Veterans Stadium, Seat Location unknown
The concept of this blog was to open up a box full of ticket stubs, place them in a chronological sequence, and post a historical prospective about the anniversary date. I really did not begin saving ticket stubs until adulthood. I had scattered ticket stubs from prior games, but not many.
When the anniversary of this game came around, I let it go without posting, as I had no ticket stub to the event.
For instance, I attended every single home basketball game in college for 2 seasons and a majority of them during my college years. I have one or two ticket stubs.
I also attended Phillies games with an aunt who had season tickets from the mid 70's to early 80's.
I was able to attend several games during the seasons she had her season tickets. I only have a handful of those ticket stubs.
The Body Bag Bowl was a memorable game but I had not ticket stub, therefore, forgot about it until now. I remember I attended a Sunday night Bruins at Capitals game the night prior. I drove back to New Jersey for work Monday, then began tailgating around 4 for the Monday Night Football game. I suspect we paid off a security guard in the basement of the Vet to get in. That would explain the lack of ticket stub. A co-worker worked part time at The Vet. He would arrange for us to pay a security guard in one of the tunnels in the basement $10 each to gain access to big games we couldn't get tickets to. We never had seats so we wandered around trying to cop the best view.
The game ended up being one of legend. It is one of the few NFL games that was dubbed with it's own name. It is one of the few NFL games to get it's own Wikipedia entry.
The game was the epitome of the Buddy Ryan era. In the days leading to the clash, Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan threatened a beating so severe that "they'll have to be carted off in body bags." Ryan's words were prophetic. The Eagles defense scored three touchdowns in a 28-14 win.
During this game, nine Redskins were injured, including starting quarterbackJeff Rutledge and backup Stan Humphries. The Redskins had to end the game with rookie running back/kick returner Brian Mitchell at quarterback.
One of the most fondly remembered Redskins-Eagles games ever, at least by Eagles fans, was avenged by Washington in the playoffs.
Following the Body Bag Game game the Eagles would go on to win five of their last seven under Randall Cunningham, finish the season 10-6 and earn a wild card playoff berth, the fourth seed in the tough NFC.
The Redskins meanwhile also would win five of their last seven to finish the season 10-6, losing the number four seed spot to the Eagles.
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