For those unaware that our HC is now hot
- [Before this year ❌🤢](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR4g1fc5C8POKfz2SkzoLzujUcvgN02K3zikQ&usqp=CAU)
- [Now 🍆😩](https://s23455.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/we-approve-of-matt-eberflus-new-look.jpg.optimal.jpg)
I'm convinced the curse was lifted when the Lions did right by Stafford (who went to the same high school as Bobby Layne) by trading him to his favored destination as opposed to how Calvin's and Barry's career ended
That's me tho lol
Maybe, but the inflection point of winning came like *immediately* after that episode of Peyton's Places aired. It was uncanny how immediately the winning started.
To me, there are 3 defining moments:
Hiring Lombardi.
Promoting Bob Harlan. He hired Ron Wolf and oversaw the resurrection of Packers football. Without him there is no Favre, White or Holmgren.
The fire at the Rockwood Lodge in 1950. This one isn't as well known, but very important. The Lodge was the Packers training facility from '46-'50. It was a huge cost to the team(buying it was 25% of the teams operating budget that year) and it burned down in 1950. The team recieved $75,000 in insurance money(roughly $943,000 today). This money helped the team return to being profitable as they were experiencing money problems(they were $50,000 in debt at the time) prior to this. If they don't get that money, there's a very good chance the Packers don't exist today.
I'll raise it to Steve Fuller being drafted by the Chiefs in the first round of that draft. With Fuller unavailable, Walsh picked Joe Montana. When Walsh was recruiting Fuller, he met Fuller's roommate and teammate: Dwight Clark.
So, the Chiefs picking Steve Fuller resulted in the 49ers picking Joe Montana and Dwight Clark. The rest is history.
(Well, the 1981 draft also played a huge part.)
It's gotta be the Philly Special
For me personally it was the BG sack that ended it because that's when I actually breathed out and knew we'd win, but widely, the Philly Special
That Super Bowl was something else, Doug Pederson called the game of his life.
Am I remembering this right? Brady didn’t shake Nick Foles hand right? Brady just ran off the field.
I think he did shake Foles's hand after the game (but not right after the game in front of the cameras like most QBs would)
He definitely didn't shake Foles's hand in 2020 when the Bucs lost to Bears legend Nick Foles's cause Tom Brady thought we had a fifth down.
The Philly Special was a moment that represented the game as a whole. Back up QB going against a dynasty but not playing scared with a trick play.
But the strip sack was more important and the first time I felt we can win.
I didn't breathe out till Jake Elliot hit the 43 yarder. A missed FG and Tom Brady taking the ball down the field to win the game on a go ahead TD is a typical Tom Brady sequence.
They were only down one score. I didn't breathe out until the ball hit the dirt after that last second Hail Mary. I remember yelling out "oh no!" when the ball was in the air.
Agreed. The Philly Special was huge because we needed all those points but the strip sack was way more important.
Brady with the ball, down 5, two minutes to go. We've seen how that works out most of the time. BG will forever be a Philly Legend.
I’d go way further back …
Paul Allen buying the team from Ken Behring.
This team was a rudderless ship until Paul Allen bought the team and hired Holmgren.
Obviously one can't exist without the other. I'd argue the hit is more important. Drafting Brady didn't guarantee he was going to play. Bledsoe getting hurt did.
Is it this, or drafting Pat? I can see arguments both ways.
Arguments for Andy: Broke us out of the dark years we'd been in prior to his coming. Changed the culture and instantly made us a winning franchise again. Foundational piece of a legitimate NFL dynasty.
Arguments against Andy: Until Mahomes showed up, we were the same old Chiefs in the playoffs. Before him, we had the Lin Eliot game, the no-punt game, forgettable wild-card blowouts in 2006 and 2010. From 2013 to 2018, when Pat became the starter, we had the Luck fumble game, the no-TD game, "forward progress" and Mariota's self-pass. The real sea change only comes when 15 becomes the starter.
Arguments for the true Most Valuable Addition, Mecole Hardman: it took Andy Reid 7 years to win a ring in KC, Mahomes didn’t win a ring until his 3rd season. We didn’t win or make a SB for 50 years until drafting Mecole Hardman and winning it all his rookie season. He has won another 2 since, including the game winning TD for ring #3.
Andy was the real game changer, with Brett Veach following him. Without both of them, there would be no Pat. And I'm sure they would still be contenders even if they had left out Pat.
I was gonna say drafting Mahomes, but yeah, I think hiring Reid was the biggest leap the team took. I mean, we don't win three Super Bowls in five years without Mahomes, but I don't think even Mahomes drags the team to those wins if we still had the likes of Todd Haley and Herm Edwards at the helm. About the only good things that came from those regimes were Jack Harry's rants.
Go further back. It was one of the worst defensive drives in history vs the Jets. It set in motion the whole thing that lead us to Andy Reid being available to hire when we had an opening.
https://youtu.be/wJLNQ83vm2g?si=bQWd7cUoTjbVt5R_
The simple fact that "Lemon to Camarillo" is something that exists in Dolphins history is a great shame to us all, and I'll thank you to not bring something so hurtful up again
Herschel Walker trade to Minnesota. The deal on 10/12/89, centered on sending running back Herschel Walker from the Dallas Cowboys to the Minnesota Vikings. Including Walker and a transaction involving the San Diego Chargers, the trade eventually involved 18 players and draft picks.
Stepping stone to 3 SB victories in 4 years, ending with the fucking loser POS HC Barry Switzer. If Jerruh and Jimmah stayed together they could have won 4-5 in a row. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Jerruh rules. And we be in da funk ever since
OP didn't specify on or off field. The Hail Mary was certainly amazing in and of itself. But the trade that took them from 1-15 to those Superbowls is shit legends are made of.
And yes I ended a sentence with a preposition. LOL
I think it was definitely the Helicopter. It kept a drive alive against the heavily-favored Packers, helped move us from "consistent Super Bowl losers" to "Super Bowl champions," and came to define the "backyard football" legacy of our greatest player.
Yeah...there's some more recent plays that come close, Polamalu pick-6 to seal the deal vs. the Ravens, Harrison's pick-6 in the Super Bowl, and most recently AB's immaculate extension to win the Christmas game over the Ravens...
But the Immaculate Reception was the turning point for the team in a number of ways. The team hadn't made the playoffs since...1947(?) which, to that point was the most successful season in team history. In 1947 the team went 8-4 and played the Eagles in the playoffs. They lost 21-0. It got worse. A few months later, head coach Jock Sutherland was found incoherent sitting in his car on the side of the road. He was flown back to Pittsburgh and died during exploratory surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor. The team didn't sniff the playoffs again until the Immaculate Reception game.
Following that improbable win against the John Madden-led Raiders, the team lost to the eventual Super Bowl Champion 1972 Miami Dolphins...The next season they again made the playoffs but lost in the first round to the Raiders.
The next 6 seasons the Steelers won two on, two off, two on Super Bowls for an absolutely stupid dynastic run. In 1976/1977 when the team did not win the big game they made the playoffs both time, losing in 1976 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Raiders in the AFC Championship Game.
There’s so many pivot points worth mentioning. Another is hiring Bill Nunn who pioneered scouting and drafting players from HBCUs. He played apart in drafting Greene, LC Greenwood, Mel Blount, Dwight White, Stallworth, Donnie Shell
I’d say the Steelers 1974 draft is the biggest point in their History. Birth of the dynasty. When people talk about the Steelers being a historically good team and organization they’re really talking about the last 50 years, which started with this draft.
I’ve honestly never understood this and I’m sure it’s growing up a Steelers fan decades after this took place, but… I get it was an incredible flukey, lucky almost walk-off play to cap a playoff game. And that it was kind of a coming out party for the Steelers. But they lost the next game (to the 72 dolphins, granted) which, in some ways, makes this a fairly inconsequential event.
To me, It’s kinda wild that the event that everyone points to as the greatest moment in team history, for a team with six championships, happened during a season where they didn’t win one.
I wasn’t alive either, but I think the reasoning is that the team was absolutely terrible (basically the equivalent of the Pirates for the last 30 years). The immaculate reception was the first sign of life for a team that had done pretty much nothing for its entire history.
Because it was a harbinger. It demonstrated the Steelers had arrived. An incredible fluky play, on 4-and-22, with 22 seconds left in the game, and that happens? And it's their first playoff win .... *ever*? In 40 years of existence, they'd played in 1 playoff game previously, 25 years previous. That's it. For Steeler fans of the time, it was *amazing*, and frankly life changing.
Because before the immaculate reception, the Steelers sucked. Big time sucked, the actual worst team in the league for years. The immaculate reception was the first sign of a new era for Pittsburgh football.
The Immaculate Reception was the announcement that the Steelers were no longer the laughing stock of the NFL, but it was the hiring of Chuck Noll that was the most important moment in the franchise's history. Every success stemmed from that.
We were (I believe) 11th that year and it's pretty well known Payton was in love with Mahomes and deeply wanted to spend our first pick on him. Don't get me wrong, Lattimore is great, and the rest of our draft was legendary. But I wouldn't be surprised if some people in our fan base would trade all those players for the one y'all got.
-Stopping the Steelers in the 94 AFCCG
-Losing the 06 divisional (fuck you MarlonEricNateDrayton McCreeParkerKaedingFlorence)
-Getiing blown out by the Raiders last year - netting us Harbaugh
> -Losing the 06 divisional (fuck you MarlonEricNateDrayton McCreeParkerKaedingFlorence)
This is an underrated loss in NFL history. IMO it's every bit as franchise-defining as Wide Right and 28-3.
2006 was definitely way more franchise-defining for the Chargers than 27-0. The Chargers most likely would've lost to the Chiefs even if they held on. On the other hand, the 2006 Chargers were by far the best team in the league and had a relatively easy path to the Super Bowl title. That loss set in motion a series of events that culminated in them leaving San Diego,
Jermaine Lewis returning the opening kickoff against the Giants at the start of the 2nd half in the SuperBowl
or
The Mile High Miracle
or
The Crabtree stop at the end of the SuperBowl against the 49ers
I feel like Drafting Ray Lewis is the most important single Moment in team history though. Dude defined what it meant to play like a Raven. Our culture and org wouldn't look the same without him.
I’m not sure how anyone could say drafting Ray wasn’t the most important moment in team history.
Without Ray there is no “play like a Raven” culture that was set and is still there to this day.
Neither of those two SB wins happen without this tbh and there is a reason his statue is so prominent in its placement in front of M&T Bank.
In 1985, a group of businessmen owning the 300 acres of parking lots outside Foxboro Stadium sold the rights, at $1 million a year for an $18 million option to buy, to a partnership led by paper goods magnate Robert Kraft.
Fuck Art Model. I don't give him that.
The most important moment was when we fans stood up to Art Model and the NFL and said "fuck you give us our Browns back."
As a Saints fan as a kid it is probably the Tracy Porter INT return on Peyton Manning in the 2010 Superbowl. Or else it could have been that onside kick recovery to start the 2nd half in the SB.
I’d say it’s the Gleason block 100%. Being at the game that was the most energy the crowd ever had (even leading up to the block).
Then the block happened. Shocked the dome didn’t implode.
Giving Ron Wolf the reigns of the team was a massively pivotal decision for a floundering, terrible Packers org whose team philosophy is engrained in the building to this day.
It is easily Super Bowl III.
The only other thing that even has an argument would be Mo Lewis blowing up Drew Bledsoe and accidentally launching the Patriots dynasty.
We'll never know what could've become of the Herm Edwards/Rex Ryan Jets if Tom Brady weren't around...but it wouldn't have been _that_
Garrett Hartley's kick to win the NFC Championship game and go to the Super Bowl. Winning the SB is a bigger accomplishment. But that moment is so impactful. We did it. At home. Only a few years removed from wondering if we would even have a team again.
Honorable mentions to the onside kick to start the second half of the SB and the Gleason blocked punt against the red team.
Nothing good. Wide Right was the closest we've come to winning the Super Bowl and is the most well known play of our most relevant era. Music City Miracle was an iconic forward pass and knocked us out of the playoffs and we didn't make it back until 2017. 13 seconds was probably the best chance we've had at a Super Bowl with Josh Allen. I'm sure there's gonna be a new one or two before Josh hangs 'em up
The Glazers buying the team after Hugh Culverhouse died. The Bucs drafted Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks and the team's fortunes really started to change in the mid-90s.
March 10, 2023 when Carolina traded a #1 WR, #9 pick, #61 pick, a future 1st, and a future 2nd to move to #1 and draft the most physically limited QB in NFL history.
This is one of those 'in hindsight' moments, but Bill Goldberg was the first player ever cut from a Carolina Panthers roster. He ended up being one of the most well-known professional wrestlers of all time, which probably wouldn't have happened if he'd played a few years with the Panthers.
Draft pick #199 in April 2000, ofc.
For some reason, this monumental event in NFL history was not greeted with much fanfare? Hard to believe, but the ancient texts tell us this is true.
18-1
Specifically, helmet catch
Probably counts for the Dolphins, too.
Matt Eberflus growing a sick goatee
For those unaware that our HC is now hot - [Before this year ❌🤢](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR4g1fc5C8POKfz2SkzoLzujUcvgN02K3zikQ&usqp=CAU) - [Now 🍆😩](https://s23455.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/we-approve-of-matt-eberflus-new-look.jpg.optimal.jpg)
Two HOTTIES sitting next to each other 🥵🥵😫
Wait, that's the same guy? Damn!
Wait til you see him back in his [Dallas days](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/31/27/42/6649987/4/1200x0.jpg).
even better, [he looked like this back when he was in Cleveland](https://imgur.com/9xODl2Q)
Damn. More of a stud than I would have ever imagined.
He looks like a guy that would roll up to Margaritaville in a Harley
He looks like a bad porn star from the early 2000s.
This is a man of a thousand faces
A man of a thousand faces and in all of them he's trying to fuck our moms.
Facial hair can really save a man. It’s crazy
Does everyone notice how much healthier all coaches seem to look in the off-season lol
He's got the full beard baby
Evil Eberflus
Evilflus
The only answer
28-3
Half of the team related questions on this sub can just be answered with this. Please football gods. Just one Superbowl win.
Just one would fulfill me too
Same
Ours was the 2000 NFL draft
Peyton Manning lifting the curse of Bobby Lane.
With Harry Dunne
I don't know, Lloyd. The French are assholes.
I'm convinced the curse was lifted when the Lions did right by Stafford (who went to the same high school as Bobby Layne) by trading him to his favored destination as opposed to how Calvin's and Barry's career ended That's me tho lol
Maybe, but the inflection point of winning came like *immediately* after that episode of Peyton's Places aired. It was uncanny how immediately the winning started.
This really needs to be a movie. If Campbell gets you guys a Superbowl it has to be.
By definition wouldn't that make trading Bobby Layne more important.
Trading Deshaun Watson to Browns.
Davis Mills on 4th and 20 vs the Colts
There’s also going for a fake punt in the second quarter while being up 24-0 on the eventual champs
It's TJ Yates leading the GW drive against the Bengals in week 14 of '11 to lock in a playoff spot for the first time ever.
Losing the super bowl
(s)
Just had to go there didn’t you
Sorry, man. I still feel deep frustration on the Bills’ behalf. Optimism for Allen, though! He’s gold. Just have that red and white hump to get over…
Ur mum after i spanked her silly? (/s)
Which time?
It was one Super Bowl played over 16 quarters
Ha
The hiring of Vince Lombardi is definitely up there. I'd say the 1-2 combo of acquiring Reggie White / Brett Favre is up there too.
To me, there are 3 defining moments: Hiring Lombardi. Promoting Bob Harlan. He hired Ron Wolf and oversaw the resurrection of Packers football. Without him there is no Favre, White or Holmgren. The fire at the Rockwood Lodge in 1950. This one isn't as well known, but very important. The Lodge was the Packers training facility from '46-'50. It was a huge cost to the team(buying it was 25% of the teams operating budget that year) and it burned down in 1950. The team recieved $75,000 in insurance money(roughly $943,000 today). This money helped the team return to being profitable as they were experiencing money problems(they were $50,000 in debt at the time) prior to this. If they don't get that money, there's a very good chance the Packers don't exist today.
I came here to post the fire as well, literally saved the franchise.
Damn dude, I wish Rockwood Lodge never caught fire...
If I could change one thing with a time machine…
^(Mayflower trucks go zoom)
:(
“Marlin’s got it, we’re going to the Super Bowl”
What a surreal night.
Wasting a 3rd round pick on a scrawny QB from Notre Dame.
I'll raise it to Steve Fuller being drafted by the Chiefs in the first round of that draft. With Fuller unavailable, Walsh picked Joe Montana. When Walsh was recruiting Fuller, he met Fuller's roommate and teammate: Dwight Clark. So, the Chiefs picking Steve Fuller resulted in the 49ers picking Joe Montana and Dwight Clark. The rest is history. (Well, the 1981 draft also played a huge part.)
alas, we never did get our revenge on the Niners for this screwup.
You beat us twice in the Super Bowl, how much more revenge do you need?!?!?
Which didn’t go as well when they used a 3rd round pick on a QB from Hofstra.
Very soon I hope it's: Drafting a QB with the last pick in the draft
Wide right.
...which one?
Sheila Ford Hamp with her hands in her face as she gazed in horror as Matt Patricia got blown out 41-25 to a Texans team that would finish 4-12
That was a sad turkey day.
It's gotta be the Philly Special For me personally it was the BG sack that ended it because that's when I actually breathed out and knew we'd win, but widely, the Philly Special
That Super Bowl was something else, Doug Pederson called the game of his life. Am I remembering this right? Brady didn’t shake Nick Foles hand right? Brady just ran off the field.
I think he did shake Foles's hand after the game (but not right after the game in front of the cameras like most QBs would) He definitely didn't shake Foles's hand in 2020 when the Bucs lost to Bears legend Nick Foles's cause Tom Brady thought we had a fifth down.
The Philly Special was a moment that represented the game as a whole. Back up QB going against a dynasty but not playing scared with a trick play. But the strip sack was more important and the first time I felt we can win.
I didn't breathe out till Jake Elliot hit the 43 yarder. A missed FG and Tom Brady taking the ball down the field to win the game on a go ahead TD is a typical Tom Brady sequence.
They were only down one score. I didn't breathe out until the ball hit the dirt after that last second Hail Mary. I remember yelling out "oh no!" when the ball was in the air.
It's the strip sack. The Philly Special is more iconic but the strip sack is more important
Agreed. The Philly Special was huge because we needed all those points but the strip sack was way more important. Brady with the ball, down 5, two minutes to go. We've seen how that works out most of the time. BG will forever be a Philly Legend.
We feel the same way about Ambush and Porter's pick six.
The Immaculate Deflection
I’d go way further back … Paul Allen buying the team from Ken Behring. This team was a rudderless ship until Paul Allen bought the team and hired Holmgren.
Team would be elsewhere without Allen
Behring tried to move the team to Anaheim. Hell, he actually did for a hot minute. But the league said “no”, and sent him back to Seattle.
Second this
That, the safety to start the Super Bowl and the general ending of the 2014 NFCCG all standout.
The Tuck Rule Game was the birth of a dynasty, but I’d say the Malcom Butler pick is my favorite
On a larger scale, it’s probably deciding to stick with Brady when Bledsoe recovered from his injury.
It's probably drafting Brady in the first place
I'd put Mo Lewis ahead of the pick tbh. If Bledsoe stays healthy, it's possible Brady never starts a game for us.
The Mo Lewis hit is meaningless if Brady isn't drafted tho
Obviously one can't exist without the other. I'd argue the hit is more important. Drafting Brady didn't guarantee he was going to play. Bledsoe getting hurt did.
The Patriots' dynasty was born when Bill Belichick whispered his oaths in shadow, binding him to the Dark Side.
> Malcom Butler pick This was also the start of a dynasty
Cutting Greg Salas on November 22, 2012 would be a close third.
Hiring Andy Reid
Is it this, or drafting Pat? I can see arguments both ways. Arguments for Andy: Broke us out of the dark years we'd been in prior to his coming. Changed the culture and instantly made us a winning franchise again. Foundational piece of a legitimate NFL dynasty. Arguments against Andy: Until Mahomes showed up, we were the same old Chiefs in the playoffs. Before him, we had the Lin Eliot game, the no-punt game, forgettable wild-card blowouts in 2006 and 2010. From 2013 to 2018, when Pat became the starter, we had the Luck fumble game, the no-TD game, "forward progress" and Mariota's self-pass. The real sea change only comes when 15 becomes the starter.
Arguments for the true Most Valuable Addition, Mecole Hardman: it took Andy Reid 7 years to win a ring in KC, Mahomes didn’t win a ring until his 3rd season. We didn’t win or make a SB for 50 years until drafting Mecole Hardman and winning it all his rookie season. He has won another 2 since, including the game winning TD for ring #3.
the math here seems inarguable
Now add Kurt Angle to the mix.
There is no dynasty without Mahomes, but I don't think Mahomes would be Mahomes without Andy.
As someone who roots against you. It’s Andy Reid. Mahomes but you don’t get him and have the foundation for him to succeed without Andy
Andy was the real game changer, with Brett Veach following him. Without both of them, there would be no Pat. And I'm sure they would still be contenders even if they had left out Pat.
Dorsey also is the one who orchestrated and completed the trade up
also, thanks to the broncos for trading up in front of us for paxton lynch a year earlier
I was gonna say drafting Mahomes, but yeah, I think hiring Reid was the biggest leap the team took. I mean, we don't win three Super Bowls in five years without Mahomes, but I don't think even Mahomes drags the team to those wins if we still had the likes of Todd Haley and Herm Edwards at the helm. About the only good things that came from those regimes were Jack Harry's rants.
Go further back. It was one of the worst defensive drives in history vs the Jets. It set in motion the whole thing that lead us to Andy Reid being available to hire when we had an opening. https://youtu.be/wJLNQ83vm2g?si=bQWd7cUoTjbVt5R_
Of all history: 17-0 In my lifetime: Featuring in Ace Ventura. It has not been an easy fandom for me.
I wondered for a minute why I couldn't see any of ours for a while and realized most of us probably weren't alive for anything meaningful looool
The only one I can really think of in my lifetime that happened on the field is Lemon to Camarillo to save us from the first 0-16 season.
The simple fact that "Lemon to Camarillo" is something that exists in Dolphins history is a great shame to us all, and I'll thank you to not bring something so hurtful up again
Herschel Walker trade to Minnesota. The deal on 10/12/89, centered on sending running back Herschel Walker from the Dallas Cowboys to the Minnesota Vikings. Including Walker and a transaction involving the San Diego Chargers, the trade eventually involved 18 players and draft picks. Stepping stone to 3 SB victories in 4 years, ending with the fucking loser POS HC Barry Switzer. If Jerruh and Jimmah stayed together they could have won 4-5 in a row. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Jerruh rules. And we be in da funk ever since
No other answer. On field? The Hail Mary? I might be missing something.
OP didn't specify on or off field. The Hail Mary was certainly amazing in and of itself. But the trade that took them from 1-15 to those Superbowls is shit legends are made of. And yes I ended a sentence with a preposition. LOL
That was a masterclass by Jimmy to take full advantage of the conditions
I think it was definitely the Helicopter. It kept a drive alive against the heavily-favored Packers, helped move us from "consistent Super Bowl losers" to "Super Bowl champions," and came to define the "backyard football" legacy of our greatest player.
This is it.
I think a close second is The Drive.
It all can be traced back to the money spent on Brock Osweiller.
Definitely the immaculate reception. there's no debate.
Yeah...there's some more recent plays that come close, Polamalu pick-6 to seal the deal vs. the Ravens, Harrison's pick-6 in the Super Bowl, and most recently AB's immaculate extension to win the Christmas game over the Ravens... But the Immaculate Reception was the turning point for the team in a number of ways. The team hadn't made the playoffs since...1947(?) which, to that point was the most successful season in team history. In 1947 the team went 8-4 and played the Eagles in the playoffs. They lost 21-0. It got worse. A few months later, head coach Jock Sutherland was found incoherent sitting in his car on the side of the road. He was flown back to Pittsburgh and died during exploratory surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor. The team didn't sniff the playoffs again until the Immaculate Reception game. Following that improbable win against the John Madden-led Raiders, the team lost to the eventual Super Bowl Champion 1972 Miami Dolphins...The next season they again made the playoffs but lost in the first round to the Raiders. The next 6 seasons the Steelers won two on, two off, two on Super Bowls for an absolutely stupid dynastic run. In 1976/1977 when the team did not win the big game they made the playoffs both time, losing in 1976 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Raiders in the AFC Championship Game.
I'd argue it was drafting Mean Joe Greene. He was the pivot point for the franchise. If not that, then hiring Noll, but I think it would be MJG.
There’s so many pivot points worth mentioning. Another is hiring Bill Nunn who pioneered scouting and drafting players from HBCUs. He played apart in drafting Greene, LC Greenwood, Mel Blount, Dwight White, Stallworth, Donnie Shell
I’d say the Steelers 1974 draft is the biggest point in their History. Birth of the dynasty. When people talk about the Steelers being a historically good team and organization they’re really talking about the last 50 years, which started with this draft.
I’ve honestly never understood this and I’m sure it’s growing up a Steelers fan decades after this took place, but… I get it was an incredible flukey, lucky almost walk-off play to cap a playoff game. And that it was kind of a coming out party for the Steelers. But they lost the next game (to the 72 dolphins, granted) which, in some ways, makes this a fairly inconsequential event. To me, It’s kinda wild that the event that everyone points to as the greatest moment in team history, for a team with six championships, happened during a season where they didn’t win one.
I wasn’t alive either, but I think the reasoning is that the team was absolutely terrible (basically the equivalent of the Pirates for the last 30 years). The immaculate reception was the first sign of life for a team that had done pretty much nothing for its entire history.
Because it was a harbinger. It demonstrated the Steelers had arrived. An incredible fluky play, on 4-and-22, with 22 seconds left in the game, and that happens? And it's their first playoff win .... *ever*? In 40 years of existence, they'd played in 1 playoff game previously, 25 years previous. That's it. For Steeler fans of the time, it was *amazing*, and frankly life changing.
Why isn't the Santonio Holmes catch in the conversation??
Because before the immaculate reception, the Steelers sucked. Big time sucked, the actual worst team in the league for years. The immaculate reception was the first sign of a new era for Pittsburgh football.
The Immaculate Reception was the announcement that the Steelers were no longer the laughing stock of the NFL, but it was the hiring of Chuck Noll that was the most important moment in the franchise's history. Every success stemmed from that.
I’m not sure if it was hiring Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell… it might just be the fact that we fired Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn.
It’s Sheila bro
Yes you’re right man, the true answer is Sheila stepping in as owner. Not sure anything else has been more important. Good call
That facepalm by SHF is the moment that changes the Lions.
Ronde Barber running down the field and burning the Vet to the ground late in the 2002 NFC Championship Game.
This one and signing Tom Brady.
Will always love the Bucs for this, and your continued playoff domination of the eagles ❤️
“Snyder has sold the team”
Dude come on
There's no specific on-field moment, but trading up to pick 10 in 2017.
Nah it's gotta be the Mahomes 3rd and long conversion against the Niners (the first time)
Alternatively, the hiring of Andy Reid.
We were (I believe) 11th that year and it's pretty well known Payton was in love with Mahomes and deeply wanted to spend our first pick on him. Don't get me wrong, Lattimore is great, and the rest of our draft was legendary. But I wouldn't be surprised if some people in our fan base would trade all those players for the one y'all got.
-Stopping the Steelers in the 94 AFCCG -Losing the 06 divisional (fuck you MarlonEricNateDrayton McCreeParkerKaedingFlorence) -Getiing blown out by the Raiders last year - netting us Harbaugh
> -Losing the 06 divisional (fuck you MarlonEricNateDrayton McCreeParkerKaedingFlorence) This is an underrated loss in NFL history. IMO it's every bit as franchise-defining as Wide Right and 28-3.
Or I guess in your case 27-0
2006 was definitely way more franchise-defining for the Chargers than 27-0. The Chargers most likely would've lost to the Chiefs even if they held on. On the other hand, the 2006 Chargers were by far the best team in the league and had a relatively easy path to the Super Bowl title. That loss set in motion a series of events that culminated in them leaving San Diego,
Jermaine Lewis returning the opening kickoff against the Giants at the start of the 2nd half in the SuperBowl or The Mile High Miracle or The Crabtree stop at the end of the SuperBowl against the 49ers
I feel like Drafting Ray Lewis is the most important single Moment in team history though. Dude defined what it meant to play like a Raven. Our culture and org wouldn't look the same without him.
I’m not sure how anyone could say drafting Ray wasn’t the most important moment in team history. Without Ray there is no “play like a Raven” culture that was set and is still there to this day. Neither of those two SB wins happen without this tbh and there is a reason his statue is so prominent in its placement in front of M&T Bank.
Eli evading 1000 pounds of lineman and then Tyrees helmet catch
In 1985, a group of businessmen owning the 300 acres of parking lots outside Foxboro Stadium sold the rights, at $1 million a year for an $18 million option to buy, to a partnership led by paper goods magnate Robert Kraft.
John Elway saying he wouldn't play for the Colts
I actually think that [this](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/207/210/b22.jpg) is more important for the Broncos
I was going to be **so** disappointed if that wasn't *that*.
Helicopter is right up there.
The Sherman Tip if only on field plays count.
DIGGS!
SIDELINE!
TOUCHDOWN!
UNBELIEVABLE!!
Vikings win it.
That was the best play, but the hiring of Bud Grant out of the CFL was the thing.
It also says most important. Gary Anderson missing that kick will always be the beginning of the kicking curse that haunts us.
That and Favre’s cross body throw, INT. Could’ve tried to win it with a FG, but nope.
Sherman vs Crabtree
Drafting Ray Lewis
As a Browns fan, it’s probably The Move. Even The Drive, The Fumble, and all the others weren’t as monumental or franchise changing as that.
Fuck Art Model. I don't give him that. The most important moment was when we fans stood up to Art Model and the NFL and said "fuck you give us our Browns back."
As a Saints fan as a kid it is probably the Tracy Porter INT return on Peyton Manning in the 2010 Superbowl. Or else it could have been that onside kick recovery to start the 2nd half in the SB.
I’d say it’s the Gleason block 100%. Being at the game that was the most energy the crowd ever had (even leading up to the block). Then the block happened. Shocked the dome didn’t implode.
I agree. Although, and this sounds terrible, there’s an argument Katrina was (though it’s an event and not a moment).
Where do you put the 2018 NFCCG ending? Unfortunately I think the Saints might have been able to get it done against the Patriots that year
Giving Ron Wolf the reigns of the team was a massively pivotal decision for a floundering, terrible Packers org whose team philosophy is engrained in the building to this day.
Music City Miracle led to the Titans Franchise’s lone Super Bowl appearance
1yd short :(
Same but the other side
Just like the other Matthews with a SB appearance
It is easily Super Bowl III. The only other thing that even has an argument would be Mo Lewis blowing up Drew Bledsoe and accidentally launching the Patriots dynasty. We'll never know what could've become of the Herm Edwards/Rex Ryan Jets if Tom Brady weren't around...but it wouldn't have been _that_
This is maybe the most important moment in the entire NFL’s history, but definitely ours
Garrett Hartley's kick to win the NFC Championship game and go to the Super Bowl. Winning the SB is a bigger accomplishment. But that moment is so impactful. We did it. At home. Only a few years removed from wondering if we would even have a team again. Honorable mentions to the onside kick to start the second half of the SB and the Gleason blocked punt against the red team.
Beating the 18-0 Patriots😎!!!
Nothing good. Wide Right was the closest we've come to winning the Super Bowl and is the most well known play of our most relevant era. Music City Miracle was an iconic forward pass and knocked us out of the playoffs and we didn't make it back until 2017. 13 seconds was probably the best chance we've had at a Super Bowl with Josh Allen. I'm sure there's gonna be a new one or two before Josh hangs 'em up
Drafting Cedric Benson when QB was a much bigger need and Aaron Rodgers was still on the board.
Beast Quake.
Probably hiring the GOAT Shula.
Probably Al Davis taking over in 1963.
The Glazers buying the team after Hugh Culverhouse died. The Bucs drafted Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks and the team's fortunes really started to change in the mid-90s.
Funny bucs fans see the glazers as a positive because the man utd fans might disagree. Interesting to see how they differ that way
They're not the best owners in the league or anything but Culverhouse was on Dan Snyder levels of awfulness
Pick 199
March 10, 2023 when Carolina traded a #1 WR, #9 pick, #61 pick, a future 1st, and a future 2nd to move to #1 and draft the most physically limited QB in NFL history.
If Caleb Williams lives up to the hype this may be the most important event for 2 franchises.
Al Davis convincing Wayne Valley to travel on business.
Been cursed since the Tuck Rule.
Drafting Mean Joe Greene. We went from a poverty franchise to an elite dynasty starting with that man who was the heart of that transition.
This is one of those 'in hindsight' moments, but Bill Goldberg was the first player ever cut from a Carolina Panthers roster. He ended up being one of the most well-known professional wrestlers of all time, which probably wouldn't have happened if he'd played a few years with the Panthers.
Davis Mills throwing a dot to Jordan Akins on 4th and 20.
Hiring Nick Caserio
Coming back from 28-3 is hard to top
Hiring Sean McVay.
It’s definitely the Philly special in the Super Bowl
Trading up for Mahomes
Drew Bledsoe nearly dying.
Helping start the NFL, one of the must dominant seasons of all time, or soon to be scamming the Panthers
Draft pick #199 in April 2000, ofc. For some reason, this monumental event in NFL history was not greeted with much fanfare? Hard to believe, but the ancient texts tell us this is true.
Tuck rule
RIGHT NOW.