September 30, 2020 • 34 mins
The AFC Championship game for the 1982 season between the Jets and the Dolphins is known more for it's weather than it's play on the field. "The Mud Bowl" was a shocking display of offensive ineptitude on a field better suited to swim in than play football on. The game has been shrouded in conspiracy theories for nearly 40 years, and it will probably stay that way forever. It had one great play to hang it's hat on, and all sorts of drama involving the losing team you have to hear to believe. It's Special Teams: The Mud Bowl.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of My Heart Radio
Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
(00:23):
Mike Harmon. Every week we look back at a specific
year in sports and some of the special teams that
made up that year. We're kind of on a weather
run right now. We had the Freezer Bowl that we
talked about previously on the podcast, the coldest game in
National Football League history, a f C champions game between
(00:44):
the Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals, won by the Bengals. Uh. Today, well,
we're gonna do the Mud Bowl. One of the games
that is so incredibly, very near and dear to my heart,
the very famous two a f C Championship game him
between the Dolphins and the Jets, won by the Dolphins
fourteen nothing on a field filled with mud. It was ugly,
(01:09):
it was brutal. I mean, it was fun to run
around and slide and if you were seven years old.
But the Dolphins go to the Super Bowl winning this
game a field that is absolutely filled with mud. And
you know, I'm gonna try to not go crazy during
a lot of this because boy, this game is almost
forty years old and I can still remember it like
it was yesterday. Yeah, but this is a game that
(01:30):
would have been, you know, probably one of your first
real sports memories for one of your teams, right as
young Jason Smith getting after it watching himself some playoff football,
you know, thinking, hey, my team's got a legit shot here,
Richard Todd's gonna lead my team to greatness and to
watch the quagmire that the field became absolutely amazing. But
(01:55):
I mean, we all have those pieces of nostalgia and
look at thus mean that it's the result was always good, right.
I mean, one of my favorite teams of all time
growing up in Chicago's the eighty three White Socks win
and ugly was the mantra. And then they went out
and got absolutely worked by the Baltimore Orioles and in
the playoffs, you know, and that's just the way it goes. So,
(02:17):
you know, but you won't take away greg Lozinski hitting
the ball on the roof, Carlton Fist being the human
rain delay, and that starting rotation with Banister and brick
Burns and Richard Dotson. Uh. You had Dewey Lamar Hoyd
as your young winner and of course Rookie of the
Year Ron Kittle Okay, should we just do the white socks?
(02:38):
At some point you can get it all out? I mean, really,
can we just do the three white socks? But I
just thought, I just thought, I try to relate to
the people that, you know what, nostalgia and that moment
of awe doesn't always have to be, you know, the
greatest ending. You know, a loss can somehow still have
its effect on you. Yeah, well, obviously you'll find out
(02:59):
over the next half hour plus here. Uh So this
was the NFL playoffs during the strike. Yere If remember
we talked about the eight two strike in a previous podcast.
UH teams were seated one through eight in each conference.
Miami was the number two seed. The Jets were the
number six seed. Miami wins to get to the a
f C Championship Game. They host the Jets, who beat
(03:19):
the Bengals and the Raiders to get here. Now getting here.
If you remember, if you listen to a previous Special
Teams podcast, Don Shula, head coach of the Miami Dolphins,
was so incensed the Patriots allowed the snow plow on
the field UH to beat them three nothing in the
game earlier. Remember he was so upset. Oh, I can't
(03:40):
believe they allowed it. Annie actually talked to the NFL
about disallowing the victory to the Patriots. So it was cheating.
It was cheating, and Don Shula was always on the
up and up, always on the up and up. Well,
there were torrential rings this week in Miami. And here's
the deal. The Jets had a high flying, well balanced offense.
Right they had the leading rusher in the NFL and
(04:02):
Freeman McNeil. That had wide receiver Wesley Walker who was
a Pro bowler. Richard Todd was ranked third in the
a f C in passing. They played well in the playoffs,
they slept most of the sack exchange. On defense. I
mean this, I remember thinking, we're going to the Super Bowl.
We are loaded. Everything is good. The offense is good.
Richard Todd is when I still liked him, because obviously
after this game I didn't. But then they were loaded.
(04:24):
This was it for the Jets. And the Jets were
built on offense and the Dolphins were built on defense
and running the football. I mean, Bob baum Howard was
Pro Bowl defensive tackle. This was the killer Bees defense
that the that the Dolphins had with Glenn and Lyle
Blackwood and Bomb Howard and Miami leading the NFL and
fewest yards allowed, fewest passing yards allowed. Believe it or not.
(04:46):
In nine games in the regular season, Miami allowed a
thousand and twenty seven passing yards. In nine games, they
allowed just over a thousand yards passing. That is some
kind of defense. They were so good across the board.
Their offense was run heavy Andrew Franklin and Tony Nathan
at running back. David Woodley was just okay, but he
was a mobile quarterback. Uh. They're passing attack was dead
(05:09):
last and their rushing attack was third. So what's the
best way to win this game? Boy? If only the
field could be really muddy. So no coverage of the
field happened. The field was not covered with a tarp,
which is against NFL rules. And the Jets and and
many NFL UH people go down and saying, well, Miami
Dolphins didn't cover the field. They're supposed to cover the
(05:30):
field because it needs to be in good playing condition. Well,
how do you slow down an offense You make the
field really wet and full of mud. This tells me
the Dolphins knew they weren't gonna be able to beat
the Jets straight up. So let's have the field be
all muddy. And this was the great equalizer. If our
offense stinks throwing the football, guess what. Your offense is
gonna stay throwing the football too. So if we don't
(05:51):
cover the field, it rains for five days. Hey, good
luck trying to move the football up and down the field. See,
I'm already worked up night. I'm already worked up on
this again, this thirty eight years go. I'm already worked
up about it. Yeah. But as you and I have
talked about so many years on our Fox Sports radio show,
you can't fall to good strategy. So if you this
was gonna be the great equalizer, mother nature came on
(06:13):
your side to, uh say, hey, you know, let's vanquished
the Jets. Sorry, Uh, you know what, that's just the
way it's gonna go. I mean to your point that
the thousand yards you know, passing yardage against is really
just patently absurd. Now, part of it is you go
back and look at the the NFL during during that period,
(06:36):
it was still three yards in a cloud of dust
for many teams. But that that is just impressive overall.
I mean, just going back and and looking at some
of the data, and fortunately, through the power of the
inner webs, there's still some videotape that you can find
here through the uh well clipped off stuff from NFL films.
Thanks but the giving us a little bit of a
(06:59):
look see into how these teams stacked up. Now, the
funny thing is, this mud Bowl was not what you
would think it is. If you didn't see the game,
you would look and see highlights this and go, the
field really doesn't look that muddy. The players don't really
look that muddy. In fact, the outside parts of the
field look okay. Even the inside parts of the field
(07:20):
don't look that muddy. But the issue was you can
run straight ahead, and when you try to do that,
you can do okay, But can you cut back when
the field is as muddy as it is. You couldn't
do it in the middle of the field. And certainly
you've seen other mud games where players jerseys you can't
even tell who they are. This was about the heavy rain.
This is about the slickness of the field. And really
(07:41):
we did not see a lot of teams being able
to hold onto the football. We didn't see a lot
of offense. We saw one incredibly great play that, unfortunately,
I will see in my head every day the rest
of my life. But really, the surprising thing to me
is that when you look at the field, he's saying,
it really doesn't look that bad like you expect it
to look a lot work. But still the teams that
they just couldn't stay upright, They couldn't hold onto the football,
(08:04):
they couldn't make plays outside. And that's one thing I
was always helping is that, well, eventually they're gonna run
a play outside, right, someone's gonna do something. But no,
everything was still in the middle of the field and
the team. Neither team could move the ball up and
down and be able to do anything more than anything
straight ahead, whether it was a run play or a pass. Yeah,
I mean you talk about the play you've alluded to
(08:26):
several times. I mean the footing certainly had something to
do with how that worked too. I mean, the the
overhead looks like all right, uh, the unnatural green, no
question about that. On the grass, but you got the
patches right. You can see It's not that it's necessarily
giant puddles, but it's just enough as guys try to
(08:48):
make their their cuts. It's it's just not working and
trying to get to the edge. It was gonna be
a no go. You watched the receivers in some of
the clips as you go back, just tiptoeing their route
knowing that their legs are gonna slide out from under them.
Not exactly a way to run a height, high octane
passing offense for Richard Todd and company. And you know,
(09:10):
one funny thing about this before you get to the
game is like I talked about, you know this staying
with me for years. It was like in two thousand
and eight, two thousand nine something like that, Don Shula
did an interview in in New York radio for something
I forget why he did it, and the person of
the interview with I think was Marty Lyons, who was
a former Jet defensive lineman who played in this game.
(09:31):
And one of the things he did, of course, was
bring up the mudball and don't Jula And don't Jula
is like it was thirty years ago. Let it go,
Let it go. He started laughing, just saying let it go.
It's like, no, no, the losses stay with you. The
games like this stay with you. Yeah. No, And obviously,
if you're the coach Uh, you know, you got away
with one here and when when you want to bring
(09:53):
up integrity and legacies and all of that, and certainly
we do it on the show and across sports Chok
radio and sports television, when whenever we talk about the Patriots,
you you have to talk about the asterisks, double asterisks
and different spots along the way. Don Shula doesn't get
a pass for this one. And the Dolphins management, for
(10:16):
all the great things you can say about them, this
one still becomes the well, let's at least have a debate.
Should they play regardless of weather? Right? Should they shouldn't
be incumbent upon them to to put the tarp out?
You know which side of yacht. It's like, you know,
growing up in Chicago, I said, you know, rain, sleet, snow, fog,
(10:36):
that's all part of Chicago Bears lore. So I just
kind of shrugged my shoulders and say, play on. But
when the guys had the push brooms out before the
game to try to get some extra water off, maybe
we could have taken better care of the field. So
we've set the stage for you for the mud and
the rain, and coming up next we'll break it all
(10:56):
down and the play that will live for her in
NFL history. This is special teams. So the Jets and
(11:20):
Dolphins were set for AFC Championship game amidst the rain
and the mud in Miami, and you knew right away
this was gonna be a really ugly game. Okay, first possession,
Richard Todd, Jets quarterback who I had such a love
hate relationship with because when he was on he was great,
and when he was off he was terrible. He throws
into double coverage, he gets picked off. All right, It's like,
(11:43):
oh boy, here we are starting already. Next play, Miami
gives the football back. David Woodley gets picked off. This
is how the game went. This was how both of
the game went. Second quarter, David Woodley, quarterback of the Dolphins,
had a seventeen yard gain on a run that was
the longest run the day by either team. That's all
you need to know. The team's traded turnovers in the
(12:05):
first half. Miami could have scored near halftime, but after
a block punt, Woodley got picked off again. It was
just a crazy day and and maybe no better footage
to be seen in this game, because I still remember
this as much as a j Dewey. Who we're gonna
get to is that the Jets punter was a guy
named Chuck Ramsey. And you've seen punter's punt with their
(12:26):
cleats on, and you've seen barefooted kickers, Right, Chuck Ramsey
punted wearing a sock. Well, you know, I guess there
everybody has their thing, but he was he would punk
wearing a sock. And to watch him walk around this
field with a mud filled sock, I'm like, it's like
when you were if you go out and play outside
and your socks get all filled with snow and stuff
and you come inside going, oh my god, it's just
(12:48):
flopping around on the carpet. I can't wait to get
him off. This guy's punting wearing a sock. He would
get That's the worst feeling in the world. Wet socks.
Then you're gonna get You're gonna get sick, or you're
gonna get a rash or Yeah no, it's not good.
It's bad, bad job by him. But you know what,
if he was comfortable with it, you know, all power
(13:09):
to him. I mean that's what it was. You watch
players slip around in the first half, you watch players
have trouble holding onto the football and the mud bowl,
and its legend was just beginning to grow. Right. We
get to the third quarter of a scoreless game, and
I admit watching this game. Look, I'm I'm I'm not
even a teenager yet, and I know this is not
gonna end well for the Jets. I know because they
can't do anything. This is playing into the Dolphins hands,
(13:32):
who were good defensively. This was our great offense and
they couldn't do anything. The Dolphins finally dent the scoreboard
in the third quarter after a couple of ridiculous things.
The Dolphins have the football. Tony Nathan Good, running back
in the Dolphins, fumbled, but he was ruled down to
the Dolphins keep the football. Then Woodley completes the path
(13:52):
to Duriel Harris, which, okay, they're getting close to field
goal range. But then Darryl Ray, Jets defensive back, argues
about the completion so much he gets a fifteen yard penalty.
Argues with the right, I'm gonna give you another fifteen
yards to get close to the end zone. What are
you doing? Why are you argue? He argues so much
he gets a fifteen yard penalty that puts the ball
(14:13):
on the seven yard line. And on the next play,
would he Bennett ex Jet former Jet? Would he Bennett
goes in from seven yards out? Miami's up seven nothing.
And I tell you, Mike, at this point, I knew
the game was over. I saw we're never gonna score.
It said they could be playing the game now forty
years later, the Jets would still have no points. But
I knew seven nothing the game was over. Well, and
that was the thing is as you go back and
(14:36):
watch as much highlights as you can and go through
the box score, like you're you're not getting any long
protracted drives. I mean, the numbers are anemic, to say
the least. When you look at you mentioned Nathan seven,
Garry's twenty four yards, not like you're, you know, making
any big plays, big cuts because on contact, your your
feet are coming out from under you. And you saw
(14:58):
that on every run. It's like a just secure the
ball and go down and live to see another play.
And yes, seven seven points certainly seemed insurmountable at that point, unbelievable.
It's seven nothing going to the fourth quarter. But okay,
you know, maybe there's some hope. Maybe you're thinking, maybe
maybe the Jets have not been able to hold onto
(15:21):
the football all day. Richard Todd would wind up throwing
five interceptions in this game. Okay, wood Lee through three,
Todd through five, teams were fumbling. It was it was crazy.
The Dolphins fumbled the ball three times. It's still seven nothing,
and then the play happens that again, I will be
seeing in my head for the rest of my life.
(15:42):
The Jets trying to move the football down the field
and a J. Dewey, who already has two interceptions. This
a J. Dewey pick and pick six that clinches the
game for the Dolphins at fourteen nothing. The worst part
of this play was, as you see this developed, you
know what's gonna end awful for the Jets. Okay, it's
(16:02):
a screen pass where he's trying to get it out
to Bruce Harper and Richard Todd just locks in on
Harper where the entire Dolphins defense is crashing the line
of scrimmage and Todd do no matter what. A J.
Dewey is in his face and he still tries to
throw it up in the air. A J. Dewey leaps up,
kind of deflects it comes down with it runs into
(16:23):
the end zone. I see him running with the ball
in his left hand, looking at his teammates, going, come
celebrate with me, Come celebrate with me. It's fourteen nothing,
and then I know, really the game is over. But
even if Dewey doesn't catch it. I mean, let's say
it goes over A. J. Dewey's head, which it didn't.
If Dewey doesn't catch it, Ernest Roan would have because
he comes all the way and he's right on on
(16:44):
Bruce Harper, the running back as well, so he's gonna
catch it and go in for a touchdown. This play
is so bad and I can't it over how Richard
Todd through the football. I mean, this is where you're
look and go, oh, this is not working. I'm gonna either,
you know, fall down or try to run up the
middle of the field and get something because this play
is clearly not working. But nope, I'm gonna throw the
football anyway. Yeah. I've watched that from several angles, Uh,
(17:07):
every camera angle, every opportunity, rubbing my eyes and trying
to figure out exactly what the hell he saw. Uh,
you saw Marvin Powell the right tackle fift Yer guy
out of USC Uh do we pretty much just thrown
him to the ground because his feet came out from under,
which is why he's wide open to to leap into
(17:27):
the well in in front of Richard Todd's pass. Uh
you mentioned on the outside. Even if that ball doesn't
get intercepted, it's still a miserable decision. I mean, there's
just there's nothing there. There's two defenders, one receiver, oh,
and A J. Dewey in between them. So I it's
(17:49):
mind boggling. It's one of those things you and I
text back and forth on football Sundays when there's a
play like that. I believe you have reference A J.
Dewey so many times, so many time. If we played
a drinking game training you and I. I mentioned some
bad decisions and balls picked up the line of scrimmage.
(18:10):
Uh wow, that would just be obliteration. But just a
horrid decision on what was a series of bad decisions.
And look, a couple of the interceptions their tip balls,
but unfortunately, unfortunately they count against you. It's not like
they don't know the balls tipped down over, down, over
down over. No. But but at the point being right,
(18:31):
not that well thrown balls. And we do this every
week as well, like it goes on the quarterback gotta
throw a better ball. The guy's open, he hits his hands,
Yes he should catch it, but you know what slippery
wet football, bad footing, trying to keep your footing, the
concentration of that, not to mention you're about to get
blown up because this guy has now stretched you out.
(18:52):
All of that means the ball is coming off your
fingers and going up in the air for the waiting
defensive back to come flying in. And I just saw
in this game as well, you know, And the one
solace I have is that if a j Dewey doesn't
make that play, it doesn't matter because the Jets don't score.
So it's you know, the game has a signature play.
It's one of the biggest signature plays in NFL history,
(19:14):
So it's got that. So but the only thing I
wouldn't have to see it. What else are they gonna
show from this game? If it's just Richard Todd incomplete,
here's the muddy field, here's how bad the conditions were.
The Dolphins win seven nothing, and that would have been
in but I knew the Jets weren't going to score anyway.
It was just one of those. It was just fruitless
to why. It's like running the air conditioner with the
door open, all right, no matter what you do, if
(19:35):
you're not gonna get the room cooler, right, That was
what the Jets did, and the Jets didn't threaten. They
lose fourteen nothing. The Dolphins go to the Super Bowl,
and here are the numbers that are gonna wow you.
This is the mud Bowl. Okay. The Jets had ten
first downs in the entire game. Miami had thirteen. Richard
Todd was fifteen out of thirty seven for a hundred
(19:59):
and three yards and five picks. David David Woodley, the
winning quarterback, through for eighty seven yards and three interceptions.
That's how bad it was. A j Dewey was for
not look this game. This is like I bet he
you know, I would watch it every day. He lined
up at six different positions. He was all over the field. Look,
Miami's defense was incredible. When you put make the field
(20:21):
like the of course, this is how it's gonna go.
The team's combined for nine turnovers and nineteen punts. I mean,
really that nine turnovers in this game. You take it,
you take it over. Here's one time where the Dolphins
are able to get down the field and then the A. J.
Dewey play happens. This was so difficult to watch. It
was so difficult to see and and look as you
mentioned that, you know, the water being squeegeed off the field,
(20:43):
and and how rough it was. I just keep going
back of all the worst losses in Jets history, I
go back, this is one of the top two. This
or the eighty six. Lots of the browns though those
are really really bad losses, but this is the one
I think of, and go, man, I get what they
say when athletes and coaches, everybody, you know, the winds
you forget about. Boy, those losses stay with you. Yeah,
(21:03):
those losses with you forever now. But you like you're
mentioning stats, right. Freeman McNeil seventeen carries forty six yards
augustin eak and Dirking three carries six yards between the
Richard Todd scrambling for his life, four for ten, uh
Tony Night and seven for twenty four. As you said before, uh,
(21:24):
Andrew Franklin thirteen for forty four, and then Woody Benett
ex Jet thirteen carries twenty four yards in a touchdown.
David Woodley was your leading rusher with eight for forty six.
So I mean just how tough yardage was to come
by footing. We talked about all the turnovers. I mean,
(21:46):
there's just not scoring opportunities. And then to give the
ball away signature play the game of his life for
a j Dewey made it, made a life out of it.
I would show that all the time. I remember this
play I made right here. Hey, hey, is it muddy out?
Is it muddy out? Speaking of mud? How about we
watch this play? Hey, who wants a bowl of cereal ball? Hey?
(22:08):
Remember the mud bowl? Let's watch this play. That's what
I would do my entire life. I think my backyard
would always be a little bit wet, and I want
to go throw the old football around. Hey, footing is
a little soft here. You know, it's like it was raining,
but I know it didn't rain. It's like, well, I
like to keep it here because it's the memories of
my greatest physical triumph. And I think I've got the
(22:29):
screen shot that I'm gonna put on a T shirt
and wear around you. He's got the backyard all lined
like it's a football field. Go out and let's recreate
it for a little while. And let's do that. Let's say, well,
right in the middle of the yard is the forty
yard line. So the Dolphins win the mud ball fourteen
to nothing in a game that just crushed young Jason Smith.
(22:52):
But the drama for both of these teams was only
just beginning. Following the mud Bawl. We have that coming
up next right here on special teams. So with A. J.
(23:17):
Dewey the hero, the Dolphins were onto the Super Bowl.
The Jets were onto what could have been if the
field was in nice sunny shape. You know, you cover
the field and everybody's running up and down and we
get a football game that was so good. But the
drama for both teams were just beginning. Jets head coach
Walt Michaels resigned under quote pressure, uh, two weeks after
(23:37):
this game was over, which sounds crazy, right. The guy
got to the a f C Championship game and if
the field was just kept in good condition, maybe he's
in the Super Bowl. But instead, Walt Michaels resigns under pressure.
Now why because he didn't have big fans enough in
ownership in leon Hess. Now, if you remember me telling you.
The Jets beat the Bengals on the Raiders to get
to the a f C Championship game. Well, at time
(24:00):
of the Raider game, somebody called the locker room pretending
to be team owner Leon Hess, telling Walt Michaels to
benchmark Gastineau, who was the Jets best defensive lineman, right,
I want you to bench cast he's not playing well.
Walt Michaels hung up on him. What was this all about?
After the game, he blamed Al Davis for doing it right,
(24:21):
are turned out it was from a bar in New
Jersey and somehow somebody was able to call the Jets
locker room at half time of the game and say, hey, listen,
I'm Gas, Hey bench casting over. This is Leon Hes
bench caston O for the second half. Oh okay, Mr Hess,
you got it. Hey, Mark, you're sitting Why? Uh? The
owner just called? How you get through to the locker
(24:42):
room and pretend you're the owner? I mean, I don't know,
but it happened only the Jets, right, I mean, that's
you know, crazy after this unbelievable. I mean, really, you
can make you make a phone call from a bar
in New Jersey. Hey, I bet all this money against
the Jets, but maybe they've bench Gaston. Let me see
if I get that. How do you get the phone
number in the Jets law g room? I mean, I
don't understand how you get an inside job man. So
(25:05):
Leon Hess wasn't a big fan of that story getting
out and Michael's talking about it. Also, after the game
was over, Walt Michaels, all the way until his death
a year ago, blamed Don Shula for not having the
field in in in good shape. And you know what,
I kind of get that because for Walt Michaels, this
was his chance of the Super Bowl. This is one
chance and of course I'm sure he thought about this
(25:26):
game every day the rest of his life. But those
things and blaming Don Jula didn't sit well with Leon Hess.
So he decided, I'm gonna push out Walt Michael's and
I'm gonna hire Joe Walton, who was a Jets offensive coordinator. Now,
actually Walton was highly sought after after that offseason. He
turned out to be a terrible head coach, and Walt
Michaels went on to the New Jersey Generals in the USFL,
(25:48):
and he had great records both years so he leaves,
goes to the USFL coaches does well, the Jets wind
up with Joe Walton, who other people wanted. And I
would love to see it with another team, but instead
that to the Jets wind up with. This is Jets
football at its finest. Fake he was yeh, but he
was only four games under five during his ten years.
(26:08):
Only four games under That's all it was. But that's
Jets football. Fake phone calls to a locker room firing
head coaches to go to ANFC championship games. Oh, I
don't like being outspoken about a field. It's all muddy. Oh,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Didn't you want to win the game? Leon?
Hes did do what? No? No, no, I really don't
like the way you acted. So I'm getting rid of
you and bringing the offensive coordinator. That's how the Jets
(26:30):
football team work. Now, it's next next level, right and uh?
He he was the the General's head coach who was
eventually fired by Donald Trump. Yeah, exactly, You're fired after
the team emerged with the Houston Gamblers. And that's what
Trump dead. You know. I like firing people. I like
your fired. You're fine. I wish I could get a
(26:50):
show or I could fire people for a living and
then become president. Okay, that's what Maybe that was the
beginning of it. So that's where the Jets went. Now
for the Dolphins, they went on to lose the Super
Bowl to the Washington Redskins. The John Riggins fourth in
one run that's been immortalized forever um the first pass
of the Super Bowl, David Woodley threw a seventy six
(27:11):
yard touchdown to Jimmy Cephalo and that was it. Woodley
was four out of fourteen for nineties seven yards in
the Super Bowl on the day the entire game, four
out of fourteen, Miami only had a hundred and seventy
six yards of total offense. So clearly the Dolphins saw,
(27:31):
all right, how far did we get with this great
defense in a running game? Well, we fell victim to
a team it was a little bit better on offense,
still had a pretty good defense. And look, even though
the Super Bowl was still close, they needed that John
Riggins run to make it twenty seven seventeen. Uh, Miami's
offense was that played a Cephalo and Fulton Walker returning
the kickoff for a touchdown, which we hadn't seen in
the Super Bowl before, so here's fullon Walker. That was
(27:53):
the entire offense for the Miami Dolphins. So the Dolphins figured,
we need a quarterback. The Jets new after that debaccle
by Richard Todd they needed a quarterback. And thus in
the NFL Draft, the New York Jets decide, well, we
need a quarterback. Here, Dan Marino's on the board. No,
we're gonna take Ken O'Brien out of Cal Davis. And
(28:13):
of course Dan Marino fall to the Dolphins. He has
a Hall of Fame career and and everything goes where
it is. But he were both teams needed quarter new
coming off the a f C title game. We both
have to replace our quarterbacks. They do it and of
course the Dolphins do it the right way and the
Jets doing a way, which was okay because Kenn O'Brien
was okay for a few years. But boy, just you know,
like other teams just passing on Dan Marino. Just so
(28:36):
interesting though that part of the evaluation process was the
Mud Bowl. Yeah, in terms of deciding that he needed
to move on, We're just gonna go straight on decision
making the execution. Look, it is what it is, but
your decision making and throwing the pass here and here
and into leaping a J. Dewey means we've got to
(28:59):
move on. And that's where me. Yeah, but said Richard
Todd really was terrible. I mean I turned the page
on him. Sometimes in sports, you can if something can
happen so bad in the game, where you play so bad,
you fail. So it's really hard to come back in
the locker room back of that. It's really hard to
come back and say, no, this is still our guy.
And I think that was the case of the Jets. Boy.
(29:21):
You know, Richard Todd was good, but he was you know,
in big games, he wasn't very good. And and this
was like, okay, how can you come back after this?
Five interceptions three to a J. Dewey. We couldn't score,
we couldn't get on the board. I mean, it's really hard.
The Jets knew we need a quarterback, and the very
famous class of eight three was there. The Jets just
picked a guy who was okay for a few years.
(29:42):
You know, where you miss out on the Hall of
Famer in Dan Marino. And you know, and that's the
real oddity of this eight three draft is that the
last two teams picking in the first round of seven
and twenty eight were the Dolphins and the Redskins. And
who were the last two picks of the first round?
Dan Marino Hall of Aimer Darryl Green Hall of Famer,
(30:02):
two of the best players at their position ever wind
up going back to back the last two picks of
the first round in the three draft, and at the
moment they were probably salty for the fact that they
had gone to better teams. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure Dan
Marina would have rather gone number one overall. But still
I think it turned out okay for him. And see
(30:23):
it seems to have worked. And he got a delivery
of books from a friend of ours on his birthday
in the year. Uh. You gotta listen to our show
on Fox Sports Radio to really know what that's all about. Uh,
but yeah, you got Ken O'Brien there you Alright, So
how about some where are they now from this momentous
game in NFL history? Alright, let's start off, Bobby Jackson. Look,
(30:46):
a lot of these guys are now hitting retirement in
the last couple of years, and as you mentioned, unfortunately
some passings along the way. But here's here's a few
that I think you'll enjoy. Bobby Jackson retired after a
long career as a regional marketing manager for Madell's Sporting Goods. No,
I thought he was assistant to the regional managers. All right,
(31:09):
See it comes back to mos a dual salam uh.
He retired police officer and then he was a football
coach in his area. Wesley Walker pe Teacher Park View
Elementary in King's Park, New York. He was so good,
Wesley Walking. He was blind in one eye and he
was still that good he was. He was fantastic, Wesley Walker.
(31:30):
He had a hell of a career. I remember wanting
to use him in strata matic football. Richard Todd Boy,
managing director with JP Morgan Investment, Securities and banking Bankers.
Not to talk to JP Morgan, got it right there, JP. No,
(31:51):
I'm I'm sure he's I'm sure he's a fine banking
investment manager. On the Dolphins side, I got a couple
of guys that got into the restaurant business. Bom Bob
baum Hower. He's got a chain of restaurants across Alabama
and Kimbo Camper He's got a bar and grilled down
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and finally A. J. Dewey. He
(32:16):
works for Caesar's Entertainment lives in Fort Lauderdale. Oh boy,
hey A J. J. Yes, I'm here. Hey you want
to you want to talk about the the interception in
the mudball. I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm read anything you want.
I gotta think there's a lot of that glad handing.
Want to hear it's kind of like a Rocky Balboa. Yeah,
kid was all mad at him, but like he walks
(32:37):
up to the tables and he's got that suit coade on.
Story about the time of fun against what was this
Spider Spider Rika Spider Rica. Yeah, you want to hear
about the Spider Rico fight. Yeah, I'll think about Spider Rico.
He's gonna tell you about the interception. Great, thanks A J.
So there, you're not salty at all about this one.
(32:59):
You're nineteen eight e two a f C championship in
two season in one by the Miami Dolphins. Part of
our weather run here on special teams coming up next week. Boy,
Let's see, we've done cold, We've done mud. How about
some snow? How about some snowballs? We'll have that coming
(33:19):
up next week. I'm Jason Smith. He is Mike Harmon.
You can hear our show on Fox Sports Radio Monday
through Friday, ten pm two two am on the East Coast,
seven pm two eleven pm on the West Coast. You
have an idea for a future Special Teams podcast, hit
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(33:41):
If you don't give us five stars, ratus and just
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Special Teams is a production of iHeart Radio. For more
podcast from my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
(34:03):
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of My Heart Radio
Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
(00:23):
Mike Harmon. Every week we look back at a specific
year in sports and some of the special teams that
made up that year. We're kind of on a weather
run right now. We had the Freezer Bowl that we
talked about previously on the podcast, the coldest game in
National Football League history, a f C champions game between
(00:44):
the Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals, won by the Bengals. Uh. Today, well,
we're gonna do the Mud Bowl. One of the games
that is so incredibly, very near and dear to my heart,
the very famous two a f C Championship game him
between the Dolphins and the Jets, won by the Dolphins
fourteen nothing on a field filled with mud. It was ugly,
(01:09):
it was brutal. I mean, it was fun to run
around and slide and if you were seven years old.
But the Dolphins go to the Super Bowl winning this
game a field that is absolutely filled with mud. And
you know, I'm gonna try to not go crazy during
a lot of this because boy, this game is almost
forty years old and I can still remember it like
it was yesterday. Yeah, but this is a game that
(01:30):
would have been, you know, probably one of your first
real sports memories for one of your teams, right as
young Jason Smith getting after it watching himself some playoff football,
you know, thinking, hey, my team's got a legit shot here,
Richard Todd's gonna lead my team to greatness and to
watch the quagmire that the field became absolutely amazing. But
(01:55):
I mean, we all have those pieces of nostalgia and
look at thus mean that it's the result was always good, right.
I mean, one of my favorite teams of all time
growing up in Chicago's the eighty three White Socks win
and ugly was the mantra. And then they went out
and got absolutely worked by the Baltimore Orioles and in
the playoffs, you know, and that's just the way it goes. So,
(02:17):
you know, but you won't take away greg Lozinski hitting
the ball on the roof, Carlton Fist being the human
rain delay, and that starting rotation with Banister and brick
Burns and Richard Dotson. Uh. You had Dewey Lamar Hoyd
as your young winner and of course Rookie of the
Year Ron Kittle Okay, should we just do the white socks?
(02:38):
At some point you can get it all out? I mean, really,
can we just do the three white socks? But I
just thought, I just thought, I try to relate to
the people that, you know what, nostalgia and that moment
of awe doesn't always have to be, you know, the
greatest ending. You know, a loss can somehow still have
its effect on you. Yeah, well, obviously you'll find out
(02:59):
over the next half hour plus here. Uh So this
was the NFL playoffs during the strike. Yere If remember
we talked about the eight two strike in a previous podcast.
UH teams were seated one through eight in each conference.
Miami was the number two seed. The Jets were the
number six seed. Miami wins to get to the a
f C Championship Game. They host the Jets, who beat
(03:19):
the Bengals and the Raiders to get here. Now getting here.
If you remember, if you listen to a previous Special
Teams podcast, Don Shula, head coach of the Miami Dolphins,
was so incensed the Patriots allowed the snow plow on
the field UH to beat them three nothing in the
game earlier. Remember he was so upset. Oh, I can't
(03:40):
believe they allowed it. Annie actually talked to the NFL
about disallowing the victory to the Patriots. So it was cheating.
It was cheating, and Don Shula was always on the
up and up, always on the up and up. Well,
there were torrential rings this week in Miami. And here's
the deal. The Jets had a high flying, well balanced offense.
Right they had the leading rusher in the NFL and
(04:02):
Freeman McNeil. That had wide receiver Wesley Walker who was
a Pro bowler. Richard Todd was ranked third in the
a f C in passing. They played well in the playoffs,
they slept most of the sack exchange. On defense. I
mean this, I remember thinking, we're going to the Super Bowl.
We are loaded. Everything is good. The offense is good.
Richard Todd is when I still liked him, because obviously
after this game I didn't. But then they were loaded.
(04:24):
This was it for the Jets. And the Jets were
built on offense and the Dolphins were built on defense
and running the football. I mean, Bob baum Howard was
Pro Bowl defensive tackle. This was the killer Bees defense
that the that the Dolphins had with Glenn and Lyle
Blackwood and Bomb Howard and Miami leading the NFL and
fewest yards allowed, fewest passing yards allowed. Believe it or not.
(04:46):
In nine games in the regular season, Miami allowed a
thousand and twenty seven passing yards. In nine games, they
allowed just over a thousand yards passing. That is some
kind of defense. They were so good across the board.
Their offense was run heavy Andrew Franklin and Tony Nathan
at running back. David Woodley was just okay, but he
was a mobile quarterback. Uh. They're passing attack was dead
(05:09):
last and their rushing attack was third. So what's the
best way to win this game? Boy? If only the
field could be really muddy. So no coverage of the
field happened. The field was not covered with a tarp,
which is against NFL rules. And the Jets and and
many NFL UH people go down and saying, well, Miami
Dolphins didn't cover the field. They're supposed to cover the
(05:30):
field because it needs to be in good playing condition. Well,
how do you slow down an offense You make the
field really wet and full of mud. This tells me
the Dolphins knew they weren't gonna be able to beat
the Jets straight up. So let's have the field be
all muddy. And this was the great equalizer. If our
offense stinks throwing the football, guess what. Your offense is
gonna stay throwing the football too. So if we don't
(05:51):
cover the field, it rains for five days. Hey, good
luck trying to move the football up and down the field. See,
I'm already worked up night. I'm already worked up on
this again, this thirty eight years go. I'm already worked
up about it. Yeah. But as you and I have
talked about so many years on our Fox Sports radio show,
you can't fall to good strategy. So if you this
was gonna be the great equalizer, mother nature came on
(06:13):
your side to, uh say, hey, you know, let's vanquished
the Jets. Sorry, Uh, you know what, that's just the
way it's gonna go. I mean to your point that
the thousand yards you know, passing yardage against is really
just patently absurd. Now, part of it is you go
back and look at the the NFL during during that period,
(06:36):
it was still three yards in a cloud of dust
for many teams. But that that is just impressive overall.
I mean, just going back and and looking at some
of the data, and fortunately, through the power of the
inner webs, there's still some videotape that you can find
here through the uh well clipped off stuff from NFL films.
Thanks but the giving us a little bit of a
(06:59):
look see into how these teams stacked up. Now, the
funny thing is, this mud Bowl was not what you
would think it is. If you didn't see the game,
you would look and see highlights this and go, the
field really doesn't look that muddy. The players don't really
look that muddy. In fact, the outside parts of the
field look okay. Even the inside parts of the field
(07:20):
don't look that muddy. But the issue was you can
run straight ahead, and when you try to do that,
you can do okay, But can you cut back when
the field is as muddy as it is. You couldn't
do it in the middle of the field. And certainly
you've seen other mud games where players jerseys you can't
even tell who they are. This was about the heavy rain.
This is about the slickness of the field. And really
(07:41):
we did not see a lot of teams being able
to hold onto the football. We didn't see a lot
of offense. We saw one incredibly great play that, unfortunately,
I will see in my head every day the rest
of my life. But really, the surprising thing to me
is that when you look at the field, he's saying,
it really doesn't look that bad like you expect it
to look a lot work. But still the teams that
they just couldn't stay upright, They couldn't hold onto the football,
(08:04):
they couldn't make plays outside. And that's one thing I
was always helping is that, well, eventually they're gonna run
a play outside, right, someone's gonna do something. But no,
everything was still in the middle of the field and
the team. Neither team could move the ball up and
down and be able to do anything more than anything
straight ahead, whether it was a run play or a pass. Yeah,
I mean you talk about the play you've alluded to
(08:26):
several times. I mean the footing certainly had something to
do with how that worked too. I mean, the the
overhead looks like all right, uh, the unnatural green, no
question about that. On the grass, but you got the
patches right. You can see It's not that it's necessarily
giant puddles, but it's just enough as guys try to
(08:48):
make their their cuts. It's it's just not working and
trying to get to the edge. It was gonna be
a no go. You watched the receivers in some of
the clips as you go back, just tiptoeing their route
knowing that their legs are gonna slide out from under them.
Not exactly a way to run a height, high octane
passing offense for Richard Todd and company. And you know,
(09:10):
one funny thing about this before you get to the
game is like I talked about, you know this staying
with me for years. It was like in two thousand
and eight, two thousand nine something like that, Don Shula
did an interview in in New York radio for something
I forget why he did it, and the person of
the interview with I think was Marty Lyons, who was
a former Jet defensive lineman who played in this game.
(09:31):
And one of the things he did, of course, was
bring up the mudball and don't Jula And don't Jula
is like it was thirty years ago. Let it go,
Let it go. He started laughing, just saying let it go.
It's like, no, no, the losses stay with you. The
games like this stay with you. Yeah. No, And obviously,
if you're the coach Uh, you know, you got away
with one here and when when you want to bring
(09:53):
up integrity and legacies and all of that, and certainly
we do it on the show and across sports Chok
radio and sports television, when whenever we talk about the Patriots,
you you have to talk about the asterisks, double asterisks
and different spots along the way. Don Shula doesn't get
a pass for this one. And the Dolphins management, for
(10:16):
all the great things you can say about them, this
one still becomes the well, let's at least have a debate.
Should they play regardless of weather? Right? Should they shouldn't
be incumbent upon them to to put the tarp out?
You know which side of yacht. It's like, you know,
growing up in Chicago, I said, you know, rain, sleet, snow, fog,
(10:36):
that's all part of Chicago Bears lore. So I just
kind of shrugged my shoulders and say, play on. But
when the guys had the push brooms out before the
game to try to get some extra water off, maybe
we could have taken better care of the field. So
we've set the stage for you for the mud and
the rain, and coming up next we'll break it all
(10:56):
down and the play that will live for her in
NFL history. This is special teams. So the Jets and
(11:20):
Dolphins were set for AFC Championship game amidst the rain
and the mud in Miami, and you knew right away
this was gonna be a really ugly game. Okay, first possession,
Richard Todd, Jets quarterback who I had such a love
hate relationship with because when he was on he was great,
and when he was off he was terrible. He throws
into double coverage, he gets picked off. All right, It's like,
(11:43):
oh boy, here we are starting already. Next play, Miami
gives the football back. David Woodley gets picked off. This
is how the game went. This was how both of
the game went. Second quarter, David Woodley, quarterback of the Dolphins,
had a seventeen yard gain on a run that was
the longest run the day by either team. That's all
you need to know. The team's traded turnovers in the
(12:05):
first half. Miami could have scored near halftime, but after
a block punt, Woodley got picked off again. It was
just a crazy day and and maybe no better footage
to be seen in this game, because I still remember
this as much as a j Dewey. Who we're gonna
get to is that the Jets punter was a guy
named Chuck Ramsey. And you've seen punter's punt with their
(12:26):
cleats on, and you've seen barefooted kickers, Right, Chuck Ramsey
punted wearing a sock. Well, you know, I guess there
everybody has their thing, but he was he would punk
wearing a sock. And to watch him walk around this
field with a mud filled sock, I'm like, it's like
when you were if you go out and play outside
and your socks get all filled with snow and stuff
and you come inside going, oh my god, it's just
(12:48):
flopping around on the carpet. I can't wait to get
him off. This guy's punting wearing a sock. He would
get That's the worst feeling in the world. Wet socks.
Then you're gonna get You're gonna get sick, or you're
gonna get a rash or Yeah no, it's not good.
It's bad, bad job by him. But you know what,
if he was comfortable with it, you know, all power
(13:09):
to him. I mean that's what it was. You watch
players slip around in the first half, you watch players
have trouble holding onto the football and the mud bowl,
and its legend was just beginning to grow. Right. We
get to the third quarter of a scoreless game, and
I admit watching this game. Look, I'm I'm I'm not
even a teenager yet, and I know this is not
gonna end well for the Jets. I know because they
can't do anything. This is playing into the Dolphins hands,
(13:32):
who were good defensively. This was our great offense and
they couldn't do anything. The Dolphins finally dent the scoreboard
in the third quarter after a couple of ridiculous things.
The Dolphins have the football. Tony Nathan Good, running back
in the Dolphins, fumbled, but he was ruled down to
the Dolphins keep the football. Then Woodley completes the path
(13:52):
to Duriel Harris, which, okay, they're getting close to field
goal range. But then Darryl Ray, Jets defensive back, argues
about the completion so much he gets a fifteen yard penalty.
Argues with the right, I'm gonna give you another fifteen
yards to get close to the end zone. What are
you doing? Why are you argue? He argues so much
he gets a fifteen yard penalty that puts the ball
(14:13):
on the seven yard line. And on the next play,
would he Bennett ex Jet former Jet? Would he Bennett
goes in from seven yards out? Miami's up seven nothing.
And I tell you, Mike, at this point, I knew
the game was over. I saw we're never gonna score.
It said they could be playing the game now forty
years later, the Jets would still have no points. But
I knew seven nothing the game was over. Well, and
that was the thing is as you go back and
(14:36):
watch as much highlights as you can and go through
the box score, like you're you're not getting any long
protracted drives. I mean, the numbers are anemic, to say
the least. When you look at you mentioned Nathan seven,
Garry's twenty four yards, not like you're, you know, making
any big plays, big cuts because on contact, your your
feet are coming out from under you. And you saw
(14:58):
that on every run. It's like a just secure the
ball and go down and live to see another play.
And yes, seven seven points certainly seemed insurmountable at that point, unbelievable.
It's seven nothing going to the fourth quarter. But okay,
you know, maybe there's some hope. Maybe you're thinking, maybe
maybe the Jets have not been able to hold onto
(15:21):
the football all day. Richard Todd would wind up throwing
five interceptions in this game. Okay, wood Lee through three,
Todd through five, teams were fumbling. It was it was crazy.
The Dolphins fumbled the ball three times. It's still seven nothing,
and then the play happens that again, I will be
seeing in my head for the rest of my life.
(15:42):
The Jets trying to move the football down the field
and a J. Dewey, who already has two interceptions. This
a J. Dewey pick and pick six that clinches the
game for the Dolphins at fourteen nothing. The worst part
of this play was, as you see this developed, you
know what's gonna end awful for the Jets. Okay, it's
(16:02):
a screen pass where he's trying to get it out
to Bruce Harper and Richard Todd just locks in on
Harper where the entire Dolphins defense is crashing the line
of scrimmage and Todd do no matter what. A J.
Dewey is in his face and he still tries to
throw it up in the air. A J. Dewey leaps up,
kind of deflects it comes down with it runs into
(16:23):
the end zone. I see him running with the ball
in his left hand, looking at his teammates, going, come
celebrate with me, Come celebrate with me. It's fourteen nothing,
and then I know, really the game is over. But
even if Dewey doesn't catch it. I mean, let's say
it goes over A. J. Dewey's head, which it didn't.
If Dewey doesn't catch it, Ernest Roan would have because
he comes all the way and he's right on on
(16:44):
Bruce Harper, the running back as well, so he's gonna
catch it and go in for a touchdown. This play
is so bad and I can't it over how Richard
Todd through the football. I mean, this is where you're
look and go, oh, this is not working. I'm gonna either,
you know, fall down or try to run up the
middle of the field and get something because this play
is clearly not working. But nope, I'm gonna throw the
football anyway. Yeah. I've watched that from several angles, Uh,
(17:07):
every camera angle, every opportunity, rubbing my eyes and trying
to figure out exactly what the hell he saw. Uh,
you saw Marvin Powell the right tackle fift Yer guy
out of USC Uh do we pretty much just thrown
him to the ground because his feet came out from under,
which is why he's wide open to to leap into
(17:27):
the well in in front of Richard Todd's pass. Uh
you mentioned on the outside. Even if that ball doesn't
get intercepted, it's still a miserable decision. I mean, there's
just there's nothing there. There's two defenders, one receiver, oh,
and A J. Dewey in between them. So I it's
(17:49):
mind boggling. It's one of those things you and I
text back and forth on football Sundays when there's a
play like that. I believe you have reference A J.
Dewey so many times, so many time. If we played
a drinking game training you and I. I mentioned some
bad decisions and balls picked up the line of scrimmage.
(18:10):
Uh wow, that would just be obliteration. But just a
horrid decision on what was a series of bad decisions.
And look, a couple of the interceptions their tip balls,
but unfortunately, unfortunately they count against you. It's not like
they don't know the balls tipped down over, down, over
down over. No. But but at the point being right,
(18:31):
not that well thrown balls. And we do this every
week as well, like it goes on the quarterback gotta
throw a better ball. The guy's open, he hits his hands,
Yes he should catch it, but you know what slippery
wet football, bad footing, trying to keep your footing, the
concentration of that, not to mention you're about to get
blown up because this guy has now stretched you out.
(18:52):
All of that means the ball is coming off your
fingers and going up in the air for the waiting
defensive back to come flying in. And I just saw
in this game as well, you know, And the one
solace I have is that if a j Dewey doesn't
make that play, it doesn't matter because the Jets don't score.
So it's you know, the game has a signature play.
It's one of the biggest signature plays in NFL history,
(19:14):
So it's got that. So but the only thing I
wouldn't have to see it. What else are they gonna
show from this game? If it's just Richard Todd incomplete,
here's the muddy field, here's how bad the conditions were.
The Dolphins win seven nothing, and that would have been
in but I knew the Jets weren't going to score anyway.
It was just one of those. It was just fruitless
to why. It's like running the air conditioner with the
door open, all right, no matter what you do, if
(19:35):
you're not gonna get the room cooler, right, That was
what the Jets did, and the Jets didn't threaten. They
lose fourteen nothing. The Dolphins go to the Super Bowl,
and here are the numbers that are gonna wow you.
This is the mud Bowl. Okay. The Jets had ten
first downs in the entire game. Miami had thirteen. Richard
Todd was fifteen out of thirty seven for a hundred
(19:59):
and three yards and five picks. David David Woodley, the
winning quarterback, through for eighty seven yards and three interceptions.
That's how bad it was. A j Dewey was for
not look this game. This is like I bet he
you know, I would watch it every day. He lined
up at six different positions. He was all over the field. Look,
Miami's defense was incredible. When you put make the field
(20:21):
like the of course, this is how it's gonna go.
The team's combined for nine turnovers and nineteen punts. I mean,
really that nine turnovers in this game. You take it,
you take it over. Here's one time where the Dolphins
are able to get down the field and then the A. J.
Dewey play happens. This was so difficult to watch. It
was so difficult to see and and look as you
mentioned that, you know, the water being squeegeed off the field,
(20:43):
and and how rough it was. I just keep going
back of all the worst losses in Jets history, I
go back, this is one of the top two. This
or the eighty six. Lots of the browns though those
are really really bad losses, but this is the one
I think of, and go, man, I get what they
say when athletes and coaches, everybody, you know, the winds
you forget about. Boy, those losses stay with you. Yeah,
(21:03):
those losses with you forever now. But you like you're
mentioning stats, right. Freeman McNeil seventeen carries forty six yards
augustin eak and Dirking three carries six yards between the
Richard Todd scrambling for his life, four for ten, uh
Tony Night and seven for twenty four. As you said before, uh,
(21:24):
Andrew Franklin thirteen for forty four, and then Woody Benett
ex Jet thirteen carries twenty four yards in a touchdown.
David Woodley was your leading rusher with eight for forty six.
So I mean just how tough yardage was to come
by footing. We talked about all the turnovers. I mean,
(21:46):
there's just not scoring opportunities. And then to give the
ball away signature play the game of his life for
a j Dewey made it, made a life out of it.
I would show that all the time. I remember this
play I made right here. Hey, hey, is it muddy out?
Is it muddy out? Speaking of mud? How about we
watch this play? Hey, who wants a bowl of cereal ball? Hey?
(22:08):
Remember the mud bowl? Let's watch this play. That's what
I would do my entire life. I think my backyard
would always be a little bit wet, and I want
to go throw the old football around. Hey, footing is
a little soft here. You know, it's like it was raining,
but I know it didn't rain. It's like, well, I
like to keep it here because it's the memories of
my greatest physical triumph. And I think I've got the
(22:29):
screen shot that I'm gonna put on a T shirt
and wear around you. He's got the backyard all lined
like it's a football field. Go out and let's recreate
it for a little while. And let's do that. Let's say, well,
right in the middle of the yard is the forty
yard line. So the Dolphins win the mud ball fourteen
to nothing in a game that just crushed young Jason Smith.
(22:52):
But the drama for both of these teams was only
just beginning. Following the mud Bawl. We have that coming
up next right here on special teams. So with A. J.
(23:17):
Dewey the hero, the Dolphins were onto the Super Bowl.
The Jets were onto what could have been if the
field was in nice sunny shape. You know, you cover
the field and everybody's running up and down and we
get a football game that was so good. But the
drama for both teams were just beginning. Jets head coach
Walt Michaels resigned under quote pressure, uh, two weeks after
(23:37):
this game was over, which sounds crazy, right. The guy
got to the a f C Championship game and if
the field was just kept in good condition, maybe he's
in the Super Bowl. But instead, Walt Michaels resigns under pressure.
Now why because he didn't have big fans enough in
ownership in leon Hess. Now, if you remember me telling you.
The Jets beat the Bengals on the Raiders to get
to the a f C Championship game. Well, at time
(24:00):
of the Raider game, somebody called the locker room pretending
to be team owner Leon Hess, telling Walt Michaels to
benchmark Gastineau, who was the Jets best defensive lineman, right,
I want you to bench cast he's not playing well.
Walt Michaels hung up on him. What was this all about?
After the game, he blamed Al Davis for doing it right,
(24:21):
are turned out it was from a bar in New
Jersey and somehow somebody was able to call the Jets
locker room at half time of the game and say, hey, listen,
I'm Gas, Hey bench casting over. This is Leon Hes
bench caston O for the second half. Oh okay, Mr Hess,
you got it. Hey, Mark, you're sitting Why? Uh? The
owner just called? How you get through to the locker
(24:42):
room and pretend you're the owner? I mean, I don't know,
but it happened only the Jets, right, I mean, that's
you know, crazy after this unbelievable. I mean, really, you
can make you make a phone call from a bar
in New Jersey. Hey, I bet all this money against
the Jets, but maybe they've bench Gaston. Let me see
if I get that. How do you get the phone
number in the Jets law g room? I mean, I
don't understand how you get an inside job man. So
(25:05):
Leon Hess wasn't a big fan of that story getting
out and Michael's talking about it. Also, after the game
was over, Walt Michaels, all the way until his death
a year ago, blamed Don Shula for not having the
field in in in good shape. And you know what,
I kind of get that because for Walt Michaels, this
was his chance of the Super Bowl. This is one
chance and of course I'm sure he thought about this
(25:26):
game every day the rest of his life. But those
things and blaming Don Jula didn't sit well with Leon Hess.
So he decided, I'm gonna push out Walt Michael's and
I'm gonna hire Joe Walton, who was a Jets offensive coordinator. Now,
actually Walton was highly sought after after that offseason. He
turned out to be a terrible head coach, and Walt
Michaels went on to the New Jersey Generals in the USFL,
(25:48):
and he had great records both years so he leaves,
goes to the USFL coaches does well, the Jets wind
up with Joe Walton, who other people wanted. And I
would love to see it with another team, but instead
that to the Jets wind up with. This is Jets
football at its finest. Fake he was yeh, but he
was only four games under five during his ten years.
(26:08):
Only four games under That's all it was. But that's
Jets football. Fake phone calls to a locker room firing
head coaches to go to ANFC championship games. Oh, I
don't like being outspoken about a field. It's all muddy. Oh,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Didn't you want to win the game? Leon?
Hes did do what? No? No, no, I really don't
like the way you acted. So I'm getting rid of
you and bringing the offensive coordinator. That's how the Jets
(26:30):
football team work. Now, it's next next level, right and uh?
He he was the the General's head coach who was
eventually fired by Donald Trump. Yeah, exactly, You're fired after
the team emerged with the Houston Gamblers. And that's what
Trump dead. You know. I like firing people. I like
your fired. You're fine. I wish I could get a
(26:50):
show or I could fire people for a living and
then become president. Okay, that's what Maybe that was the
beginning of it. So that's where the Jets went. Now
for the Dolphins, they went on to lose the Super
Bowl to the Washington Redskins. The John Riggins fourth in
one run that's been immortalized forever um the first pass
of the Super Bowl, David Woodley threw a seventy six
(27:11):
yard touchdown to Jimmy Cephalo and that was it. Woodley
was four out of fourteen for nineties seven yards in
the Super Bowl on the day the entire game, four
out of fourteen, Miami only had a hundred and seventy
six yards of total offense. So clearly the Dolphins saw,
(27:31):
all right, how far did we get with this great
defense in a running game? Well, we fell victim to
a team it was a little bit better on offense,
still had a pretty good defense. And look, even though
the Super Bowl was still close, they needed that John
Riggins run to make it twenty seven seventeen. Uh, Miami's
offense was that played a Cephalo and Fulton Walker returning
the kickoff for a touchdown, which we hadn't seen in
the Super Bowl before, so here's fullon Walker. That was
(27:53):
the entire offense for the Miami Dolphins. So the Dolphins figured,
we need a quarterback. The Jets new after that debaccle
by Richard Todd they needed a quarterback. And thus in
the NFL Draft, the New York Jets decide, well, we
need a quarterback. Here, Dan Marino's on the board. No,
we're gonna take Ken O'Brien out of Cal Davis. And
(28:13):
of course Dan Marino fall to the Dolphins. He has
a Hall of Fame career and and everything goes where
it is. But he were both teams needed quarter new
coming off the a f C title game. We both
have to replace our quarterbacks. They do it and of
course the Dolphins do it the right way and the
Jets doing a way, which was okay because Kenn O'Brien
was okay for a few years. But boy, just you know,
like other teams just passing on Dan Marino. Just so
(28:36):
interesting though that part of the evaluation process was the
Mud Bowl. Yeah, in terms of deciding that he needed
to move on, We're just gonna go straight on decision
making the execution. Look, it is what it is, but
your decision making and throwing the pass here and here
and into leaping a J. Dewey means we've got to
(28:59):
move on. And that's where me. Yeah, but said Richard
Todd really was terrible. I mean I turned the page
on him. Sometimes in sports, you can if something can
happen so bad in the game, where you play so bad,
you fail. So it's really hard to come back in
the locker room back of that. It's really hard to
come back and say, no, this is still our guy.
And I think that was the case of the Jets. Boy.
(29:21):
You know, Richard Todd was good, but he was you know,
in big games, he wasn't very good. And and this
was like, okay, how can you come back after this?
Five interceptions three to a J. Dewey. We couldn't score,
we couldn't get on the board. I mean, it's really hard.
The Jets knew we need a quarterback, and the very
famous class of eight three was there. The Jets just
picked a guy who was okay for a few years.
(29:42):
You know, where you miss out on the Hall of
Famer in Dan Marino. And you know, and that's the
real oddity of this eight three draft is that the
last two teams picking in the first round of seven
and twenty eight were the Dolphins and the Redskins. And
who were the last two picks of the first round?
Dan Marino Hall of Aimer Darryl Green Hall of Famer,
(30:02):
two of the best players at their position ever wind
up going back to back the last two picks of
the first round in the three draft, and at the
moment they were probably salty for the fact that they
had gone to better teams. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure Dan
Marina would have rather gone number one overall. But still
I think it turned out okay for him. And see
(30:23):
it seems to have worked. And he got a delivery
of books from a friend of ours on his birthday
in the year. Uh. You gotta listen to our show
on Fox Sports Radio to really know what that's all about. Uh,
but yeah, you got Ken O'Brien there you Alright, So
how about some where are they now from this momentous
game in NFL history? Alright, let's start off, Bobby Jackson. Look,
(30:46):
a lot of these guys are now hitting retirement in
the last couple of years, and as you mentioned, unfortunately
some passings along the way. But here's here's a few
that I think you'll enjoy. Bobby Jackson retired after a
long career as a regional marketing manager for Madell's Sporting Goods. No,
I thought he was assistant to the regional managers. All right,
(31:09):
See it comes back to mos a dual salam uh.
He retired police officer and then he was a football
coach in his area. Wesley Walker pe Teacher Park View
Elementary in King's Park, New York. He was so good,
Wesley Walking. He was blind in one eye and he
was still that good he was. He was fantastic, Wesley Walker.
(31:30):
He had a hell of a career. I remember wanting
to use him in strata matic football. Richard Todd Boy,
managing director with JP Morgan Investment, Securities and banking Bankers.
Not to talk to JP Morgan, got it right there, JP. No,
(31:51):
I'm I'm sure he's I'm sure he's a fine banking
investment manager. On the Dolphins side, I got a couple
of guys that got into the restaurant business. Bom Bob
baum Hower. He's got a chain of restaurants across Alabama
and Kimbo Camper He's got a bar and grilled down
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and finally A. J. Dewey. He
(32:16):
works for Caesar's Entertainment lives in Fort Lauderdale. Oh boy,
hey A J. J. Yes, I'm here. Hey you want
to you want to talk about the the interception in
the mudball. I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm read anything you want.
I gotta think there's a lot of that glad handing.
Want to hear it's kind of like a Rocky Balboa. Yeah,
kid was all mad at him, but like he walks
(32:37):
up to the tables and he's got that suit coade on.
Story about the time of fun against what was this
Spider Spider Rika Spider Rica. Yeah, you want to hear
about the Spider Rico fight. Yeah, I'll think about Spider Rico.
He's gonna tell you about the interception. Great, thanks A J.
So there, you're not salty at all about this one.
(32:59):
You're nineteen eight e two a f C championship in
two season in one by the Miami Dolphins. Part of
our weather run here on special teams coming up next week. Boy,
Let's see, we've done cold, We've done mud. How about
some snow? How about some snowballs? We'll have that coming
(33:19):
up next week. I'm Jason Smith. He is Mike Harmon.
You can hear our show on Fox Sports Radio Monday
through Friday, ten pm two two am on the East Coast,
seven pm two eleven pm on the West Coast. You
have an idea for a future Special Teams podcast, hit
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(33:41):
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(34:03):
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