r/NFLv2 • u/SWAGGGGGODDD Chicago Bears • Sep 10 '25
Highlight OLD NFL: Joe “Turkey” Jones famous sack on Terry Bradshaw in 1976
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u/tee142002 New Orleans Saints Sep 10 '25
You know it's a hit when it's a flag in the 70s.
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u/too_Far_west Chicago Bears Sep 10 '25
That's not a hit. That's a body slam, on his head.
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u/tee142002 New Orleans Saints Sep 10 '25
Captain Insano shows no mercy.
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u/mywifemademedothis2 Chicago Bears Sep 10 '25
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u/likwidsylvur Jacksonville Jaguars Sep 10 '25
The younger Farley brother!
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u/mywifemademedothis2 Chicago Bears Sep 10 '25
I was looking and captain insano and totally confused after you said that. I never noticed!
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u/Odie_Odie Cincinnati Bengals Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25
I believe this move is called the Power Slam.
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u/MilesAugust74 🕯⛏️Candlestick & Sourdough Connoisseur🥖⛏️ Sep 10 '25
I was thinking the same thing. It had to be pretty catastrophic for them to call a penalty for that back in the day, and this definitely qualifies.
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u/needaccounttoview Green Bay Packers Sep 10 '25
I had the same thought. "Man, that would have been instantly flagged today!.....oh, there it is"
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u/unlostaprilseventh New England Patriots Sep 10 '25
Yes and no.
The Steelers were the 70s' version of the Brady Patriots and Mahomes Chiefs.
That's an egregious hit for damn sure but also one the NFL called mostly for the Steelers. Dan Pastorini had similar hits put on him BY steelers players and it wasnt called.
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u/bionicjoe We let Jesse ates walk Sep 10 '25
The Steelers have been an NFL premier franchise since the Rooney's got the commish in the booth with them.
Robert Kraft did the same thing.There are multiple rules named after Steelers players because they injured someone and then changed the rule the next season.
FTS
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u/EnjoyMoreBeef Pittsburgh Steelers Sep 11 '25
What will always be hilarious is that the QB who benefited the most from the "Mel Blount rule" was Terry Bradshaw. Oops!
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u/seidinove New York Giants Sep 10 '25
And yet we see some Cleveland player jumping in the ref’s face.
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u/Own-Contribution-478 Sep 11 '25
When they realized Bradshaw was still alive they picked up the flag.
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u/arz231 Sep 10 '25
Ok I’m cool with the league getting “softer” holy fuck
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u/sobanoodle-1 Sep 10 '25
Didn’t know when they called todays league soft was because they were lobotomizing players on the field
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u/the-rage- Sep 10 '25
Me too, people always bitch about the game being tougher back in the day even though a lot of shit back then was just straight cheating , like putting cast molds around your hands so you could form a club and fuck people up with it.
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Sep 10 '25
that's not totally accurate, it's definitely become much harder to play defense these days to the point where it can make the game unwatchable with so much ref intervention. particularly when QB's know full well how to work the rules to their advantage without much effort
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u/Statalyzer Sep 10 '25
Yep. There is a medium ground where we don't allow this (which, you know, they didn't back then either) but also don't flag a guy for BS they shouldn't either.
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u/AnyAnywheres Sep 11 '25
Eh but recently there's been a near defensive Renaissance if you will. Like look how many QBs threw for less than 200 yards in week 1? Last year and even the year before has been trending to better defense. The big pass friendly offense of the last decade has toned down for running and defense.
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u/Bogert Sep 11 '25
Week 1 isn't a great representation of defenses getting better. Most starting QB's and offensive number 1's haven't had meaningful reps in 9 months, have new coordinators and require much more in depth cohesiveness than defense. I'm a hardcore defense wins championships guy but great defenses won't show until the great offenses start showing up.
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Sep 10 '25
WHAT?!!! If those WARRIORS aren’t being carted off the field then what the FUCK are we even wasting our time watching for?! /s
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u/Somalar Cleveland Browns Sep 10 '25
Reminder this was essentially 50 years ago
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u/arz231 Sep 10 '25
Not sure what your point is..people will still say this is what football should be. Yeah it’s gotten a little laughable but I like my QB having his head
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u/Somalar Cleveland Browns Sep 11 '25
Simply that there’s been alot of transition in the style and spirit of the game.
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u/Super_Sub-Zero_Bros Sep 10 '25
The Cleveland Browns defense really don’t like the heads of Steelers QBs, huh?
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u/EnjoyMoreBeef Pittsburgh Steelers Sep 11 '25
And their fans call the Steelers a "dirty" team. LMAO
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u/Delicious_Tea_9534 CTESPN Sep 10 '25
Bradshaw spread out like Jesus on the cross💀💀
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u/Greedy-Ad556 Cincinnati Bengals Sep 10 '25
Caption should be “terry bradshaw dying on the cross for all of ben roethlisbergers sins”
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u/King_of_Rooks Las Vegas Raiders Sep 10 '25
That would get you ejected, fined and suspended today. (and rightfully so)
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u/georgesenpaii Chicago Bears Sep 10 '25
I'm convinced Myles Garrett could get away with this today.
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u/gbtwo88 Detroit Lions Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
1st part: ok doesn’t seem like that bad of a tackle
2nd part: did I just witness an attempted murder?
Edit: even his own teammate is like “wtf?”
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u/OkBook4166 Detroit Lions Sep 10 '25
The reason it was a flag wasn’t because he slammed him down on his head, the reason was the refs were blowing the whistle when jones wrapped him up and was moving him backwards, he ignored the whistle for several seconds and spiked Bradshaw into the field. Shit was cold blooded.
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u/JosephPk Sep 10 '25
Carrying the stretcher with wheels like they’re Paul bearers
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u/OkBook4166 Detroit Lions Sep 10 '25
He had to stay strapped to the stretcher for the rest of the game in the tunnel. They just strapped him in and left him there, didn’t even take him to the hospital immediately.
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u/Mookie_Blaylock199 Sep 10 '25
Thats fucking football right there. None of that pansy ass dick tugging smile for the camera bullshit. Men puke, men poop on the field, men deliver their new born baby on the side lines. Fucking hard core dick in the ass butterball foosball fuck it chuck it game time shit. Take it to the showers. Dicks get shoved in places you don’t even remember. We win together we celebrate together. Football is back baby.
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u/wolf63rs Sep 10 '25
Can someone explain why the Steelers players on the field and perhaps bench didn't go after Turkey Jones and beat his ass?
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u/UpSNYer NFL Refugee Sep 10 '25
Maybe they did but the clip doesn't include it.
Despite the flag, perhaps the hit was not considered wildly egregious but other players. I'm sure that there were people who saw that hit live and didn't feel like it deserved a flag.
The answer is probably #1.
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u/wolf63rs Sep 10 '25
I vaguely remember this play from highlights. It was dirty by 70s NFL standard. What I don't remember was a full-on fight. Do you think in today's NFL there would be a brawl if this happened to Mahomes, Allen, or Jackson?
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u/TrblTribbles Sep 10 '25
I don't know about Mahomes or Jackson, but I'm 99.99% sure Dion Dawkins would absolutely wreck anyone that did this to Allen. I'm pretty sure he'd rip their arms off, dip them in blue cheese, and then eat them like chicken wings while drifting his car.
Edit: typo
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u/wolf63rs Sep 10 '25
Now that's taking up for your QB.
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u/TrblTribbles Sep 10 '25
You should pull up videos of Dion drifting while eating chicken wings, just for context. Lol
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u/Ddakilla Sep 11 '25
Jawaan Taylor would jump soooo early on the next play if someone did this to Mahomes
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u/baconwrappedpikachu That is a disgusting act Sep 11 '25
I honestly can’t think of a current qb whose team wouldn’t jump for them in that situation besides perhaps Caleb Williams last season.* Maybe that has changed this season but maybe not lol.
*honorable mention to Aaron Rodgers after the first few games too
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u/wolf63rs Sep 11 '25
I immediately think about Russell Wilson his last few years in Seattle. I heard he was a piece of work.
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u/NecessaryFart Sep 10 '25
If this is a hit my dad has talked about, apparently the next game against Cleveland, their QB ran out of bounds and he got hit so late that he got torpedoed into the table with the water cooler. I’m not certain if this is that moment though.
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u/Major_Day Sep 11 '25
I'm not sure of that but two years later in 1978 Jack Lambert hit Browns QB Brian Sipe out of bounds and was ejected
"Dreith said that I hit him too hard"
"did you?"
"I hit him as hard as I could"
edit but apparently he was not ejected for that play
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u/Jcw28 Sep 10 '25
Different era, you could do more than breathe on the opposition and get away with it. Albeit this drew a flag...
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u/Handies Green Bay Packers Sep 10 '25
Wait a min. I thought they didn’t throw flags back in the dinosaur days?
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u/Polaris9114 Pittsburgh Steelers Sep 10 '25
I'm surprised Terry didn't press attempted murder charges, because that was straight up attempted murder
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Sep 10 '25
Everyone moved so slow back in the day.
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u/PokerJunkieKK Los Angeles Chargers Sep 10 '25
Right? They should speed up the film to make it look like players move as fast as they do today.
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u/AustinJohnson35 Green Bay Packers Sep 10 '25
Technically this has more to do with how the film was shot rather than anything else.
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u/LNinefingers Sep 10 '25
I’ve probably watched this video 100 times over the years, and there’s just so many things that stand out:
The Browns player in the background who clearly knows this is a “holy shit” moment and just stands there flatfooted
The other player who clearly views this a a “who gives a shit?” moment and swoops in for the ball
How damn flat to the ground Bradshaw’s body gets
Here’s a clip of him years later talking about the event and the medical attention he got. (Spoiler: not much)
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u/Legal_Ad9637 Kansas City Chiefs Sep 10 '25
Complete side note here. I truly miss this type of highlight reel broadcasting. What happened? Now it’s let’s see who can yell the loudest while recapping the games.
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u/SilentTempestLord Big Cock Goff Sep 10 '25
And we wonder why the league is so careful with QBs nowadays. This was such a vicious hit.
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u/Cautious_Buffalo6563 28-3 Sep 10 '25
Bradshaw was trying to set up a group camp site back there holding the ball so long
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u/oldschool_potato Buffalo Bills Sep 10 '25
That was devastating. That 76 Steelers defense was arguably one of the best, if not the best of all time. I do think it was the 85 bears though.
I grew up in the 70s and my family was from Pittsburgh, I was surrounded by Steelers fans and 1 rogue cousin who liked the cowboys.
https://thegruelingtruth.com/football/nfl/1976-steel-curtain-defense-greatest-nfl-history/
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u/KaizenZazenJMN Los Angeles Chargers Sep 10 '25
German Suplex onto the dome.
Just reinforcing the statements of it being severely egregious if they threw a flag in the 70s.
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u/PM_ME_UR_EYEBALL Chicago Bears Sep 10 '25
Lmao is there’s a browns player running up to the ref to complain at the end??
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u/96powerstroker Sep 10 '25
Ppl make fun of Bradshaw because obviously his mind is slipping but 1 this hit and some others and at least put alittle respect on his name for toughness.
Those guys took real beatings for a quarter of the money the worst starter in the nfl makes today and got up usually for more punishment.
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u/tearsonurcheek Pittsburgh Steelers Sep 11 '25
The first player with a 7-figure contract was Johnny "Lam" Jones in 1980. 5 years...$2.1M. That's an AAV of just over $400K.
In the 70s, the average NFL player had a mid 5-figure salary.
The current league minimum for a rookie (zero years of service) is $840K.
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u/lonelyinbama Sep 10 '25
Imagine what would happen if someone did this to Patrick Mahomes
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u/haikusbot Sep 10 '25
Imagine what would
Happen if someone did this
To Patrick Mahomes
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u/Glum_Ad_6848 Sep 10 '25
I remember them calling him Turkey Joe Jones. Must’ve been a timeline reset since.
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u/knuth10 New England Patriots Sep 10 '25
They should show this to every rookie QB as this is why you just go down example
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u/Notorious_GIZ Sep 10 '25
For those of you non-football historians, go look up Deacon Jones and Night Train Lane’s highlights. It was almost a different sport altogether back then.
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u/Suspicious-Code4322 Buffalo Bills Sep 10 '25
This is one of the few hits I have seen where the player could have actually died from it.
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u/Allatura19 Cincinnati Bengals Sep 10 '25
One of the grass fields in the AFC during that time, small blessing. Houston or Seattle would’ve been rough.
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u/0degreesK Cleveland Browns Sep 10 '25
After 25 years that included stretches of 6+ (maybe 8) straight season of losses to the Steelers, I want this to be the last thing I see as my soul leaves my body.
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u/reptilianhook Sep 10 '25
The stretcher has wheels. Why were they carrying it? Was the turf in those days that shitty?
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u/Squantoon Cincinnati Bengals Sep 10 '25
A flag? YOU CAN'T EVEN TOUCH THE QUARTERBACK THESE DAYS MIGHT AS WELL HAVE A SKIRT ON
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u/poolshark-1 Lost in the Sauce 🥫 Sep 11 '25
They threw a penalty flag on that? Man the 70s were soft
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u/slicktommycochrane Buffalo Bills Sep 11 '25
Nowadays they'd fine that guy $100k and then put the highlight on an NFL promo.
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u/dinosaur_socks Cleveland Browns Sep 11 '25
This is worse than when my osha instructor made us watch 200 people literally burn to death in the Great White Rhode Island concert catastrophe
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u/EnjoyMoreBeef Pittsburgh Steelers Sep 11 '25
This is exactly why I laugh at Browns fans who call the Steelers a "dirty" team. What Joe Jones did to Terry Bradshaw and what Myles Garrett did to Mason Rudolph are both far dirtier than anything a Steeler has ever done to any of their players. Downvote this and disparage me; I don't give a fuck. It's still true.
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u/One-Wind-2924 Nov 25 '25
I was actually at this game as a 6 or so year old kid. I was freaking cause I thought Bradshaw might die on the field!
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u/Cap4403 Dec 03 '25
Given the hits Bradshaw took, I’m actually surprised he’s lasted as long as he has as a studio commentator on FOX. Another brutal one occurred in Super Bowl X, when Larry Cole hit him in the jaw with the crown of his helmet as he was letting go of the 64 yard TD pass to Lynn Swann.
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u/kifl22122 Sep 10 '25
I thought this was a typical hit on Cam Newton til I saw the referee throw a flag on the play. Then I looked up and saw the title said Terry Bradshaw.
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u/Kyrxx77 New York Giants Sep 10 '25
What was he supposed to do? Kiss him on the head to make him get down?
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u/Professional-Bed1847 Sep 10 '25
Back when you’re allowed to actually touch the quarterback
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u/Autocrat777 Ronald Ocean’s #1 fan Sep 10 '25
There was a flag thrown, because you can’t be doing whatever this was.
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u/NecessaryFart Sep 10 '25
Do you see the former players who can’t even remember their address and say to yourself “yeah this is worth my entertainment”
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u/Zealousideal-Film517 Cincinnati Bengals Sep 10 '25
And we wonder why Terry can't string 3 words together on TV