Quote:
Originally Posted by LRT
I was a kid during the Pardee era. In fact, that's when I first became a serious Skins fan. I remember that folks were excited because he had been a part of the Over-the-Hill-Gang himself as was known for hardnose defense. He was also coming off a playoff year in Chicago.
His first season in Washington, the Skins started 5-0. It was, I believe, Theismann's first year as the fulltime starter and the fans really started to rally around Joey T during that run. Then, they finished 3-8 and fans started calling for Kilmer. (And the kids think a QB controversy in Washington is a new thing!)
I remember that during Pardee's run the defense tended to the star but the defense itself had no "big names". John Riggins was just starting to emerge as the running back he'd later become under Gibbs, but we wasn't yet the star.
In Pardee's first year, we had the famous 9-5 Monday night victory over the Cowboys. In his second year, we were within one blown timeout call by the refs of beating the Cowboys in the last game of the season and winning the division. Then, Riggins sat out his last year and that was that.
Finally, I remember that when JKC fired Pardee the fans were outraged. The outrage only grew worse when he hired some baby-faced offensive coordinator from the pass-happy San Diego Chargers. Everyone dreaded the idea that this kid - Joe Gibbs - would undo Pardee's hard work. Hmm... That sounds familiar somehow...
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Yup, these were indeed the formative Redskin years for me, too, when Joe T became my hero. When Jack came on board, I was too young to have much of an opinion on whether it was a good choice. However, what was at least evident even to someone as young as me was that his personality was so starkly different from George Allen's (at least outside of the lockeroom). George Allen's last year is really as far back as my Redskin memories go--I remember the opening day comeback win agains the Giants, the 12-9 loss in their first visit to the Meadowlands, and the Saturday afternoon win against the Rams on the last day of the season, George's last game. With regard to Jack, I guess it's pretty telling, if you're looking for an overall analysis, that his 3 year record was 24-24. Pretty bland, although people with more vivid memories might take issue with that.