NFL Films: NFL 1985- The Road to Super Bowl 20

Source:NFL Films- Da Bears Fan Bill Murray.

Source:The Daily Review

NFL 1985, of course was dominated by the Chicago Bears. Going on to an 18-1 record and winning their first Super Bowl, arguably the most dominant Super Bowl champion of all-time. I also remember this season very well as a Redskins fan, because we lost quarterback Joe Theisman to a career ending leg injury on Monday Night Football against are great rival New York Giants. The Redskins, were essentially a 500 team before they played the Giants that night and got down in that game. But backup quarterback Jay Schroeder came in brought the Redskins back in that game. And the Redskins got hot under Schroeder and barely missed the NFC Playoffs that season. But the 1985 NFL season had so much more than that.

The San Francisco 49ers, fell back from their Super Bowl season in 84 and almost missed the NFC Playoffs in 85 and lost the NFC West to their arch-rival Anaheim Rams (as I call them). The Rams, weren't really anything special. Other than having a great power running game led by Eric Dickerson the premier runner in the NFL at this point. They had one of the top defenses in the NFL in 85 and if they could get anything out of Dieter Brock in the passing game, they were good enough to beat anyone. The Miami Dolphins, didn't get back to the Super Bowl, but they did get back to the AFC Final where they lost to the New England Patriots. The Patriots, were never even a Super Bowl contender pre-85 and yet they got to the Super Bowl in 85 as a wildcard team. With their power running game, explosive passing game and solid defense.

I think if you can get past the Bears in 85, a lot of that season I believe is about would could have been. The Raiders going out in the divisional round even though they still had the best all around team at least in the AFC in 85. Same thing could be said about them in 84 where they failed to defend their Super Bowl Championship and didn't even get back to the AFC Final. And the Miami Dolphins failing to improve their very soft defense and not adding a top caliber running back and solid running game for their great quarterback Dan Marino and those great receivers. Which I believe is how the Patriots sort of slipped through and beat both the Raiders and defending AFC champion Dolphins to get to Super Bowl 20. You also had good young teams like the New York Giants, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, all looking to become Super Bowl contenders again in 85.

But of course you can't talk about 1985 at least about the NFL and even the whole year in general, without talking about the Chicago Bears. Where they finally not just had a team good enough to go with their great running back Walter Payton, but a defense that might have been as great defending as Walter was running the ball, receiving and blocking. The 85 Bears only needed about fifteen points a game to win every week, because they only gave up fourteen points a game. But they scored 28 points a game. They were about as good as anyone has ever been in the NFL on both sides of the ball when Jim McMahon was their quarterback. And you put them up against a blue-collar nothing special but solid football team like the New England Patriots, who believed they only had to stop one player in Walter Payton to beat them and you can see how the Bears beat Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl 20. 85 was a great NFL season, but it could have been much better in the AFC.

ESPN Films: Video: The Legend of Jimmy the Greek

Source:The New Democrat

Jimmy the Greek reminds me of Richard Nixon at least in one sense and he reminds me of Richard Nixon's great quote at his White House farewell address in 1974. Where President Nixon said "that you'll never know what it is like to be at the top of the mountain until you've been in the deepest valley". Meaning you'll never know what it is like to be on top until you are on the bottom. Both men were at the top of their professions and both fell to the bottom. Like falling off of a mountain and hitting the ground.

Jimmy the Greek was at the top of his profession, the gaming industry, perhaps the top sports better in the United States. He was so hot and successful and even popular that he lands himself a gig at the number one sports show in the country the old CBS's NFL Today. The top pre-game show in the country in the 1970s and 80s. With Brent Musburger, Irv Cross, Phyllis George the best pre-game show not just in this period, but still all-time as far as popularity, commentary, the interviews, the people they brought on.

The Greek goes from being at the top of the gaming industry and sports broadcasting profession, to at the bottom and for what, because of a stupid ignorant comment that he made about African-American athletes. Saying that they "are naturally superior athletes because of how they were bread from slavery". Breaded from slavery, it sort of sounds like someone talking about how animals are raised. Not the way you would talk about human beings. And because of that moment of stupidity he goes from the top of his profession, to someone that people didn't want to associate with and be with.

USFL Forever: Small Potatoes: Who Killed The USFL

Source:The New Democrat

I could just write that Donald Trump by himself killed the old United States Football League that only lasted for three seasons from 1983-85 and I'm actually old enough to remember games from all three seasons. I could write that and it would be mostly true about Donald Trump. Because he was involved in the league owning the New Jersey Generals, but he was the Dan Snyder of the USFL. A great businessman outside of pro football with no business being involved in pro football.

But the whole story is that the USFL folded for multiple reasons and even though The Donald had a hand in several of those reasons why the league folded. It wasn't all his fault but with The Donald I could put down the facts that the league grew way too fast going to eighteen teams by 1985. And also expanding in NFL markets that already great established pro football franchises and weren't looking for another pro football franchise like. Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, and Denver. And I could put the fact that Donald Trump decided the USFL should be playing in the fall and go up against the NFL. When they had the spring and summer all to themselves.

So yeah I could put most of the failures of the old USFL on Donald Trump. Because he had a hand in a lot of their management failures. But he wasn't the Commissioner of the USFL, but the majority owner of one of their franchises. And the USFL didn't have strong enough people amongst their other owners or a commissioner to stand up. And say "you know what we shouldn't be doing this. Going up against the NFL in their own markets and playing when they do. When we have all of these other major markets that do not have a major league pro football franchise yet". If they had strong smart people like that, they probably never go out of business. And have the spring and summer to themselves and still be in business in today. 

NFL Films: Jerry Jones vs. Jimmy Johnson: The Story of Jerry's Cowboys

Source:The New Democrat

As good as the Dallas Cowboys were in the 1990s with their three Super Bowl championships, three NFL championships, four conference finals appearances, and five NFC East titles and a lot of playoff victories, they could've been so much better had Jerry Jones gotten out of Jimmy Johnson's way and let him run the Cowboys' football operations department concerned with who was on the team and so forth and let Jerry worry about what Jerry is good at, which is managing the finances.

Jerry Jones had and still has the title of General Manager of the Dallas Cowboys even though he is also the owner of the franchise. But everyone in and around the NFL, and the fans as well, knew who was calling the football personal shots in Dallas, which was Jimmy because Jimmy was making the personal decisions, which was part of his job and in his contract. Jerry handled the contract negotiations of players that Jimmy wanted to sign and bring back but the Cowboys of the 1990s were built by Jimmy Johnson.

Jerry Jones wasn't an NFL man before purchasing the Cowboys in 1989.   He was someone who learned very fast on the job, but Jimmy Johnson was his man to run the team and they had been childhood friends in Arkansas. Jerry knew Jimmy's college football career very well at Miami Florida and in Oklahoma and had the guy he wanted all along, but he couldn't handle Jimmy getting the credit for building the Cowboys and returning them to power in the 1990s.  That is why they broke up.

In 1989 Jimmy Johnson inherited a 3-13 Cowboys team from 1988 with a huge deficit when it came to talent, especially young talent and young veteran talent, with most of their star players making their mark in the 1970s and early 1980s. Jimmy saw this right away and decided that the best way to rebuild the Cowboys was to get worse before getting better and releasing or trading or asking veteran Cowboys to retire to make room for college draft picks and young talented free agents.

The Cowboys went from 1-15 in 1989 to 13-3 by 1992, winning back-to-back Super Bowls in 1992 and 1993 and doing it all through the draft and signing young talented free agents and trading for those players. That is how Jimmy Johnson rebuilt the Cowboys and he deserves most of the credit for this.  Had Jerry Jones' big fat ego not gotten in the way, Jimmy would be in Dallas probably 10 to 15 years and we are talking about perhaps the greatest NFL dynasty in history.