The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

Do you guys think that our two super bowl wins in the 80s is looked down upon by the media because they both came in strike years. Granted only the 87 season used replacement guys... but could the fact that both years were shortened seasons kind of soured the media on those victories. Tell me what u guys think

Partly. The sports entertainers (aka media) joked in '87 that the Redskins only win the SB in strike years. The Giants -- defending SB champs -- kind of gave up that year when their replacement team lost all three games.

However, the SB17 team lost one -- one games. The playoffs were four rounds that year, and the Dolphins were the only team even to put up a fight through the first half. Oh, and the Dolphins were leading only because of a kick return, and because Joe T threw a last-second first half pass to Charlie Brown, who could not get out of bounds to let the Skins kick a FG.

From the first handoff, the Hogs were exploding the middle of the Dolphins defense, and Riggins was getting his five yards a carry.

It was all there to see. Just a matter of time. If they had played a fifth quarter, the Hogs and Riggins would have scored two more TD's. In fact, they could have scored another in that long, gut-grinding, end-of-game drive. They just didn't need to.

The announcers looked at the Redskins season, then counted back to the second half of the '81 season, and pronounced that the Redskins were the dominant team in football. The next Steelers.

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'87 was tougher, because teams had studied ways to throw all their defenders into the gaps to stop the Hogs, and John Riggins had retired. To the Redskins immense credit, Coach Gibbs replaced super-boy Jay Schroeder (all-pro?) with Williams...the highest paid backup QB (about $450,000). Shows that Jack Kent Cooke would pay whatever he needed. JKC paid to get Rickie Sanders and Gary Clark, when no one (except Denver) carried more than two startinq-quality WR's. That's why none of the ultra-smart sports entertainers gave the SB 17 team a chance when Art Monk, the deep theat, went down with a broken foot. (Got to mention deep threat because I'm so tired of hearing Monk described as "nothing more" than a possession receiver.)

In spite of the strike, all the favored teams except the Giants made the playoffs. The Redskins had to play the Bears, in Chicago, I think, and beat them down. That made two years in a row when the underdog Redskins went to Chicago and out-foxed and out muscled the almighty Bears. Both years the Bears whined that they hadn't really lost because, man-for-man, the Bears were stronger. I still remember the screeching, the contempt for the Redskin LB's and DB's.

So, maybe the media gave the Redskins less credit, except that both SB 17 and SB 22 were wipeout games. SB 17 was the most lop-spided, in spite of the score, because, with Art Monk, it was like a boxing match in which the Skins fought only one hand. Overpowering. And who forgets SB 22? The game tape is a giant chuckle, just to hear the MNF crew ridicule the Redskins at the beginning of the game. "Word from the bench says the Redskins have changed to longer cleats". "Yeah", says Dierdorff with driping sarcasm, "That'll help".

When the Broncos take their second possesion down to about the Redskin 10, Mighty Dave Butz annihilates the third down player by grabbing two blockers and throwing them on top of Elway, who was trying to run a QB draw right through Mighty Dave. MNF team -- Dierdorf again -- says "Well, the Redskins are improving. They slowed the Bills to only a FG this time".

And the the opeing of Q2, the 80-yard pass to Sanders, and by the end of he half, the same Dierdorf says something like "My jaw is sitting on my chest. I have never seen offensive plaiyed like that. Five straight TD's...and the only possession the Redskins didn't score a TD was when Brian Davis made a circus-catch interception on the last play of the half."

So...maybe a little of the disregard comes from the strikes. Unjustifiable, of course. More, I think, comes because Gibbs teams are not a collection of razzle-dazzle super-stars. Sports entertainment commentators had already decided that Bill Walsh was the genius -- he said so -- and Joe Gibbs a plodder.

All public relations baloney.

That 87 Superbowl was probably Gibbs' best work, in my opinion. As an all round coaching job, coaching the team through the strike (of course, he really coached two teams that year) was tremendous. I never once felt that the Redskins were a favourite for the Superbowl that season, but Gibbs dragged every last ounce out of the talent he had available that year.