The Fix Is In, page 32
The Denver Broncos were the NFL’s team of choice to hype that season, even though the defending champion Packers once again posted the best record in the NFL (tied with both the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs at 13-3). Denver was led by the aging quarterback John Elway, who had been elevated to legend status despite having lost three previous Super Bowls including two of the biggest blowouts ever, 42-10 to the Washington Redskins and 55-10 to the San Francisco 49ers. Gamblers had the Packers as huge favorites that day, posting an 11½ point spread in favor of Green Bay. The question on every NFL commentator’s lips was, could John Elway finally win the big one? The answer to the question came from Packers head coach Mike Holmgren, who effectively said “Yes.”
The game stood tied at 24-24 with about three minutes to play in the game. The Broncos had the ball on the Packers’ 49-yard line, courtesy of a poor Packers punt. On first down, the Broncos ran the ball for only two yards, but a face-masking penalty conveniently moved the Broncos ahead another 15 yards to the Packers’ 32-yard line. The Broncos continued to advance the ball, eventually settling down at the Packers’ one-yard line with just 1:47 left in the game. That was when everything got interesting.
With the clock stopped and the ball sitting second-and-goal from the one, the Packers still had two timeouts remaining. If they could keep the Broncos out of the end zone on the next two plays and call immediate timeouts, and then should the Broncos actually convert a go-ahead field goal, the Packers would still have been able to get the ball back with time left on the clock for a final drive to attempt to tie the score or win the game outright. That would’ve been any coach’s strategy of choice, yet as Holmgren later admitted he didn’t know what down it was. Holmgren thought it was first down on the one—not second down—thus, the two remaining timeouts would not have been enough to stop the clock during a three-down goal-line stand. Despite Holmgren getting all the resultant blame for this, in truth, none of his assistant coaches or any members of the Packers defense out on the field apparently knew any better, otherwise someone would’ve pointed out the error to their head coach before it was too late. Instead, being ignorant of the true nature of the team’s situation, Holmgren told his defense to lie down and let the Broncos score. Never mind the possibility of a fumble or a blocked kick. No, the best option for Holmgren and the Packers was to go ahead and let the Broncos take the lead with a touchdown, and hope that in the 1:45 remaining, the team could march its way to a touchdown, not to win the game, but simply re-tie the score and hope for better results in overtime. That begs the question: what play, exactly, could be called in from the sidelines to order the defense to let the other team score? And why, upon hearing such a call, did no member of the Packers defense protest or inform their coach of the error he was making? Are players really that robotic? If so, every NFL game is vulnerable to excessive coach control.
This “concession touchdown” as it’s now known clearly cost the Packers the Super Bowl. As Holmgren said later in 2006, “I’ve never done it since, but I would do it again. The choice I had at the time was to let the clock go down and lose the game on a field goal with no time on the clock, or allow them to score and maybe we could score with more time on the clock. I looked at it and said, ‘This is our best chance in my opinion.’ I suppose we could have blocked the conversion or the field goal, but I just made a choice at the time. I think in the same circumstance I would do the same thing again. At that point it was all about the clock.”64 Or maybe simply knowing what down it was. How the head coach of a professional football team in the Super Bowl didn’t know what down it was in the final two minutes of the game is unbelievable.
Holmgren’s dementia aside, the Packers still had a shot at tying the game. With the ball on the Broncos’ 31-yard line for a fourth-and-six play with 32 seconds remaining, the Packers had some time to think about the last play thanks to a pair of injuries that occurred on third down. What did Holmgren decide to call on this make-or-break play? As former Packers tight end Mark Chmura said, “The last call of the game was maybe the dumbest ever. You should have seen the look in the huddle when Two Jet Winston comes in. We had never run this play all year long. We maybe practiced it three times in training camp and this is the best you can give us? A player knows when his number is called. Two Jet Winston is no one’s number called.”65 Needless to say, the play didn’t succeed. The Broncos blitzed yet again, forcing Favre to lob up a pass that was knocked down by linebacker John Mobley. Game over.
As for the Broncos, their head coach was a little surprised by the Packers’ actions. In referring to the concession touchdown that gave the Broncos the 31-24 victory, Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan said, “I thought it was just really good blocking by us, but then I saw the highlight and realized what really happened. There are a lot of ways to look at that situation. But I’m not one to second-guess.”66 NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue was 100 percent behind Holmgren, saying, “I don’t have any question whatsoever with what Mike Holmgren did.”67 Apparently, the NFL was rooting for the Broncos that day, too.
Super Bowl XXXIII - Denver Broncos vs. Atlanta Falcons - January 31, 1999. It does not seem as though the Falcons were the NFL’s team of choice for that Super Bowl. While tied with the Broncos for the second-best record in the NFL at 14-2, the 15-1 Minnesota Vikings seemed to be the team to beat. However in the NFC Championship game, the league’s leading scorer, Vikings 16-year veteran kicker Gary Anderson, who had remarkably made all 35 of his field goal attempts as well as all 59 of his extra point attempts during the regular season (the only kicker in NFL history to make 100 percent of his kicks during a season), missed a 38-yard field goal attempt late in the fourth quarter which would have sealed the game for the Vikings. Instead, the Falcons rallied and tied the game, eventually winning it in overtime on a 38-yard field goal by Morten Anderson.
One would think such an amazing turn of fortune would have made the Falcons not look such a gift horse in the mouth. That every player on the Falcons would use the opportunity to focus on winning the biggest game of their careers, and not be distracted by any outside influences. As the Super Bowl approached, however, the Falcons players could not avoid the nightlife in its host city of Miami. The night before Super Bowl XXXIII, the Falcons Pro-Bowl safety Eugene Robinson was arrested for soliciting an undercover police officer for sex. Robinson, who had joined the Falcons that season after spending the previous two as a member of the Green Bay Packers for their Super Bowl runs, had just been awarded the Bart Starr Award for “leadership in the home, on the field, and in the community” less than 24 hours prior to his arrest. Robinson was married with two children at the time. He would later return the award.
Though all attention was immediately focused on Robinson, apparently he wasn’t the only Falcons player more interested in scoring with prostitutes than out on the field. Another Falcons starter was quoted in the New York Times saying, “Guys had been going there [a seedy section of Miami] all week. It’s just that Eugene was the only one who got caught.”68 That wasn’t the first, or last time, a player was caught partying too much prior to playing in a Super Bowl. Most notably was Cincinnati Bengals fullback Stanley Wilson. After missing a team meeting just prior to the Bengals facing the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII, Wilson was found in his hotel room suffering from the effects of a cocaine overdose. Wilson didn’t play in the game, and the Bengals lost to the 49ers 20-16.
Though not publicly acknowledged prior to the Super Bowl, after they were thrashed by the Broncos 34-19 several Falcons players admitted that Robinson’s arrest was a major distraction. Robinson, who maintained his innocence in the matter (though later would agree to enter a diversion program stemming from the misdemeanor charge), claimed the arrest and ensuing lack of sleep had no effect on his play in the game, despite the fact that Robinson was burned by Broncos wide receiver Rod Smith on an 80-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. To quote Robinson after the game, “I was extremely focused on the game today. It didn’t affect my play because it was pretty much therapeutic.”69
Though no player outright fingered Robinson’s arrest or any of the team’s other Super Bowl week distractions for the loss, the normally sharp Falcons played horribly. Falcons quarterback Chris Chandler threw three interceptions, kicker Morten Anderson missed a 26-yard field goal, and running back Jamal Anderson fumbled late in the fourth quarter. The Falcons were inside the Broncos 30-yard line seven times, but managed to get just two field goals and a late fourth-quarter touchdown out of such excellent opportunities throughout the game.
Meanwhile, future Hall of Fame quarterbacking legend John Elway led his Broncos to a second straight Super Bowl victory despite injuries to key players Terrell Davis and Shannon Sharpe. They easily covered the seven-and-a-half-point spread set in Las Vegas, and short of the 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by the Falcons’ Tim Dwight, the Broncos seemed in control of the game from beginning to end. Named the Super Bowl’s MVP, Elway promptly retired from the game.
Super Bowl XXXIV - St. Louis Rams vs. Tennessee Titans - January 30, 2000. While that game is remembered mainly for the Titans coming up one yard short on the last play of the game, what should not be forgotten is the path both teams took to get to that point.
The Titans’ path began in a most memorable wild-card game against the Buffalo Bills. That game has been set forever in NFL lore thanks to the play now known as “The Music City Miracle.” With Buffalo in the lead 16-15 after a field goal, the Titans were set to receive the ensuing kickoff with just 16 seconds left to play in the game. To say it looked bleak for the Titans is an understatement. The kickoff went to Lorenzo Neal who handed the ball off to Titans tight end Frank Wycheck. Wycheck turned and fired the ball across the field to wide receiver Kevin Dyson. The wacky play caught the Bills completely off guard and Dyson ran 75 yards untouched for the game-winning touchdown. The designed play was known within the Titans team as the “home run throwback” and worked to perfection that day, or so it seemed.
Prior to the start of that 1999 season, the NFL reinstated the instant replay rule. That allowed coaches two challenges per game on questionable calls, or as in that instance, when less than two minutes remained in the game, the officials could call for a second look at a questionable play. Little did the NFL know how much of a factor the instant replay rule would be during its first reinstated year in the playoffs.
Due to the unusual nature of the “home run throwback” play and what its result meant to the game at hand, officials felt the play had to be reviewed to ensure that Wycheck’s across-the-field toss was indeed backwards and not forwards, thus legal as a lateral. Despite numerous replays and angles, it could not be determined conclusively that Wycheck’s throw was a forward pass, thus the play was allowed to stand as called (which is the open flaw within the instant replay rule that the NFL is free to exploit—the definition of “conclusive” evidence within a replay). The Titans won the game 22-16 to advance deeper into the playoffs. As Titans head coach Jeff Fisher said after the game, “It wasn’t really in the hands of the officials, it was in the hands of someone higher up.”70
What many forget about in that same game were the Bills’ pregame actions. Doug Flutie had been the Bills’ starting quarterback for 15 of their 16 games that year, leading the Bills to a 10-5 record when he was at the helm. Yet head coach Wade Phillips unexpectedly benched Flutie against the Titans in favor of back-up quarterback Rob Johnson. Johnson had attempted all of 34 passes up to that point in the season, most which came in the Bills’ season finale against the Colts. Though Johnson performed impressively as the starter in that meaningless last game of the regular season, no one expected Johnson to start over Flutie in the playoff game against the Titans. How wrong everyone was. Though Johnson led the Bills to within 16 seconds of victory against the Titans that day, Coach Phillips’ decision was highly controversial. What better way is there to screw up an offense than to substitute your starting quarterback prior to the biggest game of the season? Could Phillips’ decision point to an obvious attempt to give the Titans the game? Was longtime quarterback Flutie, who as a player in the Canadian Football League won numerous championships, unwilling to intentionally lose to the Titans? Was that why Johnson got the unexpected nod as the starter? And when Johnson performed over and above all expectations, was the controversial “Music City Miracle” the league’s only way to give the Titans the win? As Bills linebacker Gabe Northern claimed after the game, “The whole game, they [the referees] gave them calls. I don’t know, maybe I am not supposed to speak on it, but the whole game we came out and we played hard and we fought and we earned a victory. But through different ways, it was taken away from us.”71
The Titans would forge ahead and squeeze by the Indianapolis Colts 19-16 in the divisional round of the playoffs. Of course, instant replay yet again helped the Titans in securing the win. With the Titans winning 16- 9 in the fourth quarter, Colts return man Terrence Wilkins took a punt 87 yards down to the Titans’ 3-yard line. However, the Titans challenged the play and it was ruled (suspiciously) that Wilkins had stepped out of bounds way back at the Colts’ 34-yard line. The call completely changed the dynamics of the game coming as it did in the fourth quarter. The Titans would hold on to win the game and meet the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Championship game. The Jaguars, having been the AFC’s number one seed after posting a 14-2 record, demolished the Miami Dolphins the week before by the score of 62-7. Meeting in the championship game, the Jaguars turned into pussycats, losing 33-14 at home against the Titans.
For the Super Bowl, the Titans were set to face the St. Louis Rams, better known that year as “the Greatest Show on Turf ” due to their high scoring offense. And though the Rams showed off that scoring power by beating the Minnesota Vikings 49-37 in the divisional playoffs, they ran into some problems against a stoic Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense in the NFC Championship game. Luckily for the Rams, instant replay was on their side as well.
With the Rams winning 11-6 with just under a minute left in the game, the Buccaneers had the ball on the Rams’ 35-yard line. On second down, with 23 yards to go for a first down, Buccaneers quarterback Shaun King threw a low pass to wide receiver Bert Emanuel. Emanuel dove to catch the ball, and immediately thereafter, the Buccaneers called timeout to stop the clock with an apparent 3-and-10 situation on the Rams’ 22. Yet during that timeout, the referees suddenly decided that they needed to review Emanuel’s catch to make sure he caught the ball. According to the NFL’s rule, if the ball touches the ground during the act of making the catch, the pass is incomplete. In watching the replay, despite Emanuel wrapping the ball up while making the catch, the referee ruled that the ball touched the ground. No catch. The reversal not only incensed the Buccaneers who were still assessed a timeout, but even the booth announcers could not believe that the referees didn’t rule the pass a catch. The Buccaneers were faced with a 3-and-23 situation back on the Rams’ 35-yard line, not the more convertible 3-and-10 situation from the 22. The wind sucked from their sails, Bucs could go no further. The Rams won the game 11-6 to advance to the Super Bowl against the Titans. As if it mattered to the Buccaneers, after the season ended the NFL’s competition committee decided to alter the rule regarding the ball’s ability to touch the ground, making what Emanuel did against the Rams officially a completed pass starting in the 2000 season (henceforth known as the “Bert Emanuel Rule”).
What makes this Super Bowl odd was that both the Rams and Titans were teams that willingly moved out of their original home cities to places the NFL deemed best for expansion just a few years earlier. Owned by Georgia Fontiere, the wife of the now deceased (under suspicious circumstances) Carroll Rosenbloom (he of the $1 million bet in the 1958 championship game), the Rams moved to St. Louis from Los Angeles in 1995. As for the Titans, they left Houston to become the (Memphis) Tennessee Oilers in 1997. In 1999, the season they reached the Super Bowl, they were rechristened the Titans while the Oilers name was officially retired. Was it merely a coincidence that these two freshly relocated teams found themselves in the Super Bowl? Or were both these teams rewarded for sacrificing themselves for the betterment of the league?
Super Bowl XXXV - Baltimore Ravens vs. New York Giants - January 28, 2001. Though deemed an expansion team, the Baltimore Ravens were in fact none other than the Cleveland Browns. Having left Cleveland amidst much controversy in 1996, the Browns/Ravens, like the Rams and Titans, just so happened to leave their original city for one of the five cities the NFL had pre-christened for expansion. Longtime Browns owner Art Modell took a thrashing from the city of Cleveland and Browns fans for his decision to pull the team out of the city. The NFL, as it is always apt to do, comforted and applauded the old man for making such a sound decision. Coincidentally enough, just a year after the other two relocated teams had reached the Super Bowl, the Ravens, following an 8-8 season in 1999, turned up the heat and became the 12-4 Ravens of 2000.
While the Ravens possessed one of the most dominant defenses in NFL history which allowed just 165 total points during the regular season, their offense was miserable. Starting two different quarterbacks during the season (the amazing duo of Tony Banks and Trent Dilfer), the Ravens constantly struggled to score. At one point in 2000, the Ravens played five consecutive games without scoring a touchdown on offense. Amazingly, they won two of those games. Still, the Ravens’ selling point was their dominating defense which allowed a grand total of 16 points in their three-game playoff march leading up to Super Bowl XXXV.
On the flip side of the Ravens was the New York Giants. Led by the running back combo of Tiki Barber and Ron Dayne, the Giants had also marched to an impressive 12-4 record in 2000. In the playoffs, the Giants beat the Eagles 20-10 then ran over the Vikings 41-0 in the NFC Championship game. Yet commanding the Giants offense was quarterback Kerry Collins who had his best success leading the Carolina Panthers to the NFC Championship game four years earlier. Since then, Collins had gone through a serious drinking problem which led to questions surrounding his character. That often led to conflicts with his teammates, and Collins went from the Panthers to the New Orleans Saints before landing his position leading the Giants to the Super Bowl.
