I came hobbling across the field, and I remember bending over him on the sidelines. He hurt his back, but he came back and played. I grabbed him and said, ‘Don’t run. I can’t play. You’re all we’ve got.’ – Former Houston Oilers quarterback Dan Pastorini, after Gifford Nielsen got hurt scrambling
Editor's note: A previous version of this story ran online at DeseretNews.com earlier this week.
Imagine, for a moment, if the Dallas Cowboys went into their NFC divisional playoff game against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday without the services of Tony Romo, DeMarco Murray and Dez Bryant.
It's a fair modern-day equivalent of what Elder Gifford Nielsen faced in his first and only NFL postseason start 35 years ago.
“If you look at the odds, it may have been the greatest playoff win of an underdog in NFL history,” he said.
On Dec. 29, 1979, Elder Nielsen and the Houston Oilers traveled to San Diego to face the Dan Fouts-led Chargers. Going into the contest, the former BYU quarterback had just one career pro start to his name.
Following the Arizona Cardinals' 27-16 loss to the Carolina Panthers last week in the NFC wildcard playoffs, only seven quarterbacks — including Elder Nielsen — have started an NFL playoff game since 1970 with one or fewer career wins in the regular season, according to Elias Sports Bureau. For the Cardinals, Ryan Lindley made the start with a 1-5 career record, and the team finished with 78 yards of total offense — the worst offensive output in NFL playoff history.
That helps put in perspective what Elder Nielsen and the Oilers accomplished when they knocked off the highly favored Chargers, 17-14, on that late December day.
“If teams stay together, if they rely on their coaches and trust each other, anything can happen,” Elder Nielsen said in a phone interview with the Deseret News. “As the quarterback of this unique situation, I look back and wonder how we did it. But then I remember the great effort by everyone on our team and what can happen when players care for each other more than themselves.”
That sentiment is echoed by others who experienced that game from the Houston sideline.
“Bum (then-Oiler head coach Bum Phillips) always thought that was the finest game we ever played under the circumstances,” Carl Mauck, the team’s starting center that season, told the Deseret News.
Nowadays, Elder Nielsen serves as a leader in a different arena, as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having been called in April 2013. He's a member of the Area Presidency in New Zealand, in the Pacific Area Presidency.
The adversities and opportunities of NFL life still serve an important purpose with him to this day.
Among the challenges facing Elder Nielsen and Houston against San Diego was the reason he was starting in the first place: injuries. Starting quarterback Dan Pastorini had ruptured a groin muscle and running back Earl Campbell suffered a hamstring injury — ailments the two had sustained the week prior in a 13-7 wildcard game victory over Denver — while wide receiver Kenny Burrough was dealing with a lower-body injury.
“With those three players not participating in that contest, nobody gave us a chance,” Elder Nielsen said.
Pastorini told the Deseret News: “I suited up against San Diego, but I was really kind of a decoy. I hobbled out there.”
Their replacements were Elder Nielsen, Rob Carpenter and Mike Renfro, a trio that had a combined three starts during the regular season that year.
“Carpenter was also hurt. He got off the plane on crutches,” Mauck recalled.
Campbell's absence was particularly damaging. After rushing for a league-leading 1,697 yards and 19 touchdowns in the regular season, the Hall of Fame back earned numerous individual awards, including being named the Associated Press NFL MVP for the 1979 season.
Elder Nielsen stepped in as the offensive leader with 413 career passing yards to that point, with three touchdowns and four interceptions. That included going 2-for-4 for nine yards and an interception against the Broncos the week before in relief of Pastorini.
His college coach, BYU’s LaVell Edwards, remembers the Provo native as a talented individual who excelled at multiple sports — baseball and basketball included — with uncanny leadership abilities, assets that would prove vital against the Chargers.
“He wasn’t necessarily the vocal type leader, but he knew how to get the most out of his teammates,” Edwards said.
His teammates had the utmost confidence in him.
“Giff had a pretty level head on him,” said Mauck, who spent 13 years playing in the NFL and more than two decades as an offensive line coach in the pros. “He had a lot of success in college. He wasn’t quick enough probably to be a starter over a long period of time in the NFL. But he was very smart, very bright, and there were certain throws he could make.”
Pastorini said a lot of people on the team had a lot of respect for Elder Nielsen, and there was no uneasiness whatsoever from him heading into the matchup against San Diego.
“He looked like he belonged there. That’s what he lived for and he was ready,” Pastorini said.
On the opposite side of the field were Fouts — the Hall of Fame quarterback who was also making his first postseason start that day — and head coach Don Coryell, famous for the "Air Coryell" pass-heavy offensive scheme that also helped tight end Kellen Winslow and wide receiver Charlie Joiner land in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Fouts threw for a league-best 4,082 yards and 24 touchdowns during the regular season.
"This was really their time to be able to go to the Super Bowl and win," Elder Nielsen said of the Chargers. "Of course, everybody had to go through the Pittsburgh Steelers. They were a dynasty. But most people thought the San Diego Chargers had the talent and had the ability to do that."
Houston countered that offensive firepower with a run-oriented offense and a standout defense.
“It was a tight game, we ran the ball pretty well. Gifford made some big plays, big throws,” Mauck said.
At halftime, the Oilers led 10-7, but San Diego went ahead on a Lydell Mitchell 8-yard touchdown run. That's when Elder Nielsen, asked to be a game manager, performed his heroics and hit Renfro for a 47-yard touchdown pass that put Houston ahead by three in the third quarter.
“It was a safety blitz, if I recall correctly,” Elder Nielsen said of the third-and-13 play that gave Houston the lead back. “As I saw the safety move towards me, I looked at Mike Renfro and gave him a sign to adjust his pass route. He got the message and sure enough, as I took the ball from the center, I saw the safety coming right up the middle and there was not another player in the middle of the field defensively. Renfro adjusted the route, ran a quick slant and I hit him.”
It wasn’t a hard throw, but the timing was perfect. Then Renfro, a possession receiver and one Elder Nielsen said was not a speedster, outran the defense to the end zone.
“As soon as it happened, I could sense there was panic in the eyes of the favored San Diego Chargers,” Elder Nielsen said. “This was not even supposed to be a good game and all of a sudden, we found ourselves with the lead. No question, it was excitement on our part but we still had a ways to go.”
From there, neither team would score again.
Elder Nielsen completed 10 of 19 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown in the game to go along with an interception, according to Pro Football Reference. His 14-yard run in the first half helped set up Houston's first touchdown, a Boobie Clark 1-yard run.
Mauck remembered Elder Nielsen scrambling on a play and getting the Oilers deep into the San Diego red zone. At the end of the play, though, Elder Nielsen got drilled.
“It shook him up and I went running down there,” Mauck said. “We didn’t have anyone else to put in at quarterback. I grabbed him and I said, ‘Don’t you ever do that again, you dummy.’ I used a few choice words most Mormons wouldn’t want me to say, so I won’t say it. I cussed him a little bit. Finally he came around and promised me he wouldn’t try to run the ball again. I think we scored a touchdown on that drive.”
The hobbled Pastorini also shared sound advice with Elder Nielsen after he took a shot.
“I came hobbling across the field, and I remember bending over him on the sidelines. He hurt his back, but he came back and played,” Pastorini recalled. “I grabbed him and said, ‘Don’t run. I can’t play. You’re all we’ve got.’ ”
His fellow replacements also had nice games. Carpenter rushed for 67 yards on 18 carries and added 23 receiving yards, while Renfro had the one catch, though it was a big one.
The Oiler defense especially came up big. While Fouts threw for 333 yards, he never threw a touchdown pass and tossed five interceptions. Rookie safety Vernon Perry led the way, intercepting a playoff record four passes and blocking a San Diego field goal.
“Vernon Perry played one of the most unbelievable games I’d ever seen,” Elder Nielsen said. "For some reason, he had Dan Fouts read perfectly and really was the difference in the game. We knew going in somebody was going to have to play great, and Perry did it.
"We needed a big game defensively, and I think it's the greatest defensive performance in NFL playoff history."
Pastorini said the Oilers knew San Diego would attack Houston through the air, but it didn’t matter because their defense was up to the task.
“Our defense was rated pretty highly that year. We were stronger defensively than we were offensively, but we complemented each other well,” he said. “They always played well and they were really on their toes that day.”
Perry's heroics carried over into the following week, when he intercepted Pittsburgh's Terry Bradshaw and returned it 75 yards for a score. The Steelers, however, ended the Oilers' season with a 27-13 Pittsburgh win in the AFC championship game. The Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl.
“Bum had me playing (against the Steelers),” Pastorini said. “And as I look back on it, he probably should have gone with Gifford because I was pretty banged up still. I couldn’t move. My whole leg was black and blue.”
That game is famous for a play in the third quarter when it appeared Pastorini had hit Renfro for a game-tying touchdown. The officials, however, called it an incomplete pass.
“To this day, everyone that has seen it has called it a touchdown pass, but they wouldn’t give it to us,” Pastorini said. “That particular play was instrumental in instant replay being used today in critical calls.”
Still, the victory over the Chargers resonates with Elder Nielsen — who never started another playoff game but went on to become a part-time starter with the Oilers — because of what Houston was able to accomplish as a team that day under circumstances that weren't ideal.
"To go to San Diego in front of a hostile crowd and methodically grind out a win facing almost unsurmountable odds was so gratifying," he said. “It was an amazing feeling as I walked off the field that day, knowing what we had accomplished.”
Elder Nielsen, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame whose jersey number is retired at BYU, has learned from his experiences as the leader on the gridiron.
“Football is a really hard, intense and physical game. It’s an extremely mentally draining game as you carry out game plans, make split-second decisions and have to know where everyone is on every play. There’s a lot of pressure,” he said.
"When you go up against the caliber of players like Hall of Famers ‘Mean Joe’ Greene, Jack Lambert and Randy White, it’s a real challenge. It makes you feel like if you can make it through those kind of contests, you can handle anything life has to offer.”
Those football challenges have helped Elder Nielsen in his current calling as a general authority.
“There is no question in my assignment in the Pacific area that I have drawn upon the experiences of my athletic career to strengthen me in certain situations,” he said.
Edwards said family and the gospel have always been priorities for Elder Nielsen, and football never clouded that vision for him.
“Gifford never lost sight of who he was,” Edwards said.
His former teammates also recognize Elder Nielsen’s true character.
“He’s a good human being,” Mauck said.
“That’s my favorite person in the whole world. I love that guy to death,” Pastorini said.
Email: bjudd@deseretnews.com; Twitter: @brandonljudd