In an era when the NFC East had some great teams—Roger Staubach’s Dallas Cowboys and the legendary Over-The-Hill Gang of the Washington Redskins, it was actually the old St. Louis Cardinals football team who came into 1976 as the two-time defending division champs. Coached by Don Coryell, the Cardinals were a contender again in ’76. […]
It was a new era for the Cincinnati Bengals in 1976. The legendary Paul Brown had retired as head coach after taking the Bengals to the playoffs in his final campaign. Bill Johnson, promoted from offensive line coach, was the new man in charge. But while Cincinnati continued to be a good team and a […]
The 1976 Baltimore Colts came into the season looking to prove the magic of a year earlier hadn’t been a fluke. In ’75, the Colts shocked the NFL in their first year under head coach Ted Marchibroda, by winning their final nine games and dethroning Don Shula’s Miami Dolphins in the AFC East that the […]
The 1976 Washington Redskins were a team of proud veterans struggling to hang on in a tough division at a time when playoff berths were at a premium. They made it to the postseason for the fifth time in six years thanks to a memorable stretch drive led by 37-year-old quarterback Billy Kilmer.
Chuck Fairbanks came to the Patriots in 1973, looking to turn around a franchise that hadn’t been a winner since the mid-1960s and was coming off a 3-11 season. Fairbanks showed immediate progress, getting five wins in ’73 and then going .500 at 7-7 a year later. But in 1975, the New England Patriots regressed. […]
Fran Tarkenton had the best regular season of his Hall of Fame career in 1975, when he won the MVP award. Did he deserve it? Who were the other contenders that year? Let’s break down the top finishers on the 1975 NFL MVP ballot: THE TOP THREE 1)Fran Tarkenton (QB, Minnesota)Completion Percentage: 64% (1st)Yards-Per-Attempt: 7.0 […]
In 1974, the Cardinals had ended a quarter-century drought that encompassed time spent in two cities, Chicago and St. Louis. They won a competitive NFC East, beating out good teams from Washington and Dallas. To show it was no fluke, the 1975 St. Louis Cardinals did it again. CORYELL’S OFFENSE TAKES FLIGHT Don Coryell was […]
The AFL’s merger with the NFL in 1970 had not been kind to the Houston Oilers. A franchise that had won the first two AFL titles in 1960-61, and contended consistently throughout the decade, fell on hard times after the merger. In the first five seasons of the 1970s, the Oilers went 16-52-2. But a […]
Paul Brown is one of professional football’s all-time legends. He built the Cleveland franchise over a 17-year stretch in the pre-Super Bowl era when he brought the city three NFL championships, and the team was named after him. A rift with owner Art Modell got him fired after the 1962 season. Brown stayed out of […]
The Miami Dolphins came into 1975 as a dynasty, but also as a team facing significant transition. Under the leadership of Don Shula, the Dolphins were on a run of five straight AFC East titles. That included three trips to the Super Bowl and two championships, including a historic perfect season in 1972. They continued […]
The Baltimore Colts had been in a three-year funk. After winning the Super Bowl in 1970 and reaching the AFC Championship Game in 1971, the Colts had fallen hard. Over 1972-74, they went a combined 11-31. The front office started over. Ted Marchibroda came in as the head coach. Second-year quarterback Bert Jones came into […]
Coming into 1997, the New York Jets had been barely relevant for over a decade. Since 1986, they had only made the playoffs once and that 1991 run was at 8-8. In 1996, the Jets bottomed out at 1-15. In the offseason, New York hired Bill Parcells. Not only were the Jets getting an all-time […]