Musical Spheres of the Championship Years and 1972

The year 1972 was a great year in music and a great year for Washington NFL Football. 

The Washington Redskins won the NFC Championship beating their arch nemesis the Dallas Cowboys 26-3 before losing the Super Bowl to the undefeated Miami Dolphins. 

Like people say, whenever the Skins beat the Cowboys in the NFC Championship game, the Super Bowl always seemed like an afterthought.

The Watergate Scandal was born in 1972. Only Nixon could go to China. Fischer defeats Spassky. Here's Nixon schmoozing with George Allen parts 1 and 2. This is the game Tricky Dickie and Coach were apparently talking about.

My favorite song from 1972 is Johnny Nash's I Can See Clearly Now. If you hadn't known the background of Nash, you'd swear you could hear a dash of Reggae in the tune. Good ear. The Covers out there unfortunately seem to subtract the Reggae elements. Jimmy Cliff did a great rendition. It is time for an Orchestral Reggae treatment. Maybe one's already been done.

Some all-time great records were getting airplay in 1972. The reissued Nights in White Satin and November of '71's Stairway to Heaven.

You probably don't remember Mouth and MacNeal. They made a catchy little tune called How Do You Do which made Number 8 on Billboard. 

Man of La Mancha, the film version, came out in 1972. Johnny Mathis did a wonderful medley from the musical.

Morning Has Broken charted in '72, making number one Easy Listening. It was not a Cat Stevens original. Here's more on that story.

If you went to the movies in 1972, you could see Jeremiah Johnson, Superfly, Boxcar Bertha, the Poseidon Adventure, and my personal favorite, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Rated G.

McCaffrey in the Kilmer Niner Strong-I

It is hard linking up the generations but people are already touting the Luke McCaffrey trick play where he passes for a touchdown.

He's a former QB. He puts me in mind of one Billy Kilmer, who was Slash before Kordell Stewart. Startling claim? Well, I mean Billy Kilmer was a part of the evolution of NFL Offense believe it or not.

It is hard for Washington fans to believe the nearly immobile QB they saw gutting out victories for George Allen actually played some tailback but there it is. He was, as you can imagine from his courage, a tough runner. 

Here's Old Whiskey actually running the football and doing a little run-pass option with his first team, the San Francisco 49ers. Kilmer was playing under Kliff Kingsbury precursor Red Hickey, inventor of the shotgun formation, who would use a Kilmer-John Brodie combo to throw wrenches in the game plans of opposing defenses.

One could imagine McCaffrey, or indeed young Jordan Magee, another ex-QB, vaulting the ball over to Jayden Daniels, essentially the same size as Randy Moss, for the unexpurgated touchdown.

LSU didn't throw to Daniels but what a threat that would be! All because John Brodie and Billy Kilmer used to do it for Adam Peters's 49er squad back in the day.

How many NFL players have ever run, passed, or caught TD passes in a game, even in a season? Could the much ballyhooed Daniels set some records in that regard?

Kilmer almost ran for as many yards as he passed for his senior year at UCLA. 

What would the nature of NFL Offense have been had Billy Kilmer somehow avoided the accident that almost ruined his career? Would RPOs and Pistol Formations and RGIII have come earlier in the growth of the sport of NFL Football?

It's Only a Paper Moon

It is a Barnum and Bailey World. As phony as can be. 

Wise words from Nat King Cole. 

Take the NFL Offseason with a grain of salt. Speaking of salt, here is an interview with an Old Salt, Old Whiskey, jawboning with Dick Schaap.

I thought it was interesting. Joe Whitt mentioned playing 18 guys on defense at one of the Commanders' Press Conferences. It is a bit Barnum and Bailey to back engineer that comment. But I put that together with clownish phrases like "Air Raid" and "shootout" and I start thinking high scoring games and worn out defenses. 

Plus, the Commanders are still working on their DBs and their Offensive Linemen. Meaning they're not ready. It is Circus time. Of course they're not ready. If we're still here in September it is time to worry.

Meantime, it is time, at least for me, to add to our Billy Kilmer Scrapbook.

First Saints Quarterback Ever

Buddy D When Men Were Men 

Doc Interviewed Whiskey a Few Years Ago