29 years ago this day, Monday Night Football was once more special

Twenty-nine years ago today I was employed by the U.S. Army, rather young to be a buck sergeant. In a few weeks I would be sent off on another two-year hitch to Germany, which I was not particularly looking forward to, since I had taken a liking to Fort Lewis and the environs, and I vowed to someday return to make Seattle my home. It would take another eight years, in between which I went to college and had a two-year sojourn in California. But before I left stateside to foreign environs, on this day I would be treated to one of the most memorable evenings I had ever experienced at that point in my existence on Earth, and it was due to one of the most memorable football game I ever watched, on a diminutive television set in my barracks room. On tap was Monday Night Football, back when the original gang was breathing its last gasp. It wasn’t quite the same as I remembered as a kid, when “Score” by Bob’s Band was the real “classic” MNF theme, and the team of Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell and Don Meredith were as much part of the entertainment as the game itself.

But by 1983, the last season when all three would be together in the booth, the formula had grown stale, and Cosell and Meredith seemed particularly bored and boring. You could still count on old Frank to screw-up names and misguess what a team was about to do, but since he was the play-by-play announcer, at least he had to do his best to keep his head in the game. On this evening we wouldn’t even have the whole team on hand, mainly because Cosell took the night off, and O.J. Simpson would be his fill-in. I had some interest in the match-up, since the Green Bay Packers would face the defending Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins at Lambeau Field. To casual fans, the Packers had no chance, but there was reason to believe that the Packers could make it interesting. In the strike shortened 1982 season, the Packers made it to the playoffs for the first time in a decade, and won their first playoff game since the Lombardi era, a 41-16 rout of the then St. Louis Cardinals. The next week the Packer offense ran roughshod over the Dallas Cowboys’ defense, but were done-in by five turnovers. 

Under Coach Bart Starr, the offense made the transition into a passing, rather than run-dominated team. The acquisition of the aging John Hadl signaled the desire for a “real” quarterback after such failed experiments as Scott Hunter and Jerry Tagge. Hadl only hung around long enough to break the Packer single-season record for completions in a season (191). The Hadl trade turned out to be an expensive failure—the Packers giving up five draft picks for him—before trading him again. Starr then gambled on Houston Oilers back-up Lynn Dickey, trading away two draft picks. The immobile Dickey had an impressive history on the disabled list; during a 1972 preseason game, Dickey was sacked from behind, his knee driven into the ground, shattering his tibia and fibula, and leaving his left ankle at a ninety degree ankle. But Dickey recovered enough to return to the field, but his playing opportunities were not good with Dan Pastorini as the established starter. But he still had a strong arm that could put the ball anywhere on the field—especially into the arms of the opponent, 28 times in 294 pass attempts during his stint in Houston. 

In his first season in Green Bay, Dickey lasted ten games before being knocked out with a shoulder injury. The next season he was knocked out with a broken leg, bad enough to cause him to miss all of the following season. Dickey back-up, David Whitehurst played reasonably well in his absence, and for the 1979 season found himself in a back-up role again. But Whitehurst had a poor season, and by the end of the season Dickey was back in as a starter. In 1980, Dickey played his first full season as a professional, and set Packer records in pass attempts, completions and yards. But the Packers had two of their future Pro Bowl pass catchers on the team, tight end Paul Coffman and wide receiver James Lofton, and in 1981 they would add a third, John Jefferson. Before the passing corps could reach its full potential, Dickey suffered a back injury, although the Packers recovered from an awful start to finish the season 8-8, before finally playing well enough in the strike-shortened 1982 season to win the NFC Central division and a playoff game.

With high expectations for the 1983 season, the Packers first game showed both the promise and the eventual demise of the season. The running game was non-existent, the defense only barely more so, but Dickey and the offense finally erupted into the explosive fireworks display that had been expected the previous season. Dickey was on fire, completing 27 of 31 passes for 333 yards and 5 touchdowns in a thrilling 41-38 overtime victory in Houston, after the Packers had squandered a two-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter. The following week, despite a loss to Pittsburgh, Dickey was again brilliant, completing 14 of 20 for 290 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions. Against Tampa Bay in week five, Dickey—playing only one half—was 10-15 for 267 yards and 3 TDs as the Packers set an NFL record with 49 first half points. Dickey would end the season breaking his own team single-season records, becoming the first Packer to throw for more than 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns; his single game and season yardage marks would remain team records until 2011. Unfortunately, the Packers continued to be done-in by their defense and by turnovers; with a chance to return to the playoffs on the last day of the season, the Packers lost to Chicago on a field goal in the waning moments, having committed a season high seven turnovers. The disappointing season would prove to be Bart Starr’s last as coach. Dickey himself would last another two seasons, before another injury finished his career for good. 

But that would be in the future. For the present, Dickey’s remarkable start to the 1983 season caused him to be the subject of a Sports Illustrated story by John Telander. Not surprisingly, the main interest was how he remained upright after all these years:

“Dickey is also the career leader among quarterbacks in the category of gruesome injuries and ailments…Without doubt, Dickey has been spindled, torn, battered, injected, cut, sutured, rehabbed, written off and resurrected more times than any other man still playing the game. His injuries have left him with a reputation as one tough hombre, a genuine stoic, a man who would battle Godzilla—and win—to stay at the job he loves…On Friday, Dickey had to leave practice and go home because of the pain. Nobody doubted that this was real pain. Dickey, after all, had played part of the 1979 season with an 18-inch steel rod holding his lower left leg together and never complained.” Gifford would comment during the game that Dickey was a “physiological marvel” to be out on the field at all.

The game began with Packer long kicker Eddie Garcia kicking the ball twice out of bounds on the opening kick-off. On Washington’s first possession, linebacker Mike Douglas stripped the ball from a receiver, picked it up and ran it into the end zone for a quick 7-0 lead for the Packers. The Redskins went right to work easily moving on the porous Packer defense, the drive ending on a John Riggins’ fumble is recovered by Clint Didier in the end zone. On replay, Meredith was sufficiently animated to note that he thought a “Green Bay guy” recovered the fumble. On the next possession, former Kansas City Chief Jan Stenerud hit a 47-yard field goal to give Green Bay its second of many leads, 10-7. A Douglas sack deep in Packer territory, followed by an Ezra Johnson sack stopped a Redskin touchdown threat, forcing a Mark Moseley field goal to tie the game after one quarter. While James Lofton was dropping passes early, Pro Bowl tight end Paul Coffman was having a career day. On the next drive, Coffman caught a touchdown pass for a 17-10 Packer lead. Gifford commented “This kind of game puts punters out of work.”

This was a game where with the offenses moving up and down the field at a will, Meredith and Simpson had more than enough to keep them awake and animated. They joked about how a team with only -5 yards rushing in the first quarter could possibly be in the game. On the Redskins’ side, Riggins was again running it in from the one to tie the score again. With the Packers driving again, Dickey threw an interception; but the Packers were not hurt by it, because the defense forced its only punt of the game (the Packers only punt would not occur until the third quarter). On the Packers next possession, John Jefferson made a spectacular catch on the sidelines, which prompted a giddy Meredith to say “That’s sure pretty. I like seeing things like that.” Packer offensive coordinator “Sneeky” Schnelker then called a trick play on third down and short, in which running back Eddie Lee Ivery took a pitch out from Dickey and threw the ball to a wide open Coffman inside the Redskins’ 10. Coffman then took a pass from Dickey to give the Packers a 24-17 lead. In the final seconds of the half, Moseley kicked a field goal to send the game into half time with the Packers leading 24-20.

After half time, the guys joked about how the Packers had “picked-up” their running game with 18 rushing yards, but with nearly 200 yards passing, they were doing what they needed to do to keep themselves in the game against last-ranked pass defense in the NFL. Thus they were especially animated when in the Packers first possession of the third quarter, Gerry Ellis surprised everyone by running for a 24-yard touchdown to give the Packers a 31-20 lead. But then the Packers offense went dormant the rest of the quarter, while the Redskins staged a comeback, although the Packers defense “only” allowed a touchdown and forced two field goals as the Redskins continued to move the ball mostly at will. The Redskins entered the fourth quarter with their first lead of the game, 33-31. 

But as exciting as the game had been up to this point, the fourth quarter would see five different lead changes. After the Moseley field goal that gave the Redskins the lead in the third quarter, Harlan Huckelby reawakened the crowd by taking the kick-off return to the Redskins’ 38. Gary Lewis then took a reverse into the end zone to retake the lead, 38-33. Meredith joked that he wasn’t supposed to tell, but the coaches had a meeting and decided that the first team to fifty points was the winner. On the next possession, the Redskins sliced through the Packer defense like a knife through butter, as Riggins scored another touchdown to give the lead back to the Redskins, 40-38. “We like this kind of football,” said Gifford. 

On the next possession, the Packers regained the lead again as little-used Mike Meade took a Dickey pass into the end zone to set a new MNF scoring record, 85 points. “Do they love it in Green Bay?” asked Gifford. “Oh yeah” said Meredith. But on the next possession, a Theismann to Joe Washington pass again forced a lead change, 47-45. With the game time winding down,  Packers were faced with a third and 10 on their own 34 yard line. Simpson commented “We are getting to a point where there will have to make a decision on the Green Bay side. The way they (the Redskins) are moving the ball, they might have to go for it on fourth down.” Meredith disagreed because of the field position, but Gifford sided with Simpson, to which a miffed Meredith commented “Oh, what do you guys know?” Gifford noted how the crowd had gone silent, until Dickey hit Ellis on a thread-the-needle pass. Ellis seemed to be running for daylight until he was tackled from behind by Redskins' speedster Darrell Green; Simpson and Meredith joked about how Ellis "zigged" when he should have "zagged." The Packers had a first-and-goal, but Redskins held, forcing a Stenerud’s field goal that gave the Packers the lead again at 48-47. Before the kick, the Packers attempted a delay of game penalty to give Stenerud a better angle, but the Redskins declined the penalty; Meredith took this opportunity to get even with his cohorts by needling them for not guessing as he did that the Redskins would do so. In any case, “I’ve had more fun than the last two  times I was in Green Bay,” he said, in reference to his playing days with Dallas. 

But even with less than a minute to go and no time outs, the  Redskins were far from finished, and Theismann led the team virtually unopposed down the field. But Mosely would miss a 39-yard field goal attempt at the gun, ending the game with Packers winning what is still the highest scoring game on Monday night, 48-47. As Green Bay players and fans went ecstatic, Meredith commented “I tell you, this was an exciting football game.” It was. There were 17 scores, 1,027 total yards and only 2 punts. The Redskins had 33 first downs, 552 total yards and dominated time of possession, but the Packers averaged a remarkable 9.1 yards per play. The following Monday would be a different story, as the New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals would play one of the worst and most frustrating MNF games ever, a 20-20 overtime tie.