy Cephalo.
The only other play they had was a kickoff return
for a touchdown. That was it. That was the Dolphins
offense and the Super Bowl. The Redskins dominate the second
half of the game and they wind up winning seventeen.
(29:00):
The next year, the Dolphins knew we need more offense,
and somehow Dan Marino falls to them all the way
through in the draft and and the Dolphins. Yeah, the
Dolphins become a hey, we're gonna go from being a
great defense running the football to now it's gonna throw
the football up and down the field. This is all
part of Don Shula being the great head coach he was.
To give him a lot of credit for, Hey, he
(29:21):
won games a very certain way, and then in one
year said Okay, now we're gonna do it a different way,
and and and did it for the next fifteen seventeen years.
But this was Look, David Woodley, you're talking about some
games he had in which the Dolphins just couldn't get
any offense going. So they make that move to Dan
Marino and it becomes something different. Still, Marino couldn't win
the Super Bowl, but they knew they had to go
(29:41):
from boy, we're having problem putting points on the board.
We can't continue to rely on our defense and our
running game. We gotta get a quarterback out there. And
here they are with the next to last pick in
the first round, and somehow they get a quarterback who
goes down to one of the top five quarterbacks of
all time. In fact, that draft the last two picks
of the first round. The following year you had the
Dolphin and the Redskins picking next to last and last.
(30:03):
Those two picks were Dan Marino and Darryl Green. To
Hall of Fame players to at the end of the
first round the following year. How about that? It's a
way it's crazy, the way it all works. I mean
when you started it by talking about just how crazy
a season it was. Right with the strike as it were,
you had the big battle, uh with between the Raiders
(30:25):
and the league, the trial and anti trust law that
in terms of moving the team from Oakland, l A.
So you had that fight that started things. Uh. The
new time slots that we've enjoyed all these years came together,
the one pm and four pm Eastern time, except at
that point, if you were in Baltimore, you couldn't start
(30:47):
earlier than two o'clock because of a Baltimore ordinance. How
about that? Hm that that's that's insanity, but it is
and it was a nice easy excuse for her sake
to uh you know when they left. So blame that,
blame the crazy crazy laws. But yeah, I mean we
we always think about labor strife and it always seems
(31:08):
to get resolved these days, right, but we always uh
seem to find the eleventh hour situation in solution. Uh
not's so back in uh So for Mark Henderson, he
enjoyed a lot of fame after this, and he went
on to continue to uh to do work release at
at Schaefer Stadium, which is now Foxboro Stadium. He said,
(31:29):
we do painting, We clean up the bathroom after games,
all of these things. And you know, you know, talked
a lot about this, did interviews talking about the snowplow.
H You got him to sign some trading cards, to
make some custom ones with him sitting on that John Deere. However,
and that's the thing. The NFL banned snowplows in the
off season, realizing, all right, we've kind of opened the
(31:51):
door to something we probably shouldn't have. So they banned
snow plows in the off season, saying, all right, we
can't have this happen again. The banned snowplows. And that
was basically the end of this story, except we like
to do it. Where are they now? Right? All the time?
Inn here we like to wear they're not talking about
where players are. Well, I want to kick the normally
you do where they now? I want to kick things off.
(32:12):
Where are they now? Where is the snowplow? The snowplow
from this game? The John Dear snowplow hangs in the
Patriots Hall of Fame from a ceiling. You can go
to the Page Hall of Fame and team there it is.
They used to have it out where, but they don't
want people sitting on it room, so now they hang
it from the ceiling. There's a snowplow that that cleared
the field for John Smith field goal. It is in
(32:33):
the Patriots Hall of Fame. I'll tell you what. That
little area around Gillette Stadium is fantastic, little shopping center.
A couple of plays to get a nice fight to eat.
Next time, I'll have to go look for Model three fourteen,
the John Deer tractor. All right, So what about some
of the other players from this game, my Carmen, where
are they now? Well, Steve Nelson, who got one of
those game balls, along with your man, Mr Henderson, business
(32:57):
development executive for light House Computer Services Technology Group in Lincoln,
Rhode Island. You've got Morris Bradshaw, director of alumni relations
for your Las Vegas Raiders. Tony Collins had a had
a good career, including uh some time in the Arena league,
(33:18):
went through some personal struggles, some drug abuse, actually had
a year suspension from the league. Ultimately had a suicide attempt,
some some really rough stuff. I read an excerpt from
his book, Uh that that's since come out um on
his comeback. Uh. And he also runs a foundation in
the Finger Lakes in New York called It's for the Kids,
(33:40):
and he does a lot with collegiate scouting talking about
the pitfalls and and different things you can take advantage of.
So some good psychology and some real life experience being
brought in there as well. So uh, good to see
he's he's doing some good as well. Jimmy Cephalo broadcasting
career with NBC for a long while, still to play
(34:03):
by play and the voice of Dolphins radio. Uh. He
and his wife do a bunch and with food, wine
and travel. But the Cephalo family wine has been going
for like a hundred fifty years about they do it
pun up that look. And that's a growing thing, right
our guy, Uh colleague get Fox that did Sunday shows
(34:23):
with him a while, Will Blackman, super Bowl champion, got
into wine, Charles Woodson into wine, Drew Bledsoe into wine. Uh.
It's it's become a big thing among NFL players, uh
in their post career. And I think that's a growth industry,
especially you know as people look for you know, brand
recognition is a huge thing as we know. Uh. And
(34:46):
then we got Bob Baumhauer's the owner and CEO of
a Loha hospitality in Alabama, fine dining and the Victory Grill.
You gotta love that. I think you're gonna say a
hospital in Oahu, Hawaii. No, no, no, no, it's Mobile Alabile, Alabama.
All right. Then we're bringing a little bit of the
(35:07):
Hawaiian Islands to you here in Alabama. Why not? So
there was the snowplow game to be followed next week
by a game that maybe had a little bit of
mudd in it, followed by a game or two that
maybe had some snowballs in it. Yeah, we're running through
the nineties or some of the biggest bad weather games
in NFL history. And I hope you enjoyed the snowplow
(35:30):
game and learned some things here uh doing it. It
was fun for us to go back and watch some
of these highlights again, these games. I remember watching the
game at home. I can't believe you're playing this game
in the snow. If you have an idea for a
future special teams, hit us up on Twitter at how
about a Frescup? Mike is a swollen dome. Our radio
show was heard every night on Fox Sports Radio. Tend
(35:51):
be into two am on the East coast, seven to
eleven on the West Coast. We'll talk to you next week.
Get ready to get dirty on Special Teams before you go,
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