Flashback Friday: Philadelphia Eagles destroy Redskins in ‘Body Bag Game’
Once upon a time in ‘The City of Brotherly Love’, the Philadelphia Eagles destroyed the Washington Redskins in a game that will forever be remembered as the ‘Body Bag Game’.
Buddy Ryan never won a Super Bowl as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Heck, Buddy Ryan never even won a playoff game. He never made good on a promise that he made when he rode into Philly like a conquering hero.
After constructing what might be the greatest defense in the history of football, that of the 1985 Chicago Bears, Ryan was hired to lead the Eagles, and he made a promise. He was going to build the nastiest defense in the history of ‘The City of Brotherly Love’, and he was going to ride that to a world championship.
No, he never made good on the second half of that promise, but he was lights out on the first half. One of the best demonstrations of that fact came in a Monday Night Football contest on November 12th of 1990. The backdrop was Veteran’s Stadium, and the opponent was the same squad Philly will face this coming Monday, the Washington Redskins.
Check out this clip. It features two of the best games the Eagles ever played against the ‘Skins, including that Monday Night massacre known around Philly as, simply, the ‘Body Bag Game’.
Let’s talk about ‘The Vet’.
Before there was a Lincoln Financial Field and a Citizens Bank Park, there was Veteran’s Stadium, better known as ‘The Vet’. It was someone’s idea to create a venue that could house both football and baseball games.
There were rats. There were leaks. There was even a jail cell, but lost in all of that was the fact that ‘The Vet’ had attitude. Philly’s full of tough people, and they want their teams to be tough. The typical Eagles fan, especially in those days, may not have always remembered the score, but they could remember if someone got knocked out of the game.
Next. Rodney McLeod says Brian Dawkins could still play today. dark
Find any die-hard Eagles fan, and ask them about the ‘Body Bag Game’. They’ll tell you nine Redskins left the game with injuries, including two quarterbacks, and a running back, then-rookie Brian Mitchell, had to come in and finish the game as the Redskins’ signal caller.
The next chapter in the Eagles and Redskins rivalry will be written next week on Monday Night Football.