78 NFC title game vs rams observations

[RonnieT24]

So this popped up on youtube and Ive been watching it over last 2 nights. Here are some observations:

1) The field sucks. Worse than HS fields are today.
2) Absolutely no trash talk, celebrating routine plays.... NONE. Player gets a sack and gets up and goes to the huddle.Team gets a turnover and nobody running into the endzone doing stupid crap. Its GREAT!
3) Cowboys RB are in motion all over the place right up till the snap.
4)Game is much more fast paced. No extended commercials.
5)Punters suck compared to todays guys. Ram punter was avg 35 yards with a 2 second hang time.....lol
6) No begging for PI on every pass play.
7)1 replay and move on
8)QBs when on sidelines are actually standing and watching the game. You NEVER see that today
9) Charlie Waters was as good as I remember.
10) This one is worth repeating. A TD is scored and they go about their business. No dance, no trash talk, no running to find mama in the stands..... oh it is wonderful.
11) OJ Simpson in several commercials........ knowing his future was a little strange.
12) No game clock is show the entire damn game. It is very frustrating having no clue about game or play clock.

Pretty interesting watching this since I was only 8 when this was played.

78 Title Game

That game took place during exam period of my freshman year of college. I had to break away from studying for exams to watch it. It was really gratifying to watch us mollywhop the Rams again. Of course they would get revenge the following year but that year it was wonderful! The Cowboys thoroughly spanked the Rams that day. The image of TD dashing down the sideline for that 53 yarder which essentially sealed the game is burned into my brain forever!

 

[Diehardblues]

IMO it was PSL'S, and the merger with AFL, the creation and promotion of the SB , which led to ever increasing ratings and tv contracts
that saved the nfl and made it profitable.
After that it is just greed to make more money each year.

The internet has played a big part, since 2000 as far as promotion and increasing interest.

The super bowl though was partly luck, someone coined that name early on and nfl wisely kept that name to refer to it.
otherwise it would just be the NFL Championship game lol.

No question naming the World Championship game the Super Bowl was a huge media bonanza for the NFL. Those first two they couldn't even sell out.

It was SB III with Namath that took the league to new heights. It established the AFL as true contenders and set the course for the merger and new TV rights and coverage. MNF in 1970 also created and attracted new fringe and casual fans .

Up until then the NCAA was the most popular football. But with MNF the NFL was gaining more exposure in prime time reaching a larger audience. MNF was must watch TV.

 

[Diehardblues]

you never saw owners or gms unless they won a SB.
They would be there for the presentation of the trophy

Clint Murchison , Jr the Cowboys original owner was never in presentations of the trophy.

Most owners stayed in the background in that era. Most fans probably couldn’t name our owner or others.

The most popular owners in that era was Rooney in Pittsburgh, Halas in Chicago and then Al Davis when Oakland merged to NFL.

The face of the NFL was Rozelle. Tex Schramm was probably only GM most could name. He and Rozelle, who worked for Tex in LA, were largely responsible for driving the success that era in NFL. Tex was a master promoter himself.

 

[blueblood70]

There you go! The last missing piece to officially deem it a "The problem with kids today ..." thread. Thanks!

Well I'm just being honest, I mean everyone does it and we also come back with that this isn't your father or your grandfather's NFL anymore... look around all the other landscapes of the other sports it's all this way they needed to find a way to make money and these leagues are flourishing because of the way they set it up and you're just going to have to get on board, because it'll never be the same there is no going backwards...

I mean we all loved even 90s football more than we love it now I mean they allowed him to play defense...

I mean it has become a soft league that's afraid to hurt their millionaires and the faces of their franchises... so they're doing everything they can to take the violence or even some of the physicality out of football and yes it's sad but it's just the way it is...

these threads just make me laugh because that is what it sounds like they don't understand that this is the way football had to be for the NFL to actually survive and now it's flourishing it would not have...


I mean think about how close the Dallas Cowboys came to losing their team when it came to the fact that they couldn't handle the financing they were going bankrupt, there was a reason Jerry Jones is here as the owner of the Dallas Cowboys it's because of it was about money. The old ownerships they knew a lot about football but not enough about the business side and the NFL has steadily changed in order to keep itself flourishing.

And we all know it's working,

I mean it's still here it's still probably one of the top sports in the United States of America let alone it's popular in other places but it pretty much to me is the number one sport in America I mean do you need any more examples of how many multiple billionaires on each team imagine what they're paying the NFL itself as a franchise to be part of their club... I have no idea what the NFL is worth but I do know the only reason it's around is because of all these changes good or bad for fans I don't know but apparently they they don't have anymore blackouts or there ain't enough stadiums with empty seats literally they're doing something to keep the league afloat... I mean how is it going through all the COVID stuff going through all the recessions and the struggling economy and yet sports are still filling up seats this is something that's not necessary in life and people complain about all the expenses of your everyday things have gone up like 40% but yet how are we still feeling stadiums and the salary cap keeps going up and prices keep getting higher and yet I just keep seeing 90,000 people show up to see a cow Cowboys game the same people who complain about the price of gas and food and insurance and all that other stuff....

It's called great marketing this league has found a way to survive and keep fans interested....

 

[blueblood70]

IMO it was PSL'S, and the merger with AFL, the creation and promotion of the SB , which led to ever increasing ratings and tv contracts
that saved the nfl and made it profitable.
After that it is just greed to make more money each year.

The internet has played a big part, since 2000 as far as promotion and increasing interest.

The super bowl though was partly luck, someone coined that name early on and nfl wisely kept that name to refer to it.
otherwise it would just be the NFL Championship game lol.

Well first of all , I think that people calling it greedy that all they're interested in money when they forget this is no longer just a sport it's a business all these business owners are the CEO's of a Fortune 500 company this is no different than Microsoft or Google or Pepsi or whatever other brands are out there the number one thing for any business is to profit is to make as much money as possible that is how the league is still standing it hasn't gone bankrupt because of what they're doing even if it's affected the way we like to watch football with all the new rules and taking the physicality out it's made it harder to watch I'm not happy about it I wish there was still more of that left because that's why I watched football is different because there's only a limited amount of games and it's one and done it's a very long offseason compared to other sports who have 80 plus games that you can go to so many of them cheaper and that they have a playoffs to where they have seven games so if they screw up the first game like early on the stars in The Mavericks look bad just start their series but now they caught up well that doesn't happen in football..

it makes football much more special to me it means things every game is super important.

I mean it has become a soft league that's afraid to hurt their millionaires and the faces of their franchises... so they're doing everything they can to take the violence or even some of the physicality out of football and yes it's sad but it's just the way it is...​

these threads just make me laugh because that is what it sounds like they don't understand that this is the way football had to be for the NFL to actually survive and now it's flourishing, it would not have...

I mean think about how close the Dallas Cowboys came to losing their team when it came to the fact that they couldn't handle the financing they were going bankrupt, there was a reason Jerry Jones is here as the owner of the Dallas Cowboys it's because of it was about money. The old ownerships they knew a lot about football but not enough about the business side and the NFL has steadily changed in order to keep itself flourishing.

And we all know it's working,

I mean it's still here it's still probably one of the top sports in the United States of America let alone it's popular in other places but it pretty much to me is the number one sport in America I mean do you need any more examples of how many multiple billionaires on each team imagine what they're paying the NFL itself as a franchise to be part of their club... I have no idea what the NFL is worth but I do know the only reason it's around is because of all these changes good or bad for fans I don't know but apparently they they don't have anymore blackouts or there ain't enough stadiums with empty seats literally they're doing something to keep the league afloat... I mean how is it going through all the COVID stuff going through all the recessions and the struggling economy and yet sports are still filling up seats this is something that's not necessary in life and people complain about all the expenses of your everyday things have gone up like 40% but yet how are we still feeling stadiums and the salary cap keeps going up and prices keep getting higher and yet I just keep seeing 90,000 people show up to see a cow Cowboys game the same people who complain about the price of gas and food and insurance and all that other stuff....

It's called great marketing this league has found a way to survive and keep fans interested....

 

[Diehardblues]

Well I'm just being honest, I mean everyone does it and we also come back with that this isn't your father or your grandfather's NFL anymore... look around all the other landscapes of the other sports it's all this way they needed to find a way to make money and these leagues are flourishing because of the way they set it up and you're just going to have to get on board, because it'll never be the same there is no going backwards...

I mean we all loved even 90s football more than we love it now I mean they allowed him to play defense...

I mean it has become a soft league that's afraid to hurt their millionaires and the faces of their franchises... so they're doing everything they can to take the violence or even some of the physicality out of football and yes it's sad but it's just the way it is...

these threads just make me laugh because that is what it sounds like they don't understand that this is the way football had to be for the NFL to actually survive and now it's flourishing it would not have...


I mean think about how close the Dallas Cowboys came to losing their team when it came to the fact that they couldn't handle the financing they were going bankrupt, there was a reason Jerry Jones is here as the owner of the Dallas Cowboys it's because of it was about money. The old ownerships they knew a lot about football but not enough about the business side and the NFL has steadily changed in order to keep itself flourishing.

And we all know it's working,

I mean it's still here it's still probably one of the top sports in the United States of America let alone it's popular in other places but it pretty much to me is the number one sport in America I mean do you need any more examples of how many multiple billionaires on each team imagine what they're paying the NFL itself as a franchise to be part of their club... I have no idea what the NFL is worth but I do know the only reason it's around is because of all these changes good or bad for fans I don't know but apparently they they don't have anymore blackouts or there ain't enough stadiums with empty seats literally they're doing something to keep the league afloat... I mean how is it going through all the COVID stuff going through all the recessions and the struggling economy and yet sports are still filling up seats this is something that's not necessary in life and people complain about all the expenses of your everyday things have gone up like 40% but yet how are we still feeling stadiums and the salary cap keeps going up and prices keep getting higher and yet I just keep seeing 90,000 people show up to see a cow Cowboys game the same people who complain about the price of gas and food and insurance and all that other stuff....

It's called great marketing this league has found a way to survive and keep fans interested....

No doubt the NFL marketing its product along with exposure has driven the league to new heights. And keeps it there and growing.

They’ve taken on CTE multi billion dollar suits with new league rules at least presenting the perception they’re protecting players health and players indiscretions off the field with personal conduct policy. Goodell deserves much credit for his leadership during an era which could have been deflating.

Technology has also been an asset with more access not only with computers and cells, etc but additional TV coverage, fantasy football , etc has attracted more casual and fringe fans.

The new stadium sponsorships which our owner sued the league for has opened up a huge new revenue stream which has also supported more new stadiums built.

Yep, it’s American ingenuity at its best. It’s had to evolve the game along the way. I’m an old timer and while there are some sacrifices which have had to be made , I certainly wouldn’t want to take away all of the technology and access. But it has come at a price.

 

[Diehardblues]

Well first of all , I think that people calling it greedy that all they're interested in money when they forget this is no longer just a sport it's a business all these business owners are the CEO's of a Fortune 500 company this is no different than Microsoft or Google or Pepsi or whatever other brands are out there the number one thing for any business is to profit is to make as much money as possible that is how the league is still standing it hasn't gone bankrupt because of what they're doing even if it's affected the way we like to watch football with all the new rules and taking the physicality out it's made it harder to watch I'm not happy about it I wish there was still more of that left because that's why I watched football is different because there's only a limited amount of games and it's one and done it's a very long offseason compared to other sports who have 80 plus games that you can go to so many of them cheaper and that they have a playoffs to where they have seven games so if they screw up the first game like early on the stars in The Mavericks look bad just start their series but now they caught up well that doesn't happen in football..

it makes football much more special to me it means things every game is super important.

I mean it has become a soft league that's afraid to hurt their millionaires and the faces of their franchises... so they're doing everything they can to take the violence or even some of the physicality out of football and yes it's sad but it's just the way it is...​

these threads just make me laugh because that is what it sounds like they don't understand that this is the way football had to be for the NFL to actually survive and now it's flourishing, it would not have...

I mean think about how close the Dallas Cowboys came to losing their team when it came to the fact that they couldn't handle the financing they were going bankrupt, there was a reason Jerry Jones is here as the owner of the Dallas Cowboys it's because of it was about money. The old ownerships they knew a lot about football but not enough about the business side and the NFL has steadily changed in order to keep itself flourishing.

And we all know it's working,

I mean it's still here it's still probably one of the top sports in the United States of America let alone it's popular in other places but it pretty much to me is the number one sport in America I mean do you need any more examples of how many multiple billionaires on each team imagine what they're paying the NFL itself as a franchise to be part of their club... I have no idea what the NFL is worth but I do know the only reason it's around is because of all these changes good or bad for fans I don't know but apparently they they don't have anymore blackouts or there ain't enough stadiums with empty seats literally they're doing something to keep the league afloat... I mean how is it going through all the COVID stuff going through all the recessions and the struggling economy and yet sports are still filling up seats this is something that's not necessary in life and people complain about all the expenses of your everyday things have gone up like 40% but yet how are we still feeling stadiums and the salary cap keeps going up and prices keep getting higher and yet I just keep seeing 90,000 people show up to see a cow Cowboys game the same people who complain about the price of gas and food and insurance and all that other stuff....

It's called great marketing this league has found a way to survive and keep fans interested....

While I’d agree with some of your overall take on the league there is a few key points that simply aren’t totally accurate.

The Cowboys weren’t in bankruptcy. Their owner Bum Bright was because of his Savings and Loans companies.

Yes, the Cowboys were losing about a million a month but that was more of a current cash flow issue which three consecutive losing seasons and downturn of economy in late 80’s contributed to.

A winning season or new hope would have brought the fans back and into a positive cash flow. It wasn’t uncommon back then for professional teams to operate in negative cash flow situations.

Despite operating in a negative flow of losing about a million a month the Cowboys still sold for about 140 million which Bum bought in 1984 for 80+ million. So while the franchise was losing money it was still increasing in value. Bum made over 50 million on sale.

 

[Reid1boys]

20 consecutive winning seasons , 13 championship appearances including 2 NFL title games, 5 Super Bowls and 2 SB wins in 29 years is >>>>>>>greater than 4 championship appearances and 3 Super Bowl titles in 35 years.

The fact you’d consider this era with Jethro greater than the Tex/Tom era says all we need to know. I’ll give you a pass since you didn’t live thru that era.

smh........

 

[dupree89]

That game took place during exam period of my freshman year of college. I had to break away from studying for exams to watch it. It was really gratifying to watch us mollywhop the Rams again. Of course they would get revenge the following year but that year it was wonderful! The Cowboys thoroughly spanked the Rams that day. The image of TD dashing down the sideline for that 53 yarder which essentially sealed the game is burned into my brain forever!

great memories

 

[RonnieT24]

great memories

The worst thing about the team that year is that I firmly believe they were a better team than the Steelers that year. One dropped pass and one VERY questionable pass interference call were the difference in that one. Though maybe a smaller part was Landry's inability to recognize and capitalize on Dorsett's level of excite to be playing in the Super Bowl against his childhood team. Dorsett was running like a man possessed that day and should have been given about 30 carries to control the clock and beat down the Steeler defense, which, while magnificent, had started to show some signs of age and I think could have been had that day. I remembered Dorsett running wild on our opening drive but I was even more amazed when I looked it up. His first three carries on the opening drive went 9, 16, 13. Then on his 4th carry and inexplicably we went with the reverse to Drew where the exchange between he and TD got botched and fumbled which they picked up and ran back to midfield. That was at the Pitt 34 yard line. Roger and TD had been owning their defense. We should have been up 7-zip and been firmly in control after that drive. Instead we stopped our own momentum and handed them a short field. More galling when you think about it is I think on the Steelers next drive Hollywood and Hegman stripped Bradshaw and ran it back for a TD which SHOULD have given us a 14-0 lead and pretty much ended the game forcing them to play catchup the rest of the way. No Franco, just Bradshaw dropping back and heaving it the rest of the way. I think Too Tall and Co would have put him in the hospital if things had gone that way.


Now I done made myself mad about that game all over again.

 

[plasticman]

Yes the complete opposite of the team now and their latest playoff game against Green Bay
.
The whole team looked completely clueless with CD lamb pouting on the sideline what an embarrassment.

In the late 70's, before the quarterback protection rules, the Dallas Cowboy had a 6 ft 9 defensive end that was the overall #1 pick in the 1974 draft. In this particular game, the Rams starting quarterback, Pat Haden, went out with a broken finger on his throwing hand.

On the other side of the Cowboys defensive line they had the 1977 Super Bowl co-MVP's Randy White and Harvey Martin. That season, they had combined for a total of 30.5 sacks.

Harvey Martin was also the 1977 DPOY, recording 20 sacks in a 14 game season.

The other DT was in his final, 13th season, Jethro Pugh. There was no rotation. All four were three down players who anchored the #1 defense against the run that season.

The fact that neither Ed Jones nor Harvey Martin are in the HOF is an historic injustice.



Randy White was the #2 overall pick in the 1975 draft.

 

[dupree89]

Randy White was the #2 overall pick in the 1975 draft.

the Manster

 

[dupree89]

this is a great thread and I thank Reid1boys for starting it. Two of my favorite playoff wins as a kid were identical scores. 37-7
Rams and Bears. in that mid 70s range

 

[DandyDon52]

It was really annoying to not have the score or clock on the screen. That made no sense.

yeah but back when I watched those live it was ok because that was what I was used to.
I kept the score in my head, but the clock was just a guess.

They had the capability to put those up more but didnt.
Could be we are just lazy and spoiled now, we forgot how to keep score in head and speculate the clock.

 

[DandyDon52]

20 consecutive winning seasons , 13 championship appearances including 2 NFL title games, 5 Super Bowls and 2 SB wins in 29 years is >>>>>>>greater than 4 championship appearances and 3 Super Bowl titles in 35 years.

The fact you’d consider this era with Jethro greater than the Tex/Tom era says all we need to know. I’ll give you a pass since you didn’t live thru that era.

yeah 5 sb appearances is better than 3
2 SB losses were to the steelers, which no one could beat.

That 20 years or so was very exciting for cowboys fans .
Since 96 dallas has not been exciting except for about 3 years out of 30.

 

[Flamma]

We had to rely on the announcers more for the clock during the bulk of the game. They would show it at the end of the half usually. But overall, we had to pay attention. It was harder in basketball back then because of the frequent score changes.
Also how about no first down line?

I was thinking about that too. You had to pay attention to the LOS. But who does that?

Another slight annoyance, one that had nothing to do with the broadcast, some fields didn't have arrows next to the numbers on the field. So unless I'm watching the entire drive, I might not know which 30 yard line I am looking at.

 

[Diehardblues]

yeah 5 sb appearances is better than 3
2 SB losses were to the steelers, which no one could beat.

That 20 years or so was very exciting for cowboys fans .
Since 96 dallas has not been exciting except for about 3 years out of 30.

Yep, and there’s no dispute that for about 4 years in the early 90’s we not only had the best team in Cowboys history and most successful run , however brief it was.

But for its totality the prior era from 60’s - 80’s was much more successful. No to mention a more proud era with a consistent SB contender for much and a world class ran organization.

It’s difficult to even imagine 12 championship appearances in 17 years( 7 in a decade) and 5 SB’s in a decade.

The only regret is we had opportunity to win more championships but we lost to a couple of the greatest teams in NFL history ( GB & Pitt).

 

[Flamma]

yeah but back when I watched those live it was ok because that was what I was used to.
I kept the score in my head, but the clock was just a guess.

They had the capability to put those up more but didnt.
Could be we are just lazy and spoiled now, we forgot how to keep score in head and speculate the clock.

You're right, you had to do more work in your head. It's like remembering phone numbers. But I still remember it being annoying. Especially when there was more than one game on and I would flip to a game to check the score. Nope.

 

[Vtwin]

I remember being annoyed when they started cluttering up the screen with the time and the score and down/distance.

I wanted all 19 inches of that tube powered, state of the art television screen.

 

[RonnieT24]

yeah but back when I watched those live it was ok because that was what I was used to.
I kept the score in my head, but the clock was just a guess.

They had the capability to put those up more but didnt.
Could be we are just lazy and spoiled now, we forgot how to keep score in head and speculate the clock.

Back then you really didn't need a tricorder to keep up with the score. There was generally only gonna be 5-6 scores by both teams combined anyway. And I've never needed the thing on the boob tube to keep time for me. I've always had a play clock in my head. It used to mess with me when switching from college to pro but that's not as much of an issue as I don't watch near as much college ball as I used to and am only about 1/10 as invested in it as I once was. Of course that might change if my great-nephew goes to a big time program in two years.