Today at Caputo's Corner we provide a retrospective of some of the more memorables moments in the Redskins-Cowboys rivalry:
The Cowboy Chicken Club
When the rivalry first started, Redskins owner George Preston Marshall had a stranglehold on the American South, as the Redskins were the only NFL team south of the Mason Dixon Line. A team in Dallas would eat into his enterprise. Therefore, Marshall was the one owner who refused to allow a team in Dallas to come into existence. To essentially blackmail Marshall into allowing the franchise to come into existence in 1960 (current owners at the time had to be unanimous to allow expansion), Cowboys' proprietor Clint Murchison bought the rights to "Hail to the Redskins" from band director Barney Breeskin. Murchison would not sell Marshall the rights to the song back unless he approved expansion, backing Marshall into a corner. He eventually relented and the Dallas Cowboys were born. However, that was far from the end of it. The Redskins were the only team in the NFL not to integrate African Americans onto their team (partly because of the Southern fanbase, partly because Marshall was a racist himself). When the Cowboys visited Washington in December 1961, some pranksters tried to make a point. Cowboys fans had smuggled 2 crates of live chickens into the stadium and sprinkled chicken feed onto the field. The plan was that just before the halftime show (involving Santa Claus and a bunch of sled dogs), the chickens would be released onto the field causing the dogs to go nuts and ruining the show. The significance: 75 chickens were white and 1 was black. In addition, fans unfurled 4 banners throughout the stadium reading "CHICKENS" and two acrobats rushed the field in costume hurling eggs into the stands, and releasing another chicken themselves. The Cowboys won the game 38-10, and the next season the Redskins would make Bobby Mitchell the first African American player in Redskins history. To this day, many of the Cowboys fans in the DC area are Cowboys fans (teaching their kids to be Cowboys fans too) because of the integration issue.
The Clint Longley Game
On Thanksgiving Day 1974, the Redskins were in Texas Stadium and were thoroughly bashing the Cowboys, holding a 23-10 lead in the 4th quarter. Roger Staubach had been knocked out of the game in the 3rd quarter after a Dave Robinson sack. Rookie Clint Longley came in and it looked like the Cowboys were toast. All he did was engineer 2 touchdowns drives, going 11 for 20 for over 200 yards. After a touchdown pass to tight end Billy Joe DuPree cutting the lead to 23-17, and a Redskins 3 and out on their next possession, Longly drove the Cowboys to midfield with 35 seconds to go. Then, he unleashed a perfect bomb to speedster Drew Pearson who ran under it and took it to the house. They added the extar point so final score: Cowboys 24 Redskins 23. The Redskins have played the Cowboys on Thanksgiving 7 times in history...and have never won.
1982 NFC Championship Game
The Redskins had previously defeated the Cowboys in the NFC title game in 1972 on their way to Super Bowl VII. This game, though, was personal. The Cowboys had previously beaten the Redskins in the abbreviated 1982 season. The Redskins had not won an NFL title since 1942, so they were due. The previous playoff game, against Minnesota, the fans for the first time made the RFK stands shake chanting "WE WANT DALLAS!" The game itself was punctuated with Dexter Manley knocking Danny White out of the game. Manley later also tipped a Jeff Hogeboom screen pass that was intercepted by Darryl Grant for a touchdown that put the game on ice. Final score: Redskins 31 Cowboys 17. The Redskins would go on to defeat the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XVII for their first NFL title in 40 years and first Super Bowl win.
Raghib in Overtime
On opening day in 1999, once again, the Redskins had thoroughly dominated the Cowboys for 3 quaters, leading 35-14, only to see the Cowboys come back yet again. The Cowboys had swept the Redskins in 1998, and 1999 would be the only year the Redskins would win the division in the post-Super Bowl era of the 80s and early 90s. In this game, the Cowboys came back to tie the score at 35 and force overtime. On the first possession of overtime, facing 3rd and 2 on their own 20, Troy Aikman executed a perfect play fake to Emmitt Smith, getting nearly the entire Redskins defense to bite on it. The next thing you see is Raghib "Rocket" Ismail living up to his nickname as Aikman fired a perfect bomb hitting Ismail in stride with nary a Redskin in sight. Final Score: Cowboys 41 Redskins 35. This game would be the beginning of an epic tailspin for the Redskins against the Cowboys, who would lose a total of 14 out of 15 games to the Cowboys from 1997 to 2004. Nothing epitomized the Cowboys dominance than this game right here.
Miracle on Monday Night
That tailspin came to a screeching halt on a Monday night in week 2 in 2005. The Redskins gave the Cowboys a taste of their own medicine. For 3 and half quarters, the Cowboys dominated the Skins, leading 13-0 with just over 5 minutes left in the game (oh the dangers of those 13 point leads...). Next thing you know two Brunell bombs to Santana Moss erased a 13 point deficit and turned into a 14-13 lead for the Redskins. The air in Texas Stadium was sucked right out of the big hole in the roof. This was the first time in 78 games that a Bill Parcells coached team squandered a lead of 13 points or greater in the 4th quarter. Later in the season, the Redskins would thoroughly decimate the Cowboys 35-7 in Washington. The Redskins would use this game as a springboard to their first playoff appearance since 1999.
There are a few important moments in the Redskins-Cowboys rivalry. And for those of you in the homer police, at least those of you in the homer police who can count, I used 3 moments favorable for the Cowboys versus only 2 for the Redskins.
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