NFL Films: NFL 1978-Super Bowl 13-Dallas Cowboys vs. Pittsburgh Steelers: Documentary

Source:NFL Films- Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw, handing the ball off to RB Rocky Bliar, during Super Bowl 13.

Source:The New Democrat

"Super Bowl XIII Documentary - Steelers @ Cowboys."

From NFL Films 

“Super Bowl XIII was played on January 21, 1979, and pitted the NFC champion Dallas Cowboys against the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the NFL champion for the 1978 season.”

Source:NFL Films- Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw, hading the ball off to RB Franco Harris.

From NFL Fan Zone

If you look at the two teams in this game and their personal and the two coaching staffs, led by Tom Landry and Chuck Knoll respectfully and how great both teams were in 1978 and the fact that this game decided who would be the NFL franchise of the 1970s, the Cowboys or Steelers, this is the best Super Bowl at least of the first thirteen, of all-time.

I still believe it is the best Super Bowl of all-time, especially if you look at the two teams involved and how they played in this game. The second Cowboys-Steelers Super Bowl and the second Super Bowl that they played against each other that went down to the last possession of the game. That is how close both teams were and how well they played against each other.

This Super Bowl was so good as far as how they game was played, it was almost like an all-star game. If you look at the talent of both clubs. Each team with a Hall of Fame head coach. Hall of Fame quarterbacks for both teams. The Steelers starting two Hall of Fame receivers in John Stallworth and Lynn Swann. The Cowboys with two Pro Bowl receivers in Drew Pearson and Tony Hill. Pearson, at least should be in the Hall of Fame.

Two of the top three tailbacks in the league at the time and who are both in the Hall of Fame. Franco Harris, with the Steelers and Tony Dorsett with the Cowboys. And that is before I get to the Steel Curtain Defense of the Steelers and the Doomsday Defense of the Cowboys.

The Super Bowl, is supposed to be the game between the two best teams in the NFL. It is called the Super Bowl for a very good reason. It’s supposed to be a great game between two great teams. The first twelve Super Bowls were blowouts for the most part. The Cowboys won two of those blowouts.

This wasn’t the first real Super Bowl. Super Bowl 10, again between the Cowboys and Steelers was also a real Super Bowl. Super Bowl 7 between the Dolphins and Redskins was also a good game. But Super Bowl’s 10 and 13, were exactly that. They were true Super Bowl’s and the only two of the first thirteen. And again, if you look at both teams and how they played in this game and it went down to the last possession of the game, this game is the best Super Bowl ever.

ESPN Films 30 For 30: Elway to Marino, the Story of the 1983 NFL Draft

Source:The New Democrat

The 1983 NFL Draft is famous for several reasons, but a big one is the fact that it produced three Hall of Fame quarterbacks. The most important position in football, but more than that, it produced two of the top five quarterbacks of all- time in John Elway arguably the best all around quarterback of all-time and Dan Marino the best pure passer of all-time. Then you add Jim Kelly to the draft a quarterback who won four conference championships and played in four Super Bowls and. 

Jim Kelly one of the greatest winning quarterbacks of all-time and then you add Tony Eason who played in Super Bowl 20 with the New England Patriots, we haven’t seen another NFL Draft like that before or since, but a draft that produces not just two of the best quarterbacks of all-time and in Jim Kelly arguably three of the best quarterbacks of all-time but, also in Elway and Marino two of the best players of all-time as well which makes it an incredible draft.

But that’s not the whole story, this draft was also about workers rights. In this case football players do they have the right to decide who they work for and in this case who do they get to play football for and in John Elway’s case a California boy from Los Angeles who played college football at Stanford in the Bay Region, should he be forced to play football on the East Coast in Baltimore, Maryland for the Baltimore Colts. 

The Colts offered him a job, but the question posed by John Elway’s management team was. Can an employer force someone they’ve just offered a job to, to work for them or does the potential employee, in this case a football player have a say in who he works for and in this case play football for. And that’s what the Elway team was going to find out. Where are football players rights to decide where they can play football for. And Elway won in the fact that he wasn’t forced to work for the Colts. 

The whole draft brings up a more important point. What rights do workers including football players and pro sports athletes in general have in determining where they get to work. Because it’s really only pro sports where the franchises or employers basically have all of the power. As far as deciding who works for who and where with the players not having much if any say in deciding where. They work coming out of college.

ESPN: Straight Outta LA: The Story of the Los Angeles Raiders

Source:The New Democrat

The truth is that had Al Davis and his team marketed his Raiders franchise in Los Angeles as the Dodgers and Lakers are marketed in Los Angeles, the Raiders would probably still be in LA today. Instead Mr. Davis believed that people would automatically just show up to see a good football team every week. The fan interest would have been there and the crowds would have been there and there would have been enough interest for Los Angeles to give the Raiders franchise what it needed to be successful in Los Angeles, whether that was new renovations to the LA Memorial Coliseum or a new stadium altogether.

When I think of the Los Angeles Raiders who were in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before moving back to Oakland, I think of both good and bad and probably more bad then good actually, as my first paragraph, I believe, points out, but to be positive and factual, the LA Raiders were very good in the 1980s. They won two Super Bowls in 1980 and 1983 and probably should have won a couple more in 1982 and 1984, but the 1983 Raiders were one of the best and most dominant Super Bowl champions of all time.

But the story doesn't end there, because again, they were there from 1982 to 1994 and are not still there today. Also there's a lot of what could have been, had Al Davis basically not ruined running back Marcus Allen's career and not cost him at least 4 to 6 years.  Marcus was the best all-around running back of his era, at least post Walter Payton, and the mistake of Al Davis telling his coaching staff not to play Marcus because he believed Marcus became bigger than the Raiders franchise itself.

But instead they traded for running back Bo Jackson because of baseball. He was never more than a part-time player for the Raiders and only played four seasons because of the hip injury. Instead of trading for Bo, they should have invested the money into getting a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback to take over for Jim Plunkett or again trade for Bo but not reduce the role of Marcus in the backfield. They should have gone to a two-back full-time set and become a run-oriented football team with Marcus and Bo and 2,000 yard rushers year after year on the same team. How much better would their vertical spread passing game had been with that running game.

To sum up, the Los Angeles Raiders were a team of underachievers, not just some of the players but the franchise as a whole, and again we are talking about a two-time Super Bowl champion franchise, but they could have done so much more and should have been the team of the NFL of the 1980s to take over for the Pittsburgh Steelers from the 1970s because of the talent they had, the market they played in, and the man at the top in Al Davis.