In 1982, the New England Patriots defeated the Miami Dolphins in a three–0 affair, lengthy remembered for a conviction that he neglected paintings whilst using a snowplow.
Game balls are normally reserved for megastar gamers. The quarterback is a well-liked selection. So is any person who has scored a game-winning landing or kicked a last-second subject target. Or possibly it is a defender who made a goal-line forestall.
But a snowplow operator? Apologize Not at the tick list.
Still it took place. And it took place after the December 12, 1982 contest when New England beat Miami 3–0 and awarded a game ball to snowplow operator Mark Henderson.
true storry.
Henderson, 24, was once no atypical snowplow motive force. In truth, he was once now not a snowplow motive force in any respect. He was once hired through the Patriots on a work-release program from the MCI-Norfolk jail and made such an affect that he and his snowplow — neatly, so it was once the John Deere 314 tractor with the comb on it — are immortalized within the staff’s museum. In the corridor of Patriot Place.
I’m severe
Climb the steps to the second one ground and there, suspended through metal cables from the ceiling, is the golf green tractor – with hooked up brushes – that made historical past and remodeled Henderson right into a cult hero, frequently known as “The” . Snowplow game. There’s additionally a show with observation through Henderson and Patriots kicker John Smith, who scored the game’s handiest issues.
Essentially, Henderson was once known as to the sphere past due within the fourth quarter to transparent the ice from the sphere, permitting Smith to attain a 33-yard subject target that received the game. That is the start of our tale. But it’s nowhere close to the top.
Because this can be a tale of virtually legendary proportions.
Patrick Sullivan, then New England normal supervisor, known as it one in every of “comic reliefs”, including that it was once a tale to inform the grandchildren a few excellent Patriots season. Hall of Fame trainer Don Shula, then again, complained to the league workplace in a while after what he noticed because the worst-case state of affairs.
Well, it is extra like dishonest.
The game was once performed throughout the 1982 strike-truncated season, splitting the marketing campaign into two portions – the primary, two video games prior to a 57-day participant strike; Then seven extra contests after the layoffs. Miami went 4–1 within the Patriots’ game and completed on most sensible of the AFC East. New England was once 2-3 and determined to win.
The stipulations at Shafer Stadium (later Foxboro Stadium) that afternoon have been pathetic. Massachusetts was once coated with snow prior to the game, temperatures have been sub-freezing and the astroturf space iced over prior to it rained within the night time. In truth, the elements was once so dangerous that the Patriots introduced loose tickets and $10 to any person who volunteered to assist pull out seats prior to the game. In addition, Shula and then-New England trainer Ron Meyer agreed {that a} snowplow—k, a John Deere tractor—may well be used to transparent the realm in 10-yard increments.
But that was once the top of it. No one may have imagined what would occur subsequent.
And what took place was once… neatly, just about not anything. The subject was once slippery. That was once the ball. Passes dropped. Field target neglected. The backyard was once tough to return through. And the issues… neatly, there have been none. The game was once attracted to 0 in lower than 5 mins.
And that is the place the plot thickens.
Miami with 4:45 left and New England on the 16-yard line, Meyer despatched Smith to the sphere for a 33-yard field-goal effort. But he was once now not by myself. Henderson was once additionally at the back of the wheel of the aforementioned John Deere. During a timeout prior to kicks, Meyer came upon Henderson (he volunteered to comb the sideline prior to the game and stay the road markers transparent) and requested him to transparent the sphere.
So that is what he did.
But as Henderson got here onto the sphere, Patriots holder Matt Cavanaugh stopped him and advised him to practice him till 23, the place Cavanaugh deliberate to observe the ball for Smith’s kick. There is not any downside. Henderson did as he was once advised, turning the tractor into twenty third place, clearing a place after which leaving.
No giant deal, is it? Wrong.
Looking from the Miami shore, Shula could not imagine what she had simply observed. When he was once, he changed into apoplectic. So did their assistants, gamers and any person related to the Dolphins, within the type of clipboards, helmets, playbooks… you title it… have been thrown into the sphere.
“I wanted to go out there and punch him out,” Shula advised the Boston Globe. “In retrospect, I should have lay down in front of the snow plow.”
In retrospect, he did neither.
With a staff of inexperienced showing, Cavanaugh was once in a position to identify the ball for a kick that sailed utterly overhead. Curiously, Smith later claimed that Henderson’s backyard paintings didn’t assist his heroism; that he may have been a hit with out him. Maybe. But Henderson and the Court of Public Opinion disagreed.
If you dial up a video on YouTube, you’ll be able to do the similar. It for sure did not harm, and, in all probability, it helped. very. Why would the Patriots have Henderson’s title at the scoreboard, with a picture of him at the tractor? Smith was once now not the MVP. Mark Henderson was once.
Most treasured tillage.
Afterwards, a terrified Sullivan tells Henderson to not discuss to journalists. He and the Patriots have been intimidated as a result of Shula was once at the league’s pageant committee and exercised substantial affect inside the league workplace. So he advised Henderson to keep away from the clicking, put the tractor away and go away.
Except that it did not occur.
As Henderson left the device at the Schaefer Stadium ramp inside of a minute, the tractor stalled. Unable to transport, Henderson was once instantly surrounded through media, cameras and microphones fixed to his face. Nevertheless, Henderson performed it down, pronouncing that he didn’t have in mind who ordered him at the subject and was once now not involved concerning the conceivable consequence.
“What are they going to do,” he mentioned, “put me in jail?”
That laughed. it must have. After the game, Meyer calls Norfolk Prison to tell them that one in every of his inmates – Mark Henderson – will probably be past due to go back.
The game ball was once formally awarded to Patriots linebacker Steve Nelson, however Henderson gained a later ranking from the apparatus supervisor with the phrases “3-0,” the date and the phrases “clean sweep.” As you could be expecting, Shula was once now not satisfied. Not then, nor years later when requested concerning the incident.
“I think it’s the most unfair thing I’ve ever been involved in coaching,” he advised the Los Angeles Times. “It’s the most unsportsman-like act ever.”
He made it transparent to then-commissioner Pete Rozelle after the game that victories must now not depend. But it did occur, and it was once as a result of there was once no rule referring to clearing grounds for subject targets throughout play. But there was once the next season, by which Blizzard was once prohibited from clearing turf for subject targets or PATs, a rule this is nonetheless in impact today.
Maybe you did not know this. But I’m guessing you most likely knew about “The Snowplow Game,” as a result of it is one of the strange and indelible occasions in NFL historical past.
Its legacy isn’t that it had an have an effect on at the standings or the playoffs. Because it wasn’t. Miami wins AFC East and meets – who else? – New England within the first spherical of that season’s “Super Bowl Tournament” on the Orange Bowl. The Dolphins received 28–13 and have been injured in Super Bowl XVII the place they misplaced to Washington.
No, the legacy of “The Snowplow Game” is a part of football folklore, celebrated in a single nook of this nation and maligned in any other. Patriots lovers have in mind Mark Henderson prior to remembering John Smith. In truth, previous to the final regular-season game at Foxborough Stadium on December 22, 2001, the Patriots idea it could be a good suggestion to relegate the snowplow phenomenon to Henderson.
Only one downside: they heard he was once lifeless.
He was once now not. Another Mark Henderson, who was once the similar age, grew up in the similar space and died within the Nineteen Nineties of a legal report. When a CBS manufacturer in any case discovered Henderson and his id was once showed, he was once kicked out and presented to the group prior to the Foxboro finale.
He was once given a status ovation.
