Football
Happy Birthday Ronnie Lott!! In his Rookie Season of 1981, Ronnie became just the second rookie to return 3 INT’s for Touchdowns. He had 7 picks that year and was voted 1st Team All-Pro while helping the 49ers win Super Bowl XVI. He placed 2nd in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting behind Lawrence Taylor.
In the 1987 NFL Draft, Mark Vlasic was a 4th round selection out of Iowa by the San Diego Chargers, he had 4 career Touchdown passes.
11/20/1988 San Diego Chargers W 38-24 over LA Rams - 4 yd to Quinn Early
9/9/1990 San Diego Chargers L 17-14 vs Dallas Cowboys - 14yd to Craig McEwan
11/17/1991 KC Chiefs L 24-20 vs Denver Broncos - 8 yd to Tim Burnett
12/8/1991 KC Chiefs W 20-17 over San Diego Chargers -16 yd to Harvey Williams
Jerry Rice was just 3 of 10 passing for his career. He had 1 Touchdown & 1 Interception. Who caught that TD? Who Picked off Jerry? Free Blaze goes to the Football Gumshoe who can tell us both players names. (Hint: Both occurred in games against the same NFC West Foe)
Wishing a Happy Birthday to a Blaze Hometown Hero, Mr. Ottis Anderson. #561 In his very 1st game in the NFL, the rookie Running Back from Miami rushed for 193 yards on 21 carries, including a 76 yard touchdown run. It is the 2nd highest rushing total for a player in their very 1st game. Any guesses on who rushed for 194?
Hint: (It happened in the same year that lightning struck the Clock Tower in Hill Valley, CA. This RB also won Rookie of Year honors, just like Ottis did.
Today we’re remembering the AFC Divisional Round Cleveland Browns Overtime Victory over the New York Jets, most commonly referred to as ‘The Marathon By The Lake.’ Browns Quarterback Bernie Kosar threw for 489 yards in the 4 hour plus contest, a playoff passing yardage record he held until 2017. Who broke Bernie’s Record?
The Browns last Playoff Home game just happened to be another famous Nickname Game in Cleveland history:
The infamous ‘Red Right 88’ game played six years earlier against the Oakland Raiders back on 1-4-1981.
With the Marathon victory over NY, perhaps an even more popular Nickname game came to be the following week. Any guesses on that one?? Hint: 98 yards
Can you name these masked men of NFL Past?
November 26th, 1990
There must’ve been quite the Turkey Day Hangover happening back in Week 12 of the 1990 NFL Season, as all Six 1st place teams would lose over the Holiday weekend.
However, each of those teams would hold onto their first place standing over the last weeks of the season, winning their respective divisions. (There were only six divisions back in 1990)
Can you name those Six Teams? Select the Quarterbacks pictured below representing each team.
For more Bonus Points —Name the 1990 Quarterback that…
Was Voted League MVP
Won Offensive Player of Year
Threw most INT’s
Lost in Super Bowl
Won Super Bowl (not pictured)
Had longest Pass
Always one of my favorite cheap card sets back in the day. 1990 Pro-Set.
Barry Sanders historic 2,053 yard rushing season in 1997 included a huge performance on Thanksgiving Day against the Chicago Bears. Sanders ran through the Bears Defense for 167 yards on 19 carries with three TD’s in a 55-20 Detroit win. Always thought it kinda sucked that the Lions were on TV every Thanksgiving, but at least we all got to watch Barry’s brilliance each year. Happy Turkey Day Dudes!!
November 22nd, 1987 - Chicago, IL- During the Sunday Evening News recap of a Chicago Bears 30-10 victory over the Detroit Lions, an un-identified person dressed in a Max Headroom mask, hi-jacked the WGN Channel 9 broadcast for almost 30 seconds. Sportscaster Dan Rohn seemed quite confused but waved off the wacky interruption as a computer glitch.
Approximately two hours later during an episode of ‘Dr. Who?’ on Chicago Channel 11 (WTTW) the mysterious masked Max was back. This time there was audio to go along with the disorienting frenetic visuals. Channel 11 engineers weren’t able to stop the feed for 1 minute & 28 seconds. During the masked bandit’s rant, for reasons unknown, he also called out local Sports Voice Chuck "The Swirsk" Swirsky as some kind of ‘Frickin Liberal.’ This is quite the odd mashup of Sports/Pop culture with True Crime. I suggest you guys check out the clips on YouTube, as well as the @unresolvedpod episode on this bizarre act of anarchy. Any other Blaze/True Crime fans out there??
Spoiler Alert!!
No one has ever been charged with the crime, nor has anyone taken responsibility. The statute of limitations has expired in this case. To be continuted………
After kicking a 22 yard field goal with :54 seconds left in the 4th quarter to send the game into Overtime, St. Louis Cardinals kicker Neil O’donoghue would go on to miss 3 field goals in the extra period, to secure a 20-20 tie with NFC East foe, The New York Football Giants. This happens to be the only tie game in Monday Night Football history;
Flashing it way back this Friday to November 8th, 1970 when New Orleans Saints Kicker Tom Dempsey kicked an NFL record 63 yard field goal. Tom was born without toes on his right foot, so he was forced to wear a modified square looking kicking shoe. The boot at the end of regulation gave the Saints a 19-17 victory over the Detroit Lions. A few dudes were able to match this feat over the years, but it wouldn’t be surpassed until 2013 when Matt Prater hit a 64 yarder. Happy Friday!!
Webster was another childhood favorite growing up. I can remember writing a # 84 on the inside collar of my Dolphins jacket that I got for X-Mas back in 1989. That happened to be his best year too as he hauled in 65 passes for 1236 yards with 6 TD’s including a 97 yard bomb from Bernie..
I have such clear memories of sitting in Mrs. Wiltse’s 3rd grade class back in 1990 with Jerry Rice clippings placed in the front cover of my new Trapper Keeper while she drilled us on those multiplication tables. Happy Birthday FLASH 80 !!
On October 7th, 1984 Walter Payton passes the great Jim Brown to become the NFL’s All-Time Rushing Yards Leader. Sweetness bulled his way to 154 yards on 32 carries in a Chicago 20-7 victory over the New Orleans Saints.
Interestingly, Payton’s effort on that grey day in the Windy City, helped him earn his 59th career 100 yard game, tying him with one Jim Brown. Walter would finish his career with 77 100 yard games.
Who holds the record for most 100 yard rushing games?
It was back on October 3rd, 1989 after a 1-3 start to the season that the Los Angeles Raiders named Offensive Line Coach Art Shell their new head coach, replacing the fired Mike Shannahan . With the promotion Art became the 1st African American Head Coach in modern NFL History.
September 29th, 1985 - Our man Warren Moon had quite a rough day in an early afternoon shootout against cross state rivals, the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys put Warren on the turf a record 12 times, and forced the future Hall of Famer to throw 4 interceptions. The Cowboys would pull out the 17-10 victory late in the fourth quarter on a Danny White Touchdown Pass to TE Fred Cornwell. It was the 2nd and final TD catch of Fred’s career.
Happy Anniversary to Monday Night Football. On September 21st, 1970 the Cleveland Browns held off the New York Jets 31-21 to win the Inaugural Monday Matchup.
During the Minnesota Vikings playoff run to the NFC Championship in 1987, Hometown Hero Anthony Carter, set the record for the most all-purpose yards in a single post season with 642. Happy Birthday A.C.!
Did you know that WR Lane Alworth was the 1st AFL Player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame?
Head on over to the Blaze Files & cue up the array of Bambi Highlight Video Links. Enjoy!!
Cortez Kennedy donned the # 99 for the 1992 season in honor of his friend, and University of Miami teammate Jerome Brown, who had passed away in a car accident that summer. Tez went on to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors for his dominating play, amassing 14 sacks, 4 forced fumbles and 92 tackles. Funny thing is that the Seahawks were only 2-14 that season. He returned to his customary # 96 for the remaining years of his Hall of Fame career. R.I.P Cortez.
