The late John Madden won a Super Bowl ring, but the game the former Raiders coach was most proud of came a month before he hoisted the Lombardi Trophy.
The Raiders had already clinched the AFC West title and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with two weeks to go in the 1976 season. The question of whether or not to rest starters for the playoffs naturally came up. It’s a question the Giants, Buccaneers and other teams are facing this week.
The answer, according to Madden — and to former Giants coach Tom Coughlin — is a resounding no.
“The worst thing you can say about someone, that they lost on purpose,” Madden said in a video played at his memorial last February.
The Raiders, 11-1 and winners of eight straight, didn’t need to win on Dec. 6, 1976, in Oakland, or the following week in the regular-season finale. If the Bengals beat the Raiders that Monday night, Cincinnati would clinch the AFC Central title and knock the Steelers out of the playoffs. Pittsburgh, mind you, had eliminated Oakland three of the previous four years in the playoffs.
“The thinking was, ‘They don’t want to play Pittsburgh, they want to play Cincinnati, so they’re going to lose,'” Madden said in the video.
The Steelers tried some reverse psychology.
“There was a group out of Pittsburgh that bought a full-page ad in the Oakland Tribune that week,” Mike Madden, John’s son, said in a phone interview. “It had a Raiders player laying down on a mattress, being tucked into bed. And it said something along the lines of, ‘We don’t blame you if you lay down.’ And it was signed, ‘Your friends in Pittsburgh.’”
The Raiders players had been wondering how Madden was going to handle the situation.
“We’d rather play the Bengals any day of the week than the Steelers,” former linebacker Phil Villapiano said. “Halfway through the week, John called us all together, and … only John Madden could have done it the way he did. He attacked it. He told us, ‘Hey guys, there is a bunch of bulls— going around that if we lose this game, we’re going to play the Bengals again. F— that. The Raiders don’t go in the back door. We go through the front door.
Madden went wild, as did the players.
“It was exactly what we needed to hear,” Villapiano said. “It was true… the Bengals were nowhere near as good as the Steelers, so let’s go f—— beat both of them. Which was beautiful. We were tired of losing to the Steelers and it was time to play them for all the marbles.”
Kenny Stabler threw four touchdown passes as the Raiders beat the Bengals, 35-20. The Steelers and Bengals both finished the season 10-4, with Pittsburgh earning the AFC Central title on the strength of its season sweep of Cincinnati.
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John Madden brought that game up several times to his son over the years.
“He really despised the practice of sitting players late in the season when your playoff position is clinched,” Mike Madden said. “He hated it for a lot of reasons, and the first was that if you sit Ken Stabler, what do you say to Art Shell? The game is too dangerous for Snake but we don’t care about you other guys.
“And he also hated that it went against the spirit of competition. Not playing to win freaked him out.”
The Raiders would beat the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game to advance to Super Bowl XI, which the Raiders won over the Minnesota Vikings to capture their first title.
John Madden refused to rest his starters in 1976. A month later, he was carried off the field by his players as a Super Bowl champion. (Focus on Sports/Getty Images)
“Just for the sake of the organization, just for the sake of football, just for the sake of what’s right, you’ve got to go win,” John Madden said in the video. “That Monday night game was the most proud game that I ever coached in my life. I don’t know any other way to play. And thank goodness, my players didn’t either.”
Another team that didn’t rest its starters, the 2007 New York Giants, also went on to win the Super Bowl that season. The Giants were 10-5 and locked into the No. 5 seed in the playoffs ahead of their regular-season finale against the 15-0 Patriots.
“History would not record that we did not do our best,” Coughlin wrote in a guest essay for the New York Times shortly after Madden’s death in December 2021. “Even though we lost, 38-35, the game proved to me and our team that we could play with the best.”
Coughlin walked into his office at 5 am after that game to find a voicemail from Madden. Coughlin copied down the words and also played the message for his team to hear the following day.
“Just called to congratulate you and your team for a great effort last night. Not good, but great. I think it is one of the best things to happen to the NFL in the last 10 years, and I don’t know if they all know it, but they should be very grateful to you and your team for what you did.
“I believe so firmly in this: that there is only one way to play the game, and it is a regular-season game and you go out to win the darn game. I was just so proud being a part of the NFL and what your guys did and the way you did it. You proved that it’s a game and there’s only one way to play the game and you did it. The NFL needed it. We’ve gotten too much of, ‘Well, they’re going to rest their players and don’t need to win, therefore they won’t win.’ Well, that’s not sports and that’s not competition. I’m a little emotional about it. I’m just so proud.”
Football reveals character, Madden believed, and how the game was played was paramount.
“He believed it was the greatest game and devoted his life to ensuring it always would be,” Coughlin wrote of Madden. “John’s call reaffirmed the belief that you do give honor and glory to the Giants and to the NFL by the way you come to play and compete.”
Six weeks after that Week 17 loss, the Giants stunned the Patriots 17-14 to win Super Bowl XLII and spoil New England’s undefeated season.
Tom Coughlin and the Giants didn’t beat Tom Brady’s Patriots in Week 17 in 2007, but they did get the best of New England in the Super Bowl. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
First-year coach Brian Daboll faces a similar situation with the Giants this weekend, although there is seeding on the line for other teams. New York is locked into the No. 6 seed, but faces the NFC East rival Eagles, who need a win — or a 49ers loss — to clinch the No. 1 seed and the first-round bye in the NFC playoffs. San Francisco would grab the No. 1 seed and the bye with a win over the Cardinals and a Giants win over the Eagles.
Daboll has declined to reveal his plans, saying the Giants will go through the practice week like normal and make a decision Friday night.
The Lions could find themselves in a situation in which their only motivation is knocking a rival out of the playoffs. If the Seahawks lose to the Rams on Sunday afternoon — Seattle is a 6-point favorite, per BetMGM — Detroit’s showdown with the Packers on “Sunday Night Football” would send the winner to the playoffs. But if the Seahawks win, the Lions are eliminated from playoff contention before they kick off. In that scenario, Green Bay would make the playoffs — and eliminate the Seahawks — with a win over Detroit, while Seattle would be in over Green Bay if the Lions beat the Packers.
The Buccaneers don’t have any other teams to think about. They are locked into the No. 4 seed in the NFC and face the Falcons, who are out of playoff contention. But Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady feels the same way as Madden and Coughlin, saying that it would “bother” him not to play this Sunday.
“I haven’t missed a game other than my ACL (injury), and then in 2016, I missed the first four games,” Brady said, referring to the 15 games he missed in 2008 and the four games due to the Deflategate suspension. . “Other than that, I’ve played them all.”
Don’t tell him that some games are meaningless.
“I understand the context, but I don’t think anything is meaningless,” Brady said on his SiriusXM podcast on Tuesday. “And everything’s in preparation for what’s ahead… It’s not gonna matter per the standings, but it matters because you’re a professional. It matters because it’s a performance. It matters because it’s your job.”
(Top photo of Giants head coach Brian Daboll: Vincent Carchietta / USA Today)
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