The Drop That CHANGED NFL History | Cardinals @ Chargers (1987) | Greatest (Almost) Comeback Ever? 

I like how in "Tecmo Bowl" a gamer could stop the roster scroll at the startup screen and look at the roster. He he, that game did some interesting things with stats, giving the player Walter Payton his best-ever season rushing total (glad for that) & making Danny White a 44% passer (White himself probably wouldn't be glad for that:-).

Me too, except I was 9

@@eugenedenbrook322 I vividly remember my father a big Union Man working for the railroad had an extreme hatred of the 49ers for crossing the picket line. He bitched about that 49ers for years after that.

@@Wallyworld30 My old man was in the union, too, and is a Seattle fan. I know they had guys cross the line, but not a peep about it. I recall Tony Dorsett talking about how the old Cowboys' owner manipulated many players to cross, through deferred money in their contracts. He was pretty bitter about it.

@@Wallyworld30 there was only one team that didn’t have one player cross the lone that season and that was the Washington Redskins, who went on to win the Super Bowl. That was when Doug Williams set a super bowl record for the most points scored in one quarter, which still stands today and probably will for a long time, just as Timmy Smith’s 206 yard rushing record still stands today. Maybe that says something for not crossing the line? It’s almost as if that helped solidify the team mates? Many of the players said they hated the scab players and wanted to cross, but Joe Gibbs was able to convince them not to. I didn’t know why they hated the replacements, who went undefeated because those games counted. Those wins helped propel them into the post season. They even beat a Dallas team who had several HOF players who crossed the line for the last Monday night game. They even made a movie based on the Washington replacements, but no movie could be more dramatic than that actual game. Watching a bunch of no named players beating the first string Dallas Cowboys was crazy. Washington was in no way the better team that season, far from it, but they had a lot of help in the post season when the wildcard Vikings dumped the number one seed 49ers out of the playoffs and Washington beat the #2 seed Bears in Chicago, which made the championship game go to Washington, since they were #3 seed. Even though the Vikings were able to dump the Saints and 49ers from the playoffs, they just ran out of luck in the last 6 seconds of the championship game when Darrell Green knocked the easy TD catch from the receiver’s hands in the end zone, sending Washington to the super bowl. Washington should have been way out matched by the Broncos and it looked that way when Elway scored a 79 yard pass to Ricky Nateill and then scored a FG on the next drive. At that time, no team had ever come back from 10 or more points down to win a super bowl, but no one told Doug Williams about that. He scored 35 points in that quarter, tossing for 4 TDs and one rushing TD from Smith all in that single quarter. Denver didn’t know what hit them and seemed stunned the rest of the game as Elway attempted to get back in it with long passes, only resulting in many sacks by a blitzing Washington defense who knew he was going to pass on every down. That was a crazy season with a crazier super bowl where a mediocre team would go all the way, especially with the strike being that season and the NFL deciding those games would count. On top of everything else, Washington had a QB controversy all season, swapping between Williams and Schroeder every week. What team wins a SB after having a QB controversy all year? Joe Gibbs only made the decision to go with Williams for the rest of the games at the beginning of the Championship game. Even in the super bowl, Doug took and early knee injury that should have sidelined him, but he pushed through the pain and Schroeder took only two snaps in the super bowl. They were still behind 10 points when Schroeder went into the game. I believe that it was the very next play when Williams came back out that he tossed the first long TD pass to Ricky Sanders, hitting right in stride with a perfectly thrown ball. It was shocking to everyone who watched. By the end of the quarter, Frank Gifford said, “if it was a fight, they might stop it”, which cracked me and my brother up. My brother pictured an official looking into Dan Reeves eyes and then quickly flailing his arms before cradling Reeves, stopping the brutal beating he was taking at the time. That would have been a great ending to a crazy season?

Before building the Clippers their own arena in LA. I feel like they would have been good to go back to San Diego. I am an east coast guy so maybe I am naive.

I love the Chargers and I'm a Bengals fan but I love them as San Diego Chargers This team is an imposter, or a misplaced child after a divorce, hope they can get custody back in San Diego

That's what it's like to be a cardinals fan. Always climb the mountain just to fall off the cliff.

ABCO & Bashas. Oy. Haven't heard that in a long time. And, what, Fry's didn't like them? Albertson's?

1979 he caught a TD pass and scored in an INT. He also held the record for the longest kickoff return of 104 yards which has since been broken.

Roy was amazing.

What do you suppose would be different about NFL history if Smith had caught that pass? It's not even clear that it would have changed the result of that particular game.

I don't think you understand the point to this channel.

Yeah, I was today years old when i learned that. I looked him up and he actually played *five* years for the Cards (both STL and PHX) before playing for Dallas for six years. Obviously, his years in Dallas were significantly more productive, which is why we remember him playing there

In 1988 the Cards had 2 formidable tight ends in Novacek and Robert Awalt. Sadly, they let both walk in Plan B free agency.

@@Rockhound6165 Remember Walter Reeves?

@@BrianBetzAcousticGuitarvaguely.

@NO PATS JIM I never knew Will McDonough did color for television broadcasts: I thought he was strictly a newsman & NFL insider (really the go-to guy for NFL info before Chris Mortensen).

@NO PATS JIM you must be a blast at parties, smh

Agree...the title is total click bait

Should have been called: "The drop that changed nothing."

Exactly!

Title should merely be "Drops that prevented history from being made." Downvote for clickbait and the length.

Welcome to youtube. Where clickbait titles are the norm.

There were drug issues on that '85 team and Lomax fell into inconsistency. I saw them get blasted by the Eagles that year 30-7 and the game wasn't that close not to mention the Eagles were awful that season.

One of the weirdest seasons I ever saw. Talk about streaky. Lose week 1, win 8 in a row, then lose 6 in a row.

@TheStoneOfSisyphus Absolutely sounds worth expounding upon

I was at that game. It was against the Bucs 2 weeks after the strike was settled. I was one of about 22 fans in attendance (the Cards had already announced they were moving after the season). TD's by Awalt, 2 by JT Smith, and a defensive TD by Niko Noga completed the comeback. Donald Igwebuke attempted a 53 yard FG to tie at the gun but it hit the crossbar. One of the greatest games no one saw.

Man it wasn't against the Falcons

The Colts weren’t good enough to beat Dallas. But they definitely deserved that super bowl appearance. The Steelers just seem to have a way of ruining feel-good stories.

@@tommyl.dayandtherunaways820 ummm... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EWNl6r2pjY4.html

@@tommyl.dayandtherunaways820 yeah, not a Steelers fan...never have been. I loved watching Cleveland beat Pittsburgh twice last year, back to back.

And I was there to see it.

Stump Mitchell was great, very underrated player.

The Bidwells have owned the franchise since the 30s and still own it today. They merely moved to Phoenix because they thought that they would get a new stadium immediately. The real estate bust pushed those plans back.

Still the biggest 4th quarter comeback win in NFL history BTW.

Fun Fact: I was there and saw it live. Another Fun Fact: A year later almost to the day the Cards had another remarkable comeback. Down 23-0 in the 3rd quarter to the eventual World Champion 49ers, the Cards reeled off 24 unanswered points including the eventual game winning TD as time expired to win the game 24-23. Neil Lomax outdueled Steve Young in that game 323 yards and 3 TD's to 145 yards and 1 TD. SF did have 240 yards on the ground though. Cards also turned the ball over 3 times and lived to tell about it. That put them a 6-4 and in 1st place in the NFC East. Of course in typical Cardinal fashion they won the next week then lost 5 straight to finish 7-9. Took another 10 years to finally have a winning season in the desert.

Thank goodness that one wasn't mentioned in this video.

It changed a draft slots

I think the click-bait title was bc there would be no *historic* comeback. Smh

It does seem to be injuries that were the cause for Lionel James to have his production cut short: he had off-season knee surgery in 1986, then had knee and foot injuries throughout that season. His career never got back on track after that.

Lionel James was the shortest player in NFL history. He had a heart like a lion... and that got him hurt quite often. Injuries took their toll

@@d0nKsTaH James ta 5'6" wasn't the shortest. Buddy Young, 5'5" was shorter

Mack Herron a running back with the Patriots in the 70s was 5'5".

Little Train was cut at the end of the 1989 preseason, in favor of Dana Brinson - who the Chargers would end up cutting around mid season and bringing in Darin Nelson. Nelson wouldn't be on the 1990 squad. They brought in Ronnie Harmon that off season and then Harmon went on the be the best third down RB in the league for the next five or six years. When the Chargers cut Little Train, that was the end of his career. Crazy to think that he held the single game all-purpose yards record for a number of years. He was also Bo Jackson's college roommate

He was probably still getting paid off. Look at Harmon in the Rose Bowl his Sr year at Iowa. Ridiculous.

Cards would have won had they not fallen behind 28-0.

Certainly if Neil O'Donnell had made the field goal at end of Redskins game in 1984 or in Packers game, that Cards team would have done well in playoffs and team would not have moved. There were some curious calls against the Cards that year which was a tv contract renewal year for nfl...mmmm.

No. Bidwill had made his mind up at that point. He had asked for a new stadium and the city said no so he took his ball, went west, and played in a run down college stadium for almost 20 years before finally getting a new stadium.

the guy who jumped offside on the kickoff

@@Rafslammjammy #87?

@@benjaminfeige7986 yes...according to both wikipedia and the football database in 1987 the no.87 was worn by Troy Johnson...at 9:25 in the video you can see no.87 coming in from the outside gunner position at around the 11 yard line...this obviously makes him the player who was in offsides and as you follow the video he also recovers the fumble...

More accurately, NFL history would have been changed had he caught it.

FACTS.

At least the Cards have played in a Super Bowl. The Lions were smashed by what's now the Washington Football Team when they had a chance to get there in January 1992 and haven't won a playoff game since then.

. If completed, St. Louis would have had the biggest comeback in NFL history (at that point).....thus CHANGING NFL history. How is that confusing ?? .

@@sdne1959 OK, how did it change NFL history?

@@sdne1959 Well, "IF COMPLETED".... IF is the biggest word in the English Language. IF a bullfrog had wings it wouldn't bump its butt when it jumps. IF your aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle. IF completed, St. Louis would have had the biggest comback....

Explained it in the description. Original video when uploaded was fine. NFL then copyrighted and blocked the video from being shown for showing a 10-second highlight, even though it fell under fair use. NFL and RU-vid don’t care about fair use, though, so I had to remove it after the fact so that the video could be shown again

@@OfficialJaguarGator9 thank you. I didn't see that.

I figured the reference to changing NFL history was the result of the move. Since it may have led to Cards leaving STL and the latee move of the Rams to STL and back to LA. Where by chance the Chargers and Rams now reside again together.