The Body Bag Game. It was thirty-one years ago today – November 12th, 1990 – on a Monday Night football game at Veteran’s Stadium. A nationwide audience watched Washington lose 28-14 to the Philadelphia Eagles in what is widely regarded as one of the roughest games of football ever played.
The game is called the Body Bag Game because before the game, Eagles Coach Buddy Ryan told reporters that “they’ll have to be carted off in body bags.”
During the game, an Eagles player reacted to one of the Washington injuries by asking, “Do you guys need any more body bags?”
Nine Redskins Injured in Body Bag Game Carnage
In total, nine Washington Redskins players left the game due to injury. That included both of their quarterbacks – Jeff Rutledge and Stan Humphries. Washington had quarterback Gary Hogeboom but he was inactive for the game, so rookie running back Brian Mitchell had to step in as the emergency quarterback.
Other players that left the game for Washington included running back Gerald Riggs, and linebacker Greg Manusky. Return men Joe Howard and Walter Stanley were also both injured.
Eagles Defense Dominates with Two Touchdown Returns
The Eagles scored two defensive touchdowns in the game. The first, a 30 yard interception return by William Frizzell in the first quarter.
The second came when Clyde Simmons returned a fumble 18-yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. Philadelphia scored 21 unanswered points in the third frame to gash the game wide open.
Heath Sherman caught two TD passes, one from Randall Cunningham, and one from running back Keith Byars.
It was an ugly night for Washington and their fans.
“The Redskins could have written a dozen worst case scenarios and they likely wouldn’t have been as bad as the one they lived this blistery, 39-degree evening when they hauled off player after player with injuries.”
How the Body Bag Game Galvanized Washington
So why have a #FlashbackFriday for such a crappy moment?
The game became a galvanizing moment for the Washington team.
“I think that game started our Super Bowl run for the next year,” said Brian Mitchell years later.
“That game we got tested by the bully, and the bully got the best of us. But they didn’t kill us. They left us breathing, and we had a chance to come back. And when you come back, you make sure you understand, ‘you made a mistake by not taking me out.'”
The two teams met again six weeks later in the Wild Card Game of the playoffs. Washington dispatched of the Eagles 20-6 when it mattered most.
Body Bag Game Legacy: From Brutal Loss to Super Bowl
Even though the Redskins lost to the eventual Super Bowl winner San Francisco 49ers that year, they would win the Super Bowl the following season.
“It’s because the offensive line and the defensive line—they took [the beating] personally,” offered Mitchell. “You know, some days you don’t have your best. But you don’t just say, ‘Well man, I’m just gonna quit.’ No! You fight ’till the end, you fight being a warrior, and then you come back the next time and you remember every damn thing they did to you and you get ’em back—and that’s what we did. Then that next year, it was a runaway locomotive.”
Many Washington players felt that the Body Bag Game was a turning point for the franchise.
The team were reportedly a stronger-knit group because of the experience.