A Look Back

I’ve been sitting on this amazing time capsule for a couple weeks. It comes from the CBS halftime show during the late Sunday afternoon NFL game on November 19, 1978.

Just look at the “scoreboard,” which consists of all the day’s scores displayed on a wall and a camera that manually pans from game-to-game! This is about the same level of technology as the monthly wall displays created by my second grade teacher, Mrs. Alexander.

Both New York teams lose on the last play of the game, by the same score!

Brent Musburger’s excitement at sharing the results!

Then, suddenly, 1:45 into the show, Musburger becomes sober and sends it to CBS News for a special report. You knew something major had happened when they flashed that Special Report placard. Another sign something major had occurred, Ed Bradley got the assignment to anchor the break.

It was something major. The first news that five people, including a US Congressman, had been killed after visiting the Jonestown compound in Guyana. A few hours later more than 900 people were dead following a mass murder-suicide.

I do not remember this moment specifically. However, I do remember later that week, when we were visiting my grandparents’ for Thanksgiving, watching the news and hearing about the Jonestown massacre. It might be the first event of that magnitude that I have clear memories of.

After a little more than three minutes allotted to the special report and a commercial break, it was right back to the highlights. And what a highlight to begin: one of the most infamous plays in NFL history, The Miracle at the Meadowlands! With the Giants just needing to run one play to kill the clock and knock off the Eagles, quarterback Joe Pisarcik ran into running back Larry Csonka and fumbled the ball, which was picked up by Philadelphia’s Herman Edwards and run in for a touchdown, stealing victory for the Eagles.1

It is fascinating to read the Wikipedia accounting of the game. There was a lot of background to that play. Different rules at the time (quarterbacks could not kneel down to end a play). A coach who was trying to protect his players. Giants teammates who were incredulous at the play call and begged Pisarcik to change the play. Csonka claiming he told Pisarcik not to give him the ball. Pisarcik who feared losing his job and did not want to defy his coach.

Don’t get me wrong, that fumble was a massive mistake. There was a lot of baggage on that football, though, as Pisarcik took the snap.

The result was one of the most famous fumbles in NFL history. At least until another fumble on the same site (although in a newer stadium) 34 years later.

If you recall the NFL Films doc about The NFL Today I shared last month, doing these highlights live was a new thing in 1978. Which, again, seems super strange now. It looks like Jayne Kennedy stumbles a bit over the Eagles-Giants highlight, and Musburger jumps in to help her? And I’m not sure she was pleased by that? It’s hard to tell from this clip. Folks weren’t as practiced watching a monitor and having to commentate on it back then.

Anyway, for us Olds a wonderful look back to when a lot of us were just discovering sports at a moment when how they were broadcast was changing rapidly. For you Youngs, watch this and imagine how we survived without Red Zone, constant highlight channels, immediate in-game updates of scores in other games, etc.

  1. Pisarcik. Csonka. They don’t name them like they used to. ↩︎