The Dallas Cowboys stunned the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 after falling behind 21-0 in the first half last Sunday.
The comeback was the largest in Cowboys history and it certainly had me and a friend watching the game cheering like we were in AT&T Stadium in Dallas.
The game reminded me of one of my favorite Cowboy comebacks, which happened on Thanksgiving Day Nov. 27, 1994.
While my wife and I resided in the Washington, D.C. area from 1991 to ’95, we would go to an aunt’s home on a ridge that overlooked Walter Reed Medical Center.
A cousin of mine and my sister’s husband are also Cowboys fans. Go figure, they grew up in the heart of sheer Cowboys hatred. (Redskins, ugh.)
Watching the Cowboys game was a must each Thanksgiving afternoon, and the 1994 game was a year after the 1993 debacle featuring defensive tackle Leon Lett.
The Cowboys blocked a field goal to preserve a late-game lead over the visiting Miami Dolphins as sleet covered the Cowboys Stadium field. A guaranteed victory was lost when Lett inexplicably decided to slide into the football while attempting to pick it up. The Dolphins recovered the “fumble,” and would kick the game-winning field goal.
The Cowboys would go on to win the Super Bowl that season, by the way.
The 1994 game saw an injured Troy Aikman unavailable to play and a young guy with red hair out of Princeton got the call at QB.
Jason Garrett and the Cowboys fell behind 24-13 against the 6-5 Packers and Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. It looked like another Turkey Day disappointment.
But Garrett, who would later become Cowboys head coach, threw for a pair of touchdowns, one to Michael Irvin, and led two other drives that ended in TDs.
When all was said and done, Garrett had 311 yards passing and the Cowboys prevailed 42-31.
Garrett was named the game’s MVP and got to munch on a turkey leg while the late John Madden and Pat Summerall interviewed him on CBS.
Here’s the best part of the story. Garrett didn’t down the entire turkey leg. He preserved it in the freezer.
Garrett, who is part of the NBC Sunday Night Football broadcast team, shared this story after a Thanksgiving night game.
“I had it in the freezer. It was in tinfoil…I probably had it for 15 years. And then we finally moved, and I called my wife the other day and I said, ‘Do we still have the turkey leg?’ She said, ‘No, it’s long gone.’”
Happy Thanksgiving, good people!
The Reid RoundupJason Garrett’s Thanksgiving game comeback came with Barry Switzer in his first year as head coach. Owner Jerry Jones made the stupidest move in Dallas Cowboys’ history when he fired head coach Jimmy Johnson after the ’93 Super Bowl season…While the Cowboys joined the Detroit Lions in hosting annual Thanksgiving games in 1966, the NFL didn’t do Dallas a favor. It asked for a volunteer franchise and the late owner Clint Murchison Jr., was smart enough to grasp the opportunity…In 1975 and 1977, NFL Commissioner Alvin “Pete” Rozelle experimented with other teams playing on Thanksgiving. On November 27, 1975, O.J. Simpson and the Buffalo Bills visited Busch Stadium to take on the St. Louis Cardinals. The Bills hammered the Big Red 32-14 on a snowy, freezing day…A little-known Bills running back named Jim Braxton stole the show from O.J. rushing for 160 yards and three touchdowns. Simpson finished the game with 85 yards and a touchdown…Cardinals QB Jim Hart threw four interceptions and vaunted running back duo of Jim Otis and Terry Metcalf combined for only 58 yards rushing…I remember that game like it was yesterday because I was there. The annual Turkey Day Game between Kirkwood and Webster was rescheduled to Nov. 29 because heavy snow blanketed Lyons Field in Kirkwood on Thanksgiving Eve…Cowboys QB Dak Prescott broke Tony Romo’s record (34,183) for most career passing yards in Cowboys history during the win over Philadelphia. Prescott, who passed for 354 yards against the Eagles, now has 34,378 passing yards…Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs visit Dallas on Thanksgiving. The game might set a Turkey Day TV viewing record.