The 1989 Houston Oilers came into the season looking for more. In both 1987 and 1988, they made the postseason and advanced to the divisional round. The Oilers had clearly arrived as a playoff contender under the coaching regime of Jerry Glanville. Now it was time for more—like a division championship and deeper advancement into […]
The Buffalo Bills took a step backward in 1989—after winning 12 games in a breakout year under head coach Marv Levy and quarterback Jim Kelly in 1988, the Bills slipped to 9-7. But that was still good enough to win the AFC East and in retrospect, was important in that it kept the franchise moving […]
The John Robinson era produced a steady string of playoff teams and also a team that could take fans on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. The 1989 Los Angeles Rams fit that to a tee—but some of the best highs came at the end and made this a season to remember. GREAT […]
The 1989 Kansas City Chiefs began the Marty Schottenheimer Era of franchise history. The Chiefs had been an irrelevant franchise for nearly two decades, with only a lone playoff appearance in 1986 to show for their efforts in that timeframe. Schottenheimer’s first team established a clear team identity, nearly snuck into the playoffs and set […]
Buddy Ryan looked like he had the Philadelphia Eagles coming around after a breakthrough NFC East title in 1988. They spent much of the following season looking ready to keep building on that success before some late disappointment ended the season and proved to be a harbinger of things to come. Here are the highlights […]
Since winning the Super Bowl in 1986, Bill Parcells and the Giants had gone through some tough times. The strike-torn season of 1987 was a disaster for Big Blue. 1988 saw some recovery, but a crushing loss to the Jets in the finale cost the Giants a playoff berth. They needed to get back into […]
The Miami Dolphins were on relative hard times for the Don Shula era coming into 1989. They had missed the playoffs each of the previous three years, bottoming out with a 6-10 finish in 1988. The ‘89 team got back into contention and even though they ultimately came up short, set the stage for another […]
The 1989 Minnesota Vikings were a team looking to get over the hump. In 1987 and 1988 they had been a solid playoff team and were widely considered to have one of the most talented rosters in the NFL. They did everything they could to reach the final plateau, including a midseason trade that lives […]
The Chicago Bears of Mike Ditka were as good as it got in the NFL from 1984-88. In that five-year stretch they won the NFC Central each year. They played in three NFC Championship Games, including 1988. And their 1985 Super Bowl championship team was one of the most iconic squads of its generation. That’s […]
An entire generation of NFL fans have grown up with the Green Bay Packers as a benchmark of success, with great quarterbacks from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers leading the way. But it wasn’t that way in the world of the late 1980s. The 1989 Green Bay Packers were the heirs to a recent franchise […]
In the days before Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, even before Bill Parcells and Drew Bledsoe, the expectations for the New England Patriots were a lot more modest. Raymond Berry had taken the franchise to what was then its heights in the late 1980s. They reached the Super Bowl in 1985, won an AFC East […]
The 1989 Cincinnati Bengals came into the season looking to finish the job, after losing the previous year’s Super Bowl in the final minute to the San Francisco 49ers. Instead, the Bengals went through and up-and-down year that ended up just short of the playoffs. GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTSStart reading today. Boomer Esiason was coming off […]