Forgotten Worst NFL Game Ever

On November three, nineteen thirty five, the NFL played its worst game ever, featuring the Boston Redskins taking on the Philadelphia Eagles in a show that was marred by the most interceptions in NFL history. There was eleven interceptions by both teams combined and fourteen turnovers total, with a final score of seven to six. Ten thousand fans had to watch this awful game. Join us as we see how this game happened and what makes it the worst NFL game of all time? Today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide because I throw eleven interceptions every time I play Baden. So, the NFL started in nineteen twenty. It started as the American Professional Football Association. The later changed it because that is too long. And it continued to grow slowly and slowly. And in the nineteen thirties it was growing, but the Great Depression took a toll. A lot of teams were dropping out because of financial reasons because not only could they not afford to pay the players as owners, fans couldn't afford pay tickets. It was a vicious cycle and it was a hard time. But coming out of that, the NFL really started to boom. It started to gain traction against bigger leagues such as Major League Baseball, and the game was very different in the nineteen twenties and thirties than it. Is today today. We see quarterbacks making amazing passes down the field, passing the ball thirty forty fifty times a game. In nineteen thirty five, the average amount of team passed the game was maybe fifteen times, but it wasn't a normal thing, and passes. Weren't always passed by the quarterback. Back then, it was a little bit different rules, but overall the same gist of the game. Still four downs, four quarters, still ten yards to get to a first down, but running backs pass the ball, tight ends passed the ball. It was a very different game. So what made this game possibly the worst game ever in NFL history. Well, we gotta look at the teams first. See these are two newer teams to the league. The Boston Redskins actually started in nineteen thirty two as the Boston Braves, adopting the same name as a baseball team, playing in the same stadium as that baseball team. It was very confusing, so the next year they changed it to the Boston Redskins, making it the worst name picked ever in football history, as it's very racist and should never have been picked. But they struggled their first few years. They had some quality players, some quality coaches, and their owner, George Preston Marshall, was a quality owned and had money to back the team. It was just a challenge and later relocate to Washington, d C. After the nineteen thirty five season after struggling to find their footing in Boston. And the Philadelphia Eagles were in the same boat. They started in nineteen thirty three and where the newest franchise were still the newest franchise in nineteen thirty five, and they struggled, just as Boston struggled to find their footing, find consistency, and develop an identity for their team. They struggled on offense mightily, but their defense did come along. So let's look at the key people coming into this game. So Eddie Casey was the coach of the Boston Redskins. He was a Harvard football legend and actually won the MVP of the Rose Bowl back when he was a player and would later join the College Football Hall of Fame. And this was his first season coaching the Boston Redskins. Though he was known to be a good. Football mind, he struggled to find success as a head coach, but they had some good players that played both sides the ball. Cliff Battles was one of the. First great running backs in the NFL, known for his speed and versatility, and while he was in college, he actually scored seven touchdowns in one game and he would later be inducted in both the College and Pro Football Hall of Fame. And they also had Bill Shepherd who was a running back and defensive back as well, a star from Maryland, and he led the nation while he was in college in points and was a three year NFL rushing top ten performer and actually had played with the Detroit Allions before coming to Boston in nineteen thirty five. So they had some good players coming into the game, and they were facing off against lud Weary, who was kind of the old school, rough and ready coach, and he was the Eagles' first head coach. He co founded and served as a coach for the first couple of years, and he helped fund the team by actually buying remnants of a former semi pro team but they also had some great ads on their team as well. Ed eggs Manski was the leading scorer for the Eagles in nineteen thirte and was a college football Hall of Famer. Was known for his two way play and was a standout at Northwestern and would go on to play with the Bears when they won the biggest NFL blowout, winning the nineteen forty NFL title and actually appeared on a Wheedies box in nineteen thirty six. And they also had a half back quarterback Combo in Ed's Storm and he led the team in passing in nineteen thirty five. Was noted for his ability not only as a thrower but also a rusher. So these were the key. Contributors to this game, to these teams, and there's not a lot of information out about this game. So first, the game was played in Boston in Finway, Yes that Finnway, the baseball stadium, which is not the best turf. For a baseball field. And also conversions back then weren't like they they are today. We have people that their. Job is to maintain the fields. That's not what it was back then when it was a great baseball area. But not made for football. The grass was uneven, and it was November in Boston. It was cold, it was rainy, the ground was wet. But despite this, ten thousand fans came to see the game, which was about an average amount for a typical NFL game back in the nineteen thirties, but unexpectedly they were about to witness probably the worst game. In NFL history. See, you could say this was a defensive struggle, and back then maybe it was, or maybe it was just the weather took control of everything. And you had to also understand nineteen thirty five, stats were taken differently than they are today. Some stats didn't even exist. The SAX stats wasn't a thing, tackle for loss wasn't a thing. So our stats are limited and the game progression is very limited. If you can look online about this game, you can only find small clippings and newspapers really talking about a close fought game, not really talking about what actually happened. But it's widely. Presumed that the first interception happened in the first quarter, and it was from the Redskins, likely thrown by Bill Shepherd, and they would go on to be two more interceptions thrown in this court. Now who threw them, We don't exactly know. We know by the end of the game how many interceptions were thrown. And in the second quarter the game started to kind of devolve into the weather taking over. Why were so many interceptions thrown in this game because the weather, because the ground it was so muddy that even though you normally rush the ball in situations like this, because passing the ball back then was more dangerous, was more risky because you didn't practice as much you needed and you didn't have to. But since the players couldn't get their footing and running the ball, they tried to make passes the best they could. Unfortunately, the other team kept catching the ball so by the second quarter, so the Redskins Bill Shepherd was able to rush for fifty seven yards in the first half and score Boston's only touchdown. Sadly, because of the conditions, they actually missed the kick, so they only had six points and coming out in the second half, the Eagles were able to come out with an passed from Eggs Maski to ed storm of fifty five yards, scoring the game tying touchdown, and then their kicker, Hank Reese was able to find enough footing to kick the ball, giving them a lead seven to six. By this point in the second half, the Redskins had turned the ball over six times, five interceptions and one fumble, and the Eagles had turned the ball over four times with four total interceptions. Heading into the fourth quarter, now the games was just at one possession game. A field goal was all that was needed, but they kept turning the ball over to each other, and then the Redskins had the ball down one taking one final push to the end zone or to get close enough to make a field goal, and they ended up throwing another interception, the eleventh and final interception of the night to the Eagle, who took control of the ball and ran the clock out after this quarter ended with an interception and fumble from each team, but the Eagles escaped just enough to win the game, so the game total of turnovers was fourteen, with eleven total turnovers, six interceptions by the Redskins and five by the Eagles. When the game ended, Ed Matski of the Eagles had thrown three interceptions and Ed Storm had thrown two interceptions. And for the Redskins, Bill Sheppard had thrown three interceptions and Pug Hunner had thrown two interceptions. At the end of the game, the Philadelphia Eagles had a total of two hundred and eighty yards. To Boston's two to six. Just to show you how bad these teams were and why it wasn't just the bad weather and just an unlucky game. Both these teams finished were just two on the season, and the Redskins would actually moved to a new location after this, and the Eagles would fire their head coach. It was a bad situation. And these teams were not good, not competitive in this league, and that's what made it such a bad game. It almost seemingly has been buried by the NFL, unlikely because the NFL doesn't likely care, but they probably would like to bury the story of the worst game ever in NFL history because it was terrible. Both these teams were not good and the weather in this field did not help. But whenever you're thinking about, oh, this game is terrible to watch, just remember it's not like this game. But my question is to you, what do you think the worst game in NFL history is? And I want to thank you for listening to Today's Daily Sports History. If you'd like this, please share it with a friend. 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