Football Nostalgia

For Christmas I received the DVD set Denver Broncos Greatest Games. The set is pretty limited, including only three games - 1977 AFC Championship Game, Super Bowl 32, and Super Bowl 33. I'm not sure how the 1986 AFC Championship Game aka "The Drive" or the 1987 AFC Championship Game aka "The Fumble" aren't also included, but whatever.

I'm a card carrying Broncos fan, yet this was my first time seeing the 1977 game between the Raiders and Broncos, because I was two years old at the time. I enjoyed watching the game even though I obviously already knew the result.

I guess the Rob Lytle fumble was controversial. I don't think the call necessarily lost the game for the Raiders or won it for the Broncos. Oh, if they only had challenge flags and replay booth officials back then. . . NOT.

I kind of miss the NFL of that era before money and politics and five ESPN channels running around the clock. I miss the crappy graphics on the broadcast where you can watch an entire quarter without them ever showing the score or the game clock. That's actually kind of frustrating. But I miss having just football on the screen - not a scroll on the bottom, the game clock/score/down and distance permantently stampted at the top, along the with the network logo in the bottom, and a dozen different electronically generated lines on the field.

I miss Dick Enberg. That guy said stuff wrong even back when he was young. At one point, he stated that his broadcast partner Len Dawson was quarterbacking the Raiders.

I noticed a distinct lack of showboating in this game. If a defensive lineman dropped the quarterback for a sack, he usually then offered a hand to help the QB up instead of the whole dancing/gyrating/flexing thing we see today.

Anyways, I think the Broncos owe that win to Haven Moses, which I never realized. Number 25 was sensational in that game. Five catches, 168 yards, two touchdowns. Also Craig Morton, who obviously threw the passes that Moses caught.

I'm not really understanding Jim Turner in the Ring of Fame. He missed three field goals in that game, plus the Broncos messed up the snap on an extra point. Lonnie Perrin, a backup running back, did the kickoffs. They're lucky the kicking game didn't cost them the game.

But I kind of miss crappy kicking games, back before teams were keeping one guy on their roster specifically to do long snapping, and before kickers were practically automatic.

I need to get me some more vintage NFL action.