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NFL history articles

The 1987 Washington Redskins & A Strange Path To Making History

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Russell Wilson became the second African-American quarterback to win the Super Bowl when he led the Seattle Seahawks past the Denver Broncos on Sunday. The first one to do it was Doug Williams—oddly enough it was also against the Broncos, back in 1987 when Williams quarterbacked the Washington Redskins.
But Williams had a more interesting path—he spent the bulk of the year as the backup and didn’t become the starter on the playoffs. It was an interesting path in an interesting year—to put mildly—in the NFL. Let’s look back on the 1987 Washington Redski

1984 Chicago Bears: Ditka Puts A Proud Franchise Back On The Map

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The Chicago Bears had spent the better part of the Super Bowl era being irrelevant, at least when the early 1980s dawned. Other than a playoff appearance and quick exit in 1977, the Bears had never even been on the national radar. The organization shook things up prior to the 1982 season by hiring one of its legends, Hall of Fame tight end Mike Ditka, to be the head coach.
Ditka went 3-6 in the strike-shortened year of 1982, but improved to 8-8 in 1983 and finished that year off with a win over the Green Bay Packers that kept the Bears’ archrivals out of the playoffs. The 1984 Chicago Bears were the team that took the next step, and put their franchise back into the postseason.

The 1984 Denver Broncos: John Elway’s First Rodeo

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This post is part of a series of sports history articles commemorating under-the-radar teams and moments in a given year. The 1984 Denver Broncos marked the first year that John Elway was unequivocally the starting quarterback and he scaled great heights, before suffering a final disappointment that prepared him for the future.

The 1978 Atlanta Falcons & The Grits Blitz

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Monday Night Football was in Atlanta on October 30, 1978 and the up-and-coming Falcons were looking to make their mark. This was a franchise that had produced just two winning seasons since its inception in 1966 and never made the playoffs. But coming off consecutive wins, they were 4-4 coming into this game and were playing host to one of the traditional powers of the 1970s, the Los Angeles Rams. It was time for the 1978 Atlanta Falcons to take the next step.