Nixon phone call with Allen on Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys

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Hello.

Mr. Allen.

Mr. President.

I suppose the whole town has been toasting you, but I waited a little while to watch how you didn't need me today, but I watched it on television.

I had a special wire in here to the White House and got to see it.

Wasn't it some game?

Well, you know, when you were 13 points behind, you know, and when your offense just wouldn't do a thing and

You know, I thought you were dead.

What did you think?

Were you discouraged then or not?

Let me tell you what I was trying to do.

Of course, incidentally, if I may interrupt you, the only thing that gave me a little hope when I thought of their 13 points was that they made some of them on mistakes.

Yeah.

I mean, mistakes and bad breaks.

I mean, my God, when they called that a completed pass, that's a bad call.

It's a terrible call, and at halftime, we told it,

the team that we had every break go against us in the books.

We're only behind 13-7.

That's right.

And incidentally, they had only scored one touchdown.

Yeah.

And that we could still pull this out.

And then, of course, they scored and it went 27.

But I'll tell you, Mr. President, our team has so much

a togetherness.

I know that sounds corny, but we've got kind of a family, you see, and everybody is happy for the other guy's success, and the fans today were fantastic.

You know, the ground down there was trembling.

Really, you could feel the vibration.

And then when they started to yell, defense, defense, defense, and boy, the defense finally came to life.

And, uh,

When Dallas scored early in the first half, you know, with those two long runs, I thought, oh, my God.

That's right.

Didn't that discourage you a little?

Well, it did, but I think what we kept preaching that we got a lot of time.

Just, you know, play our game.

Sometimes you try to get back too fast and you make a mistake.

Just play our game.

There's a lot of time.

Mm-hmm.

We're going to take that ball away on defense and that type of approach, you know.

Right.

And, boy, the dressing room after the game was... Whatever they do.

Oh, you know, Roy Jefferson's played in the Super Bowl, and he said, Coach, he said, the Super Bowl was never like this.

Yeah.

He caught one when it was very important, didn't he?

He only caught one pass, didn't he?

I think so.

But it was important.

Oh, gosh.

Well, at this type of a win... Everything was important.

To beat Dallas, everyone has to...

Because Dallas, I was thinking if Martin at one point there had the presence of mind that Staubach would have had to run.

He would have run, yeah.

But thank God he didn't.

No, that's right.

Well, we beat the world champs, and we came from behind twice, 13 points.

That's right.

On national television.

Yeah, and those marvelous, those two marvelous interceptions.

Yeah, of course.

Gosh, you know, that was something, wasn't it?

It was like New Year's Eve in the dressing room after the game.

You know, this Brown is something else, isn't he?

Oh, he was exhausted, and we just had to take him out for one play.

He's got a sinus condition, and then he came back.

Well, maybe you can put Knock in there and rest him next week.

I hope so, yeah.

Who'd you lose?

We lost, this hasn't even been announced, I don't think we lost Malinchik.

He's going to have to be operating on either tonight or tomorrow morning.

And he's a real good special team guy, you know.

Oh, I know.

He's recovered fumbles and everything.

He's like one of your troubleshooters there that doesn't get a lot of publicity.

Oh, I know.

He's been fantastic in the early game.

Great job.

Who do you replace him with?

Do you have to trade or what?

I don't have anyone yet.

And the trading deadline is Tuesday, you see.

So you're getting busy, are you?

Yeah.

So we've got to try to.

to get someone, but when you're in first place, no one wants to trade with you.

But we'll come up with someone.

Yeah, you've got to have, because those special teams, they are so important.

Oh, yeah, and they have such a spirit in those special teams.

Gosh, this win today was a great thing for the area.

The town, that's right.

Yeah, and you know, here's something that

It certainly must have made all those damn press people.

I hope you told them to go to hell.

You know, as you know, you've got to do what you believe.

I know.

But Clint Murchison, we heard, made the statement that when it was 20-7, he made the statement.

He said, well, it's a good thing that this game is blacked out in the Washington area.

He owns the Cowboys.

Sure, I know.

I know him well.

We...

We made him eat his word, you know.

I'll say you did.

Well, the thing, it was on national television, wasn't it?

I got it on Channel 2 from Baltimore.

Most have been blacked out in this area.

CBS, yeah.

Well, you see, I got it.

You see, we have a way to get Channel 2 here.

We had some special antenna or something.

But anyway.

We got it on a closed circuit deal.

I don't know what it is.

If any of your family, Mr. President, would like to go, Mrs. Allen would love to have them in her box up there.

I knew what you told me, and I think that's probably right.

After Election Day, otherwise it's going to look as if we're trying to exploit the team, and I'd rather not do that.

You just go ahead and win them.

We'll be there when we need you.

I'll tell you what, we're going to.

And we got another tough one, the Giants this week.

Oh, boy.

They've really come back.

They're on fire now.

Sneed is real hot, you know.

Yeah.

He came from Duke, too, didn't he?

Sneed, I think, is from Wake Forest.

Wake Forest.

You're right, you're right.

And, of course, Sneed and Jurgensen's from Duke, so they're about the same age.

Of course, Jurgensen was just, he was just fantastic today.

Yeah, right.

The old man was really going.

But Brown, I must say.

God.

And let me say that, Haraway, that was a touchdown run by him.

I didn't know he could move that fast.

Well, he's lost a little weight.

Does that help?

Yes.

See, he doesn't have to be that heavy.

But weren't you a little surprised when he turned that corner?

Yeah.

I didn't think he could.

Who was the tackler that he missed?

I think it was Harris over there.

And he was pretty fast.

Yeah.

But boy, when he turned the thing and then wham, he was in the end zone.

That was the big play of the game, I think.

That put us ahead for good.

Yeah.

It's good to have him do one because, you know, he's sort of second fiddle to Brown all the time.

That's right.

How did he feel after the game?

Oh, he was great.

He was just great.

Yeah.

And we told him after the game that this is the way to live and this is like being reborn, you know.

Who did you give the game ball to?

We gave one to Sonny.

And then we gave one to Larry Brown.

He deserved one.

Not to the defense.

And then we gave one to Speedy Duncan, came up with a big play.

We made an interception.

Yeah.

Let's see who gets fourth.

Oh, Lenny Haas.

Hurt all week and couldn't practice and then played 60 minutes.

We gave him one.

Was he blocking as well as usual?

No, he... That probably hurt your middle.

I noticed you weren't running very well up the middle.

Exactly.

And you know that blocked... What's that?

That blocked field goal, Mr. President.

At the end, that was his man.

See, that last field goal we attempted.

But was that blocked?

Yeah, it was tipped.

I see.

Yeah, I see.

Deflected.

Well, you didn't need it.

What the heck.

Well, as it turned out, we didn't then.

Well, anyway, if you had gotten it, it would have been a tie if they had scored.

What the heck?

Boy, they got a lot of speed.

Oh, boy.

When Hill dropped that pass in the first quarter, my God, what happened there?

Somebody missed a signal?

It's a play that we've been defensive all week in practice, and we were making the same mistake.

And I remember one day we went over it four times, that same play, and that...

It's Patios' coverage, you see.

Way back there?

Yeah, where we're in what we call a combo defense, and the quarterback had longer to throw.

Usually he hits them right away, and he had a little longer to throw, and, of course, he'll just... Is he that fast?

He runs a 4-7.

He's quite an athlete.

Very fast.

Oh, yeah, I know he is.

Yeah.

Well, it was a great game between two very fine teams.

I mean, you play next week, you may lose.

That's right.

Right?

That's right.

But...

I must say.

If you had to win one, you want to win the first one, right?

Yeah.

Well, this is important because I thought we had to beat them before Stavro gets back.

Yeah, because he'll make it tougher.

How about the Giants next week?

They're going to be tough.

They're going to be tough, but will your fellows be up or down?

We've got to get them up.

Now that we're in a driver's seat, we can't let down.

Who does Dallas play next week?

I think they play Detroit.

Oh, that's right.

Detroit may beat them.

Boy, that Detroit is a, you played him earlier, but that Landry, he's tough, strong, runs well, and they have a terrific defense.

Well, that would help.

I think they're going to go through the process now of who's going to be their quarterback.

See, they're going to have that problem.

Yeah, because Staubach's back and so forth.

Well, that'll worry him.

I must say, though, that Morton was fantastic in the first half.

He was.

But then Jurgie began to come through.

He didn't have any interceptions, did he?

No.

We got two and sacked Morton three times.

Yeah.

He was sacked once.

I thought he was hurt then.

Well, he got his face cut a little bit, but he's okay.

He's really come around, Mr. President.

He's lost weight.

He stopped drinking.

You mean stopped drinking for a little while?

Yeah.

Good.

Well, he should.

He should.

He's crazy at 38.

You know, they can do it when they're younger, but at 38 years of age, if he drinks, he's going to finish himself.

I think he's, for what he went through last year and this year, he's going to be a better man, you know, because of it.

How's his attitude?

Great.

How's Kilmer's attitude?

Great attitude.

Yeah, he understands it.

Yeah, great.

And of course, it's good you have him, because if Jurgie had been hurt, you could have put Kilmer in there, and you wouldn't have lost much.

Because Kilmer has a certain balance that the other fellow doesn't have.

Exactly.

Don't you agree?

I mean, if you want to play a sure game, you better take Kilmer.

But on the other hand, he can't make sometimes the very big plays.

No.

But tell me about one other last thing.

On the trading, you haven't any way to get just one more fast cornerback, have you?

Well, I'd like to.

Gosh, you know, I see some of these, a couple of these youngsters that are playing, you know, with that Green Bay team and so forth.

You couldn't get one of those, could you?

Well, I tell you, I... Who can you give?

Well... That they want.

Yeah, I...

I'd like to get, we need one more football player.

See, there's no question about it.

Our guys, we have to give 110% to win.

Dallas has better personnel than we have.

I had that impression.

You just put more spirit in it the last time.

You know, if you want it bad enough, sooner or later you're going to get it.

That type of an approach.

We could use one more.

I'm going to be on the phone and just call everybody in the league and see what they want to do and

Well, I know nothing about it, except I do feel that the... Is Pettibone going to be back or not?

I hope so.

He's still slow, but he's awful experienced.

Oh, yeah.

Right.

He doesn't make mistakes.

But, you know, if you have one fast cornerback, that would be something.

You know, Baltimore's not going anyplace this year.

Why don't they trade you something?

Well, we can't trade with the other league, you see.

Oh, you're in the other division.

They're in the American, right?

Yeah, that's a crazy rule we have.

We're all one.

That's silly.

Yeah, we can't trade with each other.

Silly.

But I'll lend you money.

There's a cornerback out there someplace.

You might even go for a young one.

I know they don't approve of you, but you know, a good, fast young guy is what you need, don't you?

That's what we need, yeah.

Somewhere that can keep up with these fellows.

Incidentally, I don't think Hayes caught a pass, did he?

I don't believe he did.

Just think of that.

And Lance Allworth, he had one down there, but...

It was out of bounds.

Out of bounds.

Yeah.

And he's a great one.

Yes, he is.

He's a great one.

Yeah.

But, you know, you start to think they have Hayes, they have Allworth, and then they have these...

Sellers.

Sellers, who's fantastic.

Right.

And how you could stop these guys or something.

Well, I'd just live it up to present time and have a glass of milk and go to bed.

But no more.

We have so much to be thankful for.

Sure.

What happened?

I had to go take a few calls.

Right after the game, did the crowd go wild?

Oh, the crowd was fantastic.

When we won the World's Championship when I was with the Bears,

And the Bears are, the Bears crowd are deep-rooted.

You know, they're old.

Oh, I know.

And they weren't like this crowd today.

Of course, it was cold that day.

It was around 10 above zero.

What did the crowd do?

Did they come on the field and everything?

Oh, they came on the field, and they just, Sharon, when you're going through the dugout, they're just standing ovation.

You know, everybody's standing up and giving you an ovation.

Great.

I think the crowd today was worth a field goal.

All right.

Okay.

Well, good luck.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Well, the boys really have done well.

And as I say, I'll come around when you need me.

You don't need me yet.

But you've got to...

Take New York to yourself because I've got a campaign next week.

Okay.

You handle New York and I'll... You handle the campaigning.

I'll try to handle Dallas next time.

How's that?

Fair deal?

That's a deal.

Okay.

Bye.

Say hello to your family.

Nixon phone call with Allen on Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on October 22, 1972

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