It was 21 years ago today – December 10th, 2000 – that Lavar Arrington put a hit on Troy Aikman that would prove to be Troy’s last.
This blog isn’t to glorify an injury. Not at all. It was just a significant moment in the Washington | Dallas rivalry.
Aikman was running out of bounds and throwing the ball away on the play, but Lavar finished the hit as he should. There was nothing dirty or malicious about it. It was just a strong football play.
But if you want to trigger a Cowboys fan and see them turn salty, just mention this play.
Lavar’s Thoughts
Here are some of LaVar’s comments from a piece in the Washington Post on September 23, 2011:
I don’t glorify injuries of players. I respect the game and the players in it, so I’m very careful not to indulge too much the countless numbers of fans that try to discuss it with me.
Regardless of how I feel about it, the intense rivalry between the Redskins and Cowboys made my hit that day one that would forever be connected to me and my career.
I hate that the hit marked the end of a brilliant career, but I’d be lying if I said I can’t believe that I brought it so hard when I played that I knocked Troy Aikman smack out! Not to mention it was in the biggest game of my life at that point in my young career. I showed the Redskins nation and the world why I was the real deal!
Honestly, I don’t go a day without hearing something in reference to that hit. It solidified my place in Redskins history and for that I’m forever grateful to have made a play with such a lasting effect on the fans.
Click here to watch the play on youTube.
The late, great Sam Huff said of the play,”I saw the streak going across the field and I thought, ‘There goes Lavar. Man he put him out. I knew he had arrived.”
Troy’s Thoughts
Aikman has never seemed to carry any type of grudge towards Arrington.
“I enjoy it when they show it,” Aikman once said during a broadcast, “Because I don’t remember when it happened.”
What do you think? Is this a significant moment in the rivalry?
Or is it proof of how little there has been to talk about in the two team’s “rivalry” in the last 20 or so years. All of the games are in the regular season, instead of the playoffs where the memories are truly made.
It still makes Cowboy fans mad though. So be sure to mention it, to any you see this week.
Let’s go beat them Cowboys.
Hail.