Ahead of Week 10 during the 1990 season, Philadelphia head coach Buddy Ryan said his team would deliver Washington a beating so bad that “they’ll have to be carted off in body bags.” What happened in that matchup left a mark on the Burgundy & Gold in more ways than one.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
All, are these guys hitting each other?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Why do we have a fight right off the bat?
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Being physical in the NFL is as vital to the
game as the pig skin itself. And when divisional opponents
face off, the big hit seemed to get a little bigger.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Yeah, I think the NFC East in general, it's just
a crazy division.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
We all hated each.
Speaker 5 (00:22):
Other, and planning against Philadelphia, we always knew we went
up there it was going to be a hard flag game.
Speaker 6 (00:27):
This is always an intense rivalry between these two clubs,
geographically so close, and boy, they get after it.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I think every one of these players brought an expert.
Speaker 7 (00:37):
Sen strap tonight.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
But what happens when the physicality goes off the rails,
when the bangs and knocks pile up and guys aren't
bouncing back up.
Speaker 8 (00:50):
I've never seen anything like it, you know, high school, college,
you know, nine years in the pros, I have not
seen a.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Game that was that physical.
Speaker 9 (00:58):
What we were doing is just scram you know, the backups.
Now you get down to different positions where you don't
have somebody you.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Know that can even play.
Speaker 9 (01:09):
It would have to be somebody just pulled off the
bench and put in there, so it was scary.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
This is Hailtail's stories from Washington football history the body
Bag Game. By the turn of the decade, Washington was
fighting to touch the greatness achieved in the eighties.
Speaker 7 (01:44):
They had won the.
Speaker 10 (01:45):
Super Bowl Lady seven, they had missed the playoffs in
eighty nine.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Richard Justice, former reporter for the Washington Post who covered
the team in the nineties, and in nineteen.
Speaker 10 (01:56):
Ninety there was like questions, so they were going through
a revolving to our quarterback. They didn't, they didn't. No
quarterback had established themselves. Were Stan Humphreys, Mark RiPP and
Doug At both Dawn and all of that. So there
was lots of doubts. And I remember there's six and five.
This a couple of games after the body Bag Game,
and they're playing the Dolphins at home, and Tony Kornheiser,
(02:18):
Mike coleworker at the Post columnus, says to me, you know,
if they lose this game, they're six and five. If
they lose this game, we're going to have to open
the topic that Joe Gibbson needs to be fired.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
The standard was high, and this Washington team wasn't consistently
hitting it. As for the Eagles at the time, they
were on the rise. Head coach Buddy Ryan had just
led them to back to back playoff appearances. In nineteen
ninety They were the only team in the NFL to
(02:54):
have no regular starters thirty years or older.
Speaker 9 (02:58):
I thought they they did unbelievable job of building a team.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Former Washington head coach Joe Gibbs, three times Super Bowl
champion and Hall of Famer.
Speaker 7 (03:09):
I mean they were loaded. Really.
Speaker 9 (03:12):
The first time I faced the Bear defense and Buddies
defense was when he was at Chicago as an assistant.
Speaker 7 (03:20):
He deserves a.
Speaker 9 (03:21):
Lot of credit for that scheme because people today are
still playing that front. It was the first time that
somebody actually covered the center and then covered both guards.
And then at times he had if you just played
the standard tight end, he had two linebackers on the
tight end. Very unusual. I'm not sure I slept trying
(03:42):
to come up with the scheme.
Speaker 7 (03:44):
He knew all about Buddy and what he brought.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Jim leashe Super Bowl champion offensive tackle for Washington from
nineteen eighty eight to nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 11 (03:55):
We knew that defense was going to be emphasized and
they had a great defense with a lot of great
football players. Man, when I think about that defensive line,
you know, obviously the guy went against Clyde Simmons, Jerome
Brown was one of the defensive tackles, Mike Golig was
inside there, played one of the defensive tackles, and of
course is a great and legendary Reggie White was over
(04:18):
there at left defense event. Now being a left defense event,
I'm the left tackle. Jo Jacobi and Eddie Simmons got
a deal with him a little bit more than I did,
which was totally fighted by me.
Speaker 7 (04:30):
But they had a great defense.
Speaker 11 (04:32):
And you know, we always knew when he played Eagles
it was going to be a battle because they had
some great football players. And then he knew that Randall Cunningham,
you know that offense can get hot at any time.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
In the first clash between the teams during the nineteen
ninety season, the Burgundy and Gold came out on top
at RFK thirteen to seven. Washington's weaknesses were on display
in the following two games, a lost to the Giant,
then a magical but nerve wracking win in overtime against
(05:05):
a struggling Lions.
Speaker 10 (05:07):
First of all, the week before the bodyback game. This
is a floundering team. They go to Detroit, they're down
seventeen in the fourth quarter, and Joe Bench's Stan Humphries
and brings in Jeff Rutledge, an aging journeyman backup quarterback
of slow footed backup quarterback, and with time running out,
(05:27):
like twelve seconds to go, the clock running, I mean
it's the last play, Joe calls a quarterback sneak, maybe
the slowest guy in the league, and the guy goes
Jeff Rutledge goes right up the middle scores twelve yards
on a quarterback sneak to tie the game. The low
Miller case and field goal in.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Overtime, quarterback inconsistency with Mark Rippin out injured, and a
defense that could be exposed.
Speaker 8 (05:51):
I remember that we could practice after that Detroit game,
being a tough week of practice because we gave up
a lot of points on defense the week before that.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Martin Super Bowl champion cornerback for Washington from nineteen eighty
nine to nineteen ninety two, we came.
Speaker 8 (06:07):
Into the game with the mindset that it was going
to be a very hard hitting type of contest.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
The rematch week ten veteran stadium.
Speaker 12 (06:16):
Remember that night, Well, when we went to Philadelphia, it
was it was either just starting to get cold or
it was cold.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Andre Collins, Super Bowl champion linebacker for Washington from nineteen
ninety to nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It was just one of those weird days.
Speaker 12 (06:33):
And honestly, when we got off the bus from the hotel,
there was just something in the air that wasn't good. Personally,
I never liked playing on Monday night. I always preferred
Sunday afternoon. But that Monday night there was just something
really stale in the air, and I just I knew
(06:53):
it wasn't going to be good.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
I knew it.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Where did that Eagles sent for blood come from going
into that second game? Perhaps it was the quick turnaround
between that first and second contest between the teams, or
the eyes of a nation on Monday night football. Maybe
it was because of a coach who just was a
(07:17):
bit brash.
Speaker 13 (07:18):
Buddy Ryan was a guy that was kind of a
cocky guy.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Charlie Casserly, Washington general manager from nineteen eighty nine to
nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 13 (07:28):
He should have been in professional wrestling too, That's the
other thing he could have been great at. So He's
always outstirring the pot there on it.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
He was the mouth.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Face Gary Clark, two time Super Bowl champion wide receiver
for Washington from nineteen eighty five to nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You know, he just was always I mat just buddy though.
Buddies that way. You don't see too many head coaches
talk trash.
Speaker 11 (07:54):
Coach Ryan talked about before the game, this is going
to be such a physical game here, the Redskins would
have to bring up the body bags, and little do
we know, that ended up being the truth in that game.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
The Liberty Bell here at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
a capacity crowd on hand tonight for the Philadelphia Eagles
and the Washington Redskins.
Speaker 13 (08:13):
They had a player, Andre Waters, and this guy had
a reputation of being a dirty player, a late hit guy. Okay,
first play in the game, he takes a cheap shot
on Ernest Myner and.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Here comes Andre Waters, number twenty and throwing the elbow
into the face of Ernest Beiner, and immediately the Eagles
rss de foule.
Speaker 7 (08:35):
Andre Roters.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We've talked much about him overwhelmed past several years. He
plays this game wildly in Tensa. He was fined recently
by the commissioner for banging into a player in our
game a couple of weeks ago, and we're going to
be hearing more about him tonight.
Speaker 14 (08:51):
Already we went out for I think it was our
little punt returner and got hit and sprained his knee.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Bubba Tire, Washington's head athletic train for twenty five years.
Speaker 14 (09:02):
And he's down on the ground and Andre Waters, their
defensive back, who was, to put it mildly, was Rother Malthy.
I mean he loved to talk an any rate. And
he's hollering at me and my assistant. We're down with
the player and waiting on the team doctor to get
out there, and he's hollering, you better get your body back.
(09:23):
You've got to get more buses. You gotta get body back.
Speaker 12 (09:29):
I mean nothing against our backup quarterback, but we were
going into the game without ripping, and things got off.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Things started off bad.
Speaker 12 (09:38):
They scored first, maybe off of an interception or something, and.
Speaker 15 (09:42):
It's intercepted Brazzelle inside the twenty the ten touch.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
The Eagles defense, nicknamed Gang Green, is making sure the
Burgundy and Gold feels its presence on both sides of
the ball.
Speaker 11 (09:56):
William Brazzell got to pick six on us and he
went running up and down our sidelines and was like, yell,
if y'all want to get some more body bags, and
we're like.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
Who is you know, what's going on? Who's this guy?
Speaker 15 (10:08):
And Riggs is shaking up. Got to bring in Ernest
Spiner for Riggs and that's out.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Washington does manage to tie it up early in the
second quarter with a touchdown by tight end Don Warren.
Speaker 15 (10:20):
Bake the biner and Rubbless goes the other way and
the catch is made by Donny Warren. It's a touchdown.
He doesn't have to worry about it. Don Warren scrambling
after the ball, but he was over the line and
had possession according to the initial indication, and it's a
redskin touchdown.
Speaker 16 (10:37):
One of my seven career scores.
Speaker 17 (10:39):
That's funny because I'm like sixth on the all time
games list, played in every Super Bowl, started in every
Super Bowl, and you know, I actually scored in that game.
Speaker 16 (10:51):
I totally, I totally forgot about it.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
But the Eagles aren't phased.
Speaker 11 (10:57):
You know, we had a gun and do things and
do what we do best, and what we did best
for most of the time is the Hogs usually played
well when we ran the football, and you know, that's
something that the Eagles took away.
Speaker 15 (11:10):
Here are the Skins tonight on the ground, averaging less
than two yards to carry.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
They've credit to the guys in the green shirts. They
have really stuck things at the line of scrimmage and
this is an outstanding Redskin offensive line.
Speaker 15 (11:25):
Red Skins have not converted a third down tonight. They're
all for six.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
The game is tied seven to seven at halftime.
Speaker 16 (11:32):
Here comes here comes Joe, and he is like livid.
He's pissed off, you know, and everybody knows that. You know,
Joe never cussed or anything like that, but you could
tell when the man was mad. Joe Gibbs comes flying
out of there, and he's just direight, and he's saying,
(11:56):
how poorly we're playing. We're getting our butts.
Speaker 11 (12:00):
He takes his.
Speaker 16 (12:01):
Left hand and swipes and takes all the drinks, gatorad
and water, orange spices off to one side, and then
he goes whatever he had left. He takes his right
hand and clears thet their table and I look over it.
(12:22):
I look over at Okie and he's soaking wet.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
The halftime talking to unfortunately did not have the intended effect.
Speaker 11 (12:32):
They kind of had a trick play. Keith Byers, who
was a former teammate of mine in Ohio State, had
a half back throw hit his sherman in the end zone,
and you know, a lot of controversy on that. I
remember they reviewed it for about five minutes, it seemed like,
and they threw a flag, but they end up picking
up the flag, and you know, they want to head
fourteen to.
Speaker 15 (12:53):
Seven, and the Eagles have that drive going on that
fourth down play that passed, but Heath Sherman and cash
in to take the league.
Speaker 7 (13:02):
But still, you know it's for some points.
Speaker 11 (13:04):
That's one drive, you know, one defensive stop and you
get the ball back. You know you're gonna go out
there and you know, find a way to tie that
ball game back up. And I think that's when we
started losing guys.
Speaker 18 (13:15):
Major part of their defense now being assisted off the field,
and you can see that they have splitted that leg
and he's not putting any weight on that at all.
And this is a certainly a damaging blow to the Redskins.
Speaker 12 (13:27):
It was sad to watch so many of my teammates
get dragged out of there. I don't know if it
was seven, eight nine, maybe more guys.
Speaker 15 (13:37):
Britt Hager lady major pop on Joe Howard on that
run back and Howard is still scrawled out helmet to
helmet hit.
Speaker 11 (13:45):
Back in the day, when you're playing in Veterans Stadium
and you got you know, a loud fans, and you
know it was hard to hear the snaf count and
you got your you know, your backup quarterback in there,
and you.
Speaker 7 (13:56):
Know they were able to tee off on him.
Speaker 11 (13:58):
I think they got four sacks and they get Rege
White had two of them.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
The field, just screwing with redskin injured.
Speaker 14 (14:05):
Normally, trainers we might go on the field once twice
during the game, you know, the assist the injured player.
This game, it seems like we were out there eight
or more times. I mean we were out there a lot.
Speaker 13 (14:17):
And then you sit there, hold out another one. Okay,
how many of these could happen?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Then salt in the wound.
Speaker 15 (14:24):
They really pulled.
Speaker 8 (14:25):
Away in a third quarter from us, and we never
really recovered from that. I think that I think they
scored on defense.
Speaker 15 (14:30):
Again, Sanders and Moss, Brian and everybody else goes into
the pad of West Cockeys with a second, it's picked
up by five centers and it's a touchdown.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Our offense got clobbered.
Speaker 15 (14:43):
Two touchdowns for the Eagle defense tonight.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
You got hit, it hurt.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
It's just what it was.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I mean, you could tell those playing lights out football.
Speaker 15 (14:51):
The Posse last week thirty two catches an incredible number
thirteen by both five of teeth aren't then a total
of nine.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
I thought sorry for quarterbacks honestly, because they were getting tag.
Speaker 15 (15:04):
Redskins will begin there next drive from that spot and
they will do it with a new quarterback.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Other he did not have a whole lot of time
to warm up. And it is Shelley here in Philadelphia
the night and the temperatures continuing to drop it.
Speaker 18 (15:20):
I don't think they have a choice. I think Rutley
maybe had to come.
Speaker 15 (15:25):
Out of this game.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Well that's his right hand and he's a right handed quarterback.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Stan Humphries technically Washington's third string quarterback is in after
starter Rutledge gets hurt. The Burgundy and Gold offense just
can't get anything going.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
The Eagle defense has just continued to play good football.
They have been all over Washington to Ice from the
get go.
Speaker 15 (15:50):
They're playing great football.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
The Eagles score again now up twenty eight to seven.
Speaker 15 (15:57):
They to Tony left the serving who else, Well, this
is an old fashion, welcome her.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
And then in the fourth quarter, a major, major problem occurs.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I'm saying, Humphreys has hurt. Did you see his leg
get twisted when he went down? Thanks, Stan Humphreys has
really hurt.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
Grabby it right me.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Humphrees, the only active, healthy quarterback left on the roster
goes down injured.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
Coach Carvey said you're in, and I'm like, what it?
Speaker 7 (16:37):
Running back said, no, no, no.
Speaker 15 (16:38):
Quarterback Number thirty is Brian Mitchell. He's a running back
and a return specialist. He's a rookie, but he did
play quarterback in college.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
I know before the game, coach games had come to mean.
Mark Fruitman was already hurt. Did we have Stan Humphries
and Jeff Ruttlich if something happens, you have to be
ready And I was like, what do you mean ready
for what? He was like, you know, so we're gonna
give you a little game plan. That's the coach.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
I know.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
The offense, and we started asking me questions that I
basically had a good feel for it because I was
a quarterback in college. This is my rookie season, so
I kept preparing as I did what I got in college.
Speaker 7 (17:14):
Uh So they gave me a little smaller game plan.
Speaker 15 (17:17):
I learned that, well, Mitchell is going to come into
quarterback here. This game is over as far as the
Redskins are concerned.
Speaker 8 (17:24):
I wanted to see it. I mean, because he was
he was all around. You know, he's like a throwback,
you know, he pretty much did everything.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
It's a turner.
Speaker 8 (17:31):
He's a running back, decent receiver out of the backfield.
So I remember standing at wanting to see what he
was going to do.
Speaker 7 (17:37):
So when Brian got in there, I think a couple
will say, hey, probably no sacks.
Speaker 11 (17:42):
Man, don't take any sacks, you know, I mean, you're
a good runner, you know, break out the bobby and
get out of you after.
Speaker 7 (17:47):
We just don't take any sacks.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
And I walked in the huddle and the first thing
I said was listen. We called a speed speed right,
I think it was speed right, yes, be right. And
I said I'm running this ball. I said I did
in college. Is the first time I rolled out. I'm
running it, but we had a false start.
Speaker 15 (18:04):
Well, Brian Mitchell will take over and before he can
throw a pass, we've got a flag.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Be Mitch as a natural athlete, so we kind of
always knew that he could play because he could run
and throw, you know. And he's throwing passes in running
back shoulda pats. He's not wearing quarterback shoulder pass he's
running running back shoulder bags.
Speaker 15 (18:23):
Second down, Mitchell throws, the catch is made. He didn't
get in, but he did make the catch. Ricky Sanders
is there.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
I threw a pass to Ricky Sanders and I thought
he had got a handle.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I thought it was a touchdown.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
I though it was a post corner and I threw it.
He went out and I thought he got the ball
across the breaker plane.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You know, it's a pretty could throw.
Speaker 15 (18:48):
Look at the tight spiral.
Speaker 6 (18:52):
I mean that is right there.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
When I see the pass, I guess at that point
it made me smile because I've done that in college.
Speaker 13 (19:00):
Hit some passes. I mean it really good passes. And
Ricky said, is on the goal line, which I think
it was a touchdown because he hit the comb Okay,
but they ruled it that the one yard line half
yard line, and you do one thing. There's only one
play that Brian Mitchell was going to call. If he's
on a half yard line, he's gotta run a sneak,
which he jumped over to get the touchdown.
Speaker 15 (19:20):
Mitchell, well, why not? He deserves it. He's in there
for the touchdown.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
His first NFL touchdown.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
Ryan Mitchell pulled on his socks getting ready for this game.
I'm sure, like all rookies in this league, they dream
of scoring a touchdown. I'm not sure that he.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Imagined it though, coming by taking a snap from center
and taking it on a quarterback sneak at the goal line.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
I always told my buddies that I have some bets
with some people that I was going to play quarterback
in the NFL at one point. So, like I told
you earlier, I didn't get nervous because that's the first
thing that popped in my mind. So I got a
chance saying okay, now I have to call my boy
because he owes me one hundred dollars and this guy
holds me that's amount of money.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
With Brian Mitchell's last minute touchdown, the game finishes twenty
eight fourteen Eagles.
Speaker 11 (20:13):
You know, we're kind of watching the standings or halfway
through the season or just start the second half of
the season, and you know, you want to position yourself
to get into the playoffs. I mean, that's every team's
goal is to make the playoffs and then you know,
fight for Super Bowl championship. And you know, so you
lose to Arrival, you lose to a conference team, you
(20:35):
come out of their five and four. You know, it's
a little bit of soul searching.
Speaker 10 (20:38):
They come back to Washington the next day, nine players hurt.
They get all these quotes from Jerome Brown and from
Reggie White, Mike goliy just basically we beat the hell
out of him and they don't want us anymore.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
The body bag headline was everywhere.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
We just kind of like registered in the back of
our brains.
Speaker 12 (20:58):
Quite honestly, I found like that was the game that
kind of changed our season for us. We were embarrassed,
there's no doubt about it. You don't want to get
beat up like that on Monday night.
Speaker 11 (21:10):
You know, after that point kind of a gut check time,
everybody in the organization, you know, hey, you know, we
want to win some Super Bowls.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
We got to win tough, physical games like that.
Speaker 11 (21:19):
We always private to ourselves on being the most physical team.
Speaker 10 (21:23):
Nobody was better at taking advantage of crisis than Joe Gibbs.
But you had the feeling and after a game like
that that there's gonna be helicopters with guns on them
over the practice field because we're going to be simple
and what we do and we're gonna be serious about it.
Speaker 12 (21:39):
And I feel like after that we kind of came
together as a team, really started to like each other.
For some other young players, myself, Brian Mitchell, Moelo, Andibe,
we felt like we were kind of becoming part of
the team. There was a lot of fun stuff happening
on Mondays after games, just a whole just the whole
(22:02):
Joe Gibbs way. You know, I wanted to be a
part of that.
Speaker 7 (22:06):
You know.
Speaker 12 (22:06):
All of those little things that Joe did kind of
brought us together, got guys excited about wanting to compete
hard on Sunday. I felt like by the end of
that season we were a really good we were a
really good football team.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Most of the injuries sustained in the body bag game,
thankfully weren't devastating.
Speaker 13 (22:28):
Only one put a player on ir. That's that's you know,
it's not like they ended our season.
Speaker 7 (22:34):
Very fortunate.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Our whole staff, you know, Bubba and his and his staff,
they took great care of us.
Speaker 14 (22:39):
It always amazed me that how our guys could respond
and come back from injuries. I mean when one doctor
called him, uh, they said, they're neural muscular geniuses.
Speaker 11 (22:52):
Mark Rippin came back through four touchdown passes, one convincing.
He gets the Saints and then they start to feel confident.
Who can get this done? Maybe we can keep scratching
some wins out and find a way to get in
the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Washington won five of their last seven games. The Eagles
also won five of their last seven, and there it
was again Philadelphia first Washington. This time winner goes home.
Speaker 13 (23:29):
We can stop these guys. Cunningham is an inconsistent passer
who's a good runner, and he'll make some big throws,
but he's not going to consistently beat your throw on
the ball. The second thing is he's Sherman. They kept
in the game. The big things. Well, he's going to
break Steve Van Buren's record, who was an all time
great running back for the Eagles in the forties of
(23:50):
thirty five carries in the game. Sure he did, but
he averaged under four years at Harry. He was not
a guy that was going to be a big play guy.
You could contain him. Buyner was a move that change
guy too, but he had more explosiveness too.
Speaker 11 (24:04):
Me.
Speaker 13 (24:04):
He was a better receiver. So to me, we can
defend these guys if we could protect Okay, they can't
cover us.
Speaker 10 (24:12):
So fast forward to the playoff game, snowy in Washington
and on the practice field an hour after practice, Gibbs
had done his media and all that. It's Ray Didningduer
the Philify Daily News, who later went on to work
for NFL Films, and me and Joe Ray got word
that day the Eagles practice that week in Tampa. Why
(24:34):
because the super Bowl was in Tampa and we got
to be ready for the super Bowl because everyone knows
we're going.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
The best thing about our team is we really responded
to bravado if you talk too much, If you talk
too much, then we took it personal.
Speaker 12 (24:49):
We kind of had our own motivating factor where we
said we weren't going to talk about the body bag.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
You know, for us and we had T shirts made.
Speaker 12 (24:59):
I remember the said no comment conspiracy, the no comment conspiracy.
I think some guys might have even worn fatigues, and
we kicked their bots.
Speaker 11 (25:12):
Our offensive line played a lot better. Our defense held
him to six points and kind of the turning point
in that ball game. You know we are our defense
is always scared to death or Randall Cunningham just because
he can make something out of nothing, you know, the
Bill Tita to take a broken play and pick up
a first down. Or more about the third quarter or
(25:33):
maybe early fourth quarter, they pulled him out and brought
in Jim McMahon, but we just kind of exhaled, was like, okay,
we got him now.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
So we stopped him on our home field.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
And that's that's an embarrassment when you lose at home
doing the playoffs.
Speaker 13 (25:52):
Buddy Ryan was fired after the game, and Buddy Ryan
never went to the playoffs again in his career as
a coach.
Speaker 11 (25:58):
I think by beating the Eagles in that game, it
gave us the conference that we had the right type
of guys, you know, the guys that were going to fight,
the guys that are going to work hard, the guys
that are going to be as physical as possible and
find a way to get it done.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
It didn't happen that season, but next season what many
call the greatest team ever, they went all the way.
There's roots on that trophy that's sprawled back to a
scary but formative night in November nineteen ninety.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
And I think that I remember that game because it
changed the way people looked at me.
Speaker 7 (26:40):
I would no longer just.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
A return hat. I was a vital part that can
help the team out. Well, what the game did for
us was make us realize, Okay, let's go back and
work a little harder, prepare a little better. And then
about a year and about three months later, we were
hoisting the Lombardy you know, and I today, as we talked,
I wear his ring, and probably it was ignited from
(27:04):
that night November twelve, nineteen ninety we won the Super
Bowl January twenty sixth, nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 7 (27:11):
So in that little.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Amount of time, thank you, Philly, he gave us one.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
This episode of Hail Tales was narrated, produced, and researched
by me Hannah Liechtenstein, senior copywriter for the Washington Commanders.
It was produced and edited by Jason Johnson, Additional editing
by Nick Leanos. Executive producers are Ryan Yoakum and Kevin Klein.
Graphics designed by Zach Osborne and Matt Cashman. Thank you
(27:54):
to our guests for their contributions, and thank you for listening.
Voting is now open for the twenty twenty five People's
Choice Podcast Awards. Vote now for hail Tales For best
Historical Podcasts, go to podcastwards dot com
All, are these guys hitting each other?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Why do we have a fight right off the bat?
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Being physical in the NFL is as vital to the
game as the pig skin itself. And when divisional opponents
face off, the big hit seemed to get a little bigger.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Yeah, I think the NFC East in general, it's just
a crazy division.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
We all hated each.
Speaker 5 (00:22):
Other, and planning against Philadelphia, we always knew we went
up there it was going to be a hard flag game.
Speaker 6 (00:27):
This is always an intense rivalry between these two clubs,
geographically so close, and boy, they get after it.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I think every one of these players brought an expert.
Speaker 7 (00:37):
Sen strap tonight.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
But what happens when the physicality goes off the rails,
when the bangs and knocks pile up and guys aren't
bouncing back up.
Speaker 8 (00:50):
I've never seen anything like it, you know, high school, college,
you know, nine years in the pros, I have not
seen a.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Game that was that physical.
Speaker 9 (00:58):
What we were doing is just scram you know, the backups.
Now you get down to different positions where you don't
have somebody you.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Know that can even play.
Speaker 9 (01:09):
It would have to be somebody just pulled off the
bench and put in there, so it was scary.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
This is Hailtail's stories from Washington football history the body
Bag Game. By the turn of the decade, Washington was
fighting to touch the greatness achieved in the eighties.
Speaker 7 (01:44):
They had won the.
Speaker 10 (01:45):
Super Bowl Lady seven, they had missed the playoffs in
eighty nine.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Richard Justice, former reporter for the Washington Post who covered
the team in the nineties, and in nineteen.
Speaker 10 (01:56):
Ninety there was like questions, so they were going through
a revolving to our quarterback. They didn't, they didn't. No
quarterback had established themselves. Were Stan Humphreys, Mark RiPP and
Doug At both Dawn and all of that. So there
was lots of doubts. And I remember there's six and five.
This a couple of games after the body Bag Game,
and they're playing the Dolphins at home, and Tony Kornheiser,
(02:18):
Mike coleworker at the Post columnus, says to me, you know,
if they lose this game, they're six and five. If
they lose this game, we're going to have to open
the topic that Joe Gibbson needs to be fired.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
The standard was high, and this Washington team wasn't consistently
hitting it. As for the Eagles at the time, they
were on the rise. Head coach Buddy Ryan had just
led them to back to back playoff appearances. In nineteen
ninety They were the only team in the NFL to
(02:54):
have no regular starters thirty years or older.
Speaker 9 (02:58):
I thought they they did unbelievable job of building a team.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Former Washington head coach Joe Gibbs, three times Super Bowl
champion and Hall of Famer.
Speaker 7 (03:09):
I mean they were loaded. Really.
Speaker 9 (03:12):
The first time I faced the Bear defense and Buddies
defense was when he was at Chicago as an assistant.
Speaker 7 (03:20):
He deserves a.
Speaker 9 (03:21):
Lot of credit for that scheme because people today are
still playing that front. It was the first time that
somebody actually covered the center and then covered both guards.
And then at times he had if you just played
the standard tight end, he had two linebackers on the
tight end. Very unusual. I'm not sure I slept trying
(03:42):
to come up with the scheme.
Speaker 7 (03:44):
He knew all about Buddy and what he brought.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Jim leashe Super Bowl champion offensive tackle for Washington from
nineteen eighty eight to nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 11 (03:55):
We knew that defense was going to be emphasized and
they had a great defense with a lot of great
football players. Man, when I think about that defensive line,
you know, obviously the guy went against Clyde Simmons, Jerome
Brown was one of the defensive tackles, Mike Golig was
inside there, played one of the defensive tackles, and of
course is a great and legendary Reggie White was over
(04:18):
there at left defense event. Now being a left defense event,
I'm the left tackle. Jo Jacobi and Eddie Simmons got
a deal with him a little bit more than I did,
which was totally fighted by me.
Speaker 7 (04:30):
But they had a great defense.
Speaker 11 (04:32):
And you know, we always knew when he played Eagles
it was going to be a battle because they had
some great football players. And then he knew that Randall Cunningham,
you know that offense can get hot at any time.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
In the first clash between the teams during the nineteen
ninety season, the Burgundy and Gold came out on top
at RFK thirteen to seven. Washington's weaknesses were on display
in the following two games, a lost to the Giant,
then a magical but nerve wracking win in overtime against
(05:05):
a struggling Lions.
Speaker 10 (05:07):
First of all, the week before the bodyback game. This
is a floundering team. They go to Detroit, they're down
seventeen in the fourth quarter, and Joe Bench's Stan Humphries
and brings in Jeff Rutledge, an aging journeyman backup quarterback
of slow footed backup quarterback, and with time running out,
(05:27):
like twelve seconds to go, the clock running, I mean
it's the last play, Joe calls a quarterback sneak, maybe
the slowest guy in the league, and the guy goes
Jeff Rutledge goes right up the middle scores twelve yards
on a quarterback sneak to tie the game. The low
Miller case and field goal in.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Overtime, quarterback inconsistency with Mark Rippin out injured, and a
defense that could be exposed.
Speaker 8 (05:51):
I remember that we could practice after that Detroit game,
being a tough week of practice because we gave up
a lot of points on defense the week before that.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Martin Super Bowl champion cornerback for Washington from nineteen eighty
nine to nineteen ninety two, we came.
Speaker 8 (06:07):
Into the game with the mindset that it was going
to be a very hard hitting type of contest.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
The rematch week ten veteran stadium.
Speaker 12 (06:16):
Remember that night, Well, when we went to Philadelphia, it
was it was either just starting to get cold or
it was cold.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Andre Collins, Super Bowl champion linebacker for Washington from nineteen
ninety to nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It was just one of those weird days.
Speaker 12 (06:33):
And honestly, when we got off the bus from the hotel,
there was just something in the air that wasn't good. Personally,
I never liked playing on Monday night. I always preferred
Sunday afternoon. But that Monday night there was just something
really stale in the air, and I just I knew
(06:53):
it wasn't going to be good.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
I knew it.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Where did that Eagles sent for blood come from going
into that second game? Perhaps it was the quick turnaround
between that first and second contest between the teams, or
the eyes of a nation on Monday night football. Maybe
it was because of a coach who just was a
(07:17):
bit brash.
Speaker 13 (07:18):
Buddy Ryan was a guy that was kind of a
cocky guy.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Charlie Casserly, Washington general manager from nineteen eighty nine to
nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 13 (07:28):
He should have been in professional wrestling too, That's the
other thing he could have been great at. So He's
always outstirring the pot there on it.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
He was the mouth.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Face Gary Clark, two time Super Bowl champion wide receiver
for Washington from nineteen eighty five to nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You know, he just was always I mat just buddy though.
Buddies that way. You don't see too many head coaches
talk trash.
Speaker 11 (07:54):
Coach Ryan talked about before the game, this is going
to be such a physical game here, the Redskins would
have to bring up the body bags, and little do
we know, that ended up being the truth in that game.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
The Liberty Bell here at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
a capacity crowd on hand tonight for the Philadelphia Eagles
and the Washington Redskins.
Speaker 13 (08:13):
They had a player, Andre Waters, and this guy had
a reputation of being a dirty player, a late hit guy. Okay,
first play in the game, he takes a cheap shot
on Ernest Myner and.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Here comes Andre Waters, number twenty and throwing the elbow
into the face of Ernest Beiner, and immediately the Eagles
rss de foule.
Speaker 7 (08:35):
Andre Roters.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We've talked much about him overwhelmed past several years. He
plays this game wildly in Tensa. He was fined recently
by the commissioner for banging into a player in our
game a couple of weeks ago, and we're going to
be hearing more about him tonight.
Speaker 14 (08:51):
Already we went out for I think it was our
little punt returner and got hit and sprained his knee.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Bubba Tire, Washington's head athletic train for twenty five years.
Speaker 14 (09:02):
And he's down on the ground and Andre Waters, their
defensive back, who was, to put it mildly, was Rother Malthy.
I mean he loved to talk an any rate. And
he's hollering at me and my assistant. We're down with
the player and waiting on the team doctor to get
out there, and he's hollering, you better get your body back.
(09:23):
You've got to get more buses. You gotta get body back.
Speaker 12 (09:29):
I mean nothing against our backup quarterback, but we were
going into the game without ripping, and things got off.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Things started off bad.
Speaker 12 (09:38):
They scored first, maybe off of an interception or something, and.
Speaker 15 (09:42):
It's intercepted Brazzelle inside the twenty the ten touch.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
The Eagles defense, nicknamed Gang Green, is making sure the
Burgundy and Gold feels its presence on both sides of
the ball.
Speaker 11 (09:56):
William Brazzell got to pick six on us and he
went running up and down our sidelines and was like, yell,
if y'all want to get some more body bags, and
we're like.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
Who is you know, what's going on? Who's this guy?
Speaker 15 (10:08):
And Riggs is shaking up. Got to bring in Ernest
Spiner for Riggs and that's out.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Washington does manage to tie it up early in the
second quarter with a touchdown by tight end Don Warren.
Speaker 15 (10:20):
Bake the biner and Rubbless goes the other way and
the catch is made by Donny Warren. It's a touchdown.
He doesn't have to worry about it. Don Warren scrambling
after the ball, but he was over the line and
had possession according to the initial indication, and it's a
redskin touchdown.
Speaker 16 (10:37):
One of my seven career scores.
Speaker 17 (10:39):
That's funny because I'm like sixth on the all time
games list, played in every Super Bowl, started in every
Super Bowl, and you know, I actually scored in that game.
Speaker 16 (10:51):
I totally, I totally forgot about it.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
But the Eagles aren't phased.
Speaker 11 (10:57):
You know, we had a gun and do things and
do what we do best, and what we did best
for most of the time is the Hogs usually played
well when we ran the football, and you know, that's
something that the Eagles took away.
Speaker 15 (11:10):
Here are the Skins tonight on the ground, averaging less
than two yards to carry.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
They've credit to the guys in the green shirts. They
have really stuck things at the line of scrimmage and
this is an outstanding Redskin offensive line.
Speaker 15 (11:25):
Red Skins have not converted a third down tonight. They're
all for six.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
The game is tied seven to seven at halftime.
Speaker 16 (11:32):
Here comes here comes Joe, and he is like livid.
He's pissed off, you know, and everybody knows that. You know,
Joe never cussed or anything like that, but you could
tell when the man was mad. Joe Gibbs comes flying
out of there, and he's just direight, and he's saying,
(11:56):
how poorly we're playing. We're getting our butts.
Speaker 11 (12:00):
He takes his.
Speaker 16 (12:01):
Left hand and swipes and takes all the drinks, gatorad
and water, orange spices off to one side, and then
he goes whatever he had left. He takes his right
hand and clears thet their table and I look over it.
(12:22):
I look over at Okie and he's soaking wet.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
The halftime talking to unfortunately did not have the intended effect.
Speaker 11 (12:32):
They kind of had a trick play. Keith Byers, who
was a former teammate of mine in Ohio State, had
a half back throw hit his sherman in the end zone,
and you know, a lot of controversy on that. I
remember they reviewed it for about five minutes, it seemed like,
and they threw a flag, but they end up picking
up the flag, and you know, they want to head
fourteen to.
Speaker 15 (12:53):
Seven, and the Eagles have that drive going on that
fourth down play that passed, but Heath Sherman and cash
in to take the league.
Speaker 7 (13:02):
But still, you know it's for some points.
Speaker 11 (13:04):
That's one drive, you know, one defensive stop and you
get the ball back. You know you're gonna go out
there and you know, find a way to tie that
ball game back up. And I think that's when we
started losing guys.
Speaker 18 (13:15):
Major part of their defense now being assisted off the field,
and you can see that they have splitted that leg
and he's not putting any weight on that at all.
And this is a certainly a damaging blow to the Redskins.
Speaker 12 (13:27):
It was sad to watch so many of my teammates
get dragged out of there. I don't know if it
was seven, eight nine, maybe more guys.
Speaker 15 (13:37):
Britt Hager lady major pop on Joe Howard on that
run back and Howard is still scrawled out helmet to
helmet hit.
Speaker 11 (13:45):
Back in the day, when you're playing in Veterans Stadium
and you got you know, a loud fans, and you
know it was hard to hear the snaf count and
you got your you know, your backup quarterback in there,
and you.
Speaker 7 (13:56):
Know they were able to tee off on him.
Speaker 11 (13:58):
I think they got four sacks and they get Rege
White had two of them.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
The field, just screwing with redskin injured.
Speaker 14 (14:05):
Normally, trainers we might go on the field once twice
during the game, you know, the assist the injured player.
This game, it seems like we were out there eight
or more times. I mean we were out there a lot.
Speaker 13 (14:17):
And then you sit there, hold out another one. Okay,
how many of these could happen?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Then salt in the wound.
Speaker 15 (14:24):
They really pulled.
Speaker 8 (14:25):
Away in a third quarter from us, and we never
really recovered from that. I think that I think they
scored on defense.
Speaker 15 (14:30):
Again, Sanders and Moss, Brian and everybody else goes into
the pad of West Cockeys with a second, it's picked
up by five centers and it's a touchdown.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Our offense got clobbered.
Speaker 15 (14:43):
Two touchdowns for the Eagle defense tonight.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
You got hit, it hurt.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
It's just what it was.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I mean, you could tell those playing lights out football.
Speaker 15 (14:51):
The Posse last week thirty two catches an incredible number
thirteen by both five of teeth aren't then a total
of nine.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
I thought sorry for quarterbacks honestly, because they were getting tag.
Speaker 15 (15:04):
Redskins will begin there next drive from that spot and
they will do it with a new quarterback.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Other he did not have a whole lot of time
to warm up. And it is Shelley here in Philadelphia
the night and the temperatures continuing to drop it.
Speaker 18 (15:20):
I don't think they have a choice. I think Rutley
maybe had to come.
Speaker 15 (15:25):
Out of this game.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Well that's his right hand and he's a right handed quarterback.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Stan Humphries technically Washington's third string quarterback is in after
starter Rutledge gets hurt. The Burgundy and Gold offense just
can't get anything going.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
The Eagle defense has just continued to play good football.
They have been all over Washington to Ice from the
get go.
Speaker 15 (15:50):
They're playing great football.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
The Eagles score again now up twenty eight to seven.
Speaker 15 (15:57):
They to Tony left the serving who else, Well, this
is an old fashion, welcome her.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
And then in the fourth quarter, a major, major problem occurs.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I'm saying, Humphreys has hurt. Did you see his leg
get twisted when he went down? Thanks, Stan Humphreys has
really hurt.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
Grabby it right me.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Humphrees, the only active, healthy quarterback left on the roster
goes down injured.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
Coach Carvey said you're in, and I'm like, what it?
Speaker 7 (16:37):
Running back said, no, no, no.
Speaker 15 (16:38):
Quarterback Number thirty is Brian Mitchell. He's a running back
and a return specialist. He's a rookie, but he did
play quarterback in college.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
I know before the game, coach games had come to mean.
Mark Fruitman was already hurt. Did we have Stan Humphries
and Jeff Ruttlich if something happens, you have to be
ready And I was like, what do you mean ready
for what? He was like, you know, so we're gonna
give you a little game plan. That's the coach.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
I know.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
The offense, and we started asking me questions that I
basically had a good feel for it because I was
a quarterback in college. This is my rookie season, so
I kept preparing as I did what I got in college.
Speaker 7 (17:14):
Uh So they gave me a little smaller game plan.
Speaker 15 (17:17):
I learned that, well, Mitchell is going to come into
quarterback here. This game is over as far as the
Redskins are concerned.
Speaker 8 (17:24):
I wanted to see it. I mean, because he was
he was all around. You know, he's like a throwback,
you know, he pretty much did everything.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
It's a turner.
Speaker 8 (17:31):
He's a running back, decent receiver out of the backfield.
So I remember standing at wanting to see what he
was going to do.
Speaker 7 (17:37):
So when Brian got in there, I think a couple
will say, hey, probably no sacks.
Speaker 11 (17:42):
Man, don't take any sacks, you know, I mean, you're
a good runner, you know, break out the bobby and
get out of you after.
Speaker 7 (17:47):
We just don't take any sacks.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
And I walked in the huddle and the first thing
I said was listen. We called a speed speed right,
I think it was speed right, yes, be right. And
I said I'm running this ball. I said I did
in college. Is the first time I rolled out. I'm
running it, but we had a false start.
Speaker 15 (18:04):
Well, Brian Mitchell will take over and before he can
throw a pass, we've got a flag.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Be Mitch as a natural athlete, so we kind of
always knew that he could play because he could run
and throw, you know. And he's throwing passes in running
back shoulda pats. He's not wearing quarterback shoulder pass he's
running running back shoulder bags.
Speaker 15 (18:23):
Second down, Mitchell throws, the catch is made. He didn't
get in, but he did make the catch. Ricky Sanders
is there.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
I threw a pass to Ricky Sanders and I thought
he had got a handle.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I thought it was a touchdown.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
I though it was a post corner and I threw it.
He went out and I thought he got the ball
across the breaker plane.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You know, it's a pretty could throw.
Speaker 15 (18:48):
Look at the tight spiral.
Speaker 6 (18:52):
I mean that is right there.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
When I see the pass, I guess at that point
it made me smile because I've done that in college.
Speaker 13 (19:00):
Hit some passes. I mean it really good passes. And
Ricky said, is on the goal line, which I think
it was a touchdown because he hit the comb Okay,
but they ruled it that the one yard line half
yard line, and you do one thing. There's only one
play that Brian Mitchell was going to call. If he's
on a half yard line, he's gotta run a sneak,
which he jumped over to get the touchdown.
Speaker 15 (19:20):
Mitchell, well, why not? He deserves it. He's in there
for the touchdown.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
His first NFL touchdown.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
Ryan Mitchell pulled on his socks getting ready for this game.
I'm sure, like all rookies in this league, they dream
of scoring a touchdown. I'm not sure that he.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Imagined it though, coming by taking a snap from center
and taking it on a quarterback sneak at the goal line.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
I always told my buddies that I have some bets
with some people that I was going to play quarterback
in the NFL at one point. So, like I told
you earlier, I didn't get nervous because that's the first
thing that popped in my mind. So I got a
chance saying okay, now I have to call my boy
because he owes me one hundred dollars and this guy
holds me that's amount of money.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
With Brian Mitchell's last minute touchdown, the game finishes twenty
eight fourteen Eagles.
Speaker 11 (20:13):
You know, we're kind of watching the standings or halfway
through the season or just start the second half of
the season, and you know, you want to position yourself
to get into the playoffs. I mean, that's every team's
goal is to make the playoffs and then you know,
fight for Super Bowl championship. And you know, so you
lose to Arrival, you lose to a conference team, you
(20:35):
come out of their five and four. You know, it's
a little bit of soul searching.
Speaker 10 (20:38):
They come back to Washington the next day, nine players hurt.
They get all these quotes from Jerome Brown and from
Reggie White, Mike goliy just basically we beat the hell
out of him and they don't want us anymore.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
The body bag headline was everywhere.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
We just kind of like registered in the back of
our brains.
Speaker 12 (20:58):
Quite honestly, I found like that was the game that
kind of changed our season for us. We were embarrassed,
there's no doubt about it. You don't want to get
beat up like that on Monday night.
Speaker 11 (21:10):
You know, after that point kind of a gut check time,
everybody in the organization, you know, hey, you know, we
want to win some Super Bowls.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
We got to win tough, physical games like that.
Speaker 11 (21:19):
We always private to ourselves on being the most physical team.
Speaker 10 (21:23):
Nobody was better at taking advantage of crisis than Joe Gibbs.
But you had the feeling and after a game like
that that there's gonna be helicopters with guns on them
over the practice field because we're going to be simple
and what we do and we're gonna be serious about it.
Speaker 12 (21:39):
And I feel like after that we kind of came
together as a team, really started to like each other.
For some other young players, myself, Brian Mitchell, Moelo, Andibe,
we felt like we were kind of becoming part of
the team. There was a lot of fun stuff happening
on Mondays after games, just a whole just the whole
(22:02):
Joe Gibbs way. You know, I wanted to be a
part of that.
Speaker 7 (22:06):
You know.
Speaker 12 (22:06):
All of those little things that Joe did kind of
brought us together, got guys excited about wanting to compete
hard on Sunday. I felt like by the end of
that season we were a really good we were a
really good football team.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Most of the injuries sustained in the body bag game,
thankfully weren't devastating.
Speaker 13 (22:28):
Only one put a player on ir. That's that's you know,
it's not like they ended our season.
Speaker 7 (22:34):
Very fortunate.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Our whole staff, you know, Bubba and his and his staff,
they took great care of us.
Speaker 14 (22:39):
It always amazed me that how our guys could respond
and come back from injuries. I mean when one doctor
called him, uh, they said, they're neural muscular geniuses.
Speaker 11 (22:52):
Mark Rippin came back through four touchdown passes, one convincing.
He gets the Saints and then they start to feel confident.
Who can get this done? Maybe we can keep scratching
some wins out and find a way to get in
the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Washington won five of their last seven games. The Eagles
also won five of their last seven, and there it
was again Philadelphia first Washington. This time winner goes home.
Speaker 13 (23:29):
We can stop these guys. Cunningham is an inconsistent passer
who's a good runner, and he'll make some big throws,
but he's not going to consistently beat your throw on
the ball. The second thing is he's Sherman. They kept
in the game. The big things. Well, he's going to
break Steve Van Buren's record, who was an all time
great running back for the Eagles in the forties of
(23:50):
thirty five carries in the game. Sure he did, but
he averaged under four years at Harry. He was not
a guy that was going to be a big play guy.
You could contain him. Buyner was a move that change
guy too, but he had more explosiveness too.
Speaker 11 (24:04):
Me.
Speaker 13 (24:04):
He was a better receiver. So to me, we can
defend these guys if we could protect Okay, they can't
cover us.
Speaker 10 (24:12):
So fast forward to the playoff game, snowy in Washington
and on the practice field an hour after practice, Gibbs
had done his media and all that. It's Ray Didningduer
the Philify Daily News, who later went on to work
for NFL Films, and me and Joe Ray got word
that day the Eagles practice that week in Tampa. Why
(24:34):
because the super Bowl was in Tampa and we got
to be ready for the super Bowl because everyone knows
we're going.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
The best thing about our team is we really responded
to bravado if you talk too much, If you talk
too much, then we took it personal.
Speaker 12 (24:49):
We kind of had our own motivating factor where we
said we weren't going to talk about the body bag.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
You know, for us and we had T shirts made.
Speaker 12 (24:59):
I remember the said no comment conspiracy, the no comment conspiracy.
I think some guys might have even worn fatigues, and
we kicked their bots.
Speaker 11 (25:12):
Our offensive line played a lot better. Our defense held
him to six points and kind of the turning point
in that ball game. You know we are our defense
is always scared to death or Randall Cunningham just because
he can make something out of nothing, you know, the
Bill Tita to take a broken play and pick up
a first down. Or more about the third quarter or
(25:33):
maybe early fourth quarter, they pulled him out and brought
in Jim McMahon, but we just kind of exhaled, was like, okay,
we got him now.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
So we stopped him on our home field.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
And that's that's an embarrassment when you lose at home
doing the playoffs.
Speaker 13 (25:52):
Buddy Ryan was fired after the game, and Buddy Ryan
never went to the playoffs again in his career as
a coach.
Speaker 11 (25:58):
I think by beating the Eagles in that game, it
gave us the conference that we had the right type
of guys, you know, the guys that were going to fight,
the guys that are going to work hard, the guys
that are going to be as physical as possible and
find a way to get it done.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
It didn't happen that season, but next season what many
call the greatest team ever, they went all the way.
There's roots on that trophy that's sprawled back to a
scary but formative night in November nineteen ninety.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
And I think that I remember that game because it
changed the way people looked at me.
Speaker 7 (26:40):
I would no longer just.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
A return hat. I was a vital part that can
help the team out. Well, what the game did for
us was make us realize, Okay, let's go back and
work a little harder, prepare a little better. And then
about a year and about three months later, we were
hoisting the Lombardy you know, and I today, as we talked,
I wear his ring, and probably it was ignited from
(27:04):
that night November twelve, nineteen ninety we won the Super
Bowl January twenty sixth, nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 7 (27:11):
So in that little.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Amount of time, thank you, Philly, he gave us one.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
This episode of Hail Tales was narrated, produced, and researched
by me Hannah Liechtenstein, senior copywriter for the Washington Commanders.
It was produced and edited by Jason Johnson, Additional editing
by Nick Leanos. Executive producers are Ryan Yoakum and Kevin Klein.
Graphics designed by Zach Osborne and Matt Cashman. Thank you
(27:54):
to our guests for their contributions, and thank you for listening.
Voting is now open for the twenty twenty five People's
Choice Podcast Awards. Vote now for hail Tales For best
Historical Podcasts, go to podcastwards dot com
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