State Of Play In The NFL The Season You Started Watching

Paully D

Thought this might be an interesting thread to get going, particularly for the lads who have been following the NFL for years now and began doing so during a season which may have slipped from many peoples memories by now. For that reasons mine won't be too exciting to read as most people can remember it very well, but anyway:

I started watching at the beginning of the 2011 season.

The offseason was overshadowed by a lockout and at one stage it looked like the whole season may be cancelled, but thankfully only one pre-season game was lost as an agreement was reached.

An interesting subplot to the 2011 season was the fact that the team with the worst record was going to get the opportunity to take Andrew Luck, who was labelled as the best college QB prospect since Peyton Manning.

The regular season kicked off in great fashion with the defending Super Bowl champions Green Bay Packers winning against the New Orleans Saints in a shootout which was decided by a last second goal line stand and that high scoring game set the tone for the season as four of the six highest passing yards totals of all time were set during the course of the season by Brees, Brady, Stafford and Eli Manning.

The emergence of Tim Tebow with the Denver Broncos was a huge talking point as he took over from Kyle Orton who was 1-4 to lead the Broncos to an 8-8 record (7-4 himself) and to the playoffs with numerous 4th quarter comebacks.

Cam Newton put up huge numbers in his rookie season to storm home in the offensive rookie of the year race with Denver's Von Miller scooped the defensive honour, and Brees and Suggs won the offensive and defensive POTY awards.

The Packers, Patriots, Saints and 49ers were the most impressive over the regular season and all those made the playoffs alongside Ravens, Steelers, Bengals, Broncos, Lions, Falcons and the Giants who scraped in courtesy of a week 17 win against Dallas.

The playoffs started with the Giants comfortably dispatching the Falcons, the Saints winning a shootout with the Lions, the Texans beating the Bengals but unfortunately for them they suffered a lot of injuries which meant this would be as far as they would get and Tebow struck once again with a TD pass on the first play of overtime to oversee a huge shock win against the Steelers.

The Giants looked to be gaining a head of steam now as they shocked the Packers and the 49ers and Saints played out the game of the year as the 49ers went through. Baltimore stumbled past a deplted Texans side and New England were a step too far for Tebow. Mistakes by Kyle Williams let the Giants sneak past the 49ers as they came from nowhere to the Super Bowl and New England went through after Cundiff's career came crashing down with a chip shot field goal miss as time expired.

Eli Manning and the Giants won out against the Patriots in a cracking Super Bowl by a score of 21-17 as the Giants really gained a head of steam from week 17 onwards.

Overall it was quite an enjoyable season with high scoring games the order of the day due to the league now having moved completely towards being a passing league.

Here's a highlights video of games during the season below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrNyTTy9BSc

That_Guy

The Colts were good when I started watching.

davyjose

That_Guy wrote: »

The Colts were good when I started watching.

Me too. They had that guy at Denver. Apparently he's pretty good.

spiralism

We had Jay Cutler as QB. Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal were the #1 and #2 guys. Our defence was the biggest laughing stock i have ever seen in my life. Mike Shanahan was in his final year coaching at Denver and we had 7 rbs go on injured reserve in the same season (no, really). In typical shanahan style even the 7th stringer did well.

Main stories were:

The Titans started 10-0 and slid to 13-3, going down to Baltimore in the divisional round after promising rookie Chris Johnson went down in the first half.

Mike Smith and John Harbaugh were just hired as coaches and drafted Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco. Tony Sparano, then new Dolphins head coach came up with a new offensive concept to trick teams, the wildcat.

Tom Brady blew out his ACL in week one against Kansas. Matt Cassel took over and led the forces of darkness to an 11-5 record.

The Arizona Cardinals playoff run. Aw man, the Cardinals epic playoff run. After backing into the playoffs by winning the NFC West at 9-7, Kurt Warner's team as 40/1 underdogs made a remarkable charge led by him and Larry Fitzgerald, beating Atlanta, Carolina and Philadelphia en route to a narrow defeat in Superbowl 43 where Ben was good on a late comeback, the jammy prick

mikemac1

Ravens had a three headed monster of Willis McGahee, Le'ron McClain and young Ray Rice was just the 3rd stringer.
That third stringer came good!

Main recievers were Mark Clayton who would disappear for weeks and weeks and then suddenly go ballin and pull in 150yds and 3 TD's in a game and also old vet Derrick Mason who finished his career as best receiver in franchise history

Todd Heap was a fan favourite and still is.

Young Flacco was doubted by many and the most popular player on the team was the other QB Troy Smith. Always the way with the backup QB.
Actually that year Flacco ran a lot, haven't seen that since.

The cornerbacks were the sorry crew of Fabian Washington, Dominique Foxworth, Cory Ivy and Frank Walker, bleugh :P
One of the worst in the league!

The team ran, ran, and ran some more, beat the Dolphins in the wildcard, beat the mighty Titans in the divisional round and ultimatly lost to the Steelers in the AFC Championship



What else?
The Texans rivaled the Ravens for most embarrassing secondary, laughing stock of the league. Teams came to Houston and just ripped them up
Look at them now, got an ace D and arguably the best team in the AFC

Like a lot of people of a certain age, 1985, when RTE started showing a highlights package every Thurday with Myles Dungan and his amazing jumpers.

Afair it was extended highlights from 1 or 2 games, with a round up usually showing 1 TD from each of the others. Have family in Green Bay so had been getting this merchandise sent to me and following them without knowing anything about the game, and the Pack wasn't too bad that season. They went on to stink with two 4-12 seasons in the next 3. As the game was new to me, can't say anything about context, the draft, the expectations. As it panned out, 85 was all about the Bears - which was no fun for a Packers fan - and it seemed everyone in the schoolyard loved them. Ditka paced around, swearing, Singletary, Payton, McMahon, the Fridge...the rumbled to a 15-1 record and some blowouts in the post season. They seemed unstoppable, like they would dominate forever. Other players of note included Marino and Montana who had faced off in the 84 Superbowl, Dickerson, Monk, Allen and the real LT.

One oddity of the time was that an expansion in the late 70s meant Tampa ended up in the NFC Central as it was, with Green Bay, the Bears, Detroit and Minnesota. They never took well to the change from palm trees to deep freezes and often ended up with records like 2-14.

UnitedIrishman

Started watching in 2010 properly. Had seen the odd game in the years previous (Green Bay vs. Cards in the playoff when the scoreline was slightly mental. Also remember watching the Cardinals play the Panthers in a playoff game in 07 or 08 and betting with a mate in the pub whilst watching it as to who'd win.

Anyways, 2010 - Green Bay won the lot by stumbling their way through the season and then performing like superheroes in the playoffs. Mike Vick was all the rage after winning back the starting job at the Eagles from Kevin Kolb. He had some performances that year to be fair, it was vintage stuff - you could tell he was getting paid peanuts at the time!

The playoffs were just utter madness and we've kind of come to expect that at this stage but for betting purposes - it just about cleaned me out! But entertainment wise it was brilliant. Most notable was the game at Qwest between Seattle and the Saints. Everyone had the Sainst backed to be easy winners, Seattle having a losing record going in. But the noise in the stadium that evening (was on a Saturday I think) was unreal. Topped off by Marshawn Lynch going into beast mode in the 4th quarter to win the game.

Sanchez and the Jets looked decent enough and got to the AFC final losing the Steelers, who looked the form team going into the final.

From watching the Packers mostly (Redzone was something I'd never heard of at this stage!) - Rodgers ruled from the playoffs onwards albeit helped by a running game which pretty much appeared from nowhere. Their playoffs had pretty much started two games early because they needed to beat the Giants and Bears in their last two games in order to make the wildcard spot. Starks started to produce more which gave Rodgers more time. On top of that the secondary seemed to be like magnets to the ball picking off Vick and Ryan on their way to the NFC final. In the NFC final, there was the whole 'injury gate' issue with Cutler where people seemed to insinuate that he quit on the team but in reality was actually hurt. Although Caleb Hanie came in (after Kerry Collins failed miserable) and did alright, it wasn't really enough and Packers played the Steelers in the Superbowl.

Paully D

Cracking reads there lads, cheers.

Son Of A Vidic

Deleted User wrote: »

As it panned out, 85 was all about the Bears - which was no fun for a Packers fan

Feck that, it was even worse for us Pats fans. We won all our playoff games on the road, including hammering the highly fancied Dolphins in Miami. Then the Bears beat us well in the SB to wrap up the 85 season.

OP, been hardcore probably since the 84 season. Pats went 9-7 that season and missed the playoffs when they lost 3 of the last 4 games. Can't really find a general overall NFL season review from back then though. All I have is Pats specific, so it's probably only relevant to the team thread.

Chucky the tree

Mine was a right disaster(could be argued it hasn't really stopped). It was 2006 and it was the year of Art Shell and the Bed and breakfast offense. 2 wins all season, not even sure how we managed that. Lucky gamepass wasn't around then(or else I just didn't know about it) so I rarely got to watch them play as I had to rely on streams and Raiders weren't exactly entertaining viewing. The one game I do remember watching was the MNF game against the Seahawks. It was brutal and we managed to get shut out. Obviously this landed us the number 1 overall pick which we duly wasted on Jamarcus Russell. ugh

SixtyTwo

Started following the Pats in the back end of the 1990 season and they went 1-15 I followed them after a loss to the Redskins Uncle got me a Redskins jersey and the week of getting it I saw highlights on C4 of the Patriots and Redskins and went for the little guy. Pats lost but for some reason I decided to go with the 1-13 team. Started following them fully in 1991 were they went 6-10 and honestly I never look back in regret.

Dohnny Jepp

Started following the nfl around 98/99. Steve Mcnair was the QB, the prototype for dual threat QB's!! The recently renamed titans played in the central division and made a deep play off run which seen them get to the superbowl thanks to the music city miracle. the titans came up inches short in the superbowl. . literally

BizzyC

I started following the Patriots when they were in the Superbowl with the Packers back in '97.

The main thing I remember from that game was Reggie White, what a beast he was.
His swim move had the Pat's tackles beat on nearly every play....

I think there's a strong trend of people going with the underdog when they start out watching a sport.

Drew Bledsoe, Terrry Glenn, Ben Coates, Curtis Martin, Willie McGinest, Ted Johnson, Teddy Bruschi, Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy....
What a team that was...

Didn't pay much attention during the '98 season, didn't have a lot of coverage in those days.
Only started really tracking it properly in '99.

bruschi

BizzyC wrote: »

I started following the Patriots when they were in the Superbowl with the Packers back in '97.

The main thing I remember from that game was Reggie White, what a beast he was.
His swim move had the Pat's tackles beat on nearly every play....

I think there's a strong trend of people going with the underdog when they start out watching a sport.

Drew Bledsoe, Terrry Glenn, Ben Coates, Curtis Martin, Willie McGinest, Ted Johnson, Teddy Bruschi, Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy....
What a team that was...

Didn't pay much attention during the '98 season, didn't have a lot of coverage in those days.
Only started really tracking it properly in '99.

yeah pretty much the same, from about 94/95 onwards. used to watch the highlights on RTE (I had thought on a Monday after the Serie A highlights though? Maybe not) and whilst I kinda followed them then, it wasnt much. Was only when coverage started improving and interent was getting going properly that I was able to properly follow them. as much as I bag sky out, if it wasnt for their coverage a lot of people wouldnt have the interest they do now.

Leslie91

Like Conor74 I go back to the mid 80s, the days of Myles, Gary Imlach, First Down, Touchdown (a mthly mag), 'I need a hero' and Armed Forces Radio. Like most I had to find a team to support so I began writing to them, no email in those days lads. I wrote to (what were then) the LA Raiders, the Bucs, the Eagles and the Chargers. All replied but San Diego trumped the others. I can still remember those massive orangey gold envelopes arriving, it was like Santa coming.

Anyhows the Bolts it was and we were muck. We had Dan Fouts coming to the end of his reign so while there was some decent performances more often than not we were let down by our D (which was worse than awful). I remember the strike season in '87 when we beat the Raiders twice which was unheard of at the time. We found some decent scrubs to play for us that year.

But it wasn't really until the arrival of Junior and Stan Humphries that we started to gain some respect. I vividly recall Junior being drafted and can remember Mick Luckhurst trying to pronounce his last name soon after draft day. This team made it all the way to the Superbowl in the 94/95 season, the same season I attended my first ever Bolts game in what was Jack Murphy Stadium. We were demolished by the then rampant 49ers with a receiver I first heard of via a mag the Chargers sent me in the build up to the '85 draft. A certain Jerry Rice. We drafted ahead of the Niners and picked a Tackle who turned out to be a real good one but we let him go to DC a few years later. We used draft terribly back then and so our team never really got enough good players together until the 2000s when LT arrived. The now deceased John Butler made some great picks for us until he passed, then AJ took over and the rest is history, ugly history. Having said that I'd trade the noughties for the 80s and 90s any day when we were perennial losers.

eagle eye

Channel 4 starting showing NFL in 1982. There were no divisions in the NFL at that stage just the two conferences.

There were two teams in LA at that time, they were the Raiders and the Rams.

The Raiders inspired by their rookie running back Marcus Allen looked the real deal during the regular. The Dolphins looked good too with David Woodley at QB. The Bengals with Ken Anderson were another hot looking team. The other best team though besides the Raiders were the Redksins with Joe Theismann at QB and Riggins at RB. No FNL fans it was not Tim Riggins, his name was John Riggins he went on that season to win the Superbowl MVP award when they beat the Dolphins.

The Dolphins decided after that season that they needed a new QB and took Dan Marino in the draft. He was a great one but he never got that ring he was drafted to get for them.

In June 1983 a rich friend of American relatives came to our family home. He had with him a VCR player and some cassette tapes. I'd never seen one of them before but he hooked it up to the tv and showed me a game with the New York Giants playing the Detroit Lions from Thanksgiving 1982. He explained the finer points of the game to me and told me to remember the name Lawrence Taylor. How right he was.

I was hooked from the minute I started watching it. I used to have to sneak quietly out of bed late at night to catch a game as I was still in school and was expected to be in bed by 11pm and that was on a good night. They were fun times as a couple of us at school used to discuss it the next day but after a while I was the only one still interested. I've been hooked ever since. I liked a lot of teams in the early days, was a big fan of Montana, Elway, Kelly and Marino but I really liked Steve Grogan and his story and kinda of starting following the Patriots. I lived over there for a good part of the 90s and became a full fledged Patriots fan in 1994 when I was given a season ticket for the last couple of games of that season. I bought my own the next season and then I became a mad NFL fan.:)

Itssoeasy

eagle eye wrote: »

There were no divisions in the NFL at that stage just the two conferences.

Yes there were divisions in the NFL at that stage. There was none in '82 due to the lockout.

boccy23

Started a bit earlier than some. First Superbowl was XXI - the '85 Bears and the Monsters of the Midway.

There was superstars galore in the game at this stage - Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Sweetness, LT, Jerry Rice, Steve Largent, Ronnie Lott, John Elway and many others.

The NFC was so dominant. The AFC was really second place. Even John Elway couldn't raise the AFC above the NFC. That only came later when Denver had a running game.

There was also great personalities in the coaching ranks with Bill Parcells, Mike Ditka, Bill Walsh, Tom Landry etc. You used to see ties on the sidelines. Tom Landry with his hat etc.

One thing I would say is that there seemed to be more Hall of Famers then than any other stage. Also, the game had more individualism. Tom Landrys hat. Mark Gastineau's sack dance etc. etc. Now all of this is outlawed and it has created a very sterile NFL.

etloveslsd

"The Greatest show on Turf" when the Rams won the Superbowl in 1999 was the first game I watched.

Been with The Rams since, through thick and thin, mostly thin mind.

Got into the NFL properly about 8 years ago, thanks to sky sport. Sunday nights in with Kev and Nick were awesome!!

etloveslsd

boccy23 wrote: »

Tom Landrys hat. Mark Gastineau's sack dance etc. etc. Now all of this is outlawed and it has created a very sterile NFL.

Thats a bit harsh, Big Bill has his sleeveless hoodie!!

boccy23

etloveslsd wrote: »

Thats a bit harsh, Big Bill has his sleeveless hoodie!!

True. But looking like a homeless dude doesn't compare to Landry's hat or Ditka's shirt and tie.

Morrisseeee

Deleted User wrote: »

Like a lot of people of a certain age, 1985, when RTE started showing a highlights package every Thurday with Myles Dungan and his amazing jumpers.

Afair it was extended highlights from 1 or 2 games, with a round up usually showing 1 TD from each of the others. .

It was around this time I started aswell. The Refigerator was 'big' back then, literally Those highlights were brilliant though, I wish some 'free' channel had them now !

Elway had 'the drive' and for my sins I picked the Broncos as my favs, a few SB's later and I was in a world of hurt, I remember waiting up for the '88 SB agains the Redskins, and Elway throws deep on the 1st posession and we score a TD, but................that was it, they owned us for the rest of the game, setting records to beat the band!!
Then we played the 49ers and Montana, and we got an even bigger beating !!
Eventually came redemption tho, 2 SB's back to back (que a mixture of absolute joy & relief).

Of course I'm biased but I thought the 80's were brilliant for sport, there was something 'je ne sais quoi' about it, from soccer to athletics to cycling to GAA to boxing to snooker (have I missed something :pac:).

Phoenix Park

Leslie91 wrote: »

Like Conor74 I go back to the mid 80s, the days of Myles, Gary Imlach, First Down, Touchdown (a mthly mag), 'I need a hero' and Armed Forces Radio. Like most I had to find a team to support so I began writing to them, no email in those days lads. I wrote to (what were then) the LA Raiders, the Bucs, the Eagles and the Chargers. All replied but San Diego trumped the others. I can still remember those massive orangey gold envelopes arriving, it was like Santa coming.

Anyhows the Bolts it was and we were muck. We had Dan Fouts coming to the end of his reign so while there was some decent performances more often than not we were let down by our D (which was worse than awful). I remember the strike season in '87 when we beat the Raiders twice which was unheard of at the time. We found some decent scrubs to play for us that year.

But it wasn't really until the arrival of Junior and Stan Humphries that we started to gain some respect. I vividly recall Junior being drafted and can remember Mick Luckhurst trying to pronounce his last name soon after draft day. This team made it all the way to the Superbowl in the 94/95 season, the same season I attended my first ever Bolts game in what was Jack Murphy Stadium. We were demolished by the then rampant 49ers with a receiver I first heard of via a mag the Chargers sent me in the build up to the '85 draft. A certain Jerry Rice. We drafted ahead of the Niners and picked a Tackle who turned out to be a real good one but we let him go to DC a few years later. We used draft terribly back then and so our team never really got enough good players together until the 2000s when LT arrived. The now deceased John Butler made some great picks for us until he passed, then AJ took over and the rest is history, ugly history. Having said that I'd trade the noughties for the 80s and 90s any day when we were perennial losers.

Awesome

Morrisseeee

Morrisseeee wrote: »

Of course I'm biased but I thought the 80's were brilliant for sport, there was something 'je ne sais quoi' about it, from soccer to athletics to cycling to GAA to boxing to snooker (have I missed something :pac:).

Darts - Jocky, Bristow and Lowe. It was huge at the time.
Cricket - the Windies and Beefy Botham.
Tennis - Superbrat and his "you CANNOT be serious", Connors, the end of the Borg era, Lendl, Cash, Boom Boom and the great personalities like Laconte and Gerulitas, Navratilova, Chrissy and Steffi.
As you say, snooker. Players often on the front pages. Higgins, Knowles and his women trouble, Stephens and the coke rumours etc.

Morrisseeee

Deleted User wrote: »

Darts - Jocky, Bristow and Lowe. It was huge at the time.
Cricket - the Windies and Beefy Botham.
Tennis - Superbrat and his "you CANNOT be serious", Connors, the end of the Borg era, Lendl, Cash, Boom Boom and the great personalities like Laconte and Gerulitas, Navratilova, Chrissy and Steffi.
As you say, snooker. Players often on the front pages. Higgins, Knowles and his women trouble, Stephens and the coke rumours etc.

I wouldn't have watched the darts & cricket, I only had the RTE's , I was referring more to:
soccer : Ireland, Euro '88
cycling: King Kelly & the 'Tripple' Roche
boxing: McGuigan, the Clones Cyclone
snooker: Davis & 'glasses' Taylor in the 'black ball final'
athletics: Coughlan
GAA: epic Munster hurling games, Galway breaking thru
ah yes, I forgot the tennis, oh and the rugby
/I feel like I'm ready for the auld age pension now

Trojan

When I started watching 49ers and Cowboys were ruling the roost, the 49ers-Cowboys games in the early 90s were something to behold. The 49ers had an incredible quarterback lineup, first of just Joe Montana and Steve Young backing him up, and then a couple years later Steve Bono as third string quarterback coming in and winning 5 out of 6 games he started.

I think the first Superbowl I watched was '88, the 49ers beating the Bengals. I've watched almost every one live since.

One strange one, back in the mid 80s, on one of the highlights package towards the end of the season the qb - think it was Marino, but that could be memory playing tricks - launched the ball fir what seemed like miles into the end zone near the end of the match and it was caught. So Myles explained to us what a Hail Mary was. Now that was a play and a name that caught our attention. Needless to say the following day the schoolyard had a group of us running away at least 20 yards from some kid who would hurl a tennis ball into the air, and all these little hands went up!

poldebruin

Hmmm, a few old timers here! 1986 was the magical year for me. I had seen the 49ers and Dolphins, and Bears the previous years, but never really took a good deal of notice. I remember First Down newspaper (not to mention Touchdown and Quarterback Magazines)which I ordered in and collected every Thursday, the first centrespread poster was John Elway, and I saw Denver lost 9-3 against San Diego, so decided I would follow their (Denver's) fortunes.

I remember that coverage was so poor compared to what we have now. Armed Forces radio in my mums bedroom (only place in the house we could get a signal, and being kicked out at bedtime!) and the highlights show with two tribes on Channel 4. They had the odd game and the playoffs on a delay or not quite live.

Every Monday at lunchtime from school, I would head to the local newsangents to see if the Evening Press had been delivered, as they normally carried the scores in a tiny column in the sports pages, and trying to see if it was a : or ; between Denver and the teams surrounding it (signifying the team they were playing, and the next matchup result)

1986 was the year the Giants won the Superbowl, and my poor broncos blew a great chance to make a game of it in the first half against them, by wasting terrific John Elway play. This coming off the back of the famous "drive" game in Cleveland. The Giants were something to behold, and Phil Simms had, what was probably the game of his career that day.

Elsewhere in the NFL, Walter Payton was nearing the end of his career, retiring the following year. Jay Schroedar (sp?) broke onto the scene with Washington, and flattered to deceive. Dan Marino was tearing it up statistically, nobody was within 500 yards of him and he threw nearly twice as many touchdowns as his nearest rival. While the Broncos had Sammy Winder running for 750 yards 3 yards at a time, Eric Dickerson was rambling for 1800 to win the rushing title.

My overriding memory of the NFL of that time, was the passing game was more vertical, with more sacks, interceptions and twists and turns within games. I also preferred the uniforms of the time, compared with every team trying to darken the uniforms of today. I even like the Tampa "popsicle" unis of the time!

poldebruin

poldebruin wrote: »

I also preferred the uniforms of the time, compared with every team trying to darken the uniforms of today. I even like the Tampa "popsicle" unis of the time!

Fully agree, the uniforms and the logos were better, more tradition, less concerned with the look. We got enough of the look from players like Brian Bosworth, even in the 80s of crazy mullets he stood out. While people might say the game has improved and we're fuelled by nostalgia, they should remember that we were much more impressionable at the time - many had 2 tv stations, the Internet did not exist, few had computers and they could do nothing except play Pong anyway. I liked the post above about the excitement of getting post from the USA. So for me the NFL was glamour beyond anything previously seen...even in England the best paid footballers dreamed of buying a pub. The Dolphins were like something from the planet Cool. Even the names were magical, for an 11 year old raised on Liam Brady and Mikey Sheehy, it was far more fun being Boomer Esiason in the schoolyard. Oh and you had some...uh...great music too...

http://o-o---preferred---sn-q0c7dn7s---v15---lscache3.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id=e6178f02e22b86e4&itag=7&source=uploaded_content&begin=0&ratebypass=yes&title=Super+Bowl+shuffle&ip=0.0.0.0&ipbits=0&expire=1350642742&sparams=ip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,ratebypass,title&signature=496BDE84A5032557FA1D9411ACBEF79A7CCF920E.2D80A6E808A81DC2FBD408F7E58AA595F45A317D&key=ck1&ms=au&mv=m&mt=1350621131&cms_redirect=yes

Pyjamarama

Started in 1989. Dad's uncle came over from Philly and brought me over an Eagles t-shirt. I didn't really know anything about the game but one of my friends was a bears fan so i decided i'd start to watch it. Obv picked the Eagles as I had some merchandise (even if it was only a tshirt). Randall was so exciting to watch, Keith Bryars, Quick and Carter... and then there was the D! Gang Green, Reggie, CLyde, Jerome. Has there ever been a better D-line in football history!?!? Certainly not since then anyway. They were so dominating, so mean and gave me a love for D that stays with me to this day. You can take your Greatest Show on Turd, Brady, Manning etc and stick em. Give me the SB Ravens and Bucs any day of the week! O wins games, D wins championships... shame it's not really true any more tho, i blame the ridic protection rules... but thats another rant for another day.

around the league in 89 i don't remember too much but i do remember the Rams beating us and then the Giants in back to back playoff games. Was so sure we'd win that one... then the 49ers completely DESTROYED the Broncos and i remember my dad telling me how lucky the Eagles were that we got beaten by the rams and didn't get embarrassed by the 49ers. As an 8 year old kid i obviously thought he was an idiot. No way they could do that to Reggie and the gang... they might have tho.

Chucky the tree

Leslie91 wrote: »

Like Conor74 I go back to the mid 80s, the days of Myles, Gary Imlach, First Down, Touchdown (a mthly mag), 'I need a hero' and Armed Forces Radio. Like most I had to find a team to support so I began writing to them, no email in those days lads. I wrote to (what were then) the LA Raiders, the Bucs, the Eagles and the Chargers. All replied but San Diego trumped the others. I can still remember those massive orangey gold envelopes arriving, it was like Santa coming.

Anyhows the Bolts it was and we were muck. We had Dan Fouts coming to the end of his reign so while there was some decent performances more often than not we were let down by our D (which was worse than awful). I remember the strike season in '87 when we beat the Raiders twice which was unheard of at the time. We found some decent scrubs to play for us that year.

But it wasn't really until the arrival of Junior and Stan Humphries that we started to gain some respect. I vividly recall Junior being drafted and can remember Mick Luckhurst trying to pronounce his last name soon after draft day. This team made it all the way to the Superbowl in the 94/95 season, the same season I attended my first ever Bolts game in what was Jack Murphy Stadium. We were demolished by the then rampant 49ers with a receiver I first heard of via a mag the Chargers sent me in the build up to the '85 draft. A certain Jerry Rice. We drafted ahead of the Niners and picked a Tackle who turned out to be a real good one but we let him go to DC a few years later. We used draft terribly back then and so our team never really got enough good players together until the 2000s when LT arrived. The now deceased John Butler made some great picks for us until he passed, then AJ took over and the rest is history, ugly history. Having said that I'd trade the noughties for the 80s and 90s any day when we were perennial losers.

Always thought 91 referred to your date of birth and not your age.

corblimey

According to a picture I have of me wearing a SF 88 "jersey" and the fact that my sister moved to SF in early 89, I'm guessing I started following the 49ers that year in 1989. I also have the Channel 4 American Football "annual" from 1990-1, so that all ties together. Seems I was following the right team at the right time.