Monday, January 11, 2016

Super Bowl XXII Memories



Super Bowl XXII  - Washington Redskins 42, Denver Broncos 10, played in Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, California on January 31, 1988. Timmy Smith 22 204 2, Ricky Sanders 9 193 2, Doug Williams 18 29 340 4 1, Gary Clark 3 55 1, John Elway 14 38 257 1 3, Mark Jackson 4 76, Ricky Nattiel 2 69 1, Sammy Winder 8 30, Monte Coleman .5, Brian Davis 1, Dexter Manley 1.5, Charles Mann 1, Alvin Walton 2, Barry Wilburn 2, Jeremiah Castille 1, Rulon Jones 1, Karl Mecklenburg 1, Stadium Jack Murphy Stadium, MVP Doug Williams, Favorite Broncos by 3, National anthem Herb Alpert, Coin toss Don Hutson, Halftime show Chubby Checker and The Rockettes, Attendance 73,302, Network ABC, Announcers Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, and Dan Dierdorf, Nielsen ratings 41.9 est. 80.14 million viewers, Market share 62, Cost of 30-second commercial $645,000


The 1987 season was on odd one by any stretch of the imagination, and the Super Bowl followed suit as one of the strangest ones in the history of the game. This was the year of the NFL strike after week two, and scab players replacing the regulars for three games. I remember it well, and also how bad the Giants replacement players performed, losing all three games. The Giants officially started off their titles defense with an 0-5 record, and never recovered, on their way to a 6-9 record. The two teams with the best record played in the same division, with the San Francisco 49ers enjoying the best rated offense and defense, completing a league best 13-2 record. Right behind them were the New Orleans Saints, with a very tough defense themselves, finally qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Yet, the Minnesota Vikings, the last team in the NFC to qualify for the playoffs with an 8-7 record, went to New Orleans and crushed the Saints, 44-10, in the NFC Wildcard Game, then beat the 49ers in San Francisco, 36-24. And just when you thought that they were going to enjoy a Cinderella season, they lost to Washington, after Washington surprised the Bears in Chicago in the divisional round for a second straight season.

In the Super Bowl, Denver came out swinging, and jumped out to a 10-0 lead. The Broncos scored the quickest touchdown in Super Bowl history to that point, and later on in the first quarter, Elway became the first quarterback to catch a pass in the big game. It was all Denver after that first quarter, and they looked capable not only of winning, but of blowing out Washington.

Then came the second quarter, and Washington simply exploded for 35 unanswered points. It was like a heavyweight fight, when the boxer who had come out swinging and seemingly ready to dominate suddenly runs out of gas, and his opponent suddenly lands some well placed shots, en route to a knockout victory. And this game was as close to resembling a knockout win as a football game can get, with the game clearly decided well before even halftime, as Washington owned a 35-10 lead. They tacked on another touchdown in the second half, but that was the only scoring the rest of the way for either team, and putting the final score at 42-10 in favor of Washington.

Personal Memories: got a bunch of cassette tapes before the game (George Michael’s Faith, Michael Jackson’s Bad), as well as cheese crunches. After game, a classmate of mine (big fan of Washington) and I talked about the game during the entire science class of out junior high school, where we were both 8th graders. Not even entirely sure why we were able to do that, but we did. We had newspapers, somehow, and he had a t-shirt celebrating the Super Bowl win that he had somehow pre-ordered.

Here are some of the major events that took place in 1988, the year this Super Bowl was played. The world's population was 5.104 billion people. The United States and Canada reached a free trade agreement. Benazir Bhutto became the first woman elected to lead Pakistan. Pan-Am 747 is bombed and crashes by Lockerbie, Scotland. Terrorists killed nine people during a cruise on the Agean Sea. In the United States, George H.W. Bush was elected president.





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