The 50 Most Badass College Football Teams

Complex counts down the illest NCAA gridiron squads of all time.

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The 50 Most Badass College Football Teams

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1960 Minnesota Golden Gophers

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1984 Brigham Young Cougars

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Fresh off 11 straight consecutive victories in '83 season and a win at the Holiday Bowl. The Cougars came back to continue the streak throughout the '84 season by winning 13 including another Holiday Bowl against Michigan. Through hard work (and maybe a little divine intervention—the major conference teams all picked each other off throughout the season), BYU was the only undefeated team standing and declared the national champion, becoming the last team outside of today's BCS to date to win a I-A or FBS national title. Plus, they all got to celebrate by doing missionary work in places with rampant disease. What's more badass than that?

1966 Florida Gators

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1985 Miami Hurricanes

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1980 Georgia Bulldogs

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The 1980 Georgia Bulldogs weren't one of the most dominating teams of all time, but they won with style (and they won every game). The Junkyard Dog defense held when it had to, and the 'Dawgs had an 18-year-old Georgia native in its backfield. Anybody question the badassness of one Herschel Walker? Ask two-time All-SEC safety Bill Bates what he thinks.

1967 North Texas State Eagles

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1994 Alcorn State Braves

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When you've got a QB who's so explosive and talented he puts your tiny, unknown school on the map, that's badass. Steve McNair had 6,000 yards total offense in his senior year at Alcorn State and broke a slew of records along the way. He will be missed.

1986 Miami Hurricanes

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Possibly the best Miami team ever, the '86 squad ushered in the Thug U Era in Miami, and began the tradition of questionable military metaphors at the U (see: Winslow, Kellen). Arriving for the Fiesta Bowl national championship game in combat fatigues, Vinny Testaverde, Michael Irvin, Jerome Brown and co. offended even more folks when they walked out of a promotional dinner with their opponent Penn State (Brown's explanation: "Did the Japanese go sit down and have dinner with Pearl Harbor before they bombed them?"). Would rank much higher on this list if they'd, you know, actually beaten PSU for the title that year.

2004 Auburn Tigers

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Don't think competition in the SEC is tough? Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville was nearly fired after going 8-5 in 2003. Not 5-8, but 8-5. So how did Tuberville bounce back? By leading his team to a 13-0 season and a victory in the Sugar Bowl against Virgina Tech in 2004. The Tigers won some ugly games, but swept ranked SEC rivals LSU, Georgia, and Tennessee (topping the Volunteers twice), before becoming another victim to the bullshit college standings BCS, which left them out of the national title game. Auburn's talent was shown even after the season when four players were selected in the first round, three of whom were taken in the top nine picks of the 2005 NFL draft.

1969 Penn State Nittany Lions

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Turns out Richard Nixon could be nearly as grimey in gridiron matters as he was in politics. Penn State was riding high off of their second consecutive undefeated regular season when Tricky Dick preemptively handed the national championship to the winner of the Texas Longhorns and Arkansas Razorbacks game in early December, before any bowl games were even played. No matter, the '69 Nittany Lions were legitimately badass on their own; led by Outland Trophy and Maxwell Award winner Mike Reid, as well as a couple guys who would make names for themselves elsewhere in the Keystone State (Jack Ham and Franco Harris), they gave up more than two touchdowns only once during the season. And coach Joe Paterno got a chance to clap back at Nixon while speaking at the 1973 PSU commencement: "I'd like to know how could the president know so little about Watergate in 1973 and so much about college football in 1969?" Ether!

1920 California Golden Bears

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1982 Southern Methodist Mustangs

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The Mustangs went 11-0-1 in '82, their lone blemish a tie with rival Arkansas in the final game of the regular season. The squad featured the running back duo of Eric Dickerson and Craig James, nicknamed the "Pony Express" (yes, that Craig James). Oh, and the best part? They got paid to do it!

1906 Saint Louis University Billikens

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1980 North Carolina Tar Heels

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1961 Alabama Crimson Tide

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They say the first one's always the best, and in the case of legendary Alabama coach Paul Bryant, it might just be right. The Bear got his first chip in style, with a team that went 11-0, scoring 297 points and giving up just 25. Saying the '61 squad was Bryant's best is saying something, too: the "Bear" nickname would prove to be fitting, as the coach went into beast mode and would go on to win six (half of 'Bama's 12) national titles.

1985 Oklahoma Sooners

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At the time, the Sooners (along with Notre Dame and Nebraska) were seen as the wholesome alternative to the "antics" at the University of Miami, but it turns out OU was doing its own young and thuggin' thing out in Norman. Coached by the swashbuckling Barry Switzer, Oklahoma left a path of destruction in its wake in the mid-'80s, culminating with Brian Bosworth's infamous "National Communists Against Athletes" t-shirt mocking the NCAA at the '87 Orange Bowl. (Why was he wearing a t-shirt? 'Cause he'd been suspended for steroid use.) When the Boz's book came out a few years later detailing rampant drug use and other assorted debauchery, the Sooners badass legend was cemented. Oh, and they were good, too: 33-3 in '85-'87 with the chip in '85.

1899 Sewanee Tigers

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1915 Washington Huskies

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1947 Michigan Wolverines

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The national champion 1947 Michigan team pitched five shutouts (including 55-0 and 21-0 pastings of Michigan State and Ohio State, respectively), but it was their offense that made them a badass squad for the ages. With coach Fritz Crisler introducing the radical concept of specialized offensive and defensive players (prior to Crisler, almost all players were two-way), the Wolverine offense employed all manner of reverses, double reverses, "buck-reverse laterals" (whatever that is), and other trick plays on their way to seven games scoring 35 or more points, all capped off by a 49-0 pasting of USC in the Rose Bowl. Not bad for a bunch of dudes from the Midwest.

1999 Virginia Tech Hokies

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It's not often a redshirt freshman scores three rushing touchdowns in under one quarter of play in his first collegiate game ever. It's even less often the same redshirt freshman leads his team to an undefeated regular season and into the BCS title game. Three words: Michael Vick, badass. As a team, the Hokies failed to score more than 30 points only once during the regular season (holding all but two opponents to fewer than 20 in the process). Uh, who let the dogs out?

1916 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

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1976 Pittsburgh Panthers

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It might seem easy to call the '76 Panthers a one-man team (that man being Tony Dorsett, he of the 1,948 yards rushing and Heisman, Maxwell, and Walter Camp awards), but a closer look reveals a team that was truly badass. Starting with a 31-10 whupping of Notre Dame in South Bend (in which TD broke off for 61 yards on his first run on his way to 181 on the day), Pitt ran off 12 consecutive victories, allowing only one opponent to score more than 20 points (Duke, of all teams), and putting up 23 on all but one (Temple, of all teams, against whom the Panthers notched only three touchdowns). They capped the season with a 27-3 manhandling of no. 5 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, with Dorsett going for 202.

1966 Michigan State Spartans

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The Spartans '66 co-national title team is badass for a couple of reasons: one being that they weren't the pansyass '66 Notre Dame co-national title team that didn't even make an attempt to score in the closing moments of the tie ballgame in the two schools' end of season tilt, resulting in a split national chip. The other is that MSU produced four of the first eight players in the following year's NFL draft, none of them more badass than defensive end Bubba Smith. The Michigan State student body's chant for their star defensive lineman? The succinct, if not literally followed (we hope) "Kill Bubba, Kill." Fortunately, Bubba was far nicer in all those Police Academy movies.

1974 Oklahoma Sooners

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The '74 Sooners were the definition of hard-nosed, on both sides of the ball. The defense gave up an average of fewer than nine points a game, and the offense, which led the nation in scoring, averaged a staggering 73.9 rushing attempts a game, simply mauling opponents in the process. Featuring eight All-Americans, OU began the season no. 1 in the AP poll, dipped to third after a lackluster opening game against Baylor, but finished undefeated to give Barry Switzer his first of three chips as the Sooners head coach.

1968 Ohio State Buckeyes

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In college football history there are a few coaching legends who become just as identifiable with the teams they coach as the logos on the jerseys. Woody Hayes was one of them. In probably his most memorable season, Hayes led another undefeated Buckeyes team to the Rose Bowl beating USC 27-16. However, the national title game wasn't the highlight of the season for Buckeye fans. That came against rival Michigan when late in the game, already emasculating the Wolverines 50-14 on a decisive touchdown, Hayes went for the two-point conversion. When asked later why he went for two points, Hayes said, "Because I couldn't go for three!" Rational? Nah. Gully and badass? Yes.

1997 Michigan Wolverines

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Michigan entered the '97 season ranked #14 and facing the toughest schedule in the nation, and proceeded to turn in one of the most impressive campaigns in school history (which, needless to say given the program's pedigree, is sayin' something). Behind Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson (still the only primarily defensive player to take the trophy), the Wolverines were undefeated, beating seven ranked teams, including four in the top 10, highlighted by a 34-8 thrashing of then-no. 3 ranked Penn State in State College, and a tough 20-14 defeat of no. 4 ranked archrival Ohio State in Michigan Stadium. In addition to Woodson, the '97 Wolverines would eventually "graduate" 31 players to the National Football League, including a junior backup quarterback named Tom Brady.

1955 Grambling State Tigers

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1983 Nebraska Cornhuskers

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For 11 seasons Tom Osborne had coached in the shadow of his predecessor and mentor Bob Devaney, fielding top-notch Nebraska teams that nonetheless failed to take home any national championships. '83 appeared to be the year he'd bring home a chip, as he took a powerhouse undefeated no. 1 'Huskers squad into the Orange Bowl against an upstart Miami team, only to fall behind 17-0 in the first half. Nebraska dominated the second stanza though, and scored a touchdown with less than a minute remaining to pull to 31-30. An extra point and tie would have secured the title for Nebraska (Miami was no. 5 and the 2-4 teams had all lost earlier), but Osborne went for the 2-point conversion, only to fail. Failure usually isn't badass, but when it involves a decision this gutty, it most certainly is.

2006 Florida Gators

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The '06 national championship was supposed to have been settled back in November, when no. 1 Ohio State squeaked by no. 2 Michigan in yet another classic in that rivalry's legendary history. Problem is, somebody forgot to tell the Florida Gators. Substantial underdogs to the Buckeyes going into the national championship game, UF dominated OSU behind a stifling defense, player of the game Chris Leak, and a freshman flex back named Tim Tebow, asserting the SEC's dominance over the Big Ten and proving that, if nothing else, much-maligned former Florida coach Ron Zook sure could recruit (22 of the 24 starters for the Gators were Zook recruits).

1942 Ohio State Buckeyes

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'42 was the first consensus national championship for the storied OSU program, and behind a dominating line featuring All-Americans Charles Csuri and Lindell Houston, the Buckeyes were truly dominating, winning their games by an average score of 37-11, and dropping their only game when half the team fell ill after drinking contaminated water. The '42 squad was noteworthy and badass for another reason as well: undersized (at 202 lb.) lineman Bill Willis, the first African-American on a national championship team, who had been recruited off the Buckeye track team the year before by pioneering coach Paul Brown.

1971 Nebraska Cornhuskers

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Sure, the lack of a playoff in college football sucks, but every few years, the national champ is pretty clear, brackets or no brackets. Case in point? 1971, when Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Alabama finished 1-2-3-4, respectively. Why were the 'Huskers the clear no. 1? Well, they beat the other three (whupped is more like it in the case of Colorado and 'Bama). The Cornhuskers showed no mercy on opponents in '71, winning by an average of more than 30 points per game, and beating the Sooners in the "Game of the Century" on Thanksgiving Day. Undefeated + winning the "Game of the Century" = pretty badass.

1956 Oklahoma Sooners

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Between 1954-56, the Sooners reeled off a still-unmatched streak of 47 consecutive wins, and the '56 edition was OU at its badass ass-kicking best. They played 10 teams and allowed only two of them to score touchdowns (Oklahoma gave up just four TDs on the year and pitched six shutouts); they failed to score more than 40 points just three times; they started the season with 36-0, 66-0, and 45-0 thrashings of North Carolina, Kansas State, and Texas, respectively; and they pulled off one of the greatest one-season rivalry steamrollerings of all time, defeating Iowa State 44-0, Missouri 67-14, Nebraska 54-6, and Oklahoma State 53-0 in a three-week span in November and December.

2004 Southern Cal Trojans

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There's nothing quite as badass as kicking ass while you're young in L.A. After getting passed over by the BCS (Big Crock of Shit) in 2003 for the title game, the 2004 Trojans left no room for debate. After an undefeated season in which they never relinquished the no. 1 ranking, SC beat Oklahoma 55-19 in the BCS Championship Game, to cap off their "Leave No Doubt" campaign. Oh, and they got paid to do it (well at least Reggie Bush did—allegedly!).

2001 Miami Hurricanes

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Completing the resurrection of the U begun the year before (when they were passed over for the BCS title game for a Florida State team they had beaten), the '01 'Canes turned in one of the truly dominating performances in college football history. They outscored their opponents 512-117 (a 43-10 average) and featured an assemblage of talent that may not be repeated: three future Pro Bowlers at one position (running backs Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, and Frank Gore), All Pros Andre Johnson and Ed Reed, and underclassmen backups that included Kellen Winslow and Sean Taylor. Would've probably been even more badass except that they did it all in a more or less dignified fashion (backup running back Najeh Davenport did defecate in a woman's laundry basket three months after Miami crushed Nebraska in the Rose Bowl, but we did say "more or less").

2002 Ohio State Buckeyes

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In just his sophomore season with the team, Jim Tressel made all of college football aware of the power of the sweater vest. The Buckeyes had anything but a dominating season, but with a little help from freshman Maurice Clarett, OSU went undefeated, tying the record of most wins (14) in a season and winning the chip against highly-favored defending champ Miami at the Fiesta Bowl. At the time Clarett's game-winning touchdown in the national championship game against the U seemed to be a sign of the bright future ahead of him. Seriously, who thought Craig Krenzel would have the more illustrious NFL career?

1993 Florida State Seminoles

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There are teams that are stacked, then there's the '93 Florida State Seminoles. Led by Heisman winner, Charlie Ward, (who, by the way, played basketball, baseball and tennis at high levels during his collegiate career), the Seminoles scored an average of over 40 points per game, surrendering only one loss to Notre Dame on their road to a national championship. Three consensus All-Americans + six players selected in the 1994 NFL draft x Ward who was an NBA first round pick = straight up unfair.

1947 Notre Dame Fighting Irish

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The Fighting Irish secured the number one spot in the 1947 season and went on to be crowned national champions for the sixth time in school history. But it's not their ranking that makes them badass. Forty-one players from this team would go on to the NFL, including Heisman-winning QB Johnny Lujack. Forty-one! Talk about a rebuilding phase for Notre Dame.

1921 Centre College Praying Colonels

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2007 Appalachian State Mountaineers

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The University of Michigan Wolverines have the winningest football team in college football history; the Appalachian State Mountaineers are an FCS team in a quiet corner of a basketball state. No matter, on September 1, 2007, ASU took down UM 34-32 in one of the biggest upsets in American sports history, becoming the first FCS (formerly I-AA) team to beat a ranked FBS (formerly I-A) squad in history. At the end of the '07 season, App would take home their third consecutive FCS chip, confirming their badass dominance.

2006 Boise State Broncos

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Going for the two-point conversion to win in a regular season game takes balls; going for two in overtime during a bowl game on a trick play? That takes balls of steel. Upstart Boise State was already facing long odds when they squared off against Goliath Oklahoma in the '07 Fiesta Bowl, and after scoring a TD to close to 42-41 in the first OT (after executing a flawless hook and ladder to tie the game in regulation), they could've been forgiven for playing it safe. Instead, head coach Chris Petersen opted to run a "Statue of Liberty" on the two-point conversion, and beat the Sooners 43-42. If that wasn't enough, Ian Johnson, the running back that ran for the winning score, proposed to his girlfriend, a Broncos cheerleader, in the post-game interview. She said "yes." Successful proposal and Fiesta Bowl win in a 15-minute span? Ole, ole, ole, ole!


Boise State's Fantastic Finish

Marshall | MySpace Video

1992 Alabama Crimson Tide

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How to handle a trash-talking bully that disrespects you? Usually beating the sh*t out of 'em will suffice. Going into the 1993 Sugar Bowl, Miami was the swaggering defending national champs who had a later curfew than the poor, straight-laced Alabama team they were supposed to easily handle. Coming out of that same game, 'Bama had its first chip in 13 years after dragging the 'Canes 34-13. Maybe Lamar Thomas wishes he'd gotten an extra hour of sleep when George Teague caught him from behind, or maybe it wouldn't have mattered at all.

1986 Penn State Nittany Lions

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Who's more badass, State College or South Beach? Joe "Coke bottle glasses" Paterno or Jimmy "Grecian Formula" Johnson? For one night at least, the answer was rural Pennsylvania and Coke-bottle Joe Pa. The '86 Nittany Lions had been ranked in the top 10 all season, had beaten then-no. 2 Alabama on the road, and took a perfect 11-0 record into the mythical national championship game at the Fiesta Bowl. But they were an afterthought to the swaggering Miami Hurricanes: an afterthought that is, until they intercepted the U's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback five times en route to a 14-10 stunner. Needless to say, the parties in State College were considerably more badass than those in South Beach that night.

1971 Marshall Thundering Herd

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Most football programs would fold if they lost 37 players and eight coaches in a tragic plane crash. Not Marshall. After nearly the entire football program was wiped out in a charter plane crash in November, Coach Jack Lengyel and others scraped together a replacement team with junior varsity players and athletes from other sports. Even though they ended the 1971 season with a losing record, they were still badass enough to beat rivals Xavier and Bowling Green, setting the foundation for a program that would eventually return to national prominence.

(tie) 1987 Miami Hurricanes and Florida State Seminoles

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Sometime in the mid-1980s, the center of the football universe packed its bags and left places like Ohio and Oklahoma and South Bend and moved to Florida for the next decade and half. These were the teams it used to officially announce its arrival. They finished 1 (Miami) and 2 (Florida State) in the final rankings (with FSU's only loss coming to the 'Canes), and their game featured 10 first round picks and more than 60 players who would go on to NFL training camps. "How many wins would [INSERT COLLEGE JUGGERNAUT HERE] win in the NFL?" is a favorite barroom conversation topic, and while the answer to that question is almost always "none," it's safe to say an NFL squad consisting of the best of these two teams would've notched a couple W's in the pros.

1945 Army Cadets

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The Black Knights accomplished some incredible things in 1945. Not only did they have an undefeated season—for the second year in a row—but they also outscored their opponents a whopping 412-46. At the start of the following season, Army crushed Notre Dame, who were coming off two consecutive undefeated seasons, 48-0 in in front of 74,000 people at Yankee Stadium. And they did it all after beating some squirrely dude with a bad moustache named Hitler.

1901 University of Michigan

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1970 Southern Cal Trojans

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While many teams in the SEC remained segregated throughout the '60s, Alabama vs. USC on September 12, 1970 changed all that forever. The all-white Crimson Tide team led by Paul "Bear" Bryant took a 42-21 thrashing from a fully integrated USC team whose six touchdowns that day were scored by black players. This game led to the Alabama and many other teams in the South to integrate their college football teams, and fostered a popular saying in the coaching fraternity: "If you can't beat 'em, stop being a racist asshole."

1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers

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1924 Notre Dame Fighting Irish

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1990 Miami Hurricanes

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Not the best team of all time (not even the best Miami squad), but the most badass, based on one game: the 1991 Cotton Bowl a.k.a. The Wrongest Game in Football History. With nothing to play for (they'd already lost two games and were out of national championship contention), the 'Canes went into Dallas and humiliated a Texas team that had an outside chance at a chip. Believe it or not, the 46-3 score doesn't tell the full story of the drubbing: the Longhorns had one passing first down, but gained six via Miami penalties (UM picked up 202 yards in penalties, mostly unsportsmanlike conduct). Before T.O. danced on the star in Dallas, and before touchdown celebrations had to be regulated, Miami was stomping at midfield in the C.B. and Randal Hill was running halfway up the tunnel firing imaginary pistols after scoring. The quaint part? The announcers are more amused than outraged. Everything was better in the '90s, huh?

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