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1987 Washington Redskins

The 1987 Washington Redskins & A Strange Path To Making History

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Russell Wilson became the second African-American quarterback to win the Super Bowl when he led the Seattle Seahawks past the Denver Broncos on Sunday. The first one to do it was Doug Williams—oddly enough it was also against the Broncos, back in 1987 when Williams quarterbacked the Washington Redskins.

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But Williams had a more interesting path—he spent the bulk of the year as the backup and didn’t become the starter until the playoffs. It was an interesting path in an interesting year—to put mildly—in the NFL. Let’s look back on the 1987 Washington Redskins.

The Redskins were one of the NFL’s great teams in the 1980s under the leadership of head coach Joe Gibbs. They went to consecutive Super Bowls behind quarterback Joe Theisman, and won it all in 1982.

Another NFC East title followed in 1984 before losing to the Chicago Bears. Theisman’s career ended in 1985 after a nasty leg break on Monday Night Football.

Gibbs turned to 25-year-old Jay Schroeder for the 1986 season and the strong-armed Schroeder led the team to the NFC Championship Game. The Redskins looked back on track for 1987, even as the entire NFL looked ready to go off the rails.

There were still problems to contend with. Center Jeff Bostic, a key part of the “Hogs” offensive line, only played five games. His injury required guard Russ Grimm to move to center, which in turn had a ripple effect across the rest of the line. The only offensive player to make the Pro Bowl was wide receiver Gary Clark. But even with all that, Washington finished fourth in the NFL in points scored.

Washington was also an elite team on defense, ranking sixth, and it started with great corners and great defensive ends. Charles Mann and Dexter Manley combined for 18 sacks and Mann made the Pro Bowl. Darrell Green, the future Hall of Famer, had a Pro Bowl year at corner. And for one year, the corner on the opposite side was even better. Barry Wilburn made 1st-team All-Pro.

The Redskins opened the season at home against the Philadelphia Eagles. Perhaps it was an omen that Schoreder injured his shoulder and Williams came on. He completed 17/27 passes for 272 yards, no interceptions and threw a big 39-yard touchdown pass to Art Monk that broke a 24-24 tie in the fourth quarter. Washington won 34-24. But a week later, Schroeder was still out and Williams was outplayed by Atlanta’s Scott Campbell in a 21-20 road loss. And then the strike hit.

This players’ strike wouldn’t last nearly as long as the 1982 work stoppage, which wiped out seven games. And the owners were ready this time. After skipping Week 3, the league used replacement players for three weeks in October. Washington’s replacements would have success and win three consecutive NFC East games, eventually becoming the inspiration for the movie The Replacements, with Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves.

As much as the established players resented the replacements, the Redskins’ season was given a big boost by the play of quarterback Ed Ruppert who threw for 334 yards in a win over the Cardinals (then in St. Louis and in the NFC East). Or running back Lionel Vital who went over 100 yards in consecutive wins against the Giants and Cowboys, on the road no less. Wide receiver Anthony Allen had a 255-yard receiving game and defensive tackle Steve Martin had two sacks in leading a strong pass rush in Dallas.

The replacement players went 3-0 against what would have been a difficult portion of the schedule and put the regulars in strong position when they returned.

It was a sloppy first game back against a subpar New York Jets team. Schroeder was healthy, but also erratic, completing just 15/38 passes and the ‘Skins trailed 16-7 after three quarters. But Schroeder always could make big plays and those completions went for 275 yards. Eventually it was enough to pull out a 17-16 win.

Schroeder was sharper at the Buffalo Bills, throwing two touchdown passes to versatile running back Kelvin Bryant. George Rogers led a running game that pounded Buffalo for 299 yards and the result was an easy 27-7 win. But Schroeder and the rest of the team regressed at Philadelphia–the quarterback attempted 46 passes and threw thirty incompletions. Each team turned the ball over four times and the Redskins coughed up a 21-0 lead, losing 31-27.

The corners put their talents on full display the following week at home against the Detroit Lions. Green picked off three passes, Wilburn added another and the ‘Skins won 20-13. Williams was back in the lineup for the following Monday Night game at the Los Angeles Rams. He didn’t play badly–24/46 for 308 yards with one interception was as good, if not better than what Schroeder had produced. But the ‘Skins gave up a defensive touchdown, 138 yards rushing and lost 30-26. Gibbs would go back to Schroeder.

Washington was 7-3, and the coming three games against NFC East teams would swing their season. The stretch started badly, as they fell behind the Giants—the defending Super Bowl champs were having a rough go of it in 1987–trailing 19-3. Schroeder threw for 331 yards and three second-half touchdowns to overcome the lack of a running game and win 23-19.

The victory was the lynchpin the ‘Skins needed to wrap up the division. Schroeder went to the St. Louis Cardinals (an NFC East team until 2002) and opened with an 84-yard touchdown pass to Clark and a big-play oriented 13/25 for 235 yard performance. Rogers pummeled the Cards on the ground with 133 yards in the 34-17 win. Schroeder delivered a similar performance at home against Dallas–13/26 for 250 yards, with most of it to Clark–in a 24-20 victory that all but put the NFC East to bed.

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There were still problems though, even at 10-3. Schroeder’s completion percentage would end the season at an erratic 48 percent and for all his big-play ability, he lacked consistency. Williams was the man who had the heart of the clubhouse and the players wanted him as the starter. Another erratic Schroeder performance in a 23-21 loss at Miami didn’t solve that problem.

The defeat also dropped the Redskins to the #3 seed. Prior to 1990, all division winners were seeded into the second round so this wasn’t as devastating as it would be today, but it did mean Washington would open the playoffs on the road.

The regular season finale in Minnesota was the last straw. The Redskins were tied 7-7 at half, but the only touchdown had been scored by the defense. Gibbs inserted Williams in the second half and the quarterback found speedy wideout Ricky Sanders on two long touchdown passes. Washington won in overtime, Williams finally had the job and the connection between him and Sanders on the deep ball would be heard from again.

Washington went into the playoffs with high hopes, even as the 3-seed. They still had the “Hogs” offensive line, including Joe Jacoby and Mark May (the current ESPN college football analyst) at the tackles and Russ Grimm at guard. On the defensive side, Charles Mann and Dexter Manley were a potent pass-rushing combo at the ends of the four-man front. Darrell Green was a lockdown corner, a future Hall of Famer, and big threat on special teams.

The playoff game in Chicago didn’t start well, as Williams lost an early fumble, the ‘Skins were stopped on a fourth down and Bears’ quarterback Jim McMahon got his team out to a 14-0 lead. But Williams threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to tight end Clint Didier and it was tied up 14-14 at half.

Green made the play of the game in the third quarter, returning a punt for a touchdown and injuring a rib as he hurtled a defender. The Redskins hung on for a 21-17 win and already knew they had gotten a big break in the other NFC playoff game—wild-card Minnesota upset top-seeded San Francisco, meaning the Redskins were the improbable host of the NFC Championship Game (not until the 2006 Indianapolis Colts would a team seeded as low as 3rd host a championship game).

“Ugly” is the only word that describes the 1987 NFC Championship Game. Williams threw an early 42-yard touchdown pass, but went 9/26 on the day for 119 yards and the Redskins’ lead was only 10-7 early in the fourth quarter. The defense delivered with two big goal-line stops. Minnesota had 1st-and-goal on the 3-yard line, but had to settle for a tying field goal.

Williams then connected with Clark on a 43-yard pass to get his team moving, and with Clark again on a seven-yard touchdown pass. Minnesota made one last drive, reached the 6-yard line and faced a 4th-and-4. Green made one more big play, breaking up a pass at the goal line and Williams was the first African-American quarterback going to the Super Bowl.

The media hype on this subject was intense and Williams handled it all with grace as he prepared to face the Broncos, led by John Elway. Denver struck first, as Elway threw a 56-yard touchdown pass and it was 10-0 at the end of the first quarter. Early in the second quarter, Williams hit Sanders on an 80-yard touchdown strike that cut the lead to 10-7. Then the avalanche began.

Before the second quarter was over, Williams would throw a touchdown pass to Clark, and another one to Sanders, this one from 50 yards. The Redskins scored 35 points, a record for one quarter. The game, after looking to ready to get away from Washington early, ended up being all but over by halftime, when they led 35-10. Everyone just played out the string in the second half and it ended 42-10.

Williams set a record for passing yardage (340), running back Timmy Smith did so for rushing (204) and Sanders for receiving (193). Smith’s record stands to this day. Williams was game MVP and his place in NFL lore was forever secured.

It was a crazy path that Doug Williams walked to history, but he and the 1987 Washington Redskins ended up with a championship.

1987 Sports: Knight, Gretzky & Magic Get Back On Top

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Bob Knight, Wayne Gretzky and Magic Johnson had already made their mark on the respective histories of college basketball, the NHL and the NBA. All three were looking for redemption in varying degrees, and in the year of 1987 sports, all three got back on top.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
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None of the three won a championship in more dramatic fashion than Knight. After coaching the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in 1984, Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers had seen some hard times—missing the NCAA Tournament in 1985 and losing in the first round in 1986. Knight’s infamous, albeit vastly overplayed chair-throw incident took place in ’85.
It was appropriate that the year Knight returned to the top of the college basketball world took place in the same year the movie Hoosiers came out. Like the movie, the real-life version of the story ended up with a last-second shot winning the national championship, as Keith Smart’s jumper near the baseline gave Indiana a 74-73 win over Syracuse and their head coach his third national title.
The 1987 NCAA Tournament also provided a Cinderella, and one with lasting implications for college basketball. Providence made the Final Four. It was the first breakthrough for a young head coach named Rick Pitino. And his best player was Billy Donovan. We’re still hearing plenty from both Pitino and Donovan on the sidelines today.
Read more about 1987 Indiana basketball
Read more about Rick Pitino, Billy Donovan & 1987 Providence
Magic Johnson already had three championship rings and twice had been named MVP of the Finals. But the 1986 season ended badly for his Los Angeles Lakers, and there was talk that they might be supplanted by the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference.
Instead, Magic upped his game to become a top scorer, without losing his tremendous passing ability and he won his first league MVP award. The Lakers won the NBA title, and their battle with the Boston Celtics in the Finals was a historic benchmark—it was the last time Magic and Boston’s Larry Bird ever competed for a championship.
And on the hockey side, Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers had seen their dynasty interrupted in 1986, after winning consecutive Stanley Cups in 1984-85. Gretzky won another MVP award of his own—making him 8-for-8 in his career, and Edmonton erased the upset loss of 1986 by capturing a third Stanley Cup in four years.
Read more about the 1987 NBA Finals
Read more about the 1987 Edmonton Oilers
Baseball and college football each provided good regular seasons and interesting finishes. The baseball season was highlighted by a dramatic AL East race, with the Milwaukee Brewers providing any number of streaks, both individual and team, while the Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers ran a great race to the final day of the season.
And baseball’s postseason was marked by a team making full use of the rotation system MLB then used to set homefield advantage for both the League Championship Series and World Series. The Minnesota Twins won their division on the one year in four that they were set to have homefield throughout, and the Twins used it win a surprise World Series.
College football saw the first advent of the four-team playoff that begins in 2014, albeit entirely unintended. But Miami-Florida State and Nebraska-Oklahoma ended up as a de facto national semifinals, with the winners playing for the national title and the losers meeting in the Fiesta Bowl. Miami won the national championship and Florida State ended up #2.
Read more about the 1987 World Series
Read more about 1987 college football
Read more about the 1987 AL East race
The NFL toyed with fans with the second strike in six years. Four weeks of play were missed, but unlike the 1982 strike, the league used replacement players to cover for three of the weeks. The games counted in the standings and were retained even after the regular players returned.
What this strike year had in common with 1982, was that once again it was the Washington Redskins who held together and won the Super Bowl. The Strike-Year ‘Skins still had the magic and their 42-10 rout of the Denver Broncos sealed a title, with Doug Williams becoming the first African-American quarterback to start and win the Super Bowl.
Read more about the 1987 Washington Redskins

Championship Sunday History: Goal-Line Drama In 1987

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In the first part of TheSportsNotebook’s NFL Championship Sunday extravaganza, we opened up NFL championship history to look at 1978, and celebrated the greatness of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys. But the downside of that was, the games were lacking in drama. To pick a year where both championship games went down to the wire, let’s focus in on 1987, a year I would argue was the best in terms of competitive drama. Both title games went down to a final battle on the goal line.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 

1987 was a tough year on fans, as the players went on strike two games into the season. The owners took a hard line and used replacement players for three games, before the regulars decided to throw in the towel and come back. That tense three-week period was captured in the movie The Replacements, and the Washington Redskins took full advantage of that time to go 3-0 and build up the regulars a cushion when they came back.

The ‘Skins had been one of the NFL’s best teams in the early 1980s and still were, but it had been four years since they’d reached the Super Bowl and the previous year they’d been shutout in this round by Bill Parcells’ New York Giants. Aided by the work of The Replacements, they won the NFC East going away, finishing with an 11-4 record.

Minnesota’s replacements didn’t handle the opportunity quite as well. Even though the Vikings’ record was only 8-7 overall, their regular players posted the same 8-4 record that Washington had and they were playing their best down the stretch. After a 2-5 start, Minnesota won six of their last eight to get into the playoffs. One of those losses though, was an overtime defeat at home to Washington, one that nearly cost them a wild-card berth.

Washington was an unusual team for a championship contender in that quarterback controversy tailed them all the way through the season. Jay Schroeder started most of the games, but he didn’t have the confidence of Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs and the boss started to turn to veteran Doug Williams more frequently. It was Williams who threw two long touchdown passes to wide receiver Ricky Sanders and beat the Vikings in that season finale, it was Williams who got the start when the Redskins beat the Bears in the divisional playoffs and it would be Williams getting the call in the NFC Championship Game.

In the late 1980s, Minnesota would become known as the talented team that could never put it all together into a Super Bowl run (come to think of it, I guess not that much has changed). The franchise’s last Super Bowl trip had been 1976 and they had still yet to win one. That core group of talent was just coming together this year, and it was led by sack specialist Chris Doleman on the outside, strong safety Joey Browner, wide receiver Anthony Carter and offensive tackle Gary Zimmerman.

Washington countered with its legendary “Hogs” offensive line, that included current ESPN college football analyst Mark May and the defense was led by corner Darrell Green, whose blazing speed had put the ‘Skins in this game when he returned a punt for a touchdown in the win at Chicago and whose lockdown cover skills gave the defense tremendous freedom.

The AFC Championship Game was a rematch of a game that was already seen as historic. Denver beat Cleveland in the 1986 title game when John Elway led a 98-yard drive into the win at the Cleveland “Dawg Pound” to force overtime, where the Broncos eventually won it. Denver was subsequently hammered by the Giants in the Super Bowl, so when they again paired up with Cleveland for this year’s game, both teams felt like there was unfinished business.

When I think of Elway in those years, I think of a quarterback who singlehandedly kept basically mediocre teams afloat and a review of the roster confirms that belief. The only other Pro Bowlers on the Broncos were offensive lineman Keith Bishop and inside linebacker Karl Mecklenburg. Cleveland was coached by Marty Schottenheimer, whose playoff struggles would one day become the stuff of legend and we were right at the grass roots of that in 1987.

Bernie Kosar was his quarterback, a signal-caller who took a backseat only to Elway, and there was more defensive talent on hand, with outside linebacker Clay Matthews (father of today’s Green Bay linebacker of the same name), and corners Frank Minnifield and Hanford Dixon. In an era where the AFC was seen as much weaker than the NFC—and at least at the top, that was true—the Browns were seen as the one team physical enough to bang with the best of the other conference.

Over the years, Schottenheimer has taken a lot of unfair criticism for his playoff record—in a lot of those years, it was his own coaching that made a mediocre team look better than it was—but it has to hurt the old coach that he never cleared the hurdle that was Elway and the Broncos, because Cleveland was the more complete team.

When Championship Sunday came, Minnesota-Washington was the first game. The Redskins were in the rare position of hosting a championship game after going on the road for the divisional round (a circumstance that wouldn’t happen again until Indianapolis in 2006)), since after blowing out favored New Orleans in the wild-card round, the Vikes decisively shocked top-seeded San Francisco. The game in RFK Stadium won’t win any awards for offensive brilliance—Williams was only 9-for26, while Minnesota’s Wade Wilson was 19-of-43.

But it was tight throughout. Washington struck with a 42-yard pass to versatile running back Kelvin Bryant, before the Vikings answered and it went to halftime at 7-7. The ‘Skins got a field goal in the third. Minnesota tied it up early in the 4th, but the drive ended on the 1-yard line. Williams would throw a touchdown pass to Pro Bowl receiver Gary Clark, making it 17-10.

Minnesota mounted on last drive, and got inside the Redskin 10-yard line. It was 4th-and-goal from the 6. At this point, I have to protest how Wikipedia describes the final play. It’s recalled that Wilson tossed a pass into the hands of running back Darrin Nelson in the end zone, but that Nelson dropped it. My own memories of that play recall Green putting a rattling hit on Nelson at the precise moment the ball arrived and stopping the catch. You can call it the bias of a Redskin fan, or you can check out the YouTube clip below and make up your own mind. Either way, Washington was going to the Super Bowl.

The Denver-Cleveland game didn’t start like it would be an epic and one day be included on NFL Films’ Greatest Games package. Of course that kind of start is often a prerequisite for a historic game. The Browns turned it over on their first two possession, set up easy Denver scores and trailed 21-3 at half. Even after scoring the first touchdown of the second half, Elway quickly hit Mark Jackson on a short pass, and Jackson turned it into an 80-yard touchdown scamper and made it 28-10. But Kosar was finding his groove and the Browns offense had kicked into unstoppable mode. Three consecutive touchdown drives, with a Denver field goal sandwiched in between, made it a 31-31 tie with five minutes left.

It wasn’t as dramatic as the prior year’s drive, but Elway led his team down the field and hit running back Sammy Winder on a 20-yard swing pass to make it 38-31. Denver’s defense wasn’t going to stop Cleveland by normal means at this point, and the Browns just coolly marched inside the 5-yard line. Kosar handed the ball to running back Earnest Byner who looked headed for the end zone. At the last moment, a no-name defensive back for Denver named Jeremiah Castille reached in, stripped the ball and the Broncos recovered. It was a stunning turn of events, at a time when it appeared the overtime coin flip would settle the conference championship. On fourth down, Denver voluntarily took a safety and hung on 38-33.

 

The Super Bowl between Denver and Washington wouldn’t provide anywhere near this kind of drama. The Redskins scored a SB record 35 points in the second quarter and won Gibbs’ second of what would be three rings. But the day both teams won their spot in San Diego was one for the ages.