NFL Week 13 -- Suddenly There Came A Tapping

[YMCA B-Baller]

It should be pointed out that Eric Hipple has devoted his life to preventing suicide and educating people on it after his son took his own life. So previous snark aside, tip of the cap to the man.

 

[dixiehack]

1986 - Joe Ferguson, age 400

This is where I lost it for good while reading.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

1982 - Eric Hipple (Giants won 13-6 in another shirthouse game I have zero recollection of)

They won that on Lawrence Taylor's first career INT return for a TD--a 97-yarder in the fourth quarter! How dare you forget that! Of course you weren't nine years old and stuck in an area where you had no choice but to watch the Giants, so...

 

[Batman]

The late 80s had to be the nadir of the Thanksgiving games. Shame the stupid Terminator time machine hadn't been invented to prevent it.

1987: Lions were 4-11, Cowboys weren't quite in complete suck mode, but headed there at 7-8. Lions host the 4-11 Chiefs in an all-time Thanksgiving crapfest. Cowboys played the Vikings and it must have been a helluva game (that I don't remember) as the Vikings won 44-38 in overtime.
1988: Lions were 4-12, Cowboys were 3-13. Luckily for America, both at least played playoff teams that year. Detroit hosted Minnesota and Dallas hosted the Oilers.
1989: Lions were somehow 7-9, Cowboys were 1-15. At least the Cowboys had the Bounty Bowl with the Eagles. Lions played a 13-10 thriller against the Browns that featured three second-half points and the almighty Bob Gagliano playing QB for Detroit.

Detroit's QBs in those late 80s games were: Chuck Long, Rusty Hilger and Bob Gagliano.

In fact, Detroit's 1979-90 starting QBs on Thanksgiving in order:

1979 - Jeff Komlo!
1980 - Gary Danielson
1981 - Eric Hipple
1982 - Eric Hipple (Giants won 13-6 in another shirthouse game I have zero recollection of)
1983 - Eric Hipple
1984 - Gary Danielson
1985 - Eric Hipple (The kid who had his poster in "Mr. Mom" was undoubtedly thrilled)
1986 - Joe Ferguson, age 400
1987 - Chuck Long
1988 - Chuck Long (but Rusty Hilger took most of the snaps)
1989 - Bob Gagliano
1990 - Bob Gagliano (What the fork? TWO YEARS IN A ROW!)

To quote a one-time SJ legend on Thanksgiving, "Pumpkin pie tastes like the inside of a hobo's butthole", but pumpkin pie is still preferable to that pile of tripe served to us in the Silverdome on Thanksgiving in my youth. (I'll let Danielson slide. He was decent when healthy, which was seemingly never.)

Erik Kramer and other more competent QBs took over starting in 1991, Barry Sanders was appointment TV, Herman Moore was and is underrated, and the 90s were paradise in comparison.

Had to check the box score and game logs to be sure, but the 1989 game was also one of Barry Sanders' first big coming-out parties for a national audience. He had 189 total yards (145 rushing, 44 receiving) in that game and, IIRC, really started to get some buzz going about him afterward.

Those early 90s Lions teams were a lot of fun. Besides Sanders, you had Moore, Johnny Morton and Brett Perriman as a great 1-2-3 receiver combo and Mel Gray as the league's most dangerous kick returner. If they'd been able to find an actual A-list quarterback they might have been able to do some real damage instead of having to go 6-1 down the stretch every year just to scratch out a wild card spot.

 

[I Should Coco]

The late 80s had to be the nadir of the Thanksgiving games. Shame the stupid Terminator time machine hadn't been invented to prevent it.

1987: Lions were 4-11, Cowboys weren't quite in complete suck mode, but headed there at 7-8. Lions host the 4-11 Chiefs in an all-time Thanksgiving crapfest. Cowboys played the Vikings and it must have been a helluva game (that I don't remember) as the Vikings won 44-38 in overtime.
1988: Lions were 4-12, Cowboys were 3-13. Luckily for America, both at least played playoff teams that year. Detroit hosted Minnesota and Dallas hosted the Oilers.
1989: Lions were somehow 7-9, Cowboys were 1-15. At least the Cowboys had the Bounty Bowl with the Eagles. Lions played a 13-10 thriller against the Browns that featured three second-half points and the almighty Bob Gagliano playing QB for Detroit.

Detroit's QBs in those late 80s games were: Chuck Long, Rusty Hilger and Bob Gagliano.

In fact, Detroit's 1979-90 starting QBs on Thanksgiving in order:

1979 - Jeff Komlo!
1980 - Gary Danielson
1981 - Eric Hipple
1982 - Eric Hipple (Giants won 13-6 in another shirthouse game I have zero recollection of)
1983 - Eric Hipple
1984 - Gary Danielson
1985 - Eric Hipple (The kid who had his poster in "Mr. Mom" was undoubtedly thrilled)
1986 - Joe Ferguson, age 400
1987 - Chuck Long
1988 - Chuck Long (but Rusty Hilger took most of the snaps)
1989 - Bob Gagliano
1990 - Bob Gagliano (What the fork? TWO YEARS IN A ROW!)

To quote a one-time SJ legend on Thanksgiving, "Pumpkin pie tastes like the inside of a hobo's butthole", but pumpkin pie is still preferable to that pile of tripe served to us in the Silverdome on Thanksgiving in my youth. (I'll let Danielson slide. He was decent when healthy, which was seemingly never.)

Erik Kramer and other more competent QBs took over starting in 1991, Barry Sanders was appointment TV, Herman Moore was and is underrated, and the 90s were paradise in comparison.

The 1980 Lions Thanksgiving game is one of the first NFL games I remember watching (at my aunt's house, she usually hosted the big meal in those days).

After the Bears (behind Vince Evans at QB) tied it in the closing moments, Chicago won the toss and received the overtime kickoff. Enter Dave Williams:

 

[YMCA B-Baller]

They won that on Lawrence Taylor's first career INT return for a TD--a 97-yarder in the fourth quarter! How dare you forget that! Of course you weren't nine years old and stuck in an area where you had no choice but to watch the Giants, so...

Yay! I can catch up and watch the whole game!



Viva la Billy Sims! Viva la strike year no shows at the Silverdome! Viva la early era John Madden! Viva la Scott Brunner! And best of all, viva la Earnest Gray! One of those late 70s/early 80s wide receivers I was into.

fork William Gay, though. Hated him when I was a kid.

 

[YMCA B-Baller]

The 1980 Lions Thanksgiving game is one of the first NFL games I remember watching (at my aunt's house, she usually hosted the big meal in those days).

After the Bears (behind Vince Evans at QB) tied it in the closing moments, Chicago won the toss and received the overtime kickoff. Enter Dave Williams:

I also remember it from my grandma's house. In the end, it cost the Lions the NFC Central.

Reverse the Dave Williams TD and the Ahmad Rashad Hail Mary TD for the Vikings against the Browns later on and Detroit is in the playoffs in 1980.

 

[YMCA B-Baller]

By the way, if anyone is into old NFL Films highlight shows? There's a Youtube channel called Comrade Dobler that has a shirtload of them from the late 1960s to the late 1980s.

Fill yer boots.

Watching some of them has made me realize when NFL Films crossed the line from entertaining mythology to increasingly annoying mythology.

It's simple. When they replaced their program music with radio calls. At first, it was kinda cool, but it's way past cliche now.

It would be so cool if some enterprising Youtuber made modern NFL highlights the old school way. I would watch the fork out of that. Especially with slow motion football to anonymous instrumentals like this ...



Or my personal favorite, though not really used much in the weekly shows. Wish this was on Spotify. Bad ass song. Doomsday Defense and all that ...

 

[dixiehack]

In the very early 80s, my dad was the same age as NFL players in their prime and had some of the same fashion tastes as them, sort of a cross between Urban Cowboy and Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit. For a moment in time if you wanted to look cool you needed a cowboy hat with turkey feathers, dark blue jeans and a belt buckle the size of a parking meter.

 

[Cosmo]

Daniel Jones to the Vikings.

 

[poindexter]

For their GM hire, the Jets selected a search firm led by a former Jet GM, who was fired by the Jets.

You can't make this shirt up.

"Find a GM who has none of your qualities!"

 

[DanOregon]

To me, the craziest thing about the Leon Lett Thanksgiving gift game is seeing the Cowboys and Dolphins playing in snow. It is jarring.