Playoff memories are hard to forget

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Posted: Thursday December 31, 1998 12:59 PM

The last time the Cardinals were in the playoffs they were the St. Louis Cardinals. The date? January 8, 1983. After a strike-shortened season in 1982, the NFL went with a Super Bowl Tournament which allowed 16 teams into the playoffs.

Well, Jake "The Snake" Plummer has led the 1998 version of the now Arizona Cardinals into the playoffs. The postseason was a big deal then just as it is now. The Cardinals had been in the playoffs just three times in my lifetime prior to that 1983 trip.

I remember the day well, because it was also the first playoff game I would ever play in. The Green Bay Packers were ending a 10-year playoff drought. We had qualified with a 5-3-1 record and would host a playoff game at Lambeau Field for the first time since the Ice Bowl. I remember an NFL Films clip with John "J.J." Jefferson saying, "Welcome to America's Winter Wonderland, Green Bay, Wisconsin, where the Green Bay Packers will square off with the St. Louis Cardinals."

That day was the most exciting game of my career. The playoffs, the electricity, the always-sold-out Lambeau Field crowd. With that game, we the '82 Packers felt linked, if just for that one day, with the great Packers teams of the '20s, '30s, '40s and '60s. We ran faster, blocked and tackled harder and seemed to catch every pass. We rolled over the Cardinals 41-16.

Sitting on my stool in the locker room, it hit me -- the finality of the playoffs. Lose and go home. The excitement turned to numbness. Sure, some teams become old hands at postseason play, wading their way through the regular season, just waiting for the second season to begin.

For us, though, this was uncharted territory. Sure, Bart Starr was our coach, and he had played on those Super Bowl teams, but that was lifetime ago. A lump found its place in my throat as I realized next week we would play the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys were a great team with a great recent playoff history -- they had missed the playoffs only once in the previous 16 years, and had been to the NFC Championship game two straight years.

We gained more yards (466) against the Cowboys than any other team has in their playoff history. I had a 71-yard run on a reverse -- at the time, the longest run in NFL playoff history -- against the Cowboys. I don't mention those stats to pat myself on the back, but to highlight the fact that while I played in over 200 regular-season games, I made it to a grand total of just 10 playoff games and three Super Bowls.

For each of those postseason games, I can recall the field conditions, which way the wind was blowing and our game plan. The regular season passes like a blur, but the postseason sits in front of you forever. Jake the Snake and the rest of the Cardinals will make history this weekend -- a history they won't soon forget.

James Lofton, one of 76 nominees this year for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is an NFL analyst for CNN/SI. His weekly column appears every Thursday exclusively on CNNSI.com.

 

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