I remember having this conversation at Latin School on the day after this game, and we asked each other: Was Windsor's injury worth it for the victory? Most of us at the time said Yes, because the TD prevented a 2-game losing streak and we felt that it was important to get right back in the win column. Unfortunately, too many other injuries - and losses - followed, so of course the injury ended up being Not worth the victory, especially for him.
Happy 76th! Birthday (on the 19th) Bob Windsor!
Thanks for the anecdote, but must disagree.
This game - and that play - are absolute seminal moments in New England football history.
The season marked the first tangible results from Billy Sullivan's brilliant decision to hire Chuck Fairbanks. Starting 5-0 (It easily could have been 8-0, with any luck), and defeating some of the best teams in football, put the Patriots on the map, and established them as legitimate contenders in the modern pro football (post-merger) era. Also, it demonstrated that fans could overcome the gridlock on Route 1 and fill up Schaefer Stadium, as they did often the rest of the decade. As you say, the injuries killed us. But several of those losses were still very close. This is one of the best, most memorable Patriots teams ever. Furthermore, it revealed Jim Plunkett's professional potential, which he unfortunately only reached in Oakland.
This success - as always - only fired up and emboldened Patriots denigration in local and national media. Our success was first attributed to the players' strike that summer, and then that the Fairbanks-Bullough 3-4 defense was a "fluke" which the rest of the league "caught up to" in the second half.
As usual, this is all total bullsh*t. By the end of the decade (five years), every team in the league except one employed the 3-4. We suffered massive injuries the next season in '75, but several rookies including Steve Grogan and Russ Francis gained valuable experience which led to us being Super Bowl level in 1976.
The denigration of the franchise spiked in 1981, when Sam Cunningham sat the season out (along with everything else, the fake idea that "The Patriots don't pay" was somehow invented this century is also B.S.), and the team found ways to lose, en route to a 2-14 season when the media pounced like sharks on the "downtrodden, hapless" Patriots. No one, then or today (except myself) mentions this was our single losing season in a string of 13 years.
Pats-dumping peaked in 1992, when the Sullivan's financial house of cards finally, inevitably came tumbling down. After Raymond Berry insanely benched, and cut, should-be savior Doug Flutie before getting fired himself, the team experienced three (3) losing seasons. You would think, from media - and some local fans - that lasted an eternity, which again is utter stupidity compared to, for example, Packers' and 49ers' and Steelers' decades-long stretches of futility. The Patriots are still labeled a "laughingstock" [that would be the Giants of the 70's] with the league's worst stadium [hello, Municipal Stadium or how about Riverfront?].
Local Boston media blasted out this propaganda, and the rest of the country went along. Why wouldn't they? Wouldn't the local press be the ones most knowledgeable on the subject?
Robert "Thank you sir, may I have another?" Kraft has always endorsed and been complicit in this mythology, retaining the embarrassing booed-out-of-our-stadium flying elvis and corresponding not-worthy-of-the-USFL uniforms, and insulting all of the players, coaches, staff, family and fans who sacrificed and represented our region with courage and honor for thirty-three years, and have nothing to do with Billy Sullivan's shortcomings. I get the guy spent a fortune to buy the team, and he admits the owners all have egos. Does Jerry Jones pretend the two Cowboys Super Bowls won prior to his ownership don't exist? No. And he didn't destroy the uniforms, either.
That game was filled with Patriots heroes. I am sure I was not the only one watching in the last minute thinking, "Jim's gonna throw a bomb to Vataha" which he of course proceeded to do.
Bob Windsor's play and sacrifice has been and remains cherished to this day by all of us who witnessed it, in defeating a Super Bowl team at their home, sending the "lovable loser" Patriots on to future destiny, and glory.
Edit: Bob's turning 76 on December 19th. Best wishes to another Patriots hero.
