October 7, 2020 • 34 mins
What would happen if fans threw snowballs on the field during a football game? Well, now you'll be able to find out. This week on Special Teams we look back at three of the biggest football games in history that were affected by those special spheres of winter fun. Snowballs ruined a field goal that could've won a game between the 49ers and Broncos in 1985. Ten years later, fans at the Chargers-Giants game were so out of control with snowballs there were ejections, arrests, and team personnel knocked unconscious. Not to be outdone, Jason was in attendance at the infamous Michigan-Penn State snowball game the same year which resulted in an angry Joe Paterno yelling at fans on a stadium microphone. Bundle up. It's Special Teams: The Snowball Games.
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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
(00:22):
Mike Harmon, a podcast where we look back in specific
years and special teams in that year. In the world
of sports. You've been listening the past few podcasts. We've
kind of been on a weather run here in the
eighties and nine nineties, talking about games that took place
in big mud, like the mud ball, games that took
place in the incredible cold, like the Freezer Bowl. We
(00:44):
had the snowplow game earlier on Special Teams. Today, well,
let's finish up the weather with snowball games. Three big games,
three big football games that were affected by fans throwing
snowballs on the field. So this kind of I feel
like this is this is one of our opus. Is
like the weather opus that we we started with with
(01:06):
with the Freezer Bowl, and now we're ending here with
some snowball games. I feel like it's part of like
the the Lord of the Rings, this is our quest.
We just hit another season. Uh so here you go
with the first snowball game coming to you in nineteen
eighty five game between the forty Niners and the Broncos. Now,
(01:28):
both these teams who you could say we're teams of
the eighties and teams of late eighties. Uh, they were
both just okay so far at this point in the
Niners have won fifteen games in the Super Bowl. The
year before, they drafted Jerry Rice in the off season,
and this was like, hey boy, the nine we're rolling.
But for the forty Niners, it was a season of frustration.
They never really got going enough. And look eighty five,
(01:50):
of course was the five Bears. Meanwhile, for the Broncos,
they were a trendy Super Bowl pick. They had draft
Advance Johnson. Remember that that was when they had the amigos,
like the three of me, go Watcher Sivers. You know,
it was a big game for both of the teams
at this point in the season, because you're talking about
in November, heyty, Broncos nationally televised game, and it turned
(02:11):
out to be a game that potentially turned on one
snowball being thrown. It was not you, my Carmen, because
this fits into your wheelhouse of you be the troublemaker
when you were a kid, well a bit of an agitator. Uh. College,
I was a guy that was around the big ten
a ton. But you know five, I was just uh
you know, a kid in in middle school, trying to
(02:33):
play football, trying to do my thing. Actually I was.
I had to had to have a surgery that had
me sitting around and doing nothing but watching football for
that fall. I had to miss a season with the surgery,
which which was awful. But what are you gonna do? Uh?
You sitting watching a lot of good football and a
(02:53):
lot of curious moments much like this one. But yes,
if I'd been in the crowd like I was in
my college days, snow might have found my hand. I
think so. I also might have been the guy yelling
at people to not do it. I don't know now
now that back then, Now now you're that guy? Though,
Now that would be you think I'm that guy? And
(03:14):
would that make me a Karen Nacular? Isn't it Karen
and ken right? Because you don't hear about Kenza, But
it's like Karen and ken right those that's what's that's okay. Uh.
So here we are November eleventh, Dan Reeves and the
Broncos hosting Bill Walsh and the forty Niners. Uh, there
was no snow on the ground believe there for a
(03:37):
snowball game. There was no snow on the field. It
had been shoveled off. Right. The game started out well
for the Broncos. Elway through a couple of touchdowns, one
to Steve Watson, Denver was up fourteen three. San Francisco
couldn't really mount a lot of offense, but near the
end of the first half they drive down to the
Denver three yard line. This is where it becomes the
(03:58):
snowball game, right. San Francisco had no timeouts. They wanted
to get a scoring before halftime, because look, they're trailing
four teen three. So Ray Worshing comes out for a
twenty yard field goal and the holder is wait for it,
wait for it, wait for it, Mat Kavanaugh, who was
the holder for the game winning field goal in the
snowplow game. So if there's snow involved and you need
(04:20):
a field goal, well Matt Kavanaugh, he is your holder.
So on this play, two snowballs actually get thrown. So
the snap comes and whoever was throwing the snowballs from
the stands wanted a time and so they threw the snowball,
so it landed on the field and potentially distracted Ray Worshing.
All right, So what happens is you see the snowballs
(04:41):
hit the ground. Kavanaugh says he was distracted, he lost concentration,
couldn't catch the ball and place it down. This is
a chip shot twenty yard field goal, so he tries
to throw it in a scrum. He can't. Denver takes over.
They kill the clock. They go to halftime up four
teen three. You know what's funny, though, Jason, right there
is the end of that play would be a would
(05:03):
have been a fifteen yard flag all day every day. Now.
The defender comes up and butts him in the head. Yeah,
knocks him. It's like, what the hell? That's like, that's
one where there's a pedally flag immediately. He also didn't
sell it right, Kevana, you gotta go to the ground
like you you just got hit by a Rick Flair
(05:26):
Judo chop man. And that that's one that Kavanaugh failed on.
So the Broncos go on to win the game seventeen sixteen, Right,
fourteen three and a a half time, they win seventeen sixteen
Rich Carlos game winning field goal of the minute twenty
seven left to go. So this field goal play turned
out to be a really big deal. And if you
(05:47):
watch this replay, you can see the two snowballs come
in and you can easily tell that Kavanaugh looks like
he's distracted. Right. He tries, but you can see, okay,
whether the corners I or something else, and he doesn't
the ball cleanly and he can't put it down. And
it's amazing to see it because it's it looks like
it's just ice that hits the ground in a couple
(06:10):
of spots and and and splatters. When you see it live,
you can't really see it. But on the replay you
see the snowballs fly in hit the ground, and that
distracts Kavanaugh. You can't put the football down. Now. The
referee at the time, Jim Tunney, said they couldn't call
a foul on the home team as a result of
somebody throwing a snowball on the field, right, So we
(06:30):
couldn't call a foul home team. They did wind up
increasing security at halftime because it was a people are
throwing snowballs on the field. We we don't want this
to happen, so let's put uh let's let's put more
security on the field. But they said they couldn't call
a foul on the home team, when now they would
they would usher a warning saying, anybody does us again,
you're gonna wind up getting thrown now as to be
a fifteen yard penalty and you would see that um.
(06:52):
But there was nothing they could do on this. So
it goes in the books as as an unsuccessful field
goal attempt. And it's just crazy to see that this
is what winds up costing a team the game. And
after the game was over, Dan Reeves, head coach of
the Broncos, said it probably didn't disrupt the play because
Kavanaugh didn't argue at that time. So I'm like, okay,
(07:14):
so because you didn't argue, it didn't disrupt the play. Yeah, okay.
Uh And and look, and it was one of those
situations where it's difficult because you can see what can
you really do about it, and there's not a lot
to do, but still to see it go down this way,
you could just tell something was wrong here. Well, it's
(07:35):
funny because they actually in the broadcast because you know,
if you if you can go back and watch young
Joe Montana and John Elway, you're gonna do this right,
and then you're gonna light this up is that they
didn't come back after a bit of a time out
to say here's the SlowMo, which was brilliant, right to
bring that back. Uh, and Frank Gifford on the call, Hey,
(07:58):
there's the snowball. I spoke of, man, that had to
be distracting. One of those kind of moments. You can
see the second one here. You know you figured five
years later you got to tell us straighter and boom,
see there's a snowball right there. Even I had a
John Madden like effect as it went. But you know,
they certainly made sure to point that out there. And
(08:20):
some technological glitches over the course of the telecast too
that made it interesting. Hey, we didn't get to show
you this angle before, but we got a beam back
from New York, so let's see this. So they did
that on the field goal, they did that on some
other things. But yeah, the fact that he didn't go
and argue it was it was the time. Man. It
(08:41):
looks like like, hey, did you see that, Hey, we
look what's going on. I looked like he was still
incredulous that this is what went on, This is this
is what happened. You know. It was weird, but that's
what Dan Reeves hooked onto as he said, quote, I
don't think Kevin Off thought of effect in him, because
if it did, he'd be standing there arguing with the official.
Right now, Here's where Dan Reeves, who never releases anything
(09:02):
and never really said anything while he was a head coach,
he was a master of of of of coach speak
where he could talk for hours and just not say anything. Uh.
He said this quote, I think if you shot me
with a thirty odd six when I was a holder,
you've still got to catch that football. So here's Dan Reeves. Yeah,
here's a foot, there's snowball that was started. Helped my
team win. But you know what, Yeah, hey, I would
(09:24):
catch that ball. You gotta catch that ball. You could
have shot me, you still got to catch the football
and put it down. This is Dan Reeves saying that
after the game. I dig that though. I mean, you
can put that on a T shirt these days. Look
how now many people in the NFL after this was over,
said that the officials should have intervened in this but didn't.
And here's a big quote Giants general manager George Young
(09:47):
remember New York Giants for something coming up later in
this podcast. New York Giants general manager George Young said
it was a disgrace. We have a game that's decided
on something like a snowball, and clearly that field goal.
Maybe game doesn't end with a nineteen seventeen when, but
it's a different game, and clearly you're adding three more
points to the forty niners total, and maybe the game
(10:08):
does and differently. After this was over, people in San
Francisco were so pissed, and rightfully so. The San Francisco
Examiner offered five hundred dollars for an interview with the
person who threw the snowball, and a young guy came forward,
apologized for it, did the interview, but didn't take the money.
Now I'll do what. I'll talk about it. But he
didn't take the money. So I was like, wow, he
(10:30):
came forward to that, if I'm doing that, I'm taking
the money. Unless he thought, like it's the movies. Hey,
they're gonna say they're gonna pay me, They're gonna find
out where I live and there there's gonna be guys
there and and and I'm not gonna like that. I'm
gonna have to be on the run for the rest
of my life and suddenly I'm I'm hopping freight cars
from town to town and and and living on the
railroad tracks. I don't want that. No, no, no, you
(10:50):
keep your money going down to Bartman Road is what
you're saying there. I mean, but it's like knock out
the door. Who's there? Goons? Who iron goons? Uh? And
I don't know that is a curiosity. Five hundred bucks
at the time, that's pretty decent money. I didn't look
(11:11):
never never say five isn't a lot of money. But
you know, for throwing the snowball and coming forward, which
means he would have had to identify himself. So he
was the identity of this dude in the process, whether
he took the money or not. I just gotta say, though, Jason,
it was it was a gift to go back in
(11:31):
time and watch a young spride. John Elway running a
flee flicker was Jim but running the flea flicker and
advanced Johnson. There was a play where he started getting
towards the sideline, didn't quite tap out fast enough for
Ronnie Lott's taste, so he kind of bumped him a bit.
And because it's wet and slippery, Elway goes down, so
(11:54):
all hell breaks loose. I mean, you got all sorts
of cool little moments watching this game. Game John Joe
Montana trying to do his magic, and Roger Craig coming
up short uh to to cement the game at Rice
with an athletic catch, but he's two feet out of
bounce like that's fun. But he also took the official
down with him, so I think maybe the officials were
(12:17):
still salty. I mean, there's so much going on, but
it's fun to go down memory lane and and you
forget about the snowball game. Now remember George Young, Jim
of the Giants. It's ridiculous, it's cost that way. Dan Reeves,
head coach of the Broncos, doesn't matter. You gotta catch that.
Just remember those two names, because if you like the
(12:37):
snowball game here, you ain't heard nothing yet. That's coming
up next right here on special Teams. So snowball game
(13:02):
in our rear view mirror. Remember the names again, George Young, Giants, GM,
Dan Reeves, head coach of the Denver Broncos, because we
are jumping ahead now ten years to the next snowball game,
which lives in infamy in NFL history as the New
York Giants, who were then coached by Dan Reeves, hosted
(13:24):
the San Diego Chargers in the final game of the season.
This game is notable because this was a year where
San Diego had a huge run of the playoffs where
they started four and seven but won their last five
games to get in. You know, starting the run of
the Charges when every year all the Chargers are terrible
the first few games and they go on a big run.
This was the first game year where they had that
(13:45):
big run four and seven, They win five in a
row to get to the playoffs. Now the Giants, they
were done right there, five and ten. They're finishing out
the Season's the final game of the regular season. So
in New York in the winter, it gets snowy. Now,
the snow wasn't on the field because the snow was
was pushed off, but it was on the corners of
(14:05):
the fields, and it was all over the stands, all right. Somehow,
the Giants in this game get up seventeen nothing while
fans are throwing snowballs at each other in the stands.
This is New York, all right, or New Jersey. Hey,
the game we're winning. Yeah, but let's throw snowballs at
each other. I mean, this is the Giants are terrible,
and then there's they're playing for nothing and the Chargers
are playing for everything and the Giants get up seventeen nothing.
(14:28):
So what do you think is gonna happen? Well, you
got a bunch of New Yorkers and New Jerry have
a snowball. Fine, you know you, You and me I.
Everybody turns into Rocky Bell boy, you know you. And
so eventually it gets to, hey, no, we should do
a forget about throwing stuff at each other. How ably
show some stuff on the field of the players. I mean,
that's New York. So they started throwing snowballs at the
(14:51):
players on the field and players started getting hitting with
these snowballs regularly. This wasn't like one or two, but
this was snowballs are being bombed every few seconds because
there was so much snow in the stands that they
were hitting the players. And this is where things started
to get out of control. Yeah, the report was that
Wednesday of that week they had about a foot of
(15:11):
snowfall by game time, and this is a Saturday game.
They moved it from the aisles and the the well
the seats were cleared, but it was all under the
seats and packed and condensed, and because it was cold.
We're also not just talking snowballs, we're talking ice balls,
and that that become part of this. So about fifty
(15:34):
people in attendance trying to pass the time and finish
off the season. Yeah, that's uh, that's a recipe for disaster. Well,
don't forget. You have to add alcohol to this because
as the game is going on, people are drinking and
you know, shock, hey, wait stop, people are drinking beer
and alcohol NFL games. As the beer gets flowing, things
get even more crazy. It's not like, hey, you know,
(15:57):
after a while, everybody stopped throwing snowballs at the players.
It's just keep drinking and throwing snowballs. The Giants start
giving away the lead on the field, the Chargers start
coming back, and it's crazy. So now you have fans
who are really upset, and snowballs are flying faster, more consistently.
You can see the games, you can see the highlights
of this game. You just see snowballs into the picture.
(16:19):
Out of the picture. Every few feet you see one
laughing Giants. Officials said they saw kids throwing snowballs on
the field and Dad's given them I fives after their Hey,
that was a good troke, Tommy. I bet you cant
throwing far to out. You know, Hey, how about I'll
buy you a bicycle if you control want to hit
somebody on the field. That's a good one, Tommy. Hi five.
(16:40):
I mean that's really what it was. That that's what
you went all good fellas at the end there too,
you're like, I went, Tommy, Hey, Tommy know, just amazing video, man,
Just yeah, the way in the way it starts to flow,
because look, we're used to seeing games in Philadelphia, Chicago
(17:02):
and other places where you'll have the you know, snowball here,
a snowball there. This is just a constant barrage. Yeah,
and then that we're we're only in the third quarter
at this point. Yeah, I mean you feel like, okay,
you're no, no, no, you're only the third quarter. Because
like I said, things always get more and more insane
the more alcohol, the more time you bring. And in
(17:24):
the third quarter of this game, uh, a security guard
gets hit with a snowball. Then a fight breaks out
in the stand. So now violence is going on. Snowball
start coming down from the upper deck, which if you
throw a snowball from the upper deck in a football game,
you had somebody you could really hurt them, especially with
a lot of these being made up of ice, because
(17:45):
it's not like you know, you just this is just
all like fresh fallen snow and hits you and and
falls off, and you go, oh, it's funny. You'll have
a snowball fighting like. This is not elf Okay, this
is this is you know, throwing snowball from the top
deck in a football game. The game gets halted and
halls are made up to the booth to have an
announcement made to warn the fans about not throwing snowballs anymore.
(18:05):
All right, So you have this warning go out to
the fans and and of course it doesn't matter because
people still keep throwing. Yeah, what are they gonna do
to us? Uh? The San Diego charges equipment manager, who
is standing next to one of the officials, gets hit
in the head by a snowball and is knocked unconscious. Yes,
Sid Brooks then sixty years old. He gets hit and
(18:27):
is knocked unconscious. The cord guy. And when I say that,
because that's the that's the assistant on the sideline. Who
who holds the cord for the head coach? Back when
before they had wireless records, you know that you had
two hundreds of yards who came. Yeah, you had the
guy who would hold the cords for the head coach,
like Bruce Coslet when he was head coach of the Jets,
(18:48):
his daughter would hold the cord form. My roommate in
college was the cord guy for Syracuse Paul. Yeah, he was.
He was an equipment manager and uh, you know he
got money to go to college, but equipment man because
he did that in high school. And he job on
game day was the cord guy for Paul Pasqualoney. And
so who was the head coach? You would always sit
there and I'll move around, move around, move around. He
was the cord guy. So the cord guy for Dan Reeves,
(19:10):
responsible for Dan reeves headset took off because he knew
Dan Reeves is gonna be a target because the Charges
are coming back winning this game. So I'm like, you
know what I'm done. I know they're gonna start throwing
stuff at Dan Reeves. I'm gonna get hit. So the
cord guy just leaves. It's the end of the year
and he probably knew Reeves hated him. Anyway, I'm not
coming back to this. There's no way I do in
(19:31):
this again. It's the way they're we're doing my contract
um out of here. So the chord guy takes off.
The game is seventeen seventeen. Sean Gale picks off a
pass and goes nine nine yards for a touchdown. You
can watch this highlight and you see his Sean Gale
is getting ready to cross the goal line. Snowballs come
flying down at him. So San Diego Chargers they go
(19:54):
up seventeen. They wind up winning the game. More people
are getting hit, a initials are getting hit. One flipped
off the crowd after getting hit. How this game wasn't
stopped or even forfeited after the Shaan Gail touchdown is
beyond me because officials clearly had no control of this game.
And at that point it's I go, you know what.
(20:14):
I know you don't have forefeits that often, but but
you had no control over what was going on the Giants.
You gave up the lead, you're losing the game. Now
we're done, we're going off the field. But they kept
playing the game even though they had no way to
stop the snowballs from flying out of the stands. It
was a barrage near Sean Gale. As he runs into
the end of with his touchdown and still the the
officials said, Okay, hey, sorry, Dave Brown, you just through
(20:36):
that big ninety nine yard pick. You gotta go back
out there. Good luck staying away from the snowballs. It's
just amazing right now. It's safety, safety, safety. Then can
we finish running clock? What don't we do? Uh? And
just you know, getting over the loudspeaker, please refrain, be
a good citizen and you're no nobody cares. It's done
(20:57):
between the alcohol or the kids trying to impress their
dad's it's over. You're just open to get out of
there in one piece. Man. Just crazy scene the Shawn
Gayle former bear uh yard or uh. That is the
play that that stands out when you see any video
footage of Here's the great weather moments in NFL history.
(21:19):
Fourteen people were arrested, A hundred and seventy five people
were ejected, so at least they were ejecting some of
the fans. They but it doesn't matter because I mean,
this is how many thousands of people at a football game.
You inject a hundred seventy Yeah, there's yeah. We got
rid of those people throwing snowballs. Their tickets were confiscated.
(21:41):
Oh my goodness. Ten security guards got hurt. Three were hospitalized,
said Brooks. As you mentioned, was knocked out for about
thirty seconds after getting hit. And look, Shawn Gayle's return
was with five and a half minutes to go in
the game. Nobody would have complained if you stop the
game at that point. Nobody would have. The Giants didn't
need it. The Chargers rearly had come back to win
this game. You could have stopped at that point. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
(22:04):
Let's keep going. They actually get another field goal and
win the game. Seventeen Dan Reeves, who was so much
oh yes, snowball snowballs. He had to sit here and
watch that the whole thing unfold, like his penance for
yelling at Matt Kavanaugh on being so haughty ten years ago. Well,
and his man deserted him. I mean that's the other part. Yeah,
(22:25):
you know, you're you're supposed to be a leader. Leader
said beat it. You know, the kids, the guy that's
supposed to be following him said I'm I'm not standing
in and taking incoming for this guy. What does that
say about you? Dan Reeves. After the game, Sean Gaylee
was asked, Hey, did you feel weird about getting hit
(22:46):
with a snowball? And he said, no, we have equipment on,
so I didn't worry too much about getting hit. All right.
The Charges they lost Dan Humphries early in this game.
Gail Gilbert was playing quarterback and it was all this
is gonna be done. We're done on the platt and
they come back and win, They win this snowball game,
and all this controversy happens, and and it's you know,
look to have that kind of Hey, we're gonna stick
(23:07):
with this and win in in an in a hostile
environment when it's the weather is zero degrees and it's
not fun for us because we're in San Diego. I
get the charge of a lot of credit for coming
back and winning this football game. Yeah, no question. I
mean being able to battle through because when when we
know the the reputation of teams in cold weather environments
(23:27):
and the data backs that out, you know. So that's
how it ended the snowball game with the Giants and
the Chargers there's one other huge snowball game we're gonna
get to coming up next. Because I was actually in
attendance for this one. I didn't throw any snowballs. Where
are you really? I was in attendance for this game.
My feet have never been so cold as I was
(23:49):
at this game. And it's the biggest college football snowball game.
We're gonna get to coming up next on special teams.
Welcome back to special teams. Before we get to the
(24:10):
college football snowball game up, We're for a couple of
minutes here. Uh, you know, we talked a few minutes
ago about how fifteen fans got arrested, hundred and seventy
five people got ejected. One of the people was a
former police chief. Right, so it's a former police chief
is throwing snowballs get injected in from the game. A lot.
(24:30):
You throw that snowball? Alright, chief, I got it. Uh.
The Giants actually apologized to the Chargers in one of
the San Diego newspapers following the game. Uh that, hey,
sorry this happened, We treated you this way and all
these things charged right, Yeah, we don't can We won
the game where you know, we went to the playoffs
now in regards to forfeitting, because this is an interesting
thing because we talked about forefeitting in this whole weather run,
(24:53):
whether it was the snowplow game or this game right here.
NFL and officials do have the power to a rulings
in regards to forfeit and overturning results. It's called the
palpably unfair acts in a game. That's the actual name,
the palpably unfair I like that, which it wasn't so
hard to say, would be a great name for a band.
I mean, palpably unfair acts. But who was really gonna
(25:16):
do that? I'm really gonna say, oh, yeah, you know what, Yeah,
that this happened, and your forfeit in the act, you
could have just you could have ended games in in
the in the you could have ended this game with
the score being the way it was and the Dolphin
the Johnts after forefeit. You were ending the game early.
We're just ending the game now because we all gotta
go away. But it does exist from the NFL. If
there is a palpably unfair act that is deemed unfair enough,
(25:38):
you could end a football game with it, and you
could forfeit a game about that. Wonder what they'd actually
determine needs to happen to uh put that into effect.
I read a New York Times article in addition to
going back and watching as much as I could have
this one, uh, that there was a photograph of an
(26:00):
individual who's throwing a snowball. He was arrested and charged
with disorderly conduct. He was convicted of improper behavior. Boy,
every one of us could getting nailed for that at
some point. Now I found coodn't we uh? And he
was fine six d fifty dollars. Oh okay, Well, you
know fifty bucks back in that's like a grand now,
(26:22):
so you know it's a lot of cash, straight cash.
I mean, that's that's uh, some small fraction of what
the seat licenses in the new stadium. So this game
was not the first snowball game that I had seen
this year, and I was actually a part of the
biggest one in college football. On my birthday in I
(26:47):
went to go see Michigan and Penn State in Happy Valley, right.
Pam and I had just started dating. My wife and
I and one of the first places we went to
by ourselves. She's a Michigan grad, huge Michigan football fan.
We were living in Kinneta get working for ESPN, and
we said, hey, you have the weekend, I'll let let's
go to the Michigan Penn State game. And it was
awesome because I was meeting a lot of her family
(27:08):
for the first time, because her aunt and uncle, who
were more like her brother and sister in law because
they were they're close in age. Uh, they came down
to the game and met us. It was awesome. We've
been so close for the past, you know, twenty five years.
So they come down to the game and so, like
I said, it's my birthday, which is in November, and
it's so cold and my feet are in water and
ice the entire game. It's terrible. There's snowballs and there's
(27:31):
snow in the stands everywhere else, and it's it's just
a miserable experience. Because to go to a game at
Penn State, you have to get there early, Like if
you don't want to tailgate, tough, you kind of have
to because there's so many people going to the games,
you gotta get there. So we had to leave it
like nine o'clock in the morning or ten o'clock in
the morning. The games at three thirty or and so
we're like, okay, we'll go and we'll go to the game.
(27:51):
And so we're there for hours and it's so cold
and it's miserable and Michigan's losing the game. But people
start throwing snowballs. And there was a play in the
in the second half. At one point, so many people
were throwing snowballs. It was a play in the quarter
of the ends, and I think it was I want
to say it was Mercury Hayes, but I'm not quite sure.
(28:12):
It was a play in the corner with the ball
was thrown to the end zone and I couldn't see
it because it was it wasn't close to where I
was in the stands. But the play goes to the
corey ends and it's an incomplete pass and snowballs come
flying out during this during this play, and my wife
pen goes, Oh, that's gonna be a penalty. I'm like,
that's not gonna can't throw a penalty flag snowballs on
the field. You're not getting that call. At Penn State,
(28:34):
you're not getting it. But the snowballs came flying out.
I was like, always like so many from the upper deck,
and this was like the last straw. Joe Paterno got
on the microphone. They but they gave him a mic
and he goes, hey, you guys, stop throwing snowballs. It's
not who we are on the field here. And I
was like, oh my god, Joe pau is yelling at
the fans, you know, in the field. This is obviously
(28:56):
years before all the scandal in Penn State, and we're
I'm going, oh my, this is this is crazy. This
is Joe. Joe Paterno was yelling at the fans to
stop throwing snowballs. They wound up, Penn State went up
win in the game. Wally Richardson threw a touchdown and
he was the quarterback that year. And but I walked
away going, I can't believe that. And then I saw
the coverage of this game, and now it was a
(29:18):
lead story on Sports Enter and everywhere else. I'm like,
oh my god, I was at a piece of history.
I was I was actually in a game that was
part of history. And when I got back, one of
my friends said to me, the people were trying to
get in touch with you. I'm like, really, go yeah,
we didn't have anybody at this game where they were
trying to see if there was a way to get
in touch with me where I could go in the
locker room and get stuck. Like working for ESPN at
the time, but I had the time off this before
(29:39):
I had cell phones everything else. We're like, yeah, we
were trying to fare a way to call you to
get you to do something because you know you were
We knew you were at the game, and and and
you could have done something. I was like, what did
you want me to do? I didn't bring a camera
to the game with me. I didn't bring microphone to
the game. It's not like you know, I had stuff.
I Oh, yeah, I'll just go in and do interviews.
I mean, if it was too housand and twenty, yeah,
(30:01):
I could go in with my phone and do interview.
You could text me and say Yea'll go in and
do some interviews, and trying to do this. Yeah, we
try to get to So obviously they wind up getting
all the stuff they needed from different um news sources
and local stations, and obviously had the broadcast of Joe
Paterno yelling at the fans. But my friend told me
they wanted me to do some stuff at this at
(30:21):
the game for them just absolutely insane. When you go
through and you and you look at this footage, I
can only imagine being there. I went to to State
College maybe three times, I think, in between my school
years and after, and it was always the bitterest cold
(30:45):
of any of the Big Ten. And I went to
all the Big ten schools on road trips. Man, I
don't think I ever experienced anything like this. Now, for
for Penn State, this was also they were pretty salty
because they were number twelve in the country the week
before and came to evan stin and lost to Northwestern.
So you've got a little bit of anger. Not to
mention it's Michigan, but you add that up. You had
(31:06):
ten of these guys got drafted along the way, and
you know, big time players. Maybe Penn State maybe maybe
it's it gets muted now and again, but remember when
they first came into the conference, they were like rock stars,
right because number number one ranked team all the time
or top five, and it's like, I, what, what is
(31:28):
this mystique with Joe Paterno? And when you did your
Joe paternal impression, I mean it was Wallace Shawn right
out of the Princess Bride. I was waiting for you
to tell me about guilder people or something. But tons
of snow. Uh. There's actually the video I watched of
(31:49):
it had that Mercury Hayes video where he's absolutely uh
Will Ferrold and he got a snowball inside the uh
inside the dome there because he slid into the wall
where there's a banking and banking of snow, and that's
where you have Joe Paterno come running up to side.
(32:09):
What the hell are we do? We're like, oh my god.
And you know, the game ended. It was so much momentum,
was it was exciting, was all this so I'm exhausted, right.
So after the game was that we went to a
pizza place, right and I'm so cold all day all day.
We go into this pizza place and we have to
we have to find a place because you know, everything
on campus is just mobs. It's after a football We
(32:30):
find a place we're able to get in and sit
down and it's so warm. I sit down and I'm
sitting next to Pam and I'm sitting up and I
fall asleep, not laying down I'm sitting up at a
table waiting for pizza, and I fall asleep. I don't
I don't put my head down on my hands. I
don't do any of that. No, no, no, I I
just sitting straight up. I wind up falling asleep, and
(32:52):
I sleep that way until the pizza comes and I
wake up and I go, oh, I'm up, and and
Pam looks at me and goes, you were just asleep
sitting up for twenty minute, I said, I was. You
didn't even move. We were like, are you okay? And
I can just tell you were sleeping. That's how tired.
I didn't didn't move to the side, didn't fall that
I nope. I just sat up and and that's what
I did. I sat up and slept for I was
(33:12):
so tired, so exhausted. That's that's what happened. I really
wish I could say I have no idea what you're
talking about. But my older daughter, as you know, my
my beloved Eleanor just turned fifteen. Every now and again
I go through, you know, as you do, you go
through some old pictures of that. I look at you
when you're little. Uh, there's a lot of pictures of
her in my arms like a football with me sleeping
(33:37):
sitting up. So I am no stranger to that position,
my friend, and I applaud you for allowing your body
to just say, you know what, it's time. So there
it is the end of our weather opus that takes
us from freezing cold to snow and mud and snowballs.
Hopefully you've enjoyed it. I'm Jason Smith, He's Mike Carmen.
(33:58):
Our show was heard on Fox Sports Radio Monday through Fridays,
tend to two am on the East coast, seven to
eleven on the West coast. If you're listening to Special
Teams you like it, do us a favor, give us
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episodes to Special Teams, hit us up on Twitter at
(34:18):
how about a Fresca or at Swollen Dome. We'll talk
to you next week with a brand new episode and
no whether I promise on Special Teams. Special Teams is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts 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 My Heart Radio
Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
(00:22):
Mike Harmon, a podcast where we look back in specific
years and special teams in that year. In the world
of sports. You've been listening the past few podcasts. We've
kind of been on a weather run here in the
eighties and nine nineties, talking about games that took place
in big mud, like the mud ball, games that took
place in the incredible cold, like the Freezer Bowl. We
(00:44):
had the snowplow game earlier on Special Teams. Today, well,
let's finish up the weather with snowball games. Three big games,
three big football games that were affected by fans throwing
snowballs on the field. So this kind of I feel
like this is this is one of our opus. Is
like the weather opus that we we started with with
(01:06):
with the Freezer Bowl, and now we're ending here with
some snowball games. I feel like it's part of like
the the Lord of the Rings, this is our quest.
We just hit another season. Uh so here you go
with the first snowball game coming to you in nineteen
eighty five game between the forty Niners and the Broncos. Now,
(01:28):
both these teams who you could say we're teams of
the eighties and teams of late eighties. Uh, they were
both just okay so far at this point in the
Niners have won fifteen games in the Super Bowl. The
year before, they drafted Jerry Rice in the off season,
and this was like, hey boy, the nine we're rolling.
But for the forty Niners, it was a season of frustration.
They never really got going enough. And look eighty five,
(01:50):
of course was the five Bears. Meanwhile, for the Broncos,
they were a trendy Super Bowl pick. They had draft
Advance Johnson. Remember that that was when they had the amigos,
like the three of me, go Watcher Sivers. You know,
it was a big game for both of the teams
at this point in the season, because you're talking about
in November, heyty, Broncos nationally televised game, and it turned
(02:11):
out to be a game that potentially turned on one
snowball being thrown. It was not you, my Carmen, because
this fits into your wheelhouse of you be the troublemaker
when you were a kid, well a bit of an agitator. Uh. College,
I was a guy that was around the big ten
a ton. But you know five, I was just uh
you know, a kid in in middle school, trying to
(02:33):
play football, trying to do my thing. Actually I was.
I had to had to have a surgery that had
me sitting around and doing nothing but watching football for
that fall. I had to miss a season with the surgery,
which which was awful. But what are you gonna do? Uh?
You sitting watching a lot of good football and a
(02:53):
lot of curious moments much like this one. But yes,
if I'd been in the crowd like I was in
my college days, snow might have found my hand. I
think so. I also might have been the guy yelling
at people to not do it. I don't know now
now that back then, Now now you're that guy? Though,
Now that would be you think I'm that guy? And
(03:14):
would that make me a Karen Nacular? Isn't it Karen
and ken right? Because you don't hear about Kenza, But
it's like Karen and ken right those that's what's that's okay. Uh.
So here we are November eleventh, Dan Reeves and the
Broncos hosting Bill Walsh and the forty Niners. Uh, there
was no snow on the ground believe there for a
(03:37):
snowball game. There was no snow on the field. It
had been shoveled off. Right. The game started out well
for the Broncos. Elway through a couple of touchdowns, one
to Steve Watson, Denver was up fourteen three. San Francisco
couldn't really mount a lot of offense, but near the
end of the first half they drive down to the
Denver three yard line. This is where it becomes the
(03:58):
snowball game, right. San Francisco had no timeouts. They wanted
to get a scoring before halftime, because look, they're trailing
four teen three. So Ray Worshing comes out for a
twenty yard field goal and the holder is wait for it,
wait for it, wait for it, Mat Kavanaugh, who was
the holder for the game winning field goal in the
snowplow game. So if there's snow involved and you need
(04:20):
a field goal, well Matt Kavanaugh, he is your holder.
So on this play, two snowballs actually get thrown. So
the snap comes and whoever was throwing the snowballs from
the stands wanted a time and so they threw the snowball,
so it landed on the field and potentially distracted Ray Worshing.
All right, So what happens is you see the snowballs
(04:41):
hit the ground. Kavanaugh says he was distracted, he lost concentration,
couldn't catch the ball and place it down. This is
a chip shot twenty yard field goal, so he tries
to throw it in a scrum. He can't. Denver takes over.
They kill the clock. They go to halftime up four
teen three. You know what's funny, though, Jason, right there
is the end of that play would be a would
(05:03):
have been a fifteen yard flag all day every day. Now.
The defender comes up and butts him in the head. Yeah,
knocks him. It's like, what the hell? That's like, that's
one where there's a pedally flag immediately. He also didn't
sell it right, Kevana, you gotta go to the ground
like you you just got hit by a Rick Flair
(05:26):
Judo chop man. And that that's one that Kavanaugh failed on.
So the Broncos go on to win the game seventeen sixteen, Right,
fourteen three and a a half time, they win seventeen sixteen
Rich Carlos game winning field goal of the minute twenty
seven left to go. So this field goal play turned
out to be a really big deal. And if you
(05:47):
watch this replay, you can see the two snowballs come
in and you can easily tell that Kavanaugh looks like
he's distracted. Right. He tries, but you can see, okay,
whether the corners I or something else, and he doesn't
the ball cleanly and he can't put it down. And
it's amazing to see it because it's it looks like
it's just ice that hits the ground in a couple
(06:10):
of spots and and and splatters. When you see it live,
you can't really see it. But on the replay you
see the snowballs fly in hit the ground, and that
distracts Kavanaugh. You can't put the football down. Now. The
referee at the time, Jim Tunney, said they couldn't call
a foul on the home team as a result of
somebody throwing a snowball on the field, right, So we
(06:30):
couldn't call a foul home team. They did wind up
increasing security at halftime because it was a people are
throwing snowballs on the field. We we don't want this
to happen, so let's put uh let's let's put more
security on the field. But they said they couldn't call
a foul on the home team, when now they would
they would usher a warning saying, anybody does us again,
you're gonna wind up getting thrown now as to be
a fifteen yard penalty and you would see that um.
(06:52):
But there was nothing they could do on this. So
it goes in the books as as an unsuccessful field
goal attempt. And it's just crazy to see that this
is what winds up costing a team the game. And
after the game was over, Dan Reeves, head coach of
the Broncos, said it probably didn't disrupt the play because
Kavanaugh didn't argue at that time. So I'm like, okay,
(07:14):
so because you didn't argue, it didn't disrupt the play. Yeah, okay.
Uh And and look, and it was one of those
situations where it's difficult because you can see what can
you really do about it, and there's not a lot
to do, but still to see it go down this way,
you could just tell something was wrong here. Well, it's
(07:35):
funny because they actually in the broadcast because you know,
if you if you can go back and watch young
Joe Montana and John Elway, you're gonna do this right,
and then you're gonna light this up is that they
didn't come back after a bit of a time out
to say here's the SlowMo, which was brilliant, right to
bring that back. Uh, and Frank Gifford on the call, Hey,
(07:58):
there's the snowball. I spoke of, man, that had to
be distracting. One of those kind of moments. You can
see the second one here. You know you figured five
years later you got to tell us straighter and boom,
see there's a snowball right there. Even I had a
John Madden like effect as it went. But you know,
they certainly made sure to point that out there. And
(08:20):
some technological glitches over the course of the telecast too
that made it interesting. Hey, we didn't get to show
you this angle before, but we got a beam back
from New York, so let's see this. So they did
that on the field goal, they did that on some
other things. But yeah, the fact that he didn't go
and argue it was it was the time. Man. It
(08:41):
looks like like, hey, did you see that, Hey, we
look what's going on. I looked like he was still
incredulous that this is what went on, This is this
is what happened. You know. It was weird, but that's
what Dan Reeves hooked onto as he said, quote, I
don't think Kevin Off thought of effect in him, because
if it did, he'd be standing there arguing with the official.
Right now, Here's where Dan Reeves, who never releases anything
(09:02):
and never really said anything while he was a head coach,
he was a master of of of of coach speak
where he could talk for hours and just not say anything. Uh.
He said this quote, I think if you shot me
with a thirty odd six when I was a holder,
you've still got to catch that football. So here's Dan Reeves. Yeah,
here's a foot, there's snowball that was started. Helped my
team win. But you know what, Yeah, hey, I would
(09:24):
catch that ball. You gotta catch that ball. You could
have shot me, you still got to catch the football
and put it down. This is Dan Reeves saying that
after the game. I dig that though. I mean, you
can put that on a T shirt these days. Look
how now many people in the NFL after this was over,
said that the officials should have intervened in this but didn't.
And here's a big quote Giants general manager George Young
(09:47):
remember New York Giants for something coming up later in
this podcast. New York Giants general manager George Young said
it was a disgrace. We have a game that's decided
on something like a snowball, and clearly that field goal.
Maybe game doesn't end with a nineteen seventeen when, but
it's a different game, and clearly you're adding three more
points to the forty niners total, and maybe the game
(10:08):
does and differently. After this was over, people in San
Francisco were so pissed, and rightfully so. The San Francisco
Examiner offered five hundred dollars for an interview with the
person who threw the snowball, and a young guy came forward,
apologized for it, did the interview, but didn't take the money.
Now I'll do what. I'll talk about it. But he
didn't take the money. So I was like, wow, he
(10:30):
came forward to that, if I'm doing that, I'm taking
the money. Unless he thought, like it's the movies. Hey,
they're gonna say they're gonna pay me, They're gonna find
out where I live and there there's gonna be guys
there and and and I'm not gonna like that. I'm
gonna have to be on the run for the rest
of my life and suddenly I'm I'm hopping freight cars
from town to town and and and living on the
railroad tracks. I don't want that. No, no, no, you
(10:50):
keep your money going down to Bartman Road is what
you're saying there. I mean, but it's like knock out
the door. Who's there? Goons? Who iron goons? Uh? And
I don't know that is a curiosity. Five hundred bucks
at the time, that's pretty decent money. I didn't look
(11:11):
never never say five isn't a lot of money. But
you know, for throwing the snowball and coming forward, which
means he would have had to identify himself. So he
was the identity of this dude in the process, whether
he took the money or not. I just gotta say, though, Jason,
it was it was a gift to go back in
(11:31):
time and watch a young spride. John Elway running a
flee flicker was Jim but running the flea flicker and
advanced Johnson. There was a play where he started getting
towards the sideline, didn't quite tap out fast enough for
Ronnie Lott's taste, so he kind of bumped him a bit.
And because it's wet and slippery, Elway goes down, so
(11:54):
all hell breaks loose. I mean, you got all sorts
of cool little moments watching this game. Game John Joe
Montana trying to do his magic, and Roger Craig coming
up short uh to to cement the game at Rice
with an athletic catch, but he's two feet out of
bounce like that's fun. But he also took the official
down with him, so I think maybe the officials were
(12:17):
still salty. I mean, there's so much going on, but
it's fun to go down memory lane and and you
forget about the snowball game. Now remember George Young, Jim
of the Giants. It's ridiculous, it's cost that way. Dan Reeves,
head coach of the Broncos, doesn't matter. You gotta catch that.
Just remember those two names, because if you like the
(12:37):
snowball game here, you ain't heard nothing yet. That's coming
up next right here on special Teams. So snowball game
(13:02):
in our rear view mirror. Remember the names again, George Young, Giants, GM,
Dan Reeves, head coach of the Denver Broncos, because we
are jumping ahead now ten years to the next snowball game,
which lives in infamy in NFL history as the New
York Giants, who were then coached by Dan Reeves, hosted
(13:24):
the San Diego Chargers in the final game of the season.
This game is notable because this was a year where
San Diego had a huge run of the playoffs where
they started four and seven but won their last five
games to get in. You know, starting the run of
the Charges when every year all the Chargers are terrible
the first few games and they go on a big run.
This was the first game year where they had that
(13:45):
big run four and seven, They win five in a
row to get to the playoffs. Now the Giants, they
were done right there, five and ten. They're finishing out
the Season's the final game of the regular season. So
in New York in the winter, it gets snowy. Now,
the snow wasn't on the field because the snow was
was pushed off, but it was on the corners of
(14:05):
the fields, and it was all over the stands, all right. Somehow,
the Giants in this game get up seventeen nothing while
fans are throwing snowballs at each other in the stands.
This is New York, all right, or New Jersey. Hey,
the game we're winning. Yeah, but let's throw snowballs at
each other. I mean, this is the Giants are terrible,
and then there's they're playing for nothing and the Chargers
are playing for everything and the Giants get up seventeen nothing.
(14:28):
So what do you think is gonna happen? Well, you
got a bunch of New Yorkers and New Jerry have
a snowball. Fine, you know you, You and me I.
Everybody turns into Rocky Bell boy, you know you. And
so eventually it gets to, hey, no, we should do
a forget about throwing stuff at each other. How ably
show some stuff on the field of the players. I mean,
that's New York. So they started throwing snowballs at the
(14:51):
players on the field and players started getting hitting with
these snowballs regularly. This wasn't like one or two, but
this was snowballs are being bombed every few seconds because
there was so much snow in the stands that they
were hitting the players. And this is where things started
to get out of control. Yeah, the report was that
Wednesday of that week they had about a foot of
(15:11):
snowfall by game time, and this is a Saturday game.
They moved it from the aisles and the the well
the seats were cleared, but it was all under the
seats and packed and condensed, and because it was cold.
We're also not just talking snowballs, we're talking ice balls,
and that that become part of this. So about fifty
(15:34):
people in attendance trying to pass the time and finish
off the season. Yeah, that's uh, that's a recipe for disaster. Well,
don't forget. You have to add alcohol to this because
as the game is going on, people are drinking and
you know, shock, hey, wait stop, people are drinking beer
and alcohol NFL games. As the beer gets flowing, things
get even more crazy. It's not like, hey, you know,
(15:57):
after a while, everybody stopped throwing snowballs at the players.
It's just keep drinking and throwing snowballs. The Giants start
giving away the lead on the field, the Chargers start
coming back, and it's crazy. So now you have fans
who are really upset, and snowballs are flying faster, more consistently.
You can see the games, you can see the highlights
of this game. You just see snowballs into the picture.
(16:19):
Out of the picture. Every few feet you see one
laughing Giants. Officials said they saw kids throwing snowballs on
the field and Dad's given them I fives after their Hey,
that was a good troke, Tommy. I bet you cant
throwing far to out. You know, Hey, how about I'll
buy you a bicycle if you control want to hit
somebody on the field. That's a good one, Tommy. Hi five.
(16:40):
I mean that's really what it was. That that's what
you went all good fellas at the end there too,
you're like, I went, Tommy, Hey, Tommy know, just amazing video, man,
Just yeah, the way in the way it starts to flow,
because look, we're used to seeing games in Philadelphia, Chicago
(17:02):
and other places where you'll have the you know, snowball here,
a snowball there. This is just a constant barrage. Yeah,
and then that we're we're only in the third quarter
at this point. Yeah, I mean you feel like, okay,
you're no, no, no, you're only the third quarter. Because
like I said, things always get more and more insane
the more alcohol, the more time you bring. And in
(17:24):
the third quarter of this game, uh, a security guard
gets hit with a snowball. Then a fight breaks out
in the stand. So now violence is going on. Snowball
start coming down from the upper deck, which if you
throw a snowball from the upper deck in a football game,
you had somebody you could really hurt them, especially with
a lot of these being made up of ice, because
(17:45):
it's not like you know, you just this is just
all like fresh fallen snow and hits you and and
falls off, and you go, oh, it's funny. You'll have
a snowball fighting like. This is not elf Okay, this
is this is you know, throwing snowball from the top
deck in a football game. The game gets halted and
halls are made up to the booth to have an
announcement made to warn the fans about not throwing snowballs anymore.
(18:05):
All right, So you have this warning go out to
the fans and and of course it doesn't matter because
people still keep throwing. Yeah, what are they gonna do
to us? Uh? The San Diego charges equipment manager, who
is standing next to one of the officials, gets hit
in the head by a snowball and is knocked unconscious. Yes,
Sid Brooks then sixty years old. He gets hit and
(18:27):
is knocked unconscious. The cord guy. And when I say that,
because that's the that's the assistant on the sideline. Who
who holds the cord for the head coach? Back when
before they had wireless records, you know that you had
two hundreds of yards who came. Yeah, you had the
guy who would hold the cords for the head coach,
like Bruce Coslet when he was head coach of the Jets,
(18:48):
his daughter would hold the cord form. My roommate in
college was the cord guy for Syracuse Paul. Yeah, he was.
He was an equipment manager and uh, you know he
got money to go to college, but equipment man because
he did that in high school. And he job on
game day was the cord guy for Paul Pasqualoney. And
so who was the head coach? You would always sit
there and I'll move around, move around, move around. He
was the cord guy. So the cord guy for Dan Reeves,
(19:10):
responsible for Dan reeves headset took off because he knew
Dan Reeves is gonna be a target because the Charges
are coming back winning this game. So I'm like, you
know what I'm done. I know they're gonna start throwing
stuff at Dan Reeves. I'm gonna get hit. So the
cord guy just leaves. It's the end of the year
and he probably knew Reeves hated him. Anyway, I'm not
coming back to this. There's no way I do in
(19:31):
this again. It's the way they're we're doing my contract
um out of here. So the chord guy takes off.
The game is seventeen seventeen. Sean Gale picks off a
pass and goes nine nine yards for a touchdown. You
can watch this highlight and you see his Sean Gale
is getting ready to cross the goal line. Snowballs come
flying down at him. So San Diego Chargers they go
(19:54):
up seventeen. They wind up winning the game. More people
are getting hit, a initials are getting hit. One flipped
off the crowd after getting hit. How this game wasn't
stopped or even forfeited after the Shaan Gail touchdown is
beyond me because officials clearly had no control of this game.
And at that point it's I go, you know what.
(20:14):
I know you don't have forefeits that often, but but
you had no control over what was going on the Giants.
You gave up the lead, you're losing the game. Now
we're done, we're going off the field. But they kept
playing the game even though they had no way to
stop the snowballs from flying out of the stands. It
was a barrage near Sean Gale. As he runs into
the end of with his touchdown and still the the
officials said, Okay, hey, sorry, Dave Brown, you just through
(20:36):
that big ninety nine yard pick. You gotta go back
out there. Good luck staying away from the snowballs. It's
just amazing right now. It's safety, safety, safety. Then can
we finish running clock? What don't we do? Uh? And
just you know, getting over the loudspeaker, please refrain, be
a good citizen and you're no nobody cares. It's done
(20:57):
between the alcohol or the kids trying to impress their
dad's it's over. You're just open to get out of
there in one piece. Man. Just crazy scene the Shawn
Gayle former bear uh yard or uh. That is the
play that that stands out when you see any video
footage of Here's the great weather moments in NFL history.
(21:19):
Fourteen people were arrested, A hundred and seventy five people
were ejected, so at least they were ejecting some of
the fans. They but it doesn't matter because I mean,
this is how many thousands of people at a football game.
You inject a hundred seventy Yeah, there's yeah. We got
rid of those people throwing snowballs. Their tickets were confiscated.
(21:41):
Oh my goodness. Ten security guards got hurt. Three were hospitalized,
said Brooks. As you mentioned, was knocked out for about
thirty seconds after getting hit. And look, Shawn Gayle's return
was with five and a half minutes to go in
the game. Nobody would have complained if you stop the
game at that point. Nobody would have. The Giants didn't
need it. The Chargers rearly had come back to win
this game. You could have stopped at that point. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
(22:04):
Let's keep going. They actually get another field goal and
win the game. Seventeen Dan Reeves, who was so much
oh yes, snowball snowballs. He had to sit here and
watch that the whole thing unfold, like his penance for
yelling at Matt Kavanaugh on being so haughty ten years ago. Well,
and his man deserted him. I mean that's the other part. Yeah,
(22:25):
you know, you're you're supposed to be a leader. Leader
said beat it. You know, the kids, the guy that's
supposed to be following him said I'm I'm not standing
in and taking incoming for this guy. What does that
say about you? Dan Reeves. After the game, Sean Gaylee
was asked, Hey, did you feel weird about getting hit
(22:46):
with a snowball? And he said, no, we have equipment on,
so I didn't worry too much about getting hit. All right.
The Charges they lost Dan Humphries early in this game.
Gail Gilbert was playing quarterback and it was all this
is gonna be done. We're done on the platt and
they come back and win, They win this snowball game,
and all this controversy happens, and and it's you know,
look to have that kind of Hey, we're gonna stick
(23:07):
with this and win in in an in a hostile
environment when it's the weather is zero degrees and it's
not fun for us because we're in San Diego. I
get the charge of a lot of credit for coming
back and winning this football game. Yeah, no question. I
mean being able to battle through because when when we
know the the reputation of teams in cold weather environments
(23:27):
and the data backs that out, you know. So that's
how it ended the snowball game with the Giants and
the Chargers there's one other huge snowball game we're gonna
get to coming up next. Because I was actually in
attendance for this one. I didn't throw any snowballs. Where
are you really? I was in attendance for this game.
My feet have never been so cold as I was
(23:49):
at this game. And it's the biggest college football snowball game.
We're gonna get to coming up next on special teams.
Welcome back to special teams. Before we get to the
(24:10):
college football snowball game up, We're for a couple of
minutes here. Uh, you know, we talked a few minutes
ago about how fifteen fans got arrested, hundred and seventy
five people got ejected. One of the people was a
former police chief. Right, so it's a former police chief
is throwing snowballs get injected in from the game. A lot.
(24:30):
You throw that snowball? Alright, chief, I got it. Uh.
The Giants actually apologized to the Chargers in one of
the San Diego newspapers following the game. Uh that, hey,
sorry this happened, We treated you this way and all
these things charged right, Yeah, we don't can We won
the game where you know, we went to the playoffs
now in regards to forfeitting, because this is an interesting
thing because we talked about forefeitting in this whole weather run,
(24:53):
whether it was the snowplow game or this game right here.
NFL and officials do have the power to a rulings
in regards to forfeit and overturning results. It's called the
palpably unfair acts in a game. That's the actual name,
the palpably unfair I like that, which it wasn't so
hard to say, would be a great name for a band.
I mean, palpably unfair acts. But who was really gonna
(25:16):
do that? I'm really gonna say, oh, yeah, you know what, Yeah,
that this happened, and your forfeit in the act, you
could have just you could have ended games in in
the in the you could have ended this game with
the score being the way it was and the Dolphin
the Johnts after forefeit. You were ending the game early.
We're just ending the game now because we all gotta
go away. But it does exist from the NFL. If
there is a palpably unfair act that is deemed unfair enough,
(25:38):
you could end a football game with it, and you
could forfeit a game about that. Wonder what they'd actually
determine needs to happen to uh put that into effect.
I read a New York Times article in addition to
going back and watching as much as I could have
this one, uh, that there was a photograph of an
(26:00):
individual who's throwing a snowball. He was arrested and charged
with disorderly conduct. He was convicted of improper behavior. Boy,
every one of us could getting nailed for that at
some point. Now I found coodn't we uh? And he
was fine six d fifty dollars. Oh okay, Well, you
know fifty bucks back in that's like a grand now,
(26:22):
so you know it's a lot of cash, straight cash.
I mean, that's that's uh, some small fraction of what
the seat licenses in the new stadium. So this game
was not the first snowball game that I had seen
this year, and I was actually a part of the
biggest one in college football. On my birthday in I
(26:47):
went to go see Michigan and Penn State in Happy Valley, right.
Pam and I had just started dating. My wife and
I and one of the first places we went to
by ourselves. She's a Michigan grad, huge Michigan football fan.
We were living in Kinneta get working for ESPN, and
we said, hey, you have the weekend, I'll let let's
go to the Michigan Penn State game. And it was
awesome because I was meeting a lot of her family
(27:08):
for the first time, because her aunt and uncle, who
were more like her brother and sister in law because
they were they're close in age. Uh, they came down
to the game and met us. It was awesome. We've
been so close for the past, you know, twenty five years.
So they come down to the game and so, like
I said, it's my birthday, which is in November, and
it's so cold and my feet are in water and
ice the entire game. It's terrible. There's snowballs and there's
(27:31):
snow in the stands everywhere else, and it's it's just
a miserable experience. Because to go to a game at
Penn State, you have to get there early, Like if
you don't want to tailgate, tough, you kind of have
to because there's so many people going to the games,
you gotta get there. So we had to leave it
like nine o'clock in the morning or ten o'clock in
the morning. The games at three thirty or and so
we're like, okay, we'll go and we'll go to the game.
(27:51):
And so we're there for hours and it's so cold
and it's miserable and Michigan's losing the game. But people
start throwing snowballs. And there was a play in the
in the second half. At one point, so many people
were throwing snowballs. It was a play in the quarter
of the ends, and I think it was I want
to say it was Mercury Hayes, but I'm not quite sure.
(28:12):
It was a play in the corner with the ball
was thrown to the end zone and I couldn't see
it because it was it wasn't close to where I
was in the stands. But the play goes to the
corey ends and it's an incomplete pass and snowballs come
flying out during this during this play, and my wife
pen goes, Oh, that's gonna be a penalty. I'm like,
that's not gonna can't throw a penalty flag snowballs on
the field. You're not getting that call. At Penn State,
(28:34):
you're not getting it. But the snowballs came flying out.
I was like, always like so many from the upper deck,
and this was like the last straw. Joe Paterno got
on the microphone. They but they gave him a mic
and he goes, hey, you guys, stop throwing snowballs. It's
not who we are on the field here. And I
was like, oh my god, Joe pau is yelling at
the fans, you know, in the field. This is obviously
(28:56):
years before all the scandal in Penn State, and we're
I'm going, oh my, this is this is crazy. This
is Joe. Joe Paterno was yelling at the fans to
stop throwing snowballs. They wound up, Penn State went up
win in the game. Wally Richardson threw a touchdown and
he was the quarterback that year. And but I walked
away going, I can't believe that. And then I saw
the coverage of this game, and now it was a
(29:18):
lead story on Sports Enter and everywhere else. I'm like,
oh my god, I was at a piece of history.
I was I was actually in a game that was
part of history. And when I got back, one of
my friends said to me, the people were trying to
get in touch with you. I'm like, really, go yeah,
we didn't have anybody at this game where they were
trying to see if there was a way to get
in touch with me where I could go in the
locker room and get stuck. Like working for ESPN at
the time, but I had the time off this before
(29:39):
I had cell phones everything else. We're like, yeah, we
were trying to fare a way to call you to
get you to do something because you know you were
We knew you were at the game, and and and
you could have done something. I was like, what did
you want me to do? I didn't bring a camera
to the game with me. I didn't bring microphone to
the game. It's not like you know, I had stuff.
I Oh, yeah, I'll just go in and do interviews.
I mean, if it was too housand and twenty, yeah,
(30:01):
I could go in with my phone and do interview.
You could text me and say Yea'll go in and
do some interviews, and trying to do this. Yeah, we
try to get to So obviously they wind up getting
all the stuff they needed from different um news sources
and local stations, and obviously had the broadcast of Joe
Paterno yelling at the fans. But my friend told me
they wanted me to do some stuff at this at
(30:21):
the game for them just absolutely insane. When you go
through and you and you look at this footage, I
can only imagine being there. I went to to State
College maybe three times, I think, in between my school
years and after, and it was always the bitterest cold
(30:45):
of any of the Big Ten. And I went to
all the Big ten schools on road trips. Man, I
don't think I ever experienced anything like this. Now, for
for Penn State, this was also they were pretty salty
because they were number twelve in the country the week
before and came to evan stin and lost to Northwestern.
So you've got a little bit of anger. Not to
mention it's Michigan, but you add that up. You had
(31:06):
ten of these guys got drafted along the way, and
you know, big time players. Maybe Penn State maybe maybe
it's it gets muted now and again, but remember when
they first came into the conference, they were like rock stars,
right because number number one ranked team all the time
or top five, and it's like, I, what, what is
(31:28):
this mystique with Joe Paterno? And when you did your
Joe paternal impression, I mean it was Wallace Shawn right
out of the Princess Bride. I was waiting for you
to tell me about guilder people or something. But tons
of snow. Uh. There's actually the video I watched of
(31:49):
it had that Mercury Hayes video where he's absolutely uh
Will Ferrold and he got a snowball inside the uh
inside the dome there because he slid into the wall
where there's a banking and banking of snow, and that's
where you have Joe Paterno come running up to side.
(32:09):
What the hell are we do? We're like, oh my god.
And you know, the game ended. It was so much momentum,
was it was exciting, was all this so I'm exhausted, right.
So after the game was that we went to a
pizza place, right and I'm so cold all day all day.
We go into this pizza place and we have to
we have to find a place because you know, everything
on campus is just mobs. It's after a football We
(32:30):
find a place we're able to get in and sit
down and it's so warm. I sit down and I'm
sitting next to Pam and I'm sitting up and I
fall asleep, not laying down I'm sitting up at a
table waiting for pizza, and I fall asleep. I don't
I don't put my head down on my hands. I
don't do any of that. No, no, no, I I
just sitting straight up. I wind up falling asleep, and
(32:52):
I sleep that way until the pizza comes and I
wake up and I go, oh, I'm up, and and
Pam looks at me and goes, you were just asleep
sitting up for twenty minute, I said, I was. You
didn't even move. We were like, are you okay? And
I can just tell you were sleeping. That's how tired.
I didn't didn't move to the side, didn't fall that
I nope. I just sat up and and that's what
I did. I sat up and slept for I was
(33:12):
so tired, so exhausted. That's that's what happened. I really
wish I could say I have no idea what you're
talking about. But my older daughter, as you know, my
my beloved Eleanor just turned fifteen. Every now and again
I go through, you know, as you do, you go
through some old pictures of that. I look at you
when you're little. Uh, there's a lot of pictures of
her in my arms like a football with me sleeping
(33:37):
sitting up. So I am no stranger to that position,
my friend, and I applaud you for allowing your body
to just say, you know what, it's time. So there
it is the end of our weather opus that takes
us from freezing cold to snow and mud and snowballs.
Hopefully you've enjoyed it. I'm Jason Smith, He's Mike Carmen.
(33:58):
Our show was heard on Fox Sports Radio Monday through Fridays,
tend to two am on the East coast, seven to
eleven on the West coast. If you're listening to Special
Teams you like it, do us a favor, give us
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(34:18):
how about a Fresca or at Swollen Dome. We'll talk
to you next week with a brand new episode and
no whether I promise on Special Teams. Special Teams is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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