Take a Break from the Crap with this Newly Unearthed HOLY GRAIL GAME! 78 MNF vs. Dallas!

[Dissident2]

I have been looking for this game for decades. DECADES! It has always been one of my two holy grail Redskins games, the other being the 1972 NFC Championship which has yet to be released. 

 

I just now TONIGHT saw that this game has mysteriously just appeared out of nowhere. 

 

Redskins vs. Cowboys on MNF, 1978. 

 

One of the greatest, most underrated games in the rivalry. 

 

Redskins win 9-5. NO TDs scored by ANYONE. It's a defensive masterpiece, with unreal hitting, goal line stands, picks in the end zone and a few Mark Moseley FGs. 

 

It also has what I believe to be the first and ONLY time in NFL history where a player (Theismann) SPIKES THE BALL like he just scored a TD when in fact he's just taken a safety to win the game. 

 

I remember this game as a kid, and I've always wanted to see it again. I know there are probably some other old timers out there who have also been waiting for this moment. 

 

So **** Danya to hell, and go back and take some time to watch a game from a time when the team was RESPECTED league-wide, when the stadium was FULL of insane fans, when there was no such thing as "social media influencers," hardly any commercial breaks, etc. 

 

Also, as a bonus, you get Cosell, Dandy Don and Gifford, the best NFL booth in history. Some of the comments between these guys are just priceless as they argue, use big words like "guileful," ask what big words like "guileful" mean and more. 

 

Young Dave Butz, Riggins running like a wrecking ball, Coy Bacon, "Tank" McClinton, Coy Bacon, etc. 

 

Great time to relive. Can't believe this game has FINALLY made it out of the hoarder zone! 

 

 

 

[hail2skins]

IIRC, President Carter was in attendance that night.

 

Win brought the Skins to 5-0, then we went to 6-0 before losing at Philly the next week and floundering to 8-8. 1979 was better but finished with the 35-34 loss at Dallas that knocked us out of being in the playoffs. Then Riggo skips 1980 and the team is terrible and Pardee is fired, paving the way for the Gibbs dynasty. And since then? Sigh.......

[LightningBuggs]

Ironically, just minutes ago I was looking at something on youtube and this game showed up at the top of my feed.  Words can't describe how my eyes lit up with excitement.

 

Like you, @Dissident2, this game is one of my 3 white whales.  The other 2 being the 72 NFC Championship game you mentioned and the 75 OT game vs Dallas at RFK when Kilmer sneaked in for the game winner.

 

My Easter Sunday is all set now.  I'm going to curl up on the couch and enjoy this gem of a game.  One of my all-time favorites.

[Dissident2]

1 hour ago, LightningBuggs said:

Ironically, just minutes ago I was looking at something on youtube and this game showed up at the top of my feed.  Words can't describe how my eyes lit up with excitement.

 

Like you, @Dissident2, this game is one of my 3 white whales.  The other 2 being the 72 NFC Championship game you mentioned and the 75 OT game vs Dallas at RFK when Kilmer sneaked in for the game winner.

 

My Easter Sunday is all set now.  I'm going to curl up on the couch and enjoy this gem of a game.  One of my all-time favorites.

 

It's amazing. Maybe it's an omen that things thought "impossible" can indeed still happen. (Snyder removed, cough, cough.) 

 

Either way, I watched the whole thing last night. Was so much fun. I wish they'd kept the commercials in for extra nostalgia, but the entire broadcast is basically here, so I can't complain. 

 

Next on my list is definitely the 72 NFC Championship, followed for me by the MNF game in the mud and rain in 1976 where Eddie Brown returned a punt for a TD to win (vs. Cardinals). That was the first MNF game I stayed up for in its entirety, and I'll never forget it. 

 

The '75 game would also be amazing, and the '73 Ken Houston stop of Walt Garrison on the goal line. Someone has to have those somewhere. 

 

For now, though, this was just an amazing thing to discover. 

[hail2skins]

People on here have been looking for that 1972 NFCCG for so long that I doubt we ever see the whole broadcast.  From what people say, the game itself was blacked out in the DC area. You've no doubt saw this on You Tube, but the NFL Films recap of the game is a decent substitute:

 

 

 

[LightningBuggs]

48 minutes ago, Dissident2 said:

 

It's amazing. Maybe it's an omen that things thought "impossible" can indeed still happen. (Snyder removed, cough, cough.) 

 

Either way, I watched the whole thing last night. Was so much fun. I wish they'd kept the commercials in for extra nostalgia, but the entire broadcast is basically here, so I can't complain. 

 

Next on my list is definitely the 72 NFC Championship, followed for me by the MNF game in the mud and rain in 1976 where Eddie Brown returned a punt for a TD to win (vs. Cardinals). That was the first MNF game I stayed up for in its entirety, and I'll never forget it. 

 

The '75 game would also be amazing, and the '73 Ken Houston stop of Walt Garrison on the goal line. Someone has to have those somewhere. 

 

For now, though, this was just an amazing thing to discover. 

 

You're right!  That '76 MNF game was incredible too.  A real mudbowl with well over 10 turnovers if I recall.  Like you I stayed up for that one as well.

 

Parents only allowed me to stay up on Monday nights for the Skins games.  For all other MNF games, I had to be in bed after Howard's Halftime Hilites.

[Dissident2]

35 minutes ago, hail2skins said:

People on here have been looking for that 1972 NFCCG for so long that I doubt we ever see the whole broadcast.  From what people say, the game itself was blacked out in the DC area. You've no doubt saw this on You Tube, but the NFL Films recap of the game is a decent substitute:

 

 

 

We also have this, which is broadcast footage apparently. Don't know if this was cut for news highlights or if it's indicative that the real game exists somewhere in its entirety. I'd take it in black and white at this point. 

 

 

 

[Ghost of]

Remember when the NFL Network (granted I haven't had cable in forever) used to occasionally play historic games and there was a promise of reliving these moments? Do they do that anymore?

 

You know, contrary to what we were promised, very little has been preserved from that era at high quality (maybe NFL films has better copies for some of it) and much will be lost. A great deal of history, text, documents will be lost not due to not being digitized but only being available via digital means which will be paywalled or will actually be destroyed at some point (accidentally or otherwise.) 

[Dissident2]

31 minutes ago, Ghost of said:

Remember when the NFL Network (granted I haven't had cable in forever) used to occasionally play historic games and there was a promise of reliving these moments? Do they do that anymore?

 

You know, contrary to what we were promised, very little has been preserved from that era at high quality (maybe NFL films has better copies for some of it) and much will be lost. A great deal of history, text, documents will be lost not due to not being digitized but only being available via digital means which will be paywalled or will actually be destroyed at some point (accidentally or otherwise.) 

Yeah, they never really followed through with that, although they would occasionally show full length broadcasts of major games, like Super Bowls, etc. I think they even stopped doing that, although I also haven't had cable in awhile. 

 

They have a lot in their archives, I'm sure. They're just not sharing it seems. 

[Dark Acre]

I wasn't allowed to stay up to watch the game (school night) even though at 11 y.o. I was a diehard fan and a football nerd.  Learned the score upon waking up and was very happy, especially seeing the replay of Joe T's safety.  Skins were 5-0, won the next week to hit 6-0, then traded Frank Grant and never recovered, going into a 2-8 tailspin.  

[SkinsGuy]

6 hours ago, Ghost of said:

Remember when the NFL Network (granted I haven't had cable in forever) used to occasionally play historic games and there was a promise of reliving these moments? Do they do that anymore?

 

Sure.

 

If you are the Dallas Cowboys or the New England Patriots. 😴

[Dissident2]

13 hours ago, Dark Acre said:

I wasn't allowed to stay up to watch the game (school night) even though at 11 y.o. I was a diehard fan and a football nerd.  Learned the score upon waking up and was very happy, especially seeing the replay of Joe T's safety.  Skins were 5-0, won the next week to hit 6-0, then traded Frank Grant and never recovered, going into a 2-8 tailspin.  

 

Theismann's showboating at the end really pissed off the Cowboys. They got their revenge on Thanksgiving when they destroyed us. But Joey T was just a fantastic guy to have on your team. Easy to hate if he wasn't. 

[LD0506]

Gotta wonder why the league hasn't gotten together to take all the old games and digitally remaster them and make them available in an archive. Could sell subscriptions or whatever but it would enhance their brand while bringing in a few more bucks. 

[Ghost of]

55 minutes ago, LD0506 said:

Gotta wonder why the league hasn't gotten together to take all the old games and digitally remaster them and make them available in an archive. Could sell subscriptions or whatever but it would enhance their brand while bringing in a few more bucks. 

Never understood why the NFL network wasn't fulfilling that role. I don't want to hear morons yelling at each other (some NFLN shows are a bit better than ESPN but still) or endless analysis of a game with no meaning unless it achieves that meaning.  Many fans are people that have abandoned the game and only have memories---what better way to get those fans involved again by appealing to those memories.

 

Perhaps the NFL, like other entertainment, realizes its product is actually a shell of its former self and don't want too many reminders out there that there was a better way and pre-hyper commercial era. Like even looking at the players in that game, dudes looked like mature men. They were, on average, fairly in shape and even slender looking without being roid monsters or piles of adipose tissue. Even the celebrations were relatively contained. There's an earnestness in celebrations in movement and form, whereas today there's a lot of self-conscious playing to the crowd even in what I'd consider group celebrations/taunting.  There's room for that, to be sure, but it seems like that it's all about that.

 

In some ways, what the Last Boy Scout claimed was already a problem sport was not but was going to become what it is, except worse. Any Given Sunday was also getting there.  Now we're here.

[hail2skins]

I like this silent movie from the 72 NFCCG too:

 

 

[EmirOfShmo]

In college, I ran a $0.50/square pool for this MNF game. That trot out of the end zone by Joey T. to end the game won the pool for me - $50 was a nice hit in 1978. 

[CommanderInTheRye]

Woke up from a stupor to see this in my youtube reccomendations.

 

 

 

 

It's an early Gibbs 1.0 game played long before anyone even thought he would become the living icon we know him as  today.

 

It was a time when the newspapers and sportscasters were calling for his head and the head of the  California surf boy fool that hired him, Bobby Beathard.

 

Gibbs was in jeopardy of being fired at any moment.

 

A weak leader would have acquiesced to the pressure, done the popular thing and fired him but the squire (Jack Kent Cooke to you youngins) held firm through the storm and the rest has become the stuff of legend.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by CommanderInTheRye

[Darth Tater]

My 'holy grail' game is the 1972 REGULAR season home game versus the Cowboys. The SJ9 comeback game that made me a die hard! Down 20-7 in the third and scored 17 unanswered points to win 24-20.

[Dark Acre]

Re: 1981, Glenn Brenner (RIP to the greatest sportscaster ever) had a great line about Gibbs' first win (against Chicago) after Dave Butz picked off Vince Evans (returning it to the one):  "If you can't see Dave Butz, you're legally blind."  Video is at 3:26 of this clip:

 

watch?v=_IrAWExW63E

 

add that after youtube(dot)com