George Allen

[Master4Caster]

"Every time you lose, you die a little. Not all of your organs, but a portion of you; maybe just your liver." -- Coach George Allen

Was a successful coach with the Los Angeles Rams, before being hired by Edward Bennet Williams to coach the Redskins, who were devestated by the sudden death of the legendary Vince Lombardi. Lombardi coached the long suffering Skins to an 8-8 record in his only season here. (Lombardi was the second Green Bay coach to come to Washingron. Curly Lambeau was here in the 1930s/?/.)

"I gave Coach Allen an unlimited budget and he exceeded it." -- Edward Bennett Williams

Allen believed in veteran players and traded draft choices to get them, especially for players he had a relationship with, like Jack Pardee and Verlon Biggs. The results were immediate; the Redskins became periennial contenders through the '70s. The league was shocked that a group of players considered overpaid "has-beens" were so successful. Unfortunately, the highpoint of his tenure was the 1972 team that got as far as Super Bowl VII and ran into the undefeated Miami Dolphins - who remained undefeated after the game. It was the '70s, when the AFC, especially Pittsburgh, Oakland and Miami ruled. (The NFC turned the tables in the '80s). The Skins were always a playoff calibre team, but never made it all the way. (Amoung the NFC East contenders were the St. Louis Cardinals, coached by Don Coryell. The Cardinals took the division in 1974 and '75. Coryell had a promising young offensive coordinator named Joe Gibbs. For more of Gibbs' story, look here.)

The Over The Hill Gang was a made for TV movie starring Walter Brennan. The story was about a group of broken down, retired Texas Rangers who brought law and order to the West. Sportswriters applied the name to Allen's Redskins since it seemed to fit.

Sonny Jurgensen was a far more talented QB than Billy Kilmer, but he never enjoyed Allen's confidence. Kilmer had undoubted leadership ability and he and Jurgy formed a bond that lifted the whole team. Lots of QB controversies tear teams apart. But Allen banished Jurgensen, who was injured, from the field at Super Bowl VII. The slight still goes down hard for Sonny.

Allen's opinion was the opposite of Lombardi's who told some of his old Packer players that "If we had him (Jurgensen) as quarterback, we would never have lost a game."

Allen did not start the rivalry with Dallas. It existed from the beginning of the Cowboys franchise. Redskins founder and owner George Preston Marshall figured he owned the NFL franchise and loyalty of the entire South and worked against the placement of any team anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line. (I think Peter Angelos is Marshall's love child.) That didn't go down well with eventual Cowboys owner Clint Murchison, who always pushed his team to beat Washington. In the 1960s, the passing duels between Sonny Jurgensen and Dandy Don Meredeth went a long way toward building up the rivalry. By the late '60s, the Boys reached the top echelon of the NFL and were dominating the series. George Allen can along and made the games competive again. Some of those games were real beauties and the drama was ideal for TV broadcasting. He used the Cowboys to motivate the Redskins. To win the division, you had to beat the Cowboys -- and keep pace with them. So, in a way every game was a Cowboys game.

Pro-football came of age in the 1970s when it was found to be the ideal TV sport. Rivalries played a big part of the drama. The Over The Hill Gang versus the Cowboys (Allen V. Landry) played into that.

Allen left the Redskins to return to the Rams in what he thought was a better deal. He called that a mistake. But his effect on the Redskins survived long after he left. Jack Pardee and Richie Pettibone, both Allen disciples, coached the George Allen defense into the 1990s. Then, ex-Cowboys O-coordinator Norv Turner came along and changed everything.

Damned Cowboys won again.