1940 NFL Championship Game
73-0: the most one-sided win in NFL history, Bears over the Redskins at Griffith Stadium.
The 1940 NFL Championship Game, often called simply 73-0, was played on December 8, 1940, at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. The Chicago Bears beat the Washington Redskins 73-0 with eleven touchdowns, still the most one-sided victory in NFL history, in front of a sellout crowd of 36,034.
Quick Facts
- Visitor
- Chicago Bears
- Home
- Washington Redskins
- Visitor coach
- George Halas
- Home coach
- Ray Flaherty
- Visitor record
- 8–3
- Home record
- 9–2
- Visitor total
- 73
- Date
- December 8, 1940
Facts from the source article.
Background
Washington had beaten Chicago 7-3 three weeks earlier, after which Redskins owner George Preston Marshall called the Bears crybabies and quitters; George Halas showed his players those comments before the rematch. Halas's friend Clark Shaughnessy, then coaching Stanford, helped with the game plan. Running the T formation, the Bears scored on their second play when Bill Osmanski ran 68 yards, led 28-0 at halftime and added 45 points after the break, finishing with 501 total yards, 382 of them rushing, and 8 interceptions, three returned for touchdowns. Officials asked Halas to stop kicking extra points late on because so many balls had gone into the stands. It was the first NFL title game broadcast nationwide on radio, by the Mutual Broadcasting System, and the last time an NFL player, Bears end Dick Plasman, played without a helmet.
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