NFL Fantastic Finishes 70s-80's

their own 45 but they are 25 yards away from a first down in fact to throw as Mike bagel rolls away for the pressure down the field [Music] from Baltimore to Indianapolis fantastic finishes have been a part of the Colts legacy miracle maker Jill Washington once finished off a dramatic comeback when he threw for a touchdown caught one and ran one back as the Colts scored 27 fourth-quarter points to win and if the Raiders ever find a guy when they got George Blanda in 1970 at the age of 43 Blanda came off the bench to captivate the country with enough miracle finishes to be named Player of the [Music] [Music] seconds to go that's got a chance [Music] the state of Texas has a history of duels to the death some have even occurred on the football field once when bump Phillips Oilers faced high noon in the game's final moment only a touchdown would win Ronnie Coleman then earned his place in Texas history when he shot down seven would-be tacklers on his way to the winning score [Music] but the Oilers have never given the kiss of death as often as their neighbors the Dallas Cowboys when they sacked the Saints Ken Stabler was under two minutes to play it became the only time in NFL history that a team losing by a point won by a point on a safety it was one of many happy endings at Texas Stadium but some nine years earlier an obscure rookie quarterback witnessed what appeared to be a horrid chapter in the Cowboys Redskins rivalry when the Redskins not captain come back Roger Staubach unconscious in the third quarter the Cowboys only hope for victory fell in the lap of that baby-faced rookie quarterback there'd been a lot of talk in that particular game down talbert actually came out and said they were gonna knock Roger out when the talk starts Lander can't say well they're talking so said they're gonna knock Roger out and all we got left is that is that rookie you know nameless rookie and he just kind of would turn his head and look at me like this you know like well because one of the biggest nightmares of head coach NFL is to sending the rookie playing wrong there's a hope of all obscure player he'll they come off the bench in a tight situation and go to and have a great glory had that after that was a tremendous of performance you just couldn't believe it I was afraid they weren't gonna sit me in you know I was all we had left but I was confident you know I felt like the time I was a gunfighter with a football you know i yeah if there's somebody open I could hit him this gunslinger from Abilene demonstrated a hair-trigger release when he cited in on Billy Joe Dupree for his first touchdown play and I made the comment is that when long they got in there he just went back and he just looked well is anybody open and he just you know through it you know was the state in the trying for the uncluttered line 28 seconds remained in the fate of the Cowboys rested in the hands of a crazy rookie who hunted rattlesnakes for fun long we answered his call to glory with the winning touchdown pass that climaxed one of the most unique comebacks in cowboy folklore long leaves once in a lifetime performance mark both the sunrise and sunset of his career but he did leave behind one exquisite moment much like Tom Dempsey who for one glorious moment in 1970 was the greatest kicker who ever lived born with a deformed right hand and foot as well as a burning desire to succeed Dempsey was called upon to do something beyond his capabilities and he did it [Music] [Music] there are times in my life now when my day doesn't go well when you're in the real world which I am now and I have to sell every day it's not just producing on Sundays it's producing every day now to keep your job and I haven't had a good day I walk in the house and I look up there I've still got the football and I sit down and they say well one day I wasn't too bad [Music] down with John Madden there the Citibank [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's been called many things the Hail Mary is one of them a prayer of a pants but is it simply an act of desperation dependent on a miracle or is it planned a miracle by design most likely it's a little bit of both its point of origin can be traced the wing and a prayer concept was conceived somewhat by accident in San Francisco's Khizar Stadium in the 1950s when 49ers quarterback ye tittle would heave up a last-second pass that's a real alley-oop now why he said that I'll never know you know but he said it from then on that was our ally play we'd come in the huddle we just call the pass blocking and say [Music] named after a vaudeville routine the alley-oop catch became the specialty of a receiver named Darcy Owens San Francisco they they talk about the fan standing twice during a ballgame they stood for the national anthem and they always stood for the alley-oop pass Ryan's lead it 31:28 I get on flank to the right this has got to be the alley oh if there's no yes [Applause] the Atlanta Falcons call it beats the clock [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well it's a design play but it also has to be lucky play for you to catch it I mean it might happen one out of 25 times we probably have as many successful Hail Mary places at any of the team of National Football League and and that we do practice it but I've got to say that there's more fortunate involved than skill although skill does come into play you have good athletes it can recognize where that ball is going to be and it's take advantage of a Hail Mary pass Doug the Vikings out of a hole and put them in the playoffs in a late season game against the Browns they trim the lead from 14 points to one with one play left [Music] 23 to 22 in favor of Cleveland five seconds left first time Cleveland 46 [Music] he's going deep down the right side [Music] it was a joyful moment in Vikings history one that eased the pain of five years before when Minnesota was the victim of the most famous Hail Mary pass of all time we thought we had put together the best team that we'd ever had no one could believe that you know that this had happened and we'd lost that was the worst defeat I've ever had to accept and it'll always be the worst defeat we didn't think they were gonna get it in one play the only way we could do it was with a miracle I hate to admit it but I didn't think we had any chance to win the Minnesota game we came back and I said drew can you run an in route and then break a deep but I'll pump get Krause I'll keep Krause away from me from getting over you and Staubach came back and gave us a pump fake to my right side as I looked at Starbuck and that one split second just turns you in the threw the ball way left into the deep corner I saw him throw the pass and it was very lofty past you can tell by the flight of the ball it just went up I relaxed when he released the ball because I just thought there was no way that there would be anyone there to receive it we're blessed into the whole play was that star walk under through me on the play and I was able to put on the brakes and come back Nikki fell down I couldn't believe when I hacked the ball in the fans and then so it of course couldn't believe it either the stadium was done I mean I've never been in the stadium that was so quiet and I think that particular play was was the biggest single play they've ever been a part of the Cowboys need America second Cowboys from the 50 in the shotgun formation Roger last gasp for the cowboy he's going [Music] [Music] with Roger Staubach Hail Mary pass football gained a marriage of men and moment from fantasy and destiny worthy of legend this hammer is try sir [Music] [Applause] 3434 time we're in sudden-death overtime [Music] [Applause] [Music] bagels possible field position Jaworski rig treces looking he fires the football complete the quick [Music] [Applause] over time when the extraordinary and the unusual take center stage there's the excitement of the quick strike the disbelief of the unexpected when each play could be the last the anticipate hot blevells overtime was first played in the National Football League in 1958 when the nationally televised championship mesmerised million in place added pressure on its participants everybody's nervous for the first time we've ever played in the championship game and weeds going down each guy he brought each guy in he drafted he knew us and he's going down saying where he came from he picked us up off the sand lights he had a great speech but father's never heard of because we were in the head throwing up pressure never seemed to affect John Unitas but his high-top shoes and remarkable resolve were not yet commonplace in 1958 only his third year in the lead desperate times can produce heroic performances and with time running out the Unitas passed the Colts into position for the field goal that that's the game time and the clock is zero was it was very strange you know we were all asking each other what happens next or you know the rules weren't too clear on that stun land so but that's again where where a guy like Unitas always stepped in there he was he was the brains of the officer no question about it the result was the NFL's first venture into sudden death overtime and the bold Unitas elevated this championship to legendary proportions an image of victory was sketched to be forever frozen in time while he was just thinking about a score a field goal really never entered my mind I've never had put too much strength on field goals myself I'd rather go for a touchdown I knew it right then and there that we had the ball game on John was somewhat criticized for not calling a timeout there and going for the field goal I think a lot of people have forgotten that it was it was third down they thought we were going for it I'm fourth but in the event that we missed it we still had you know time for the field goal but an interesting thing on that play which was the genius of a Unitas and a lot of people missed this we were on the right hash mark and everybody in the world including the Giants thought we were gonna go for an off tackle to the left and if we missed we'd be right smack in front of the goalpost and John just took that little bit of a gamble and ran to the right and everybody was stacked to the left and he had Lenny Moore there who was not known as a great blocker and he threw a key block and it was wide open I mean there wasn't anything to the play funny [Music] you know it wasn't a picture-perfect type game I think it was just a dramatic ending that most people remember and it was the greatest game I ever played and I'll put it that way the chance of seeing a fantastic finish increases dramatically in overtime but no one could have been prepared for what they witnessed at Lambeau Field in Green Bay on the opening Sunday of the 1980 season it was truly theater of the absurd [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we're underway here overtime baby wait [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it was all but over a helpless hopeless situation for the Philadelphia Eagles they hadn't lost to the New York Giants in four years they had been in playoff contention still would be all they needed was a miracle under 30 seconds left of the game from here on in bizarre chicken just all on the football and there is nothing the Eagles can do empezar chick [Music] talk about miracles both I do not believe this one but it has happened to the Eagles seats with giant 19 has never seen before a shock crowd at the bottom whether in New England not the vacation of choice for the Miami Dolphins especially after they fell prey to a bizarre chain of events that left wounds that even time will not heal its first time since I've been a professional football we've ever taken such serious exception to something which happened on the field that kind of thing should not occur as a result of somebody putting a snowplow run by a convict with the day off from prison out onto the field to give special advantage to the home team I think it's the most unfair thing that I've ever been associated in in coaching it's the most unsportsmanlike act that I've ever been around the incident unfolded when Patriots head coach Ron Meyer called on an unexpected source to set the wheels in motion for victory snowplow driver Mark Anderson a convicted burglar employed at the stadium when a weekend work furlough program rode to the rescue and cleared a small area than enable the Patriots to get a toehold for a field goal I was bewildered I really was bewildered about what was happening out there on the field in front of my eyes and the magnitude of it never really set in until after you had lined up and kicked a field goal well the look on that is a good point of my life or a tremendously bad point I'm sure if you were the other coach on the other sideline you would say it was be a black mark but I know one thing I can live with myself on it it wasn't an attempt to deceive or it wasn't an attempt to cheat anybody then there are the games that suggest the gods must be crazy when results are determined not by strategy but by what seems like divine intervention Oakland trails 22 14 10 seconds left [Applause] [Music] scored on the most singing [Music] and I said oh my god here's a football and I tried to pick it up and run in but you know the balls bounced around so I just made this you know I tried to pick it up and it went kind of my hands had bounced off my knees and if you look it was just pure luck because when I fell down the ball stayed underneath me so when that play was over you know I was just there it was a lucky person I played 11 years and I had some success and what about never before being a bumbling fool at the end of a Holy Roller Madden is on the field he wants to know if it's real they said yes get your big flat out of here [Music] the Raiders were not so fortunate on one visit to Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium with a seemingly safe one-point lead it appeared that the Raiders had stopped the Steelers the Oakland Raiders have taken a 7-6 lead in a tough tough football game however they were never prepared to stop the hand of fate [Music] it's down to one big play fourth down and ten cards to go Terry Bradshaw can pull [Music] [Applause] [Music] well the thing about about that play that bothered me then bothers me today and will bother me and tell the day I die is that in the history of football when a guy crosses a goal line it's either a touchdown or it's not they didn't call the touchdown they didn't know if it was a touchdown the referee leaves that huddle which was in the end zone and he goes over to the dugout on the pittsburgh steelers side and he gets on the phone and there's a lot of stories about who he called what he called what happened but Mario Hubbard said that he overheard him and what he actually did he called the police and he said I'm the chief official in this ball game and how many cops do you have to escort me off the field if I tell you what happened which was that the ball hit Pittsburgh and there's no touchdown the guy said all I can give you a 6 police he's a 6 is that always that's all you guys' in that case sex for Pittsburgh down the field heading up Franco's Italian army charging under the football and galloping off into the sunset [Applause] the Raiders have played host to many fairytale finishes including the most famous game that never ended against Joe Namath's Jets the lead changed hands six times before New York took a three-point lead with precious little time remaining in this nationally televised game the Raiders began their final if not futile Drive then precisely at 7 p.m. Eastern Stadium time a network television decision was made to preempt the final minute of the game and return to regularly scheduled programming that Sunday evening it was the story of Heidi the lovable little swiss mountain girl the sudden switch left millions of TV viewers unaware of what transpired in oakland only those in the stadium and radio listeners would know so heidi story began as she was taken by her aunt to live with her grandfather in the mountains no one at home saw the Raiders Charlie Smith take a pass 45 yards for a score as Smith ran through the Jets Heidi was on her way down the mountain with her grandfather headed for town back in Oakland Raiders headed for the end zone again for their second touchdown in eight seconds so while much of America followed Heidi's adventures with grandfather Clara Peter and his herd of goats they missed the conclusion of what will forever be known as the Heidi game the most fantastic finish never seen this man is twice as strong as this man Tom Lee yep the 49ers will start out this 1987 season with a Nolan to record [Music] six seconds remaining they have it fourth down their own 30 yard line and give on the Brooklyn Brooklyn tackled and dumped in the play will be right there brother - second Flint and Montana we'll get one flow there's two seconds Taylor and Clark and Wilson go to the far side right to the near side I'll be surprised that he forgives those three and goes to right Aaron Montana throwing for the end zone [Music] when all appears lost with no hope of victory that's when the comeback takes on epic dimensions Joe Montana and the 49ers have composed many magic moments Montana back to throw Bigfoot on he throws [Music] [Applause] [Music] one pledge never wake up the 49ers [Music] [Music] in the 1970s Ken Stabler and the renegade Raiders were aptly named they were truly raiders of lost causes fewer as impressive as this match up against the Super Bowl champion Steelers Oakland Trail by two touchdowns with less than five minutes remaining but rallied to score 17 points to avenge two consecutive AFC championship game defeats the Saints were the victims of Stabler's greatest role as comeback kid in a frantic fourth quarter viewed by millions on Monday night television the snake uncoiled three scoring passes in the final quarter to take the bite out of New Orleans [Music] what an incredible story 1979 was Stabler's final season in a Raiders uniform it was also the last year in the NFL for America's resident captain of comeback Dallas Cowboy quarterback Roger Staubach I think the biggest thing about Roger for the fact that he never quit it didn't matter how much the Cowboys were down a member in San Francisco they were head I was 14 or 15 points it was three minutes to go or something and they were coming by our bench and hollering obscene things at us and talking calling us losers they laughed at us they were making fun of us during the game because they were really enjoying having the upper hand on us they think was anyway because our offense was sputtering we were doing absolutely nothing and then coach later decides to put Roger but I tell you it was like a 180-degree turnaround office it was the most unbelievable comeback because we were totally out of it there wasn't even a pulse at one time during that game that we were gonna win that game and then turn it around that's why you had such an emotional situation from our players because it really was a game that unless you was just the most unbelievable believer that even think we're coming back cowboy veterans hadn't seen the likes of this before and they watched him stunned amazement as starback performed his first miracle there was bedlam on the sidelines and it was just total instant [Music] great great happy moments in sports it was the beginning time for the great comebacks that Rodger is so well known for two hours clear when we warned that game against San Francisco from that moment on we always believed that we could win the balcony star back answered his final call to glory in his last regular-season game that was probably the best game that Roger ever played because the eyes were so much against this even more and it was back in the 49er game he had to bring our club back against a very fine team that really had us on the ropes [Music] [Music] and I was recording the game with care all day as a guest broadcaster that day and in my heart I believed that the Cowboys were gonna win the game and mine answered the co announcer with Nebraska I'm Jeff saying hey Charlie there's no way the game's over the Brad hey you got to believe that this thing can win we always really did if we could just get the ball back to Roger somehow clock is running 238 left in the game can they come back again shotgun formation Staubach looking into the face of a poor man rush throwing [Music] [Applause] [Music] by six points [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] forty-two seconds left in the game Redskins lead by six [Music] like this [Applause] [Music] from the 8-yard line no shotgun this time [Music] [Applause] [Music] it was one of those routines starbuck spectacular simply the impossible may become true there was none better at that 23 times in his remarkable career Roger Staubach had overcome defeat in the final minutes when we came out for that game there was more excitement in the stadium than I ever heard anywhere felt anyone we were playing the dolphin and it was gonna be big I am excited the team's excited we're gonna get them and we kick off you know the opening kickoff push end oh you know laughs we kicked the pond they get the ball and shoot all the way back he runs away I think was nap more and in fact 100 yards you know blacks enemy Raiders revenge Dolphins get them in Oakland fans crazy team crazy good gonna do it and the opening kickoff in our Park and they run it back all the way the game would become a seesaw struggle that stretched and snapped the emotions of all who watched [Applause] Raider fans were caught between delirium and doubt as the dolphin surged ahead by five with two minutes remaining this tense drama cried out for a crashing climax when you get in a pressure situation like that there's no one that you'd rather have involved in that play than Kenny Stabler he has the uncanny knack of putting a ball between people in between hands and just being able to flip things in there from all different angles and that's exactly what he did [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] frankly it was maybe the greatest football [Music] pro-football evokes the range of passions that often leaves all involved mentally and physically drained such was the case in 1981 when the 49ers faced a moment of truth in the NFC Championship against Dallas it was a moment that will live forever so fasten your seat belts now we got turbulence and plenty of it [Applause] [Music] who sees of the Alfa [Applause] right [Music] [Applause] it became known quite simply as the catch and it will always burn frankly in the corridors of our memory very often it's the magnitude of the game that brings out the best in its men 1986 is AFC championship was such a contest on this day with the Super Bowl the prize John Elway whose extraordinary abilities had distinguished him along as the quarterback for all ages truly came of age we walked in knowing that it was a do-or-die situation and that there was nothing us it either go to the Super Bowl we're going home and we got a chance to do it on this drive and it was just a matter of getting out of that where we got some breathing room [Music] he'll weigh in the endzone and throwing it it's complete winder dives out to the 70 yard line the 26 yard line [Music] the password [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Aloise pass is coming in talk first down at the cleveland 27 yard line Elway and the Broncos moved down the field as if decreed by some higher order there was little sense of desperation as number seven calmly pointed the way to the endzone [Music] forty-two seconds to go Broncos at the Cleveland five third down and a yard the snap to Elway [Music] Elway's stunning achievement was the impetus for the Broncos 2320 overtime victory but what will always remain fixed in our minds is the drive [Music] doubt there's some very cheery good morning mr. Russell it's 8:00 a.m. it's 15 below zero and there's a 20 mile an hour wind coming out of the Northwest have a pleasant day on the coldest New Year's Eve in Green Bay history they played the 1967 NFL championship I guess one of my most vivid memories of that game is of Bob Hayes the wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys running his past patterns with his hands in his pants he put both hands down in the front of his pants and he would run a pass pattern with his hand still in his pants Hayes world-class speed was not the only thing muffled by the brutal weather condition Samaritans was sitting in the huddle when he gets on one knee and he goes all right huh I said that's easy for you to say Tom but what did you say and what was happening was his cheeks were freezing and he couldn't talk and his his ability to formulate the words words were leaving him but eight seconds into the fourth quarter the frozen lips of dime Meredith formed a bold yet risky call a halfback option pass from Dan Reeves to lance rental the past sliced through the high winds and frigid air to carve out a 17-14 cowboy Lee but this was tanker weather here men first conquered the elements then their opponents in a survival test that called for guts and desire Green Bay March 68 yards to Doomsday's doorstep it was a truly classic contest resolved in the final seconds [Music] [Music] it was a finish as rare as a masterpiece painting when men sketch out images of victory from miracle makers to raiders of lost causes to the ice bulb these are fantastic finishes that will be forever frozen in time [Music]

Channel: John G

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Id: bvHBB2B8XQA

Length: 42min 30sec (2550 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 15 2017