Super Bowl Anniversaries – 17: Skins v. Dolphins

By Dave “Large” Larzelere
When: January, 30, 1983, 25 years ago today
Where: It was the third of five Super Bowls to be played at the Rose Bowl.
Why: This was the strike-shortened season of ’82, so everything was a little messed up. Nevertheless, the Redskins, in the heyday of Theismann, Riggins and the Hogs, were clearly the class of the NFL, finishing the season at 8-1 and then ripping through their three playoff games without much of a challenge. The Dolphins relied primarily on their defense, led by the vaunted Killer B’s, to go 7-2 and squeak past the Jets 14-0 in a war-of-attrition AFC title game.
Who: Riggo run left, Riggo run right, Riggo run straight up the gut. It was a John Riggins Super Bowl, as he carried the ball 38 times for 166 yards and busted a 43-yarder for a TD in the 4th quarter that put the Skins ahead for good and put his MVP award on ice. The Killer B’s played admirably for the Fins, particularly the Blackwood brothers, but they simply had no answer for Riggins and their offense was too incompetent to give them any help. Dolphins’ QB David Woodley, one of the worst QB’s ever to start a Super Bowl, was woeful despite a 76-yard TD strike in the first quarter to Jimmy Cefalo. Other than that pass, he was 3/13 for 21 yards and an interception. In the end, Washington amassed a 13-minute edge in time of possession, a telling statistic that had Riggins written all over it.
National Anthem: Leslie Easterbrook. I still don’t understand this. Easterbrook’s main claim to fame was playing the buxom blonde hardass in the Police Academy movies (see video below, lest you have forgotten), but the first one of those didn’t come out until 1984. Other than that, she had a bunch of bit TV roles. So it makes you think, well, hey, maybe singing the anthem at the Super Bowl wasn’t an A-list gig back in the day. But then you look and see that Diana Ross sang it the year before, and freakin Barry Manilow sang it the year after. I tell you people, it just doesn’t add up.

Notable Entertainment: The Los Angeles All-City Band played during the pre-game and the Los Angeles Super Drill Team performed at halftime in a montage called “KaleidoSUPERscope.†I mean… Leslie Easterbrook and then this high school crap? You’d think this was some homecoming game in Topeka.
Nuggets: At the time, this was only the second Super Bowl rematch, reprising the showdown of SBVII (the Cowboys and Steelers already had met twice in the big game). This was also the first Super Bowl ever to be televised live in the U.K. Finally, and I have to say this is more amazing to me in retrospect than it was at the time – this was the season that Redskins’ kicker Mark Moseley won the A.P. NFL Player of the Year award, the only kicker ever to do so.
Final Score: Redskins 27, Dolphins 17↵