Worst NFL Blowout

On December 8, 1940, the Chicago Bears demolished Washington 73–0 in the NFL Championship Game at Griffith Stadium, delivering the most lopsided scoreline in league history. This episode unpacks how a cold afternoon in the nation’s capital turned into a tactical masterpiece, a humiliation, and a turning point for modern football.
Listeners will hear how George Halas and his Chicago Bears weaponized the innovative T‑formation, shredding a Washington team that had beaten them weeks earlier and entered the title game with the league’s best record and a feared single‑wing attack. We explore the roles of Sid Luckman, Bill Osmanski, Sammy Baugh, and George Preston Marshall, tracing how scheme, ego, and bulletin‑board material collided on the sport’s biggest stage.
The episode also follows the broadcast itself, as the Mutual Broadcasting System carried the NFL Championship nationwide for the first time, bringing the call into homes across America. This national radio audience helped elevate pro football’s profile and turned a regional title game into a defining media moment for the league.
Across the narrative, we connect key plays—like Osmanski’s 68‑yard touchdown run on the second snap and a flurry of interception returns for scores—to the long arc of tactical evolution and the spread of the T‑formation through college and pro ranks. The story shows how one blowout reshaped coaching philosophies, quarterback play, and how fans experienced the sport.
By the end, listeners gain more than just the box score of a 73–0 rout; they leave with a deeper understanding of how humiliation, innovation, and a single December afternoon helped build the modern NFL—and why this game still fascinates historians, coaches, and fans today.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On December eighth, nineteen forty, was the site of the
NFL Championship played at Griffin's Stadium in Washington, DC, where
the Bears were taking on the Redskins in an historic moment.
As the stadium was packed, every fan was ready to
see who was gonna win. Little did they know they

(00:21):
were about to see the most lopsided game in NFL history.
Join us today as we dive into the nineteen forty
NFL Championship game, also known as the most lopsided NFL
game in history, today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to

(00:42):
Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide because every
game every sport I played is a lopsided loss. So
in nineteen forty, the NFL was starting to get a
little track set. It was the twenty first year of
the NFL's existence, and at this point they had ten teams.

(01:05):
And just to give you an idea how long ago
this was, the Pittsburgh Pirates were actually in the league
the year before and they had just changed their name
to the Pittsburgh Steelers. So in the East Division there
was the Washington Redskins, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the New York Giants,
the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles. And in the
West Division, which is in very west, is the Chicago Bears,

(01:29):
the Green Bay Packers, the Detroit Lions, the Cleveland Rams,
and the Chicago Carters. So by this point, most of
these teams would stay in the NFL as we know
it today, except for the Brooklyn Dodgers, who would end
up folding in nineteen forty five, and the leaders for
each statistical category were Byron Weiser White, who led the

(01:50):
league in rushing with five hundred and fourteen yards, averaging
less than four yards to carry. The leading receiver was
Don Looney of the Philadelphia Eagles, who had seven hundred
and seven yards. The leading passer was Sammy Ball of
the Washington Redskins, who would pass for a league leading
one thousand, three hundred and sixty seven yards, throwing a

(02:13):
total of twelve touchdowns. So, as you can see by
those numbers, compared to today's standards, this time period was
very different than the football we have today. So the
Chicago Bears had a great season under legendary coach George
Hollis as they went eight and three, winning the Western
Division by two games, earning the right to play in

(02:36):
the NFL Championship Game and the Washington Redskins. They were
coached by Ray Flardi, who actually broke out this year,
turning the team around, who led them to a league
leading nine to two record, as they would go on
to win the Eastern Division. And both these teams were
led by some legendary quarterbacks. The Bears had Sid Luckman
who was a young Jewish quarterback from Brooklyn who was

(02:59):
the of the new offense that they were running called
the Tee formation. It was becoming one of the best
quarterbacks in the league. And then there was Sammy Ball
known as Sling and Sammy who was a star known
for his arm strength, as field vision and as we
said earlier, led the league in passing yards and passed
from four hundred more yards than Sid did during the season,

(03:22):
as Sid only threw four touchdowns during the season and
had a completion rate of forty five percent. Again, football
was very different back then, and this was a pivotal
moment as the nation was very worried at the time
about everything. World War two had already started. Now America
was not in the war yet. That wouldn't happen until

(03:43):
a couple of years later after Pearl Harbor, but it
was still had a lot of racial and social dynamics
really kind of made it hard for the NFL to
integrate as there were a few black players at the time.
Now coming into the game, the Bears were actually the favorite,
even though the Washingtons had more wins. The Bears had
been around longer and been more of a powerhouse for

(04:05):
more years, and their t formation offense really had set
them apart. So the fans gather around each team starts
to take the field on December eighth, nineteen forty and
this was a unique experience as it was the first
time that an NFL title game was broadcast nation wide

(04:25):
on the radio. That meant everyone on the West Coast,
who barely knew what football was because they didn't have
any teams over there because I guess we can only
have teams on the East, could hear what was going
on in this game. Listening to games back then was
more normal listening to the radio, and it was broadcast
by the Mutual Broadcast Company over one hundred and twenty

(04:48):
different radio stations across the country, and they estimated twenty
five million households were listening. Now they go buy households
back then, because you would just gather everyone around. So
you multiply by that by roughly four people per household,
you got one hundred million people listening to the game,
just listening on top of the thirty six thousand that

(05:10):
were there in person, and they were all expecting to
see a great game. But no one told that to
the Redskins. So the Bears come out and they really
start fast. On the second play from scrimmage, running back
Bill O'shamski ran for sixty eight yards for touchdown, and
then Washington gets the ball back and they marched to
the twenty six yard line, and they got so close

(05:31):
that the receiver Charlie Malone dropped a shirt touchdown pass
in the end zone that would have tie the game up. Instead,
they had to settle for a field goal attempt that
they actually missed, so the game stayed seven to zero
when sid Luckman marched them down and scored a one
yard touchdown run, increasing the lead to fourteen to zero. Still,
the game's not out of hand yet, but Washington was

(05:53):
not able to do anything on offense, So the Bears
get the ball back and Joe Mshanski ran for four
forty two yards for another Bears touchdown. So at the
end of the first quarter it was twenty one to zero.
Now we've all seen the Patriots and the Falcons game.
The game isn't over yet, and there there's three more quarters.

(06:14):
But say it through another touchdown passing King Kavanaugh in
the second quarter to give them the lead twenty eight
to zero. As Washington could do nothing on offense. They
had a good first drive and their offense just continuously
stalled out. So coming out in the second half, the
Washington Redskins are gonna try to pass their way out
of it, try to catch up as fast as they can,

(06:36):
except they throw an interception to hamp Pool who runs
it back for a touchdown, giving the Bears an even
bigger lead, thirty five to zero. Then the Bears get
the ball back after Washington fails again and Ray nod
Ling runs for thirty two yards for another touchdown, forty
one to zero. And so as the Washington tries to

(06:56):
come back, they throw another interception where George McAfee runs
it back for a touchdown, and Washington gets the ball
back and they throw another interception, this time to Bulldog
Turner who runs it back for a touchdown. That's three
interceptions in the third quarter, ran back for touchdowns. The

(07:17):
third quarter ends, the score is fifty four to zero
at this point, Why are you even listening to the
game on the radio? I mean this big deal to
make the it broadcast across the nation, and who wants
to listen to this game? It sounds terrible. So the
fourth quarter comes along and the Bears are trying to
run out the clock because it's a clear blowout, and

(07:39):
then Harry Clark breaks out for a forty four yard
run in a touchdown. The score is now sixty to zero.
And then the Bears continue to try to run out
the clocks again and end up scoring another rushing touchdown.
And they do it one more time, trying to run
out the clock. So that doesn't look so bad for

(08:00):
the Washington Redskins, but there's only one hundred yards and
you can only run the clock out so much until
you scored, and they scored again. Harry Clark scored again,
giving them the score of seventy three to zero. Luckily
for the Redskins, time was on their hands as time expired,
so the game was over. They didn't have to endure

(08:23):
this anymore. The final score seventy three to zero, ended
up being the most lopsided game in NFL history. The
next closest one happened in nineteen thirty four, which they
broke that record of sixty four to zero, where the
Philadelphia Eagles decided to play the Cincinnati Reds and the

(08:43):
Reds forgot what sport they were playing and they got destroyed.
The next closest championship game blowout happened back in nineteen
ninety five when the San Francisco forty nine Ers beat
the San Diego Chargers fifty five to ten. So to
give you some breakdowns of what all happened in this game,
how crazy it was. The Bears ended up with five

(09:05):
hundred and one yards for the game, which is a
pretty good stack, especially for back then. Redskins had two
hundred and forty five. The Bears ended up with a
total of eight interceptions in this game, and we were
able to recover a fumble. That's nine turnovers compared to
their one fumble loss. This was the main reason why

(09:27):
the Redskins lost. When you turn their ball over like that,
there's no way of winning, let alone competing, and they
just gave the game away through this. Now, the Bears
may have had some extra into this game. They actually
played the Redskins earlier in the season where the Redskins
actually won, and George Preston Marshall, the owner of the Redskins,

(09:48):
called the Bears crybabies and quitters after the game, giving
them extra motivation heading into the championship. And after this game,
the T formation became a staple in the NFL as
everyone wanted to run it, showing how much success the
Bears had running this in the championship game, and this
game was so much of a blowout that the officials

(10:09):
actually asked the Bears to not kick any more conversions
instead just go for the two point conversion in the
fourth quarter because they were scoring so much. Now, this
would become a pivotal moment in NFL history, as the
next couple of years would kind of mess things up,
as the next NFL championship would happen two weeks after

(10:30):
Pearl Harbor in nineteen forty one, and the Bears and
the Redskins were a staple in the nineteen forties for championships.
As the following year, nineteen forty one, the Bears would
end up beating the New York Giants to win another title.
Then the nineteen forty two they have a rematch where
Washington would get revenge on the Bears, winning fourteen to six.

(10:51):
The nine nineteen forty three they would face off again
where the Bears got the best of Washington again, winning
forty one to twenty one. Then Washington would lose another
championship in nineteen forty five and the Bears would win
another one in nineteen forty six, showing that they were
two of the best teams in the nineteen forties. In
each team has actually won a Super Bowl as well,

(11:12):
and they had a lot of success, but they will
always be part of this big moment where Washington got
destroyed by the Bears. Sad to say that might be
the worst thing they could have ever experienced. My question
is to you, do you like to see these big
blowout games or do you like to see defensive struggles?

(11:34):
Let me know. Reach out to us on our socials
so you can let us know what you think and
come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History. I want
to thank you for listening to Daily Sports History. If
you like this, please let us know wherever you're listening
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great the show is and can join our community and

(11:56):
come back tomorrow for more daily sports history. Then painted
from tape, painting, painted painting,