Bengals 50: Pete Rozelle, and an oral history of the 1988-89 no no-huddle saga

This season marks the 50th of football for the Cincinnati Bengals, five decades filled with highs, lows, dynamic personalities and innovations that changed the face of the National Football League. The Enquirer brings you the 50 most influential people in Bengals history through various forms of media, bringing you the names and untold stories that shaped this franchise over its first half century -- good, bad and ugly. 

Pete Rozelle became the commissioner of the 12-team National Football League in 1960 and was instrumental in negotiating with the American Football League, and Congress, to merge the two leagues. He also oversaw the expansion of the leagues – but to get Paul Brown back into pro football, Rozelle had to play a bit of hardball after awarding an expansion franchise to New Orleans on Nov. 1, 1966.

“That was what we were pursuing,” Mike Brown said. “And it went to New Orleans because Senator (Russell) Long could help the league with anti-trust matters and that was the leverage that took the award to New Orleans first.”

Bengals-Saints rarely meet, but share history

Rozelle then offered up a solution – take a team in the American Football League. It was a suggestion Paul Brown had a hard time swallowing. Rozelle then applied some pressure in a league meeting where he visited Paul Brown in his hotel room and said he had to take this franchise, or the opportunity would be lost. 

“My father asked for just time to contemplate the decision, and that was to be minutes,” Mike Brown recalled with a chuckle. “And Pete left and I was there with my father alone pleading the case to do it and he picked up the phone and called Pete and said he would do it. And we were underway. So that brought the franchise to my father and Cincinnati.” 

Rozelle was the commissioner until November of 1989, which was a year that began with him making a decision on the eve of the AFC Championship game to tell Bengals head coach Sam Wyche that he could not run the no-huddle offense against Marv Levy’s Buffalo Bills.

Here is a brief oral history of those that recall those hectic days prior to the Bengals’ 21-10 victory over the Bills on Jan. 8, 1989:

Sam Wyche, Bengals head coach

“The night before the game, a league official, a league representative along with the referee for the game the next day come into the production room for television. Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen were doing the game and Bob Trumpy was there because he lived in Cincinnati, knew a lot about the Bengals and could tell them about a lot of stuff, and Don Shula was there, who represented the competition committee, which was a little unusual. But it was the AFC championship, maybe they needed to have somebody representing the rules committee.

“These two guys walk into the room and they say we want to give you TV people a heads up, tomorrow, that the commissioner has gotten a phone call from Marv Levy and Marv is going to fake injuries and the commissioner said that will make a farce of the game, a big marquee game, so the commissioner has ruled that Sam cannot run the no-huddle, which we’ve run for five years, all season long, number one offense in football and that’s all we practiced all week for this game. Then that night they say that. I get a phone call from one of those members of that group I just named and he said sit down, I’m going to tell you’re not going to be happy with this, they’re not going to let you run the no-huddle.”

Joe Browne, NFL executive under Pete Rozelle

“They would want to run the play right away the next time and then all of a sudden opposing defenders, all of a sudden, they started getting muscle pulls and they would sit down on the field and have an injury timeout. It started to become a joke. Sam complained that we were ruining the competitive play of the game, but what was happening, there was nothing we could do if the player is sitting in the middle of the field or sitting in the middle of the line of scrimmage. The referees would call timeout. It just threw everything helter-skelter. It eventually got ironed out.”

Mike Norseth, Bengals backup quarterback

"It came to a head in the first playoff game against Seattle when Joe Nash got hurt on every second down play so they could stop the clock and then put a dime defense in and get him off the field."

Wyche

“And he proceeded to tell me what else happened. So it got dead quiet and one guy said well, is it illegal? And the answer from the league official – not from the referee – the answer from the league official was ‘it will be tomorrow.’ Then dead silence again. And one of the people in the room asked Don Shula, Don you’re on the competition committee where the motto is 'maintain the competitive balance of the game,' do you know anything about this? Apparently Don just kind of lowered his head and said no. No answer beyond that. That same person who’s doing all the talking turned to the referee and to the league official and said when are you going to tell Sam? The game’s tomorrow for gosh sakes, you’re going to tell him right before the game? And the league official’s answer was, ‘that’s our plan.’

“I’ve confirmed that with everybody that’s in that room except for Don. I didn’t bother him. But everybody else said they’ll never forget it because it was like no other meeting they’ve ever been in.” 

Marv Levy, Buffalo Bills head coach

(Laughs) “I wish I had better recall. I did recall they ran it and they were great and it helped them win the AFC title so I give them credit. Sam, I know well and I liked him very much. In fact, he was our third string quarterback and our field goal and PAT holder for the Redskins when I as coaching them earlier than that. Then I did several years of a TV show with Sam for FOX, too, and have a lot of regard for him.

“But I think, and I may be wrong on this – if I have any recollection at all about my objection I think it was that whenever it appeared you were going to try and substitute someone for the situation, they would quick snap the ball. Even without a play. And you’d have 12 men on the field.

“They didn’t have a play called yet. If you were trying to substitute for the down and yardage situation, they were quick snap and you were always caught with 12 on the field and got a penalty. That was my objection.” 

Boomer Esiason, Bengals quarterback

“I remember that. Marv Levy complained about it and then the next year used it, which was great. Sam never kept anything from anybody. That thing was national news the night that it came down. Marv Levy, I think it is was one the most brilliant things I’ve ever seen an opposing coach do. You know how all these coaches with the pregame hijinks and all that crap, just the things that they would do like in pregame just to kind of get under the other team’s skin and all that crap. It was brilliant because it really did distract us. It was a huge distraction.”

Bruce Coslet, Bengals offensive coordinator

“Marv Levy cried to the league. No, really. We played Buffalo the one year going to the Super Bowl (two) times and beat them every time. Marv Levy complained to the officials that we shouldn’t be allowed to use the no-huddle because it’s illegal. And we said bull---- we’re using it. So we used it anyway because there was no rule against it."

Levy

"It was something that was a lure to get you a penalty at the time. I thought it really wasn't what the league wanted or anyone wanted." 

Wyche

“So the next day I’m in my little office area off this locker room and Mike Brown comes down there. I guess maybe he’d done it before, but it was not normal, but it was the AFC Championship game, if we win this we go to the Super Bowl, big game, so he came down, and we’re waiting. I‘ve got a tape recorder under a towel on the table (laughs). And when I hear him coming I flip that tape recorder on and cover it up with a towel and I say hey, what are you guys doing here an hour and 59 minutes before kickoff? I identified the time. They told me, the commissioner got a phone call and Marv is going to fake injuries and he doesn’t want to make it a farce and he goes through the whole thing so we’re going to penalize you everything you don’t go into the huddle.

“Strangely they never used the phrase ‘we’re going to throw a flag on you.’ They used the phrase ‘we’re going to penalize you.’ The night before and that morning. I don’t know if that’s something I noticed or if there’s something to it.

“Anyway, I told them I said well, we’ve been practicing this for five years and this is all we’ve practiced all week long so, there was a runner with them, an assistant, and I said you go get Pete Rozelle on the phone for me right now and I want to remind him he’s messing with the competitive balance of the game. And as he walked out I mentioned to the referee and to the league official, I said you know what, there’s a lot of money being bet on this ball game. I don’t know if I want to be walking around Manhattan without a lot of body guards if they find out that we lost a game because we got penalized all day long for not going into the huddle. And it wasn’t 15, maybe 20 seconds, no way he had time to call the commissioner, so the commissioner probably told him if Sam gave you any push back just tell him to go ahead and run the no huddle and he’ll deal with Marv Levy after the game. And so that’s what happened. We went ahead and ran the no huddle and there was never a penalty thrown for it.”

Norseth

"The AFC championship game against Buffalo, the officials came in the locker room and told us that we weren't going to be allowed to do it. We just went crazy, the hell we're not, we're not breaking any rules, we're following the rules, it's not our fault you guys allowed Joe Nash and the Seattle Seahawks to make a mockery of it."

Esiason

“But at the end of the day, we were a better team than they were. And were playing them at home, in the jungle and the jungle was almost impossible for anybody that year to come in and beat us. We just had it all going that year. We all knew what it was and we knew what Marv Levy was doing and at the end of the day we won and they went on to win the next four.”

Coslet

"The next year (Levy) ‘invents’ the K-Gun, which is the no-huddle offense, and then goes to four Super Bowls in a row with Jim Kelly. So the pot’s calling the kettle black there.”

Levy

"No. I'll give you the background because that one I know the story a lot better. No, in 1989 we stayed with our same approach that we had always had and then in the playoff games against the Cleveland Browns we went into the fourth quarter trailing by 18 points. There was no two-point conversion then, so we would need more than just two touchdowns and a field goal, we'd need three touchdowns. So at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Ted Marchibroda and Tom Bresnahan and my staff, I said to 'em, we're going to go to our two-minute drill right now. We're not waiting 'til the end.

"So we went down and scored, we're down by 11. We went down and scored again with about three minutes to go, we're down by four. Got the ball back with a minute to go or so and went down and in the end zone Ronnie Harmon tried to look down his feet and be sure he was in bounds and dropped what would have been the winning pass and we lost it (34-30). That would have won the game for us and we're walking off the field after the game with Ted Marchibroda and I said, Ted, maybe that ought to be our offense next year. He said that's what I was thinking. That's how we went to it.

"Their no-huddle and ours, as I recall, were a little bit differently constructed. I have dim memories now I know they ran it, but I recall when we put it in we were based differently. I did retain a high regard for Sam and I did TV shows later with Sam and Boomer and enjoyed being with them and liked them and respect them." 

Browne

“Sam likes to talk about it. I do know that it was much discussed. I don’t remember all the details. I do know Sam takes credit for ‘get Rozelle on the phone, I want to talk to him a couple hours before the game.’ I don’t remember if it was that close. I think (Bob) Trumpy was doing the game for NBC and he must have told Sam that’s that what we were talking about, we were talking about barring the Bengals from using the attack offense in the championship game. But I don’t have all the details. 

“I know Sam tells the story and I love Sam. I’ve spoken to him a number of times and I hope he’s still doing well down there in Carolina, but Sam has a way of making himself the hero of all the stories. But he’s a good guy and he was a very innovative coach.”