'It's Probably the Most Famous NFL Game on Thanksgiving'

When Washington and Dallas meet Thursday afternoon, guaranteed, at some point CBS will show video footage of another Washington-Dallas Thanksgiving game that was more meaningful … and, in all likelihood, more memorable … than this year's event.

I’m talking about the 1974 contest, otherwise known as "The Clint Longley Game."

Wait. Who?

Clint. Longley.

He was a rookie quarterback who served as the backup that season to Dallas starter Roger Staubach. Nobody, including the Cowboys, knew much about Longley because he didn’t play … or, at least, he didn’t until Thanksgiving Day, 1974. Pressed into emergency duty after Staubach was injured and forced to leave the game, he responded by leading a furious comeback that ended in a 24-23 Cowboys’ upset.

But it wasn’t the victory that was so noteworthy; it was how it was achieved – with Longley heaving a 50-yard touchdown strike to wide receiver Drew Pearson with 28 seconds left.

Remember it? How can you forget?

“It’s probably the most famous NFL game on Thanksgiving,” Pearson said on the latest “Eye Test for Two” podcast.

NFL Films agreed. In 2016 it named the 1974 Dallas-Washington game the best Thanksgiving contest of all time. Better than the Lions’ 1962 “Thanksgiving Day Massacre" of then-unbeaten Green Bay. Better than the 1993 Leon Lett Game vs. Miami. And better than the 1994 Dallas come-from-behind defeat of Green Bay behind backup Jason Garrett or the 1998 Randy Moss breakout performance.

OK, so maybe you knew that. But my guess is that you didn’t know the genesis of that game-clinching play. It wasn’t called by Longley or Tom Landry or anyone in the Dallas brain trust. It was called by Pearson, a former quarterback who liked what he saw in the Washington pass coverage and told Longley he could beat it.

“I said, ‘Line me up on the left side,’ “ said Pearson. “ ‘I’m going to run a turn in (and) take off on the left side.’ Know what he said? ‘Fine. Run it.’ So he called the play, and that’s how we ran that play.”

If you didn't see it, dial it up on YouTube. It's pretty basic. Longley takes the snap from center, backpedals seven steps, winds up and heaves the football downfield as high and as far as he can. When it descends, there's Pearson -- three-to-four yards ahead of Washington safety Kenny Stone -- to cradle it as he crosses the goal line.

But several factors make that play one of the game’s most intriguing pieces of highlight film, and Pearson was only too happy to share them:

-- First all, Longley was so raw that Pearson conceded none of his teammates knew what to expect when he relieved Staubach in the third quarter and the Cowboys down, 16-3. “We knew he had a great arm," said Pearson. "He set a lot of passing records at Abilene Christian ... We didn't know about him, other than what we saw in preseason games. The one thing we (did know) about Clint Longley was that he was a care-free guy, OK? So, when he came in, he acted just like it was a regular football game."

-- Second, in the days preceding the game, Washington defensive tackle Diron Talbert predicted the Redskins would hit Staubach so often and so hard that he would be forced to the sidelines... which, in fact, happened. “Talbert said, ‘You kill the head, and the snake gotta die,’ “ recalled Pearson. “So they thought we were going to die at that point.” They didn't.

-- And, last, with Washington protecting a 23-17 lead and half-a-minute left, Washington coach George Allen inexplicably played a defense that ultimately left Pearson … a Hall-of-Fame receiver with so many critical catches that he was known as “Mr. Clutch “ … in single coverage with Stone. “He’s a good football player,” Pearson said of the Washington safety, “but, man, ain’t no way in the world Kenny Stone can cover me when we get in a situation like that.”

So he found out.

“When I broke the huddle,” said Pearson, “I could see George Allen on the sideline licking his thumb, and I could hear him saying ‘We got the Cowboys … Tex Schramm … Tom Landry. We got the Cowboys today.’ And then I could see my ol’ high-school classmate – Joe Theismann --on the sideline there as I’m lining up.

“But, guys, the blessing to that play was the defense the Redskins ended up playing. Instead of playing me in 'man,' or a zone defense with the man head up on me to disrupt my release off the ball, they played a bracket defense which freed my release off the ball. And when I came off the ball, I widened (cornerback) Mike Bass out and weaved it inside.

“Now, I’m man-to-man on Kenny Stone, all right? I gave him an inside move and took him deep. Bass was out of the play because I widened him out. So Clint just kind of dropped back, looked at Billy Joe (Dupree, the Cowboys’ tight end), looked him off a bit, and then just laid it up. That led to the 50-yard touchdown.

“When I broke deep clear, I looked back, (and) I could almost count the revolutions on that ball. It was spinning and spinning, and it seemed like it took forever to come down. The only thing you want to do is make that catch. At that point, I couldn’t believe that we had come back to win that game. That turned out to be our season. That really was the highlight of the ’74 season.”

The Cowboys would finish 8-6 and miss the playoffs for the only time in Pearson’s 11-year career. At 10-4, Washington wound up 10-4 tied with St. Louis atop the NFC Eastern Division and lost its divisional playoff game to the L.A. Rams. Fans from both sides may not remember much about that season, but they can never forget what happened when the two teams met Nov. 28, 1974.

“We were excited,” said Pearson. “We were partying. They had sent to our practice field – Diron Talbert takes credit for this -- a funeral wreath. (It) was delivered to our practice field, particularly to Harvey Martin. Harvey Martin brings that funeral wreath in the locker room while we’re dressing and getting ready for the game.

“So, after the game, Harvey Martin takes that funeral wreath, walks across to the other side to the Redskins' locker room, opens the door, takes that wreath and throws it in the middle of that locker room and walks out. That’s how that rivalry was back then.”

That's not how it is today.

"The past," filmmaker Spike Jonze once said, "is just a story we tell ourselves."

Ah, yes ... but what a story it is.