Joe Bugel retiring; the end of a glorious era

When people think of the Washington Redskins in the 1980s, people think of the Hogs first. Yes there were Superbowls, MVPs, division titles, domination, but the foundation of all of those teams was the offensive line; the most famous offensive line in the history of the NFL.
The leader of those men was Joe Bugel, the fiery, energetic o-line coach, who took unheralded players such as Joe Jacoby and Jeff Bostic, and molded them with the likes of Russ Grimm, to put together one of the most dominant o-lines in NFL history.

This image, of John Riggins dragging Don McNeal to the endzone, is one of the most famous images in Redskins history, and only could happen due to perfect blocking by the hogs up front.
The Washington Post's Dan Steinberg had a great article on Joe Bugel over the summer
Amongst the highlights was this quote "That first hit, I feel great," he said, after full-contact tackling had finally returned. "That's the big explosion right there, you know what I mean? That puts you on a high. Pro football's always been the sport for me. After 32 years, I love to watch the competitiveness, the explosion, the blocking, the tackles. That's my turn on, that's my entertainment: violence."

And his Hogs were violent, and they were dominant and they announced to the NFL in the January 1983 NFC Championship game against the Cowboys that they would be the dominant force of the decade. There are rumors that Bugel was so fired up prior to kickoff that he flipped the bird to the Cowboys d-cord before kickoff!

From the Washington Post write up of the game in 1983:

But on this afternoon, no one was stopping Riggins or the line, which just gave up three sacks.
Riggins, who had 199 yards two weeks ago against Detroit and a career-high 185 against Minnesota last week, gave the offense the power it needed early and late against a usually overpowering Dallas rush defense. The third straight 100 yard plus performance in the playoffs was an NFL record, and afterward , he was ecstatic.

Riggins was helped by a revised Redskin game plan. "We changed some stuff for this game," guard Russ Grimm said. "We were zone blocking last time and not coming off quickly. We went more man-to-man, more double teams this time.
"We decided to take them on, be physical and let the best man win. But we knew we had to run if we were going to win."

Bugel's o-line would dominate the Cowboys that day, and would kill the clock in the 4th quarter with a time consuming drive filled with runs by John Riggins. If you search carefully on the internet, you'll see quotes from center Jeff Bostic talking about how by the end of the game they were telling Cowboys DT Randy White exactly where they were going to run before each play, and would still gain 5-6 yards a play!

The dominance that o-line displayed would continue the following week in Superbowl 17, where the climax occured when Riggins would bust through a huge hole on 4th and 1 in the 4th quarter, run over Don McNeal and hit the end zone to give the Redskins the lead.

Those were Bugel's boys leading the way, taking every ounce of energy from him and destroying the opposing d-line as the Redskins ball control offense would dominate the early 1980s.
Joe Bugel would leave for the Phoenix Cardinals in 1989 as head coach, but he eventually returned home to the Redskins in 2004. His o-lines, in part due to injury, were never able to capture the level of play they had in the 1980s, but you could see the work he did and how much improvement there was in 2005, 2006, and how he took an o-line in 2007 that was missing its entire right side, and turned them into a dominating unit in December on the way to the playoffs.
Bugel's legacy was built though in the 1980s, on 70-chip in Superbowl 17, on Timmy Smith's 204 yard day in Superbowl 22, on players like Joe Jacoby and Jeff Bostic becoming all pros, on being the foundation of a dominant team

Thanks for your time Joe, enjoy your retirement