Jackie Smith talks extensively about the drop that almost ruined his life

Alexander said:

Only by irrational people.

To put in a perspective the youngsters would understand, this is no different than pinning the loss on Patrick Crayton for his dropped football in the 2008 divisional playoff game against the Giants.

That play happened with 1:18 on the clock in the third quarter, yet gets the lion's share of the blame when many other things went wrong along the way (Fasano drop in the end zone, unnecessary roughness on Leonard Davis, McQuarters punt return, Romo intentional grounding).

In this case, Smith's drop was part of a storm that included the infamous Benny Barnes phantom interference as well as Randy White fielding a kickoff with his hand in a cast and fumbling.

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Alexander said:

Back to Smith, even Staubach admits it was partially his fault and the pass was not the best he could have made.

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TwoDeep3 said:

I believe the story may have been told by Charlie Waters, but it has been a while since I heard it, so that may have been someone else.

When Jackie arrived at Dallas he expected the team to be serious and focused. This was America's Team, and surely Tom Landry would have them razor sharp. But as the season began and worked it's way to the play-offs, Smith noticed the attitudes were not what he expected.

Dallas lost the SB in 1975 to Pittsburgh. They came back in 76 with an 11-3 season only to lose their first play-off game to the Rams. 1977 found Dallas winning the Super Bowl against Denver. So when Smith arrived in Dallas, they were a team that could do great things. But the team seemed to be more focused on the press clippings and parties, and the notoriety of their previous successes, and wasn't giving maximum effort each week.

They opened the season with victories against Baltimore and the NY Giants, only to lose on the road to the Rams. The next week they beat the St. Louis Cardinals, but followed that with a loss on the road to the Commanders. Dallas then ripped off three wins against NFC East opponents - at home against the Giants, on the road against St. Louis, and again at home against the Eagles. But they had to take the 6-10 Cardinals to overtime and win 24-21, followed by the Eagles at home in a close game, 14-7.

Then the Cowboys laid two eggs, the first against Minnesota, losing 21-10, followed by the loss to the Dolphins 23-16. Their record was 6-4 and Smith was seeing a prima-dona attitude infiltrating the locker room. So he spoke out one day.

Smith told the guys about playing in St. Louis, a perennial losing franchise, and what it meant to him to play for the Dallas Cowboys. He told them how shocked he was they were simply going through the motions. The season was not a given and if they didn't get their minds right, he came out of retirement for nothing.

Evidently his speech, a grizzled veteran of the league for so many years, moved the team to refocus. The next game they lost was the Superbowl, as they ran the rack for the season, then followed it by beating the Falcons and then the Rams to get back to the dance.

Waters (I think) said that season turned because of Jackie Smith. His leadership galvanized the team to begin focusing on football and not celebrity. If Smith had not spoken up, there perhaps would be no SB, or even the play-offs for this team. And this saddened Waters (or Cliff Harris) that the Cowboy Nation would always remember the drop, but not the speech. And how much this one guy meant to that season.

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ABQCOWBOY said:

No. The play was designed for Smith to go to the back corner of the endzone. Because of the blitz, the pattern could not develop the way it was designed. The timing was off so you had to throw it earlier then you wanted. This is a classic situation where the TE sits down in the open zone and makes a catch. We've seen Witten do this how many times? Heck, he has made a career out of making that kind of catch. The ball is not thrown poorly. It is thrown low and to the open spot. Watch the ball, it has a slight flutter at the end but it's really a well thrown ball for the most part. It's low, which is what you want in that situation, so as not to allow for an INT and it's thrown to a spot and I don't say this because it was Roger. I would say this if it was any QB. It was not a hard adjustment to make if Smith can just get his feet under him. It's not the fault of the pass IMO. It's the other things I mentioned. The pass is one that Jackie Smith caught hundreds of times in his career. It is what it is but I would not say it was a bad pass. Was it perfect, no. But then again, the play was not perfect. It was not designed to be thrown as it was. It was a play that had to be made on the fly, and adjustment to what the Defense did.

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GimmeTheBall! said:

I long ago forgave Jackie Smith for that impossibly stupid, Dez-like drop.
On the other hand, another Super Bowl win for Landry might have prolonged his miserable last years as HC and maybe Jimmy Johnson would never have appeared on our radar.

No! Jackie dropped the ball for a reason, and that was to hasten the end of the old, stodgy style that Landry developed in his senior citizen, golf-playing days.

Jackie, it happened for a reason.

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MichaelValentino said:

^This.

In fact, until the bogus PI call on Barnes Pittsburgh did not have a first down in the second half. The Barnes call was a nightmarish beginning to a series of game-changing plays/calls that stripped the Cowboys of the momentum they had at that point.

SB13 was the single most heartbreaking sporting event of my life. That's one I will never get over.

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tyke1doe said:

I think that was a bigger mistake than Smith's drop, really.

What the heck is Randy White doing on kickoff coverage with a cast on his hand?

And as much as I love me so Tom Landry, he was stubborn to a fault. Dorsett was gashing the Steelers, but Landry wouldn't continue to feed him because he always had this concern for Dorsett's health and wearing him down. But this is the Super Bowl, and Dorsett was running the ball fine.

Dorsett even says later that the Steelers told him if the Cowboys had continued to run him (Dorsett) they might not have lost that game.

And that phantom pass interference on Benny Barnes still irks me to this day. I seldom complain about officiating, but that call just stank! If you don't clearly see the interference don't call it just because you see a receiver fall.

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tyke1doe said:

It was such a great game up to that point too. I don't think you'll ever have such a star-studded, Hall of Fame-laden roster in the Super Bowl again. Look at who played in that Super Bowl.

I hate that the refs got so involved in that game. It would have been even more of a classic.

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MichaelValentino said:

Tyke,

There were more future HOFers on the field and sidelines during SB 13 than any other SB, including SB 1 (Packers-Chiefs) and SB 6 (Cowboys-Dolphins).

You could fill a wing in Canton with bronze busts from that game alone. I doubt we'll ever see anything close to it again.

Players, coaches and owners - a total of 20 HOFers from SB 13.

It was the most star-studded SB ever, and one of the greatest NFL games ever. Undoubtedly, the Steelers organization and fanbase would consider SB 13 to be their greatest victory ever. Pittsburgh never faced a better opponent during its illustrious playoff history than the 78 Cowboys.

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tyke1doe said:

If I had to reach into the modern era to select a Super Bowl that comes close to that game in terms of star-studded, Hall of Fame players it would be the Cowboys vs. Bills. But the Bills were really never a challenge and didn't have a history of winning like the Steelers and Cowboys had/have.

Bills: Thurman Thomas, Jim Kelly, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith, Coach Marv Levy. Honorable Mention but no Hall of Fame: Cornelius Bennett, Steve Tasker.

Cowboys: Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Charles Haley. Honorable Mention: Coach Jimmy Johnson, Darren Woodson, Erik Williams (who would have been in the Hall if not for his shortened career).

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ABQCOWBOY said:

Actually, I think I might think about last years Super Bowl. Pats and Hawks, close game and there will be lots of potential HOF players from each of those teams, as well as two coaches who probably end up in the HOF. Time will tell I suppose.

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tyke1doe said:

Too early for me to consider that game. But as I see it, Tom Brady, Bill Belichik are definite Hall of Famers. Gronk probably gets in. But who else is on a HOF path? I can't think of anyone else on the Pats team.

For the Seahawks, I really don't see anyone either. I don't know if Marshawn Lynch makes it in. Has he even led the league in rushing? Richard Sherman? I don't know. Too early on Russell Wilson. Pete Carroll? Maybe with another Super Bowl win, but I'm not too sure about him at this point either.

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tyke1doe said:

You're looking for an all-out brawl aren't you?

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Rack Bauer said:

And since Everson Walls got "beat" on the play they say he had a bad game. Check out the stat line he had for that game...

My memory is a bit rusty but I believe he had 2 int's and a fumble recovery that game.

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DWhite Fan said:

And because of the fumble, no one remembers that Danny White out played Joe Montana that day...

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ABQCOWBOY said:

For the Pats, I think you can look at Revis,Wilfork, Browner, possibly Hightower or Chandler Jones eventually. New England always seems to have a couple of guys who play 15 years on the OL and have pretty nice careers, plus the guys you mentioned.

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For Seattle, Unger and Okang in addition to Wilson and Beastmode. On Defense, you have a few. Bennett, Wagner, Chancellor, Thomas, and Sherman. I think that Carroll has a good chance to get in if he has another ring, which is possible.

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I mean, the problem is that so many of these players are young so you don't know yet but I can see each team having a few possible HOFers.

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tyke1doe said:

You think Unger and Okung will be considered Hall of Famers? I don't know, but you could be right. The problem with the Seahawks defense is that they play as a unit. They don't have many standout players (a player you think about as being dominant all by himself and not within the overall unit kind of like Haley to Ken Norton) except for Earl Thomas, whom I forgot to list. He is probably closer to the Hall than any other Seahawk, IMO.

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KJJ said:

He outplayed him until the game was on the line.

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DWhite Fan said:

Funny, I thought the game was on the line from the moment of the opening kick-off, but that could just be me...

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