In 1992, it was the Pats and Seahawks in the "Stupor Bowl"
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 2:48 pm
In the third week of the 1992 season, Dick MacPherson's Patriots met Tom Flores' Seahawks in Foxboro. At the time, both teams probably didn't realize that they were going to finish the season as the league's two worst teams, although all the signs were there even this early.
You wouldn't expect a game like this to be historically significant, but an argument can be made that the outcome somewhat changed the course of NFL history. When Seahawk DB Patrick Hunter made a game-saving goal line INT to end New England's last drive, it gave the Seahawks a 10-6 win, a fitting score for two of the most pathetic offenses of the decade. At seasons end, this win handed the first draft choice to the Pats, and they used it to select top-rated QB Drew Bledsoe, leaving the Seahawks to settle for Rick Mirer. It initially looked like the Hawks had gotten the better of the deal, as during the following season Mirer took two head-to-head matchups with Bledsoe and had the better rookie season overall. However, Mirer regressed from his promising rookie season and wound up a bust, while Bledsoe blossomed into one of the game's best quarterbacks and took the Patriots to Super Bowl XXXI, before eventually years later losing his job in Wally Pipp-like fashion to a young guy by the name of Tom Brady.
Crucial to the outcome of the 1992 "Stupor Bowl" was a missed extra point by a Patriot kicker named Charlie Baumann. I mention this fact because I once took a journalism class at WVU with Charlie's brother Gary.
You wouldn't expect a game like this to be historically significant, but an argument can be made that the outcome somewhat changed the course of NFL history. When Seahawk DB Patrick Hunter made a game-saving goal line INT to end New England's last drive, it gave the Seahawks a 10-6 win, a fitting score for two of the most pathetic offenses of the decade. At seasons end, this win handed the first draft choice to the Pats, and they used it to select top-rated QB Drew Bledsoe, leaving the Seahawks to settle for Rick Mirer. It initially looked like the Hawks had gotten the better of the deal, as during the following season Mirer took two head-to-head matchups with Bledsoe and had the better rookie season overall. However, Mirer regressed from his promising rookie season and wound up a bust, while Bledsoe blossomed into one of the game's best quarterbacks and took the Patriots to Super Bowl XXXI, before eventually years later losing his job in Wally Pipp-like fashion to a young guy by the name of Tom Brady.
Crucial to the outcome of the 1992 "Stupor Bowl" was a missed extra point by a Patriot kicker named Charlie Baumann. I mention this fact because I once took a journalism class at WVU with Charlie's brother Gary.