NFL in a Decade: #2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cardinals

The Cardinals had moved from St. Louis to Phoenix in 1988, switching their name from Phoenix Cardinals to Arizona Cardinals in 1994 in an attempt to draw more fans from within the state, but they continued to play all their home games in Phoenix. The Rams moved from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1995.

The Browns left Cleveland after the 1995 season, becoming the Baltimore Ravens, although a new expansion Cleveland Browns team joined the league in 1999. The Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee in 1997, becoming the Tennessee Oilers for two seasons, before switching their names to the Titans in 1999.

Answer: Kansas City Chiefs

Joe Montana left the San Francisco 49ers, and Marcus Allen left the Raiders, winding up on the 1993 Kansas City Chiefs (in deference to Chiefs Hall of Famer Len Dawson, Montana abandoned the Number 16 jersey he'd made famous in San Francisco, wearing a 19 with the Chiefs). With Montana throwing for 13 touchdowns and Allen adding 12 more of his own on the ground, the Chiefs made it to the AFC conference finals, their farthest advancement in the playoffs since 1969, before losing to the Buffalo Bills, 30-13.

Answer: The referee misunderstood the overtime coin flip, possibly costing the Steelers the game

The game in itself was not remarkable, playing out to a 16-16 tie at the end of regulation. By 1998, overtime games weren't very unusual either. What happened with the routine coin toss to start the overtime was unprecedented however. Referee Phil Luckett tossed the coin into the air.

A national TV audience heard Jerome Bettis of the Steelers call "tails." The coin landed tails, Luckett confirmed this, but then went on to award the choice of what to do to the Lions, claiming that Pittsburgh had called "heads." The Lions chose to receive the kickoff and scored, winning the game before the Steelers ever got the ball. Luckett, the Lions, and some in the NFL maintained that a second Steeler had called "heads" while Bettis called "tails," but in the eyes of many in the public, the Steelers had been cheated out of a chance to win the game.

In the end, the game's outcome didn't matter, as neither team won again all season. The Steelers, who had been 7-4 and positioned for the playoffs going in to the game, wound up 7-9 for the season.

In the offseason, the NFL reinstituted instant replay review of plays, after an absence of seven years, although replay would not have been allowed to overturn Luckett's call of the coin flip.

Answer: Dan Marino

After a brilliant career in which he'd led the NFL for three seasons in passing yards and five seasons in touchdown passes, and in which he was the league's all-time career leader in passing attempts, completions, yards, and touchdowns at the time of his retirement, Marino left quietly, losing a 1999 playoff game to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 62-7. Marino was 11/25 for 95 yards with one TD and two INTs in what was also Jimmy Johnson's final game coaching the Dolphins. Aikman's final game was a 2000 win over Washington, in which he was 2/3 for 16 yards. Kelly was 21/32 for 239 yards, one TDs, one INT as his Buffalo Bills lost to Jacksonville in a 1996 playoff game. Moon was 12/31 with 130 yards and one INT, playing for the Kansas City Chiefs in a 2000 loss to San Diego.

Answer: Had teams play much of the season in "throwback uniforms," based on uniforms from the teams' pasts

The throwback uniforms were massive successes. The oldest teams in the league wore amusingly garish and unrecognizable uniforms from the 1930s. Even teams with shorter histories went back to their original uniforms. The Jets and the Giants so pleased their fans by reverting to older uniforms that both teams eventually modified their helmets to reflect "classic" looks from their history. And starting in 2001, the NFL encouraged teams to pay homage to their history by wearing throwback uniforms during Thanksgiving weekend.

Answer: The two sons of the team's owner

Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke built Jack Kent Cooke Stadium with his own money, and named the 200 acres on which it sat after his sons Ralph and John. Cooke passed away before the first game was ever played in the stadium, and his family sold the team two years later to Daniel Snyder. Snyder wasted no time in selling the naming rights of Jack Kent Cooke Stadium to FedEx, and reverting to Landover, MD (in which "Raljon" existed) as the team's location.

The Raljon name lives on however, as the stadium's official address is at "1600 Raljon Rd."

Answer: Steve Young

Young paid his dues playing for a failed league, then a bad team, then a team with an irreplaceable legend as quarterback, but he made the most of his opportunity when it happened. In his eight seasons as the regular starter in San Francisco after taking over for Joe Montana, Young's passer rating was 90 or higher each year, and 100 or higher for six of those seasons.

He retired after an injury-plagued 1999 season and was selected in 2005 for the Hall of Fame.

Answer: The NFL stripped the game from Phoenix after Arizona voters rejected a holiday honoring Martin Luther King

In 1989, the NFL awarded Super Bowl XXVII to Phoenix. At the time, Arizona was one of two US states (NH being the other) to not have a paid state holiday honoring Martin Luther King. Over a period of several years, multiple governors and legislatures in Arizona created a paid holiday, changed it into an unpaid Sunday holiday, and back and forth.

In 1990, a ballot initiative was created to allow Arizonans to vote on the King holiday. Polls showed the initiative heading for passage, until the NFL weighed in with a threat to take the Super Bowl away if the King holiday was voted down.

The pressure from the NFL was resented by voters, who soundly rejected the holiday. Four months after the vote, the NFL made good on its threat and moved the game to Pasadena.

In 1992, Arizona voters approved a King holiday, and the NFL awarded Super Bowl XXX to Phoenix, where the game was played in January 1996.

Answer: Washington Redskins

"Neon" Deion "Prime Time" Sanders set some high standards with his constant self-promotion, but he may have come close to backing up his boasts with amazing play. The eight-time Pro Bowler played for the Falcons for the first five years of his career, took a low paying contract (laced with high incentives) with the San Francisco 49ers for 1994, helping them win the Super Bowl that year, then played for the Dallas Cowboys from 1995-99, winning a Super Bowl his first year there.

As a cornerback, he intercepted 39 passes for eight touchdowns during the 1990s. During the same period, he also scored three touchdowns on 59 pass receptions, had three kickoff returns for touchdowns, and had five touchdowns and a better than 10 yard average returning punts. Sanders joined the Washington Redskins for a single season in 2000, retired, then attempted a comeback with the 2004 Baltimore Ravens.

Answer: Kurt Warner

No fiction writer ever had the audacity to develop a story as ridiculous as that of quarterback Kurt Warner. He joined the Green Bay Packers after college and was cut. He took a job earning minimum wage stocking shelves at a HyVee grocery store in Iowa.

After winning a 1997 tryout with the Chicago Bears, he sustained a venomous spider bite while on his honeymoon, rendering his throwing arm unusable. The next year, he broke into the NFL with the St. Louis Rams, throwing 11 passes and completing four.

In 1999, Rams starter Trent Green was injured in the preseason and Warner played all season, completing 65% of his passes for more than 4,300 yards, 41 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. He was the NFL Most Valuable Player and picked up another MVP award as his Rams won the Super Bowl.

He had another MVP season two years later as the Rams narrowly missed a second Super Bowl title. So good were Warner's first three seasons as a starter that, headed into the 2002 season, he was assured of being ranked as the league's all-time highest-rated passer upon throwing the 97 passes needed for the minimum 1,500 attempts required for ranking. Even had all 97 passes been incomplete, he still would have topped the list.

Although injuries marred Warner's performance starting in 2002, nothing can take away his incredible 1999-2001 seasons. If he ever returns to the Hy-Vee with his sights set on winning Employee of the Month, no one had better stand in his way!