The Art of the Upset: NFL History’s Greatest Surprises

One of the most amazing things about sports and the game of American football is when a team that's supposed to be written off and not have any chance against an opponent comes back and pulls the upset.

We have some of the most shocking upsets in National Football League history coming up today on this episode.

It's all ready for you, right in a moment.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron.

One day at a time.

Destiny in the NFL can be a fragile thing.

Sometimes it feels like the script has already been written.

You have the perfect season.

A dominant dynasty, the team so powerful that their victory isn't just expected, it's practically a sure thing.

The parades are going to be planned, the trophies being polished, and the story feels like it's set in stone.

But the beauty of football, the very heart of the game, is that on any given Sunday, that the strip can be torn to shreds.

This isn't a story about champions we all saw coming.

This is about the teams that showed up with a completely different ending in mind.

These are the long shots, the forgotten ones, the underdogs who stared down the impossible odds and flipped the script on its head.

We're counting down the most improbable victories and absolutely shocked the world and created legends out of thin air.

Welcome to the Pig Pen, this is Pigskin Dispatch and I'm your host, Darren Hayes.

And we are going to talk about some of the greatest upsets in National Football League history here in this very episode.

And we're going to start off with the guarantee that changed everything in Super Bowl 3.

Let's start with the upset that basically defined the term for modern sports, the one that was more than a game, it was a cultural movement.

The story was supposed to be simple.

The mighty Baltimore Colts, champs of the older, superior National Football League, were going to steamroll the upstart New York jets from supposedly the weaker afl.

And the Colts were a powerhouse, finishing the season at 13, one with a defense that just smothered teams.

Oddsmakers were so sure that they had the colts as an 18 point favorites, which is just as insane as for a championship game as any has been in history of pro football.

And then you had the underdog, the New York jets, led by their flashy fur coat wearing quarterback, Broadway Joe Namath.

And to the rest of the world, the jets were just a sideshow, a footnote to the Colts coronation.

But Namath wasn't buying it.

He was three days before the games and a moment pure uncut swagger.

He stood in front of a crowd of reporters and said the words that would define his career.

We're going to win the game.

I guarantee it.

Very bold statement from Broadway Joe, and everybody laughed.

But on game day the laughter died, and it was the jets defense, not the Colts, that looked like the dominant force.

They confused and beat up Baltimore's offense, picking up quarterback Earl Morale three times before he was finally yanked in the game.

Meanwhile, Namath wasn't just flashing, he was surgical.

He completely controlled the tempo, hitting 17 and 28 passes for 206 yards and picking a part of defense that everyone thought was invincible.

The jets owned the clock and the scoreboard, building a 160 lead deep into the fourth quarter.

And the mighty Colts only scraped together one touchdown late in the game.

The final score New York Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7.

Where was that 18 points?

It wasn't just an upset, it was a revolution.

Namus guarantee and the jets win did just earn them a ring.

It legitimized the afl, proving that they belonged on the same stage as the NFL Titans and paving the way for the two leagues to merge a few years later.

It was a day a cocky quarterback scarrate tore up the league and the script and wrote on its future.

We'll be back with more from this interview in just a moment, right after this.

The memorable moments were many Franco Harris's Immaculate Reception, Roger Staubach's Hail Mary.

But the decade's greatest teams were defined by defense author Michael McCampberge.

The gridiron soundtrack provided by Horst Hoffman of Film Music IO this podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.

You can learn more atsports history network.com this is Gary Myers, author of Once a Giant, A Story of Victory, Tragedy and Life After Football, and you're listening to Pigskin Dispatch, Our next edition, we're going to go into a dynasty Slayer Super Bowl 32 for more than a decade, the AFC was the NFC's punching bag in the Super Bowl.

The Green Bay packers, led by the reigning MVP Brett Favre, were the defending champs who looked ready to start a Dynasty.

They marched into Super Bowl 32 as a heavy, heavy 11 point favorite.

Their opponent, the Denver Broncos, are a wild card team with a whole lot of baggage.

Their legendary quarterback, John Elway was famous for his super bowl heartbreaks.

He'd been there three times before and gotten crushed every single time.

Now at 37 years old, this felt like his last desperate shot at one thing he could never win.

The script said this was his final failure.

Just another victim of the NFC machine.

But the Broncos had other plans and the plan's name was Terrell Davis.

Their star running back was an absolute force of nature, torching the packers defense for 157 yards and a Super bowl record three rushing touchdowns.

And he did it all while battling a blinding migraine that knocked him out for most of the second quarter.

But that game's defining moment belonged to Elway.

Late in the third quarter, the game was tied and facing a critical third and six.

Elway dropped back to pass and nothing was open.

So he took the ball and ran it for himself.

37 years old mind you.

He dove headfirst towards the marker and was met in midair by two packers defenders who spun him around like a helicopter before he crashed to the turf.

It was pure grit, a play that screamed I'm not going to be denied again.

That cutsy run set up another touchdown.

And when it was all over, the Broncos had won 31 to 24.

The AFC's losing streak was history and John Elway, after a whole career of chasing, was playing finally a champion.

As the trophy was presented, owner Pat Boland famously held it up and declared, this one's for John.

It was a perfect Hollywood ending that nobody saw coming.

Our third instance, the birth of a legend and the Super Bowl 36 victory.

They were called the greatest show on turf and for good reason.

Their offense was like watching a video game in cheat mode.

Now led by their two time MVP quarterback Kurt Warner, they changed the league with their ridiculous speed and scoring, racking up over 500 points that season.

They were a 14 point favorite in Super Bowl 36 and their win felt like it was a total formality.

Their opponents, the New England Patriots, weren't even supposed to be there.

Their whole season was an accident.

Their star quarterback, Drew Bledsoe had been nearly had his head taken off by a vicious hit in week two.

They had no choice but to hand the team over to some unknown lanky 6 round draft pick from Michigan, A kid nobody ever heard of.

His Name Tom Brady.

Led by this nobody, the Patriots just kind of scraped together their way to Super Bowl.

Some people thought they were just lucky to have made it.

And the script was obvious.

Cinderella's magical run was about to get crushed by the Rams offensive juggernaut.

But Patriots coach Bill Belichick drew up a defensive masterpiece.

He didn't try to outrun the Rams.

He decided to punch them in and out.

The Patriots defense was physical, aggressive and suffocating.

They hammered the Rams receivers, destroying their timing and forcing Kurt Warner into shocking mistakes, including a huge interception that Ty Lobb returned for a touchdown.

Slowly but surely, New England built a slight a 173 lead.

The greatest show on turf did their final wake up, scoring two quick touchdowns in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 17, which is 121 left on the clock.

The Patriots got the ball on their own 17 yard line with no timeouts left.

The script and common sense call for overtime.

Even the legendary John Madden said in the broadcast, oh, you have to play for overtime now.

But the cool, calm kid named Tom Brady had a different idea.

He methodically chipped away at the Rams defense, moving the Patriots down the field and into position for a game winning field goal.

With just seven seconds left, Adam Vinatieri stepped up and nailed a 48 yarder right as time expired.

The crowd went wild.

It was the first time a Super bowl had ever been won.

Upon the very last play, a dynasty was born, a legend was introduced, and the greatest show on turf was shut down for good.

Our fourth instance, the perfect season, ruined Super Bowl 42.

Perfection in the NFL.

It's the Holy Grail.

They went 160 in a regular season and then steamrolled through the AFC playoffs to reach the immaculate 180 led by Tom Brady and an offense that broke nearly every record in the book.

They weren't just a team.

They felt like inevitability.

Their final step was Super Bowl 42, where they were 12 point favorites against the New York Giants, a 106 wild card team that barely cloud its way into the playoffs.

This wasn't just a game.

This was a coronation.

But the Giants knew something that nobody else did.

They knew that they could hang with the Patriots in the final week of the regular season.

In a game that meant nothing for New York.

Coach Tom Coughlin played to starters anyway.

They lost that game.

But they learned they could stand toe to toe with the Titans and the juggernauts of the Patriots.

The super bowl was a straight up dog fight.

The Giants pass rush, led by Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck, terrorized Tom Brady all night, hitting him and sacking him more than any team had all season.

The champagne bottles in Miami, they weren't getting cracked that year, but then total chaos.

On a desperate third and five, Giants quarterback Eli Manning looked completely finished.

The Patriots passage had him deal dead to rights, but somehow he twisted and ripped off free from the arms of multiple defenders and just heaved the ball downfield, deep downfield.

And they're waiting for it was David Tyree, a special teams guy with only four catches all season.

He jumped up and in a moment that still makes no sense, he pinned the football against his own helmet with one hand while being dragged to the ground by a defender.

It was a miracle.

It was the helmet catch.

Four plays later, Manning tossed a lob to Plaxco Burris in a corner of the end zone for the game winning touchdown with only 35 seconds left.

Final score Giants 17, Patriots 14.

The perfect season destroyed at the last possible second in what many still call the greatest upset in all of sports history.

A gritty wild card team that didn't just win the super bowl, they took down perfection itself.

And geez, if you can find four better plays than that, I don't know where where you can.

And four better upsets.

Now these are the stories that make football so incredible and the moments when the script gets tossed in the trash and the heroes are born.

So which upset do you think is the greatest of all time?

Drop a comment to us@pigskind dispatch gmail.com and let us know.

And if you love the stories about underdogs and defying the odds, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell so you never miss what's up next because we are your portal to positive football history.

Until next time everybody.

Have a great grin on your day.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

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This podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.

You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com.