The FORGOTTEN KICK That CHANGED NFL HISTORY | Redskins @ Cardinals (1982)

over on java gatorade a new college football video is out in this video we talk about a 1989 controversy between the ivy league and espn and how espn wanted the ivy league to get more tv exposure but did it by insulting the ivy league in the process click the card in the upright corner to watch and now on with our feature presentation when you think of the most prestigious award that a player can win solely from an on the field perspective it has to be the mvp to win the most valuable player means that of the thousands of players in the national football league you were the one that meant the most to their respective team it's a huge accomplishment that etches your name in nfl history forever and when you think of everyone to win mvp you think of their body of work over the course of the entire season there might be a defining play in there that you associate their season with but for the most part if you remove a play that they had from that season it doesn't change their mvp candidacy remove the best run from adrian peterson's season in 2012 and he's still winning the mvp remove the best pass from peyton manning's season in 2013 and he's still winning the mvp one play especially one that in the grand scheme of things meant absolutely nothing and did not impact your record or whether you want or lost the game is not changing the vote for mvp that is except for 1982 because the man you're looking at right now is the man that would eventually go on and win the mvp for that season none other than washington kicker mark mosley and what you might not realize about the incredible season that mosley had is that he was in all likelihood one kick away from not winning mvp there was one kick that he had that did not count that had it have counted probably would have single-handedly derailed his mvp chances it's a kick that didn't happen it's a play that had no impact on the outcome of the game and it's a play that has been erased from the record books but 40 years later considering the circumstances and how much it changed nfl history it might be one of the most important kicks and penalties in the history of the nfl simply because of how much legacies were impacted by it and this is the story behind the forgotten kick that changed the 1982 nfl season before i talk about the actual kick in question we need some context to understand how mark mosley's season was going as well as how the actual mvp race was looking and before i talk about mosley we need to talk about this guy right here because this is dan fouts and he is one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in the nfl if you ask people to name the greatest quarterback in nfl history in the post-merger era to never make it to the super bowl in all likelihood the name you'll hear pop up is either warren moon or san diego chargers quarterback dan fouts and in 1982 he was in the midst of his prime and might have been the best quarterback in all of football the 1982 season was the fourth consecutive season that thoughts led the nfl in passing yards making him the first entity the only quarterback in nfl history to ever leave the league in passing yards four times in a row and 1982 might have been his best year yet he was named the first team all pro by the associated press and a pro bowler and was named the ap offensive player of the year with over 50 percent of the vote winning this award for the first time in his career and thoughts finished that 1982 season with 2 83 passing yards and 17 touchdowns with both totals leading the league remember this was a strike shortened season where only nine games were played and you can learn more about that by clicking the card in the upper right corner the fountain was averaging over 320 passing yards per game which was a career high and at the time was the highest total in nfl history if there was a full 16 game season and we extrapolated his numbers over the course of that season he would have had 5 125 yards which would have smashed the nfl record and would have made him the first quarterback in nfl history to throw for 5 000 yards and for some more perspective on how great 320 passing yards per game is at the time there had only been one other instance of a quarterback throwing for an average of over 300 yards in a game over the course of a season and that was in 1981 when a guy threw for 300.1 yards per game as you might have been able to guess that was dan thoughts even in the record books today where the game is so past heavy fouts is 320.3 yards per game in 1982 ranks 10th all time and if it was placed in the 2020s would have been the highest total of a decade so far in short thoughts was really good and he was having an unbelievable 1982 season fouts had never won the mvp before and especially with the chargers making the playoffs at 6 and 3 with the best offense in the nfl this was looking like the year that fouts would win it alas he did not because they gave the award to this man right here a kicker from washington by the name of mark mosley oddly enough this is not the first time i've done a video on the career of mosley as if you want to learn more about the crazy endings of his career where he went from the broadcast booth to hitting the game-winning field goal in the span of a week click the card in the upper right corner when people ask what the most controversial mvp vote of all time is odds are they'll say it's either the 1987 season where jerry rice with a record 22 receiving touchdowns did not win the mvp as it went to john elway or they'll say it's this 1982 season when a kicker won it over one of the greatest seasons by any quarterback in nfl history at the time it will very likely be the first and only time in history that a kicker wins the mvp a lot of people speculated that this was a protest vote due to the strike now none of this is to take anything away from mosley because he was a fantastic kicker dating back to the end of 1981 he hit 21 consecutive field goals which was an nfl record at the time he made multiple game-winning and game time field goals in the fourth quarter or overtime of the 1982 season constantly coming up clutch when washington needed him to with no time left in the fourth quarter of the season opener against the philadelphia eagles and down by three points mosley lined up for a 48-yard field goal to tie the game and send it into overtime he drilled it then he lined up for a 26-yard field goal to win the game in overtime and he made the kick helping his team win 37-34 and in their seventh game with nine seconds left on the clock at the time of the snap and washington trailing 14-12 against the new york giants mosley lined up for a 42-yard field goal to win it he got that one over the course of the season mosley went 20 for 21 hitting 95.2 percent of his kicks not only was that the top total in the nfl but at the time it was the top total in nfl history entering 1982 only one kicker john cena rooted in 1981 with the green bay packers ever had a season hitting at least 88 percent of his kicks and here was mosley sitting at 95.2 percent almost four percentage points above standard for the record and accuracy while fouts was having arguably the greatest season by any quarterback ever moseley was having arguably the greatest season by any kicker ever but here's the forgotten part about the mosley story he was moments away from not being 20 for 21 he was moments away from not setting the accuracy record and he was moments away from not winning the mvp because of it because in their sixth game that season a contest at busch stadium against the saint louis cardinals he missed a kick that never counted that would have changed everything if it did let's set the scene for this game in this moment it's december 12 1982 and it's washington at st louis with washington sitting at 4-1 and st louis sitting at three and two neither team is able to score on their first drive of the game washington goes three and out after opting to punt on fourth on a foot and saint louis walks away empty-handed after they try for a 27-yard field goal from kicker neil o'donoghue but he misses badly to the right but whereas the first drive of the game for washington wasn't an ideal start by any means drive number two is looking a little bit better a third down screen pass from joe this one to joe washington picks up 15 yards and gives washington their first first down of the game faced with another third down situation a few plays later thieves man completes the pass over the middle to his tight end don warren picking up another first down and a few plays later joe washington picks up another first down for washington as he catches the pass and gets tackled late out of bounds getting washington into field goal range eventually the drive stalls and it's time for mosley to step onto the field and try a 37 yard field goal to open up the scoring and give washington the lead and before i talk about the kick that mosley was about to attempt a quick note about the stadium that this game was being played at busch stadium because even though this game was taking place in september well past baseball season meaning that you didn't see any dirt on the field any of the traditional markings and things you'd see for a baseball game and anything that made the stadium look like it did in september the surface at busch stadium was notoriously bad it was one of the worst in the league even if you couldn't see the pictures now during football season you still knew where the pitchers mound was you could still see cracks in the surface that is not an ideal environment for any player to thrive in and succeed in but especially for a kicker that's the last thing you want to be worrying about with all that being said mosley lines up for the 37-yard kick to give washington a three-nothing lead and for the first time all season the kick is no good his consecutive field goals made streak which at this point was 14 is over his accuracy being at a hundred percent is over for the first time all season he missed and mosley was devastated about this and after the game was replaying that kick in his head as moseley said i slept my plant foot doesn't have asteroids or cleats the ball was near the pitcher's mound and i was about six inches away from a crack i was concerned because i knew we were in a battle regardless the perfect season was ruined except there was a flag on the play because as it turns out a defender on st louis barely lined up offside i couldn't tell you who that player was cbs decided not to show a replay of the kick at all so the only footage of the kick was the original footage where he missed superb job there all we know is that there were booze from the fans and protests from the players so it was awfully close it's not as though a defender was five yards off side to the point where it had any impact on mosley's kicking ability however because a player was offside mosley got a second chance at redemption although this time it would be from 5 yards closer as this kick wouldn't be by a crack or the pitcher's mound and instead would be a 32-yard field goal and on this one there was no doubt whatsoever mosley drilled it washington took a three-nothing lead mosley's consecutive field goal streak was at 15 and mosley was still at 100 on the season now you might be asking yourself why this play even matters it didn't have any impact on the game washington won it 12-7 so even if you take that offside penalty out of the equation you give mosley a miss for that and he never gets a second try if everything stays the same washington still wins it plus because this was so early in the game as it was the first quarter there are so many hypotheticals that to speculate on how this would have impacted the remaining 50 or so minutes of the contest is silly but one thing you can't deny is that if st louis never lined up offside then the kick would have been a miss instead of a make and when you look at it from an individual and a statistical standpoint this offside penalty might have been one of the most important offside penalties of all time that isn't talked about because this penalty changed the entire 1982 season the mvp race and nfl history if saint louis never lines up offside then mosley misses this kick this means that mosley finishes the season 19 for 21 instead of 20 for 21 and that is a big difference going 20 for 21 means you hit 95.2 percent of your field goals and had at that point the greatest statistical season in nfl history by a kicker going 19 for 21 means you hit 90.4 percent of your field goals that's a difference of 5 percentage points and don't get me wrong 90.4 percent of your kicks is still a fantastic season the only difference not only would that not have been the nfl record for accuracy which was part of the reason why mosley won mvp in the first place but it wouldn't have even been the most accurate percentage of the 1982 season because in 1982 lions kicker eddie murray hit on 91.7 percent of his kicks tying john cenaru from 1981 for the nfl record and no murray never had a shot at winning mvp the lions were below 500 and murray was 11 for 12. so even though he qualified he didn't exactly have the largest sample size in the world do the voters give the mvp to a kicker in mark mosley who wasn't even the most accurate kicker in the league probably not and if st lewis never lined up outside it means that mosley's streak where he broke arrow yapremian's 20-kick record for most consecutive field goals made never happens or even comes close to happening as it stalls at 14. the two biggest reasons why mosley won mvp and the two biggest arguments in his favor were that he set the record for the most consecutive field goals made and set the record for the highest accuracy in a single season if saint louis never lines up offside or if the referee never made a controversial call then he has none of those arguments that kick that didn't count it might have legitimately changed the entire mvp race for the 1982 season if that kick counted then dan thoughts is your likely winner of the mvp i'm not sure how many people remember this play even happening as it was 40 years ago and never counted and didn't impact the game but it deserves to be remembered today because of how much the history of the nfl changed because of it even if it meant nothing from an actual game standpoint it's not often that one negated play especially in the first quarter makes the difference over the course of an entire season in terms of the mvp race but in 1982 with mark mosley's missed kick that didn't happen that's exactly what happened because in the strike short in 1982 season when it came to awards one offside penalty changed history forever get your official jower gear 9 merchandise by going to jg9shop.com and be sure to like this video ring the notification bell and subscribe down below if you haven't already as it helps the channel out a lot and be sure to check out twitch every wednesday night at 9 pm eastern for a chance to play nfl trivia and win cash prizes link in the description below if you want to see videos like this condensed down to 60 seconds then follow me on tick tock at gerry getter9 to see college football videos subscribe to jadwar gator8 to see highlight videos of players throughout the history of the nfl subscribe to gg9 highlights also special thanks to all of our patreon supporters helping the channel your support is greatly appreciated so you can go to patreon and request future video topics in the description below [Music] [Music]

Channel: Official JaguarGator9

Views: 83,775

Keywords: redskins, 1982 redskins, washington redskins, nfl, nfl 1982, redskins cardinals, redskins cardinals highlights, redskins cardinals 1982, cardinals, st louis cardinals, st louis cardinals football, 1982 cardinals, 1982 cardinals football, mark moseley, mark moseley redskins, mark moseley nfl, kicker mvp, how a kicker won mvp, that time a kicker won mvp, mark moseley kick, mark moseley field goal, redskins field goal, nfl field goal, nfl kickers, game winning field goals, 1982

Id: N-sRpTR2_HY

Length: 15min 52sec (952 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 07 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/milkmandanimal]

And that meant Dan Fouts never got an MVP, which was screaming, epic-level bullshit. Dan Fouts threw for 320.3 yards/game that year; Dan Marino threw for 317.8 in 1984 in the first 5,000 yard season. Fouts was on pace to do better than that two years before Marino did it, and through 1979-1982 Fouts was insanely good.

[u/Comprehensive_Main]

To be fair I don’t think the nfl cares who wins mvp. Nor do I think the NFL had a vested interest in mark moseley looking good. I don’t think the Refs cared about Moseley looking. It just seemed like an iffy call. I mean even when Moseley won the mvp he barely won getting 35 votes to Fouts 33. So there wasn’t a conspiracy to give Moseley the award.

[u/Comprehensive_Main]

To be fair another reason to go against Dan fouts MVP is that even with his season they were the fifth seed. The skins were the first seed because of Moseley and that came in handy in the championship game against Dallas the second seed. The skins would go on to win the Super Bowl in 1982. Moseley was just more valuable. Also note Moseley wasn’t even the only player on his team to receive votes. Theismann also got MVP votes as well. So Moseley had votes split against him.