John James, Danny White, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Vin Scully and a Cowboys-Falcons game to remember
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | Football, Soccer, Scott Carter
If you missed the news earlier, John James announced this morning he is retiring as Executive Director of Gator Boosters, Inc.
In talking to James about his decision, there was no way I was leaving his office without mentioning one of the top two or three most memorable sporting events I have from my youth: the 1980 NFC Divisional Playoff game between the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons.
The game was played on Jan. 4, 1981 at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium and remains one of the biggest moments in Atlanta sports history.
While discussion of the game had nothing really to do with my story, I knew I could get a blog from it if James had a good story from the game. He delivered.
You see, James was a veteran All-Pro punter on that Atlanta team famous for its “Gritz Blitz” defense and quarterback Steve Bartkowski. After 15 years of mostly inept teams since the franchise's inception, the 1980 Falcons finished 12-4 and won their first division title.
The city was abuzz and thinking Super Bowl as I visited my grandparents over the Christmas holidays.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys, the team I rooted for religiously as a kid, continued to cruise as “America's Team'' under legendary coach Tom Landry in their first season after quarterback Roger Staubach's retirement. The '80 Cowboys finished 12-4 as full-time punter Danny White added starting quarterback to his duties.
White had been Staubach's backup for a few seasons, so he was no stranger to the position. However, he continued to punt as well. Atlanta defensive coordinator/special teams coach Jerry Glanville wanted the Falcons to perhaps take advantage of White's vulnerability, encouraging them to get to know White up close and personal each time he punted.
The teams also had some recent history. Two years earlier in a 27-20 playoff loss at Dallas, Atlanta knocked Staubach from the game and led 20-13 at halftime before White came in and led Dallas to a comeback win. This was a chance for Atlanta to avenge that disappointing loss.
“He put [linebacker] Robert Pennywell and someone else on Danny White just to lay him out on every punt,'' James said. “So my first punt, I hit a great punt and I'm kind of watching it and here comes Ed “Too Tall” Jones. He just blindsides me – a legal hit, after the punt was gone and I was taking two steps to go down the field.
“And he's standing over me and he says, 'You guys lay off Danny White and we'll lay off of you.' I didn't tell the coaches. I said, 'I'll just be ready next time.' ”
The game remains memorable for me because as a 9-year-old, the bigger-than-life Dallas Cowboys were actually in the same town I was in for the first time in my life. I couldn't believe that Tony Dorsett and Drew Pearson and Harvey Martin were just a few miles from my grandparents' home where I watched the game.
Since the Falcons were my second-favorite team – only because my grandparents lived there and it was the nearest NFL team to my boyhood home in East Tennessee – I felt as though I almost couldn't lose if they beat the Cowboys in what would have undoubtedly been the biggest victory in franchise history at that point.
The Falcons led 24-10 early in the fourth quarter when White, still standing, went to work in one of the best playoff comebacks in NFL history. The final score: Dallas 30, Atlanta 27 in a game that took place more than 30 years ago but still seems like yesterday to me.
To James, too.
“That was a horrible loss,'' he said. “We took it pretty hard.”
While those of a certain age might remember the game, if you don't, thanks to YouTube you can watch the Cowboys' winning drive below. And better yet, you get to hear legendary baseball announcer Vin Scully on the play-by-play:
