OT: Old timers - time to revisit a painful end to a good season

[captain stone]

These youngsters forget we came of age after the Pill but before AIDS and herpes.......................

 

[RobertWeathers]

1980

As a 4th grader in 1980 I didn't really know the context behind why they missed the postseason that year.

Gee thanks.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

1980

This was a remarkable season in several respects. When I have time I'll go through the amazing details and the typical (for the time) frustrating, disappointing, underachieving ending.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

The laughingstock narrative is absurd yet still propagated hyperbolically, but it's safe to say we were snake bit before 2001.

I remember my brother and I had a conversation around 1995, agreeing that not only would the Patriots never win the Super Bowl in our lifetime, but probably never in our kids' either.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

You dont like sexagenarians?
Think you just outed yourself as celibate

Well, the Pats didn't go all the way until February 2002.

Got to third base three times; plus got home jobbed out of a sure thing in '76.

Just sayin'.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

1980

So, some background to put this year in perspective...

While technically accurate, the Kraft line that the Patriots never won a home playoff game prior to his purchase is totally misleading to the point of stupidity. We were not the Broncos, Falcons or Saints or a bunch of other teams who did nothing forever.

The number of seasons the Patriots missed the playoffs by 1 1/2 games, 1 game, 1/2 game, or by a tiebreaker in each decade:

1960's: 4 / Playoffs: 1
1970's: 2 / Playoffs: 2
1980's: 5 / Playoffs: 3

If we include the 1974 team (we should - it's one of the best teams we ever had, just got decimated by injuries) then in each decade we have 5, 5, and 8 good seasons.

Interesting that it was after having the title stolen in 1976, with what I still consider to be the best Patriots team ever, that two HOF caliber players, Stanley Morgan & Ray Clayborn came on board.

In '79 we lost Chuck Fairbanks and Leon Gray, and the team's play was up and down with blowouts and frustrating close losses - Jets and Steelers specifically - to keep us out of the postseason. It was Steve Grogan's most prolific passing season.

Steve then got hurt in '80. More on that later. With the Steelers slipping, the AFC and Super Bowl race was a free-for-all, and probably the key incident that year was Pastorini getting hurt. Typically adding insult to injury, the Raiders went all the way with Jim Plunkett who was dispatched for a king's ransom and the reprehensible Ben Dreith refereeing the Super Bowl, while the Pats missed the playoffs with Jim's successor injured.

Sam Cunningham held out all season, but Vagas Ferguson stepped in to break the team's rookie rushing record. We started 6-1, including a 34-0 destruction of the Dolphins in Foxborough. Bill Parcells, then the linebackers coach with the team, stated that the players on this Patriots team gave him his famous "Tuna" nickname when he asked, "What do you think I am, Charlie the Tuna?"

Starting November 10th, we found some amazing ways to lose four out of five games, eliminating ourselves from the postseason.

On that Monday night in the AstroDome, we barely lost and the most memorable play for me was a heave downfield from Stabler which could/should have been picked off by Mike Haynes or Ray Clayborn, who were both right there. Instead, they collided with each other, the ball literally bounced off the fingertips of both defenders - and into the arms of Renfro who took it all the way. Lifelong Pats fans know all too well the repeated phrase, "this only happens to the Patriots"...

Then we had the Rams at home and fiddled and diddled away the game, losing by a field goal.

After blowing out the Colts it was off to Candlestick Park, where we lost 21-17 when Steve Grogan started despite injuries to both knees because backup Matt Cavanaugh (a future Niners backup for Joe Montana) was coming off knee surgery. Grogan was picked off six times in a 21–17 loss and "I got crucified in the newspapers, but no one knew I was playing on two bad knees." After the sixth pick, the TV announcer said, "I can't believe it!!" and Leigh Montville shouted back, "I can't believe it, either!!"

The final nail in the coffin was John Lennon's last day on Earth. I was a 17-year-old college freshman in Georgia, listening on the radio with static blasting most of the broadcast, but they mentioned that John Smith had the highest field goal percentage within that yard range in the history of the NFL. Making the kick would have broken the Orange Bowl jinx, put us in position for the division title, playoffs and AFC top seed.

As the static dissipated slightly, all I heard was crowd noise, and that did not sound good. My fears were realized when the play by play man shouted, "Bob Baumhower!!!" and I knew that was it. It wasn't happening for us this year. Again.

The 1980 Patriots had seven Pro Bowlers, three AP All-Pros, and scored 441 points in 1980, a team record that stood until the 2007 team surpassed it. Russ Francis retired from football after the season, and later came out of retirement to get a ring with the 49ers.

This was the second year with those ridiculous red pajama pants, which I obviously always hated. The shoulder stripes are nostalgia from the sixties which were brought back in '84 - but should remain in the sixties. 1983 was the last season the Patriots looked like the team which established itself as championship caliber in the modern era of pro football.

 

[DarrylS]

This septuagenarian remembers that season well, while I forget many of the particulars and details, the announcement of the death of John Lennon is/was significant.. Lennon and Harrison were my favorite Beatles, and to this day play their stations often on Pandora..

BTW being a septuagenarian is ok with me, most days.. my expectations of the Patriots were much different then than they are now.. even though there were glimmers of hope, nothing would have convinced me then that what we see now could have been sustained.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

This septuagenarian remembers that season well, while I forget many of the particulars and details, the announcement of the death of John Lennon is/was significant.. Lennon and Harrison were my favorite Beatles, and to this day play their stations often on Pandora..

BTW being a septuagenarian is ok with me, most days.. my expectations of the Patriots were much different then than they are now.. even though there were glimmers of hope, nothing would have convinced me then that what we see now could have been sustained.

I felt like we were very close since '74.

Two incomparably egregious and horrific incidents stopped us from a possible two Super Bowls in the 70's.

Then, Berry starting Eason over Grogan in New Orleans and a year later in Denver ruined us.

He never learned, and thus '88 was torpedoed. His career and life spiraled downward afterward, but John Stephens was the real deal as a rookie.

Finally, mercifully Berry was fired, and Eason was released and out of football soon after. If Flutie had been then signed along with a coach who would commit to him, the 90's would have been quite different. Winning along with packed home games would not have paid off the debts, but the environment obviously would have been completely different. Then if Orthwein still hires Parcells you have the recipe for more titles.

As long as the team stayed here, the opportunity was always there. Kraft made it happen. He paid a record price for a losing team. He made the lucrative deal with Hartford saying, "We will have a stadium" and the league and state legislature then gave him a chance and he jumped on it and kept us here. He fired the personable, enthusiastic, liked by the press Pete Carroll and hired the guy hated by some players, the media, Cleveland and then New York solely based upon his own personal interaction and opinion of Bill Belichick, against the advice given him. He made the never-was-that-good, obviously-past-it Drew Bledsoe the highest paid player in sports because he was determined to succeed and demanded success and refused to accept mediocrity.

It worked out because of the work he did to have a chance to make it work.

It was hard. Kraft will be the first to tell you how hard it is to get to let alone win a Super Bowl. But the possibility has been there for us since the very first one, when we couldn't get it done at Shea the last game of the season in '66.

 

[DarrylS]

I felt like we were very close since '74.

Two incomparably egregious and horrific incidents stopped us from a possible two Super Bowls in the 70's.

Then, Berry starting Eason over Grogan in New Orleans and a year later in Denver ruined us.

He never learned, and thus '88 was torpedoed. His career and life spiraled downward afterward, but John Stephens was the real deal as a rookie.

Finally, mercifully Berry was fired, and Eason was released and out of football soon after. If Flutie had been then signed along with a coach who would commit to him, the 90's would have been quite different. Winning along with packed home games would not have paid off the debts, but the environment obviously would have been completely different. Then if Orthwein still hires Parcells you have the recipe for more titles.

As long as the team stayed here, the opportunity was always there. Kraft made it happen. He paid a record price for a losing team. He made the lucrative deal with Hartford saying, "We will have a stadium" and the league and state legislature then gave him a chance and he jumped on it and kept us here. He fired the personable, enthusiastic, liked by the press Pete Carroll and hired the guy hated by some players, the media, Cleveland and then New York solely based upon his own personal interaction and opinion of Bill Belichick, against the advice given him. He made the never-was-that-good, obviously-past-it Drew Bledsoe the highest paid player in sports because he was determined to succeed and demanded success and refused to accept mediocrity.

It worked out because of the work he did to have a chance to make it work.

It was hard. Kraft will be the first to tell you how hard it is to get to let alone win a Super Bowl. But the possibility has been there for us since the very first one, when we couldn't get it done at Shea the last game of the season in '66.

Unfortunately my recall of the details is not quite as acute as yours.. do remember in the 80's and 90's when I worked on Sundays that I brought my walkman to work to listen to most of the blacked out games... some of the guys I worked with thought I was a degenerate gambler, I told them simply, "no just a fan."

In the 70's & 80's when we would get the "Sears Xmas Wishbook" would scan it to see if there was any Pats gear for sale.. we were a forgotten market, overshadowed by Dallas, NYG, SF, Chicago etc. The 1985 run will forever be near and dear to me, used to go to the Airport when I got out of work to greet the Pats plane during that playoff run. Got my first Pat's T-Shirt a red "Squish the Fish" T-shirt.

There there were the 2 a days at Bryant.. it was a different time, but always good for a fan.

 

[Joker]

congrats om becoming a septuagenarian, Darryl....I find I've become a kleptogenarian as I've entered my golden years...