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Dining In The 80’s:
A Line That Didn’t Hog The Limelight
by Chris Brophy
26/9/2008
 It’s time again to throw on a frilly fop shirt, liberally apply the eye liner and slick back that quiff as the Diner gets all (new) romantic about the early times of NFL football as a known sport in this country by heading on back to the 80’s. News broke recently that Duran Duran’s 1982 music video Rio has been named as the best video ever. My favourite video is one that sits in my loft that hardly has any audio left and is so delicate you have to handle it with white gloves of Super Bowl XXII where the Redskins routed the Broncos. This story is about those very Redskins and how they built more than one line to help them on their winning ways in not just one Super Bowl, but three.
The Redskins enjoyed great success throughout the 80’s and even if you don’t remember that time too well you are very likely to have heard of The Hogs the famous Redskins offensive line that was the centrepiece of an offense that set scoring records and ran roughshod over opponents during that time. If your memory is a little better or you know more of the Redskins history, you may have heard of The Fun Bunch – which celebrated many a Redskins touchdown – or The Posse – the Redskins feared group of wide receivers. Again, its offense that seems to dominate the pages of Redskins history throughout those good times but football is a team game and surely there must have being more to those Redskins teams than a bunch of guys that inspired men to wear pig noses and dresses?
The fact is, whilst The Hogs got the press, there was another line in Washington that was just as vital to the team’s ability to win and had its share of personalities and rags to riches stories the defensive line.
Joe Gibbs entrusted his defense to co-ordinator Richie Petitbon and whilst then GM Bobby Beathard was getting credit for finding low round draft picks and undrafted gems like Joe Jacoby and Jeff Bostic for the offensive line, he was also finding some bargains for Petitbon to build a formidable front four for the defense.
Only one holdover from the previous regime of Jack Pardee would become a key part of Petitbon’s new line. Dave Butz, acquired in a trade by George Allen in the mid 70’s and who was a man physically way ahead of his years, coming in at 6’7 and nearly 300lbs would be the veteran to guide some new young bloods into battles. He needed a partner in crime at the defensive tackle spot and got one in Darryl Grant, who Beathard had drafted in the 9th round of the 1981 draft from Rice where he had played offensive guard. Beathard may have seen him as another offensive line addition but the coaching staff decided his skill set would be better suited to defensive and he was converted to defensive tackle in his first training camp. It took a year of learning the ropes but by 1982, Grant was lining up next to Butz and his understanding of leverage with his offensive line experience made him a scrappy but useful partner.
Outside the tackles, the defensives end position got revamped with the addition of Dexter Manley and Charles Mann. Manley came in the fifth round of that 1981 draft (arguably the best draft in Redskins history) and his impact as a pass rusher was immediate. He had slid through college because of his football skills but academically, could barely read or write. What he did understand was that when the QB dropped back, it was his job to get there and get him down. Manley would go on to become one of the most feared pass rushers of the 80’s from his RDE spot.
Mann followed in the 1983 draft and he too got into the line-up early and stayed there for a long time to come. A more polished performer, Mann looked neat and tidy compared to his team mates (John Madden would refer to him as chiselled) and whilst he was also an effective pass rusher, working in tandem with Manley, he was also an excellent run defender.
 With Butz (left) and his legendary strength stopping offensive lines getting any push, Grant and his leverage skills creating gaps for others to make plays and Manley and Mann crashing in from either side, the Redskins had their foundation on defense.
It was needed because behind the line, the linebacking corps was made up of guys who understood the game well and possessed smarts but were lesser athletes whilst the secondary was nicknamed The Pearl Harbour Crew due to its ability to get bombed. Hence, it was down to the defensive line to create the pressure and not allow QB’s to drop their payloads or running backs to slash their way through. The Redskins defense went as their defensive line went and considering the Redskins made 4 Super Bowl appearances in the following ten years, it reflects well on them.
As individuals, none of the aforementioned has the rsum of the dominating defensive players of the era such as Reggie White, Lawrence Taylor or the like but all but Grant made pro bowl appearances. Manley would gain 97.5 career sacks (18.5 alone in 1986) and be named All Pro twice. Mann followed up with 83 QB take downs (a career high 14.5 in 1985) and was a four time pro bowler. Butz was named to the All-80’s team of the decade and played 176 consecutive games, he was a major force against the run but he could get to the passer when needed and in his lone pro bowl season of 1983, he recorded 11 sacks. Grant earned no plaudits in terms of pro bowls or being named All-Pro (he had a career best 8 sacks in 1984) but he is the possessor of one of the most famous moments in Redskins history.
The 1983 NFC Championship Game seen the Redskins holding on to a 24-17 lead in the 4th quarter but Dallas had just got possession back and were trying to rally behind back-up QB Gary Hogeboom who had replaced injured starter Danny White. The Cowboys tried to set up one of their famous screen passes but Manley had still charged after Hogeboom and tipped the pass whilst Grant had gone over following the blockers as they pulled out. He was in the right place at the right time and caught the tipped pass, turned, broke a tackle and rumbled in for the game sealing score, spiking the ball like a running back who had being there before. The Redskins offensive usually made the killer plays but Grant made the play that got them to their first Super Bowl under Gibbs.
This line would stay together until the end of the 1988 season. First to go was Butz who retired as the oldest starting player in the league at the age of 39 (he actually had a year left on his contract!). Manley was next and his story is a much sadder one, a battle with cocaine was taking over him and he was finally caught by league testing that seen him banned from the NFL for a year. He would come back, but not as a Redskin, spending time in Tampa Bay, Arizona and the CFL where he still flashed his pass rush skills. His downfall was not complete though and would see him eventually end up in jail because of his addition. He is still beloved by Redskins fans because of his style of play but he is also an example of how drugs can undermine even the best natural talents. Grant went quietly at the end of the 1989 season spending a year in Tampa Bay before retiring.
All that was left was Charles Mann and a rebuild was required if the defensive line was going to once again help lead the Redskins to the Promised Land. Much like back in the early 80’s, the Redskins – now led in the Front Office by Charley Casserly – went down several different paths to find the talent they required. In 1990, a couple of low key trades brought in Tim Johnson from Pittsburgh and Eric Williams from Detroit respectively to man the defensive tackle spots. Both were solid run defenders but not great pass rushers so in a growing age of situational substitution the Redskins acquired James Jumpy Geathers as a Plan B free agent. Geathers had being a 3-4 defensive end with the Saints but was used as a pass rushing defensive tackle with his famed forklift pass rush move where he would literally pick up the opposing offensive lineman and drive him back to the QB. Replacing Manley was no easy task but it was given to another Plan B free agent in Fred Stokes (from the Rams). He was assisted in the rotation by former Bengals first round pick Jason Buck. Charles Mann was the lone holdover and revelled in the leadership role he now had.
The line now had the depth to launch another challenge for glory and in 1991, the Redskins started the year 11-0, finishing 14-2 and winning their third championship under Gibbs by defeating the Bills in Super Bowl XXVI. The offense again got the majority of the credit with Mark Rypien and The Posse bombing opponents through the air and The Hogs leading the trio of Earnest Byner, Ricky Ervins and Gerald Riggs through holes on the ground but whilst the offense ranked number 3 in the NFL that year, the defense was actually ranked higher at number 2 and in the play-offs and Super Bowl they all had their moments of glory. Mann put in a monstrous performance against the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship Game whilst in the Super Bowl, the constant pressure the whole line applied forced Jim Kelly into four interceptions and a fumble.
Much like the rest of the team, after Joe Gibbs left in 1992, they drifted apart. Free agency was introduced and the Redskins couldn’t afford to keep everyone under the new salary cap. They had invested some draft picks to try and slot in as guys left but the likes of Bobby Wilson and Tracey Rocker flopped. Since then, the Redskins and their defensive line have being in a state of flux, never again achieving the highs of the 80’s and early 90’s even with the return of Gibbs in 2004. It’s no coincidence that since those good times, the Redskins defensive line has being a major weakness and the fact it has not always being properly addressed by the front office has being a cause of frustration for many fans. If the Redskins want to taste the ultimate success once again, they might want to look at building their defense like they did in the glory years of Gibbs Mk I up front first.
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