Football podcasts.
Once “The Doomsday Defense” kicked in, the Cowboys closed the door on opponents … until Dallas was done in by a last-second field goal in the biggest game of the year. After finishing the 1969 regular season with an impressive 11–2–1 record, the Dallas Cowboys flopped in the playoffs, losing to the Cleveland Browns 38–14. … Read more
Today we have Super Bowl XXXIX, which was held on February 6, 2005, at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, between the five-time AFC champion New England Patriots and the second-time NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles. As always, we have a pop quiz, and then homework at the end of the episode. The pop quiz question for … Read more
In 1950, the Chicago Cardinals faced a challenging coaching predicament. After Jimmy Conzelman retired in 1948 following two straight trips to the NFL championship game, the club named Phil Handler and Buddy Parker as co-head coaches for the 1949 season. That experiment lasted only five games before Handler was booted upstairs while Parker was appointed … Read more
While the phrase “three-letter agency” is a euphemism for American spook organizations such as the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and the NSA (National Security Agency), the NFL is a three-letter agency in its own right. Behind the game-day action of the NFL is a world much like the cloak-and-dagger realm of American intelligence agencies. The … Read more
A former running back for the 1972 Undefeated Miami Dolphins spoke to me recently about his team’s efforts to win Super Bowl VII back at the conclusion of the 1972 NFL season. As it turned out, it took losing the biggest game of the year to enable them to win the biggest game of the … Read more